From glossy magazines to colourless politicians, secularism continues to top the charts as the flavour of the season. Its imminent death combined with the growing dread of ‘ Hindu Fundamentalism ‘ are brought out in all their alarming glory so much so that one is led to believe that but for these defenders of the secular faith, the country would have already courted nemesis.
These doomsday prophets, the political class and the media mass, are quite united on the opinion that unless and until Hindus are reined in and restored to their tolerant and timid tendencies, India would cease to exist as a nation and civil society. That is, the onus is on the Hindus of the country to ensure that their motherland remains a haven of peace with the converse implication that they will be responsible if the same is shattered. Indeed, a Hindu can truly take some pride, perverted pleasure though it may be, at being at last recognised as someone who matters to the secular tribe.
Of course, the role and responsibility of the minorities in the secular scheme of things vis-a-vis peace and communal harmony, comes as a footnote in fineprint like the statutory warning on cigarette wrapper, but shhhh, we musn ‘ t trouble them!
The vision of the secularists has suddenly enlarged to include the larger Hindu mass, twelve lakhs to be precise in Gujarat alone, while hitherto it was only the RSS and the VHP that constituted the militant elements at the vanguard of Hindu terror.
Now the entire Hindu community constitutes, in their eyes, one ‘ violent Vasudaiva Kutumbakam ‘ getting set to trample on all democratic and constitutional niceties if their ‘ grievances ‘ are not met forthwith! Of course, sensitive and sensible citizens know that this mass upsurge has been happening for quite sometime but it is only now that these secularists have shed their jaundiced vision, albeit partially, to perceive the rising tide.
I say partially, because their thoughts and words continue to display myopic ignorance, what with their repeated admonitions to only the majority to see sense, no matter if the minorities stick to their non-sense. Probably, secular habits die hard, even if secularism itself is dead, but unfortunately the national malaise of communal tension is thriving famously because, despite perfect diagnosis, the treatment remains misplaced.
And so what ‘ s happening? Shelve your grouses, the Hindus are advised, the minorities are insecure which is what matters. The tranquiliser once again is only for the Hindus though the real disease is elsewhere, flourishing in all its foul fulness!
Small wonder, then, that there is a mass revulsion manifesting itself as militancy in the Hindu psyche that has now stirred even the feigning media. The majority, having become immune to the secular sedative, are no longer inclined to remaining numb to the machinations of the secularists and their minority champions, both of whom nurture self-serving agendas of their own. What is now happening is a genetic overhaul with even the timid Hindu readying to go against his very nature, if the situation warrants.
To see this purely as a temporary aberration and trying to tackle it with kid gloves is akin to mistaking a flood for a ripple and attempting to contain it in a lota! This overwhelming tide of accumulated fury and pent up emotions can overwhelm any institution because those who constitute its surging strength and crowning crest are not just VHP activists and Hindutva politicos who can be summarily dismissed as just froth, but the entire mainstream – Hindu intelligentsia, the middle class as well as the masses at large – who have to be reckoned with for their sheer volume and intensity.
Their reaction is not out of revenge and retribution alone but to correct historical travesties that now threaten to consume them if left unattended. Are they not, as the custodians of the present, responsible to the future generations of Hindus just as their forefathers bequeathed the timeless treasures to them? Having weathered Islamic tyranny and western colonialism in the past, is it not a historical duty for this land and its real people to survive secularism too?
By rising up in righteous indignation they are only shaming the secularists for all their hypocrisy and dishonesty, besides incidentally deterring the militant minorities from their habitual secular pranks. Yes, the prospect of violence is very unnerving, but the seeds for it were always there. That the Hindus of the land had been patient this long is by itself a wonder. Other faiths would not have been so tame, as history warns us through its bloody pages.
This may sound similar to Modi-speak but then have not the secular media themselves certified the conflagration as a more-than-fringe phenomenon, though only belatedly? And even as they bemoan the demise of secularism they continually harp on the majority nursing grievances! Could there be anything more ignominous than sweeping centuries and centuries of persecution by marauding faiths under such an innocuous nomenclature of a carpet called ‘ grievance ‘ ? Such trivialising of majority sentiments is again a typical insensitivity displayed by the secularists, but it is also a deadly give away.
The marathon struggle of the Hindus to retain and protect the identiy, culture and symbols of heritage of their land is but a petty grievance in the eyes of the secularists, while their espousing the cause of the pampered and insatiable minorities is a giant step in the advancement of justice, fair-play, democracy, propriety etc. etc..So taking guard against Islamic terror is a knee-jerk reaction, but alterting the Constitution to massage their bigotry is a secular milestone! The ruination caused to stable families by conversions is a fair price to pay for religious freedom, while even the smallest pebble landing on a church rooftop is an atrocious assault on the sacrosanct secularism.
The physical terror and the spiritual terror let lose by these proselytising faiths are matters of religious right guaranteed by the Constitution, but legitimate defence of one ‘ s beliefs in one’s own land is unsecular and therefore unlawful. Indeed, what a loaded dice this secularism is proving to be, much to the detriment of the true and original sons of the soil?
The secularist, like Sakuni, is a very devious frontman. He doubles up for his sponsors with great alacrity and plays their game with gusto and guile. And egged on by those he is shielding, he lets loose all his viles on his unsuspecting opponents. And what a sucker this Hindu is? Like in that fateful game of dice, secularism too is a loaded device that is programmed to win, even when it should logically lose.
With each roll of the secular dice, the Hindus of the land have successively lost one possession after another to their tormentors hiding behind the secular Sakuni. It is an unequal battle waged by unscrupulous frontmen using an untested device in favour of wholly undeserving characters.
But the voice of reason and sanity will not be heard in this Kaurava sabha where a combination of loud talk and deaf ears lull the victims into shameful silence, with constitutional justice playing the blind Dhrutharashtra!
Now the unholy gang wants to disrobe the Hindus of even their self-esteem and defences and banish them permanently to the wilderness of history thus clearing the decks for the intruding faiths to take over their society and State so that whatever is left could be demolished and whoever is left be converted.
Betrayed by his own men – the secular back-stabbers, let down by the law that he imposed on himself in all good faith, rendered defenceless by his unstinted commitment to ahimsa and tolerance and now under siege from religions that respect neither law nor legitimacy, the Hindu Indian is undoubtedly a most endangered species today. Indeed it would require either enormous conviction or tons of deceit to tell him to remain patient! And who knows if he is in a mood to listen? Last heard, he was readying to play Lord Krishna, himself for self-redemption!
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