Hindu Kush

I have been getting e-mail news from MSgt. Leo Stolfi and his brothers-in-arms in the border regions of Afghanistan. Portrayed is a shot of the Hindu Kush Mountains (with a blur of a propeller blade) as seen through a side porthole of an Army aircraft. B-r-r-r-r-r! It makes the Berkshires and Litchfield Hills look kind of warm and friendly.

I dug up a little history on the area, and find most notably that it is connected to the Indus Valley, the Khyber Pass, and also to the Hindu-Moslem strife that is self-perpetuating. The Indus Valley civilization flourished around 2,500 BC in the western part of South Asia, in what today is Pakistan and western India. It is often referred to as Harappan Civilization after its first discovered city, Harappa.

Hindu Kush means "Hindu Slaughter," according to Shrinandan Vyas, a noted Indian thinker: "All standard reference books agree that the name 'Hindu Kush' of the mountain range in eastern Afghanistan means 'Hindu Slaughter' or 'Hindu Killer.' History also reveals that until 1000 AD the area of Hindu Kush was a full part of Hindu cradle. More likely, the mountain range was deliberately named as 'Hindu Slaughter' by the Moslem conquerors, as a lesson to the future generations of Indians. However, Indians in general—and Hindus in particular—are completely oblivious to this tragic genocide … It is significant that one of the few place names on Earth that reminds us not of the victory of the winners, but rather of the slaughter of the losers, concerns a genocide of Hindus by the Moslems … The Indian government does not want the true history of Indian-Moslem conflicts during the medieval ages to be taught in schools. This policy of negationism is the cause behind the ignorance of Hindus about the Hindu Kush and the Hindu genocide."