Dear J,
This is a news article published in ‘Tamil Hindu’ newspaper.
“Dangerous hybridisation of hate against Hindus globally”, says U.S.-based research organization.
It says that there has been a 1000% increase in hate against Hindus globally.
For your information.
Rajaram.
Dear Rajaram
This is something that I have spoken about for over twenty years. Most of this spite against Hindus has its origins in religious fanaticism and proselytization. But this masquerades as a progressive, humanitarian and just political view. I had heard about this through the news before visiting Europe and the US. Once there, I witnessed it. One cannot go anywhere there without encountering the outright propaganda of hate against Hindus.
Observe here in India too. The fury and frenzy behind the hatred against the Hindu religion – what are its origins? Is there any other religion in the world that faces this much hate? The usual defence is that ‘we are against caste and hence we are opposing the Hindu religion’. If that is true, how many people are here who reject the caste system and have renounced caste? If one believes that such people exist in large numbers, one has to be really naive. Do they follow their political ideology so punctiliously every instant? Don’t we know the ground reality? This is the outcome of a well-planned brainwashing that has gone on for over a century. Another reason is the religious fanaticism that masquerades as politically correct views.
Hindus have not taken up violence in any country that they have immigrated to. They have not rejected the local culture and traditions of that country, nor have they attempted to inject another culture there. They have contributed to the economic growth of all the countries that they have adopted as a home. They have contributed to the local culture there. It is in their nature to be in harmony.
Hindus have not waged any crusade or invaded any nation. Hindus have not been involved in terrorist activities. All the accusations levelled against Hindus today by those who don liberal masks are relating to its feudal history. The Hindu religion has not sanctioned them as part of its core tenets. It is constantly struggling to overcome them. Great sages and scholars of the Hindu religion continue to fight against them even today.
In history, almost all societies practised slavery. Several religions carried out brutal campaigns and religious inquisitions. They slaughtered entire populations for the objective of conversion. Slave artisans and craftsmen were common in Europe for centuries. Women have been made to live like animals. Free thought itself was a punishable offence.
The largest genocides in world history occurred in South America and Australia for proselytization. Several wars. Man-made famines. The slave trade flourished for several centuries under the aegis of religious authority. Terrible persecution and mass murders have been carried out during the Inquisition.
Europeans and the pseudo-liberals argue that the responsibility for all of the above needs to rest with those kingdoms and their rulers, not religion. Even for the killings and atrocities directly overseen by religious organisations and their heads, they argue that only those individuals and the period deserve to be held responsible.
But in the same breath, they claim that the Hindu religion alone stands to be blamed for all the oppression and evil practices of ritual sanctity during the feudal ages in India. They reduce the Hindu religion to its oppression and rituals and reject its spirituality, philosophy and arts.
They have repeated this fraudulent idea over and over and now most of us ourselves have come to believe it and fear calling ourselves Hindus. This has been established here as progressiveness. There is a social compulsion to appear progressive and hence the clamour of the imbeciles who want it badly. It takes a lot of self-confidence to stand up and affirm something that goes against the tide of society. It is only possible through an ability to learn continuously. Else, everyone is fated to bleat with the herd.
I will always separate the triumphs of European civilization from its fanatical atrocities during the middle ages. I will approach the achievements of Christianity in spirituality and philosophy, even their figures of authority such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, separating them from the religious zealotry and oppression of the middle ages. Without them, there is no modern human thought. One can easily reject Catholic saints on account of the Spanish Inquisition. One can censure St. Xavier due to the Goa Inquisition. But I will not do that since I am a Hindu.
I will approach the Hindu religion the same way. Like all religions, the Hindu religion too has lived through various periods in history. It contains oppression and evil practices of ritual sanctity of the feudal period. It is true that they persist still in several forms even today in our environment where education and modern life have not gained roots.
But there have been several sages who spoke out against them. Swami Vivekananda, Vallalar, Narayana Guru. The Hindu religion has constantly been reinventing itself and slowly receding from its orthodoxy. The change is visible before our own eyes. There is a difference between its spirituality, philosophy, and its orthodoxy or conservatism.
Anti-Hindu propaganda is against India as a whole. It could destroy even the Indian economy in the long run. It could be used by racists to prevent us from travelling the world and seeking employment. It needs to be uncovered for what it is right now. They hire a few people from here to spread this propaganda abroad. This could turn out to be disastrous for all of us.
But there exists another side to this. I have been pointing out that as well. Whenever the Hindu religion veers towards sectarian politics and fanaticism, it gives a boost to anti-Hindu propaganda. It adds to the efforts that work towards the destruction of the Hindu religion. Rabid politicisation of Hinduism is as dangerous to the Hindu religion as anti-Hindu propaganda itself. Neither the Hindu tradition nor the common Hindus should be made responsible for the activities of current day Hindu fundamentalist politics. Sectarian politics and religion are two different things. One should always have this clarity.
This stark truth is greeted with curses and vicious slander from either side. On the one hand, a group with hidden fundamentalism and political ambitions that brands as ‘Sanghi’ anyone who is attached to the Hindu religion and inclined towards Hindu spirituality. On the other hand, abuses from devout politicians. But the truth needs to be spoken out again and again.
If the hatred towards Hindus grows in the public sphere, it would turn out to be beneficial for Hindutva politics itself. Hindutva politicians welcome the branding of all Hindus as Sanghis and welcome calls for the destruction of the Hindu religion, especially by those who have converted. Such activities make them thrive.
On the other hand, Hindu fanaticism and hate speech against other religions feed the anti-Hindu front. Even the chance comments of Hindutviites are magnified and shown to the rest of the world.
Then why do both these groups continue to do what they do? Why do they feed each other thus? Both of them are trying to feast off the massive populace of Hindus. They are trying to profit by killing one of the grandest cultures of the world, a tradition that has touched the peaks in human wisdom.
Hate towards Hindus is nothing new. It was at its peak during the British rule of India, when they possessed the power. Outright anti-Hindu propaganda happened within educational institutions. It has been recorded by several pioneers including Bharathiyar. India responded to such extreme propaganda with its innate wisdom. Consequently, several sages in the Hindu Renaissance starting with Swami Vivekananda were born.
Anti-Hindu propaganda continues unremittingly till today. ‘Research’ slandering Indian sages and philosophers of the renaissance continues to pour in every year. From Swami Vivekananda to J. Krishnamurthy, no one is spared. But it didn’t affect us because we were led by those sages and philosophers. We were trying to come out of our negative traits. We were growing. Why does this propaganda gain in strength and succeed today? Because we have forsaken those sages, and we are now led by politics.
Those who brand any Hindu a ‘Sanghi’, who are capable of finding a ‘Sanghi’ in every person they meet, are not doing so out of ignorance. They are wittingly or unwittingly part of a larger scheme. No anti-Hindu campaign has spontaneous origins. Nor are they limited to a few individuals. There is a common strand in all of them. They hold the Hindu religion and its sages to blame for all past historical faults and social practices of ritual sanctity.
In this difficult situation, there is only one thing that remains for us to do. We will hold on to the wisdom, philosophy and the arts of our grand tradition. We will not let it be politicised. We will proclaim to the world that this wisdom is the core of the Hindu religion. We will repeat this to ourselves too.
Jeyamohan
Translated by Gokul
இந்து வெறுப்பை எதிர்கொள்வது
https://www.jeyamohan.in/
