Author:
Publication: Indpride.com
Date:
URL: http://indpride.com/zeroing%20in%20on%20hate%20and%20slander.html
Secularists in our country have a strange
understanding of social contexts and history. When it comes to writing on
Hinduism, no opportunity is missed to drub, slander and ridicule the religion.
Trever Fishlock's 'India File' quoted extensively by reviewers in our papers
in 1984, can leave one aghast. Not only the light-hearted manner in which
he wrote about Lord Jagannath, but hurting the sentiments of all those who
worship the deity, he writes: "The great God Juggernaut was roused from
bed long before I was. I dozed under the mosquito net in the South Eastern
Railway Hotel, while Juggernaut was made ready for his big day. He is a grotesque
monster, a white-faced legless wooden idol, five feet tall with glaring eyes
and stumpy arms emerging from his head, which has a large diamond set in it.
he lives with his black-faced brother and yellow-faced sister who are equally
hideous."
It is shocking that such comments were extensively
published in India by those intellectuals who develop cold feet, despite their
display of rationalism when it comes to quoting Bertrand Russell, H.G.Wells
or Durant on religions which hold capability to raise massive protests at
will. In India we may quote Jules Verne umpteenth time who would refer to
goddess Kali as "an ugly hag" without any fear of repercussions.
India's intellectual scene is fastly becoming
barren. One can happily write a book or an article debunking Hindu pantheon
or by elaborating on the endemic backwardness of Hindus. Who can stem this
pervading cynicism? Can one dream of doing it without shaping the Indian consciousness?
And can it be achieved by ignoring the majority community? Our country is
more than 80% Hindu in its texture. It instills pride that this religion alone
has acted as a Commonwealth of beliefs and faiths, held together by certain
fundamental tenets. Differences, habits, practices, varying philosophies,
even accommodation for agnostics and atheists are provided in the Hindu fold.
That is what distinguishes it from other religions which, unlike Hinduism,
maintain that all roads do not lead to the same divinity. They parade themselves
as exclusive purveyors of their brand of divinity.
Today Hindus aim to shake off their torpor
and look forward to a renaissance. It is neither revivalism nor a bid to trek
back to fundamentalism. Anybody talking of rejuvenating Hinduism need not
be anti-Muslim. Based on primacy of majority community, Hindu community has
right to preserve its distinctiveness.
In the 19th Century India, Christian missionaries,
armed with the patronage of British rule, in their zeal for proselytisation,
had launched a tirade against our ancient customs. The abusive epithets they
used for Hindu Gods like 'horrid Kali, scandalous Shivlingam, ridiculous Ganapati
and lecherous Krishna'. This was received more in spirit of amusement than
in anger as coming from ignorant outsiders. In fact our anger or bitterness
was reflected in the debates at that time against reformist sects like Arya
Samaj or Brahmo Samaj. For they were the people who in the name of progress
and enlightenment were trying to recast the Hindu society in the alien mould
of semitic religion. They were the real blasphemers because they were insiders.
Almost the same situation where insider Hindus
in the garb of secularism are preaching hatred of different type, not the
feeling with which well-meaning, passionate reformers of the 19th century
worked, is causing revulsion in Hindu society. Theological accents worry them,
hostility to pluralism of culture panicks them; return to roots and glorification
of traditions make them hysterical in their opposition to Hinduism. The same
intellectuals never tired while gloating how in eastern Europe people forsook
communism and turned to their roots and traditions for salvation. Hypocrisy
indeed!
Is not there someone who will see the truth
and speak it? Is not there someone, somewhere who will take the first step
across the raging blizzard of neglect of Hindus in their own land?
