The adherents of the Jewish faith did not come as invaders or colonizers but the other monotheists faiths came to evangelize and convert the native population as polytheism was an affront to their religious sensibilities.
12,728 karma · joined January 20, 2017
Hindus are a majority in India. 80% are Hindus and 94% of the world’s Hindus reside in India.
There is thousands of years of history of Hinduism in India. It was the colonial Brits who created a ‘secular’ India after they orchestrated the partitions of Pakistan and Bangladesh (as Muslim countries).
As a democracy, the nation has the right to choose a Hindu Nation/Rashtra over secularism. This is true for every nation in the world. As the only non abrahamic polytheist nation in the world, there seems to be some unfair expectations of India and what Indians want. Why?
The Abrahamic nations have split the whole rest of the world amongst them. Hindus have only one nation. Why can’t their have their spiritual land as a Hindu nation if it’s democratically desired and achieved?
It is the spiritual land for over a billion Hindus(whose rights and places of worship are being trampled upon in the name of secularism while other religions are not required to follow the law of the land)
Israel is a Jewish nation. There are many Christian and Muslim nations. Why wouldn’t Hindus want a country where they have civilizational roots to be a Hindu Nation?
Are all the countries of the world ‘secular’? Why do we expect India to be constitutionally secular? There are only 5 countries that have secular baked into their constitution, India, USA, France(Laïcité), Australia and Japan.
India is only secular by name. Currently, there is the nation’s law and then there is the Shariat Law for Muslims.
These laws especially impact women as it relates to marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession etc. the Christian and Hindu Personal Law are not at odds with the constitutional law.
To this end, BJP, the current ruling party wants a Uniform Civil Code where the law applies equally for every citizen.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_personal_law
3.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Civil_Code
It would nullify Shariat Law. It is a mockery of the word ‘secular’ when different laws and rights are allotted to different religions. It is against democratic principles. And fundamentally wrong.
Triple Talaq: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_talaq_in_India
Nikah Halala: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_halala
Does me as a Hindu having an opinion about my faith offend you and strike you as extremist?
Time is relative. Non abrahamic religions have always been a minority faith since millennia.
I think it’s not right to say that I ‘despise secularism’. I am critiquing the poor state and expression of ‘secularism’ in India.
Example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism_in_India#:~:text=....
[..]The Indian Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937 continues to be the law of land of modern India for Indian Muslims, while parliament-based, non-religious uniform civil code passed in mid-1950s applies to Indians who are Hindus (which includes Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Parsees), as well as to Indian Christians and Jews.[..]
Is this a secularism?
All I am saying is that if Muslims are allowed to practice their religious laws, Hindus should also be allowed to hold their religious law as Personal law.
The state cannot discriminate between two faiths and call itself secular.
I want Muslims (and Christians and Buddhists and everyone)to have the freedom to practice their faith. I want the same for Hindus, Saying Hindus should have the same freedom and rights is causing me to face accusations of ‘extremism’.
Strange.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Norway#:~:te....
[…]Christianity is the largest religion in Norway and Norway has historically been called a Christian country. A majority of the population are members of the Church of Norway with 64.9% of the population officially belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2021.[..]
FACT: if the majority of the population OFFICIALLY follows the Christian faith, then the DOMINANT religion is Christianity.
https://www.worldpolicycenter.org/policies/how-do-countries-...
[..]Special relationship with specific religion means that the constitution explicitly states it is secular, but establishes a special relationship with one specific religion. Types of special relationships include referencing a traditional religion, acknowledging the historical influence of a specific religion, or stating that the state is founded upon values or principles from a single religious tradition
Privileges religion over nonbelief means that the constitution explicitly states it is secular, but includes provisions to support religious practice over non-belief, such as granting tax exemptions to religious organizations, allowing religion in public schools, or recognizing or partnering with religious organizations in certain areas.
God included in oath of office means that the constitution explicitly states it is secular, but has certain officials swear before God in the official oath of office included in the constitution. The constitution does not provide for a further role for religion.
References God in preamble means that the constitution explicitly states it is secular, but references or thanks God in the preamble of the constitution. The constitution does not provide for a further role for religion.
No role for religion means that the constitution explicitly states it is secular and provides no role for religion. The constitution may explicitly place limitations on the role of religion.[..]
FACT: Only 5 countries satisfy the last criteria.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism_in_India#:~:text=....
[..]The overlap of religion and state, through Concurrent List structure, has given various religions in India, state support to religious schools and personal laws. This state intervention while resonant with the dictates of each religion, are unequal and conflicting.
For example, a 1951 Religious and Charitable Endowment Indian law allows state governments to forcibly take over, own and operate Hindu temples, and collect revenue from offerings and redistribute that revenue to any non-temple purposes including maintenance of religious institutions opposed to the temple;
Indian law also allows Islamic and other minority religious schools to receive partial financial support from state and central government of India, to offer religious indoctrination, if the school agrees that the student has an option to opt out from religious indoctrination if he or she so asks, and that the school will not discriminate any student based on religion, race or any other grounds.[..]
FACT: India is officially a secular state being the seat of Hinduism where a billion Hindus live. It is a pseudo secular state when the majority are being subjected to special rules to appease the minority.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Uniform_Civil_C...
[..]The Uniform Civil Code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless of their religion. Currently, personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures.[..]
FACT: Personal laws cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance.
[..]Personal laws were first framed during the British Raj, mainly for Hindu and Muslim citizens.
UCC emerged as a crucial topic of interest in Indian politics following the Shah Bano case in 1985. The debate arose on the question of making certain laws applicable to all citizens without abridging the fundamental right to practice religious functions. The debate then focused on the Muslim Personal Law, which is partially based on the Sharia law, permitting unilateral divorce, polygamy and putting it among the legally applying the Sharia law.
Relevant to the parent here, Indian temples are managed by the state and every other religious institution is managed by their adherents despite Hinduism being the dominant religion in an officially secular state.
This gives special privileges to minorities while being extractive and punitive towards the Hindu majority adherants.[..]
Define Supremacist.
They have been drilling and building within temple stone walls that are hundreds of years old and installing ceilings fans and lights.
Here are just a few of the recent HR&CE crimes : https://x.com/joshigargigoyal/status/1806747391917511165
And this: https://x.com/joshigargigoyal/status/1807105132087452000
[..]Hot Water Treatment Requirements According to USDA APHIS requirements, for rounded varieties (Tommy Atkins, Kent, Haden, Keitt), the treatment for fruit flies requires heating in 115ºF (46.1ºC) water for 75 to 110 minutes, depending on the weight of the mango.[..]
https://www.mango.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Alternative...
In Ayurveda, ripe and unripe mangoes.. mango bark, leaves, roots, seed and flowers are all considered to have medicinal qualities.
[..]Believing that science and technology could cure all ills, Haldeman campaigned for the capitalist monetary infrastructure to be replaced by a new universal currency, based on a unit of heat, to be known as the erg. [..]
Thought virii should be able to replicate really fast to populate host environment to take over and also defeat resistance from competition. Public schools in America are very conducive environments for such transmission.
The mythos of western religion is that of a man who is the son of god..first denied and then died because the sinners nailed him to the cross. His divinity is enshrined through resurrection after living a mortal life. This is very powerful and even if westerners abandon religion, it works on a sub conscious level. A victim is not ‘weak’..they are divine and worshipful.
In Hindu mythos(I am from India and am Hindu), for example, this would never stick. So it’s definitely a cultural thing altho the notion of a god sacrificing himself for humanity is a common theme throughout the ancient world. In Hinduism, it is our Sun God, the child of Divine Mother Aditi..she left him like a square lump of flesh in the realm between earth and heavens to serve humans. And so Surya burns himself and sacrifices himself so mortals can exist. He is unapproachable who is like a strict father, but he exists for all humanity so we can work through our karmas. He is not a victim of mortal follies. Etc. One has to die to be reborn. You will find parallels in Norse mythology etc. It goes all the way back. But as the youngest and most prevalent religion, Christanity's lapsed congregation take the archetype but abandon the faith.
religion is a faith based belief system. if we remove it, something else has to replace vaccum it leaves behind in the collective psyche. communism, science, war, art are all the usual suspects. everywhere, one has to suffer to establish their commitment. currently, it is social justice causes. in america..because we have leapfrogged due to tech and prosperity..and there are no more wars or famines and there is relative prosperity as baseline compared to other countries, we are running out of protected categories of people willing to be nailed at the cross and as a cause to follow for change.
The Abrahamic religious archetype requires a victimized god who will resurrect to show truth to the world. It is also the ‘contagion’ in a sense because this needs to replicate fast and dominate the host body of culture/civilization.
One has to die to be reborn. But someone has to kill the one first and for that we need a victim and a victimizer. The roles are defined. But who wants to play?
We don’t need high density. It’s funny. Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, London maybe..but we have literally brainwashed ourselves into thinking we need to be high density and by creating unnecessary economic activity/jobs/dense zones, we have created an unsustainable situation.
Case in point: Growing 1/4 of America’s food and 80% of almonds in a desert during a drought and in a state with the highest cost of living? Daft! And for what? A fraction of our GDP. While investment in education and tech and automation would create prosperity all over the world and we could export what we do best. Tech.
Are almonds a basic human right? I don’t think so. Water is…and Californians have to sacrifice water during a drought so the world can have its almonds and alfafa for their non native dairy cows. So we will soon be 10 billion. And we came from 3.5 million in 1975. When will this euphoria over expansion and ‘growth’ stop? It’s a fool’s dream and a dangerous one.
The Dutch solved this. They are a tiny country growing a lot of hydroponic food for Europe. Now they mostly sell tech and know how to grow hydroponic tomatoes. They don’t actually grow hydroponic tomatoes for the whole of the word. Optimization of resources and proper asset management. The asset here isn’t the water and wind and hydroponic tomatoes in Netherlands. It’s their tech and know how.
America doesn’t operate with an understanding of scale, economies of scale and diminishing returns. We could be better and shine better. But the elephant thinks it’s a pussy cat and ends up trampling everyone around it during playtime. A tragedy all around.
With indoor ag, they can be substituted..but at great cost. California ag is ridiculously uber optimized and on very thin margins. We feed millions. Abs cheaply. Mostly because we convert fossil fuels into calories. And forex. We sacrificed our dairy industry because it’s cheaper to export alfafa to China in shipping containers than to truck it within CA. The economies of scale is messed up. But because we exported thirsty alfafa during a drought ..we were essentially exporting water for china’s dairy industry. Once again using fossil fuels.
Having said that, central coast/Monterrey/Salinas region will deal with salt water intrusion in max 30 years…guaranteed. Central Valley is already having to deal with ground water contamination. Our aquifers risk running dry with every subsequent drought.
We are better off with every metric from conservation, carbon sequestration to water usage efficiency if we did away with the badge of pride(over $50 billion worth..highest in nation..far second is Iowa at 25 something.) that is CA Big Ag(rather diff from National big Ag).
However, ag in Ca supports a crap ton of jobs that can’t be replaced. Most of them are low paying or middle class jobs. We are a state with a large teacher/tenured profs population, service sector and many many unionized essential jobs. This demographic has to be supported. Minimum basic income won’t cut it because they come with pension benefits. So now we have a problem that Sacramento cannot solve if they interfere with status quo.
Don’t know what the solution is..but the problem is obvious and glaring. Most of this Ag sector is going to disappear when the cheapest resource…land and water becomes useless to the big industrial farmers who have grandfathered water rights.
California ag and water rights is intricately connected to its politics. It’s just a matter of creating a powerful energy lobby to supplant the ag one in Sacramento. But it won’t be easy. Their reach goes as far as D.C. but certainly doable.
I only hope that when CA ag crashes…and it will within 3 decades max..we are self sufficient for our food supply and energy.
The reason I brought up the example of healthcare is because that’s the most egregious injustice against women. Because of women’s biology and the primary care taking role they adopt(and are good at..), our healthcare needs are different. And yet..women are not taken seriously when they complain of pain and are always under prescribed pain meds. They are not believed if they explain their symptoms.
It’s worse in the USA by all accounts Altho I don’t have first hand healthcare experience in other countries(well..other than india and UK). And yet, we are supposed to be peers with men who never go through half the illnesses or conditions we experience. Doesn’t quality of healthcare and health condition and mental well being affect how people work? How are we ‘equal’ to men?
And yet…in a workplace you can’t discriminate. The only solution is to create separate economic blocs and healthcare blocs for different genders as we all have different struggles that affect our ability to perform in professional and social spheres. There is no need for seperataion in communal spheres.
I think often about healthcare and health insurance that is exclusively for women. How will it change our quality of life? This isn’t to say that men are inferior or that women are superior..nor is it a victim card. Absolutely not! But to not see the differences is a fail. No one wins.
So we come to pregnancy, PMS and menopause…all of which have been caricatured that many women feel like they shouldn’t complain. We are reduced and clubbed under the label of ‘ menstruating persons’ and ‘birthing people’. And these are official terms. Slowly our dignity and our identity is being erased.
Men don’t care enough for women because it’s not their battle to fight(and that’s ok) because they have no lived experience. I don’t know why the third gender wants to appropriate our identity when they haven’t shared our struggles. Women are the silent majority whose cries aren’t heard anymore but are still judged as equal players and competitors on playing fields that is grossly unfair.
P.S: I would have appreciated your words if you didn’t call my comment ‘deranged’. I am less inclined to take someone seriously when their evaluation of my words is needlessly rude. Perhaps choose your words and consider if it comes across as an insult. Thanks.
ETA P.S2: In a forum that had an equal or higher split of male: female ratio unlike this testosterone heavy HN, my comment wouldn’t have been flagged. Or called ‘deranged’. There would have been at least some curiosity and a discussion even if there were some who would disagree.
ETA PS3: Imagine if it is so in a small forum online…imagine how it would be for women who work in male dominated work places and a world that has more power vested with men. Men make decisions about women’s reproductive rights in Texas. A man in Utah decided that it’s ok for a transgender student to compete with biological girls students in high school sports. Transgender women insult biological women calling them TERFs. Women have lost all agency. This needs to change.
Sadly, like other wide eyed white wanderers from the west, I’d wager that this author too would turn ‘Ancient Indian Texts’ into a hate cause with badly and deliberately mistranslated Sanskrit verses. Like Audrey Truschke and Wendy Doniger. Like enthusiastic short term rabid vegans who go back to steak and bubba’s bbq after three months of tofu immersion.
[..] Places like Athens and Alexandria, and the Silk Road cities of India and China, were idea-markets peddling possible ways to transform oneself.[..]
This highlighted quote was particularly cringe.
Most of them were illiterate and did not understand what plant scientists or professors were talking about re inputs or seeds or Tractors etc needed to modernize Ag.
So the format would be an interview in the middle of a coconut grove or a farm. The interviewer(usually female) would ask a question and the expert would answer. After he finishes answering, she’d turn towards the camera and go like “what you are basically saying is..” or “what he is saying..”..and she’d give the wrong details. Then the expert would interrupt her and explain it again with the correct answer. There were a lot of English words he’d use and she’d break them down in the vernacular and also in the same order as his sentence.
These wrong things repeated by her were obvious misunderstandings anyone unfamiliar with fertilizer application would make…it was probably scripted so that the answer can be ‘corrected’ multiple times and also probably reflected mistaken notions by the viewer. Never once was the viewer(here, it was the illiterate non English speaking village farmer) made to feel dumb but always as though they are learning something valuable and special.
It was like Sesame Street for farming adults. It was awesome and kept me glued to the television screen. I would memorize all the IRRI rice hybrids and probably was the only one in school who knew IR20, IR64 and IR8…and urea application rates for them.
Ask anyone of a certain age who their favourite Sesame Street character is …and you would have cracked effective communication technique for that time period.
As usual in America, they are used as water glasses and that’s just bizarre to most French people..but that’s what we do here...mason jars with handles is the most bizarre thing ever. It’s peak hipster.
buckwheat is a summer cover crop. that means the (good) beekeepers would allow the bees to keep some for their own food for fall/winter feeding. also...dont know a lot of people who summer cover crop anymore. i guess its definitely niche, but certainly available in the usa.
i cant control where my bees go foraging. so i just label it 'wild flower' honey. in early spring before they swarm, i make sure the brambles are flowering. at that time..even in california..there isnt a whole lot of forage for them when they come out hungry. they also gorge themselves before swarming and so usually there isnt a whole lot early spring honey. its a timing thing. so really..there is no good time window for collecting buckwheat honey. unless we steal it from them and replace it with something else for their feeding.
The Namboothris distinguished themselves from other Brahmins by wearing the hair tuft on the front/side(Purvasikha) as opposed to the way Brahmins elsewhere wore their hair tufts which was at the back of their heads(aparasikhas).
This is why it makes no sense to make any generalities about Hindus or caste or even sub sects of Brahmins in India. They were all different with different habits and practices. Not to mention languages. There were thousands and thousands of small tight knit communities with the freedom to govern themselves socially as long as they adhered to the broader foundational principles. Note that by this time, Mughals and Islam and Buddhism and Jains and Christian missionaries were all gaining foothold. So it was not just a Hindu nation.
The British were fascinated and horrified and overwhelmed by the diversity of faiths and beliefs and cultural practices of this massive country which still operated as little kingdoms under larger kingdoms. No two Hindu groups are alike. Just like no two Brahmin communities are alike. The country had millions of people and get hundred people together in a room, they’d find something common only amongst themselves and form a separate community. And smaller communities were robust communities. It was great and working smoothly before the British came..from a colonist POV, homogenous country as a single profitable blob made more sense. Now instead of a multitude of string robust communities capable of working well by themselves, a very diverse population found themselves together and couldn’t work well as a group anymore. No one got along with each other. It was the diversity of individuals that weakened them. The diversity of different groups was their strength earlier.
(Visualize it like this. India was a basket of bundles of coloured matchsticks. Each bundle was the same colour but there were thousands and thousands of them. The basket was filled with bundles If multiple colours. And then the British came and removed the threads that kept each of the bundles together. As they came apart, all the individual match sticks got mixed and no one knew where to belong. So many different people got along only because they knew that they had the freedom to live and die on their own terms or rather the terms of their chosen group where everyone agreed to the rules. After the British came, no one agreed with anyone because suddenly it’s a blur of colour. What kept them together as neat little bundles was their sub religious beliefs and sub sub caste divisions and sub sub sub cultural beliefs etc. there were progressive Brahmins and orthodox Brahmins. It’s nuts to imagine that they all shared the same core belief system. Hinduism is not a monotheistic religion. The British knew Christianity but Christianity was designed as an evangelical faith and by definition cannot have drastic divisions and sub divisions and sub sub divisions even though they did have their denominations. We have thirty thousand gods vs one monotheistic god. Should have kicked out the British at first sight.)
Management, you see. Colonial MBA types with gunpowder found it easier to strip the country and ship off the resources back to an impoverished Britain. Not to mention the looting. But first, they had to play their hand with Divide and Rule strategy. To this end, shatter small kingdoms..off with the King’s head. And then destroy a rather woke and strangely also libertarian religious arrangement we called Hinduism.
The poor dears so far way from their dull and dreary little northern island. And unlike the Vikings, no one slaughtered them and rolled out the carpet instead. And 400 years to pay for that mistake and an eternity to fix it.
Rosemary has good anti inflammation properties and it’s proven. However turmeric is superior to rosemary and CBD even better. But rosemary and turmeric* can be easily incorporated in food. Garlic is also good.
One must be careful with rosemary(don’t ingest ‘Rosemary tea’ etc..high in volatiles. you will likely end up with a headache or throw up)..but because it has mild to moderate vasodilation properties, it is excellent for circulation issues tho’ especially when applied topically. I want to say that rosemary’s efficiency is more due to it being a rubefacient rather than a powerful anti inflammatory. Example: you are better off using rosemary infused oil for massaging your scalp than ingesting a cup of even mild rosemary tea. The former application will greatly improve circulation to head as the oil topically works better and has less side effects.
Ditto with arnica..arnica gel is better than arnica tincture or herb for internal use. They are useful for hematomas and bruising. But will cause internal bruising and bleeding/inhibit clotting factor when taken internally or applied over an open wound or cut or used subcutaneously. Topical application? It’s golden!
*anecdote: when I was growing up, one of the home herbal lores I heard was how every mother needs three things: turmeric, holy basil and neem. So every home has neem in the front of the house, a basil shrine at the back(hence ‘holy’. It’s similar to elderberry. If something is ‘holy’, one never over harvests it and will keep propagating the plant species). The turmeric used to hang around the woman’s neck or the dried rhizomes given as gifts. Similarly on the kitchen, for food: Ginger, black pepper and long pepper.
I used to work as a chef and trained classical French. I gave a couple of classes to non indian chefs about loading up spice boxes. A typical spice box(South Indian. It differs regionally) will have seven compartments. cumin, coriander seeds, dried red chilies, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, fennel and cardamom. They are all medicinal. This is all you need in small quantities every day. It’s more effective in food everyday with a pinch here and there 2-3x/day. not as much when taken as capsules or a high medicinal dose sporadically. Herbs and spices don’t act like pharmaceutical doses. You have to think of them as preventative therapies rather than curative ones. Asafoetida goes separately in another shelf and clad in multiple layers of metal as does saffron because they are volatile and delicate+expensive respectively. There is another set of tempering seeds but my system was to use one box for flavoring spices and another for tempering.
I picked this handle to apply to YC twice for Ag robotics. And I am proud of it. And was told that there is no money in Ag. That’s ok. We..lowball intelligences..will continue to feed everyone irrespective of who they are or what they do. Or whatever high intelligence reading list that needs perusing. Please carry on. The world needs its next Tinder crushing app. Because. Priorities.
Having said that, drinking turpentine is questionable but it sounds clickbaity for inviting outrage to me. Ymmv.
Further, assuming these are a group of people paranoid and delusional, people still have the right to congregate and talk amongst themselves and share their thoughts. It’s called freedom of speech. There is no coercion.
Finally, the reason people seek out others to discuss health issues is because patients are discounted by doctors and physicians. The art of listening is challenged when your HMO allots 12 minutes for patients and doctors to converse..just enough time to prescribe medicines and order diagnostics.
Sick people like to talk. And they must be heard. It’s the same with old people. Especially because older people tend to be sicker than healthy young adults. If the medical profession needs to learn something new, it’s listening. And listening without judgement.
Also in a way, the tomcat is making sure that his kittens won’t have to share resources with kittens from a different litter.
P.S: that’s a great book by Sapolsky. I read it fully and just last night, I went back to it for light selective browsing. Very well written. Thanks for mentioning it.