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Newsletter April 2005
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Thursday, Feb 18, 2010
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From Narain V. Hingorani, AIS President
At the outset, let me offer an apology to all our valued readers for unavoidable delay in publishing this Spring NewsLetter. On return from India a mountain of three months accumulated mail and approaching IRS deadline demanded an urgent attention. Now all that is out of the way. Chill winds have yielded to gentle spring breeze, winter snow has melted away and fresh emerald shoots have broken the frozen ground heralding the promise of new beginnings.
The birth of the New Year was, however, not so serene and tranquil. In fact it was preceded and foreshadowed by excruciating delivery pains in the form of devastating Tsunami that wrought havoc in many parts of Southeast Asia. Thousands of innocent lives were snuffed out by the natural furies reminiscent of biblical deluge and many times more who were rendered homeless are still struggling to gather the pieces of their shattered lives. The world suffered and endured through the worst natural calamity of modern times.
National Anthem Issue
Before one could recover from the traumatic realization of the enormity of this terrible calamity, we received the outrageous and shocking news that Supreme Court of India had sent a notice to the Government at the behest of petition by one Sanjeev Bhatnagar that the word SINDH be deleted from Indian National Anthem, reasoning that Sindh was no more part of Indian geographical territory.
On January 4, 2005,without any loss of time our ever alert founding president Dial V Gidwani distributed the PROTEST ON DELETION OF SINDH FROM NATIONAL ANTHEM, brilliantly conceived and composed by Bhagwan S. Gidwani, to number of influential Sindhi individuals, organizations and media. The next day American Institute of Sindhulogy jointly with Sindhi Internet Resources sent a letter to Honorable Prime Minister of India urging him to move speedily and effectively to quash the petition. AIS also posted this letter along with Bhagwan Gidwani's MEMORANDUM on its website with a request to our readers to help AIS in this effort by addressing the similar individual letters of protest directly to the Prime Minister.
AIS is grateful for the positive response and overwhelming support of our readers by writing protest letters in large numbers. We are especially indebted to Jatindersingh Bedi, Editor Indian Reporter and Ramesh Soparawalla of India Post for their support in publishing the petition and special announcements in their respective papers that reached the attention of considerably large readership. We also gratefully acknowledge the India Saree palace for their support in printing flyers and Alliance of Sindhi Association for their helping hand in circulating through Devon Avenue to reach Indian merchants and businessmen.
AIS is happy to announce that, during his visit to New Delhi, Dial Gidwani was informed that PM had appreciated AIS petition and Bhagwan Gidwani's Memorandum on the subject as also several petitions received from large number of organizations throughout the world. Dial Gidwani also held discussions on the subject with various ministers including cultural and tourism ministers, the minister for NRI affairs and others and was assured that the cabinet would not agree to any mutation of the National Anthem.
Some recent comments on the Guest book seem to indicate that a few of our readers are skeptical and uncertain about the sincerity of the promises given by government officials and are doubtful of the final outcome since Supreme court has not yet given final decision in the matter. In this respect it is noteworthy that Bhagwan Gidwani's memorandum has received high appreciation by Ram Jethmalani, PM and others. They have regarded it as properly based on legal, constitutional, political, moral and social grounds to exclude the right of the Supreme Court to deal with the issue and to exclude the right of the Government to vitiate the decision of Constitutional Assembly. Also AIS would refer you all to the text of the recent interview of Ram Jethmalani with Sindhishaan posted on our website where he assures that the Supreme Court will put and end to the controversy.
Book Distribution / Library Project
We realize that there was temporary pause in the activities related to the library project during cold winter months. During January, right up to the Republic Day and beyond, National Anthem took most of our time and effort.
We had an unexpected setback when one of our founding directors Ram Advani, our own law expert and architect of our efforts in securing tax-free status, got suddenly sick and had been critical for more than two months. We are overjoyed to be informed that his condition is quickly improving and request our readers to join us and his family in prayers for his speedy recovery and hope that he will be amongst us again very soon.
Also, during cold weather some of our directors were out of USA warming up their tired old limbs in the Indian warmth to get back to their tasks with renewed vigor.
Before this new letter reaches your hands we will have completed our immediate program of sending E-mail letters to over 2000 USA public libraries and post their list on the website. This number is of course in addition to more than 2000 academic libraries to which letters were sent in the first phase of the program.
We will resume and complete the remaining program of writing letters to all major USA public libraries after the matter of supply of the book Return of the Aryans is satisfactorily settled with publishers Penguin India and there is greater assurance for reliable continuous supply of the book from India. Dial Gidwani met with Shri Udaya Mitra, Director of Penguin India in New Delhi. David Davidar has been transferred as CEO penguin Canada. Mr. Gidwani was informed that 500 copies of the book had been printed and were available for sale in India. He also gathered that there was a plan to print more copies. Since at present Penguin India has no representation in USA Mr. Mitra was advised to contact Sanjay Garg of SWAVEDA to discuss their representation.
AIS have also initiated discussion with David Davidar to explore the possibility of Penguin Canada of reintroducing the system of supply of Indian Books, in particular Return of the Aryans, for USA/Canada. We approached Bhagwan Gidwani to approach Penguin through his Canadian contact)
Future Activities/Conclusion
AIS mission has no end point, a final goal or destination. It is voyage; a journey and a pilgrimage that we have courageously undertaken to promote the awareness of Sindhu/Saraswati Civilization and Cultural Heritage. If you, our readers, do identity your selves with our mission, we welcome you as our co-pilgrims - to join and rejoice in our achievements and also share our burdens and feel the pain of our set backs.
Of course, we cannot do without encouraging and appreciative audience who prod us along; but our dire need at this juncture is helping hands. In last three months there has not been any financial support from any quarter and our sources are dangerously depleted. Our other planned programs such as School Project, Indus Exposition and more as detailed in our earlier news letters will continue to remain on the back burner for sometime unless there is urgent infusion of new donations.
AIS have already filed the papers with IRS for continued non-profit status for next five years. We have applied to retain our Domain name for next Six years and paid for retaining website for one year. We now feel the urgent need to engage the services of a professional marketing consultant to help us connect AIS with Indian and USA mainstream media and establish contacts with suitable Foundations and Endowments for soliciting financial support for our worthy cause. We welcome volunteers who may have expertise in this field
On behalf of all of us at AIS I thank all our readers and well wishers for your continued support and reassurance and your faith in our mission and activities, which keep us going from day to day. We will not slacken in our efforts to explore new avenues of finances, and approach and urge appreciative and supporting philanthropists to make good on their pledges. But we must still reiterate our appeal to our readers- please help us in any way you can so that, in fair weather or foul, we keep your mission and organization moving along steadily on our chartered course
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