Being Hindu

I have been wondering lately about things happening around in the country. How at regular intervals religions are made to assume center-stage and then invariably one religion is made to look down in shame by the English Media and Politicians. Want to take a guess? Yes, it's Hinduism. But today Hindus are step-children in their own country. The intelligentsia gladens itself and thinks  of it as a great act of secularism to come down heavily on Hinduism and Hindus every time: either a Masjid falls, "benevolent" missionaries are attacked or talks of dealing with terrorism in a stern way is talked about.

I was telling a "secular" friend of mine:

Talking about victimisation of Hindus somehow equals to being communal or "anti-nonHindus". And that is sad. I am not against Muslim citizens but I AM against terrorists being portrayed as heroes. The Jamia Milia University has decided to fund lawsuits for the alleged muslim students; apparently they are innocent. Then perhaps Inspector MC Sharma must have shot himself. You know Parth, this mentality is like these new age child psychologists where suppose a child makes a mistake, throws a horrible tantrum or demands for something unreasonable, or is utterly rude, these pyschologists REFUSE to reprimand the child out of the fear that it may hurt the child's psyche! Even the parents are not allowed to rap the child for its obvious mistake. Suddenly for the child now the friendly Psychologist Aunty is dearer and nicer than it's own Mother. Because Aunty (like Smt. Sonia Gandhi) spoils and Mommy scolds. It's the same here. A mistake is not seen as a mistake. All terrorists are innocent/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/and now Students?? Why was POTA revoked? Because the Congress wants to play it safe. No one wants to hurt the minorities. Is no other law ever misused? I say, if Bajrang Dal is proven to be involved in raping, arsoning, burning and sabotaging national property and nationals themselves, they should be given the strictest punishment in law books. But I wonder why not a single terrorist has been ever brought to book? 

And let's not be hypocritical. If there is no "Islamic Terrorism" there cannot ever be a "Hindu Extremism". Same logic: terrorists are only a handful, not the entire community therefore extremists are also a handful and not the entire Hindu community. They are just youth misled by communal forces. They cannot be called HINDU. This is where the bias and the ulterior agenda of Media kicks in. "HINDUS ATTACK CHURCHES IN ORISSA". It's splashed all over newspapers and TVCs. Really? Have "Hindus" attacked? Come on! One has to be blind to not see the hypocrisy. And then all the intelligentsia indulges in self-blame and how disgraceful it is for Hindus to do such dastardly acts and then we begin questioning "Is my religion really the greatest?" Have we stopped to consider how many Muslim youth live in poverty and how perhaps Islam in India is not really doing a great job. Is it not a discredit then? Is it not time to consider whether Muslims should send kids to schools or Madarsaas?

But I will tell you what. We have no guts to ask OR to answer these kind of questions because it requires one to introspect.

And the reason for this is quite clear. NO other international community is ever going to criticize the Goverment for attacks happening on Hindus. Which other country spoke against what happened on Godhra station? No one. A couple of Christians die and then France, Italy and the Pope and of course the USA condemn it. And then our spineless Prime Minister apologises! He doesn't have the guts to ask them to shut the hell up because it's a matter within the boundaries of India and no other country has a reason to poke their nose in our matters. So it all just boils down to appeasement.

And by this I don't mean that all Hindus are saints...just to make it clear.

Coming to conversions...let me narrate a very curious incident. I was studying at XIC, Xavier's Institute of Communications, Mumbai. It's one of the premier Institutes in the country. There was a fellow in my class of Advertising and Marketing-ultra-cool (or so he thought-he took pride in eating beef. Seriously!), drummer, funny and co-incidentally, Catholic. One day he told me that he would not eat the prasad that I had got from Siddhivinayak Temple because he was forbidden by Church. This occurred in MUMBAI in the year 2005. Quite disturbed, I narrated this to another Catholic friend of mine. His name was Luke and was fairly open-minded than the one with I-am-so-cool-because-I-eat-beef attitude. Luke told me that in some Churches, it was openly told that Hindu Gods and Goddesses were demons/Satananic. The Pooja that Hindus do is form of Satanic worship and therefore the Prasad is from Satan himself! So, ABSTAIN!!! Why go far in the interiors of India to know what methods missionaries could be employing to increase the "herd". If an educated Mumbai resident can be brain-washed into believing that Hindu Gods are demons, what can one say of innocent, hapless villagers. Is voicing an opinion against such methods of fraudulent conversions anti-secular? And conversely, is calling another religion names, secular?

No one will ask these questions. Because it requires one to introspect. And that needs courage. And no Shashi Tharoors or Anil Dharkers or Times of Indias or NDTVs or any pseudosecularists will provide the answers. 

The answers lie within all of us...only if we choose to delve inside.