India Today: Cultural Intolerance among Fundamentalist Hindus
One of my favorite quotes about India is by the first century Greek Philosopher Apollonius Tyanaeus who said “In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing”. I am not sure if Appollonius visited India today he would feel the same way.
India continues to be a beacon of hope particularly for the poorer nations on earth. If India with over a billion people can turn things around so can any other nation on earth. It is a nation that offers spiritual alternatives to those in the West and elsewhere who are dissatisfied with monotheistic religions. In addition, in India you can take a live look at how the world was before industrialization and before mass consumption. You can still see people live very simple and somewhat primitive lifestyles the way our ancestors did thousands of years ago. In many cases these ancient people live only a few miles away from other Indians who are developing cutting edge software.
This contradiction, variety and the ability to remain relevant over a long period of time is something that has attracted people to India. But this diversity is under threat from certain sections of the Hindu society with their narrow views on what Hinduism stands for; their convenient interpretations of the history of India and their complete lack of understanding and respect for the culture and traditions of Indians particularly those outside the “cow belt”.
Recently I was asked by a reader of this blog to name a monument built in our past that almost ruined the government of that time (I was arguing with him that corruption and wasteful government spending that we all complain about today was also present throughout our history). I responded by naming the Taj Mahal (a monument that almost bankrupted the Mughal Empire and resulted in Emperor Shah Jahan spending the rest of his life in prison). Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for personal gains (a monument for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal) and not for the good of the people.
My readers response took me by surprise. He said that he does not consider Shah Jahan or the Mughal history as part of Indian history and traditions. But my question is how can we claim that Mauryan Empire is an Indian empire (when most of the Mauryan kings were Persians, Greeks or mixed Indian ancestry) and then also state that the Mughals do not represent India? Shah Jahan is half Hindu. His mother was the Rajput princess of Marwar (Jagat Gosain). The argument against the Mughals and in fact relegating anything historical relating to the Muslim community to the sidelines is fairly common among certain circles in India today.
This selective view of Indian history and culture is not limited to the issue of Muslims or other minorities alone. Recently there was a major push to ban serving of beef during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi by Hindu nationalists. The Delhi municipal authorities have agreed to impose this ban. This in my view is a blow to secular Indian values.
Such bans are imposed despite the fact that there is no consensus on whether Hindus can or cannot eat beef or whether such draconian laws violate the spirit of the Indian constitution. The Delhi government found it easier to submit to the pressure rather than stand up for the rights of Indians and also the athletes who will participate in these games. Conservative Hindus have decided (without consulting the rest of us) that Hindus cannot eat beef in India’s capital during the games and that the culinary habits of 200 million or so minorities do not matter. This is a shame.
But the biggest criticism of these fundamentalists is targeted at regionalism in Indian politics. There is this new belief that regionalism is somehow bad and that the answer to all our problems is in putting nation first. This argument conveniently ignores two facts: Indian economy went south when India was ruled by strong national parties like the Congress for the first 45 years since our independence. Second the story of Indian economic growth parallels the growth of regionalism in Indian politics.
By being very critical of regional politics and pushing for more “nationalistic” policies (like a single language medium for education) these fundamentalists are putting their culture and their language above everybody else’s interests (very few people who argue for a uniform language for education and commerce would agree to that language being any language other than Hindi). So if you life the veil of nationalism from their face you will see them for who they really are.
Related posts:
- No Beef during Commonwealth Games in Delhi
- Are Minorities in India Descendants of Hindus?
- Nationalism in India Equals Hindu Fundamentalism
- CWG: India Taking Unfair Criticism
- Shree Jagannath Temple Puri: Discrimination is part of the Tradition
Category: Culture & Religion
Agree with most of what you have said… I fear regionalism only when it talks about changing city names, changes the language on the bill boards, or bans people from moving freely within the country.
Thank you for supporting me on this one Indian Homemaker. I thought I was the only one concerned about a very small section of the Hindu society controlling the agenda for the rest of us.
No – you’re not the only one at all. It’s been a major concern for me too that a very vocal group of people thinks that Muslims, Christians etc are not part of India.
I was quite shocked actually when I tried commenting on their sites – shocked by the amount of venom they seem to have stored inside them. In one breath they say things like “Hindus are the most peaceful, tolerant etc…” and they follow it up by saying “All other religious must be wiped out!”
And they feel they’re under direct threat from everyone. The US, Pakistan, China, the “West” (whatever that means), “Intellectuals” (as if that’s a bad word) etc.
As an aside, there’s something wrong with the captcha. It never works the first time for me. Gonna pitch for the awesom “Akismet” wordpress plugin again here :)
Bhagwad … India is going through an interesting phase. There is a lot of economic growth and millions of people are joining the middle class. There is a thirst for information and knowledge. Unfortunately at this time we do not have very many leaders (political or spiritual or otherwise) to point people in the right direction. This is where the “platform orators” come in.
They fill the void and teach the people what they want to hear and not the truth. India’s history is very complicated and complex but the Hindu leaders of modern India simplify things and paint a picture of how great India was before the Muslims and Christians. There is an yearning among certain Hindus to take India back to those Vedic times. It is important that voices of everyone else is also heard.
I am reminded of Gandhi’s words — “I keep my windows open because I want cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as poosible; but I refuse to be blown off by any”.
Agreed … I also believe that there is nothing wrong with getting blown away by other cultures also.