Does someone in Arabia ask for scientific proof of the fact that the Holy Prophet rose to heaven from Jerusalam? Does someone in Rome ask for scientific proof that Jesus actually was born of a virgin and that he rose again after being dead? Yet, Indians are asked by their government, the intellectuals and the media to deny that Ram existed because there is no scientific proof. And, no Ram, means no Ram Setu.
A golden temple is made in India and millions are spent on it. Christian priests are interviewed on Indian TV channels and they opine that this money could have been better spent for charitable purposes. The H indu TV anchor vehemently supports this. Nobody points out to the TV anchor or the Catholic priest that the richest religious agency in the world is the Roman Catholic Church. No one asks why they do not apply the same norms there and ask the Church to sell their billions worth of treasure and pala ces and use the money to alleviate poverty around the world. Why, just the Pope’s Palace in the Vatican would be enough to raise the income level of most of Africa ’s starving millions.
A poor H indu from a village applies for a place in a College. He has always scored much higher marks than his neighbour. However, he is unable to get admission in the College while his neighbour who is from a minority community sails in on the reserved quota, despite being far wealthier and much less academically able.
An artist shows tasteless pictures of religious icons in an exhibition. H indu and Christian priests and activists raise objections. The Indian media and intellectuals rise to the defence of the artist’s freedom of expression in a knee jerk reaction and repeatedly criticise the ‘intolerance’ of the H indu activists. Curiously, they do not mention the equally vehement objections of the Christian priests. It is the same mediamen and intellectuals who had earlier castigated the Dutch cartoonist for making cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.
Secularism means “not religious” in English. In Hinglish, the common language of Bharat, it has acquired Orwellian overtones. Intellectuals, politicians and the media persons use it as a code word to mean "looking after the rights of the minorities at the cost o the Hindus". If someone says with pride, “I am a H indu ” he or she is sneeringly branded communal by these people.
The tragedy is that most intellectuals and media persons at the criticising end are H indu themselves. They appear to be ashamed of their religion and are, for whatever reason, forever apologising for being a H indu . To them their own religion is full of intolerance and all other religions can appear to do no wrong and, even if other religions do wrong it would not be “secular” to mention it.
When the institutions fail to do their duty, those at the receiving end pick up the gauntlet and adopt an aggressively protective mode. When the judicial system fails, mob justice results. The pressure bottles up and finds release in violence. When media and the intellectuals are seen to gang up against the H indu faith, the common man is left at the mercy of VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Mr. Modi’s BJP.
I submit that our so called “secular” media, intellectuals and politicians are acting as the self-appointed moral police and imposing their skewed views which make a travesty of our constitutional provision vis a vis secularism. They are causing more harm to the cause of true secularism than all the communal for ces combined. By being blatantly partisan they are ceding power to the very people they keep criticising. One day, sadly not too far away, the militantly H indu for ces will strike a collective chord in the long suffering H indu psyche and you can expect the slightest provocation to trigger Gujarat type riots in other pla ces as well. All they need is to replace the present rather dull and hackneyed leaders of their movement by a charismatic figure, who can sway H indu s by pointing out the injusti ces of the present “secular” establishment in a manner that they can resonate to. Just imagine what would happen if someone with the presence, though not ne ces sarily the mindset, of Vivekananda, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose or Martin Luther King stood up to champion their cause and mobilised the masses, with “ I have a dream and it is of India where H indu s are treated with civility and granted equality with other faiths….”
The media, intellectuals and the government have to take the initiative back from the militantly protective religious organisations. Hypercriticism and biased treatment are not the way to do it. There are simple remedies which would prevent the above doomsday scenario – the Indian media and intellectuals should try to treat the H indu faith with at least as much respect and consideration as they do Christian and Muslim faiths. Furthermore, instead of repeatedly airing obscurantist practi ces , astrological programmes and suchlike in their hypocritically “secular” pursuit of trp ratings, they should support programmes which try to uplift the religion and remove the cobwebs around it, so that its innate beauty stands resplendent. And they should do this for all religions if they wish. On its part, the government, of whichever political hue, should stop bending backwards to appease communal vote banks and start treating the H indu s with the same consideration as it does the followers of other religions. Only then can India become truly Secular in the correct meaning of the term and only then can communal peace and harmony reign here.
Kishore Asthana
asthana1@yahoo.com
