Just wondering why the so called secular & liberal people of India are so narrow minded. It’s a contradiction to use the word liberal with narrow minded. But if you look around you will appreciate this contradiction.
Hinduism is one of the most ancient religions that survived the onslaught of time and barbaric invasions. It is more a way of life than a religion and it allows its adherents to explore the religion as per their liking. There is no fixed way of life and nobody is obliged to follow a code of conduct. Of course there were certain customs which have hindered Hinduism to realize its true potential like Sati, Casteism & ill-treatment of widows. This is not to say that other religions don't suffer from similar blemishes. However now Sati is not widely practiced as was done during British rule, the evils of Casteism still survive but with positive action from government and rapid urbanization the barriers are continuously being challenged and widow remarriages are no longer a taboo. This is to say that people have evolved over a period of time and Hinduism has modernized itself as is commensurate with these modern times. This is the inherent strength of Hinduism and its adherents partake of this moderness without feeling guilty about not following their religion. The various offshoots from Hinduism namely Buddhism, Jainism & Sikhism are examples of how Hinduism has allowed its followers to modify the mother religion. It is not surprising that these communities identify themselves culturally & spiritually with Hinduism even though for political reasons they are clubbed as minorities along with Islam and Christianity.
Now the tribe of secular & liberal people mostly comprises of Hindus! Of course you have the smattering of people from other religions but we need to discount them out rightly because the vigour with which they introspect or comment on Hindus/Hinduism they don’t apply the same yardstick to their own religions. Hence they are not worthy to be called secular. So you have M F Husain painting nude impressions of Hindu deities because he has a vision or a moment of supposedly artistic inspiration but he has no vision about his own religion! Aren’t you surprised! Secularists in India become vociferous if you malign M F Husain but are silent against the persecution of the Danish cartoonist. They don’t utter a word against the persecution of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasreen. They don’t applaud the Shah Bano Supreme Court verdict but would instead endorse the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 which denied destitute Muslim women the right to alimony in case of a divorce. This duplicity continues till the present day where you have the liberal and secularists hobnobbing with the Kashmiri terrorists who are euphemistically referred to as “freedom fighters” and are entertained in various media shows as specimen worthy to be heard and listened to. These terrorists have built their case on the premise that Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and it needs to be treated differently. They have enhanced this majority in numbers by systematically killing the Kashmiri Hindu population and forced the remaining into wilderness in various refugee camps. Indians should be candid enough to say that those who require special treatment just because they are Muslims should pronto emigrate to Pakistan or Bangladesh. Wasn’t that the shady deal for partition a separate homeland for the converted Muslims of the sub-continent? So if you hear any Secularists saying that Muslims are persecuted in India just point out to them as a % of total population Muslims numbers have increased from 12 % (1947) to above 20 % (2010) Of course the official government figures say that their numbers are more or less same. I don’t understand why they need to lie on this. As against this the % of Hindus has drastically declined from 20 % (1947) to less than 2 % (2010) in Pakistan. In the other equally intolerant neighboring country of Bangladesh the Hindu population diminished from 36 % to currently 8%. You will find that these so called liberals will be at loss of words and will argue that India is a secular country and needs to respect its minorities. But my point is that we will respect the minorities but principally Muslims do not have any say here since they were originally free to choose either Pakistan or Bangladesh whichever country is more attractive to them as per the sham partition treaty. Otherwise they should learn to respect other religions before demanding similar treatment for them.
You will often find Christians commenting that Hinduism is a pagan religion and liberals attacking the Hindus for encouraging superstitious beliefs. The same disdain is not reserved for the dubious so called faith healing sessions in Christianity or the supposedly “miracles” performed by “ordinary people” venerated as Saints. You can see posters announcing miracle cure that will be performed by this brother or that pastor. If their claims are true then we won’t need any doctors in this country! By peddling such untruths the Christians have been carrying out their insidious proselytizing mission in India and they teach the neo converts to hate the indigenous religion. The demographics of the tribal belt in India are being systematically targeted by the missionaries on the backing of the money power from abroad. I refuse to believe that suddenly such a large number of people heard their “inner calling” and found salvation under Christ. So what, they were left to rot in hell when they were Hindus and now suddenly they all are going to heaven. It sounds ludicrous but you need to hear some Christian missionaries if you think I am ranting. Money power and not inner calling is the calling card of these missionaries in India. Have you ever come across any secularists questioning the basic reason why Graham Staines was murdered? Even the Supreme Court of India knows the actual reason but was pressurized to change its order to please these so called human right champions. Christians say they were outraged by the remarks of the Supreme Court and I would like to say that aren’t Hindus entitled to be outraged by this blatant pillorying of their religions by these fake missionaries who cast aspersions on the majority religion of our country. So we ought to take care about the outrage of 2.5 % of India’s population but can afford to ignore the outrage of 80% population. That the forced celibacy of the Christian clergy has made them to seek other ways to satisfy their carnal needs has come to light in many countries. Not to say the internecine war between the various Christian sects for domination. Church still discourages scientific thoughts if it is inconvenient or challenges their beliefs.
I wonder why these people question Hinduism when their own religions are not perfect. Islam as a religion is not forward looking it is still trapped into the moorings of its origins in 16th century. Whenever Islam enters a society or country the path towards science, learning and free thought is jettisoned. Arabs as a society were advanced even though they were following tribal religion and traditions. Their march to progress was blocked once Islam entered Arabia and you have now a preponderance of people aping a certain lifestyle to adhere to this religion. The advances they had made in science and literature suddenly stopped at that point even as the rest of the world has moved ahead. The same analogy is true for many Islamic nations which have moved from a secular way of life to Islam as a state policy. The original rulers of Persia the fire worshipping Zoroastrian people were barbarously driven from their Kingdom when Islam entered. Jews were persecuted or simple murdered. The minorities were not allowed to live peacefully they were forcibly converted or were forced to flee. The % of minorities in the Islamic states is miniscule or negligible. Those surviving are fighting for their lives. Coptic Christians will be learning this the hard way as recent events unfold in Egypt in its transformation from a dictatorial secular state to a democratic Islamic state. The horrid & vivid images of bombing Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan serve to remind us that Islam has scant respect for other religions. .
Let’s not shy away from the fact that Christianity owes its numbers to colonialism and monetary proselytization. The worst crimes were committed in Christianity during the crusades and the inquisition. As a state policy other religions were discouraged and Christianity was imposed in all the countries where today Christianity is the main religion. So you have no traces of the earlier civilizations all that remains is only the architectural grandeur of these times and the customs which have still survived the ravages of Christianity. The Greek & Romans gods have all but vanished. Some ancient customs have still survived to the present day in the Christian countries. Though we must concede that Christianity has evolved into a modern religion and it has cast aside most of the excesses of its earlier times. The secular way of life has been adopted by western democracies and American continents. However Christianity has encouraged anti-Semitism in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ was a Jew. They were persecuted in all the Christian countries and to this day this continues across the globe. Islam has been an enemy of Jews since its inception and they pathologically hate Jews which now is centered on the extermination of the Israeli state. Now to explore how is the persecution of Jews by Christians and Muslims different from the persecution of lower castes by the upper castes people in India. Lower and upper caste people in Hinduism worship the same gods but still the lower castes are persecuted because their forefather were doing tasks which were considered “unworthy”. Christianity and Islam have the same god as the Jews and still you have the Jews being hated by their co-religionists. This anti-Semitism crystallized into the Nazi era which was responsible for the extermination of 6 million European Jews and millions of gypsies (Romani people). The point to note is that though the lower castes are persecuted in India constitutionally they have secured rights for their upliftment and India did not embark on genocide of the lower castes. The state has played a positive role in their development.
“India remains the only country in world where religious minorities emigrated from far away and were absorbed into the country”. We have the Zoroastrian (Parsi) community living peacefully when they fled the Islamic persecution in Persia. Jews came to India since times immemorial and have lived without fear of persecution. These minorities were and continue to live peacefully in India only because of the fact that the country was Hindu. Just consider for a minute what would be their state were India be a Muslim or a Christian country. The so called minorities in Islam – Shias and Ahmadiyya are also safe only in India or in Shia majority countries. They are persecuted in all the Islamic Sunni countries. Ahmadiyya’s are non Muslims in Pakistan, Indonesia and are banned in Malaysia and many other countries. Every other day we come across reports how a Shia or Ahmadiyya mosque was bombed in Pakistan resulting in many deaths. Surprisingly you have human bombers doing this dastardly deed. Look at the fanaticism. If this is how Islam treats their own co-religionists I wonder what they will do to the infidel Hindus.
So before riding this lion called secularism the liberals should understand that the safety of the minorities depends upon the goodwill of the majority. And this not RSS speak but borne out of facts. They will be ignoring this at their own peril. God forbids that in future India becomes a Muslim majority country the liberals & secularists will be first who will be stoned…….
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