Intro: The need of the hour is to not just prevent the world from religious prejudice, but also shield the future of humankind from radicalism before it becomes impossible to struck it down.
Since the election, religious minority communities have been subject to derogatory comments by politicians linked to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups, such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) – The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
My reply—ask your soul, if the secularism and religious liberation that you are endorsing today is in true sense the genuine manifestation of our liberal code of conduct? Is the Hindu group RSS truthfully the oppressor of minority? Is it as wide of the mark for a not-for-profit association, working as the savior of humans during natural disasters, to halt the crooked conversion of vulnerable Hindus to other faiths? Dear United States, I could effortlessly count at least five recent cases of religious intolerance in your country that were aimed at Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs and their places of devotion, but just to portray ourselves as ‘seculars’, we do not come up with report cards for other nations and their respective heads. The words in the beginning of this writing have faultily judged India’s competence and will to deal with matters related to faiths and followers, and also have ill-criticised the role of Hindu groups.
Though I am not their spokesperson, let me assure you that the vandalising of churches and attacks on Christians in India were by a collection of men who we can term as anti-social and perpetrators, but cannot link them to any particular organisation. And just because groups like RSS and VHP project themselves as pro-Hindu, this does not imply their proximity with extremism or religious prejudice. Indeed, they know how to deal with religious intolerance, not by way of picking up swords or guns, but by fortifying the presence of the vulnerable and exactly analogous is what they are endeavoring. Coming to the allegation on the Indian government regarding incidents of religious fanaticism on Christians and Muslims, it is severely immature to denunciate an effective leadership solely on the basis that it is backed by considerable Hindu votes. The government’s delivery in the flood-struck J&K, where more than half the population is Muslim, was as flawless as are its labors in quake-ridden Nepal and during Indians’ rescue from Yemen.
India’s RSS, VHP, BJP or any other pro-Hindu group is as ‘Secular’ as were Sir Winston Churchill and George Washington. The purpose is not to suppress any religion or its followers, however, fortification of our faith is an obligation and we ought to take notice of the same.
Now that we are all either a Christian, a Muslim, a Jewish, a Hindu, or affiliated to some other community, let us live with this fact, and in the finest and most peaceful manner possible protect what has given us identity. Answer to questions like ‘what should be the modus operandi to save all faiths’ is quite uncomplicated, non-violent too, unless perused in the diplomatic way, as is being done globally, just in the wake of endorsing fake secularism and to hailstorm unmerited perks on minorities in respective countries.
Let me take you not very far in the history; I will recall ‘The Holocaust’, genocide of millions of Jews by the Nazis, which was more or less the depiction of world’s divide on account of religions, ethnicity and other beliefs. I must also tell the western world that though the term Holocaust is allied with the murder of six million Jews during 1940s, my country, India, witnessed, what we can call an outright carnage of humans and humanity during Islamic India, when Hindu temples were ruined, women raped and abducted, and tens of millions of followers of Hinduism were brutally eliminated; wasn’t this sheer religious intolerance?The mockery is that this slaughter isn’t talked about much, and in today’s world, with associations like UN and Human Rights Commission, and with democratic, republican and secular form of states, only minority groups can relish the right to justice and equality.
The more you blindly endorse one and the same status to all faiths and their respective followers, the more you are preparing for another ‘Holocaust’. And shall I not say that we are undergoing the same if we collectively count the number of fatalities across the world in the name of religion and fanaticism? How many incidents should I sum up, the Charlie Hebdo of France, the 9/11 of the US, the 26/11 of India, the Peshawar school bloodbath of Pakistan, the 2005 London Bombings; the list is incessant, and the manner in which we are dealing with radicalism is bound to embrace the killings of more and more innocents. Nations, specially the developed ones, may have attained nuclear armament but were you individually or even collectively able to halt the beheading incidents by the Islamic extremist group ISIS? Aren’t these a mockery of your alleged valor, and also a slap on the face in the context that you assuredly promisewell-being to your citizens?
The bitter fact, that every social and political leader of the world is aware of, but rarely does anyone declare in the public is the escalating population imbalance in almost every part of the world, where Islam can be seen as many steps ahead to other faiths. Over the next 20 years, Muslim population is predicted to grow twice as fast as the growth of non-Muslims and by the end of 21st century Islam would become world’s leading faith with 35 per cent of world’s population as Muslim. Presently, Islam is the most prevailing religion in Asia and many scholars believe that the United States has been issuing false and reduced count of number of Muslims in the US. Let me also reiterate facts that are openly accessible to world leaders. During the 1990s, 12 million more people embraced Islam than Christianity; in the US, more than quarter of Muslims are converts and it is estimated that around 20,000 non-Muslims embrace Islam every year in America. Projections based on the study of population growth say that by the year 2050 Muslim population would be the largest in India, surpassing even that of Indonesia.
If at all Muslims are growing at a much faster rate, there shouldn’t be havoc. But, the study of worldwide extremism suggests that there is something to feel nervous about. And it isn’t the Holy book, Quran; it is rather the misinterpretation of its tenets, which is the real cause of the uninterrupted rise of Islamic terrorism. There exists not a single reason to doubt human and ethical values of Muslims, but I am afraid that if we tend to cover up flaws of a cluster of Muslims, ‘the fanatical ones’, we will end up witnessing the destruction of the world. Conversion of non-Muslims cannot go unnoticed and if at all it does, be prepared for yet another era of suppression of Hindus, Christians and others at the hands of radical Muslims, the Islamists. I don’t baselessly stimulate Hinduism; Hindu ancestors, who always remained eminent and were never categorised in the corrupt wave of secularism or communalism, gave us many possessions to cheer. Here under is an extract from one of Swami Vivekananda’s speeches which concludes who is a Hindu.
“Mark me, then and then alone you are a Hindu when the very name Hindu sends through you a galvanic shock of strength. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when every man who bears the name Hindu, from any country, speaking our language or any other language, becomes at once the nearest and dearest to you. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when the distress of anyone bearing the name Hindu comes to your heart and makes you feel as if your own son were in distress.”
Dear West and the people accusing us of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (re-conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism), you may need re-worked statistical report on how the number of Muslims and Christians in India amplified so dynamically only owing to conversion of Hindus by Christian Missionaries and Islamic Madrassas. If at all you are the authentic promoter of communal harmony and equivalenceof all faiths, talk about enactment of Uniform Civil Code in India, endorse population control measures for all Indians and ask for a strict law against faith conversion of vulnerable families.
Dr Sunil Gupta (The writer is CA and member of FICCI
National Executive Committee)
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