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Tracing Arya Samaj in Karachi

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The underlined parts are to the point.

Some Pakistani members routinely say "Thanks to Jinnah".

I think it was either @xeuss or @Naofumi who said once that it is easy sitting in a Muslim-majority country and propose that Indian Muslims should do civil war, take up arms etc.
I was one of those fools advocating for IMs to be guinea pigs and start a civil war. PDF's nationalistic frenzy can be intoxicating.

NEVER think of opting for a civil war or taking up arms unless in self defence or survival. You'll be left as (to put it in Doc's words) tadipaars. Rohingyas 2.0. And these people goading you on to take up arms will not take you in.

You Indian Muslims will find your place in India eventually. If not you, your children or your grandchildren. That's your home and your 800 year old heritage. 250-ish million Muslims can't be forced out of India. You'll grow in number and this Hindu nationalist mania will start diluting itself eventually.
 
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The underlined parts are to the point.

Some Pakistani members routinely say "Thanks to Jinnah".

It was either @xeuss or @Naofumi who said once that it is easy for these particular Pakistanis to sit in a Muslim-majority country and propose that Indian Muslims should do civil war, take up arms etc.

jai jinnah
jai two nation theory
I was one of those fools advocating for IMs to be guinea pigs and start a civil war. PDF's nationalistic frenzy can be intoxicating.

NEVER think of opting for a civil war or taking up arms unless in self defence or survival. You'll be left as (to put it in Doc's words) tadipaars. Rohingyas 2.0. And these people goading you on to take up arms will not take you in.

You Indian Muslims will find your place in India eventually. If not you, your children or your grandchildren. That's your home and your 800 year old heritage. 250-ish million Muslims can't be forced out of India. You'll grow in number and this Hindu nationalist mania will start diluting itself eventually.
you are one of us arya putra .
 
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jai jinnah
jai two nation theory

FYI the Two Nation Theory was first proposed by the Hindu Mahasabha among whose founders was that arch British stooge VD Savarkar. It was only at some later point that the TNT was taken up by the Pakistan movement.

Here is what was said by Shashi Tharoor :
Speaking at the session 'Shashi on Shashi' with Micheal Dwyer on Day 2 of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), Mr Tharoor claimed that the Hindutva movement started by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar categorically rejected the Constitution.

He said that for Savarkar, a Hindu was one for whom India was his fatherland and holy land. Muslims and Christians were not considered in this.

"Savarkar, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar and Deen Dyal Upadhay rejected the constitution and in fact agreed with the Muslims that religion should determine nationhood. In the historical sense, the first advocate of the two-nation theory was actually Savarkar, who as the head of the Hindu Mahasabha called upon India to recognise Hindus and Muslims as part of two separate nations three years before the Pakistan Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution in Lahore in 1940," he said.

Mr Tharoor further said that according to them, the Constitution was full of imported ideas written in the wrong language - English.

"Another flaw they pointed out was that it assumes that the nation of India is a territory and it's (constitution) written for all the people on the territory. Nation is not a territory but its people and the people of India are only Hindus," he said.
 
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FYI the Two Nation Theory was first proposed by the Hindu Mahasabha among whose founders was that arch British stooge VD Savarkar. It was only at some later point that the TNT was taken up by the Pakistan movement.

Here is what was said by Shashi Tharoor :
I've never seen you mention this to Pakistanis. It must be interesting to hear Pakistani perspective on this, did Hindu Mahasabha caused Pakistan, or they proposed it first?
Speaking of Savarkar, why would a British stooge spend 20 or so years in the prison for conspiracy against the crown and attempted murder of a British official? 🙃
 
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I've never seen you mention this to Pakistanis. It must be interesting to hear Pakistani perspective on this, did Hindu Mahasabha caused Pakistan, or they proposed it first?

I have actually mentioned this to some Pakistanis couple of times whenever they said "Thanks to Jinnah" or "Thanks to Two Nation Theory".

It must be interesting to hear Pakistani perspective on this, did Hindu Mahasabha caused Pakistan, or they proposed it first?

It was only @Cliftonite who replied back to me on this ( and sensibly ). The others never replied.

Speaking of Savarkar, why would a British stooge spend 20 or so years in the prison for conspiracy against the crown and attempted murder of a British official? 🙃

I know of that infamous letter from him to the British authorities, promising to them permanent support.
 
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Question:
1. Is the Arya Samaj in India today following Swami Virjanand's legacy?
By what date does the Arya Samaj hope to achieve the goal of
cleansing India of "all contaminating elements"?

Actually, Swami Dayanand's legacy.

Very difficult to say. However, seeds are sawn. Seeds of RSS were sawn in Earle 1900s. Today, their swayam decals are transforming the country. Arya samaj is oppose to many prevailing practices in Hindu society. It had its network spread across each corners of India one time but now it doesn't have much influence. I am not a visionary to predict future but would always like Arya samaj to be strengthen.
 
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FYI the Two Nation Theory was first proposed by the Hindu Mahasabha among whose founders was that arch British stooge VD Savarkar. It was only at some later point that the TNT was taken up by the Pakistan movement.

Here is what was said by Shashi Tharoor :

Hindu dharma is good for Indian Muslims who consider country above religion.
 
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2. Does the Arya Samaj in India still publicly abuse Islam, Muhammad and Allah in street corner meetings as directed by Pandit Lekhram?

They don't abuse but they invites Islamist for discussion on religions on concepts such as God, creation of Earth etc.
 
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Hindu dharma is good for Indian Muslims who consider country above religion.

You should try to understand the pan-human ideology and appeal of Islam and Communism.

And isn't there also a pan-human Hindu slogan called "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" which means "The world is one family" ?
 
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Savarkar looked like a rodent
Well, I'm not interested in how men looked. Google on your own to find attractive men.

I have actually mentioned this to some Pakistanis couple of times whenever they said "Thanks to Jinnah" or "Thanks to Two Nation Theory".

It was only @Cliftonite who replied back to me on this ( and sensibly ). The others never replied.

I know of that famous letter from him to the British authorities, promising to them permanent support.
Good then, even most of them don't believe that crap. But I'm glad you found one that 'sane' person.

Of course, the letter he written from prison for his own release. I wouldn't blame him for it, after all, he wasn't in 5-star prison that allowed visitors, and Kalapani wasn't a fun place to be in.
 
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Good then, even most of them don't believe that crap. But I'm glad you found one that 'sane' person.

Good indeed.

Of course, the letter he written from prison for his own release. I wouldn't blame him for it, after all, he wasn't in 5-star prison that allowed visitors, and Kalapani wasn't a fun place to be in.


 
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Tracing Arya Samaj in Karachi
AKHTAR BALOUCH — UPDATED about 7 hours ago
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This piece was orginally published on March 16, 2015

It was no surprise that the 1992 Babri Mosque episode in India had repercussions in Pakistan; in fact, the reaction was inevitable.

In the Kyamarri region of Karachi (Kemari is a misnomer, since Kya is the name, while marri is for building), an angry mob that could not find a temple to tear down headed for the Christian missionary-administered Sacred Heart School.

The mob was rapidly advancing toward the school when suddenly, an old man stood before the crowd and yelled in Pashto:

"Da Kristaan baanday, Hinduan na dey. O Babri Jama’at Hinduan hamla karrey da."

[These are Christians, not Hindus, and the Babri Masjid was attacked by Hindus.]

What happened next, I will share with you shortly.

My journalist friend Anwar Khan was the one who narrated this incident to me. One day, I asked him, “I’ve heard there was an Arya Samaj Organisation active in Karachi and it had its own temples as well.”

Anwar told me there was a building in his area Kyamarri, which had an inscription in Urdu that said 'Arya Samaj Compound'. I asked him to take me there.

Two weeks later, on a Sunday afternoon, Anwar Khan, my photojournalist friends Majid Butt and Akhtar Soomro, and I went to the place. Walking in and out of various streets, we finally reached an old building.

But there was no plaque. I gave Anwar Khan a look of discontentment.

"Yaar the plaque was here some time ago!" he exclaimed.

Majid pointed to some plaques on the left, but they were all in Hindi.

A friend of Anwar Khan’s, Muhammad Ali Soomro, who was a local of Kyamarri, pointed in the direction of a kindergarten school, saying, "Here’s the place where once there was a temple."

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Anwar Khan and Muhammad Ali Soomro took us to another old building nearby, which could easily have been mistaken for a temple if not for the plaque announcing that it was yet another kindergarten school.

We needed someone to translate the Hindi plaques for us now. In fact, even before that, we had to know that if the Arya Samaj did indeed exist in Karachi and elsewhere in Sindh, what exactly were its activities?

The founder of Arya Samaj

Renowned historian Usman Damohi writes in his book Karachi Taareekh Kay Aaeenay Main:

"A few Hindu extremists were of the mind that the Aryans ruled the whole world in ancient times, and thus they should take back what was theirs. And since they are the greatest nation, therefore a sense of superiority should also be encouraged among Hindus; followers of other religious should either be exiled, or torched as dry wood is for fuel.

"Arya Samaj is an old Hindu organisation which came into being even before the Hindu Maha Sabha. Its founder was a fanatic Hindu named Munshi Ram. He was an educated man and had also remained an employee of the Punjab Police. Later, he quit the police job and became a lawyer. A few years later, according to his claims, he left everything as it was and adopted a life of meditation.

"Finally, from Munshi Ram he became Shradhanand. This organisation had backdoor connections with the British government. It was with their help that the organisation established branches in various parts of India in order to end the interfaith harmony among Hindus and Muslims."

Swami Shradhanand Jee was assassinated in 1926. Diwan Singh Maftoon, who was a renowned journalist of his day and published a newspaper by the name of Riyasat, wrote of how and why Swami Jee was murdered in his book Naaqaabil-e-Faraamosh.

He says it was one of Swami Jee's employees, who had previously shown signs of religious extremism, who killed Swami Jee on religious grounds.

Arya Samaj in Sindh

In his book Uhay Ddeenh Uhay Sheenh, Pir Ali Muhammad Shah Rashidi writes that after the 1920 reforms, three Hindu organisations emerged in India almost simultaneously; the Shudhi Sangathan, the Arya Samaj and the Hindu Maha Sabha.

He claims that the organisations were spearheaded by the old Congress – the party that otherwise claimed to be a representative of both Hindu and Muslim interests in India.

Regarding Arya Samaj activities in Sindh, Rashidi writes:

"On March 29, 1928, Hindu-Muslim communal riots erupted first in Larkana because of a matter related to a Muslim woman. The woman, Kariman, a wife and mother of three, was from a village near the city. She eloped with a Hindu man and came to Larkana, where she forced her children to convert to Hinduism along with her. It was the Arya Samaj people (who were running the Shudhi – literally meaning ‘purity’ – movement) who took care of the conversion and accommodated the woman and her children.

"Muslim elders of the city approached the courts to bring the children back home, but the case never proceeded. They then approached the district administration for the children’s custody. Meanwhile, Hindus had hidden Kariman and the children somewhere unknown. The collector, whom the delegation had approached for a solution, did not respond positively. The delegation, which by now had turned into an overwhelming mob, then went to Late Haji Ameer Ali Khan but again, to no avail.

"On its way back, a few members of the mob looted a few Hindu shops and roughed up a couple of Hindu young men. Later, riots erupted on a larger scale. Hindu shops were burnt and as a result, their businesses suffered. Although the riots were religiously fuelled, no Hindu was killed or injured badly.

"That the shops were looted was also proved a lie, in the courts. The Hindus themselves could not prove that the Muslims had attacked their shops. British judges disregarded all Hindu witnesses as liars.

"Hindus would not let the episode be forgotten. They then filed baseless police cases against the Muslims. Muslim activists were being targeted specifically. Khan Bahadur Ayub Khoro, who was an elected member of the Bombay Council, was also named in police cases only because he was elected by Muslims."

Presently, in Karachi or elsewhere in Sindh, Arya Samaj is non-existent.

Its only remnants are the plaques in Hindi that can be seen at the Arya Samaj Compound in Kyamarri. My friends Hassan Mansoor, Hafeez Chachar and Ajmal Kamal helped me read the plaques. They said:

Arya Samaj Kyamarri

Yeh aadhar sheela Shri Acharya Ram Dev (Gurukul Kangri) nay 15-9-1929 ko rakhha.

[The foundation stone was laid by Shri Acharya Ram Dev (of) (Gurukul Kangri) on 15-9-1929.]

Om Shri Swami Sevak Anand Jee kay adyog say yeh mandir banaaya gaya.

[The temple was constructed with help of Om Shri Swam Sevak Anand.]

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Both the Kyamarri temples now host kindergarten schools. As far my knowledge goes, the Arya Samaj, too, was interested in engaging with the Hindu youth, introducing them in detail to the greatness that lies in the ancient Hindu history. They considered it as a means of redemption.

You will only see Muslims in Arya Samaj Compound now. The schools in the temples are imparting modern knowledge to children. I wonder if the Arya Samaj had not disappeared, would these academies still be open for Muslims? And, if there was no Arya Samaj building, who would take time out to build schools in Kyamarri?

Anyway, here is the end to the story I was narrating above:

The old man shouted to the crowd about how it was Hindus who had demolished the mosque and not Christians.

Soon after, an even louder voice from the crowd shouted back: "They are all infidels!"

What happened next is what has been happening to this day.

At that time, the school was surrounded by a boundary wall only four feet high. The wall is now almost twice the height of the tallest man in that mob.

—Photos by author

Translated by Ayaz Laghari from the original in Urdu here.


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Akhtar Balouch is a senior journalist, writer and researcher. He is currently a council member of the HRCP. Sociology is his primary domain of expertise, on which he has published several books.

The views expressed by this writer and commenters below do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Shradhanand was killed by a muslim called abdul rashid
 
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Well, I'm not interested in how men looked. Google on your own to find attractive men.
Must hurt to have such an ugly MF-er for a leader.

I thought you were among the non ITcell posters. Such a shame you also turned out to be a closet chaddi.
 
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