Hindus in Hindu Rashtra book - my impressions
I got this book through one of my relatives whose political leanings I do not know. Anyway it doesn't matter here for reviewing this book. Except Historian Sitaram goel's book 'Hindu temples - what happened to them' , I have never read any book by a hindutva writer. The author of this book "Hindus in Hindu Rashtra" is Anand Ranganathan. I already knew about him as a Right wing propangadist and writer in English along with people like J Sai Deepak & Vikram Sampath. These people are very popular through their speeches and discussions on Youtube channels and I have watched some of their videos. They were all very articulate and communicative to drive their points hard. The agenda, of course is Hindutva.
Let's come to the book. We will see the some of the arguments put forth by the author on the plight of hindus in India and my views on them.
1 Hindus are treated like Eighth class citizens in their own country and victims of State sponsored apartheid.
In my opinion no one is ill treated just because of being Hindu in the country. But if the person is from a lower caste or a Dalit the possibility of ill treatment is more. As lower castes and dalits are getting united politically, the changes do come in their lives albeit slowly. If the author is really interested in the emancipation and uplifting of hindus he must discuss the economic issues of poor Hindus like access to education, health, employment opportunities, water, housing etc rather than the non issues ( non issues for the majority hindus who find it difficult to make both ends meet ) he discussed in this book. He waxes eloquently about settling scores with our minority brothers and sisters for what their forefathers supposedly dis hundreds of years before. The fact is the majority of upper class muslims already left India to Pakistan whose forefathers probably inflicted cruelty and barbarism upon the non muslims. The remaining Islamic population in the country majorly consists of poor and lower class muslims who got converted due to the earlier oppression at the hands of upper class segments of hindus. They are as hapless and powerless now as earlier. What's the point of finding faults with the innocent poor minority people of this country. It is not that there are no issues. But to address the issues at hand you must direct them against the real targets to solve them. Shooting in the air. This is what the author is trying to do. Real progress of hindus can happen only when real issues are discussed by intellectuals in the country. When you don't discuss crony capitalism & skewed distribution of wealth no change can happen for the common people whether they are hindus or from any other religious faith.
2 Minority appeasement is on unprecedented scale since the days of Gandhi.
In the days of independence movement Mahatma Gandhi tried his very best to foster unity between hindus and muslims and unfortunately he paid with his life for the same. During his days he exhorted hindus to be large hearted as majority in the country. Some of the hindus paid heed to it and some didn't. Nehru did give some concessions to Minority population especially Muslims for giving them additional reassurance to make them feel part of the country. It is debatable whether all of them are needed after more than 70 years of independence. Muslims are to be part of that introspection to decide whether they are needed or relevant. While scrapping them no political party should be allowed to exploit them for their own gains.
3 Hindu temple management is in the wrong hands. Almost everywhere in the country they are mismanaged.
There are issues with the management of temples throughout the country. True. I agree with the author's statement. But the author does not seem to suggest any workable solution to the issue. If the temples are to be removed from governmental control and are to be given to some privately managed trust or a simililar kind of set up, plethora of new problems will crop up and the corruption and mismanagement level will go up manifold. So the people who advocate release of temples should fight for the same after giving viable and better alternatives. As of now I don't see better solutions coming from those demanding it.
4 Plight of Kashmiri Hindus are very pathetic and governments are oblivious to their situation including the present one.
Here no one will disagree that concrete steps must be taken for relocation of Pandits in the Kashmir valley. But at the same time we must not forget BJP is also squarely responsible for the plight of Pandits along with other Mainstream political parties. We shouldn't forget that the bjp was supporting the central government when the Pandits were hounded out of their homes in the year 1991. Nobody should be allowed to take political mileage out of this humanitarian issue.
5 Places of worship Act 1991 is against Hindus reclaiming their temples.
After demolition of Babri masjid and the unfortunate events happened in the country following it, no right thinking person will wish to repeat the same invoking some other religious place. So many lives were lost and the nation had lost valuable time of more than 30 years discussing this issue. One issue hijacked the nation and all other important matters were sent to back burner. The country cannot afford to waste time discussing similar issues. So invoking similar historical issues now is irresponsible and will again take our country backwards further. We cannot allow any one to raise any issue similar to Babri masjid - Ram Janmaboomi. Those who do it in the case of Kashi mathura or Gyan Vapi mosque do not have nation's interest in their minds. They just want to divert attention from livelihood issues of aam aadmi being discussed. So in my view, the places of worship Act 1991 was enacted having the larger interests of the country.
6 Indian judiciary is dominated by left leaning judges and so many verdicts are against Hindu customs and practices like in the case of Sabharimala.
If a person understands that being left means being modern and progressive statements like the above will not get thrown around loosely. Though our judiciary throws up some verdicts which are not modern or progressive by some individual judges at times, by and large the judgements on important matters are on the progressive side including Sabarimala verdict. We may differ with them on certain perceptions but I think, this view stems out of selective reading of verdicts from Hindutva prism. The same author conveniently quotes extensively from Ayodhya verdict as it suited his views.
7 Even the present government which came to power using the Hindu Card is not doing enough for the Hindus' cause.
The author gives the examples of RTE Act wherein it applied to Hindu managed schools and not minority institutions. I really don't understand the justification for it. In my view it is better to make it uniformly apply to all institutions Hindu or otherwise.
The author conveniently hides the fact that the present government ( so called Hindu) will use the Hindu Card for the purpose of getting votes. When it comes to real issues of governance they will showcase their religious bias to cover their blatant failures.
Conclusion
To conclude I must say that this small book of 130 pages is mere compilation of some of the extreme hindutva views espoused by the author on various forums in the country. I tried to respond to some of the points raised by the author. I know for sure that my responses will not cut much ice for people who were already taken in by the right wing blitzkrieg unleashed during the recent years.
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