01-17-2008, 12:06 AM
Since I seem to be "in the mood", let me write an FAQ even at the risk of repeating some stuff.
1) Who is a Hindu fundamentalist?
A Hindu fundamentalist is a person who is accused of hating Islam and Muslims, as well as Christians and Christianity. He is often, but not invariably critical of both faiths and groups.
The Hindu fundamentalist is accused of violence, riots and murder. Anyone who can be accused of Hindu fundamentalism has the following labels or characteristics attached to him even if he does not have any connection with those labels. The labels are "Right Wing; BJP; RSS; Hindutva; RSS; Bajrang Dal; High Caste; Murderer of Graham Staines; Murderer of Muslims in Gujarat"
The minute a person is declared a Hindu fundamentalist he is a hater of all Muslims and Christians and is accused of wanting to set up a Hindu state in India. Denial of this is no use. Once he gets that label - that is it.
1) Who is a Secular Hindu?
A secular Hindu worries that Hindu fundamentalists are out to kill or banish his Muslim and Christian brothers. He feels that the future of India is dependent on ensuring that Muslims and Christians are protected from Murderous Hindu fundamentalists. If a Muslim or a Christian is upset by something that can be attributed to a Hindu fundamentalist, the secular Hindu worries that the "secular fabric" of the nation is being torn apart by Hindu fundamentalists. The idea that a Hindu might ever get upset by Muslim or Christian action is horrifying to the secular Indian.
The secular Indian believes that all Hindus are (supposed to be) secular, tolerant and non violent. He believes that upsetting a Muslim or a Christian is a bad idea because they already tolerate Hindus and asking them to tolerate more may be intolerable
However, if you ask any Muslim or Christian group that has faced a Hindu mob if Hindus are secular, tolerant and non violent, they are unlikely to agree.
So who is right, the secular Hindu or the Muslim/Christian? Since we must not upset our Muslim and Christian brothers by accusing them of lying, we must accept that they are telling the truth about Hindus.
This sad fact makes the secular Hindu very upset. He demands that all Hindus be secular, tolerant and non violent like he is. And those who are not are the fundamentalist right-wing Hindutva group! Evil or Very Mad
3)Why are all Hindus not like the secular Hindu?
This is a trick question.
The problem is in this silly language "English". It has all these words with strange meanings that Indians cannot understand. The secular Hindu does not understand that the word "secular" means "absence of religion". No religion. "NO" means "absent", "nahin", "illa", "illai", "nako" "ledu" "na" "nathi" "nyet", "non" etc. depending on the language.
The secular Hindu forgets that he is himelf religious. He celebrates Hindu festivals and gives sweets to his Muslim neighbor to share goodwill. He celebrates Christmas with a tree, cake and lights and says "Merry Christmas". He attends Iftar parties and says "Id Mubarak". He even sometimes goes to the extent of saying "Muharram mubarak" as was spotted in a sign in Bangalore in 2008. Surprised
The secular Hindu thinks this behavior is secularism". He fails to understand that this behavior is NOT secularism, which means "No religion". It means "pluralism" - which allows ALL religions.
So, in reply to the question as to why fundamentalist Hindus are not secular, the answer is that Hindus are not secular. They are pluralist.
4) But what about violence? Can Hindus be violent?
Unfortunately yes. Hindus can be perfectly violent. We already know that from what our Muslims and Christian brothers have told us.
5) OK, what of "tolerance" then. Shouldn't Hindus be tolerant?
The question should be "tolerant of what?"
Hindus are human and tolerate some things and are intolerant of other things. There are some Hindus who do not tolerate the idea that the Gods that are holy to Hindus can be declared as "false" or the idea that the idols they worship are something that is wrong.
Who says Hindu Gods are false? Who says Idol worship is bad?
Well mostly nobody says that, but there is small group of fundamentalist Muslims and Christians who insist that this is so. It is this group that some Hindus are not tolerant about.
6) But our nation calls for secularism. Secularism is our life blood isn't it?
Yes of course. Our constitution swears by secularism, and religion is not supposed to play any role in politics.
But the people are not secular. And the people are not living with politicians. They are living with each other. The people living together are Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
The vast majority of these people are not secular. They are pluralist. They celebrate their festivals in public and share their festivals with everyone else, either in the form of food, lights, decorations or loud chanting, noise or music.
Secularism is totally absent. It is mostly pluralism. But in this plural society there are some unsatisfied Hindus who feel that some people are not plural enough.
In a society such as Indian society, it is OK if nobody is secular as long as everyone is a pluralist and allows every religion to exist equally.
Unfortunately a small minority of Muslims and a smaller number of Christians believe that pluralism is also wrong. They have a certain idea of "God" and feel that only that idea is correct. This upsets some Hindus. Maybe the latter would not mind if these ideas were kept within the comunity of Muslims or Christians. but they get angry when these ideas are spread among Hindus. They feel that this idea is offensive to Hindu belief.
The assertion that there is only one God and that it is wrong to worship idols is very irritating to some Hindus. At the same time the assertion that there can be more than one God, or that idols can be worshipped is very irritating to some Muslims and Christians.
When people get irritated they fight, and fights sometimes get dirty. And there are a lot more Hindus than Muslims or Christians so when a fight gets dirty. it becomes a one-sided fight.
The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi recognized that such fights would be one sided fights, and he managed to convince Hindus that they should not fight. As long as he was alive, his word worked, often by the use of threat of slow suicide by fasting. But Gandhiji is now no more.
In the meantime, some Muslims of India too recognised that fights would be one-way fights in a Hindu dominated India. They felt that creating pockets of pure Muslims would prevent one sided Hindu-Muslim fights. But that is another story.
The question is, what kind of compromise can be reached that satisfies everyone and does not upset anyone's religious sensitivities?
Is it necessary at all to reach any compromise?
Why not just get all minorities to bend to majority will?
Can you banish religion from among the people and become a "secular" society as opposed to a pluralist society?
1) Who is a Hindu fundamentalist?
A Hindu fundamentalist is a person who is accused of hating Islam and Muslims, as well as Christians and Christianity. He is often, but not invariably critical of both faiths and groups.
The Hindu fundamentalist is accused of violence, riots and murder. Anyone who can be accused of Hindu fundamentalism has the following labels or characteristics attached to him even if he does not have any connection with those labels. The labels are "Right Wing; BJP; RSS; Hindutva; RSS; Bajrang Dal; High Caste; Murderer of Graham Staines; Murderer of Muslims in Gujarat"
The minute a person is declared a Hindu fundamentalist he is a hater of all Muslims and Christians and is accused of wanting to set up a Hindu state in India. Denial of this is no use. Once he gets that label - that is it.
1) Who is a Secular Hindu?
A secular Hindu worries that Hindu fundamentalists are out to kill or banish his Muslim and Christian brothers. He feels that the future of India is dependent on ensuring that Muslims and Christians are protected from Murderous Hindu fundamentalists. If a Muslim or a Christian is upset by something that can be attributed to a Hindu fundamentalist, the secular Hindu worries that the "secular fabric" of the nation is being torn apart by Hindu fundamentalists. The idea that a Hindu might ever get upset by Muslim or Christian action is horrifying to the secular Indian.
The secular Indian believes that all Hindus are (supposed to be) secular, tolerant and non violent. He believes that upsetting a Muslim or a Christian is a bad idea because they already tolerate Hindus and asking them to tolerate more may be intolerable
However, if you ask any Muslim or Christian group that has faced a Hindu mob if Hindus are secular, tolerant and non violent, they are unlikely to agree.
So who is right, the secular Hindu or the Muslim/Christian? Since we must not upset our Muslim and Christian brothers by accusing them of lying, we must accept that they are telling the truth about Hindus.
This sad fact makes the secular Hindu very upset. He demands that all Hindus be secular, tolerant and non violent like he is. And those who are not are the fundamentalist right-wing Hindutva group! Evil or Very Mad
3)Why are all Hindus not like the secular Hindu?
This is a trick question.
The problem is in this silly language "English". It has all these words with strange meanings that Indians cannot understand. The secular Hindu does not understand that the word "secular" means "absence of religion". No religion. "NO" means "absent", "nahin", "illa", "illai", "nako" "ledu" "na" "nathi" "nyet", "non" etc. depending on the language.
The secular Hindu forgets that he is himelf religious. He celebrates Hindu festivals and gives sweets to his Muslim neighbor to share goodwill. He celebrates Christmas with a tree, cake and lights and says "Merry Christmas". He attends Iftar parties and says "Id Mubarak". He even sometimes goes to the extent of saying "Muharram mubarak" as was spotted in a sign in Bangalore in 2008. Surprised
The secular Hindu thinks this behavior is secularism". He fails to understand that this behavior is NOT secularism, which means "No religion". It means "pluralism" - which allows ALL religions.
So, in reply to the question as to why fundamentalist Hindus are not secular, the answer is that Hindus are not secular. They are pluralist.
4) But what about violence? Can Hindus be violent?
Unfortunately yes. Hindus can be perfectly violent. We already know that from what our Muslims and Christian brothers have told us.
5) OK, what of "tolerance" then. Shouldn't Hindus be tolerant?
The question should be "tolerant of what?"
Hindus are human and tolerate some things and are intolerant of other things. There are some Hindus who do not tolerate the idea that the Gods that are holy to Hindus can be declared as "false" or the idea that the idols they worship are something that is wrong.
Who says Hindu Gods are false? Who says Idol worship is bad?
Well mostly nobody says that, but there is small group of fundamentalist Muslims and Christians who insist that this is so. It is this group that some Hindus are not tolerant about.
6) But our nation calls for secularism. Secularism is our life blood isn't it?
Yes of course. Our constitution swears by secularism, and religion is not supposed to play any role in politics.
But the people are not secular. And the people are not living with politicians. They are living with each other. The people living together are Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
The vast majority of these people are not secular. They are pluralist. They celebrate their festivals in public and share their festivals with everyone else, either in the form of food, lights, decorations or loud chanting, noise or music.
Secularism is totally absent. It is mostly pluralism. But in this plural society there are some unsatisfied Hindus who feel that some people are not plural enough.
In a society such as Indian society, it is OK if nobody is secular as long as everyone is a pluralist and allows every religion to exist equally.
Unfortunately a small minority of Muslims and a smaller number of Christians believe that pluralism is also wrong. They have a certain idea of "God" and feel that only that idea is correct. This upsets some Hindus. Maybe the latter would not mind if these ideas were kept within the comunity of Muslims or Christians. but they get angry when these ideas are spread among Hindus. They feel that this idea is offensive to Hindu belief.
The assertion that there is only one God and that it is wrong to worship idols is very irritating to some Hindus. At the same time the assertion that there can be more than one God, or that idols can be worshipped is very irritating to some Muslims and Christians.
When people get irritated they fight, and fights sometimes get dirty. And there are a lot more Hindus than Muslims or Christians so when a fight gets dirty. it becomes a one-sided fight.
The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi recognized that such fights would be one sided fights, and he managed to convince Hindus that they should not fight. As long as he was alive, his word worked, often by the use of threat of slow suicide by fasting. But Gandhiji is now no more.
In the meantime, some Muslims of India too recognised that fights would be one-way fights in a Hindu dominated India. They felt that creating pockets of pure Muslims would prevent one sided Hindu-Muslim fights. But that is another story.
The question is, what kind of compromise can be reached that satisfies everyone and does not upset anyone's religious sensitivities?
Is it necessary at all to reach any compromise?
Why not just get all minorities to bend to majority will?
Can you banish religion from among the people and become a "secular" society as opposed to a pluralist society?