Godhra – The Missing Rage
S. K. Modi
Publishers:OCEAN BOOKS PVT. LTD.4/19, Asaf Ali RoadNEW DELHI – 110 002Tel: 23289555Email: ocean@indianabooks.comwww.indianabooks.comPrice: Rs. 195/-ISBN 81-88322-45-8
Author’s Note:
The English language media has had a bias against the so-called ‘Hindutva’ elements for several decades but since Godhra, the bias has started bordering on hate. This bias is a complex phenomenon, encompassing an intrinsically inefficient and ignorant intelligentsia, ridiculously naive perceptions of profit strategies in the media industry, inadequate articulation on part of the Sangh Parivar, cultural effects of globalisation and the age-old habits of grandstanding everything western. Perceived bigotry is being opposed by zealots in the name of secularism and ‘journalistic terrorism’ unleashed by the English language media is being fed grist by a select band of ‘five star’ activists for whom spiting the majority community has become a ticket to a luxurious life. For this media, the enemy is the man who still believes in saying his prayers in the morning. The enemy is the woman who still refuses to wear a pair of jeans and insists on putting a bindi on her forehead. The enemy is the man who teaches his child to touch the feet of elders. The enemy is the woman who keeps her hair in a single plait. At least for the media industry, the returns of the current strategies are likely to be nominal in the immediate term and negative in the long term. This book analyses the role of the multitude of factors that have converted bias into a virtual hate campaign.
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A Heart Poured Out : A Story of Swami Ashokananda
By Sister Gargi
SISTER GARGI (MARIE LOUISE BURKE) is well-known in Ramakrishna-Vivekananda circles as the award-winning author of the six-volume classic Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries — a pioneering and comprehensive study of Swami Vivekananda’s sojourn in the West and the attitudes of contemporary Western society towards Indic religions. A Heart Poured Out is an engaging biography that brings the reader on a powerful journey into the life story of Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969), a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who developed the Vedanta movement in northern California. In 1948, Sister Gargi, then Marie Louise Burke, met Swami Ashokananda and became his disciple. It is through her vivid insider’s account that we learn about the relationship of this extraordinary teacher to his students in their day-to-day spiritual training. Those who have had occasion to read Swami Ashokananda’s editorials from the Prabuddha Bharata of the 1920s, will know him to be an original thinker and a pioneering exponent of Hindu renaissance. At a time when the whole nation had begun to accept Gandhiji’s extreme economic and political theories, Swami Ashokananda displayed extraordinary courage and conviction through his penetrating critique of Gandhian policies in the Prabuddha Bharata, which created a stir in the intellectual climate in the country. Sister Gargi’s account of the debate that ensued between them makes delightful reading. Hindu Americans would do well to learn from the Swami’s struggles in America in the 1930s, when Indic religions were considered suspicious and evaluated through the framework of Judeo-Christian belief systems.
Publishers:KALPA TREE PRESS65 East 96th Street, Suite 12DNEW YORK, NY 10128Price: $26.00ISBN 0-9706368-I-4Cloth, 372 pages50 Illustrations, IndexLCCN 2002113577ISBN 0-9706368-1-4
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Roar of the Ganges
Mark Barian
Eshwar, Business Publications Inc.,229/A, Second FloorKrantiveer Rajguru MargGirgaon, Mumbai – 400 004Tel: 380 8817, 3808819 ; Fax: 387 2625Email: bpipl@vsnl.comISBN: 81-86982-00-0 Price: Rs. 250/-
What power on earth can transform a young, successful American computer engineer, earning a six-digit salary, into a penniless monk? What charm can draw him out from a beautiful Santa Barbara home overlooking the Pacific Ocean into the ashrams of Hrishikesh? A fascinating story of the transformation of Mark Barian into Swami Tadatmananda and his discovery of Hinduism, interspersed with lively discussions with many sadhus and seekers and their character sketches. A must read for all Hindu Americans – this book could serve as supplementary reading material on Hinduism and deserves to replace the poorly written textbooks of biased Indologists which are currently in use in US and Indian academia
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