Something smells down in Georgia and young Pranav Mahadevan is being forced to take a deep breath of the stink in. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on an exclusive investigation which takes a look at the seedy underbelly of spelling bee competitions in this once great country:
Pranav Mahadevan, a serious speller since second grade, had one final shot at the state spelling bee, where a win would finally give him his ticket to the national stage in Washington.In anticipation of the Georgia Independent Schools Association spelling bee in Macon last month, the Dunwoody eighth-grader pored over word lists and studied word roots in Greek, Latin and French. But he was eliminated when the judges said he spelled the wrong word. He spelled “ivy”; the judges were looking for “ivied.”
Pranav, a student at Our Lady of the Assumption School in north Atlanta, said he misunderstood the pronouncer. He spelled the word he thought he heard, a word he repeated for the judges before he started spelling. His mother, Kalpana Mahadevan, appealed her son’s dismissal immediately, as is her right under the bee rules. But she said the judges refused to replay the tape to see whether the pronouncer had clearly articulated the word. Instead, they ruled that Pranav was out and proceeded with the contest.
This is personal. First they screw us by misrepresenting Hindus in California textbooks and now they go after our kind in Georgia. Is it Pranav’s fault that Georgians can’t properly articulate the “-ed” at the end of their words? My personal advice would be to set up a commission to look into this. Scientists could come and quantify the acoustics of the competition room and speech therapists could assess the so-called “pronouncer.” Both could later testify as expert witnesses in front of the congressional committee which overseas these matters.
All hope is not lost however. After Hurricane Katrina, the city of Houston demonstrated its limitless generosity by taking in the vast majority of Katrina victims. On a recent trip to Houston, Pranav’s mom learned that the city was also known for taking in those abused by the Spelling Bee System and the incompetent federal and state officials who are responsible for its breakdown:
In Georgia, few students pursue spelling as diligently as Pranav, who has broadcasts of past National Spelling Bees on tape and can rattle off the winning words for the past several years.His mother networked among parents in Texas, where the Indian-American community is very active in spelling bees. They advised her to move to Texas, saying that Georgia didn’t have a reputation of taking spelling competition seriously.
Georg…ia hates brown people.
What I want to see is the FOSA brats (does sodomy generate brats or rats?) in California try to spell “Hinduism” or “Mahabharatha” a few years from now, with the new FOSA-approved Witzel-edited textbooks. BUT… Hey! They’ll be EXPERTS at cleaning latrines with their bare hands, as Witzel and Farmer and Akhila Rahman will teach them through videos and illustrations in their textbooks. This is a good thing, because it will give them a useful skill. Which may be the only one they will have in the Global Workplace, other than the skill of waving banners saying: “ALLAH WILL DESTORY TERRIST BUSH AND INDIA!!! OSAMA IS OUR HERROW! ANGANA IS A BURRO!!”
Hi McGandu and Nimesh,
Below is the kind of logic from indiatruth.org. Of course you FOSA types can twist anything to justify your reasoning. Can you say Christian Churches and Islamic Charities? Most of the $ 681 million is from them and not from Indian American Hindus. If VHP or the Parivar groups are even getting $ 10 Million, they would be happy. If you are so proud of your site, why don’t you list the names of the people involved instead of claiming ‘a group of blah, blah, blah’. I can can claim I represent people from Mars but before claiming that I need to justify it.
“What do any of the actions by the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation in California have to do with Hindu nationalist groups in India like the RSS and VHP? As in any political system in the world, money equals power. According to the Reserve Bank of India (IndiaÂ’s Central Bank), in 2004, overseas Indians sent back a total of $23 Billion to India. For perspective, this is more than the value of IndiaÂ’s Foreign Exports in the same time period, in terms of what it means to the country. Of this, $681 million went to charitable and religious donations. It is very difficult to break out a specific number for the American portion of this number, but one can imagine that a fairly sizeable amount of that comes from Indian Americans in the US. The Reserve Bank of India does not break down the numbers in any more detail.”
maitri:
besides naming everything after peaches and CNN, the georgians also serious in the following matters:
-support for the NRA -G. Bush Shrines -KKK folloings (heck the headquarters is less than 10 miles from me..) -sweet tea -going to church (i have never seen so many TV stations dedicated to the lord… or so many churches in less than a 1 block radius..)
hmm… that is all i can muster up at this moment..i’m sure there are a ton more…
hindutvavadi in California (#52):
Do you have any facts to support this?
Madurai Vivekan said
More facts than indiatruth.org has to support all their thesis and various other insunations. ( indiatruth.org – Goebbels would have been so proud of the name. shades of 1984 – Orwell was so right about this commies/fascists). Did you bother to check that site? Here are the links they use to justify their assertion:
http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewBulletin.aspx
The RBI site which has a bunch of PDF’s, none of which state anything about the charitable contributions
http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewBulletin.aspx?Id=6033
Lists all the various deposits for NRI – FCNR, NRE etc. I guess I don’t have the ability like Indiatruth.org to make the connection from this link to the money flowing to the various Parivar orgs. My bad.
http://www.swaminomics.org/et_articles/et20050525_unexp_bonan_NRI.htm
The only link which mentions that flow of money for ‘Religious and charitable donations religious, charitable’. This includes all the contributions to all organizations – either religious or charitable. Mind you, this probably includes all the NGOs that are involved in various social and health related stuff like AIDS prevention etc. Again, my bad in not making the connection to the Hindu fundamentalist orgs.
Here are some links I Googled. There is only one hindu org (Satya Sai trust – a well known Parivar org (;- ). There is no VHP related orgs listed below and you see a whole bunch of Christian orgs. We all know what most of them do. Also it can be safely assumed, that most of the money from Germany goes for Christian causes. You could have done this too, but you dont’ have any incentive, as unlike us you follow the superior ideology and higher god:
http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jul/06spec2.htm
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/aug/16donations.htm
The United States heads the list of donor countries to India with Rs 1,492.62 crore (Rs 14.926 billion), followed by the United Kingdom — Rs 677.59 crore (Rs 6.775 billion), and Germany — Rs 664.51 crore (Rs 6.645 billion).
The leading donor agency was World Vision International, USA — Rs 80.43 crore, followed by Foster Parents Plan International, USA — Rs 76.37 crore (Rs 763.7 million), and Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, USA — Rs. 68.11 crore (Rs 681.1 million). The US-based World Vision is an international Christian relief and development organisation that operates in 96 countries.
The largest recipient of foreign contribution was Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust — Rs 88.18 crore (Rs 881.8 million), followed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society India, Maharashtra — Rs 74.88 crore (Rs 748.8 million), Gospel for Asia, Kerala — Rs 58.10 crore (Rs 581 million), and Mata Amritanandamayi Mission, Kerala (Rs 23.19 crore (Rs 231.9 million).
The links above talk about foreign donations, gives the numer (which is actually greater than the number in indiatruth(lie).org) and states the following: “How many associations are registered under FCRA? Nearly 30,000. But not all of them receive foreign donations.
Which is the biggest foreign donor? World Vision International, a United States-based Christian relief and development organisation, is the biggest donor agency for many Indian voluntary groups.
I hate to jump in here but I have to say that my first read of the indiatruth site was that it was basically a hack job with nothing to offer (nothing more than “see, all of these guys are from the BJP/VHP”). There was not a hint of the data, very easily provided by hindutvavadi in California in #55.
I’m coming down on the side of hindutvavadi here. indiatruthdotorg is all crap.
hindutvavaadi in California: nice work on the links. PropaMcGandhi please rebut if you read this and can offer more insight.
(hopefully in a non-flame way!)
In the interests of balance to indiatruth.org, check out some of the articles at http://www.india-forum.com. Both sites have their glaring biases, obviously, but it’s always good to look at both sides of the issue. Also look at hinduamericanfoundation.org.
Hi there,
I am not in any way associated with the people who created indiatruth.org and for that matter I also do not know who they are.
As a person who was born a Hindu and who has now, as an adult, made a conscious decision to be a practicing Hindu, I find it absolutely revolting that a small group of Hindutva-wallas have usurped my religion in which I find so much love and beauty and they have made it a weapon to use against whomever they see fit.
I think the posts from Arun Fosa, Paresh, and HiC adequately illustrate that what happened in California wasnÂ’t at all about accurately representing the past, but is very much a fight about the future. What the indiatruth.org website clearly demonstrates (and which the three Hindutva supporters on this website have not refuted) is that it is a very small group of extremists who have been pushing very hard to put forth their own very particular opinion of what Hinduism should be about (Brahmanical, anti-Islam, etc.).
In the discussion on dress codes, many of us agreed that the young girl, Shabina, was being used as a pawn in the game of her elders. In this case, I feel like my religion and I are being used as a pawn in the game of these Hindutva-wallas. They are doing these things in my name, and I strongly object.
See you in court.
M. Nam
Hi Mcgandhi,
Did all the people who supported the changes in California were “made it a weapon to use against whomever they see fit.” Can you give any examples? You are like the FOSA, FOIL types – insinuate whithout proof and scurry away when asked for details. Or obfuscate and change directions instead of giving a clear rebuttal.
I guess we are all extremists and have to be fought because we don’t subscribe blindly to the agenda of FOIL/FOSA/Witzel etc. Do you ever consider that we may have better arguments than you. Only thing is unfortunately we have pursued professions outside academia for whatever reason – economic and social circumstances, lack of opportunities etc.
It must be true that these guys are extremists since indiatruth.org says so. I guess all these guys are involved in McJihad and peruading people to blow themselves up or going and claiming they are from the one true religion and if you don’t follow it you are going to hell. Of course Witzel, Farmer, Wolpert, Lal, et al are great authorities on Hinduism and anybody who disagrees with them are extremists.
If you or your side know the correct definition of Hinduism is that can be included in the textbooks please write it up so we can evaluate it.
And before going about regurgiating that these guys are pushing a version of Hinduism that is Brahmanical, anti-Islam, please provide some facts. Vyasa, Valmiki, Kambar (who wrote the Tamil version of Ramayana) were not Brahmins and there are other saints who were not. Also provide proof that the California changes were anti-islam.
It is time to shut up or put up.
PropaMcGandhi,
Your statement “…what happened in California wasnÂ’t at all about accurately representing the past, but is very much a fight about the future” is a very nice way of saying it.
But why blame only the Hindutva side for making it a fight about the future? All groups of people are equally culpable. Indeed I believe that this is the real purpose of teaching history—to make it a fight about the future.
Consider the Dalits. They want to emphasize casteism. Such a presentation of Hinduism gives them a high moral ground. Suppose that they can get such a presentation of Hinduism to be the dominant presentation of Hinduism. They can make a better case for affirmative action. So, for the Dalits, what is in the history books is a fight about the future.
Next, consider for the upper caste Hindus. They do not want to go through life feeling guilty for being upper caste. They want a nuanced coverage of casteism. Suppose that they can get such a nuanced coverage to be the domination presentation of Hinduism. They can make a better case for sunset clauses on affirmative action. For upper caste Hindus, too, what is in the history books is a fight about the future.
I do not understand the Marxists and Communists very well. Many of them are Hindus, even upper caste and wealthy Hindus. Perhaps other mutineers can throw light.