Culture and History

Proposing election based representation from the “district” in which the temple is situated often misses the point that each temple evolved its own unique methodology to integrate the local communities into how it was run and the resources managed.

Nindāstuti is a form of Shleshakavya - a poetic composition that is laden with double-entendres and is looked upon as a form of Dvesha-bhakti

Abdul Hamid is remembered for his extraordinary bravery in the battle of Asal Uttar, one of the fiercest tank battles fought during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

Bahuda Yatra is the festival where Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Devi Subhadra are brought back to their temple in their respective Rathas.

On a freezing and unforgiving November night, 123 Indian soldiers – frostbitten, weary, hungry and heavily outnumbered – defied the might of the rampaging Chinese Army. On 18 November 1962, Major Shaitan Singh and men of Charlie Company, 13 Kumaon Regiment, forever passed into the mists of legend.

It is important to understand why only Hinduism mentions the universe.

Toeing the orthodox line, Nizamuddin Aulia had condemned the Hindus of India to the 'fires of hell'. He had also written that even if the non-Muslims embrace Islam, the faith will not benefit them, because they had been unbelievers. He had added, "He, (Allah) has created paradise and hell for the believers and the infidels respectively to repay the wicked they (infidels) have done."

At the Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri, Odisha, every year after the Devasnana Purnima, the three deities of the temple - Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra, go into a 'quarantine' for a period of fourteen days to recover completely from their 'illness'.

In other words, Indian ‘secularism’ has been a yoke on nearly everyone’s shoulders. On the shoulders of Hindus, backward castes, women, LGBTQ, the poor. Indian ‘secularism’ has only ever helped Islamist patriarchy.

Islamists vandalise Buddhist rock carvings in Gilgit-Baltistan by writing Islamic slogans on the rock-art from 800 AD.