THE HINDU RENAISSANCE ... 2

THE HINDU RENAISSANCE ... 2

The reclamation of Hindu heritage is of utmost moment to the future survival of the Hindus. Hinduism is the spirit, the soul of India. Christianity and Islam are of alien origin and their adherents do not hold India as the Punyabhumi (Holy Land). Their allegiance is elsewhere. Their scriptures are foreign to our temperament of universal inclusiveness, and are exclusive, bigoted and intolerant beyond measure. 

The last 1300 year history of India bears testimony to the tyranny of these two religious cultures on Indian soil against the Hindus. The Islamic tyranny was so barbaric that it is beyond decent description. Suffice it to note that an estimated 80 to 100 million Hindus were slaughtered in the Indian subcontinent by the sword of Islam. This thousand year old Hindu genocide at the hands of Islamic invaders and rulers remains the most violent ethnic and cultural cleansing in human history. But Hindus are unaware of it because in pre-Independence India it was Congress policy to suppress this information to try and achieve Hindu-Muslim harmony in order to combat the divisive British policy and thereby give solidarity to the Indian freedom movement. But however Congress may have made the attempt, it was bound to fail and even backfire as it was founded on untruth. Genocide after genocide followed with Hindus slaughtered by the thousands -- refer the Moplah genocide of the Hindus which has been euphemistically called the 'Moplah Rebellion' against the British with not much emphasis on the Hindu slaughter -- till the Great Calcutta Killing of 1946 and the Noakhali genocide for well over two months in the same tear precipitated the Partition of India which again involved a disproportionately high number of Hindu deaths at Muslim hands relative to Muslim deaths at Hindu hands by way of reprisal. Gandhiji played paterfamilias in all this with a patently partisan pro-Muslim stance by way of appeasing them in his bid to secure peace. He had control over the Hindus who he threatened often by staging fasts but he full well knew that had no power over the Muslims who only went by the injunctions of their holy texts. So, it was poor parenting by the Father of the Nation which left the Hindus increasingly vulnerable to organised Islamic attacks as was evidenced in the Bengal Presidency in 1946. Not only Gandhiji but many other eminent national leaders unduly appeased the Muslims throughout the Gandhian era to rope them into the freedom struggle, a ploy which miserably failed, though. With every bit of appeasement the Muslims gained in strength and finally achieved their dastardly objective of getting India partitioned to get a separate homeland for them in Pakistan. This was perfidy but the Congress leadership, one and all, was party to this capitulation. None, not even the noblest among them may be absolved of this sin of allowing ever-increasing concessions to the Muslims. Even the 'Vande Mataram' was relegated to playing second fiddle as National Song behind 'Jana gana mana' whose first stanza was chosen as the National Anthem. 'Vande Mataram' was the clarion call of the revolutionaries for India's freedom and had deep revolutionary significance but  alas, the Muslims would not allow it to be the National Anthem as it was preeminently Hindu in character. And the leaders conceded.

Post-independence the Nehruvian Congress dispensation further appeased the Muslims for electoral gains without bothering to develop their lot. Proselytising was permitted by the Constitution of India and the Christian missionaries were allowed free rein in converting the people of the North-east from their tribal religions to Christianity. As the Christians gained in power, they opposed Hindu organisations tooth and nail and would not allow them foothold in the North-east at all. Thanks to governmental callousness towards protection of Hindu interests, the North-east has been largely Christianised. The only time the Government of India awoke to this Christian proselytising threat was in 1977 when Prime Minister Shree Morarji Desai decided to propose the passing of the Anti-Conversion Bill in Parliament in response to which Mother Teresa wrote to the Prime Minister pleading that he would not take away this precious right of the people of India to follow the religion of their choice. The Bill never got passed and with devastating future consequences. So, even the great Mother Teresa was upset about the Government's intended decision to outlaw proselytisation and must have been great relieved to have allowed continuance of her vocation to 'save' souls from perdition.

Written by Sugata Bose