Current Events

I Reject Hindutva

SUCHITRA KRISHNAMOORTHI

I am like most other urban Indians … apolitical. Or non political. A novice. An outsider.

But a well wisher. Because I love my India

And like most other urban Indians, other than election time, when we dutifully went and cast our vote silently, politics had no impact on our lives. Yes, we gasped over scams and similar stories, but just as quickly dusted the sand off our feet and moved on.

Politics never entered our homes -- certainly not our bedrooms and kitchens. Yes, we cursed much when Shiv Sena changed our beloved Bombay’s name to Mumbai when they came to power in 1995, but quickly saw the rationale behind the move.

Desi euphoria and jingoism bloomed. With the luxury of life digested with a silver spoon, it was easy to see the virtue behind a Shivaji statue.

Even when vehicles were set ablaze in Marathi Manoos prejudice and Biharis were asked to return to their home state, we ignored them with the hope that sense would soon prevail.

It didn’t.

Sadly. Hindutva ideology had started to seep in. To even the most neutral amongst us, it was unacceptable.

Never mind the disappointment. Manmohan Singh is a brilliant economist and will herald a new India, we were told. After all, as India’s Finance Minister in the 90’s, he had introduced to us the concept of India shining. But his failure as Prime Minister, a post he was ushered into in 2004, was soon apparent -- what was the power Sonia Gandhi wielded over him? OMG, and why? What on earth for? Why did he look like a deer trapped under the headlights?

Sycophancy was the giant ogre in this Congress Government -- everybody was getting swallowed and the whole country was dying. An Italian accent became the most despised sound in the Indian psyche -- even senior leaders like Digvijay Singh had fallen into the Gandhi scion brainwash.

Rahul Gandhi ? Really? But pappu can’t dance, saala. Oh, and not to forget that Vadra boy. What did Priyanka see in him, ya? Looks like a total goonda and how did his whole family die so mysteriously, ya.

OMG? What? Forbes has listed Sonia Gandhi as the third richest woman in the world? Baap-re! And she still wears those cheap cotton sarees? What an actress, ya. Better than Shabana Azmi!

Ooff! India and its Bollywood fixation. Anyway, to cut a long story short, when it was time to re-elect a new Government in 2014, I, like most other urban Indians reeling under the corruption of dynastic politics and a failed Congress Government, was filled with hope. Hope for a new India. Hope for change. Hope that things will finally get better.

Arvind Kejriwal and his Gandhi delusion -- remember how he went on a fast every time and for anything and tried to project that he is a Mahatma Gandhi reincarnate while trying to hide the fact that he is Ford Foundation funded? Of course, his common man phonyism gave away his own opportunistic game way too soon and he fell by the wayside.

Phew! He was India’s first anti-corruption hope dashed. Who could we turn to?
India was desperate. We needed a leader. Badly. We needed progress. We needed a semblance of honesty. We desperately needed hope again.

It came in the form of Narendra Modi. Brilliantly packaged. Karmachari. Brahmachari. Sanskaari.

So well was the Gujarat model marketed that Modi became the one man capable of delivering us -- India -- into the future. A future built on the foundation of tradition. Indian tradition. As anti-Italian as one could get.

The fact that the only other prior perception the public had of BJP as a party was its Karnataka ministers – C C Patil and Laxman Savadi watching porn in Assembly in 2012, or the ban of women wearing jeans in the state and being beaten for consuming alcohol, soon obliterated by Modi’s own, manufactured 5-star charisma and his imported PR machinery.

If anybody deserves an Oscar for PR -- it is indeed Sri Narendra Modi’s team.

So, swayed by a desperate hope as we were, longing pleading & begging for a better India as we were, I, like every other urban Indian, even went out on a limb urging my friends and family to vote for Narendra Modi. Stated on social media that Narendra Modi’s greatest ally was Rahul Gandhi.

And I wasn’t wrong.

The BJP Government won because we Indians had become so so-o-o Gandhi family intolerant -- any alternative seemed like manna from heaven in comparison.

Had the Congress propped some other leader of calibre other than Gora Chitta, Rahul Gandhi or his Maa, the votes would have been divided. But Rahul Gandhi sealed it. BJP owes him a lot for their victory.

But what have they done with their victory?

It’s been disappointing, to say the least.

Not just disappointing. Annoying. Frightening, Unacceptable. Totally. Totally, totally unacceptable.

Despicable, really.

I remember whilst urging my friends to vote for Narendra Modi, a Muslim friend had joked that if BJP comes to power he will have to get on a boat to Karachi. So real loomed the spectre of the Godhra riots in everyone’s head, and so real the feeling of Muslim persecution.

Was he wrong?

At that point I had reprimanded my Muslim friend that his fear rose from the fact that his allegiance was with the Islamic state in the first place so he shouldn’t use the minority card to gain undeserved rights and privileges. If Karachi is emotionally a boat ride away surely, it’s where he belonged, I said.

“You don’t understand, SK!” he sighed.

In retrospect I think he may have been right.

Reservation and minority status for the Muslims, in my view, was nothing but vote bank politics. The Congress Party policy of divide and rule. But, hey … I admit I don’t really understand everything. Like I said, I’m a novice.

But hey … I’m also artist enough to understand that even a novice is entitled to her world view and I’m common enough to understand that I express what a large number of people feel but are unable to elucidate.

So … here goes …

It’s been barely over a year of the BJP Government and how disappointed are we? God, OMG! More than disappointed, I believe we are shocked and hoping it’s still all a mistake. Did we ever imagine we are voting for a despotic fascist regime? What exactly is going on? WTF!

Beef Ban?

Dear BJP: Can you please explain what wrong did the chicken or the goat do that they deserve to be killed and not the cow? Yes, yes, Congress imposed it before you, but how come they didn’t bombard on us as much as you? Why am I suddenly feeling embarrassed about being a Hindu?

Meat Ban?

Yes, you want revenge and one-up-manship on your Congress counterparts and detract from the fact that you are failing completely in governance. Farmer suicides, rape, children dying by falling into potholes, Gajendra Chauhan … need I say more!

Did you say Sedition charges to be slapped against those who dare to speak up! I mean really? I dare you -- seriously!

And what was that about eliminating western culture and reclaiming Indian culture?

What exactly do you mean by that, dear Education Minister / HRD Smriti Irani, who is not sure of what education degree she has acquired herself or in what language? For someone who doesn’t herself know if she is a BA by correspondence or a BCom by imagination, is not likely to know the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva, is she?

Hinduism is a philosophy. A way of life. The doctrine of which allows me the choice of acceptance or rejection. Ram or Ganpati or atheism too. Upanishads or Gita or tantra or mantra.

Hindutva on the other hand is militant imposition of wrongly interpreted tenets of Hinduism. Hindutva is a political tool – nothing to do with the religion itself.

I’m not showing off or being patronizing, I promise you. My grandfather and my ancestors were Hindu temple priests -- my father still recites the Vedas verbatim. My sister recites them without having ever studied them -- it is so in my blood line. That’s how Hindu my lineage is.

So do not teach me about my own religion, dear BJP. Don’t tell me how I should think. Who I should worship. How I should dress or what I should eat.

I am a Hindu -- by definition purer and a higher form than you can ever be.

And I reject your Hindutva.

Just as Islam must reject the Taliban or Isis.

To be a Hindu is to be tolerant. It’s why we have survived as a race inspite of invasion, conversion and unimaginable destruction. If you do not understand that tolerance or exercise that compassion so intrinsic to our religion, you do not deserve to call yourself Hindu. Or a leader of a democratic nation.

So dear BJP: I reject your Hindutva.

I reject your fascism.

I reject your despotism.

Dare me, if you will.

For I speak for all of India.

Mind it!

[Edited for sikhchic.com ]

October 13, 2015
 

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