INDPRIDE

A rise of nationalism cannot but be a political menace. The country would be crushed beneath the backward roll of Hinduism. The BJP is not an organisation seeking to enforce humanism and ecumenism of Hinduism. It is a well-honed instrument of fraud designed for the pursuit of power by using Hinduism much the same way that the Third Reich used Aryan purity to usher in its fascist millennium. This is the most dangerous kind of politics propagating terror, conflict and hate.

The Sangh brotherhood is at war with national institutions, indulging in debate, agenda and the battle on the grounds of its choosing. The parallels between the rise of Nazism and the tactics of the Sangh are difficult to ignore. BJP and the Sangh are perpetrators of the big lie. The similarities with Nazis abound. Hindu monolith of hatred has divisive appeal.

The above is just a sample of secularist rhetoric. Clearly there are no limits of intellectual self-hatred today which reflects confusion about values. These thoughts are put into our minds by scribes with blinkers and those who constantly give a finishing touch to it. The propaganda with enormous superfluity of efforts has exploited and manipulated the sentiments of minorities and secularists have made promises which can never be fulfilled as they undertake to alter the rules of arithmetic. We in the face of constant barrage of propaganda, fall at their feet and become victim of their deceit and indifference to national interest.

There are certain stereotypes which came to be accepted as the standard version during the years immediately after independence which are being questioned today. The polemics of individuals against majority was continuously matched by their stand, very flattering to the ethos of minorities. Such intellectuals remain sacred, frozen in doubt while dealing with the issues of exclusivity or finality of the message of God delivered through prophets or holy books or the question of monopoly of their brand in divinity for fear of annoying the minorities. They instinctively fall in line with the current fad of appeasing them. In fact such journalists have gone out of their way to keep old grudges alive. Invoking flimsy pretexts, they will heap scorn on Hindus, for example, quoting even Dr. Ambedkar who said, "Hinduism does not appeal to my conscience, my self-respect cannot assimilate Hinduism". Even mainline dailies will not flinch from using similar quotations, torn out of context, umpteen times to spite the majority.

Even economic perspective and issues, on the other hand, recede into background when such writers talk of bonds of faith as far as minorities are concerned. Their separate identity, ethos, aspirations, special ethnic genius, special religious interests, sanctions, parameters of religiosity, exclusion and even isolation and insularity are justified and given a rational garb by our forward-looking scribes. It is equally surprising that even writers like S. Tasnim Ahmed could abuse Akbar as "immoral", one resorting to "low intrigues in wooing Hindus". Akbar described as a secularist model of medieval history is given a diminutive image by progressive writers as their version of class conflict is centred round the abuse of Hinduism. Ahmed talks of "power intoxicated leaders of majority community" and gives a call for a halt to "promotion of the cultural identity of majority community by misusing public money and media".

The question again comes to the fore whether we are living in an alien land where emboldened political mischief can be so spiteful. Those who have truncated visions of the country can go to the extent of describing Hinduism as a "self-propelling and self-perpetuating mischief". They get a vicarious pleasure misusing full well the shelter they get today. They have fed the reams of papers in press by their half-truths, distortions, false stereotypes and biased presentations.

There are many who harp on the theme of separate identity for minorities. If the identity argument is pushed too far this will end up in Hindus asserting their identity more stridently and for right reasons. Our primary identity is national, being part of a cultural mainstream. In fact greatest disservice to minorities is being done by Indian intellectuals who show them the path of separatism. In any such situation the dominant identity is bound to assert itself as a logical solution.

The ugliest and most questionable feature with which a section of print media can be identified is the mountain of hate which it has accumulated against majority community in the course of an undisguised attempt to appease power-based vote-banks. While a Hindu has little or no difficulty in proclaiming himself secular because he has no prescribed dogma or a revealed religious text, others are not able to persuade themselves to the practice of secularism in terms of equal tolerance or respect towards religions.

The frustration, the sense of irreparable loss amongst Hindus is definitely to be related to this situation. They are led to believe in values and ideals which are totally unrelated to the idealism which they always cherished. They are today waiting for a push to be given to the fad of sustaining the existing power-structure which has gone against their tenets. The system will collapse once it is exposed to the sun. Political sins also thrive in secrecy and through masquerading of real intentions.

There is a gradual loss of faith in pretensions of secularism which emboldened others to hold the country to ransom at their will. The ultimate victory can never go to the fanatic - more so to the fanaticism of the minority. Those who try to keep the emotions in a state of tension will be completely isolated. An ideology is today merely the weapon of politicians. It is to them what an automatic weapon is to a soldier. Our mad politicians are persuading minorities by an ideology which appeals to hate. They create a fear in them - they are raising a Frankenstein of paranoid reactions in them. And the majority is expected to keep utmost reticent. It must remain lulled by the eloquence of secularist postures while the fabric of the nation is nibbled at.

India had started along a wrong road, which it is still traversing faster and faster towards a blind alley. We will be led to a frantic stampede toward disaster if the majority community does not wake up. It has been far too long that Hindus as a group, out of indifference, fear and withdrawal, have allowed their distinctive identity to be submerged into their political faith. The fulminations against them in the press will only unite them and help them to strengthen their cultural roots. They will be acting unwillingly as a catalyst for the historic awakening.