Someone should solve my problem – Hindu Wish list.

All talk - No action

I have never hidden the fact that my political ideology lies to the right of BJP, the reason I often find myself bundled with BJP supporters. Yet, as an active tweeter and modest blogger, I have always been amused and at times disappointed by many fellow RW supporters (RSS, BJP, Dharmic etc) generally spilling grudge and complaints in SM and doing nothing beyond. Their tone is often of a sense of hurt or at worst a reaction to an aggression from the opposing camps. They are able to articulate the grudge very well but fall short of confronting the issue or challenge or solve. If at all there is a challenge, it is often halfhearted and short lived.

The reasons are many, some systemic, meaning beyond the control of those people. But mostly it is naïve expectation from RW supporters that the wrongs are to be righted because they are wrong. They somehow believe that there is an ideal principle in power that will do it for them. That seems to be pervasive. 

When a RSS member was killed in Kerala, there was call to organize a protest march in a far-away city. I never understood how it could have mattered. I never subscribed to the populist yet unsubstantiated view that such action would somehow bring about ‘awareness’. The newspapers are already in the business of bringing awareness or stifling. Protest marches are only covered by interested media, not that I know of any other type of media, which will again be aligned with the local powers in pursuit of buttered side of the bread. 

It would have been much better if people had traveled to Kannur as a show of strength, to send a message that if small-town goons take law into their hands, there would be help coming from outside. It also would send a sense of security to the threatened RSS community in Kannur. That would have been, going the whole hog.  But Hindus did not do it, it was not due to fear or shirking of responsibilities. It is just a way of going with the flow. Taking the fight to the enemy is simply not in their gene. It is just that they are not able to escape the irrational behavior that nothing needs to be done because someone else may take care of it.

On another dimension, the #KissOfLove event organized by the rabble-rousers is getting the attention that they wanted to promote their kind of ideology. The reaction from VHP- moral policing was abhorrent as well as counterproductive. The RW is inept in forceful violent acts, except in exceptions. They should have allowed the kissers to kiss and let law take its course, if that was not illegal. Or, they could have filed a case for obscenity in public. Their children are not going to desist from kissing in the street as a result of protest, but only if the necessary values are conveyed in time.   

Moral policing is carried out most effectively by Left and Islamic groups with such brutal force, the subjugated hardly find courage to stand up to it. The history of Naxals tells us about the Left terror, delivered in a Marxist gift wrapping. The core of it was, ‘elimination of the Class enemy’, which means public execution of the socially powerful. The Naxals went around telling that those who have not ‘dipped their hand in the blood of class enemy’ are not Naxals. By the way, it is the descendants of such gory Naxals that AAP waltzes with. They stifled resistance, prevailed over Press cowed down local Government agencies as well, with brutal force of threat everyone feared. Even today, the Naxals blow up people (read class enemies) in regular interval, along the ‘Red Corridor’ that runs from south India to China. Though their acts result in death of multitude of civilians, the looney MSM name RW as dangerous elements.  

Take the case of genocide perpetrated by Kashmiri Muslims against Hindus; targeted on the basis of religion, that resulted in murder, rape, and systematic destruction of Hindu property. Under the watchful eyes of State, the Kashmiris could not exercise their rights guaranteed under Indian Constitution and had to leave their homes to become refugees within their own country. Have you ever heard the MSM call the Muslim population as right-wing, or Nazi or Fascists? It is poor Rama Sena that cannot get away with a mere beating of partying youngsters, while Muslim terror can get away with murder, rape and loot, literally. 

Or for that matter, the hundreds of thousands of Hindus who were subjected to targeted killing by Pakistan Army during the creation of Bangladesh. The Blood Telegram reveals that the word genocide was used extensively with instances to prove. The death toll is put at 300,000 and above, rape victims 200,000 and above, about 85% of them Hindus. The US, Brits and entire western world turned a blind eye to the recorded ‘genocide’, yet we do not see anyone accusing Pakistan of committing one.  We have Left and Islamists accusing India of human right violation in Kashmir. It is because, accusing Indian Government poses no danger whatsoever to the accuser. But you cannot take such chance with the Islamic terrorists. Their retribution is swift and brutal.

A riot in which both Hindus and Muslims died in Gujarat was quickly elevated to ‘genocide’ category by common agreement in MSM. The fact that it started as a riot, spread as a riot and ended as a riot did not stop the Media from calling it a pogrom. It appeared that the Media was looking for anything resembling an evidence to support conclusion they had already arrived at. The Media knew Modi Government cannot do them any harm.

But in the case of 1984 pogrom, the selective killing of Sikhs as aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, it never got termed as genocide by any MSM. No MSM carried a campaign, a tenth in intensity, of Arnab’s against Asaram. It is evident that for MSM, 3000 plus deaths is less evil in comparison to alleged sex assault of a religious leader of section of Hindus. Because the MSM knows the government in power can cause immense damage to their business while Asaram can at most send twenty guys to beat up. So finally, what gets result is the ability to instil fear.

   

In spite of Islamic states carrying out execution as punishment for being raped, apostasy, homosexuality, the Left and Liberal communities have made only muted protests. Fear is the key. The purpose of fear, as Doval said in a speech, is to not to kill but to cow down the living to submission.

I think Hindus are, as a rule, incapable of large scale violence that scares people into submission and hence cannot be ruthless killers, except in stories spun by Teestas. And such stories are spun by Teestas because it drives the over-anxious, extra-sensitive Hindu into a fit of self-loathing guilt trip.

The killings carried out by Hindus in Independent India have been sporadic, reactive, and short lived. Not enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine.  Terror is not what they are good at; however they also are not good at standing up to genocide perpetrated against them. This seems like an escapeless cycle. 

The extreme, fringe elements from Hindu organizations cannot measure up to the cruel intensity of Left and Islamic thirst for blood and gory. This may be something to do with the intrinsic Dharmic values inculcated in every Indian, if not already altered by invading and alien ideology.  Even when the ‘Lakshman-rekha’s of Dharma is breached, the Hindu extremists are novices in comparison to the Left and Islamic butchers who have been practicing this across nation claiming lives in millions.

I draw an analogy from Sankrant Sanu about women safety in India. Though our Police per thousand people is one of the lowest in the world, crime against women in India is no worse than or in most cases lower than many Western Countries where the presence of Police is very high. Sankarant argues that it is not the fear of Police that is the reason but the Dharmic upbringing that holds things together. 

This being the near impotent state of Hindu violent right, the common Hindus are hopelessly a frightened lot. They had never seen violence like this (See image) ever in their life until the arrival of Islamic butchers, as narrated by Ibn Batuta. 

Never seen before terror

Every day we see reports of brazen proselytizing campaigns being carried out by the charlatans funded by Christians from US and Europe and the most we see as response is complaint. Of course, you also see many wanting a ‘law’ to put a stop to it. They never wonder that the ‘soul harvest’ goes on without a law backing it. That is the difference. Till today there is nothing as response from any Hindu organizations, except, of course, disgruntlement and a sense of hurt.

Until the Hindus realize that nothing will change except actions to counter forces acting against Hindu interest, these things will continue. Protests are for the weaklings. Hindus’ strength lies in their Dharmic core, which needs to be awakened, as demanded in current times, again not an anathema to Dharma, power to stand up to injustices and ability to reply in a language the opponent understands.

I wrote about the lessons Hindus can learn from Game theory here http://notcovered.blogspot.in/2014/08/isis-on-rampage-how-tolerant-can-we-be.html

The protests are not going to get us anywhere. New laws are not required to stop the atrocities. Government cannot do everything for you. Direct action alone can assert Hindus as a power that cannot be ignore in our own country. The RW fringe elements are good at mohalla level threatening, beating up or roughening up but that is counter-productive as it still falls short of instilling a permanent fear. 

In a tweet, Rana Ayyub tweeted that the early Hindus were brainy because they ate roasted beef. Because she has nothing to fear from Hindus. But if someone says Muslims eat Pork, hell will break lose. There is everything to fear.

   

No one is going to deliver a solution to the confused Hindus. Not the VHP, nor the Government nor the police. And most Hindus are far from realizing it. Sad commentary.

It is a different matter that, per chance, BJP has managed to have excellent leaders who are intently focused on actions instead of empty hand wringing. The government has chosen good officers like Doval to support it. Still I wish the people also did not leave everything to Modi and other leaders but took responsibility for whatever is happening in our country.

Islam under threat - Well, it may be now!

Global threat to Islam

When ardent followers of Islam used to invoke “Islam is in Danger” to whip up the sentiments of the not so ardent followers of Islam, I used to get angry, at the brazenness with which the fanatics manipulated the truth, and the media carried their messages. The pitch was raised to screeching shrill after 9/11 and I personally felt that the Muslim leadership was working to move the guilt away from the obvious ideological flaws in Islam, as an offensive move. This is when the political opinions of the powerful Governments were influenced in favour of the Muslims and Islam, from left politicians like George Galloway and possible terrorist insiders like Robin Raphel to right politicians like George Bush who supplicated by saying “Islam is peace”. The current President of the US dined with known Hamas terrorists, providing a backhanded acceptance of Islamic terrorism as long as it is backed with ample and commensurate rationalizing propaganda.
While the West was reeling under the comeuppance for hiring, arming and regaling in the rise of all sorts of terrorists, those who make a living out of appeasement to Muslim world, probably, amply lubricated with oil-money, could not change trade to changing times, even for niceties such as national interest. US sunk in collective suicide and punished the President who stood up to the Islamic terror and elected one who would invite terrorists of same ilk to White House. Bearers in nondescript restaurants were allowed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build Islamic centres with names evoking memories of the subjugation of Christianity, right in the heart of what the terrorists considered their victory-land.
Post 2001, there was a golden opportunity for the leaders of Islam to offload certain aspects of Islam and make it the religion of the moderate Muslims. But surprisingly, 2001 and following events pushed the moderates into extreme views. It may be something to do with the extreme masculine character of Islam or it could be the fact that Islam is perceived as immutable. Whatever may be the reason in the past decade and a half, Islam has dug its heels for a fight with the rest of the world under a red herring banner ‘Islam is under threat’. And that is precisely the reason why Islam is currently under threat.
In this context the growth of ISIS emerging as the central leadership of Islamic caliphate is notable. There is no large scale opposition to ISIS from any quarters of Muslim. On the contrary Anjem Choudary is unabashedly telling the non-Muslims the risk they face https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/535323538618847233 but the non-Muslims are not paying attention.
Let us take a personal and anecdotal view of the response of Muslims in response to the atrocities committed by ISIS. Does anyone remember the response of the Muslims, moderate and otherwise, against the Danish cartoonist? Do you see a tenth of that today against ISIS? Did you see any reaction as a response from the collective conscience of Muslims repenting for the murder of Theo?
ISIS is busy killing anyone they think should be cleansed of the earth to establish Darul Islam, a religious goal for Islam. The poor and defenceless Yezidis are bearing the brunt of ISIS in the name of religion and the world is yet to respond.
The Christians in West are able to draw attention to sporadic yet targeted killing of Christians in Syria but Yezidis have had no such luck. This is not surprising either. When the Hindu genocide took place in East Pakistan, none of the Western countries cared to step in.
With the SM making it difficult for the UN to pretend nothing is happening, it has at last mentioned that the ISIS actions are “attempted genocide” somehow making us believe that until it becomes a successful genocide it is not time to worry.
Compare this to the ‘Gaza Flotilla’ raid. Do you recall the noise, the attention it got from Press, world leaders and the UN? Yet, in the case of Yezidis, though UN has circumspectly used the word ‘Genocide’, none has lifted a finger to save the lives of Yezidis, spare the women and children of rape and murder.  There is a damning silence from the same moderate Muslims who repeat ad nauseam that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ to press the point that Islam is not an intolerant religion. I think in killing the poor Yezidis, Islam is earning bad Karma by tonnes. The ‘Yezidi’ crime may as well be the last of the straws that will sink Islam globally, that will break the metaphorical axle of the cart, already laden with crimes against humanity, under the accumulating weight of Karma.
That is why, as we approach the end of 2014, I am more are less convinced that Islam is at threat and here I list down my reasons.
The two major Abrahamic religions are competing with each other to own the world, to become the monopolistic owner of the souls of the residents of the world. I already wrote about it here. http://notcovered.blogspot.in/2014/10/is-christianity-any-different-from.html
I debated with few here http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/11/raymond-ibrahim-christians-losing-everything-to-islam but none could repudiate that Christianity and Islam compete with each other and the similarities are there for all to see.
The 9/11 had opened many eyes in the US to another undeniably Islamic face, hitherto painted and presented to US population for political reasons. Saudi Arabian formed the bulk of the suicide squad that flew Planes into building, killing innocent civilians. Few would have forgotten the celebrations in Palestine on hearing of American grief. It is another matter that most would overlook and hope things have changed.
Since then, the Islam has not looked back in the US. It could do bombing at Boston, attempt a few more in other cities, infiltrate barracks to inflict damages to defence personnel, yet still manage to hold the badge of honour issued by none other than the American President. The American president was eager to educate the world that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, which is a peaceful religion while commenting on the slitting of the throat of Westerners by ISIS.
While there is nothing to say that Americans have started seeing Islam as a threatening ideology, the current election results for Senate gives rise to a suspicion that the ideology is moving from Liberal Left to Christian Right. The images of westerners being hacked, the heads of people stuck on poles and children holding the severed head of enemies have only been pushing the tolerance level so far exhibited in the US in a direction that will eventually result less free-run for Islamists.
However, the Europe has been seeing the share of right wing parties steadily growing. The right wing has a potential to reach a critical mass sooner than later, buoyed by its increasing popularity.
UKIP is one taking shape in UK which has reaped political dividend exposing and highlighting the Rotherham scandal. Paul Golding goes into Mosques, hands over Bible to the Mullahs there and urges them to convert to Islam and follow the real God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhQbOtcShJc
There are many such videos one can see in the Internet. Incidentally UKIP has this to say about their democratic victories. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30140747
France is sitting on a demographic bomb with Muslim population reaching about 10% of the total. The French, for all its nice sounding political rhetoric, are not that nice to their Muslim fellow citizens. For example, if you have a Muslim name, you have far less chance of being called for an interview, in comparison to Christians. However, Muslims are slowly beating the French on demography and soon with votes and power in democracy they will be able to force their views on French Government. Will the French sit quiet till then is a question to ponder. Or will they go the Bosnian way?
The Germans have started questioning the failure of ‘multiculturalism’ (so did the Russians) and have in effect recognized the fact that the Muslims do not integrate, a realization that concedes that no amount of bending to accommodate is going to achieve integration. By staying as a social unit separate from the mainstream, Islam has been consistently saying something that the rest refused to listen to. That, Islam is not going to be part of the host country but the host country one day may become part of Islam.
Another political party that is making news is Freedom Party of Austria which has about a third of the population sympathizing with their ideology. Party for Freedom (PVV) led by Geert Wilders is on the ascendance in Netherland where the Muslim population is about 10% of the total.
I fear that the current shift from passivity to political activism towards acceptance of Islam in Europe is not to be seen as a data point but as a direction the ideology is moving in. There is no doubt that the Muslims are adding more children to their families compared to the Europeans and as time progresses it will give more political say for the Muslims. Let us also be cautious that the reaction from the original citizenry is yet to play out in full may not be watching it helplessly.
While democracy was designed to give franchise to the citizen not based on religion, Islamic voting, as a rule, exploits it as a weakness in democracy. To say that Muslims are followers of their religion first and last is not political correctness, hence it is whispered around but not conceded in public place. However, Muslims are not victims of political correctness, admitting Islam is a nation, a euphemism for its supremacist political ideology. Religion is merely a Trojan horse.
The growth of Islam in Europe will leave only one winner, either the Europeans or Islam. Whoever wins, the decision will come after Islam is first put in danger.
The European history is replete with barbaric political settlement, every once in a while. WWI and WWII were Europe centric and together, the latter wiping out 3% of the world population. If we agree that ‘diplomacy is warfare by other means’ we also have to agree that war is a continuous state, which puts Islam in danger in Europe.
Middle East is continuously seeing a struggle between the Sunni Vs Shia struggles with Sunni getting an upper hand as a result of the affluence they attained subsequent to Oil boom. With Iran inching towards Nuclear capability and Oil price going down the entire area is open to social unrest.
ISIS fighting the Shias, Saudi and Bahrain stifling Shias are not isolated incidents without any common narrative. Even in UAE, there is a marked antipathy towards Shias that resulted in Shias having to identify themselves in Govt offices and Pakistani Shia taxi drivers having to leave UAE as their licenses were not getting renewed. All the Oil producing country has one branch of Muslims hating another.
The one place one sect of Islam will always be in danger is undoubtedly Middle East.
The emergence of Hindu majority party in India is another development that will put Islam in danger. In the last 60 after Independence, secularism has been taught to mean anti-Hinduism and pro-Islam. This is another case where the growing population of Islam demanding more than a fair share and begetting a whiplash from the majority. The limit seems to have been breached in India and the polarization of votes along religious fault lines have begun in India. Kerala and Assam saw such polarization in 2010 elections and for the first time in national election, polarization has pushed up an unabashed Hindutva party. Notwithstanding the utterings of PM Modi, this government will slowly impose pro-Hindu policies, which are not going to be palatable to the Muslims. Cow slaughter ban, Sanskrit, revising Marxian History, tightening the border with Muslim neighbours, ignoring the overtures from Pakistan till cross border terrorism is done with, economic growth, alignment with other Asian countries like Japan and Australia are all lines connecting dots that will emerge as a Pan-Hindu picture in India.
India has silently suffered the invading Muslims, the genocidal wars that killed Hindus selectively, obliterated a rich and superior culture, demolished tens of thousands of temples and enslaved Hindu women as a mark of insult to the local culture, collaboration with the British and finally dividing the country and taking away the land that was the origin of Indus-Saraswati culture. The current political mood is being compared to renaissance of Indian thoughts and culture. The reaction from Hindu population is regaining what was rightfully theirs. The idea of Islam had reduced India to a state that to sing in praise of Mother India had to be vetted by Muslim minority. The current political climate is a result of that, pushing the Muslims to a corner. In such a push back, not all acts will be moral are defendable.
In all, too many warfronts have been opened by the Muslims and everyone they picked a fight with has started retaliating. Soon with less Oil surplus money in the booty, fighting all of them is going to be impossible for Islam. Soon it will become so that there is no place safe for Muslims except their own country, provided the rulers are not inimical or the country has not fallen to anarchy.

Is Christianity any different from Islam in Indian Context?

Is Christianity very different from Isalm?

dwimidha@gmail.com

The recent attack on Parliament in Ottawa came to remind the world again of the dangers Islam poses. The recent surge of Islamic terrorism in Middle East in the form of ISIS is another one of the dominant ones on everyone’s mind. There is a supposed link between the behavior of the Muslims in a society to the percentage of Muslim population to the total. It follows a narrative that Muslim population, once introduced into a non-Islamic society, grows disproportionately.  Current statistics says followers of Islam constitute about 23% of the world population and Islam is the second largest religion in the world.

According to the same popular narrative, the behaviour of the followers of Islam becomes less flexible as their proportion in total population increases. You can read more about it here. http://heavenawaits.wordpress.com/muslim-behavior-with-population-increase/

The conclusion is, once you let Islam into a society, it overwhelms the rest of the religions and the original           inhabitants are cut off from their cultural roots, forever changed to the consuming religion. History is replete with instances to support this description; Indonesia as a country and Kashmir as a state.The Arabic influence in North Africa is proof of guilt of Islam while the rest of the world for Christianity.

There are about 50 countries in the world where the percentage of Muslims to that of the total is over 50%. And if the Muslims form majority, the country, more often than not, changes the politics from democracy to shades of Sharia barring exceptions.

On the other hand, there are about 122 countries with Christian population of 50% or more. Many of those countries in Africa and Asia are erstwhile colonies of Christian nations, their populace converted to Christianity while being under ‘undue influence’ of the rulers. In common law, it would have been set aside, but when the rulers were also dispensing ‘Governance’ there is little resistance the local populace could have put up. Countries that were ravaged by exploitative wars were easy prey to the Christian evangelists for soul harvesting, as a wounded animal to predator. The innocence of the Asian and African people have been immorally exploited by Evangelical Christianity, which moved into the colonies to rule with money, lure and fear of Christian God. The rulers brainwashed their subjects that their culture and past are despicable and offered Christianity as the only salvation. In countries like India, the indigenous egalitarian education system was destroyed to provide monopoly to Christian education that created a privileged class within the harvested and outsiders.  The famous quote of Archbishop Tutu, “I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights” only points to the slow realization of the exploited, after they had been completely soul harvested by a brutal religious regimes with a kind face. Yet not all of them chose to put on a smiley. 

While the Christian nations point the finger at Islam as brutal enemies, we tend to think of religious exploitation as something only adherents of one religion practice. When the Christians charge Islam, the charges are true to a large extent. But Christians are able to hide that they also are guilty of same crime while we get distracted by the accusation.

The two siblings of Abrahamic religions are rivals and not enemies. The religions are monotheist in nature and philosophical equivalents. Both religions are based on pedestrian premises that are beyond questioning, and both religions are aware of such shortcomings. That also makes them dogmatic belief systems.

They discourage the premises from being questioned. Both stem from the belief that the believers should not challenge, that God created the world and set rules, for if those are questioned, the answers will only lead to large scale desertion of the cult. “In the beginning, there was a God”, is the fragile premise the whole paper edifice of religions are built on. For every question, the answer is found written in the book and not what timeless truth can defend and explain.

In the middle ages Christians burnt those who had the temerity to question the premises.  Islamic prophet saw this as a systemic gap and built in a proviso in the tenet that made doubting the premise in itself (munafiq, which meant a hypocrite, literally) a sin- that is punishable by death. Suddenly the followers got cured of ‘doubt’. It was evil as it was genius. If killing is a sin, this particular one was an exemption. It put enormous power in the hands of the religious leader as well.

Both religions suffer from a false belief that it is competition that is the real enemy, running counter to ‘thermodynamic’ analogy. In this, they only reveal the mundane core of their respective belief systems. In their false belief that lack of competition will make them Monopolists, both religions imposed a duty on the believers to convert the ‘others’. Both religions divide people, one against another. Both religions propagate that God will take his revenge if you do not choose to pray to him in this world. It never crossed their minds that they made a Stalinist God in the process.
Both provide privilege to one’s own tribe and describe the other as inferior, defective and with deficiency which can only be corrected only after they embrace either Christianity or Islam, depending on who is the proselytizer. While Christianity in current era, inherently less violent than Islam, threaten the people that they will burn in hell if they do not accept Christianity, Islam, through the divine messenger, decrees to solve the problem right here. The ‘others’ can be killed, their women (wealth to create a culture) stolen, possessed in force, those who cannot be killed can always be made to bear additional unbearable liabilities (Jizya) the discharge of which is arranged if the defaulter agrees to convert.

In essence, both religions share similar goals but follow different approaches. Christianity today uses the brutal power of wealth to keep the gullible people seduced by a non-existent salvation. Islam just takes the sword. And M-16s dropped by US military. Christianity relies on the inherent human quality to show gratitude to those who helped us to corrode the souls.

When Christians come to India, they make fun of the local culture, provide education and medical assistance and in return seek religious allegiance. The rampant misuse of NGOs who get foreign funds to abet the Evangelical soul harvesters under the guise of ‘Social organization’ is another symptom of the same disease.

Conversion End, Help just means

From the Hindu perspective, let us understand that these two are here to destroy our culture and impose their own through money and force. Both are spiritually bankrupt and religiously immature in comparison to the broadminded Hindu tenets. Both are aggressively competitive and both seem to suffer from an inadequacy as a fulfilling religious experience. Hence both try to put away the one that reminds them of their deficiencies.

Not for a moment I believe that Islam is evil and Christianity is not. I am aware, in every living breath, both religions are evil; former is capable of causing mortal danger over and above the dangers latter poses. Christianity makes life hell for the indigenous people by dividing the people, one against another. Islam does the same but with brutal force.

As for as the East Asian cultures are concerned, both Abrahamic religions are enemies to their own cultures. They both attempt to overpower the local culture, establish their own as superior one. Both try to create a society which will always look outside the geographical boundaries for their masters, thus creating a weakness in the countries. Both ridicule the rich and subtly superior indigenous culture, based out of ignorance, greed, lack of humility and intolerance. Both destroy society and create Us Vs Them mind-set. Both divide the people by falsely professing that somehow those who follow their Gods are superior and selected to be saved while the others are doomed. Both put an onus, a hypocritical one, on the believers, to salvage the supposedly doomed. All these things are not based out of rational basis but because of what is written in a Book that these two groups consider divine.

From a national perspective, both are like cancer, which will kill the entity called Nation. Let us be vigilant to defeat these two enemies imported from across the border, as a nationalistic act, if not a religious one. From a Hindu point of view, following Hindu religion is compatible with Nationalism. Can the others say it without sufficient caveats as crutches?

Boycotting Haider - An appeal to Kashmiri Pandits

Boycott Haider – A letter to Kashmiri Pandits

Dwimidha@gmail.com

The movie Haider, which claims to be made on Shakespearean theme, has raised quite a lot of controversy as well as some support, not to mention measly earnings. The '#BoycottHaider' was trending for considerable time in Twitter, and many were distraught by the fact that such treasonous movie could ever have been passed by the Censor Board.

It is reported here http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/haider-1701975.html, that Haider was the last film Rakesh Kumar, the suspended CBFC Chief cleared. Another member, Nandini Sardesai, said “I don't understand why the revising committee was not approached. That man (Kumar) was flouting rules."

Obviously, everything was not above board and it is evident that the clearance given to Haider is under cloud of suspicion hence there seems to be a need for review of the certification provided. I do not say that to ‘Trojan Horse’ an intolerant view that a ban is in order. Rather, I only point to the irregularity in certifying the movie, as raised by another member of the CBFC board.

However, there were many other aspects of Haider debate that needs ample attention.

First of all, it is about the rule of jungle law the previous Government ran. All posts were sold to the highest bidder and the successful bidder collected rent. I know from second hand knowledge, from a friend of mine that PSU posts were sold by coterie of the Damad. It is only by providence the Railway board appointment was exposed; most media behaved that they have caught one exception in the system, the one transgression that besmirched the otherwise unsullied reputation of the Government. Either they lacked the intelligence or they were satisfied enough not to pursue the incident to find out if the Railway appointment was a one-off incident or one of the many in the system. In all probability, it is both.

Second, not in importance but in count, is the issue of ‘Freedom of speech’. I am a strong supporter of free-speech.      I wrote here supporting Dr Frazer, http://notcovered.blogspot.in/2014/04/dr-frazer-gets-his-right-to-free-speech.html and exercised my right to free speech.

Subject to the possible illegality of obtaining Censor certificate, I have no problem if people like Vishal Bharadwaj express their abhorrent views through such movies. If audience wants to punish him, it should do so by not paying him money for offending collective sensibilities. However I have a problem when only Vishals get the benefit of free-speech while many other legitimate claims are denied.

The one thing that comes inseparably packed with free-speech is my responsibility of restraint in the face of offending speech. Only truth can be the judge and not personal views, even if supported by books written ages ago. However, the Laws in India are loaded against free-speech, understandably because of possible violence it results in violence.

If I were to screen ‘Fitna’ in India, an emotive symbol that epitomizes the perils of holding on to freedom of expression, will I be allowed? A movie that resulted in brutal slaying of a director, Theo Van Gogh, is the ultimate symbol of freedom of expression. Do you think anyone of our movie artists like Mahesh Bhatt or Shabana or one of  Dhimmi crowds will come forward to screen ‘Fitna’, to stand with the freedom of artists to express their views fearlessly? Buckets of tears were shed for M F Hussein who fled to Qatar to avoid the cases filed against him in courts, condemning the right wing fascists, who did not take law into their hands. It only seems reasonable to conclude that these people shed tears for their own tribe under the guise of freedom. It is not freedom that they love. It only seems to be an honourable fig-leaf to cover the real intent. 

Again, in the case of #BoycottHaider, I was not in support of banning, something many in Twitter were in support of, but countering it. We need to nurture a tolerant temperament in India, a social aspect that Congress and Sickuliar Governments have stifled in the name of secularism, to please minority, whose bulk voting they depended on, so that they can continue to loot the nation at a cost of a bone. I nurture a tolerant temperament that combines my right to freedom with my responsibility not to be offended hearing to what I do not agree with.  

Let the market decide Haider's success. I am totally for bringing to the notice of people the perverse ideology disseminated by such a travesty of a movie and urging people not to see it. But that is only half the story. I also urged the KPs, many of whom have the withal to pursue, to take Rahul Pandita’s book, “Our moon has blood clots” and make it into a movie. But most responses stopped at either boycotting or banning the movie or both.  The will to fight seemed lacking.

Those people who want the movie banned are those who want things to be delivered to them at no cost. They want their problems to be solved by someone because it is ‘fair and just’. World does not run along those lines. If one is not willing to spend a calorie of energy to defend freedom, has already lost it. 

Those who want others to boycott the movie are ‘political activists’ at the most. By such campaign they bring awareness to public. They are able to prevent an injustice from being carried out and in that they are defensive as well reactive in their approach. Though they inflict damage, financial one, on the makers of the movie, to some extent a moral victory, the story does not end here nor is it as rosy as it appears. 

The resources at the hands of the movie makers is, apparently, much larger and these kinds of damages do not hurt them significantly to stop them from trying again. Those who boycotted the movie still do not know the answer. They have been told by people they trust that the answer provided in the movie is the wrong one. Nothing further.

It is akin to keeping a shelf empty; it attracts things to be filled with.

The prevalent sentiment in India is still reactive, but these sentiments are being heard only now, due to the political changes that have taken place at the Centre. Yet, the new ideology is not resurgent enough to make required impact. The right response would have been, to fill that empty space in the shelf with the right and strong message, as truthfully as possible, so that when spurious ideas of Haider variety attempt to find place they find none. That positivism is still to translate into actions on ground.

India as a Hindu nation is an idea uninterrupted for about 8000 years, albeit with glitches. The values imbibed are now almost genetically coded. The society structure is built on tolerance from ground up unlike the West, where it is imposed from top. As Sankrant Sanu said, it is in our Dharma, our gene, our blood. Our history has, except for Kalinga, no instance of ruthless or mass killing of the ‘others’. The wars had codes of conduct that is superior to what UN has now. These codes were not imposed but inbuilt.

One primary reason why the highly developed culture lost glory was not because it was won over by a superior culture. It was through violence of magnitude unimagined. It was a black swan that stuck India. The people had never seen such adharmic onslaught, violent killings, greed accompanied by loot and the desecration of sacred. The laws that held the society together was being broken with impunity and for those who believed in those laws it was an age of despondency and defeat. The dark ages and descended on them.

It is the same theme that played havoc with the Kashmiri Pandits too. Though I would like to use the adjective ‘stoic’ to the Hindus of Kashmir, I have a nagging doubt that they are really not up to it to stand up to the adharmic aggressors.

Until there is a change in Kashmiri Pandits' attitude to take the fight to the aggressors, I do not see any possibility of retrieving their loss of home, pride and honour. The fight has to be fronted by them and the rest of India will support. But the rest of India cannot fight with sparse representation from the Kashmiri Pandits. I am not for a moment suggesting that KPs should take law into their hand. At the least, they can take on the propaganda war head on. And win. The rest of India will support!