India's Baby-Dropping Ritual (VIDEO)

Believers in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual - they've been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health. The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India's Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will make their children strong and say no accidents have ever happened.

Comments

[esquire07]

10:08 AM on 05/03/2008

They should throw "The Decider" and the criminals in his family off the tower, except no sheet.

[hokies4ever]

09:11 AM on 05/03/2008

This is just MSM laying the groundworks for developing anti-India sentiment in Americans. Everybody already knows India and Pakistan don't get along, so it's best to get the American people ready to stand up for Pakistan and against the baby-bouncing India people.

[Manni]

01:26 AM on 05/03/2008

You know what is common among the right wing Christian nuts like ...say Ann coulter and the Isamists and the far lefty commies like Hufftards?

Its that they all join together for their hatred if the Jews and Hindus!

:)

[Coyote2]

11:18 PM on 05/02/2008

A cure for falling dream trauma?

After all, the fall rapidly ends with a bounce and a catch and a passing around proving that the community is there to catch you when you fall.

All children have falling dreams and they can be very frightening. I would like to see if research can bear this out.

[BadgersBite]

09:23 PM on 05/02/2008

What do you expect from a third world toilet like India - primitive cruel race

[aqueryan]

09:30 PM on 05/02/2008

Nice, BadgersBite. You're a credit to ignorant racist scum the world over.

[Manni]

01:07 AM on 05/03/2008

He comes from the superior Iraq. I am sure!

[BadgersBite]

01:10 PM on 05/03/2008

Have you been to India? I have, these are the same people that still have a cast system, the untouchables, known as Dalits, are not just second class citizens but a group of about 160 million considered subhuman in their culture who's fates are determined at birth. Violence and discrimination against this group is widespread throughout the country. Newspaper stories of Dalits children being beaten to death for walking down the wrong path or women being raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place are everywhere, the Police even egg on mobs attempting to lynch Dalits.

Your comments are the smuggest kind of blather that proceeds from ignorance and inexperience. It's not racist to say another culture is cruel and primitive when they are, those are just facts.

It would wrong and possibly racist to say that comments by people who's screen name is aqueryan are donkey-brained dolts that are far too enamored with their own words hoping for their 15 minutes...but that would be an insult to donkeys everywhere.

[Manni]

01:07 AM on 05/03/2008

Where do YOU come from?

[wmbear]

07:58 PM on 05/02/2008

I LOVE THE WAY THEY CATCH THE KIDS ON THE BOUNCE...

Maybe it's teaching them to "bounce back from adversity"....

[preatorius]

07:00 PM on 05/02/2008

This is not an ancient ritual. It is only 500 years old.

[PlasticSpoon]

04:57 PM on 05/02/2008

i got a sack of rattlers here...

[PlasticSpoon]

06:34 PM on 05/02/2008

accordign to the reporters VO, Hindu and Muslim both practice this in different parts of the country - so this ritual has transcended religion... so it's not a religious thing... i just know that if it were my kid, it would be my droppings left behind - SCARY

[wmbear]

08:24 PM on 05/02/2008

SNAKE HANDLING IS A BRANCH OF FUNDAMENTALISM IN AMERICA...

It's kind of, you know, a test of faith. If a rattler gits you, it's a sign you didn't truly buh-:LEEEEEVE!

[DavidAF]

03:56 PM on 05/02/2008

And for axt113, you're the moron. Religion inhibits people from truly being educated. If you were well educated, religion would be irrelevant. Religion doesn’t teach people to think for themselves, if it did most people wouldn’t be religious, the smart ones for that matter. Nice try buddy. That’s an educational moment for you.

[torrrep]

06:38 PM on 05/02/2008

Educational moment? That's funny. I'm in the medical field. Many of my fellow congregation members are doctors, lawyers, physicists, etc. But I guess they are all idiots. Let me help you out. Smart people are those that investigate things and don't make rash statements about people that they do not know. They also don't classify people into one large group and call them names without having any proof to back up your statement. If you were as smart as you claim, since you are so highly educated, then you certainly wouldn't be sitting on a ridiculous blog like this trying to make yourself feel better by insulting others.

[aliceblue]

07:10 PM on 05/02/2008

I'm delighted to hear that you co-parishioners
are well-educated but this is child abuse plain
and simple. It's the equivalent of the medieval
German practice of beating infants in their
cribs to save them from Original Sinne.

As early as the 14th century Germans were
producing child rearing manuals that
advocated this brutal practice.

Some scholars think this traumatizing beating
in infancy, which hardly ceased in the medieval era, lead to the victim-victimizer mentality of
the Germans during the First and Second World Wars.

In fact the Germans themselves finally came
to terms with this interagenerational savagery
and are now among the most humane parents.

And I don't believe that no infant has ever
been killed or njured by tossing it down four
or five stories to the street.

And what are all those gawkers doing there
down on the streets? Why don't they have the
sense to stop it?

[BillLumbergh]

12:20 AM on 05/03/2008

"...doctors, lawyers, physicists, etc."
Liar.

[DavidAF]

03:51 PM on 05/02/2008

That's religion for ya. Batshit crazy and the only cult/corporation that is somehow above the law. If you have enough people in your religion, it becomes impervious to law. It's ok, it will probably be another 100 or 200 years before people evolve out of their primitive beliefs and ignorances.

[coexistor]

04:50 PM on 05/02/2008

Agree with your first comment, but 100-200 years is a little ambitious I think. The irrational fear of godlessness is deeply rooted in humanity ... but we can hope.

[axt113]

12:30 PM on 05/02/2008

Ok, all of you morons, this is not a religious issue, it is a lack of education issue.

educated people don't do this, uneducated people are the ones who do these types of things, it doesn't matter whether you are muslim, hindu or christian

[Manni]

12:35 PM on 05/02/2008

Educated people kill the babies before they come out!

[axt113]

12:55 PM on 05/02/2008

Depends on you definition of killing, first prove that the fetus is "living"

But back on my point educated people don't give much stock to these religious superstitions, which is why you don't see chrisiiians having witch burnings in America

[nyboomer]

05:49 PM on 05/02/2008

At what point does anyone get to redefine terms to fit in with their religious nonsense?

Which dictionary defines the term baby as being synonymous with fetus?

I know many religious fools do.

[wmbear]

08:03 PM on 05/02/2008

GEORGE W. BUSH HAS DEGREES FROM YALE AND HARVARD...

End of discussion....

[knighthowl]

07:53 AM on 05/03/2008

He has degrees, but they were gifts. He did not study. He has no interest in knowledge. He would not have been accepted into either school if not for his father and grandfather. In fact, he would have had trouble getting into your local community college, and, if he did, he probably would not have graduated. To its credit, the University of Texas Law School denied him admission which explains his animosity toward the law and the Constitution.

[Horst]

11:33 AM on 05/02/2008

I think that people are being unfair to the Muslims of India. For years Muslims have denied that the world is a spheroid (see Sheik Baaz of Saudia Arabia top religious authorirty who declared in 1992 that the world is flat) and have generally resisted the teachings of mosern and not-so-modern physics.. These folks are trying to reproduce Gallileo's experiments, not with cannon balls but with their own kids. Let's not prejudge them, maybe they can come up with an Islamic gravitational constant that will stand the test of time. Inshallah.

[Manni]

12:02 PM on 05/02/2008

ROFLMAO. :)

Mashallah!

[Wanjiru]

12:37 PM on 05/02/2008

...stafu'lah!...

...Are you serious?...

.

[Manni]

11:15 AM on 05/02/2008

.
America's Baby-Dropping Ritual (VIDEO)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T37xAYf5luM

[AnnArky]

11:11 AM on 05/02/2008

In America pedophile priests have been putting the drop on young children for over 200 years. I think I'd rather be dropped from a building than dropped from behind.

[Manni]

11:16 AM on 05/02/2008

LOL :)

[Rumplestiltskin]

10:36 AM on 05/02/2008

Has the Texas CPS heard about this? There seems to be quite a large culture where children are in danger of abuse that may need to be taken into custody.

[wmbear]

08:06 PM on 05/02/2008

THE NEOCONS ARE WORKING ON IT...

Starting with Iraq and Afghanistan....