In the absence of self-proclaimed liberal and secular ambassadors, a confident Hindu is slowly but surely emerging on social media, in politics, in boardrooms and in Lit fests and are asserting themselves and fighting for their cause.
– Kabir Pandit
Shashi Tharoor’s ‘An Era of Darkness’ reveals historical facts beyond the British rulers economic loot and plunder we knew. It unapologetically blames the British Government of the day for murdering over thirty lakh Indians by perpetuating the 1943 Bengal famine. An event which makes the Jallianwala Bagh massacre look small in comparison and has thus far been no more than an awkward undertone in our history books.
This vital piece of history would not have reached the millennials had Tharoor as the author not become an ambassador for this cause [and to market the book]. He appeared in the now viral Oxford debate and on numerous TV channels/debates to tell the tale of Indians being the ‘Victims’ at the hands of a Colonial Power. Never mind the brown sahibs may have felt betrayed by their favorite Englishman Sir Winston Churchill.
Just as the British rule was ‘An Era of Darkness’ the era before was not any less intense.
The militant Muslim invaders tried to decimate Bharat Varsha violently, from Ancient Universities, Libraries, Cultural Antiquities, Language to places of worship. One doesn’t have to be a history scholar to understand the anarchy, just visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
It is fascinating that in spite of India being colonized a few centuries before the East India Company ever stepped foot, there is no Tharoor like ambassador to question and dispel the carefully curated stories of grandeur from that period. Anyone who questions them is almost immediately dismissed with pejoratives like fascist, Hindu terrorist and so on.
Has 6 centuries of colonization of the ‘non-believer’ pushed the Hindu to being a reticent nice chap? Hindus are not expected to invade foreign territories because they never did, be unconditionally accepting of others (& other points of view) without contesting the merits, always play the praja (the ruled) and never the raja (the ruler).
Is it by design that Maharana Pratap, Raja Raja Chola, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Shivaji Maharaj and other indigenous heroes were never taught as part of history syllabus and allow us to restore some self-confidence?
This organized imposition has had such an impact on Hindu minds that any attempt to even talk about the atrocities of the past are seen as blasphemy of ‘Secular India’ which also means the custody of Nehruvian version of ‘secularism’ lies solely with Hindus.
The abrogation of 370 has provided further ammunition to professional nay-sayers to blame the real victims. The Kashmiri Hindu community which was raped, murdered and thrown out of their home land 30 years ago are now seen as the villains because they support the abrogation of what was a temporary and nonsensical provision of the constitution while the murderers were handed out roses by the Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the past.
In these 30 years MSM carried only a handful of stories of Kashmiri Hindus, who became refugees overnight in their own home state!
Every TV debate on article 370 since the 5th of August 2019 has had a bunch of Kashmiri Muslims and Leftists shouting the loudest at ‘Fascist’ Indian Government on the abrogation and resulting security related curtailment of telecommunication, but you will seldom see a Kashmiri Hindu voice on these debates. NDTV went a step further by propping up a Kashmiri Pandit who is a known separatist sympathizer just to create distraction.
Leftists in collusion with the Islamists had taken Hindu bashing for granted. But now a non-English speaking Modi has made a paradigm change simply by exuding confidence in himself and in 130 crore Indians.
There are myriad examples of Hindus being arrested for posting ‘objectionable’ content on their social media pages yet others cannot be spoken about in order not to upset India’s ‘secular’ fabric. Lynching’s (by no means justifying mob violence, the guilty must be punished) and anything to do with a cow makes front page news only if the perpetrator is Hindu.
More recently an NPR (National Public Radio a US based media organization) India Employee named Furkan Khan went on a tirade condemning a Kashmiri Hindu author and journalist over reportage which was contrarian to the ‘atrocities on Kashmiri Muslims’ narrative. When confronted she tossed familiar words which the woke folk do- ‘whataboutery’ and ‘Human Rights’ and then went on to play the victim- a standard operating procedure.
This doesn’t stop here, Ms Khan very casually wrote “If Indians give up Hinduism, they will also be solving most of their problems with all the piss drinking and dung worshipping”. Important to note Furkan Khan felt no hesitation in out rightly offending 900 million Hindus across the globe as if thinking – ‘does Hindu sentiment even exist? Even if it did Hindus are not supposed to retaliate, they never have and never will’.
Ms Khans twitter handle saw a many fold increase in followers and none of the usual comrades called her Racist or bigoted!
It’s not just her, Leftists/communists in collusion with the Islamists take Hindu bashing for granted. Every time they are caught lying they throw ‘Brahminical Supremacy’ at you. No different from the Western ‘White Supremacy’ game.
The so called right-wing is not half organized like the leftists who have had decades of monopoly over literature, history, think tanks and media among others. They have shaped the narrative which the gullible people have been buying for over 70 years.
In the absence of Tharoor-esque ambassadors fortunately there is an emergence of a more confident Hindu who is slowly but surely emerging on social media, in politics, in boardrooms and in Lit fests. Asserting themselves and fighting for this closed space. Gradually the days of kowtowing to ‘BBC accented English Speaking’ persons are changing.
Social media while providing an unrestricted platform for the leftist agenda also has a few differing voices, finally there are some non-reticent Hindus who are beginning to junk falsities and articulate their sentiments which is why Twitter handles like @HinduAmericans and many others called out Ms Furkan Khans racist tweet.
As a result Ms Khan issued an apology and deleted her abhorrent tweet following which her (now former) employer announced her resignation.
In this ‘Era of darkness’ a non-English speaking Modi has made a paradigm change simply by exuding confidence in himself and in 130 crore Indians. Hopefully many more self-assured voices like @HinduAmericans will emerge.
(The author a Corporate Consultant and writes on contemporary Indian politics and Modern Indian History.)
