Panch Haud Church tea party stirs storm in Pune

Panch Haud Church tea party stirs storm in city

CAMIL PARKHE
Sunday, August 08, 2010 AT 08:01 PM (IST)
Tags: Panch Haud Church, Lokmanya Tilak, Mahadeo Govind Ranade
Lokmanya Tilak and some other prominent Puneites had to pay a hefty price for attending a tea party hosted at the city's Panch Haud Church, which is celebrating 125th anniversary of its foundation on Saturday.
'Pune Vaibhav', a Marathi periodical, had published names of 50 persons who had allegedly attended a lecture and subsequent tea party at the Church of Holy Name in Panch Haud in October 1890, sparking a major storm in Pune's puritan social circle.
Some of those present at the tea party did not drink tea for fear of being defiled. Nonetheless they were held guilty of entering a church. Tilak and Justice Mahadeo Govind Ranade, a front ranking leader of the social reformers, were among those who had drank tea at the function.
Consumption of tea and biscuits at the church was then considered akin to renouncing Hinduism and therefore the fundamentalist leaders had demanded social and religious boycott of all those who dined with Christians.
It is said that it was Gopalrao Joshi, maverick husband of Dr Anandibai Joshi, the first Indian woman to secure a doctor's degree abroad, had arranged the sting operation of a lecture and subsequent tea party at the church.
'Pune Vaibhav' however had also published names of some people who had not attended the tea party. These people filed a defamation case against the periodical's editor. A court held the editor guilty of defamation and imposed on him a fine of Rs 200.
The matter however did not end there. Some persons approached the Shankaracharya to punish those who had drank tea at the church. Two representatives of the Shankaracharya then arrived in Pune and conducted hearing in the case at the Sanglikar Wada near Shaniwarwada.
Tilak, an authority on Hindu scripture, defended himself against the charge and argued that he had obtained a certificate of doing Prayachitt (penance) in Kashi. That did not satisfy the fundamentalists and Tilak had to face the threat of social boycott on him and his family members.
Narhar Raghunath Phatak, who has written Tilak's biography, has said that the veteran political leader had even feared that he may not get a Brahmin priest for a religious function during the social boycott period.
The row over the tea party in the church continued for over two years and met a silent death only in December 1892.

Be more sensitive to challenged persons

Be more sensitive to challenged persons

Sakaal Times
Friday, September 17, 2010 AT 07:33 PM (IST)
Tags: Disability, Physically challenged people
How sensitive are we to the problems faced by the disadvantaged and the physically or mentally challenged people? Most of us will consider ourselves to be 'fairly' sensitive. A couple of recent incidents has made me wonder if it is really the case.
Last week, I was waiting to get into a city bus as a group of rural folks struggled to alight from the rear door of the bus. A young woman was helping an elderly blind couple to get out and jostling with commuters impatient to get in. “Can't you people alight from the front door,” shouted one irate passenger at them. The woman, who had managed to lead the aged couple out, retorted, “Can't you educated people allow some leeway to the old and the blind?” The illiterate woman's remark left us dumb, too stunned to react.
An incident narrated by my teacher wife has lingered in my mind for long. She and some teachers were waiting for a physically challenged student to complete writing his answers during the SSC examination. All other students had left the examination hall after the expiry of the examination period. This student was given an extra half an hour in accordance with the rules of the secondary education board. The school teachers were not aware of the fact that physically challenged students are entitled to an extra half an hour during examination until the student had produced the board's letter to that effect.
As the boy hurriedly continued to draw graphs holding the scale in his deformed hand, the teachers waited impatiently. “Kay katkat ahe, nahi (What a nuisance)! By now, we would have left for home but for this boy...” one of the teachers said.After a few minutes, the boy finished his paper, looked quite apologetically at the teachers who had taught him for the past few years and said, “Miss, I would not seek extra time for the language and social science papers. It is only for science and geometry papers where I have to draw figures and for that I need extra time.”
My wife recounted that tears came to her eyes as she heard the boy's apologetic remark. “No beta , you take your own time, we won't mind,” she said. I, too, was moved greatly when I heard about the incident. Indeed, we surely need to willingly make an extra effort and be sensitive too all children, especially to the disadvantaged ones.

Uttam Kamble is Marathi sahitya sammelan chief

MARATHI SAHITYA SAMMELAN GETS A BOLD NEW FACE

CAMIL PARKHE
Friday, October 01, 2010 AT 01:40 PM (IST)
Tags: ABMSS, Uttam Kamble, Sakal Media Group, Camil Parkhe
Uttam Kamble, chief editor of Sakal Media Group, who has been elected president of the 84th All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, has mooted the idea of having a corpus fund to help the needy littérateurs who may need financial support.
Kamble is one of the youngest littérateurs to be elected to the coveted post of the Marathi literary conference in recent times. For the past few decades, rarely has a person below 60 years of age been elected to preside over the Sahitya Sammelan, and the average age of the president of the literary conference has been 70 years.
The next Marathi Sahitya Sammelan will be held in Thane in December, this year.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Kamble said that many veteran Marathi writers and poets have died in penury and some of them could not even afford medicines during the last stage of their life.
Stressing the need for having a permanent fund to support these littérateurs, Kamble said industrialists, social organisations and others could contribute towards creating a corpus fund.
Kamble also said that he will welcome various streams of Marathi Sahitya Sammelans, including rural, Dalit and Vidrohi Sammelans into the mainstream All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. Representatives of various Sammelans should not view each other as enemies, and be complementary to each other, he said.
Sakal Media Group chairman Prataprao Pawar and Managing Director Abhijit Pawar congratulated Kamble on his election at a function held at the ‘Sakal’ office on Thursday afternoon, which was attended by heads of departments in Sakal Media Group.
ELECTED WITH OVERWHELMING VOTES
Kamble was elected with an overwhelming 411 first preferential votes. Chandrakumar Nalage won 101 votes while Girija Kir polled 95 votes. Wamanrao Pathak and Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni polled 10 and seven votes, respectively, while 18 votes were declared invalid.
Kamble has 39 literary works to his credit including two novels, three autobiographical books, two poetry collections and five research books. Some of his books have been translated into Hindi, Kannad, Telugu and Malayalam languages. Some of his writings have been included in the syllabus of some universities in the State.

MOTHER TERESA'S BIRTH CENTENARY COMMENCES SANS FANFARE

MOTHER’S BIRTH CENTENARY COMMENCES SANS FANFARE

CAMIL PARKHE
Friday, August 27, 2010 AT 11:10 AM (IST)
Tags: Pune, Mother Teresa, birth anniversary, Missionaries of Charity, Thomas Dabre, Camil Parkhe
The nuns belonging to the Missionaries of Charity congregation, founded by Mother Teresa, launched year-long birth centenary celebrations of their founder, sans any fanfare, here on Thursday.
It was business as usual at the three houses of Missionaries of Charity at Tadiwala Road, Chinchwad and Wakad, where the nuns continued their routine activities of caring for the aged, destitute and special children sheltered at these convents.
The only special feature marking the birth centenary of the Nobel Laureate was the prayers held at the three convents in the morning.
The nuns, commonly referred to as Mother Teresa sisters, also attended religious services at the nearby churches where special mass was offered for the early sainthood of their founder, who was referred to as a living saint during her lifetime.
Mother Teresa had visited the Missionaries of Charity convent at Tadiwala Road and St Patrick’s Cathedral during her visit to the city.
Pope John Paul II had declared the Macedonia-born nun as ‘Blessed’, a stage prior to declaring her as a saint.
As per the Church’s tradition, some more proved miracles are required for declaring the Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata as a saint.
Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre had directed all churches in Pune diocese, comprising Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and nearby four districts, to offer special masses to seek expedition of the process for the Mother’s canonisation.

Be more sensitive to challenged persons

Be more sensitive to challenged persons
Sakaal Times
Friday, September 17, 2010 AT 07:33 PM (IST)
Tags: Disability, Physically challenged people
How sensitive are we to the problems faced by the disadvantaged and the physically or mentally challenged people? Most of us will consider ourselves to be 'fairly' sensitive. A couple of recent incidents has made me wonder if it is really the case.
Last week, I was waiting to get into a city bus as a group of rural folks struggled to alight from the rear door of the bus. A young woman was helping an elderly blind couple to get out and jostling with commuters impatient to get in. “Can't you people alight from the front door,” shouted one irate passenger at them. The woman, who had managed to lead the aged couple out, retorted, “Can't you educated people allow some leeway to the old and the blind?” The illiterate woman's remark left us dumb, too stunned to react.
An incident narrated by my teacher wife has lingered in my mind for long. She and some teachers were waiting for a physically challenged student to complete writing his answers during the SSC examination. All other students had left the examination hall after the expiry of the examination period. This student was given an extra half an hour in accordance with the rules of the secondary education board. The school teachers were not aware of the fact that physically challenged students are entitled to an extra half an hour during examination until the student had produced the board's letter to that effect.
As the boy hurriedly continued to draw graphs holding the scale in his deformed hand, the teachers waited impatiently. “Kay katkat ahe, nahi (What a nuisance)! By now, we would have left for home but for this boy...” one of the teachers said.After a few minutes, the boy finished his paper, looked quite apologetically at the teachers who had taught him for the past few years and said, “Miss, I would not seek extra time for the language and social science papers. It is only for science and geometry papers where I have to draw figures and for that I need extra time.”
My wife recounted that tears came to her eyes as she heard the boy's apologetic remark. “No beta , you take your own time, we won't mind,” she said. I, too, was moved greatly when I heard about the incident. Indeed, we surely need to willingly make an extra effort and be sensitive too all children, especially to the disadvantaged ones.

Comments
On 20/09/2010 12:20 prakash bhalerao said:
Simply moving. Much to learn from the medically challeged. sensitivity belongs to heart

On 19-09-2010 21:46:52 Vijay Shejwal said:
In this world of rat race and materilistic values, we have certainly lost sense to persons around us even our near and dear once I dont no way we are so indefferent to our fellow human beings?

THREE LAKH ATTEND HAREGAON’S MATMAULI YATRA

THREE LAKH ATTEND HAREGAON’S MATMAULI YATRA

Correspondent
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 AT 10:42 AM (IST)
Tags: Ahmednagar, Haregaon, Christians, Matmauli yatra, church, yatra
Over three lakh Christians from different parts of the State participated in the two-day Matmauli yatra, which concluded at Haregaon in Shrirampur taluka of Ahmednagar district on Sunday.
The Matmauli yatra is celebrated at the St Teresa Church every year on the Saturday and Sunday after September 8, the feast of Mother Mary's birthday.
The high mass at the yatra was celebrated by Amravati Bishop Lourdes Daniel on September 11 evening in the presence of over hundred priests from Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad districts.
This was the 62ndyear of the Matmauli yatra launched by a German Jesuit Gerhard Baadar in 1948 for the poor faithfuls, who could not afford to attend Mount Mary feast at Bandra in Mumbai.
The golden jubilee anniversary celebrations of the yatra was held two years ago.
Over the years, the number of faithfuls attending the yatra has swelled to a few lakhs, creating tremendous pressures on the government administration and the church. For the last few years, the Church authorities have been appealing to the devouts to leave the Church premises soon after attending the religious services.
Church authorities on Saturday cancelled the procession of the statue of Mother Mary in view of large assembly of pilgrims and narrow village roads, thus giving much relief to the police.
The week-long annual feast of Mount Mary held at Bandra in Mumbai for a week, starting on the Sunday after September 8, is the largest congregation of the Christian community in the State.
The Haregaon yatra, on the other hand, is the largest assembly of Christians in western Maharashtra and Marathwada. Haregaon pilgrim centre is therefore, often described as the Pandharpur of the Marathi-speaking Christians.

Church stir for SC status to Dalit Christians, Muslims

Church stir on Aug 10 for SC status to Dalit Christians, Muslims


http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100809/5021517943918479316.htm


CAMIL PARKHE
Monday, August 09, 2010 AT 12:28 PM (IST)
Tags: Pune, Church, Christian, Muslim, CBCI, scheduled caste, Camil Parkhe
PUNE: Christians in the city will participate in a nationwide agitation on August 10 to demand Scheduled Caste (SC) status to Dalits belonging to Christian and Muslim religions.
The call for observing a nationwide black day on Tuesday has been given by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholic Church in the country.
The black day will be observed to demand deletion of the paragraph 3 of the Presidential order on Constitution (Scheduled Caste) which said that ‘No person who professes a religion different from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste’.
August 10 has been chosen the day for the stir as the Presidential order was issued on August 10, 1950. The Church has undertaken a signature drive to demand inclusion of the Dalit Christians and Muslims in the SC category. Signatures of the community members were collected during the masses at all the churches in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad on Saturday and Sunday.
The Church has planned to submit a memorandum to Pune district collector on Tuesday. Fr George D’Souza, vicar general of Pune diocese, has issued a letter to all churches in Pune diocese to seek mobilisation of support for the agitation. Fr D’Souza has asked all parish priests to send a two-member team from each church to meet the collector.
The nationwide agitation has been led by CBCI’s Commission for SC/ST and Backward Classes. Commission chairperson and Hyderabad Archbishop Marampudi Joji has addressed a letter to the church hierarchy in the country, soliciting their support for August 10 agitation.
The archbishop’s letter has said that in 1956 and 1990, Dalit Sikhs and Buddhists were included in the SC category and has argued that denial of this status to Dalit Christians and Muslims is discriminatory.

BLACK DAY
The CBCI has called for hoisting black flags on all churches and church institutions to condemn denial of the SC status to Dalit Christians and Muslims.