Hindu nationalists are ignorant about the emergence of Hinduism

 

A good friend of mine shared this article about preserving secularism and Hindu ethos in India. The author, Ashwin Sanghi shares some interesting thoughts and slices of history to substantiate his views but unfortunately in the name of preserving India’s secularism, he inadvertently exposes his Hindutva leanings and Islamophobia by invoking the Hindu ethos. As he winds his way back into history, he forgets to look at the word Hindu itself.

Hindu as a word manifests from the Persian and Greek references to the people of the land beyond the river Sindhu or Indus from the 1st Millenium BCE. Many centuries later did the word start getting associated with the people of India who were not Christians or Muslims. The indigenous Indian population practiced paganism, characterized by nature worship. The Indian pantheon of Gods can be divided into 3 broad categories: The Trinity (creator, preserver, destroyer), the Gods of natural elements (Air, Water, Fire, Rain, etc) and animals (elephant, serpent, birds, etc) which was later extended to include Gods for human aspects such as knowledge, medicine, architecture, etc and heroes of people who were made Gods by bestowing divinity upon them (Ram, Krishna, Ayyappa, etc).

We have always considered what we do not understand as supernatural and worshipped them. It is not clear when we started representing natural elements as Gods but what we do know is that ancient Indian texts are replete with stories about these Gods. Same goes with animals. Some animals are represented as Gods, such as Ganesh for elephant and Vasuki for serpent and most other Gods are shown to have animals as their means of transport. This is clearly in line with paganism and treating everything in nature with reverence which continues to this day, the best example of which is the Karni Mata temple or the Rat temple in Bikaner, Rajasthan. The difference between paganism and religions can be seen from the fact that Christians and Muslims are bound by many rules which makes them subservient to their religions whereas the same does not exist in Hinduism.

In none of ancient texts including the epics Ramayan and Mahabharata do we find the words Hindu or Hinduism. Even after the people of India started building temples to worship Gods in human form there was no reference to religion. Ram and Krishna, the most popular Hindu Gods did not create Hinduism. Incarnations changed and came to be described as son of God when referring to Christ but he did not create Christianity. The tenets Muhammad the messenger of God created with the Quran led to the creation of Islam. So as society evolved, incarnations became children and then the messengers of God. What is important here is that the word Hindu came a long time after the people who came to be called as Hindus started worshipping their Gods. This in turn creates the air of uncertainty over the religion called Hinduism and when it came into existence.

Then Mr. Sanghi talks about the invasion of India by kings and warlords from foreign lands and the destruction they caused to Hindu religion. So why was India invaded and occupied by different foreign rulers? As far back as the time when the Roman Empire was at its zenith, India was doing trade with them in spices and silk among other valuable items. India was known to the rest of the world as a rich and prosperous land. Columbus set sail in search of India for the same riches.

Long before India was invaded by the Greeks, Indian kings were fighting one another and had led to the rise and fall of many large kingdoms like the Mauryan empire and smaller kingdoms. When King Ashoka massacred the people of Kalinga, people on both sides of the war were indigenous Indians only and there were no Christians and Muslims at that time. So did he not have any qualms about killing people who shared his own beliefs? External invaders succeeded in vandalizing and establishing themselves on Indian soil because the hegemony of Indian kings and their empires had faded long back, India was fragmented into a large number of small kingdoms and most of them were squabbling with one another.

Mr. Sanghi’s angst is particularly against all the Muslim invaders who pillaged and looted India and warlords like Babar who founded the Mughal empire in India. Islam was already an established religion by then and Muslims were aggressively expanding their religion through population increase and conquests of land. This reveals some very important insights. Islam spread rapidly because Muslim kings fought wars with different kingdoms and tribes and forcefully converted them to Islam. But why didn’t erstwhile Indian kings did not do the same and aggressively expand Hinduism to foreign lands? Rather we see Indian traditions and ways of worship being spread to south east Asia by peaceful means. Would Mr. Sanghi have felt any different about Muslim invaders if Indian kings like Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya had gone to war with kingdoms outside India in the name of spreading Hinduism during their times? The fact that they didn’t means only one thing. There was no religion called Hinduism at that time and paganism is never spread by violent means. Like Islam, there was no unifying factor to bring together all the Indian kingdoms and face Muslim invaders together. This was why it was easier to convert Indians into Christianity and Islam. If Indians had been unified by a religion at that time, India would have been more like present day China than the most diverse and vibrant country it is today.

Mr. Sanghi’s arguments about Muslim invaders and what they did in India is insensible and irrelevant in the present time. The world was in a state of flux and there were wars going on all over the known world at that time. Crusade wars were going on between Christians and Muslims for the control of Jerusalem the Holy land. When compared to Europe and Middle Eastern region, India was a far more peaceful place at that time. Indigenous tribes everywhere had their own pagan beliefs, but they were all desecrated and were forced to convert to Christianity and Islam. The same happened in India as well. Muslim kings destroying temples and building mosques over them did not just happen in India. This did not happen with Christianity because it spread by peaceful means in India and by the time colonials arrived, Christianity was already well established.

I believe Hinduism as a religion started taking shape from the time of Maratha king Shivaji in the 17th century who sought to unify Hindus to fight against the Mughal empire. Only from that time did the pride of being a Hindu start getting instilled among the indigenous Indian population. The hatred for Muslim kings started building from that time, especially after Mughal emperor Aurangazeb and Muslim king Tipu Sultan desecrated Hindu temples. Looking from this perspective, we can see that Hinduism is a far newer religion than even Islam. What has emerged from that time is the concept of Hindutva in the 20th century, to assert and establish Hinduism in similar ways as that of erstwhile Islam. This is why the felling of Babri Masjid and construction of Ram temple is of particular significance to Hindu nationalists.

Mr. Sanghi’s use of the term collective memory and use of Jews as an example to justify Hindu nationalism clearly highlights his ignorance about Jewish history. Jews were persecuted and chased away after Christianity was adopted as Rome’s primary religion by King Constantine. They got fragmented and settled all over the world, some even migrating all the way to India and their population dwindled and waned with time. The Jews we know today are descendants of the semi-nomadic Turkic people from the ancient Khazarian empire who converted to Judaism. Jews did not go to war with the Khazarians to establish Judaism on their land. Khazarians accepted Judaism willingly. This reinforces my earlier statement that paganism is never spread by violent means. The present day Jews have absolutely no collective memory of what happened to the Jews in Jerusalem. The collective memory they do have is of the Holocaust but in spite of being a powerful country today, Israel bears no animosity towards Germany. They know it simply makes no sense to continue bearing the grudge towards present day Germans for what their ancestors did.

The Indian ethos is thousands of years old but not the Hindu one. Mr. Sanghi fails completely in differentiating between the two because he is blinded in his zest to promote Islamophobia and Hindu nationalism. The Muslims in India today are descendants of indigenous Indians who converted to Islam centuries back. They have got nothing to do with what the Muslim invaders and kings did in the past. Hindu nationalists would do well to understand this simple fact when they abuse, lynch and kill people mercilessly in the name of Ram. Do they realize they are giving notoriety to Ram’s name and future generations could remember him with disgust?

Ram temple on New York billboard and what lies in it’s underbelly

 

So the model of the temple that is going to be built at Ayodhya in the honor of Hindu God Ram is going to be shown on the iconic Times Square billboard in New York on August 5. Ram is going global. How much does the world know about Ram? More important is the question why specifically Ram when there are 33 million Gods in India. Let me try to fill in some information here. Why me? Because I was a district level prize winner of a quiz competition based on Ramayan, the epic that narrates the story of Ram when I was in high school.

According to what Hindus believe, Ram was the most honest and illustrious King there ever was. He willfully abdicates his rightful inheritance to the throne of his kingdom for his younger step brother at the insistence of his step mother and goes on exile for 14 years into the forest as per his father’s wish, searches relentlessly for the most powerful demonic king who kidnaps his wife, slays him and returns victoriously back to his home with his wife. He was the most ideal son, brother, husband, warrior and king everyone aspired to have.

But why Ram? As a comparison, Krishna is a far more popular warrior king than Ram. Colorful personality, as mighty a warrior as Ram and probably more astute and resourceful than Ram. Both fought and slayed demons and demon kings and ruled their respective kingdoms wisely. Then why Ram and not Krishna?

When Ram was banished to the forest for 14 years, his wife Sita was not explicitly told to accompany him. But she goes, nevertheless, as his dutiful wife. Ram’s brother Lakshman who accompanied him into exile chopped off the breasts and nose of a demoness who tried to seduce him. After rescuing Sita from the demon king Ravan who kidnapped her, Ram asked her to walk through fire to prove her “purity” for him. A woman by the name of Ahalya who was cursed to become a stone regains her form when Ram puts his foot on her.

Sita wasn’t banished with Ram into exile but being his “dutiful” wife, she had no choice. Lakshman disfigured the demoness because she expressed her sexual desire for him. Even as a prisoner, Sita had lived in the house of another man so by walking through fire, she had to prove that she had not become physically or emotionally connected to Ravan. Ahalya’s curse got redeemed when a virtuous man touched her with his feet. What do these tell us?

In a single word, patriarchy. Glorification of the male through subjugation of the female. The extreme form of it was the custom of sati, where women were forced to jump into the funeral pyre of their husbands. A wife may do it as an act of love for her husband but being forced to do as a societal custom is another thing just like Sita had no choice but to accompany Ram into the forest. A woman expressing her sexual desire is blasphemy and had to be punished accordingly and immediately.

This form of patriarchy is what the proponents of Hindutva want to reimpose on Hindu society. This is why they have little to no tolerance for free thinking women. This is why they want Hindu women to cover themselves completely when stepping out just like how it is required to wear burqa in Islam. Free thinking women were considered as witches and burnt alive on stakes by the Vatican in the Dark Ages. Lilith and not Eve was apparently the first woman created by God but she turned out to be a free thinking open minded woman. So in Judaism, she was demonized and has been described as the first demoness on Earth. No religion is different when it comes to persecution of women. What is different with Hinduism is that Hindus worship Goddesses in temples on one side and abuse the women in their houses in every possible way on the other.

There are supposedly 300 versions of Ramayan in existence. The one Hindus follow in India was written clearly to glorify male virtuosity and keep women under the hegemony of men, both of which are exemplified clearly in the story of Ahalya where she had to be touched by Ram’s feet to become a woman again. ‪This version of Ramayan was written either for a patriarchal society prevalent at the time of it’s writing or to create a patriarchal society that would prevail through time in the name of Ram.‬

Building a temple in Ram’s name is a symbolic act for the conversion of Hindu society back into its patriarchal form. A temple in Ayodhya does not prove that the place was where Ram’s city used to exist. If I name my house as Ayodhya, it doesn’t mean Ram was born in my house. His city was supposedly the greatest during his time but no ruins of a city has been dug out from Ayodhya yet which means no ancient city ever existed at Ayodhya. Even if the ruins of an ancient city is found, how would we know it was indeed the city of Ram?

Ram was a mighty warrior and an embodiment of virtuosity whom we can look up to but why worship him? Because he is said to be the incarnation of Vishnu, the second of the Hindu Trinity of Gods. It could be possible because if we are intelligent beings doing space travel there could also be beings in the Universe who can travel and take the form of any being on any planet. But that’s not the reason why Ram and Krishna are revered. They both had the ability to connect with Shiva and get his blessings.

In the Trinity of Hindu Gods, Shiva is the one who destroys the Universe and everything within it. But he destroys in such a way that life can be started again. This is why he is depicted with a third eye that spews fire when it opens and holding the river Ganga in his hair bun. Fire is the only natural element that can destroy without polluting itself. Reminiscent of the recent bush fire in Australia, rain after fire is what restarts life. Shiva is a metaphor for this phenomenon. Someone in control of two natural elements and with the ability to destroy and restart life has to be the most powerful being in the Universe. Prayers of mere mortals will never reach such a mighty one. Ram and Krishna are conduits for Hindus to pray to Shiva, for better times in our lives after the bad ones.

I am not a non-believer. Ram and Krishna most probably did exist because there can be no smoke without fire. My problem is with how their stories and lives have been twisted and mangled by some among us through time to impose their rules on the rest of us. There are Gods in all ancient civilizations. But present day Greeks do not worship Zeus and build temples for him. Present day Scandinavians do not worship Odin and Thor and build temples for them. Then why are Hindus possessed with reclaiming the supposed lost glory of Ram’s time by building a temple for him? Why chant in Ram’s and not in Krishna’s name? Proponents of Hindutva will never be able to answer. This is why Hindutva is not Hinduism.

What I am curious about is, in the Ramayan, Ram is mentioned as someone whose hands extends beyond his knees. Do the Hindutva ideologists have any clue about this? Will they build Ram’s idol in his original representation or as a human?

Time to dumb down our collective intelligence and conscience and witness the building of a temple while a large population of Hindus suffer in poverty and terrible living conditions.

How patriarchy has played a far greater role than Islamophobia in the rise of Hindu nationalism

The rise of Hindu nationalism, better known as Hindutva in India is no accident. Though resentment towards Muslims is being perceived as the fundamental reason for it’s current status, patriarchy has played the underlying role with far greater significance.

Indian society’s evolution after it’s independence from British rule can be traced mostly through the evolution of it’s film industry, mainly Bollywood. Through the 1940’s and 50’s, a virtuous male and female protagonist was always the flavour of the movies which would be complemented by the songs and their lyrics. Of course there would be other characters who would either be virtuous or villainous and the distinction would be very clear from the beginning of the movies. Into the 60’s and experiments with male protagonists having grey shades began. Enter the 70’s and film makers started portraying both male and female protagonists with grey shades. It was the time of hip hop and gypsy culture and both reflected on the stories of the movies. But the virtuous female continued to exist, the most enduring one being the roles essayed by the actress Vidya Sinha. Then through the 80’s and 90’s we see women protagonists becoming more assertive in their personality and character which then started reflecting on their appearance and attire. Now we see bold women protagonists openly expressing their sexuality and even murdering their husbands for his millions.

My dad was raised up in Kolkata where grandpa worked for about 40 years. He used to have the projector and screen to show movies and he used to get movies on reels for rent. I was born in the 70’s and grew up listening to grandma talking incessantly about the movies from the 50’s and 60’s especially when songs from those movies used to appear on TV. Now I realize that the movies she talked about the most were from the 50’s and early 60’s and her interest in movies had started decreasing from the later half of the 60’s. She had hardly watched movies from the 70’s and used to selectively watch Hindi movies on TV. What is eye opening is that this coincides with the waning of virtuosity in the male and female protagonists. She used to openly display her dislike for characters with negative shades in every movie she used to watch.

One important reason for the rise of Hindu nationalism is for the restoration of this patriarchy on Hindu society. After the liberalization of Indian economy in 1991, the country has literally been invaded by western culture and lifestyle. I had never heard about Valentine’s day throughout my academic years from school to college but it has become like a festival in India now. Girls and women openly expressing their love and sexuality in a society where the virtuous female protagonist from the movies of the 50’s and 60’s committing suicide after being raped by the villain was considered appropriate to redeem herself was always bound to ignite patriarchal angst. When the liberal part of Indian society cry hoarse every year on Valentine’s day when young dating couples are caught and chased away by Hindu nationalists, they do not see how deep rooted patriarchy is in Indian society. Many of them might even be adoring male protagonists in movies bashing up and butchering villains who dared to violate the modesty of the female protagonists. This is reflected on how people literally worship the actors who play the virtuous heroes and have even built temples with their idols. Patriarchal mindset has what made Hindutva leaders denounce western attire for women and make horrific comments like women who expose their skin in public deserves to get raped.

These are the reasons why Hindu nationalists are using the premise of Ram to assert their dominance. The king from the epic Ramayan whom Hindus worship as God is considered as the epitome of virtuosity. The ever obedient son who abdicated the throne and accepted to live in the forest for 14 years to fulfill the wish of his step mother, the hero who crossed the ocean to kill a demonic king and rescue his wife from his clutches and the husband who demanded that his wife walk through fire to prove her “purity” for him. Ramayan was written and rewritten time and again to maintain the stranglehold of patriarchy on Hindu society. If hatred for Muslims was the primary or sole reason, Krishna was a better candidate than Ram because based on the sheer number of demons Krishna had apparently slayed, demonizing Islam and invoking Krishna would have had been their go-to strategy. But according to the four ages or Yugas Hindus follow, Krishna lived in a time that was far less virtuous than Ram so obviously patriarchal rules weren’t so stringent during Krishna’s time.

Contrast this with the story of Iliad in Greek culture. A similar story line as that of Ramayan but with telltale differences. The female protagonist chooses to leave an abusive husband and king and go with the prince from another kingdom whom she falls in love with. The king uses his wife’s infidelity as the excuse to wage war with that kingdom and destroy it. All characters in the story have virtuosity but also have shades from grey to dark. Iliad was written and fits perfectly with the contemporary times but an openly abusive male protagonist and an overly assertive female protagonist are like the Antichrist in the world patriarchy.

Simply put, Indian society is in the throes of the conflict between the ideologies of Ramayan and Iliad now. Though the world is seeing the venom of Islamophobia being spread across India, the hatred for Muslims is being used to create the illusion of a common enemy to unite all Hindus under one umbrella so that archaic patriarchal rules can be reinforced on Hindu society. It is not without reason that Ramayan was adapted as a television series back in the 90’s and the government has started rerunning the series recently on TV. Add to this, a prominent cabinet minister took a picture of him watching Ramayan at home and advertised it on social media with the caption “I am watching Ramayan. Are you?” The message is clearly for the older generations of Hindus to admonish the younger generation for their wayward western lifestyle and bring them on the track of patriarchy.

Where it gets dicey is in how patriarchy is being sold to the Hindu community. With patriarchy Islamophobia is attached along with the aura of leadership and invincibility created around Modi, the PM and leader of the Hindu nationalist party the BJP. There are also some of the upper caste communities trying to restore their hegemony on Hindu society and to achieve this objective everyone at the helm of organizations that propagate Hindutva ideology are upper caste Hindus. Patriarchy and upper caste hegemony are two sides of the same coin. This is a complete package deal. The ones who choose Modi have to accept patriarchy and endorse Islamophobia. Many Hindus might be supporting Hindutva for one aspect but they are left with no choice but support everything else. On the flip side, a Hindu who does not support patriarchy or Islamophobia or both gets flagged as a Modi hater irrespective of any or no political affiliations.

In this situation it is quite easy to win elections because narratives can be created on one or multiple aspects at a time that can also be interconnected. The animosity with Pakistan was well exploited to create Islamophobia during the 2019 general elections and they easily pocketed the votes of Hindus who support India’s stand against Pakistan politically and militarily and the votes of Hindus who hate Muslims in general. In the recent Delhi assembly elections, the AAP party had successfully negated the BJP’s attempt to invoke the name of Ram to get votes by countering with their own call to Hanuman, the monkey king and Ram’s sidekick in the Ramayan but BJP still managed to garner votes and win 8 seats by unleashing Islamophobia. There are no fences and fence sitters in Indian general elections now. The choice is between being a Modi supporter or a Modi hater.

How India exits the COVID-19 induced lock down is on focus now but looks like the lock down imposed by the patriarchal Hindutva juggernaut will maintain it’s stranglehold for some more time. It remains to be seen how these short term and long term lock downs are going to shape Indian society and her future.

The implications of symbolic acts during India’s coronavirus lock down

 

So the PM of India asked the people to light oil lamps and candles yesterday night based on astrological and numerological advises and people lit fire torches and walked out on to the streets in crowds when they were supposed to be under lock down. There were also many who were bursting firecrackers prompting social media to ask how did those people buy firecrackers during the lock down and how could they celebrate a pandemic when people are falling sick and dying. This is what ignorance and lack of critical thinking can lead people into.

Fire is the only element in nature that can cleanse without polluting itself. This is why fire is used in all Hindu rituals. The depiction of Lord Shiva who is considered the destroyer in the Trinity of Gods with fire in his 3rd eye and a river in his hair bun is the metaphor for how destruction is caused by fire and then the arrival of water restarts life. The recent example of this is the wildfires of Australia. The Trinity of Gods in itself is the metaphor for the 3-dimensional representation of the Universe because any body can be described as being stable when it has at least 3 dimensions. Ancient Indian texts are replete with descriptions of advance science and technology but they were made into religious texts when they were attached to temples and human representations of Gods. In the 21st century with all the technology around, Hindus still choose to consider those texts as divine and submit themselves to the diktats created around them.

Lighting oil lamps and candles can dispel darkness (for which Diwali is celebrated). Can fire kill a virus? Possibly yes. Then, now that the virus is all over the world, why not use the nuclear weapons we have been making for so long and burn the whole world down? The virus is affecting us because of the inability of our immune system to fight it. Life in the tar and concrete world with junk food and gadgets is the reason why our immune system cannot fend off a simple virus. Microorganisms can be fought and defeated where they thrive, by going to nature.

How the people have responded to the PM’s call time and again shows how gullible they are to be shepherded into obeying every symbolic act he comes up with. The appreciation being shown for the healthcare workers everywhere has been spontaneous. Only in India did the country’s leader ask the people to do his bidding for the same purpose. The dangerous precedent of allowing him to shepherd the population was set from the time India’s economy was destroyed by the demonetization of it’s higher currency notes in 2016. The economically devastated and morally weakened German population after the defeat in World War I and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles was exploited by the Nazi Third Reich to go to war with the rest of the world again and commit genocide of the Jews. Indian society has always been fragmented and weak owing to it’s caste system. Add fear mongering of Hindus being under threat from other religions and it is very easy to see why people are becoming subservient to the PM’s call for theatrics each time.

Why there is no intent of cow worship and their protection in cow vigilantism

After the bloodbath during Indian independence religion was used again to spark tension and polarize society on a large scale when the Ram Janmabhoomi fire was stoked. But the intensity of that fire has waned with time. So a new issue has been fired up and wind has been blowing steadily to fan and spread this fire. Cow worship and ban of cow meat because of which gruesome lynching is fast becoming a common practice now.

I have been watching over these incidents but I have never once noticed anyone talk about the background of cow worship. Cow worship has it’s roots in the mythical stories of Kamadhenu (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadhenu) in the ancient Indian texts. So why is cow actually worshipped? Because every aspect of a cow is useful to us. Cow’s milk and products made from cow’s milk have sustained and nourished the population of India for thousands of years. Cow’s urine and dung are supposed to have medicinal properties. Burning dried cow dung is supposed to keep mosquitoes away. In Kerala, coconut trees are treated in a similar vein. They come under the category of what is called as ‘Kalpa Vriksha’. Every part of such trees are useful to us. So it seems to me that a cow goddess was created and divinity was associated with cows to make people respect them.

Because of the Kamadhenu association, Hindus have largely refrained from eating cow’s meat for a long time. But times have changed and now a large section of Hindus including a sizable portion of the Brahmin community are indulging in beef and pork meat. Increasing Christian and Muslim population have increased the demand for cow’s meat. Here is my contention about all the fracas that has been going on in the name of cow. How does demand increase? When there is adequate supply. This means enough cow meat is being supplied to the market to meet the demand so people are asking for more cow’s meat. So where does all this cow meat come from? Cows are not being hunted from forests. They are livestock we have been rearing for thousands of years. They are made to procreate and reproduce so that the supply can be kept in line with the demand.

So the Hindu fanatics who are masquerading as cow vigilantes want cow slaughter for meat to be stopped. Fine. Then what is to be done with all the cows? Here is a summary of the hapless state of cow shelters (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1027185557237989377.html).  Cows are supposed to be worshipped as divine mother (coming from from the legend of Kamadhenu) but all over the country cows can be seen roaming around the streets. I have stayed abroad and I have observed that one of the favourite pastime of foreigners is watching videos on YouTube of traffic on Indian roads littered with garbage, groups of cows lying and standing, hawkers lined up on footpaths and are mesmerized by how people navigate their vehicles through what is a maze of insanity for them and people are driving in all the directions at the same time. Forget worship, I would be happy if people were to show minimum respect to the cows for what they are getting from them and not let them wander on streets all day long. I don’t see the cow vigilantes showing any distress at the pathetic state of their “mothers”.

So here is the crux of all of this mess. If we look at nature, the population of every being is meticulously controlled. At no time does the population of any being goes out of control. Problem here is we are not part of nature’s food chain. So anything we cultivate and the animals we domesticate and nurture does not come under the control of nature. If nature has created buffaloes and deer to keep vegetation under control it has also created lions and tigers to keep their population under control. We raise livestock for our own use so we ourselves have to figure out how to use them and control their population. If cow vigilantes want cow meat consumption to be banned they should ban the procreation of cows first and not let cows reproduce.

Now cows are worshipped in Hinduism but not in other religions. They have no reason to bow down to the diktat of the cow vigilantes. Here is when the fundamentalists inside the vigilantes will rise up with the agenda of making India a Hindu Rashtra. But the mindless ignorant ones do not stop to think that all the people of other religions in India are descendants of people who converted from Hinduism to those religions. So what is this all about? One simple reason. Politics stoking fire in the name of religion to polarize the population and create vote banks.

I was a reluctant meat eater from my childhood and stopped eating meat when I realized that flesh of all beings including ourselves are made of muscle fibers. So eating any animal’s meat to me feels like eating my own flesh. Moreover flesh of any being has no taste because muscle fibers are tasteless. Carnivores have no taste buds and they are created that way because their purpose is to control the population of herbivores. We cannot eat raw meat and we take so much effort to cook meat before it can be eaten. What we ultimately enjoy is the combination of the taste of all the ingredients that go into the cooking of the meat. I prefer adding all those ingredients to vegetables rather than to the meat coming from another being whose life was excruciatingly taken away. So it feels idiotic when people ask me if I don’t eat meat because of my religion.

This is my message to the cow vigilantes. Have you seen how cows are bundled into vehicles when they are transported? They do not even have enough place to stand in those vehicles. Cows wander around on the streets all day long. When you talk about protecting cows, talk about the agonized lives of bullocks as well. They are made to plough fields, pull carts and do everything else we make them do and when they are not fit to work anymore they are sold to slaughter houses. Before you start worshipping learn to respect whatever you are going to worship. Moreover when you say beef should be banned, my understanding is that beef constitutes both cow’s and buffalo’s meat. So are you asking only for ban on cow-beef and not buffalo-beef? Why? Is it because there is no buffalo version of Kamadhenu in Indian texts?

If you believe you need to get the minimum respect for yourself then you also need to understand that all other living beings feel the same way. Why ban cow meat only? Would you take up the cause of all other hapless animals who are slaughtered for their meat every day? I don’t see you doing it because your objective is not to protect cows but you have other sinister agenda in the shadows. This is precisely why the people of Kerala have from all religions have rejected your attempt to impose the ban of eating cow meat on them. Regardless of whether they see through your agenda, the ban makes no sense to them.

I am a Hindu and this is why I don’t need to patronize the Hindutva Agenda

I was born into a Hindu family with a Brahminical lineage on my father’s side till 3 generations back. My great grandfather married a Nair lady and since Kerala is a matriarchal society, the following generations did not inherit the Brahmin roots. My father and mother were born and brought up in Kolkata and Mumbai respectively and even though they eventually settled in Kerala, I was brought up in a completely cosmopolitan household. Caste based discussions used to happen rarely but there were no religion based ones. We do lament the fact that being upper caste Hindus do not accord us any governmental privileges like the lower caste people. I studied with kids from all walks of life from school to college and religion and caste based discussions never came up.

Being a Hindu never mattered till the Ram Janmabhoomi (Lord Ram’s birth place) issue flared up. I was in my teens at that time and didn’t understand much about all the fuss. Bricks and funds were being collected from every house to be taken to Ayodhya to build the temple. What people didn’t know at that time was, it was a political game kick started by Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party to woo Hindu votes which would end up in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, provide BJP the political platform to become a national party and plunge the country into the perpetual darkness of communalism. The Hindutva card has been used time and again by the BJP to call for the conversion of India into a Hindu Rashtra (Country).

Now, according to the dictionary,

Hindutva is an ideology seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus and the Hindu way of life.

According to Wikipedia

Hindutva (“Hinduness”), a term popularised by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923, is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India.

Savarkar’s Hindu nationalism included in its fold the followers of all Indian religions including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, but excluded the followers of “foreign religions” such  as Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

When leaders are not sensible and do not have enough knowledge and commonsense to take balanced decisions, the repercussions can ripple through the society for decades and generations. Islam and Christianity are the biggest practiced religions in India after Hinduism and both of them are indeed “foreign religions” but who are the followers in India of both religions? Every Christian and Muslim in India has Hindu lineage. Both these religions came to Kerala first and were accepted into the society wholeheartedly. The first Christians in India were Brahmin families who converted to Christianity. Savarkar and his band of nationalists clearly didn’t know India’s history nor did they have the measure of how diverse and accommodating Indian society and mindset is. People from all major countries have aspired to travel to India, have come and done their bit be it with trade or ruling large parts of the country. Indian society has undergone unprecedented cultural exchanges with all these countries and in spite of going through monumental changes, Hindu culture has remained untouched and has actually thrived. The enormity of being part of the most diverse land in the world is yet to hit in the face of every Indian.

The proponents of Hindutva should first understand that Hinduism is and has never been a religion. In the pantheon of Indian deities there are Gods who represent all natural forces such as rain, wind, etc. The earliest humans used to worship nature as part of their lives and Hinduism has it’s roots right in the dawn of modern humanity. Now this is where it gets interesting. Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism all have their roots in Hinduism. Christianity and Islam have their roots in Judaism. What does this imply? New religions sprouted out as improvements to the older ones. All religious texts mention about an entity who is going to arrive and liberate humanity from the clutches of darkness and sins. For Hindus it is Kalki, the 10th avatar of Vishnu, for Christians it is the return of Jesus Christ. Logic says only one entity is coming. If every religion is saying the same thing, it has to be based on some fact. From the moment the entity arrives, will any of these religions have any significance? Every human being is supposedly going to be evaluated and rewarded/ punished based on his/her karma. If belonging to any religion is going to be immaterial then, what relevance do religions have now? Every religion may be meant to guide humanity as communities to the time of arrival of that entity which is why newer religions have improved rules for societal life.

Now what is the proof that Ayodhya in UP is the birth place of Lord Ram? Ayodhya has been described as the biggest city on Earth in Ramayana but absolutely no evidence of such a city has been excavated yet. There are many places called London and Delhi in the world so just because there is a place called Ayodhya does not mean that is the birthplace of Lord Ram. Facts and fiction about places and incidents merge and become inseparable with time. Let me propose a theory for consideration. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata speak about weapons of mass destruction that were deployed in wars and annihilated thousands and even millions of soldiers. Scientific expeditions to Mars have concluded that the planet was just like ours in the distant past and two massive nuclear wars seem to have destroyed the planet’s surface and it’s atmosphere making it the red planet it is today. What if the incidents mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata happened on Mars and the stories managed to reach somehow to Earth?

To understand the concept of Hindutva, we need to look at who needs Hindu nationalism. If we go by the Hindu caste system, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were the warrior and business clans respectively who were busy with their respective occupations and had little to moderate time for religious affairs. Sudras, the menial class did not even have the right to pray to God. People of all these 3 castes have successfully integrated into the modern society. Its the Brahminical class that has been steadily losing their relevance in society just like the might of the Church has waned off in many western countries. The proponents of Hindutva all belong to the Brahminical class which is again a minority group within Brahmins itself. I am bemused by their multi-fanged agenda about treating cows as our Mother. Cow is mother everywhere except in Goa and North East states and cow is mother for everyone except the Hindus who own the largest exporters of beef in the country. This is why Kerala society has chosen it’s culture of eating beef over the Hindutva diktat.

I would like to know how many of the self professed agents of Hinduism are actually aware that idol worship as a practice started only at the beginning of Kali Yuga and Kali Yuga started after the demise of Lord Krishna as per Hindu texts. Only one God has been mentioned as being worshipped in ancient times, even by Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. The perpetual and omnipresent Lord Shiva and I am quite sure most of these Hindutva preachers may not be knowing why. Destroying and subsequently paving the way for new creation is the most important and most intense activity which requires using the entire energy of the Universe with utmost focus and without any remorse, empathy and compassion. Temples are meant to be places of rejuvenation of our chakras and the energy flow in our body rather than the residence of Gods. So what relevance does building the Ram temple have for people who are being choked with inflation, lack of employment and education and struggling to make their ends meet? Only political. That’s why it flares up during elections and whimpers to its demise afterwards.

None of the above are indicators that I am an atheist or anti-Hindu. So much has been written in ancient Indian texts that it is impossible to assume everything as fantasy stories. We are just not technologically advanced to interpret them correctly. I am proud of my Hindu lineage but not arrogant to desire for a Hindu land. For thousands of years through the invasion of India by foreign kings and countries and their subsequent rule, Hindus haven’t felt threatened about losing their identity. There is no such danger now and there will never be.

Is this the rise of Hindu fascism?

There is a super hit Bollywood movie that was released a few years back in which the entire story of the movie is shown as being narrated by one of the protagonists. He is born into a Muslim family and moments after his birth, he is shown lying in the cradle and wailing while his father and relatives are all around him. At that moment, his father decides that he is going to be an engineer when he grows up. From the moment I was born, I started belonging to a certain religion, caste and sub caste. I am supposed to go to temples, marry a Hindu woman and there is an endless list of things that associates me to the religion and it is this association that connects me to the society. Seems I was safer in my mother’s womb. How I wish all of us are able to communicate with one another from the time we are in our respective mother’s wombs.

The society we live in is fraught with divisions and divided mindsets. Divisions based on religions, caste, color, we just keep inventing new ways to create new divides. Money or wealth has been a major dividing factor for thousands of years but we have managed to create innovative divides with that as well. If it was the affluent, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class and below poverty line in the 20th century, the divide is becoming broader as haves and have-nots in the 21st century. The problem is actually not with the divides or boundaries but the conflicts they are triggering. Be it with religion, caste, color or money, one-upmanship creeps in everywhere. We are craving for domination, even among our own kind. The biggest business tycoon in India built the biggest house in the country right in the middle of one of the poorest slums in the most thriving city. Is this because being the most intelligent beings on the planet, our domination over other species is complete but our need to dominate isn’t subsiding? Is this why it is mentioned that the Gods forbade knowledge and intelligence to be passed on to us?

These divides are at work, at every moment of our lives. When those 7 Hindu pilgrims were killed on their way to a renowned Himalayan temple, fingers quickly turned to Muslims. Why? Is it because it happened in a region where Muslim population is in dominance? There is a separatist movement going on in the region and the attack on pilgrims has been attributed as an act of terror by the separatists. It is universally accepted that anyone who indulges in acts of terror does not have any association with any religion because all religions forbid violence and taking lives of fellow beings. All Muslims visit Mecca so they understand the importance of visiting a holy shrine, regardless of religion. I do not and will never believe that a true Muslim would have ordered an attack on the pilgrims. Every act of terrorism has political and/or religious reasons behind them. People’s lives are sacrificed and gets termed as collateral damage to further the wicked and vicious agenda. Terrorism is subjugation and domination through violence and it cannot survive without motive and adequate support.

There is something unique about India that everyone needs to remember at all times. When Christianity and Islam spread to other parts of the world, they were adopted by either nomads with no religion or by nature worshipers. But when these religions came to India, they were adopted by Hindus who were already part of a religious and social structure. Hindus chose to break away from both to welcome and adopt new ideas. Every culture in the world has been welcomed with open arms in India. They have all integrated into Indian society and this has given rise to India’s spectacular religious tolerance and diversity. So when certain Hindus start hate mongering and spewing venom against other religions in the name of protecting Hinduism, let them remember that there are no aliens in India. In the tree of religious tolerance and diversity, all of us have roots in nature worship, the trunk is made of Hinduism and branches are of different religions.

If what is happening now is the rise of Hindu fascism in the name of creating a Hindu exclusive country (Hindu Rashtra) , it is never going to succeed. During the partition of India in 1947, even when a separate country was carved out for Muslims, not all Muslims in India migrated to Pakistan. Many chose to stay back and they were protected from being massacred or forcefully migrated by none other than Hindus. Social media is rife with attempts to divide people in the name of language and geography. Every state in India has it’s own language, culture, food, clothes and even in the way how people look. We all exist together as a country by choice, not by force. There is simply no point in trying to divide the people into north and south Indians. Hindi is the most popular language of the country rather than being the national language and people learn to speak Hindi by choice and circumstances not by coercion. No attempts to change the food habits of people by force is going to succeed. There is a reason why Indians do not rise up in protest together. Through thousands of years, we have endured so much violence, we decided to adapt to changes and become tolerant rather than become resistant. But we did stand up together, when the head of colonialism turned ugly. The intolerance towards divides in the society is growing and if pushed to the tipping point, it won’t be long before the next struggle for freedom begins.

Meat ban, lynching and an Indian society progressing into regression

Indians take pride in being part of a continuing civilization that is as old as the dawn of humanity itself. Ancient Indian texts talk about technology that are too complex and advanced for modern day science to interpret. Those texts are incredible treasure trove of knowledge which the world is yet to tap into. There were times in the past when the Indian subcontinent was the most prosperous place in the world and every kingdom in the known world wanted to do trade with India. What escapes us is the fact that the world is what it is today solely because of India for one simple reason. Imagine, if Columbus had managed to reach India rather than get washed ashore on an unknown continent which is now the most powerful country in the world and whose currency drives world business. Even now, the world marvels India for her incredulous diversity, vibrant colours, never ending variety of food and amalgamation of cultures from around the world. Where India stands today is not even a pale shadow of her glorious past.

According to the history we know, when Aryans descended into Indian peninsula from Central Asia, they displaced existing natives called Dravidians beyond the Western Ghats into the south part of India. Other than this, no arrival of people from other cultures caused any displacement/suppression/eradication of native people. Contrast this with what happened to the native tribes in the American continent or to the people in the African continent when people from Europe arrived and you will understand what I am driving at. People arriving from foreign lands had something to add to the culture of India and surprisingly they also adopted to the prevalent society. This is why every religion in the world was able to take roots in India and coexist. But what was the fundamental reason behind it? I believe India never had a religion. India has 33 million Gods and innumerable customs, but what started as nature worship and evolved into a complex society could never be defined or bracketed under the concept of a religion.

People who espouse Hinduism and those who are promoting Hindutva are both cancerous to the concept of being a Hindu. A true Hindu needs to know only two words, Om and Brahma, words that represent the entire Universe. The caste system that still exists in Indian society like a plague has it’s origins in the fact that every Hindu is born in the lowest caste and it is his/her karma that promotes him/her to a higher caste. This is what has been written in ancient texts. What came out of it and how it was grotesquely twisted for the convenience of the rich and powerful is what the world sees today as caste based violence and vote bank politics in India.

Inciting violence in the name of religion is nothing new. Islam has its history soaked in blood and its journey on that road still continues. The Vatican church burned free thinking people on stakes and incited Christians in Europe to go to war with Muslims in the Middle East in the name of Crusades. What I fail to understand is, in spite of all the religious coexistence and harmony in Indian society, why are people still vulnerable to communal violence. I always knew that a meat ban imposed to appease one community was not going to end well. Society deciding not to eat meat because it respects the customs of a particular community is one thing, but imposing a ban adds a whole new dimension to it. This has to be the people’s decision and governments have no business to poke their noses in here. Add the media’s continued frenzy over it in search of TRP and the situation becomes ripe enough to be misused. It has led to the lynching of a Muslim man by a Hindu mob under the suspicion that he was eating beef at home and it is not going end here.

News travels far and wide in no time now. The world has become a very small place because of media and internet. I read about an Indian guy who went to a Greek island and was asked by a local man if he was from the place where people get killed for eating beef. When the Indian PM was promoting Digital India initiative in Silicon valley recently, I wonder whether he or his council of ministers had any clue about the larger implications of digitizing India. Whatsapp is probably the best online tool available now to spread hate messages, create mobs and incite violence. When India adopted democracy in 1947 after gaining independence from colonial rule, people had no clue about what democracy truly means. The concept of democracy has evolved in the western countries as their societies matured. After living under monarchy and colonial rule for thousands of years, Indian people had no maturity to understand democracy. Same is the case with digital media. Suddenly, out of nowhere, people have access to cheap mobile phones, low cost internet and free apps. When we don’t know what to do with something, our natural inclination is to misuse it.

I am sure the world is watching India with wide eyed interest at the moment. On one hand, there is a huge unexplored market to tap into and on the other is a government promoting foreign investments in a fragile society plagued by communal violence, rampant women abuse, inflation, corruption and bureaucratic redtape. When Indian IT giants like Infosys and Wipro are heading to the Silicon valley to invest in startup companies when the same concept is booming in India, this should give a clear picture of what the future is going to be. A meat ban and it’s fallout is the last thing India needs at the moment. Why ban only cow meat and have respect only for cows? If there is so much respect for cows why are herds of cows let out on to the streets every day in all parts of India? All life is precious so all meat should be banned. But thats also not possible. The same people who are promoting meat ban and inciting violence themselves eat all types of meat. This hypocrisy is not going to take India forward and if India’s PM believes India can grow when the people themselves are pulling it backward, he needs to understand one thing. His party’s symbol, the lotus blooms in dirt because it believes it can be beautiful anywhere. What the Indian society first needs is the positive mindset of the lotus and thats what he needs to work on before going on whirlwind foreign trips with the hope that business will come to India at his beckoning.

A message to the world about Hinduism

I know the world is watching India with keen eyes, not just as a huge market for business, but what is happening presently on religious lines. India has always intrigued people from around the world for her diversity in society and the sense of mystique associated with her. Most of this mystical persona is attributed to Hindu religion and it’s customs, karma and reincarnation. As the developed nations are evolving into societies less dependent on religion, Indian society is being pushed into a cauldron of religious conversions and reconversions. I am writing this blog because it has become very pertinent to explain to the world about Hinduism and where it stands now as a religion.

So what is religion? Something that has been designed to continuously foster a better society. Hinduism has a caste system which was meant to ensure that all required skills for the society’s survival are always in existence, such as, a priest’s child should become a priest and a blacksmith’s son should become a blacksmith. Christianity and Islam have congregations and prayer meetings which helps build stronger communities. So all religions have their purposes in society for their existence. But whereas every other religion has the knowledge of it’s inception and it’s origins, no one knows from where and how Hinduism originated. History teaches us that it was the Aryans who brought Hinduism to India. Yes, Hinduism as we know today was indeed propagated by the Aryans. Ancient Indian texts speak about OM, the omnipresent sound that is believed to pervade the Universe and create everything in it. This is knowledge that transcends all religions and their teachings. No religion has been able to define the Supreme Creator in a way as OM defines that infinite energy in terms of sound. But it would be completely wrong to associate OM with Hinduism because Hinduism as we know and exist today does not represent the knowledge of OM in any way.

So how did Hinduism come into existence as a religion? There is no way to find out for sure. Idol worshipping is not mentioned in the Vedas, the most prominent texts of Hinduism. So I believe, somewhere in time, we lost our connection to OM or our ability to connect to the Supreme Creator in It’s original form. This might be the reason why idol worship was enforced and Gods were expressed in human form so that some sort of connection to the Supreme Creator could be maintained. The ancient Indian texts predominantly speak about our karma, reincarnation and after life and attach little importance to our human form except for one reason. We are created with intelligence because we are born to learn. Learn what?

My granny used to tell me about 7 worlds above and 7 worlds below ours. I laughed it off for a long time, but now I am starting to see what she was truly trying to say. They may be planes of consciousness or in terms of simple science, different levels of energy. In Hinduism, we believe that being born as a human is the highest life form attainable in this world. Just like life, death and after life may be different states of transition for our souls. We may have experienced it all much more profoundly and realized that we need to experience more at the human level of consciousness to ascend into a higher level of consciousness. We may have to keep travelling back and forth and be born as humans several times till we attain the required energy for our souls to exist in a higher plane. This may be the reason for our reincarnation and this may be the reason why life is difficult for the ones who are seeking enlightenment because all they are looking for is knowledge and more understanding of this plane of consciousness. It may be that the strength of our soul’s energy will decide what life forms we will take. This may be the reason why in Hinduism, we believe that if our karma is bad enough, we will reincarnate as animals, maybe because our soul’s energy may no longer fit in a human form and we will have to work our way back all over again. The rules or perception of karma in different planes of consciousness may be different, that’s why we do not understand the karma of animals. Our love for animals may be an indication of our connection to the lower levels of consciousness from where we progressed to human form. If all of this is true, understanding the concept of OM may not be difficult at all. Finding God would be as simple as synchronising the vibrations of our soul’s energy with that of OM.

Anything that is created by man in the name of God does not represent God and religions are no exception. In India, the objective of setting up a caste system was lost in it’s translation a long time back. When some castes dominate the others to such extent that people of lower castes are treated as untouchables and are not allowed to drink water from wells “belonging” to upper caste people, then the society is in a state of social and moral decay. Other religions have been offering release from this oppressive system through religious conversions and Hindus with radical views are questioning the motive of these other religions. Whatever their motives be, the fact remains that it is the existing state of Hindu society that has been propelling conversions. Instead of crying hoarse, it is high time for all Hindus to introspect and bring in some much needed societal reforms like abolishing the caste system. If Hindus can keep their society in order, there would be no need for any Hindu to change his/her religion. But that will never happen, for two reasons. Someone from a higher caste will never accept someone from a lower caste as his/her equal and India’s vote bank politics, which hinges on the caste system will never be allowed to collapse.

To all fellow Hindus who care to listen and understand me, I have just one message. Keep yourself away from any or all radical or fundamentalist religious views. Learn where our religion comes from, what it truly stands for and spread your enlightenment. I am enlightened enough to not believe anything any man does in the name of religion or God, be it even if I see Jesus convert water to wine. To the world, please do not judge us by what is happening in the name of religion now and our society’s sorry state for so long. We used to exist on a very high plane of intellect for a very long time and we had a fall from grace, courtesy of Murphy’s law. But our ancient knowledge still exists in the core of our society and we will rise again. Till then, kindly ignore ignorant Hindus and their irrelevant ramblings.