OH, TO BE A HINDU !

OH, TO BE A HINDU !

Liberals, be liberal. Do not call other liberals not agreeing with you, fanatics. Liberalism demands patience, forbearance and a broad sympathy for all which you demand from others but do not exhibit yourself. Let the following points be brooded upon :

1. To call a liberal like Nehru a womaniser when the subject under discussion is his marvellous writing skill in 'The Discovery of India' is surely not the sign of either civility, enlightenment or liberalism, especially when those who criticise care not to go through the text of the book also.

2. To defend Hinduism is to be dubbed being :

(a) a Sanghi -- not that one necessarily dislikes it or takes an affront at being dubbed thus ;

(b) a fascist -- these name-callers have never lived in a real fascist state to know the difference between the real and the labelled.

(c) a polariser of politics so very detrimental to the polity's future.

3. To write about Marx or Lenin is to invite the epithet 'commie', a queer derivation of the original term.

4. To talk about the genocide and enforced exodus of 500,000 Kashmiri Hindu Pandits from the Valley is to be inevitably pitted against the Gujarat Riots of 2002 and countered thus.

5. To speak about Gandhiji's greatness is to immediately invite vicious attacks on the great man's personality and character and dwell only on his failings without even a passing reference to his monumental contributions to mass movement which principally galvanised the nation to the end-state where Netaji and the INA could make the final thrust for freedom and help attain it with circumstantial derivatives.

These are only five points that I have raised for rumination on liberals, liberalism, seculars, secularism, tolerance, acceptance et al. Now think.

Written by Sugata Bose