Ayodhya to get investments of over Rs 10,155 cr from UP govt at GBC

Business Standard
February 17, 2024

Through the Ground Breaking Ceremony (GBC@IV) to be held from February 19-21, the Uttar Pradesh government is set to open avenues of employment for over 20,000 young individuals in Ayodhya.

Under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Ayodhya has undergone a transformative journey towards development, making it an appealing destination for investors.

Investments worth more than Rs 10155.79 crore are proposed for Ayodhya at the GBC on February 19. Notably, in the tourism sector alone, proposals totalling more than Rs 3,129 crore have been received. Here, the maximum investment of Rs 3,000 crore is being made by The House of Abhinandan Lodha Group, according to press release by the Chief Minister's Office.

The proposed investment and employment creation under GBC@IV to be held on February 19 include housing-3409 crore, tourism-3129 crore, Animal Husbandry-14 Crore, AYUSH-15 crore, Cooperative-57.37 crore, Dairy Development-150 Crore, Additional Sources of Energy-107 crore, Medical Education-48.15 crore, MSME-189 crore, Forest-575 crore, Higher Education-505 crore, Horticulture-445 crore, IT and Electronics-100 crore, Technical Education-113 crore, UPSIDA-1230 crore and Secondary education-70 crore.

The proposed Employment Generation includes 535 people in the housing sector, Tourism-6396, Animal Husbandry-93, AYUSH-100, Cooperative-100, Dairy Development-285, Additional Sources of Energy-50, Medical Education-327, MSME-1775, Forest-675, Higher Education-630, Horticulture-6200, IT and Electronics-500, Technical Education-598, UPSIDA-1320 and Secondary education-200.

Top 10 companies investing in Ayodhya are The House of Abhinandan Lodha-3000 Crore, Pakka Limited-550 Crore, Crescendo Interiors-500 Crore, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ramayana University-480 crores [Rs 480 crores is $57,821,363.31], Amrit Bottlers Private Limited-250 Crore, Bhardwaj Global Infraventures Pvt. Ltd. (Taj Group Hotel)-176.26 crore, Sibon Technologies Ltd UK-175 crore, Shriram Krupa Hotels Pvt. Ltd. (Marriott Group)-155 crores, Panache Dream World LLP-143 crore and PECS Infra Pvt. Ltd.-107 crores.

The House of Abhinandan Lodha is expected to employ 100 people, Pakka Limited-600, Crescendo Interiors-100, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ramayana University 480, Amrit Bottlers Private Limited 200, Bhardwaj Global Infraventures Pvt. Ltd. (Taj Group Hotel)-100, Sibon Technologies Ltd UK-50, Shriram Krupa Hotels Pvt. Ltd. (Marriott Group)-150, Panache Dream World LLP-178 and PECS Infra Pvt. Ltd. is expected to give employment to 50 people.

https://www.business-standard.com/economy/news/ayodhya-to-get-investments-over-rs-10-155-cr-at-ceremony-during-feb-19-21-124021700556_1.html

What is Fundamentalism?

Fundamentalism, which shifts the balance between authority structures and the indescribable divine, emerged after medieval society gave way to the modern.


Livia Gershon
JSTOR DAILY
November 28, 2022

To many people, both secular and religious, “fundamentalism” is an essentially pejorative term, referring to authoritarian religious forces seeking to drag society back into the past. According to prominent Protestant theologian Edward Farley, who passed away in 2014, this isn’t all wrong. But, he argues, fundamentalism is also a predictable product of modern societies.

Farley writes that, when the term “fundamentalism” was coined in the early twentieth century, it referred to a movement among conservative US Protestants to defend the literal truth of the Bible against historical criticism and the theory of evolution. Over time, scholars began applying it to similar phenomena in other religious traditions, such that it became possible to be speak of fundamentalist Islam or Hinduism. Meanwhile, the term also took on a negative connotation, as many evangelical Protestants used it to describe their counterparts who isolated themselves from modern society.

Looking only at rituals and institutions misses “religion’s very center, that which the rituals are all about, namely something eerily holy.”

Farley argues that some aspects of fundamentalism are common to all sorts of religious traditions. To be a member of a religion is to trust that the beliefs and actions of that religious community represent the wishes of a divine power. Yet, he writes, looking only at rituals and institutions misses “religion’s very center, that which the rituals are all about, namely something eerily holy.”

Across religions, prophets and other holy figures don’t just uphold the faith’s authority. At times, they become a scourge of established structures and practices, revealing them as fallible human creations out of step with the divine.

“Worshipful relation to the holy carries with it a certain sense that what is worshiped and religion’s mediations can never be identical,” Farley writes.

He argues that fundamentalism, which shifts this balance between authority structures and the indescribable divine, emerged after medieval society in Europe gave way to the modern era. This change—encompassing industrialization, increasingly democratic governments, capitalism, and colonialism—gradually brought a previously unheard of secularization. Central aspects of life, including scientific inquiry, education, and government, began to fall outside the control of religious structures. Religions certainly didn’t disappear, but they were no longer the core of society. In modern, secular societies, most people of faith live much of their lives in environments that are built on foundations other than their beliefs and practices.

While some religious individuals and authorities in a secular society loosen their truth claims and recognize the validity of other points of view, others double down on their traditions. For them, the holy becomes totally identified with the texts, institutions, or practices of the religion, which makes it impossible to question them without departing from the faith.

“In this situation religion’s central and intrinsic reference becomes the empirical-factual strand of its meditations,” writes Farley. “With this turn the subject of the fervor and focus of faith is not the holy itself… but various empirical states of affairs.”

By focusing on empirical claims, the religion can meet secular institutions on their own terms, debating factual matters like historical and cosmological events. The result is fundamentalism.

https://daily.jstor.org/what-is-fundamentalism/

Women will be 'exposed to evil' if permitted to drive, says Saudi grand mufti

DAWN.COM
April 12, 2016

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's top cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Sheikh has justified a ban on driving for females, saying women behind the wheels would be "exposed to evil", reported The Independent.

Although driving is not technically illegal for women in Saudi Arabia, it is the only country in the world that prohibits women from doing so by not issuing licenses.

The cleric told a religious TV channel Almajd that men with "weak spirits" and who are "obsessed with women" could cause female drivers harm, and women driving alone would also leave families unaware of their whereabouts.

The cleric caused controversy earlier this year when he issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, against playing chess on television, saying the game was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.

In 2014, Al-Sheikh had also used his platform to speak against social media and social networking site Twitter, calling it a “a source of lies” and "the source of all evil and devastation".

http://www.dawn.com/news/1251632/

Australian Couple Harrassed By BJP MLA, His Goons And Police In The Heart Of Bengaluru Over A Tattoo Of Goddess Yellama

Deepu Madhavan
Indian Times
October 19, 2015

If you thought that stupid religious fundamentalism was restricted to India's northern hinterlands which are devoid of both education and work, think again!
This one comes straight from Bengaluru - the refuge of all those Indians who want to make and spend major bucks away from parent's glare and a city which was once known for its tolerant and peaceful environ.
21-year-old Australian Matthew Gordon and his companion Emily Kassianou had no clue what they were getting into when they walked over to grab a meal at a popular South Indian eatery on Bangalore's famed Residency Road around 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday. They found themselves right in the mix of a furore for no apparent reason as a totally jobless Saffron goon brigade, led by a BJP leader Ramesh Yadav, found their prey for the day.

Their crime: Matt has a tattoo of godess Yellamma on his shin. Yes! they were harassed because he adorned his body with a representational image of a divine persona. It is common for many Hindus to get such tattoos but then "How dare a foreigner do it?"

Well things escalated quickly after the jobless saffron brigade, who in earlier times would steer clear of Residency and Brigade road regions, spotted the duo and started taking images and making videos of the couple. “They were taking pictures and videos of us and talking about us in English,” Emily told Deccan Chronicle.

Since Matt had the tattoo on his shin, the defenders of Hinduism had a very sane and logical solution - let's skin his leg!!!

“One of them came to me and confronted me about my tattoo. Soon, they surrounded us and threatened to skin my leg and remove the tattoo,” a shaken Gordon, a law student, told The Hindu.

As the crowd grew from just a few men to around two dozen, polic arrived. Just as Matt thought his ordeal was over, the cop told him this, " This is India and one couldn’t sport such a tattoo on the leg.

Then the couple along with their local friend Abhishek was taken to the Ashok Nagar Police station nearby where the policemen forced him to tender a written apology to protesters. They were further reprimanded by the policemen and forced to wait for three hours before being let off with heavy advice on following Hindu traditions.

What's evening worse it the fact that DCP (central) Of Bengaluru Police termed the matter- a serious blot on the nation's secular stature - as trivial!
My forced letter of apology that I had to write before I could leave the police station at Ashok Nagar. I should not... Posted by Matt Keith on Sunday, October 18, 2015

The effect of such disturbing behaviour on tourism will surely be grave. Here's what Matt told the Deccan Chronicle after his ordeal, "I studied in a school in Kodaikanal and I love India, which is why we came back to visit. We have heard about the growing Hindu nationalism, but nothing justifies the way we were treated. I love Hinduism - I also have a Ganesha tattoo on my back. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong.”

http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/australian-couple-harrassed-by-bjp-mla-his-goons-and-police-in-the-heart-of-bengaluru-over-a-tattoo-of-goddess-yellama-246400.html



http://m.indiatimes.com/news/india/australian-couple-harrassed-by-bjp-mla-his-goons-and-police-in-the-heart-of-bengaluru-over-a-tattoo-of-goddess-yellama-246400.html

Raised in a Christian Cult

Michelle Van Loon

Christianity Today
MARCH 11, 2014

‘Girl at the End of the World’ adds to an important line of ex-fundamentalist survivor stories.

If you've ever been stuck in traffic caused by drivers slowing down to get a glimpse of the accident scene, you know we humans are a nosy bunch.

So it's no surprise that readers have devoured a steady stream of recent memoirs penned by people who grew up in abusive, controlling fundamentalist sects. We curiously peek into the barbed-wire edges of different faith traditions—Jewish, Mormon, and Christian—from the perspectives of their former members.

While the theology may differ, the plotlines in this popular genre vary little: the author's childhood was a horror, leaving the group required great courage, and integrating into mainstream society afterwards remains a disorienting, difficult process. Popular blogger  Elizabeth Esther's Girl at the End of the World: My Escape From Fundamentalism in Search of a Faith with a Future, set to release next Tuesday, March 18, is a recent addition to the genre.

Are these stories (and similarly-themed blogs,films, and TV shows) the pulp nonfiction equivalent of gapers' block, giving us a chance to gaze at the wreckage? Or are they cautionary tales about the high cost of blind allegiance? The answer may be yes to both.

Most importantly, though, these memoirs amplify the once-voiceless among us, and no matter how painful, unbelievable, or bitter the accounts, they require us to listen. As followers of Jesus, we are committed to bothgrowing in wisdom and protecting "the least of these." Their candid, painful reflections remind us that sometimes the most vulnerable among us may be abused children now living inside adult bodies.

Esther's Girl at the End of the World follows her upbringing in a network of about 50 or so fundamentalist fringe congregations once known as The Assembly, led by her grandfather, George Geftakys. She introduces her eight-year-old self to readers by telling them, "I'm classically trained in apocalypse stockpiling, street preaching, and the King James Version of the Bible. I know hundreds of obscure nineteenth-century hymns by heart and have such razor-sharp 'modesty-vision' that I can spot a miniskirt a mile away."

While her cult-leader grandfather nurtured his double life of sexual immorality, and domestic violence ravaged her uncle's household, Elizabeth Esther's childhood home-turned-commune was characterized by the rancid fruits of her family's teaching. She recounts a childhood filled with unrelenting physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse.

When she and her husband exited the cult as young adults with three babies in tow, they entered broader society like refugees. "I used TV as my shortcut to understanding pop culture and assimilating into mainstream America," she said. "That made me prime bait for every putrid reality show, game show, cartoon, and newscast. I got emotionally involved in everything from Barney and Friendsto The Bachelor. One night I went to bed crying because I couldn't believe Tony left Billie Jean at the altar on a trashy show called Married By America."

She struggled to learn how to make even simple choices for the first time in her life. Decisions about everything from whom and when she could marry to how she was to discipline her children had been prescribed by her authorities (which, in her case, also often happened to be family members) in The Assembly.

The stories in these memoirs contain details far more unsavory and titillating than a jilted bride's meltdown on a reality TV program. While the ex-fundamentalist genre may tap into our hunger for bits of juicy gossip, a thoughtful reader will imbibe these stories with the sobriety they require.

No one ever wakes up one day and decides to join a cult. It happens bit by bit, as members surrender over time to the will of a "visionary" leader. They practice their special version of True Faith, in the single, all-or-nothing manner prescribed by the cult leader and his revelation. Children of members don't get to opt out of their parents' journey down a destructive path.

The children who've grown up in fundamentalist cults are not just exiting a sour church situation, but the only lives they've ever known. They leave behind their families, their social networks, and their identities. Memoirs written by ex-fundamentalists show us in slow motion what courage can look like. These stories detail the excruciating emotional journey a cult member must make to work toward a decision to leave. These books allow us to hear the sound of a door handle turning for the last time as the author departs.

And these stories allow us to follow them as they begin to build a life for the first time on the other side. Even the most acid-toned memoirs penned by ex-fundamentalists (and there are plenty of these books out there) are a reminder that abuse done in God's name affects all of us in the body of Christ.

Leavers face the lonely task of jettisoning the rule-laden, fear-drenched version of "faith" they grew up with. Many never return to any form of organized religion. Elizabeth Esther reports that counseling, medication, time, and a mustard seed of faith in Christ that survived the dysfunction of her childhood has grown into a connection with Catholicism. "I once heard a story about a woman who asked God to move a mountain," she wrote. "God said okay, and then He handed her a shovel. I think that's a good analogy for how my story ends. I'm still shoveling. I'm still uncovering, sorting, reexamining."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/march/raised-in-christian-cult.html?paging=off