MISSION INDIA ... 5
Why was it necessary for the Ramakrishna Mission to wind up its centre in West Pakistan while continuing to operate in East Pakistan and since 1971 to this day in Bangladesh? When will these issues be addressed in the public fora? Hindus continue to be brutalised and converted to Islam in Pakistan and the Hindu number, percentage wise, is ever on the decline there. Even in Bangladesh the Hindu number, percentage wise, is steadily on the decline. Why so? When will our secularists and liberals muster the courage to address these issues, those who are so vociferous about Hindu intolerance in India? When will they talk about the Muslim intolerance in Kashmir that forced the sudden exodus of hundreds of thousands of Hindus in 1990?
Liberalism in principle is laudable but in practice it ought to be founded in truth, courage and honesty, and, above all, in the manifestation of character that seeks not advantages pecuniary to boost up vile propaganda against a much wounded civilisation that can bear no more injustices. Selective liberalism is not quite liberalism nor is selective secularism so. Character ought to be the basis for the practice of these principles which is sadly lacking when liberals and secularists selectively criticise Hindu fundamentalism and the Hindu scriptural texts that contain patriarchal passages but do not dare to criticise Islamic fundamentalism that is far more rooted in essential doctrine and has a history of intolerance the worst proof of which we got in the Great Calcutta killing in 1946 and in the Noakhali Riots which precipitated Partition.
Hinduism is a liberal dharma tradition that accepts all religions as valid paths to godhead but Islam and Christianity are both exclusive religions that categorically denounce all other religions in lesser or greater degree. If doctrinaire intolerance is there, it is not in Hinduism but it is in Islam and Christianity. If practice of intolerance is to be reckoned, the last one thousand years of our national history bears the tragic marks of Islamic intolerance which has debilitated greatly the natural flow of our indigenous dharma traditions, destroyed our sacred monuments in the form of temples and viharas that housed universities --- the most famous case being the destruction by Bakhtiar Khilji of the Nalanda University --- , converted millions upon millions of Hindus to Islam, imposed the jizya tax on Hindus and eventually, at the time of independence from the British, dismembered our motherland into three sections, a wound from which we will never recover till India reunites to her pristine glory. Add to that the massive conversions of Hindus to Christianity as well by force, fraud and inducement, and you will have got the nightmarish narrative of subjugated Hindu life in Hindustan complete.
The term 'Hindu' technically has no religious connotation but has a geographical connotation alone. Anybody living on the landmass between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean is by definition a Hindu which is why this land is also called Hindustan. The entire Indian subcontinent is Hindustan as has been the traditional understanding, not merely by the inhabitants of this land but by foreigners of the Medieval Age who have mentioned it in their books. The entire Indian subcontinent bears the unmistakable stamp of the civilisation that issued from the mantras of the Vedas and from even earlier texts of the civilisation that sprang by the banks of the Indus (Sindhu). A mispronunciation or an aberration of the word 'Sindhu' by invading aliens led it to being called 'Hindu' which is how all inhabitants of this land came to be so called thereafter. This is why Netaji accepted Abid Hassan's coinage of 'Jai Hind' as the national greeting to which no Muslim has any objection. But to call a Muslim a Hindu Muslim or a Christian a Hindu Christian would be a misnomer today for the term 'Hindu' has now a distinct religious character and a pretence that it has a strictly geographical connotation even now would be a travesty of truth. Now we are Indians or Bharatiyas which at any rate we are.
The crux of the matter is this. The politicians keep fooling the public to gain their votes to power by splitting up an otherwise well-knit society into religious sections that frequently results in riots and keeps the Indian polity fractured along religious and caste lines perennially. The general mass of people are not sectarian by nature. Despite religious doctrinaire differences, Indians happily live in a pluralist society till self-seeking politicians incite the ignorant masses into mutual hatred by triggering some sort of an unpleasant incident which inflames communal passions. Appeasement politics with respect to the minorities lends the clerics overmuch of power to wield their authority over their flock and this is a serious cause of social friction which erupts into riots from time to time as the clerics inflame passions to keep their hold on the masses that follow them.
The solution lies in liberal education of the right type as opposed to the one that produces the characterless liberalism and secularism that is sadly evident today. How this may be done is everyone's concern but perhaps the right legislation as will bring about the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code and the abolition of special rights and privileges for the citizens of India residing in Jammu and Kashmir would be a step in the right direction, although, it must be phased out in time. All these are more easily said than done but there must be the political will across the board to bring this about by way of integrating all parts of India under a common code of law and the process of such national integration must continue despite changes of regime at the Centre every five years. This ought to be a stated national agenda which all parties must agree to. A sudden imposition could easily backfire and not only nullify all good intentions but could make the national civic atmosphere noxious.
One more thing ought to be legislated into effect but I wonder how. No religious reference may be made during election campaigning and all religious political parties must be abolished should they refuse to reconstitute their entire structural and ideological systems bringing them in line with the Constitution as operating post such legislation. Political parties must act only on the basis of the Indian Constitution and cannot vouch by religious text or tradition. Their agenda and manifesto must only relate to secular issues and all governmental patronage to religious organisations must be withdrawn barring those cases where such patronage is offered only for the conducting of philanthropic activity well scrutinised and inspected periodically.
All the citizens of India must in principle and in practice be equal before the State and no special minority rights or reservations or Special Constitution as operating in Jammu and Kashmir ought to be there. It is a tall order but one that will have to be achieved if this nation is to stay together for centuries and millenia to come.
More than a century ago Swami Vivekananda in a prophetic mood had foreseen the future India as the combination of the two great systems of Hinduism and Islam. He had said, ''For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam — Vedanta brain and Islam body — is the only hope. I see in my mind's eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body."
Now what more need I say when the Prophet himself has spoken? I can only humbly bow down to his memory and feel in my heart the pulsations of his love for all Indians, the motherland remaining forever 'the queen of his adoration', to quote Sister Nivedita. Vivekananda was 'Condensed India' and so must this be the mission of every Indian to become, for in essence each one of us is so but we are unaware of this inner identity of ours. Patriotism consists not in external shows of it but in the building up of one's character to be able to expend one's life's energy in service and sacrifice for the common weal. May such a day come soon when the blood of our revolutionaries who were martyred to bring us freedom, will have borne fruition in the resurgence of India, integrated and whole, and culturally vibrant with a national harmony that is the resolution of all the symphonic elements of her soul !
Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
Why was it necessary for the Ramakrishna Mission to wind up its centre in West Pakistan while continuing to operate in East Pakistan and since 1971 to this day in Bangladesh? When will these issues be addressed in the public fora? Hindus continue to be brutalised and converted to Islam in Pakistan and the Hindu number, percentage wise, is ever on the decline there. Even in Bangladesh the Hindu number, percentage wise, is steadily on the decline. Why so? When will our secularists and liberals muster the courage to address these issues, those who are so vociferous about Hindu intolerance in India? When will they talk about the Muslim intolerance in Kashmir that forced the sudden exodus of hundreds of thousands of Hindus in 1990?
Liberalism in principle is laudable but in practice it ought to be founded in truth, courage and honesty, and, above all, in the manifestation of character that seeks not advantages pecuniary to boost up vile propaganda against a much wounded civilisation that can bear no more injustices. Selective liberalism is not quite liberalism nor is selective secularism so. Character ought to be the basis for the practice of these principles which is sadly lacking when liberals and secularists selectively criticise Hindu fundamentalism and the Hindu scriptural texts that contain patriarchal passages but do not dare to criticise Islamic fundamentalism that is far more rooted in essential doctrine and has a history of intolerance the worst proof of which we got in the Great Calcutta killing in 1946 and in the Noakhali Riots which precipitated Partition.
Hinduism is a liberal dharma tradition that accepts all religions as valid paths to godhead but Islam and Christianity are both exclusive religions that categorically denounce all other religions in lesser or greater degree. If doctrinaire intolerance is there, it is not in Hinduism but it is in Islam and Christianity. If practice of intolerance is to be reckoned, the last one thousand years of our national history bears the tragic marks of Islamic intolerance which has debilitated greatly the natural flow of our indigenous dharma traditions, destroyed our sacred monuments in the form of temples and viharas that housed universities --- the most famous case being the destruction by Bakhtiar Khilji of the Nalanda University --- , converted millions upon millions of Hindus to Islam, imposed the jizya tax on Hindus and eventually, at the time of independence from the British, dismembered our motherland into three sections, a wound from which we will never recover till India reunites to her pristine glory. Add to that the massive conversions of Hindus to Christianity as well by force, fraud and inducement, and you will have got the nightmarish narrative of subjugated Hindu life in Hindustan complete.
The term 'Hindu' technically has no religious connotation but has a geographical connotation alone. Anybody living on the landmass between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean is by definition a Hindu which is why this land is also called Hindustan. The entire Indian subcontinent is Hindustan as has been the traditional understanding, not merely by the inhabitants of this land but by foreigners of the Medieval Age who have mentioned it in their books. The entire Indian subcontinent bears the unmistakable stamp of the civilisation that issued from the mantras of the Vedas and from even earlier texts of the civilisation that sprang by the banks of the Indus (Sindhu). A mispronunciation or an aberration of the word 'Sindhu' by invading aliens led it to being called 'Hindu' which is how all inhabitants of this land came to be so called thereafter. This is why Netaji accepted Abid Hassan's coinage of 'Jai Hind' as the national greeting to which no Muslim has any objection. But to call a Muslim a Hindu Muslim or a Christian a Hindu Christian would be a misnomer today for the term 'Hindu' has now a distinct religious character and a pretence that it has a strictly geographical connotation even now would be a travesty of truth. Now we are Indians or Bharatiyas which at any rate we are.
The crux of the matter is this. The politicians keep fooling the public to gain their votes to power by splitting up an otherwise well-knit society into religious sections that frequently results in riots and keeps the Indian polity fractured along religious and caste lines perennially. The general mass of people are not sectarian by nature. Despite religious doctrinaire differences, Indians happily live in a pluralist society till self-seeking politicians incite the ignorant masses into mutual hatred by triggering some sort of an unpleasant incident which inflames communal passions. Appeasement politics with respect to the minorities lends the clerics overmuch of power to wield their authority over their flock and this is a serious cause of social friction which erupts into riots from time to time as the clerics inflame passions to keep their hold on the masses that follow them.
The solution lies in liberal education of the right type as opposed to the one that produces the characterless liberalism and secularism that is sadly evident today. How this may be done is everyone's concern but perhaps the right legislation as will bring about the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code and the abolition of special rights and privileges for the citizens of India residing in Jammu and Kashmir would be a step in the right direction, although, it must be phased out in time. All these are more easily said than done but there must be the political will across the board to bring this about by way of integrating all parts of India under a common code of law and the process of such national integration must continue despite changes of regime at the Centre every five years. This ought to be a stated national agenda which all parties must agree to. A sudden imposition could easily backfire and not only nullify all good intentions but could make the national civic atmosphere noxious.
One more thing ought to be legislated into effect but I wonder how. No religious reference may be made during election campaigning and all religious political parties must be abolished should they refuse to reconstitute their entire structural and ideological systems bringing them in line with the Constitution as operating post such legislation. Political parties must act only on the basis of the Indian Constitution and cannot vouch by religious text or tradition. Their agenda and manifesto must only relate to secular issues and all governmental patronage to religious organisations must be withdrawn barring those cases where such patronage is offered only for the conducting of philanthropic activity well scrutinised and inspected periodically.
All the citizens of India must in principle and in practice be equal before the State and no special minority rights or reservations or Special Constitution as operating in Jammu and Kashmir ought to be there. It is a tall order but one that will have to be achieved if this nation is to stay together for centuries and millenia to come.
More than a century ago Swami Vivekananda in a prophetic mood had foreseen the future India as the combination of the two great systems of Hinduism and Islam. He had said, ''For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam — Vedanta brain and Islam body — is the only hope. I see in my mind's eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body."
Now what more need I say when the Prophet himself has spoken? I can only humbly bow down to his memory and feel in my heart the pulsations of his love for all Indians, the motherland remaining forever 'the queen of his adoration', to quote Sister Nivedita. Vivekananda was 'Condensed India' and so must this be the mission of every Indian to become, for in essence each one of us is so but we are unaware of this inner identity of ours. Patriotism consists not in external shows of it but in the building up of one's character to be able to expend one's life's energy in service and sacrifice for the common weal. May such a day come soon when the blood of our revolutionaries who were martyred to bring us freedom, will have borne fruition in the resurgence of India, integrated and whole, and culturally vibrant with a national harmony that is the resolution of all the symphonic elements of her soul !
Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
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