| Author | Message | ||
Bumper Hero Username: Bumper Post Number: 17353 Registered: 07-2014 Posted From: 67.240.45.153 Rating: |
Ee thread open chesi content chadavani vallu okasari star veyandi | ||
Teluguhero Side Hero Username: Teluguhero Post Number: 3510 Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 73.104.252.173 Rating: |
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dont-fear-t he-modi-hinduism-makes-india-great/ Don’t Fear the Modi: Hinduism Makes India Great Westerners who don't know what they're talking about should avoid falling prey to simplistic caricatures. India, soon to be the world’s most populous country, has been booming economically, while also trying to tackle other problems, especially grinding poverty. The country is bewilderingly complex, home to thousands of religions, castes, ethnicities, languages, and cultures that somehow manage to interact with each other through a complicated and messy political and social system. Yet ever since the Hindu right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in 2014, the dominant media narrative in the United States has focused on the dangers of Hindu nationalism and the alleged plight of minorities, especially Muslims and Christians. As India awaits the results of its 2019 national elections (most exit polls currently predict a big win for Modi and the BJP), a plethora of articles have appeared in the American press arguing that India is at a dangerous crossroads. These pieces say the BJP must be defeated for India to survive and be “great,” as Doug Bandow argued at The American Conservative. Reading Bandow, one gets the impression that India is a hellhole with no freedoms, populated by bigoted Hindu mobs braying for blood. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put, most Westerners do not know much about India and should avoid falling prey to simplistic caricatures. While there are many problems with the BJP’s ideology and policies, it should nonetheless be given credit for the enormous economic improvements it’s made. Yet this story is almost always sidelined in favor of warnings about alleged religious intolerance in India. It bristles to read of the unidimensional manner in which the Western press portrays India and Hinduism. Because of the pantheistic nature of their religion, Hindus believe that the divine (or “God”) can take on many forms and approach in various ways. This openness is the basis of India’s greatness and freedom. Religious groups persecuted elsewhere, from Tibetan Buddhists to Persian Zoroastrians, have throughout history found a safe haven in India. Of course, Muslim and European empires have given much to India, especially cuisine, architecture, and administration. But these have ultimately been integrated into the country’s 5,000-year-old civilization. Nevertheless, Western media often take a reductionist view of India based on a few narratives available to them in English. These narratives are not necessarily factually inaccurate, but they frame issues in alarmist ways. For example, a recent article in Al Jazeera posits that the title of a new Bollywood movie, Kesari—meaning “saffron”—is evidence of rising Hindu bigotry because the “colour [is] associated with the ruling party and the right wing in India.” Never mind that the flag of India, designed by the left-leaning Congress Party, contains saffron, in homage to the robes of ancient sages. Saffron is also a traditional color of Sikhism: the movie Kesari is actually about a last-stand battle between 21 Sikh soldiers and 10,000 Afghans. India is also not on the brink of a genocide. Mobs are not running rampant lynching people. The idea that the rise of the Hindu right has led to Jim Crow-like conditions against Indian minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, is not borne out by the evidence. It is true that life in rural India is in many ways pre-modern and often characterized by private violence, some of which has a communal angle. But there are no formal, legal barriers to minority rights, just social ones. Of course, attacks against minorities should be absolutely forbidden, and the perpetrators punished. But it is important to keep in mind how relatively minor these incidents are in proportion to India’s population. Only 28 people were killed in vigilante attacks against Muslims between 2010 and 2017. According to a data analysis, the nature of crimes between Hindus and Muslims has also been frequently misinterpreted in the name of sensationalism: “Muslim crimes against Hindus were simply ignored, or not counted as hate crimes. Conversely, Hindu crimes against Muslims for non-religious reasons were counted as hate-crimes.” In addition, Hindus in the majority Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir have essentially been cleansed by Pakistani-sponsored militants. In Pakistan, the remnants of the Hindu population are subject to constant humiliations and persecutions, such as girls being kidnapped and forcibly married to older Muslim men. The distortion of what’s really happening in India is enormous. It would be as though Asian media framed events at Charlottesville and Ferguson as proof that the United States was being run by white mobs. While some level of bias against minorities exists in both the U.S. and India, and there are sporadic episodes of violence, most minorities go about their daily lives normally. There is no denying that many Hindus, regardless of their political affiliations, are deeply anti-Muslim, which probably leads to a systemic bias in some areas. But other minorities are much better off. In fact, BJP-allied governments serve in all three of India’s majority Christian states, and there are almost no communal problems involving minorities that aren’t Muslim. India Will Never Be Great Unless It Protects Religious Freedom Hindu Americans Don't Vote Republican The answer to the problem of bias against Muslims isn’t to separate them from Hindus. Yet some of this ghettoization of Indian Muslims is self-imposed. Muslim community leaders in India have not pushed for liberal and modern values. Rather they have demanded special laws that allow their communities to retain a separate legal system, including the right of a man to take four wives and to instantly divorce a wife by uttering the Arabic word talaq three times. Hindus, meanwhile, are governed by a more modern civil law code that was passed over opposition by more traditional Hindus. The push for a common law for all Indians should be seen as a push for Enlightenment values. Finally, there is the question of caste. Yes, the traditionally “lower” castes have historically faced discrimination. They’ve also been the target of Christian proselytizing, and there is some problematic anti-proselytizing sentiment among politicians in India. Yet since traditional Hinduism encountered European value systems, interpretations have been put forward that are emphatically anti-caste, at least in the hereditary sense. No major political party or intellectual group in India advocates hereditary caste. While caste persists socially, especially in rural areas, and is taken advantage of politically, there is no institutionalization of it. The breakdown of caste is ultimately the goal of the Hindu right, because it wants to form a united Hindu society. The “lower” castes for the most part have never sought to leave Hinduism for Christianity or any other religion, despite the emergence of a neo-Buddhist movement associated with this demographic. The civil rights movement in the United States did not seek to radically overturn the political system or undermine its premises; rather, it wanted to extend its benefits and rights to all. Similarly in India, the spread of European Enlightenment ideas have led not to the replacement of Indian religions and culture with Western ones, but to reformist ideas within the Indian religious context. At the elite level, British-educated Indian intellectuals have sought out universal, pan-Indian ideas that transcend old ways of thinking. Hinduism has evolved and changed in many ways over the past two centuries as a result of contact with the West, while remaining true to much of its philosophy. Meanwhile, women, untouchables (Dalits), and other groups that have faced discrimination in traditional Hindu society have organized in order to make Hinduism work for them. For example, during the early 20th century, Dalits in today’s state of Kerala led and won a temple entry movement, gaining access to sanctums traditionally open only to higher castes. They did this because they wanted to be accepted within their cultural-philosophical tradition, rather than convert to Christianity. There is no doubt that India is in a ferment, and that relations between its various ethnic and religious groups are changing. Unlike in many European countries, India’s many minorities, including Muslims and Christians, are natives, genetically and culturally, descendants of converts to those religions. They are just as Indian as followers of Indian-origin religions. Reconciling this with the genuine desire of the Hindu majority for recognition is a task that will require compromise and a halfway meeting point. India, like most countries in the world, is not as post-modern and post-identitarian as globalized elites would like to believe. Akhilesh Pillalamarri is an international relations writer and analyst of Indian history, culture, and politics. Follow him at Twitter @AkhiPill. | ||
Teluguhero Side Hero Username: Teluguhero Post Number: 3508 Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 73.104.252.173 Rating: |
https://www.rediff.com/news/column/like-him-or-not-modi-is-a -risk-taker/20190521.htm Like him or not, Modi is a risk-taker 'If Mr Modi continues growing as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, better that it is done by restoring ancient temples than demolishing medieval mosques,' says Shekhar Gupta. Writings on the Wall is a metaphor that grew out of my travels, mostly through the poll-bound regions of India and the neighbourhood over the past 15 years. Because, even more than its big festivals, the subcontinent comes to life during its elections. And what's on people's minds, their aspirations, joys, concerns and fears, you can pretty much understand by reading these writings on the wall. These can be graffiti, advertising, skylines, fences, or, even rubble. You want to see change in Varanasi, you walk on fresh rubble, a lone bulldozer is labouring on yards away, and look at the walls. Don't read. Because there is nothing to read. Just take a close look at the remnants of what used to be there. These are remnants of doors, windows, ventilators, cupboards, as if these were pasted on these walls with some adhesive and somebody rudely pulled them out. If you were airdropped here, you might for a moment think you've landed in the middle of some zany art installation. Or, it could also be the setting of another madcap Fevicol ad: You join two houses with it, knock them with a bulldozer, our joints will survive. This is precisely what has happened here. About 300 houses, temples and other buildings stood in this area of just 4.6 hectares (11.4 acres), most of them so close to each other that over time they had become conjoined as if constructed together. Beneath these somehow survived Varanasi's famous -- or infamous -- byzantine galis (lanes), some so narrow that not more than two average-sized adults could pass them. It's now history. Modi critics say that the cloistered neighbourhood that concealed the Kashi Vishwanath temple, among Hinduism's holiest and oldest, has been broken down so the entire Hindu world could now see the temple from the ghats of the Ganga. More important, as they see the relatively modest temple, they will notice the more imposing domes of the Gyanvapi mosque, which Aurangzeb apparently built in 1669 after demolishing the original Kashi Vishwanath temple. This will be militant Hindutva's eyesore and next target. I would find it less alarming and not just because officials, including Vishal Singh, 36, chief executive officer of the Kashi Vishwanath Development Authority, remind me that the mosque is already well-protected with 30-foot-high solid steel pillars and CRPF armed with automatics. Mine is a realistic view that even if the rulers of the day were violent majoritarian malcontents and the institutions had become so malleable that they could no longer protect the Constitution, a building with easy access and view will be harder to harm than one hidden in a maze. So, just the redevelopment of the area, clearing of the 300 metres to the riverfront for an unhindered view of the temple from the ghats and vice-versa, doesn't add to the threat. Some local Muslims leaders filed a petition in the Supreme Court, expressing these apprehensions on behalf of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, but it was rejected. The greater opposition, in fact, comes from Varanasi's Hindu conservatives. Walk down the narrow lane connecting the temple precinct's Neelkanth gate to the holiest Manikarnika Ghat, where cremations take place, and we run into well-known local writer and journalist/intellectual Trilochan Prasad. He's furious. Who can dare to change what was never destined to change? They have destroyed our heritage, everything that was sacred, hundreds of crores have been wasted, a way of life has been destroyed and more. Like him or not, Narendra Damodardas Modi is a risk-taker. This -- the redevelopment of a mere 4.6 hectares, involving the demolition of 296 buildings -- is among the greatest risks he has taken in his constituency. Because this means annoying not just the liberal, but the most conservative residents of the Brahmin heartland, which takes pride in being eternal and unchanging. Almost 90 per cent of those shifted are Brahmins. Like its priests, Varanasi also must have the highest per capita population of political pundits. And many would tell you, with the greatest conviction, that this Modi-Yogi 'misadventure' will cost them anything between 60,000 and 75,000 votes To understand the before-and-after you need to see the charts and plastic models in the office of CEO, who, incidentally, has a master's in administration from the University of Maryland. A sum of Rs 600 crore has been sanctioned for the authority and the old buildings acquired after making a law in the UP assembly. The owners have been given twice the circle rate and they seem happy by and large, with a total of a little over Rs 200 crore paid out. Another Rs 15 crore has been paid to residents who didn't own the buildings but claimed tenancy rights. Only 12 owners are still holding out, in the vicinity of the temple. Demolition work is mostly over. Mr Modi performed the bhoomi pujan for the new precinct on March 8 and work should finish in another year or so. By now 43 temples have been discovered, entombed earlier in houses built over them, mostly as encroachment. When it is completed, this temple complex will become what almost nothing in old Varanasi can still claim to be, even after five years of having the prime minister as its MP: Clean, modern, and accessible. The point is, was it a risk worth taking? Inner city development is one of India's greatest challenges. Most of our leaders have stayed clear of this minefield. The first who attempted it was a reckless tyrant who asked no questions (Sanjay Gandhi, Turkman Gate and Jama Masjid) and the other is the spiritual head of his sect whom nobody would ask a question: The Syedna of the Bohris now leading the Rs 4,000 crore rebuilding of central Mumbai's Bhendi Bazaar. Mr Modi is the third, but the first to try and do this using the laws, persuasion, and a wide open purse. While we question his commitment to secularism and often enough expose the hollowness of his sab ka saath, sab ka vikas slogan, we also need to acknowledge that in some important ways he has challenged Hinduism's social conservatism. The Swachh Bharat and anti-open defecation campaigns are one aspect of it. The other, forgotten by now, was his removal of a large number of temples encroaching public spaces in Gujarat, which put him at odds with his original VHP hatchet-men. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is his panga with Varanasi's conservative Brahminism. Many wise and famous men have spoken immortal lines about Varanasi. Probably the most quoted are Mark Twain's: 'Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.' But must it continue to be twice as messy and filthy as that? Surely, Hinduism deserves better for its holiest, oldest city, supposedly of salvation. Twain would be surprised reading the walls around the new, bulldozed emptiness at the temple today. They speak of change. Few doubt that Mr Modi will be re-elected in Varanasi. We will also be able to guess on May 23 if it makes Mr Modi lose those tens of thousands of conservative votes pundits of Banaras predict. But in a year, if he completes the project, it could work wonders with his much larger, pan-national Hindu constituency. And you know what, I'm happy to say I am enthused by this project. It will be a great precedent for other old cities, hopefully for the restoration and pedestrianisation of Delhi's Chandni Chowk to its old glory. And if Mr Modi continues growing as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, better that it is done by restoring ancient temples than demolishing medieval mosques. |
