Random cyber firing on the Mumbai attacks

After trying desperately to wish away the ugliness of the ideological monsters facing our nation, the media has finally declared India's helplessness. Was this inevitable? Given their stand, yes. But otherwise no, it was not meant to be.

Even today, the media is not so much concerned about the political future of our nation, as it is about the likely Hindu Muslim backlash, or derailment of India-Pak "peace process" (what an insult!) that might take place. In 1947, India had a dream - a dream of creating a nation in which all religions would flourish, and where everyone would have equal opportunity and equal rights. It was no doubt a dream fit for the 21st century and beyond. Was it practical? For the Hindu dominated Parliament - the answer was YES - despite the creation of East and West Pakistan. For its educated citizens, YES! In fact a significant number of Muslims too were part of this dream. So why did this dream go wrong?

The answer is not surprising. Even discounting the fact that a frankenstein was breeding in our own neighbourhood, the Hindu establishment naively believed that if they were generous enough, the dream would have to succeed at some time or another. And therefore, while their dream was to create equality for all, religious accountability was not sought from either the Christians or Muslims. The Hindus rather naively presumed that leading by example would automatically ensure percolation of the stated ideals to all levels.

And this was their mistake. Instead of telling the Muslims - all right, Pakistan has been created - Hindus are upset - we want to be secular and will ensure we are all equal - but what will you do in return to ensure that Islam does not create a religious divide in this country again, instead of asking the Christians - yes, we are secular but this does not mean the country is a free for all for uninhibited religious campaigning and conversions, what are you going to do to provide succour to the Hindus since your essence is evangelisation? - instead of raising these unpleasant issues, our leaders assumed these could be kept on the backburner. No accountability was sought, on the contrary the objections and requests of the minorities for exceptions were handed out as generous concessions.

Just as a mother pampers her child in the hope that the child will understand and reciprocate when he or she grows up, only to find that the child is too ill equipped to deal with the travails of life and is therefore taking the anger out on her, the Hindus took on the onus of creating a pluralistic society and drew no boundaries. Brahmins? Brand them as upper caste criminials. No problem if their accesses will be reduced silently. It is not in their blood to retaliate. Maharajas? - declare them defunct. Upper castes? - we will profile them. Temples? - government takeover will be implemented with scant respect for local sentiments. Hindu practices? We will declare them unconstitutional and illegal - we don't need a consensus from the affected parties. Ban Satanic Verses? - Sure, we have to prove our sensitivities to the minorities. Send Tasleema into hiding? - okay, if that will make the oppressed Muslims feel better. Ignore Shah Bano's need for maintenance - Not an issue. Conversions? - we will classify them as religious freedom.

The cracks had to become wider. When termites eat into a giant tree, they don't need axes and bombs. They just eat it away, bit by bit. This is what the political establishment did to the Hindus. Eat them away - bit by bit. While it is true that power equations gradually corrupted the political establishment, 60 years down the line our ideological path on the absoluteness of pluralism had not diverted much from its original vision. But, we failed to establish our moral upper hand because we were convinced we had a weak spot - the Caste System.

Strictly speaking - one has to study world history and literature only a little and then compare it to the Hindu caste system. The caste system is a fact in 21st century India!! Like it or not, it is a fact. It is what a Hindu belongs to. All said and done however, the Hindu caste system is nowhere as abhorrent as the white man's slavery, Christian hatred of jews as late as the 1940s and continuing muslim hatred of the jews and hindus, communist purges and genocides across cuba, cambodia, eastern europe, china and russia, muslim christian wars in europe and tribal genocides in africa. It is funny the christian world can even claim to comprise progressive nations given their history.

Hindu history is less documented and therefore not as easily verifiable, but if folk tales and grandmother's stories are anything to go by in addition to what is there in history books, the tales rarely reflect the goriness of their western counterparts. It is not surprising that while the rest of the world was at war with itself in the first half of the 20th century, Indians were civilised enough to identify with the non-violent ideology of a lone reformer - to the extent of creating a nationalistic passion across India based on it. The identification was not an accident. It is the highest spiritual essence of the notion that is India. Even the farmer in India is capable of understanding this.

And this is perhaps what was indigestable to the self styled morally progressive thinkers of the West. How can a nation without industries, guns and printing presses actually respond to a higher philosophical call than their more enlightened citizens who were busy butchering humans in concentration camps, simply for being religiously different? For decades they had already been working on a different strategy - create a guilt complex about Hinduism being a primitive religion - not compatible with the material advancement of the West. It is said the pen is mightier than the sword. The Britishers used both - guns to fire and printing presses to denigrate Indian society. They damned both Muslims and Hindus - so badly that after Independence it took us till the IT revolution to get our sense of identity back. Which is why when the BJP came to power, Indians within and outside India who constantly faced this implied attack on Hindus, felt justifiedly proud and vindicated. The muslims meanwhile did the obvious - facing no commitment from the Indian nation to prove their first and foremost loyalty to the country, they learnt to identify themselves with other Islamic nations. It did not help that there was no firmness in the action plan of the Hindus who succumbed to caste ideologies almost as if following Western predictions by the book. The progressive hindus in fact had become victims of their own ideals - unable to deal with the guilt inducing paradox of the caste system against their proclaimed values of pluralistic tolerance.


The attacks in Mumbai are not a failure of intelligence, or of governments. It is a moral failure of the Hindus in power who do not find it within themselves to say that the caste system is nobody else's business. If the objection is to discrimination - then there is not a single religion existing that does not exercise some form of discrimination or another, some form of sectarianism or another -- and therefore no special apologies are needed from Hindus. Discrimination is human nature. We cannot wish it away. It is subdued only to the extent it is exercised in oneself - irrespective of one's affiliations. It is also the failure of the more informed Hindus to not be able to stand up and tell fellow Hindus and others that the caste system is a functional commitment, not a hierarchical hegemony. The Kshatriya may be higher in the caste order, but he has no power or authority to determine the spiritual fate of a non-Kshatriya - above or below him. In that sense Hinduism is far more individualistic and advanced than any other religion.


Today, Hindus occupying prominent positions in the government are paralysed at the decision making level, by the accusations levelled against Hinduism - most specifically the caste system. It is not lack of knowledge or capability - it is the psyche that has been attacked at its roots that prevents Indian Hindus from taking the required measures to protect themselves, their nation and their dream. A decision is far more powerful when it is executed with a sense of moral righteousness. The mind and the conscience only then cooperate fully at the execution level. The Hindu has been damned at this level. In the aftermath of various threats faced by the country, many excellent reports have been drawn out and several reformist measures have been recommended. But execution has been stalled. Why? Because the fear of the moral fallout has paralysed action. "What if I am accused of being a non-Hindu hater? What if I am accused of wanting India to be a Hindu nation? How can I seek Hinduism since it is by definition primitive - caste system being the foremost example?" So the solution becomes simple, better to pretend to be a victim of other's hatred, rather than lose imagined moral superiority and be accused of hating others. Better unwarranted sympathy than justified anger. This is why India today is in the sad state of decision paralysis, while an American President-elect and ex Secretary of State of USA are more clear cut on what to do under the circumstances.

On a recent TV show, ex Army personnel have openly declared that India can achieve no results from Pakistan, because we do not have any leverage with it. They stated categorically that to get any results from our Muslim trading partners including UAE, the only path is via Washington. What a shameful admission - considering the funds and efforts being expended to maintain a so called 'peace process' with this neighbour. How did we get to such a pitiable state? Our money, our time, our people, our efforts - and yet we cannot proudly assert our right to defend what we have built. Because we have allowed ourselves to be seen as - 'those pagan Hindus, with a primitive caste system, dowry system etc. etc" and we don't throw the opponents' aggressive past in their faces.


The battle has to be fought at the ideological level - Christians and Muslims alike must be reminded that their monotheistic religion must not and cannot be compared with Hinduism. More importantly, this monotheism was not achieved peacefully. Hinduism does not need to twist itself out of shape to become comprehensible to non-Hindus. A temple is not an equivalent of a church or a mosque. A Pundit is not the same as a Father or a Mullah. Unlike the Father or the Mullah who are moral intermediaries bearing moral authority over the lives of fellow christians and muslims, the hindu priest is merely a functional intermediary. He performs the puja on your behalf in the temple - he does not simultaneously lecture you on whether you are intended for hell or heaven or for rebirth. Neither does he tell you what is right or wrong. He recites the scriptures and the interaction stops there. Unlike churches and mosques which are designed for public gathering at predestined timings for followers to listen to sermons, the temples offer no sermons nor do they insist on a devotee's visit. A devotee comes when he hears the call and brings something along to offer the deity. This is why equating the temple with its christian and islamic counterparts has devastated temple sanctity. Hindus now believe that it is their duty to visit the temples and are visiting them without any purpose whatsoever. With thousands of devotees breaking thousands of coconuts and lighting incense sticks, who is to handle the temple premises? In accordance with the new forced trends, the temples are doing away with offerings and traditional practices. And devotees are being asked to stand further and further away from the deity - simply because the structures were never intended to be visited like museums.

It would be best if non Hindus were told just to lay off from judging us by their standards. Till the caste system evolves into a more progressive social dynamic, Hindus must recognise every caste as sacrosanct and not as a characteristic to be damned. And if the Hindu decision maker knows what decision to take, let him learn to take it and execute it with a Fully Clear Conscience and awareness of the consequences. The Jews have achieved this - first with determination followed by economic and military power. But they had only one religion to defend. Our dream is more multi pronged. Nevertheless we are fully capable of showing the world the reality of pluralism and the realisation of our Founding Fathers' dream -- precisely because we are Hindus! We need to throw out the acquired guilt first. The decisions will flow easily thereafter.