Hinduphobic Hindustan

Image Courtesy Google

A country that gained its independence from 200 years of oppressive foreign rule paid a huge cost for it. Just as the British were leaving, they drew their sword and divided this country into two, India and Pakistan. And the basis of this division was a demand for a separate Pakistan for the Muslims living in India. The day this partition was accepted by Indian National Congress and All India Muslim League, it was etched in stone that Pakistan would be a Muslim State, and India would be a Hindu State, albeit with Hindu and Muslim minority populations. Though Pakistan went on to become an Islamic State, India never even set foot on the path of becoming a Hindu Nation, in a way depriving Hindus of their right. Since our independence, the majority of our leaders have frowned upon being associated with the Hindu religion. 

Our leaders wanted India to be a symbol of harmony in the world. They wanted to show the world that leadership in India does not discriminate based on religion. But they did discriminate based on religion, and that too against its majority population, Hindus. Our leaders wanted to portray a picture of a Secular State. However, it is worth noting that the word ‘Secular’ was indeed added to the Preamble of India, in the 42nd amendment of the Constitution in the year 1975, by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. During the Constituent Assembly debates Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. B R Ambedkar were opposed to the idea of including the word Secular in the Preamble. Even the Vice president of the drafting committee H C Mookherjee, said, “Are we really honest when we say that we are seeking to establish a secular state? If your idea is to have a secular state it follows inevitably that we cannot afford to recognize minorities based upon religion.”

And there it was; the real reason they did not eat to add secular to Indian Preamble. The leaders were aware that to follow secularism in its truest form, the State would be disallowed from making any kind of religious interventions, which included the reservation system, protection of the Muslim personal law, and the directive principle to protect cows, all of which the Constitution went ahead with.

This hesitation on the part of our leadership to accept India as a Hindu nation dealt a severe blow to the fate of Hindus living in this country. India is the only country in the world where the majority population always got the raw deal. In the name of being a secular state, but at the same time protecting the rights of religious minorities, the political leaders were creating a vote bank for themselves. Since the majority of the leaders were Hindus, in the Government and the Opposition, it was not possible to convert the Hindu population as a whole into a vote bank. So they took the easy route, focus on minorities by offering reservations, and secure their votes. And if Hindus ever reacted, they divided them based on castes. This process turned the majority population of Hindus in India into multiple minority groups, which just acted as a personal vote bank of some local leader. While on one hand, leaders kept dividing the Hindus into castes and sub-castes to create vote banks, on the other hand, the stake of minorities kept increasing in India's political capital.

But the question remains, why? Why are Hindus made to feel like aliens in their own country? Why did it become a fashion in the elite circles of the country to degrade Hindus and shower respect and praise on the other religions? Why do our leaders seen at all the Iftaar parties and even wearing skull caps during Eid, but never at a Hindu temple or a Hindu Pooja? Why does a famous jewellery brand in India decide to make an advertisement showing a Hindu girl married into a Muslim family, and made her express gratitude because they let her celebrate Hindu festivals? Why does a Hindu Lawyer posts a cartoon during Navratri, depicting all Hindus as rapists? Who gives courage to every comedian, actor, intellectual, and politician to defame the majority population in this country while praising the minorities? Would even of them dare to make a joke or an advertisement, or comment on any other religion in India? No, they will not. 

For the first 63 years of independence, everything was going great in the country. The elitist culture ruled the roost in the power corridors. There was a clear divide between rich, privileged, and elite on the one side and the poor and general subjects of this country on the other. The Lutyens’ Delhi corridors opened their doors to a slew of intellectuals, scholars, and personalities with left-leaning pseudo-liberal thoughts, ideas, and ideologies. They cringed at the idea of being associated with a religion, that was subjected to hundreds of years of slavery, first under Mughals and then under the British. They wanted to be associated with the ruling class, the oppressor, rather than the oppressed. Our leaders always painted a socialist picture of themselves in front of the public.  But they carried the capitalist mentality. And by degrading the Hindus, the majority population, in favor of minorities, the added colors to that painting. And everyone who wanted to be in the good books of these powerful elitists did the same. Slowly it became a fashion to degrade Hindus and praise the minorities.

But no one seemed to mind these occasional jibes at Hindus, because for two reasons. One, the Hindus in this country had more or less surrendered to the fact that their complaints always fell on deaf ears. And two, divided into castes and sub-castes, the Hindus did not have time to look at the bigger picture, that of their collective good. 

But, as they say, Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Things took a ‘U’ turn in 2004. Narendra Damodar Das Modi won the general elections with a thumping majority and became the Prime Minister of India. And with that, the elite world of left-leaning intellectual elites came crashing down when. They could never in their wildest dreams have seen this happening.  Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),  was always looked at with disdain. And now an erstwhile Pracharak of RSS would not only set afoot but took over the reins of India’s power centers. What shocked them most was the fact that Narendra Modi succeeded in achieving what no one even dared to try. He united the Hindu Voters, irrespective of their castes and sub-castes. This was the first such instance in the history of independent India. It shook all other politicians from their slumber. These politicians who were so comfortable with the status quo, and treated the voters as their fiefs, some in the name of religion, some in the name of a region, some in castes and sub-castes, that suddenly they were seen scrambling to save their vote banks.

But new dawn had been ushered in India, and Hindus were feeling alive again. For the first time, Hindus voted for a leader, as one vote bank. All those who had been enjoying the fruits of powers by cozying up to divisive politicians, saw their vice-like grip on that power loosening and their clout diminishing. To save their political capital, political parties started forming alliances even with the bitterest of rivals, but nothing worked. And when all the efforts to upstage Modi by dividing the Hindu vote bank failed, they decided to start a smear campaign. A campaign to disgrace, defame and destabilize Hindu ideas, rituals, and philosophy. A new form of the divisive strategy was adopted. This time they want to divide the Hindus among Urban and rural, Liberal and Orthodox, and to an extent literate and illiterate.

News channels, social media activists, scholars, actors, performers, and even NGOs and social activists whose illegal funding was stopped by the Modi government, were the mouthpieces of this strategy. These mouthpieces started spreading hate messages against Hindu Dharma, its rituals, festivals, in short everything associated with this religion. The motive was to portray this religion as backward, outdated, superstitious, and discriminating against women and certain castes. Propaganda machinery was used to discredit Hindus of any achievements in history and to prove it as a redundant religion and its followers as criminals and bigots. And the biggest irony here is that the people ranting against Hindus are also Hindus. No person of any other religion speaks anything against Hindus. By doing this they are trying to hit two targets with one arrow. One, a Hindu ranting against Hindu Dharma and Hindus, is less likely to attract the ire of Hindus, and at the same time putting Hindus to shame, as one of their own was accepting that Hindu Dharma is uncultured and flawed. They want to portray a picture of a Hindu being afraid of Hindu Dharma. Two, when a Hindu news anchor, comedian, actor, scholar speaks against Hindu Dharma, the urban, liberal and literate Hindus, bedazzled by the western lifestyle, and desperate to break the shackles of so-called ‘primitive culture,’ get influenced. And this influence takes the form of an argument that that they place against Hindu Dharma, and in favor of adopting a western and more liberal lifestyle. Whether the lifestyle they crave is more liberal and modern is a topic of discussion for some other time.

So, how successful is this propaganda? I’d say somewhat. Because these politicians and their mouthpieces have succeeded to turn some of us against our religion. However, on the other hand, this continuous ranting has had the opposite effect as well. This non-stop barrage of false narratives and rhetoric against Hindu Dharma has played a key role in uniting Hindus, more than ever. People are waking up to the scientific and cultural achievements of this religion, and are embracing it as a way of life more than ever. For the first time in the history of independent India, people are proud to call themselves Hindu. Hence, once again answering the question, how successful is this propaganda? I would say very successful, in uniting the Hindus. But this war has just begun, these forces would stop at nothing to reinstate the status quo and take power from the hands of people. I am certain that this tirade against Hindus would increase in the times to come. So the Hindus of this country have to be ready with their response. Not with hate, but with proofs from our religion and scriptures, and show everyone that this is the most advanced, progressive, and scientific religion in the world. That way we can unite Hindus all over the world and can truly build a Hindustan for ourselves. A Hindustan which has a place for everyone because only the Hindu Dharma believes in VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM.