Long Live Democracy

 

Long Live Democracy

Introduction

Democracy is the best form of government we are aware of and benefitting from. It, presumably, has adequate space at least to air our opinions on matters and to seek, in the original spirit, judicial clarification and support. No doubt, progressive democracies are thriving. India is the world’s largest democracy. M.K. Stalin, after the recently held assembly elections in Tamilnadu, declared that he would take on board the opposition members – a healthy sign of democracy.

Amidst all the positive aspects of democracy, the apprehensions of Socrates and Plato still resonates some doubts, if democracy misses the purpose and spirit. Their anxiety was about ‘state that distrusts ability, and reverences number more than knowledge’ and ‘chaos where there is no thought, and the crowd decides in haste and ignorance, to repent at leisure and in desolation’. The toughest question they raised was ‘Is it not shameful that men should be ruled by orators’.[1]

Plato’s worry was that “mob-rule is a rough sea for the ship of state to ride; every wind of oratory stirs up the waters and deflects the course…that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the “protector of the people” rise to supreme power.”[2]

These intensive opinions do not out rightly invalidate democracy. However, the concerns that number is revered rather than facts, crowd decides matters, the powerful orators take centre stage and declare that they are the protectors of people are some cautious warning for all the healthy democracies.

When democracies fail to be inclusive, there is a possibility for these apprehensions to become the reality. Democracy has not failed us in spite of many exclusive voices. Nevertheless, these concerns can stain democracy and therefore need careful scrutiny.

Sita Ram Goel’s interpretation of past events and his proposals for a future India seem to be heavily inclined to fuel those fears. Therefore, his writings are analyzed here to estimate the possible impacts of his views.

 1 Invasions

Sita Ram Goel (1921-2003), a strong advocate of Hindutva, presents three past invasions of India to make his case that these invasions have adversely affected and continue to influence Indian society, education and politics. For him Indian society is Hindu society, therefore, it has a square responsibility to set them right.

 1.1 Arab Invasion

Ram Swarup who said about earlier Arab invasions that the ‘invaders ruled through the sword’,[3] was considered the mentor of Goel. The later has used the writings and opinions of the earlier as basis for most of his claims. 

For Goel, Hindu history was triumphal and it ‘suffered a severe setback only with the advent of the Muslim invaders in the middle of the 7th Century AD’.  The Hindus waged a ceaseless war ‘till the fabric of Muslim rule was destroyed and dispersed by the middle of the 18th Century’. He, rather intentionally, downplays one of the most emotive election issues of our times to his prestige that the number of converts Islam ‘could win during its long spell of seven centuries was rather small’. A reasonable question that can seek an acceptable clarification is that if the number is so small, why has it become a sensational political discourse.

However, to keep the amber simmering, he forcefully maintains that the invasion ‘crystallized one residue which we shall name as Islamism’.[4] The progress of ‘Islamism in India was rather slow’ but ‘the use of oil as a political weapon by Islamic countries and the influx of petro-dollars in plenty from several Arab countries, particularly Libya and Saudi Arabia, since the early ‘seventies’, has given Islamism in India a new glow of self-confidence in one sudden sweep’.  It is obvious that religion is purposely linked to state funding to make the claim more effective.

This is apparent from the view that ‘Islamism is only another name for Arab imperialism’ and ‘Islamism in India is now busy employing to the maximum advantage the Arab money which is pouring in through many channels and in increasing quantities’.[5] The skillful insistence that foreign forces and money influence our internal affairs is a powerful point for clever orators to provoke crowed to rise against the assumed opponent and to protect the nation from them.

 1.2 British Invasion

The second invasion was the British with ‘unprecedented superiority in the art of warfare’ and ‘a much subtler weapon of diplomacy’. They also brought with them, ‘in the form of Christianity, an ideology’ which was ‘altogether alien and intensely inimical to the basic tenets of the Hindu way of life’. Compared to Islam, Christianity was slow in progress and influence. It was only after the arrival of ‘Portuguese, that Christianity was able to harass the Hindus for some time and in some years’.[6] Goel’s attempt to connect state and religion to make his case strong continues.

          According to him, ‘the British ruled through Indology’. They took over Indian ‘education and taught us to look at ourselves through their eyes’ and ‘created a class, Indian in blood and colour, but anti-Hindu in its intellectual and emotional orientation’. He terms this issue as ‘the problem of self-alienated Hindus, of anti-Hindu Hindu intellectuals’. [7] His unhappiness about Hindus accepting British education is more categorical. Hence, he writes unlike the Arabs, the British invasion ‘gave us two residues which we have named Christianism and Macaulayism’.[8] Here too state is purposefully  linked with religion and education.

 1.3 Communism

Goel argues that the first two invasions have helped communism to penetrate India. Marx ‘fully subscribed to the theses of colonial scholarship that India was not a nation that it had no history and it was meant for subjugation’. ‘He also said that India neither knew freedom nor deserved it’ and this ‘became the faith of his Indian pupils except that while he himself voted for a British conquest many of them would be quite happy with the Muslim conquest’.[9]  Had Macaulayism ‘not prepared the ideological ground, Communism could not have made the strides it did in this country’.[10] Goel has, now linked the Arabs and British with the Communism to underline that they are all enemies with a purpose.

The view is further reiterated by saying that the Marxists found British Imperialism “progressive” and therefore, ‘they opposed the country’s national struggle as reactionary’. They learnt to work closely with Muslims both during as well as after the independence.  ‘The Communist contribution towards the creation of Pakistan was next only to that of the Muslim League’ Marxism was Macaulayism at its most hostile. It blackened Indian history systematically and ‘saw in Hinduism not a great religion and a great spiritual civilization but only communalism’.[11] These thoughts are often echoed in the statements of politicians who promise to free institutions from leftist ideologies.

Communism comes in conflict with positive nationalism’, that is ‘a nationalism which draws its inspiration from its own cultural heritage and socio-political traditions’. The Communist ‘hostility to positive nationalism is permanent’.

It was hostile to Hindu society and culture and was ‘bent upon destroying Sanatana Dharma and Hindu society. It is, therefore, in its interest to prevent the Muslims and the Christians from moving towards the main-stream of positive nationalism’. The major accusation is that “the main strength of Communism in India springs from colossal Soviet finances which pour into its coffers through many channels and in increasing amounts.”[12] Foreign funds destabilize India is a catch point for powerful oration, crowd pulling and promising protection to the nation.

 2 Effects of Foreign Rule

The foreign invasions and domination grievously affected Hindu religious life (spiritual), educational (intellectual) institutions and politics. These can be elaborated further to understand the inherent design of Goel.

 2.1 Religious Effects

 The Vedic Sanatana Dharma ‘practiced peace among their own followers as well as towards the followers of other paths’ and in it “a seeker can take to (adhikara) whichever discipline suits his adhara (stage of moral-spiritual preparation).”[13] In the past, ‘India rose through sanatana dharma and it is also to rise for it’ now and in future.  Of course, uncritical promotion of adhikara, adhara and Istadevatha is in a way passive acceptance of prevalent inequality.

          Goel further warns, “Hinduism is the principle of India’s self-renewal. Anything that hurts that principle hurts India, hurts its civilizational role, therefore hurts future religious humanity.”[14] This is a typical example where orators influence the mass that great religious riches are maligned and it hurts our sentiments. Therefore, rise up to protect it.

  2.1.2 Gandhi and Hinduism

 Mahatma Gandhi is accused of raising ‘Jesus to the status of a spiritual giant, and Christianity itself to the status of a great religion as good as Sanatana Dharma’.  Gandhi’s ‘mindless slogan of sarva-dharma-samabhava was proving to be an effective smokescreen for Christian missions to steal a march against Hindu religion, society and culture’ [15] Goel used the same argument to suggest that Gandhi startled Christianity. Ambiguity and paradoxes fail to block powerful orators from reaching out to large numbers.

After independence “a new breed of ‘Gandhians’ became busy floating voluntary  agencies and looking forward to being funded by Western Foundations. Some of these Foundations were avowedly dedicated to promoting only Christian causes.”[16] Therefore, Gandhians became, in due course, active or passive accomplices of the Christian missions.      The outcome of this is that “today all religions are regarded as equal and Hindus feel no special responsibility towards Hinduism.”[17] This regret shows that the inherently divisive principles like Varna, guna, adhikara, adhara and istadevatha will never accept attempts towards unity and equality among religions.

 2.1.3 Hindu Society

There was time when ‘Sanysins and monks provided leadership to the Hindu society’. Only, during the final phase of the struggle for independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was inspired by the Soviet Union and Communism, ‘had harboured a deep-seated animosity against Hindu society and culture’ in the name  of secularism.

          Hindu society has remained incapable of defeating secularism, because ‘the society is ‘defensive without understanding this perversion of Secularism’. Goel seems to suggest that forceful days are ahead to evict secularism.

It is also bemoaned that the Hindu society ‘keeps on repeating the slogan of ‘sarva-dharma-samabhava’ – equal regard for all dharmas – with regard to Islam and Christianity’. To entertain samabhava (equal regard) towards Islam and Christianity ‘is to extend invitation to doom’.[18] These exclusive oratories seem to keep the anger swelling.

Other accusations are that many Hindus cherish the great spiritual traditions of Hinduism and its scriptures like the Gita and the Upanishads but do not have an equal enthusiasm for ‘the Hindu society which has honoured and preserved these traditions and scriptures down the ages’. Similarly there are Hindus who  proclaim with great confidence that Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) can never die, without knowing that Sanatana Dharma will surely suffer an eclipse and no more ‘if there is no Hindu society to sustain it’. Further, many Hindus are legitimately proud of ‘Hindu art, architecture, sculpture, music, painting, dance, drama, literature, linguistics, lexicography, and so on’ without considering that these  ‘will die if Hindu society which created these are no more there to preserve, protect and perpetuate it’.[19] Likewise, “Once when Hinduism was strong, castes represented a natural and healthy diversity, but now in its present state of weakness these are used for its dismemberment.”[20] Goel seems to acknowledge that Hindu Society has become weak because of external influences but implicitly appeals to reinvigorate it with much force.

A more serious allegation against the Hindus is that ‘the Hindus lost some of their vigour and vitality and vigilance, and neglected the art of warfare which was acquiring new dimensions in neighbouring lands’. Therefore, “Let no Hindu worth his salt remain complacent.”[21] Appeal to make a religious community militant-like, can potentially instigate violence towards others and appeal the orator to become their protector. These notions are implicitly and at times explicitly present in the writings and speeches of many like Goel.  

The wrong and dangerous premise is that ‘the society which is known as Hindu society at present is the national society of India’ and ‘the history of the Hindu society is the history of India’.[22] India has been asleep for long, ‘but let us hope that the difficulties would be overcome and Hinduism will come into its own and recover its self-nature and regain its natural pride’.[23] These are the narratives that will challenge the spirit of inclusive democracy and strive to instill exclusive singularities.

 2.1.4 Hindu Culture

For Goel “Hindu society is the only significant society in the world today which presents a continuity of cultural existence and functioning since times immemorial.”[24]

It ‘was a revered culture throughout the civilized world’ and was ‘nourished by the Sanatana Dharma’ and it ‘is the national culture of India’.[25]  There is a need for a strong ‘Hindu society to sustain it’.[26] This notion has serious repercussions.  How can Hindu culture be Indian culture, where there are many cultures? Promoting one particular culture is against the multicultural ethos of our times.

2.1.5 Historians

It is alleged that historians have falsely described Hindu society. The dominant school of western historians and their Indian disciples ‘presented this history as a series of successful foreign invasions to which Hindu India invariably succumbed’. ‘Aryan invasion of India in the second millennium BC’ too was their invention.

The Aligarh school of historians are of the view ‘that Hindu society being basically an oppressive and exploitative society since its very inception, the invaders did not have to mount much of an effort’ to break its defenses.

Agreeing with the Aligarh view, the Marxist historians upheld ‘that the invaders were not only liberators on the social and political plane but also great incentives to forces of production’. To make events more twisted, Goel writes that ‘inspired by Mecca and Moscow’ the motive of these Aligarh and Marxist historians  ‘are to malign and misrepresent Hindu history in order to denigrate and destroy Hindu society’.

He credits ‘responsible Western Historians’ for agreeing that ‘whenever the Hindus suffered a defeat it was largely due to their neglect of and consequent inferiority in the art of warfare rather than any serious defect or deficiency in their social system or cultural milieu.”[27] Here Goel accepts that Hindus were weak in some areas but these narrations presuppose a new Hindu Indian history.

 2. 2 Intellectual Impacts

The second impact of the invasions was on education or intellectual system. Macaulay, after the British Government of India had completed a survey of the indigenous system of education in the Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay and Madras, preferred ‘a new system’ (Western) of education in India. According to Goel the British discarded and left this indigenous education to die ‘not because its educational capacity was inferior but because it was not thought fit for serving the purpose they had in mind’ that is, ‘to introduce the same system of administration in India as was obtaining in England’.

          Again the ‘new system of education aimed at promoting and patronizing a new Indian upper class who, in turn, would hail the blessings of British Raj and cooperate in securing its stability in India’. Further, it slowly ‘corrodes the soul of a culture and corrupts a social system’ and its target is every section of Indian society. Moreover, it ‘expresses itself in a whole life-style which goes on rejecting and replacing Hindu mores and manners indiscriminately in favour of those which the West recommends as the latest and the best’.[28] Here, progressive attempts at knowledge have been undermined for the sake of protecting the past notions in vogue.

In the same line, it is claimed that the present scholarship of India is not its own, ‘it is borrowed from the West’. Today, Indian intellectuals ‘look at their country, its culture, scriptures, religion and history through the eyes of our masters’. ‘Hinduism to us is now only a name for Brahmanism, sati, idol-worship, cow worship, snake worship, and above all caste and caste oppression.”[29] It is evident that clever orators do not entertain self-criticism and present it as destructive in order to galvanize crowed.

The progressive Hindus are termed as ‘they lack leadership; the Hindu elites have become illiterate about their spiritual heritage and history and indifferent and even hostile towards their religion’. This is forcefully presented further as “India’s higher education, its academia and media are in the hands of Hindu-hating elite. India’s history is written by people under the influence of old Imperial schools. They tell you how Muslims and Christians came as liberators from the shackles if Hinduism.”[30]

Goel laments that ‘there is a widespread impression among “educated” classes in India that this country had no worthwhile system of education before the advent of the British’. The appeal that ‘the Hindu may sometimes need to feel some pride in his ancestral heritage’[31] is a step forward towards electrifying crowed which ‘decides in haste and ignorance, to repent at leisure and in desolation’.

 2.3 Politics

The third effect of the invasion was on the Indian political system. Fear is created that external influences are affecting Indian political system, with the one possible exception of BJP because ‘it is not hostile to Hindu India and Hinduism is not a dirty word to it as it is for the other parties’. Further, the BJP is a replica of the Hindu society and it represents all its weakness: its lack of confidence, initiative and fighting spirit’.[32] Therefore “what India needs is not another party under the same prevailing ideological influences but Hindus opened to the message of ancient teachers, Hindus who are also sadhakas.”[33] This is the complete unveiling of the entire schemes of a political party. Though it challenges democracy, powerful orators secure necessary number even if it is against the principles of the constitution and plurality of the country.

 2.3.1 Secularism

Secularism is a principle strongly decried in this process. Accordingly, in the modern West, secularism was ‘a humanist and rationalist revolt against the closed creed of Christianity and stood for pluralism such as has characterized Hinduism down the ages’. Pandit Nehru ‘had perverted the word and turned it into a shield for protecting every closed creed prevailing in India at the dawn of independence in 1947 – Islam, Christianity, Communism’. What is very hard to understand is if Hinduism had been symbol of pluralism all through, why Christianity and Islam are anathema to it.

The argument against secularism is carried further by insisting that Nehru has made it ‘not only the most fashionable but also the most profitable political term for every enemy of India’s indigenous society and culture’.  He became ‘the leader of a Muslim-Christian-Communist combine for forcing Hindus and Hinduism first on the defensive and then on a run for shelter’.[34] We have ‘invited great trouble for ourselves by importing the alien concept of secularism from Europe’.[35] It is more serious that the word was inserted into the Indian constitution ‘arbitrarily by Indira Gandhi during the infamous Emergency (1975-77)’.[36]  It is a sad reality that people failed to appreciate the foresight  to protect India from mere reverence for number.

Of course, for the orators secularism can be relevant to India only ‘to establish complete cultural freedom in the Hindu homeland by eliminating the fanaticism which had survived in the form of Islam and Christianity’. Strange and venomous indeed is the interpretation and the agenda.

It is also appraised that now secularism implies, ‘applause for Islam and Christianity’ and denouncement of Hinduism as ‘a nest of narrow-minded and aggressive communalism’. Still further, ‘Muslims and Christians were given complete freedom to propagate and spread their creeds to the best of their capacity’.[37] This, of course is not a new idea, but the fact remains, that democracy has the responsibility to be cautious to curb theses notions from taking centre stage.

          More serious is the attempt to twist secularism and call it ‘high treason to the Indian nation’ and instigate the crowed that ‘Hindu society will have to tell the secularist that a Hindu cannot be a communalist in his own homeland’. For Goel an honest Secularism ‘would have held up Hindu society as the model of a secular society’ and. ‘been a defender of Hindu society’ [38]  Bizarre indeed is the aggression and communal scheme.

 3 Against Christianity

          We live in a secular country and celebrate freedom of religion granted in the Indian constitution. The scheme of Goel against Christianity is extremely impolite. This he does with his own sense of history and inference.

 3.1 First Christian Presence in India

It is a fact that St. Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ brought the gospel/Christianity to India. Therefore, Christianity in India is an indigenous religion and is as old as Christianity itself. To thwart the fact, Goel argues that the earliest Christians in Kerala were known as Syrian Christians and now they ‘take pride in calling themselves St. Thomas Christians’.[39] It is a fact that captivating oratories are entertaining rather than real facts.

According to Goel, the Syrian Christians were  ‘mostly refugees from persecution in Syria and later on in Iran’.  Most of them were also ‘heretics in the eyes of Christian orthodoxy’.  ‘Later on, they were joined by refugees from Armenia flying from Christian heresy-hunters’.  For the refugees the Hindu Rajas gave ‘land and money grants for building houses and churches’. The local “Hindus in general made things so pleasant for them that they decided to stay permanently in Malabar.”[40]  These refugees came to be known as Syrian Christians in the course of time.

The Christians of Malabar whether Syrian or St.Thomas Christians ‘kept their counsels to themselves’ in early days and “they came out in the open only when the Portuguese provided protection and saw to it that Hinduism kept mum.”[41] Here Goel, connects religion and state to make his case severe against Christians. To make it well poised for a specific audience in mind, early Christians in India are pictured as unwanted refugees from other countries. Orators and writers who seek to establish the prestige and honor of their own religious traditions unfortunately fail to credit the same to people of other faith traditions. Is it not a deplorable condition that healthy democracies should work tirelessly to overcome?


3.2 Presumed Change in Attitude

To vent his antagonism against Christianity, Goel presents it as a religion which is against the state and Hindus.  He refuses to admit St. Thomas and continue to state that the Syrian Christians changed their attitude when the Portuguese (pirates) arrived on the scene in the sixteenth century. According to him “they immediately rallied round the Portuguese and against their Hindu neighbors’.[42] Their language became ‘as crude as in its homeland in Europe, and its methods as cruel’. Francis Xavier was the ‘patron Saint of those pirates’.[43] Even Goel called, Francis Xavier ‘a rapacious pirate dressed up as a priest’.[44] His belittling and aggressive language is obvious as he writes that ‘the Catholic church hails an arch criminal like Francis Xavier as the Patron Saint of the East’.[45] He also condemns that Christianity was silent about the atrocities of Portuguese dispensation against others.

It is accused that Francis Xavier ‘made forcible conversions, demolished Hindu temples, smashed Hindu idols, and inaugurated that anti-Brahmanism which has by now become the sine qua non of all progressive thought and politics in India’.[46]  Goel seems to accept the past as it is and wish to remain uncritical about it.

Robert Di Nobili, a Jesuit, ‘decided that he would disguise himself as a Brahmana and preach the gospel by other means’. Goel calls him ‘a desperate and despicable scoundrel’[47] and declares that his followers believe that Hindus could be reached by fraud.

          The German Lutheran missionary, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, thought the Hindus belief system is surrounded in ‘a cocoon of foolish beliefs, in a multiplicity of gods, other celestial beings and demons, and a system of abstract philosophies concerning man and the soul’. [48] Although he had taken help from the Brahmans, to understand subjects, he did not consider their views in matters of religious questions.

Goel’s disregard for the services of the early missionaries and his failure to notice anything good from them are intentional attempts to deliberately present Christianity with utmost contempt to his audience.

 3.3 Arrival of British

The continued victories of the British in India made the missionaries to think that the victories were not the results of superior warfare but the superiority of the Christian creed by which the British generals and soldiers swore. Therefore, ‘they immediately started pouring venom on Hindu religion, culture and society.”[49] And, the missionaries employed various methods ‘to harangue and/or hoodwink the unsuspecting Hindus’. More intriguingly Goel develops his plot that, “what looms large at the back of all these methods is the mammoth finance which flows in freely from the coffers of the Christian churches and communities in Europe and America.”[50] This assumption is the cause for the careful monitoring of funds flowing in to India, particularly to Christians. This is done with the notion that Christianity will suffer or disappear if foreign resources are curtailed.

In the opinion of Goel, Christianity was thriving in India under the British rule. The phase ended with the ‘rise of Hindu reforms movements, particularly the clarion call given by Maharishi Dayananda and Swami Vivekananda’.[51] This is intended to suggest continuous pressure on Christianity from different angles.

 3.4 Independence and After 

Independence of India became ‘boon for Christianity’. ‘right to convert Hindus was incorporated in the Constitution’. Jawaharlal Nehru ‘promoted every anti-Hindu ideology and movement’ under the cover of secularism. Those followed Nehru continued to raise the issue of ‘Hindu communalism’ as the most frightening phenomenon.

 Christian missionaries could now denounce as a Hindu communalist and chauvinist, even as a Hindu Nazi, anyone who raised the slightest objection to their means and methods. All sorts of ‘secularists’ came forward to join the chorus. ‘New theologies of Fulfillment, Indigenization, Liberation, and Dialogue were evolved and put into action. The missionary apparatus multiplied fast and became pervasive’.

This was the best period of Christianity in India. It now stood recognized as ‘an ancient Indian religion’ with every right to extend its field of operation and expand its flock. The seeming setback for Christianity during this period were ‘K.M. Panikkar’s book, Asia and Western Dominance, published from London in 1953, The Niyogi Committee Report published by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, and OM Prakash Tyagi’s Bill on Freedom of Religion introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 1978’.[52]  They highlighted the Western dominance through Christianity (the imperialist character of the Christian doctrine), unfair means adopted by missionaries and need to curtail freedom of religion, respectively. Consequently, sporadic reaction to Christianity was emerging from different quarters.

 3.5 Reactions

Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj ‘were the earliest expressions of this Hindu spirit of resistance’. Raja Ram Mohan Roy had ‘demolished the most important Christian dogmas’ although he had kept Jesus on a high pedestal. Perhaps he was convinced that Jesus was a great moral teacher. Brahmo Samaj had to pay a high price for his praise of Jesus. ‘Keshub Chunder Sen who took over the Brahmo Samaj at a later stage, became infatuated with Jesus, so much so that he got alienated more or less completely from the Hindu society at large’.[53] We have to be grateful to Goel for uncovering the real intensions of Brahma Samj. It applies to Arya Samaj as well. Often these movements are uncritically studied in theological seminaries in India.

 Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophical Society ‘exposed the spiritual and moral claims of Christianity’. The chief apostle of Theosophical Society in India, Mrs. Annie Besant, ‘inspired no small pride in the Hindu heritage’. The Ramakrishna Mission also came to the rescue at a later stage. Mahatma Gandhi ‘gave no quarters to Christian theology or to Jesus Christ as the only Son of God and Saviour of mankind’.[54] Though ambiguous in interpreting the movements, the fact remains that Christianity is viewed with much scone.

Goel’s view on Gandhi was unsteady. Earlier, his sarva-dharma-samabhava was abused for treating Christianity and Islam on par with Hinduism. Now, the same principle is used to pull down Christians.  According to Goel, Gandhi’s  slogan of sarva-dharma-samabhava  threw Christian missionaries ‘on the defensive and forced to change their language. The foulmouthed miscreants become sweet-tongued vipers. Now they are out to “share their spiritual riches” with Hindus, reminding us of a beggar in dirty rags promising to donate his wardrobe to wealthy persons’.[55] This change of attitude was reflected in the Tambaram Conference of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1938, which decided to reformulate Christian theology in the Indian context.

  3.6 Reaction to Action

The simmering Hindu reactions toward Islam (and Christianity) gradually developed in to an action plan after the famous historical 1981 ‘mass conversion of Harijans to Islam at Meenakshipuram in Tamil Nadu’. Hindus synchronized the conversion event with a ‘renewed Muslim aggression’ and ‘Pakistan-backed terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir’. The Sangh parivar ‘was startled by the rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1984 elections to the Lok Sabha, and decided to renew its Hindu character’. The shocking fact is ‘the Raamajanmabhumi Movement was the result’ of these reactions converging into action. In the words of Goel ‘the Movement was aimed at arresting Islamic aggression’.[56] It is an eye opener to the fact that democracy can be misused on the basis of number and oratory skills. And the powerful orators can claim protectors of a numerically huge group.

This is only one scheme, which was successful and unveiled to us. In democratic system there is still large space for numerically strong to exploit. Therefore, the criticism of Greek philosophers are still relevant to make our democracy grow healthy.

 3. 7 Serious Allegations against Christianity

The people like Goel in India still think that the ‘native Indian rulers have proved far more helpful to the Christian missions’. This includes ‘constitutional protection to Christian propaganda’ and free access ‘for the missions to enter into areas from where the British had kept them out’. After ‘independence, ‘Christianity has come to acquire a prestige which it had enjoyed never before in the country’.  It is ‘financed almost entirely from abroad’.

‘Converts to Christianity in the North East and Central India have constantly evinced separatist and secessionist tendencies’. Christianity’s ‘mischief to the country and its culture, has yet to be learnt’. [57] This is the way the crowed is kept guessing for more.

Christianity has never been a religion; its long history tells us that it has always been a predatory imperialism par excellence. Therefore, the encounters, if any, between Christianity and Hinduism should not be treated as dialogue rather should be viewed as a battle between two totally opposed and mutually exclusive ways of thought and behahaviour.[58] Peace is not an option for skilled orators. They prefer heightened tension.

 4   Polarizing for Control

The narrative declares that the Arab and British invasions have left a powerful legacy behind in the form of Islam and Christianity. This legacy continues because after independence in 1947 India is ruled by anti-Hindu Hindus i.e. people who reason.

Therefore, Hindu society is now faced with imperialist ideologies in the form of Christianity and Islam.  The ideologies which came with those armies should now find no place in India. They, too, have to be defeated and dispersed. Hindu society has to recover the ground that was lost to these ideologies during periods of Islamic and Christian expansion and domination. Those sections of Hindu society which were forced or lured into the folds of these ideologies have to be brought back into their ancestral fold. This is the minimum task which Hindu society has to set before itself. The maximum task is to carry the campaign against these ideologies into their own homelands, and to free large sections of mankind from the abominable superstitions which breed intolerance and aggression. Whether the many God-men who started centers in different countries are carriers of these schemes is a sincere question.

Hindu society is also ‘making a serious almost a fatal mistake in appealing to these ideologies in the name of reason and morality’. Most intimidating sermon is that ‘the menace has to be met by methods and means which are suited to the nature and magnitude of the menace’. The “Hindu society has yet to proclaim that India has always been and will always remain a Hindu homeland, and that people who fail to come to terms with Hindu society and culture have no place in this country.” [59]  unfortunately, this is what is influencing democratic discourses in the resent times.

Goel finds that positive nationalism is the solution for all the enlisted problems. The base and source for positive nationalism is Sanatana Dharma and the long saga of Hindu history, respectively. Hence, positive nationalism draws its inspiration from its own cultural heritage and socio-political traditions.  The Muslim and the Christian communities can share in positive nationalism if they revise ‘the premise of their exclusive creeds in favour of the universal principles laid down by Sanatana Dharma’.[60]  There is little chance that Hindu society will ever be able to contain Christianity or Islam if it ‘continues to regard these aggressive and imperialist ideologies as religions, and extend tolerance to them’.[61] Reverence for number undermines cooperation and tolerance. Rather, it dives into intimidation and super sensational sentimentalism.

That is why it is asserted by great orators that ‘India is entering into the second phase of its freedom struggle: the struggle for regaining its Hindu identity’.[62] The orators hesitate to accept the identity of others.

 5 Conclusions

 Fears about democracy that in it there is a possibility that ‘number is revered rather than facts’, ‘crowd decides matters’, ‘the powerful orators take centre stage and declare that they are the protectors of people’ are not uncommon.

The process is operative in narratives/oratories that are deliberately interlinking religion, state and finance in order to create fear among people that there is a systematic external attempt to destabilize our religion, culture, politics and nation as a whole.

          A very dangerous portrayal that ignites crowed is that imperial forces have left our country but they continue to influence us through their ideologies, education and funding mainly for religious causes.

          Creative and progressive political and religious principles are misinterpreted to hurt the sentiments of the people and provoke them to be aggressive in their approach to other communities than their own. Added to this is molding of a false ego to pride one group greater than others and therefore by any means others have to be forced out. This ego becomes dynamic when connected with the obligation of restoring the past glory.

In the process, a violent attitude is stirred against our own neighbors who follow different cultures, religion, language and life style. Once the ground is prepared, other dimensions are included to the ego, like there is a need for corrections in the course of events in the country because they are falsely presented to belittle our heritage. This drives us to give erroneous and strange interpretations to education, history, politics, religion, culture and nation.

The worst form of the narrative is that, even our independence struggle is not successful; we need another freedom struggle to instill our past glory, if necessary by force.

Of course, these narratives are helpful for orators to stimulate sentiments. They exist, side by side but not with the possibility that they will not thrive always. That is the promise and possibility of democracy given to all of us. We cannot be idle and ignorant to allow powerful oratory to decide everything, because that will go against progress in every aspect of life be it, religion, culture, politics, education, lifestyle and freedom to name a few. Brighter and progressive aspects of democracy remain to be fully appropriated and realized for the growth and fertility of democracy.

 



[1] Will Durant, The story of Philosophy (New York: Pocket Books, 2006), 10.

[2] Will Durant, The story of Philosophy (New York: Pocket Books, 2006), 17.

[3] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 45.

[4] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 5 - 7.

[5] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 13 - 14.

[6] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 5-6.

[7] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 45.

[8] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 7.

[9] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 46.

[10] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 16.

[11] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 46.

[12] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 40-47.

[13] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 2.

[14] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 46-47.

[15] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 6.

[16] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 10.

[17] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 49.

[18] Sita Ram Goel, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion, reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 27 - 28.

[19] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 1-2.

[20] Ram Swarup, Hindu View of Christianity and Islam, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 113.

[21] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 2.

[22] Sita Ram Goel, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion, reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 29.

[23] Ram Swarup, Hindu View of Christianity and Islam, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 114.

[24] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 1- 3.

[25] Sita Ram Goel, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion, reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 29.

[26] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 1.

[27] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 3-4.

[28] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 25-30.

[29] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 51.

[30] Ram Swarup, Hindu View of Christianity and Islam, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 113.

[31] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 31.

[32] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 51.

[33] Ram Swarup, Hinduism and Monotheistic Religions, 2nd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 59 .

[34] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 6 - 7.

[35] Sita Ram Goel, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion, reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 21.

[36] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 7.

[37] Sita Ram Goel, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion, reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 24-26.

[38] Sita Ram Goel, Defence of Hindu Society, 3rd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2018), 99-100.

[39] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 1.

[40] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 4.

[41] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 17.

[42] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 6.

[43] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 3.

[44] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 11.

[45] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 16.

[46] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 18.

[47] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 14-15.

[48] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 21.

[49] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 18-19.

[50] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 22.

[51] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 4.

[52] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 4-5.

[53] Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304to 1996), 5th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 55.

[54] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 20.

[55] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 4.

[56] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 5.

[57] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 24 - 29.

[58] Sita Ram Goel, Pseudo-Secularism: Christian Missions and Hindu Resistance, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 1 - 2.

[59] Sita Ram Goel, Defence of Hindu Society, 3rd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2018), 8.

[60] Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Society under Siege, 8th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2019), 40 - 42.

[61] Sita Ram Goel, Defence of Hindu Society, 3rd reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2018), 85 - 86.

[62] Ram Swarup, Hindu View of Christianity and Islam, 6th reprint (New Delhi: Voice of India, 2020), 112.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Light Shines in Darkness (Christmas Message)