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Saving Hinduism from the VHP
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Because of the vision of a number of remarkable men and women we chose a Constitution based on two pillars: democracy and secularism. This was not accidental: they realised that if we, a pluralistic society, were ever to become a prosperous, harmonious, modern nation these two pillars were essential.
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THE WRITING has been on the wall for a quite a few years now. And our more alert friends have been warning us of what was actually happening. However, it was only this year after Gujarat that many of us have finally realised that they had not been crying wolf. The real goals of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and their political servants, the Bharatiya Janata Party, can no longer be denied or ignored. Bad enough poisioning the country with their hate campaign; but now deliberately subverting the state machinery to prolong the carnage in Gujarat, heartlessly refusing timely aid to the victims and cold bloodedly calculating the next political steps to further their evil designs. It is often implied that the VHP, Bajrang Dal and the rest of that criminal, not just lunatic, fringe represent the Hindus of this country. I don't believe that they do. Nevertheless the fact is that they and their actions have brought disrepute and shame to Hindus and Hinduism. Although most of us can hardly be held responsible for what has happened, we cannot now say that we are a tolerant people. Not only have we displayed intolerance, we have denied the most basic constitutional and human rights to our fellow citizens.
Planned in advance
Some of my fellow Hindus may well argue that the violence in Ahmedabad and elsewhere was a reaction to what happened in Godhra. What happened in Godhra was unpardonable and it is imperative that the culprits, most likely local Muslims, must be brought to book. Their actions cannot be justified as retaliation for the goondagiri committed by the VHP men at the previous stations and on the train. Yet, it made no sense to kill, maim and rape innocent Muslims elsewhere in the State as revenge for what some Muslims did in Godhra. I believe that most Hindus would agree. So why did the terrible things that happened happen? Because it was planned. There are enough reports by independent investigators to clearly indicate that it had all been planned well in advance, just waiting for an opportunity. Godhra was that opportunity. Within a few days, Muslims, their homes, their businesses were selectively targeted by the rampaging mobs. And the police took little or no action under the orders of the Modi Government. In fact, Narendra Modi and a police chief implied that it was natural for their subordinates to habour communal feelings under the circumstances. Is it possible to see worse examples of dereliction of duty?
So, this is their plan. They are not really interested in building a temple in Ayodhya. Their interest is in fishing in troubled waters and the Ayodhya site is very convenient since it is disputed. The natural Muslim reluctance to part with what they regard as their heritage is being used as a focus for militant Hindu resentment. After all there are thousands of magnificent temples all over the country that need care and maintenance but do you see the VHP and Bajrang Dal doing anything? The point is that that would get them no political mileage. Even if the Ayodhya issue is settled, new Ayodhyas will be brought up and the Gujarat experiment in genocide will be repeated until the minorities are either driven out, or killed or reduced to a state of utter helplessness. Is this what Hinduism is about? Should we permit this criminal, immoral plan to be taken to its natural conclusion?
Even if we are not bothered about its moral implications, is the VHP plan practical? The size of our minorities is greater than that of most other nations, and they have nowhere to go. Fomenting hatred will only breed more violence, lead to more migration of the middle class, and to its further marginalisation.
It is very important at this critical stage in the history of our country for us to be clear about what it means to us to be Hindus, about what our relationship is to our fellow citizens of other faiths and about what our country means to us. If we do this honestly and clearly it will become obvious that the VHP, Bajrang Dal fringe is out to destroy all that we stand for. To start with the Hindu community, although sharing a common philosophical basis and view of life, is made up of hundreds of different sects with different forms of worships, food habits, etc. Add to this the caste, linguistic and regional divisions and we have a truly heterogeneous body that can prosper only if it is tolerant, secular and democratic. In all honesty our relationship to our Muslim fellow citizens has always been ambiguous. On the one hand there are so many instances where the two communities have lived harmoniously, even lovingly, together. We are proud of the common, truly Hindustani culture that we have jointly evolved encompassing music, art, literature and a marvellous cuisine. On the other hand we have had a long history of mistrust, bigotry and blood letting on both sides culminating in the violence of the Partition. This has continued with the not infrequent commnal riots, our bad relations with Pakistan, our bleeding in Kashmir and now with Ayodhya, Godhra and Gujarat.
Finally, what does it mean to us to be Indians? Again if we are to be honest, we must admit that Independence, obtained by the sacrifices of a whole generation, gave us the opportunity to once again become a nation. And because of the vision of a number of remarkable men and women we chose a Constitution based on two pillars: democracy and secularism. This was not accidental: they realised that if we, a pluralistic society, were ever to become a prosperous, harmonious, modern nation these two pillars were essential. Independence gave us the chance to put the notion of India into practice: "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; where words come out from the depth of truth... where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit... "
Immoral tools
That vision is now being systematically and deliberately destroyed by the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, BJP gang who claim to represent the Hindus of this country. Their vision for our country is one where our heads are bowed in shame and our minds are in fear, where human knowledge is a prisoner of the past, where the world is broken up into fragments by communal, casteist and linguistic walls and where truth and reason are non-existent. Let us have no illusions about what will happen. The immoral tools that these people plan to use to eliminate the minorities will then be used against us. The Law of Karma, which we all believe in, guarantees this. We all know that most Germans either supported the Nazis in their plans for the final solution or passively acquiesced; the result was a war, the loss of millions of lives and the destruction of Germany.
We are now in a similar situation. If we now passively allow the evil designs of this combine to carry out their programme in our name, we will be guilty of evil ourselves. Tomorrow, once the minorities are taken care of, it will be the turn of each and everyone of us: the Tamils living in Mumbai, the Brahmins in Chennai, the North Indians in the South and vice versa, the Bengalis in Assam, to say nothing of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes everywhere. We are all going to have to learn to live peacefully with one another and make this great experiment of India a success or we will all go down together acrimoniously, betraying the great vision of the founding fathers of this Republic. If we are going to succeed we have to put a stop right now to the use of religion as a political weapon.
This is the time to take the lead from the greatest Hindu of the last millennium, Mahatma Gandhi. His whole life was a fight against Hindu obscurantism, a fight for justice for the weakest and the poorest and a fight for truth, peace and harmony. Let us not make the sacrifices that he and thousands of others made go in vain. Now is the time for all Hindus to say loudly and clearly that the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the BJP do not represent us Hindus. Now is the time to stand up fearlessly and make clear that we are not going to tolerate any violence being committed on our Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters; that we will not tolerate the noble vision of India to be destroyed by a gang of criminals with political patronage who claim to represent us. We can do this by talking to our friends, neighbours and colleagues and convincing them that they have to act. Only the Hindus can save Hinduism from the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, BJP combine and in the process save the country.
P.N. SHANKAR
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