The Rise
Of Hindu Pride
Owaisi mumbled
that the educated and privileged Muslims went to Pakistan at partition. He did
not answer why seven decades since independence have not produced educated
Muslims while almost every other community stands in contrast to this. Not that
looking at the failed state of Pakistan today provides any comfort in Owaisi’s
defence.
For long, the
likes of Owaisi were, and still are, assisted by those political parties that
feed off Muslim vote banks. The posing that involves the laying of chaddars and
the reciting of namaaz at mosques, wearing clothes echoing those of common
Muslims, such as caps, black waistcoats and white chooridars. The shameless shunning of
sindoor amongst the visible women of the household. The craven photo-ops with long-beared maulvis and
maulanas.
This may
still be working to an extent but for how long more? Birth rates amongst
Muslims will not return a Muslim majority state even in the whole of this
century. Pockets of concentration will not make for an overall picture. The
politics of regional pride, gender and blatant populist grants will not do the
trick nationally.
But, if
anything, it is the broad-thinking Hindu
way that is garnering the admiration of the International community, including
those Muslims in Arabia, Africa, the Asia-Pacific. These are Muslims not
carrying the cross of conversion. They have a clear sense of their birth
identity, and are not confused by having been converted from Hinduism under the
Islamic sword.
It is
dawning on the more discerning followers and inheritors of Abrahamic religions
that their temporal history is undeniably soaked in blood. This has bred a
widespread atheism and agnosticism in the West, with many people finding
themselves in Church only when they are dead in a coffin - for the funeral
service.
It is true
that only the Hindu religion and some of its spinoffs has no back story of
conquest, domestic or foreign, except for the sporadic resistance to Mughal
aggrandisement. This is providing a natural attraction for people who want the
depth and wisdom of the oldest religion in the world that has survived every
attempt to wipe it out. These things lived in the realm of theory for decades
but today it has gained provenance. There is greater global knowledge of Sanatan Dharma, Yoga, Indian
culture, music, dance, ancient Ayurveda, science, great civilisations that
existed hundreds of years before others, with their architecture and ruins as
mute witness.
And so now,
under the aegis of a Hindu nationalist government, we see a roll back of both
the Nehruvian ethos of Marxism, Mughal prominence and suppression of Hindus as
obscurantists. The old order is fading fast. The pseudo-Christian celebration
of Christmas by deracinated and Westernised Hindus is realised today as a
British Raj hangover. It is of course, a legitimate occasion for Christians
themselves. And to participate with them in food, cakes and so forth is akin to
them taking part in Diwali or Durga Puja in turn. The tonal difference is unmistakeable.
There is no voiding of Hinduism as a
pagan and misguided majoritarian danger. Today the shoe is on the other foot.
It is Nehruvian secularism that is increasingly thought to be bogus.
Official Iftar parties have been stopped. So
have the donning of skull caps and ruling party politicians trotting off to
mosques. Temple visits and attendance at pujas has gained considerable
prominence in their stead, with the prime minister and several BJP chief
ministers leading from the front. Control over temple monies are being returned
to the priests, as in a recent decree concerning the Char Dhams.
That temple funds should be accessed by the
government is a strange impertinence given that the wealth of the Christian institutions
and that of the Muslims is not touched. It is also a fact that the Church and
the Wakf are the biggest landowners in India still.
Over the last seven years, a number of strides
have been taken to restore Hindu pride. This not only serves a civilisational
purpose long suppressed and neglected, but in due course it has every potential
to get the country out of the clutches of mass block voting from the Communist-Populist-Islamist
combine. Fortunately, this is persistent and successful only in West Bengal,
Kerala and to an extent in the half-state of Delhi.
Cumulatively,
the Hindu revival moves not only reveal a momentum but a clear road to the
future. The temple at Ayodhya is being built. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has
been inaugurated. The road access and facilities at the Char Dhams are being
transformed. There is to be a ropeway to Kedarnath. A Shankar Acharya statue
has been established there. A massive statue of Lord Ram is being built in
Ayodhya. Other statues to major deities are also springing up all over the
country. Train services to pilgrimage
circuits including those that concern the Buddhists, have been established.
Destroyed temples are being rebuilt in Kashmir, and now there is an intent
announced to do so in Goa, where they were destroyed by the Portuguese.
The special status
of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir, a more or less Islamic state
within a state, has been revoked. A new delimitation exercise is enfranchising
sections of the embedded long-term population left out during the decades of
Sunni domination in the Kashmir Valley. Karnataka has just passed legislation
to outlaw induced or forced conversion, principally of Hindus into Christianity.
Other states at risk are likely to follow suit.
Triple Talaq
has been outlawed in its most abused form. The marriage age for girls has been
raised to 21 and this is intended to be for all religions. Mosques which have
encroached on major temples at Varanasi and Mathura are likely to be removed or
repurposed. Mosques and Islamic monuments which have been usurped from earlier
Hindu edifices or built on destroyed temples are also being looked at. Other
temples, ravaged by time, neglect and paucity of funds are also now on the
restoration and renovation lists. Earlier only the Islamic structures used to
receive government attention to an extent. They still do in places where the
Islamic vote is considered crucial.
Today, if
the Aga Khan Foundation, for example, wants to do some more continued good in
this regard they are most welcome.
Mughal names to our best roads, our great and
ancient cities are being replaced. Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh has already
become Prayagraj. Faizabad district has been renamed Ayodhya, and its railway
station has become Ayodhya Cantonment . Mughalsarai has been renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyaya
station. Ahmedabad in Gujarat may soon be renamed Karnavati. The name for
Hyderabad may be changed to Bhagyanagar, though native Owaisi stoutly opposes
the move. Aurangabad in Maharashtra, likewise may be changed to Sambhajinagar
though Aghadi constituent Congress opposes the move.
Name changes
of cities and even states based on native sentiments and de-anglicisation, such
as Bombay into Mumbai and Bangalore into Bengaluru have been ongoing for quite
some time. But the trend away from starting the historical clock with the
Mughals has only begun since 2014.
Progressively,
it is expected that either invoking Muslim grievance, as in Owaisi, or
pandering to Christian and Muslim vote blocks, will not return those who
practice it into power, or even the reckoning.
This,
because of the once thought impossible consolidation of the Hindu majority vote
riding over the schisms of caste, region and language.
It is then
that Sudhangshu Trivedi’s argument will begin to prevail over that of Assauddin
Owaisi. Muslims must educate themselves and join the mainstream. It is not
politic to emphasise their differences. If they are behind today, it is largely
a consequence of political pampering, a Madrassa based outlook, and lack of
initiative. A minority that is 200 million strong cannot excuse itself
indefinitely.
(1,374
words)
December
24th, 2021
For:
Firstpost
Gautam
Mukherjee
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