On behalf of citizens, at least of a section of citizens, of the country, we submit this appeal to you, Sir, the “First Citizen” of the country, to protect and prevent distortion in the civilisational integrity and identity of the country.
Sir, the attached mail on Kashmir, in circulation for a few days, will tell you the story. It will be clear that neither the State Government nor the Central Government is taking any interest in the matter. The Archeological Society of India has changed the name of the historical Sankaracharya Hill to an Islamic name. The ASI could not have done this on its own. Who has given them the authority to do so?
Even if Kashmir, once a Hindu Kingdom, is now—thanks to demographic evolution and other supporting factors, a Islam-majority State, it happened to be the “Crown-Jewel” of Bharatvarsh and continues to be an integral part of the Indian Union, as repeatedly asserted in Indian Parliament. Should not, therefore, the Government of India take up this significant signage of cultural identity of Hindu/Indic Civilisation for not allowing this savage distortion that appears a part of malicious and deliberate design? Sir, we are sure we do not have to explain our submission in more details to you.
May we now look forward to very early and appropriate remedial action to rectify this mischief and restore the glory of the historic Sankaracharya Temple at the earliest, lest the situation gives rise to avoidable protest and unrest among some sections of the people?
We are confident we shall receive due justice at your hand.
Thanking you Sir and with due respect,
Yours sincerely,
D.C. Nath
(President, Patriots’ Forum)
9811995693
goo.gl/XBOKrQ Click to sign petition
Do not change the name of Shankaracharya Hill in Kashmir
Petition by
Vasan B.K.
Berkeley, CA
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has renamed the Shankaracharya Hill overlooking the Dal Lake in Srinagar, to ‘Takht-e-Suleiman’. ASI has also presented a selective version of history of the Shankaracharya Hill on the tourist information plaque. As for the name of Solomon being associated with this hill, it is based on a spurious and absurd myth claiming that this was a hill once controlled by Jews. Therefore the name ‘Takht e Suleiman’ or ‘Throne of Solomon’.
The structure on the Shankaracharya hill has stood there for centuries before the arrival of Islam in India and yet the plaque makes no mention of it. Instead it says the Mughals renovated the structure. The very name ‘Shankaracharya hill’ has been in use for one thousand three hundred years since Shankaracharya traveled to the four tips of the country and established Sharada Peeths in all four corners. Any number of reputed Indian, American and European scholars will testify that this was a hill dedicated to Shankaracharya long before the advent of the Semitic people on the sub-continent of India.
This is a shameful act of appeasement to win over innocent Muslims. Politicians are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Muslims of India by exploiting their sentiments. Any intellectual Muslim will react with anger at such distortions of history. Any Muslim, Jew, or Christian who knows about Jerusalem, knows how the history of every square inch of Jerusalem is hotly contested by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims; and any attempt at re-writing history will be met with deep resentment, anger, protests and violence.
Why are we letting some officials of the ASI beholden to political interests, to re-write history in this sad and shameful fashion?
This will cause a deep rift in the country between Hindus and Muslims. This will be seen as yet one more instance of how the minority is usurping the majority. These mindless acts, though it may seem insignificant at the time, will fester into full blown religious riots, and even wars, in the future. We should stop it now.
Let us stop this by making people aware, whether they are Hindus, Christians, Jews or Muslims, that it does not help any religion if it is a party to lies and deceit.
We are appealing to all Hindu organizations to rise up and stop this. We are also appealing to all Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations in India to support us to re-name this hill back to its true name ‘Shankaracharya Hill’ and remove the offending plaque from that site.
http://www.indiafacts.co.in/post10/#sthash.Y2C1NvkD.6Hf009GA.dpbs
