The great Ishavasya Upanishad text of Hinduism states:
Yastu sarvāṇi bhūtāni ātmanyevānupaśyati |
Sarvabhūteṣu cātmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate |
It means “the one who sees all beings in one’s own self, and one’s own self in all beings, does not despise anyone.”
In the spirit of this saying that calls for loving and caring about all beings like they are you, we at the South Asian Heritage Forum stand in unequivocal solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters, the #blacklivesmatter movement, and call for the swift prosecution . . .
of the police officers who murdered #GeorgeFloyd. We call on all South Asians to be unwavering allies to the African American community while they fight racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.
In February 2002, thousands of Hindu pilgrims traveled to Ayodhya from Gujarat. On 25th of February, nearly 2,000 Hindus boarded the Sabarmati Express to return back to Gujarat, with included a stop at Godhra. On 27th of February, the train made its scheduled stop at 7:43 am,
around 4 hours late. As the train started leaving the platform, the emergency brake was pulled, and what followed after remains one of the most harrowing events to take place in the history of Independent India. A mob of around 1,500 surrounded the train and started their siege.
A thread on some of the horrific crimes committed by Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb (1658 AD-1707 AD), and why they should not be whitewashed by scholars who are trying to push forward an extremely harmful and bigoted political agenda:
The re-imposition of the discriminatory Jizya tax on non-Muslims by Aurangzeb in 1679 is seen as a massive turning point in the history of the Mughal Empire, and as marking the culmination of religious bigotry, which lead to an increase in the already extreme alienation of non-
Muslims in the Mughal Empire. Although the non-Muslim population overall was impacted by this humiliating tax, the ones who suffered the most were Dalits and other much poorer 'Lower-Caste' communities who, often, were not able to pay the tax and were threatened by death or
As we approach Karthigai Deepam, a sacred Hindu festival for Tamilians, we take a moment to recognize how the Sri Lankan state has long targeted and erased Eelam Tamil heritage of all Tamilians by destroying and damaging thousands of Hindu temples.
According to scholar M. Neiminathan and the “Federation of Saiva (Hindu) Temples”, around 2,076 Hindu temples have been destroyed in Sri Lanka, most prominently in the northeast part of the island where the Eelam Tamils predominantly reside.
One of the most prominent temples to be destroyed was a temple to the Hindu God Siva in the town of Thirukketheeswaram. It was “desecrated and the jewelry, brass utensils, oil lamps, and many other valuables that were used in the temple have been plundered by state armed forces.”
73 years ago today, Kashmir was invaded, attacked, raped, and devastated by the newly created Pakistani state and their allies. SAHF put together this thread in remembrance of this tragic invasion and its victims. Swipe Through!
On October 22, 1947, Pakistani Army regulars and tribal raiders invaded Kashmir in a bid to forcibly annex the territory just months after independence. The Pakistani Army code-names this assault ‘Operation Gulmarg’.
Their invasion resulted in large-scale atrocities being committed against the Kashmiri people, including looting, rape, murder, & hospital attacks. Many heroes of the Kashmiri resistance against this invasion by Pakistan, including Shahid Maqbool Sherwani, were killed by raiders.
SAHF is excited to present a thread and several slides on Tibet, specifically its history, the Chinese occupation, the religious persecution of Buddhists by the Chinese State, and the cultural genocide that China has actively precipitated in Tibet.
Swipe Through! 👇
For history, Tibet is a devoutly Buddhist area that was relatively isolated from the rest of the world, although it had a strong Sanskritic influence from India. For centuries, Tibet was predominated by a pastoral society with a hegemony of hierarchal Buddhist monasteries.
Before the Chinese occupation of Tibet, at least one boy from families in Tibet were expected to study in a Buddhist monastery and were educated in Buddhist philosophy, religious rites, and Tibet’s culture. Monasteries also acted as refugee for Tibetans during extreme weather.
The Mirpur massacre occurred on and after the 25th of November 1947, where thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees were brutally massacred by armed Pakistani tribesman and soldiers in Mirpur, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Soon after British
India's independence, Pakistan conceived a military plan (codename Gulmarg) to attack Jammu and Kashmir and it was placed under the close guidance of British military officers. Before the 1947 Indo-Pak war, the Mirpur District had around 75,000 Hindus and Sikhs, accounting for
20% of the population, Hindu and Sikh refugees from Jhelum, West Punjab migrated to Mirpur Town, where the non-Muslim population the increased from 10,000 to 25,000. During the war, tribesmen and soldiers entered the city on the morning of November 25th and set several parts of