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FUNDAMENTALS
OF HINDU UNITY
AND
THE CONCEPT OF HINDUSTAN
Following
is the text of presentation made by Dr Subramanian Swamy at the Hindu
Dharma Acharya Sabha, y/day:
Address of
Dr. Subramanian Swamy.
Chairman,
Center for National Renaissance,
New Delhi
to Hindu
Dharma Acharya Sabha Second Meeting
at Mumbai
on October 18,2005.
FUNDAMENTALS
OF HINDU UNITY
AND THE
CONCEPT OF
HINDUSTAN
His
Holiness Dayananda Saraswati, and Heads of Mutts and Mandaleshwars and
revered Acharyas. I thank His Holiness for the opportunity to address
you all today.
I
Hinduism,
known as sanatana dharma is uniquely world's unbroken, continuous and
longest in time, and is a religion constituted by its theology, cultural
ethos, and civilizational history.
India
's Hindu society is founded on the content of these three constituents.
Hindustan, as
India
is known abroad even today[ e.g., Yindu guo in Chinese, Hind in Arabic],
as a concept is defined as a nation of Hindus and those others in the
nation who accept that their ancestors are Hindus and revere that
legacy. Parsis, Jews, Syrian Christians come in a special category of
Hindustanis, those who were welcomed by Hindus since they came to
Hindustan seeking refuge from persecution in their own lands abroad, and
who willingly accepted to abide by, and adopt certain cultural customs
of Hindus. To the credit of Parsis, they have never demanded any special
privileges as a minority. They had even rejected privileges and quotas
offered to them by the British imperialists saying that they were
comfortable with Hindus.
Over the last two millenniums, Hindu religion has been subjected
to threats several times from other religious groups, but these threats
have been met, the challenges faced and overcome.
Well before the birth of Christianity and Islam, Hindu religion
had been intellectually dethroned by Hinayana Buddhism. But Adi
Sankaracharya rethroned Hinduism through his famous
shastrathas[religious debate] and caused a renaissance in Buddhism
itself, which then came to be known as Mahayana Buddhism, conceptually
in complete harmony with, if not indistinguishable from, Hindu theology.
In south
India
, the azhwars and nayanmars also through shastrathas repositioned
Hinduism after de-throning Jainism and Buddhism. Since then the Hindu
dharmacharyas have always been looked up to when Hindu society faced a
threat or crisis, for guidance to meet the challenge to the Hindu
religion. Today, we again need the revered acharyas to show us the way.
Hence this Sabha is of vital importance for the future of the nation.
II
Hindu ethos provided for sanctuary and home to those of other
faiths fleeing from their countries due to religious persecution. As I
stated earlier, Parsis, Jews and Syrian Christians are among those
religious groups who had sought refuge in
India
, and survived because the Hindus looked after them. These three
religious communities have had and have today a disproportionate share
in power and wealth in Indian society, but Hindus have no resentment
about it. These minorities had come to
India
in search of peace and found safe haven in the midst of Hindu society.
Parsis migrated elsewhere in the world too, but disappeared as a
community in those countries. Jews have openly acknowledged that
India
as the only country where they were not persecuted. Syrian Christians
too are today completely integrated into
India
. Even early Arab Muslim travelers who came peacefully to settle in
Kerala were taken into Hindu families, and hence called Mapillai[meaning
son-inlaw-- Moplah in English]. That is the glorious Hindu tradition,
the ethos of compassion and co-option that is unparalleled in world
history.
However, militant Islam and later crusading Christianity came to
India
, and aggressively challenged Hinduism. They seized power in sequence
and established their own state in
India
. But despite state patronage to the ensuing onslaught, plunder and
victimisation, those of Hindu faith could not be decimated, and Hinduism
remained the theology of the vast Indian majority.
Defiant Hindus suffered persecution and economic deprivation
during Islamic and Christian reigns, such as through differential
taxation[e.g., jezia and zamindari land revenue appropriation] and plain
brutality, but Hindus by and large refused to capitulate and convert.
Even after almost a thousand years of such targeting by Muslims and
Christian rulers, undivided
India
in 1947 was more than 75 % Hindu. This was partly because of the
victorious Vijayanagaram, the Sikh reign, and Mahratta kingdoms, and
later the Freedom Movement, each inspired by sanyasis such Sringeri
Shankaracharya, Swami Ramdas, Guru Nanak, Swami Vivekanada and Sri
Aurobindo, who by their preaching about the Hindu identity ensured that
the flame of Hindu defiance never dimmed. It was also due to individual
defiance of Hindus such as of Rana Pratap, Rani Jhansi, Rani Bennur,
Kattaboman and Netaji Subhas Bose. These icons are admired not because
they led us to victory[ in fact they were defeated or killed], or had
found out a safe compromise[they did not], but because of their courage
of conviction in the face of huge odds not to submit to tyranny. That
courageous defiance is also is part of Hindus' glorious legacy. But
those who capitulated like Raja Man Singh or Jai Chand or Pudukottai
Raja in order to live in pomp and grandeur are despised today by the
people.
III
In 1947, temporal power was defacto restored to the Hindu
majority. But the Indian state formally adopted secularism, which
concept however was never properly defined or debated. For example, it
left vague what an Indian's connection was with the nation's Hindu past
and legacy. In the name of secularism, it was taboo for a public servant
even to break a coconut or light a oil lamp to inaugurate an official
function on the ground that religious symbols must not invade public
life. Such orthodoxy was promoted by Jawarharlal Nehru and his Leftist
advisers. But then government took over supervision of temples,
legislated on Hindu personal laws, and regulated religious festivals,
but kept aloof from the Muslim and Christian religious affairs. The
secularism principle was foisted on the Hindu masses without making him
understand why they had to abide by legislation but not Muslims and
Christians.
As a result, the renaissance that had begun in the late nineteenth
century to redefine the Hindu identity [in contemporary terms and norms
valid in a pluralistic society], was aborted by the confusion thus
created in Hindu minds by a vaguely understood concept of secularism.
Electoral politics further confounded the issues arising out of
secularism, and hence the Indian society became gradually and
increasingly fragmented in outlook and of confused perspective. Hindu
society became divided by caste that became increasingly mutually
antagonistic. Attempts were made through falsification in history texts
adopted for curriculum in the education system to disconnect and
disinherit the contemporary Indian from the past glory of Hindu India.
The intrinsic Hindu unity was sought to be undone by legitimizing such
bogus concepts as Aryan-Dravidian racial divide theory, or that India as
a concept never existed till the British imperialists put it together,
or that Indians have always been ruled by invaders from abroad.
Incidentally, the Aryan-Dravidian myth has now been exploded by modern
research on DNA of Indians and Europeans conducted by Professor C. Panse
of
Newton
,
Mass.
USA
and other scholars.
Modern
India
was sought to be portrayed by foreign interests through this curriculum
as a discontinuity in history and as a new entity much as are today's
Greece
,
Egypt
or
Iraq
. That curriculum is largely intact today. On the contrary efforts are
afoot to bolster the disparagement of our past in the new dispensation
today. A rudderless India, disconnected from her past has, as a
consequence, become a fertile field for religious poachers and
neo-imperialists from abroad who paint India as a mosaic of immigrants
much like a crowd on a platform in a railway junction. That is, it is
clandestinely propagated that
India
has belonged to those who forcibly occupied it. This is the theme around
which the Islamic fundamentalists and fraud Christian crusaders are
again at work, much as they were a thousand years ago, but of course in
new dispensations, sophistication, and media forms. Thus the concept of
intrinsic Hindu unity, and
India
's Hindu foundation are dangerously under challenge by these forces.
Tragically most Hindus today are not even cognizant of it.
The challenge today confronting Hindus is however much more
difficult to meet than was earlier in history because the forces at work
to erode and undermine Hindu faith, unlike before, are unseen,
clandestine, pernicious, deceptive but most of all sophisticated and
media-savvy. Tragically therefore, a much more educated and larger
numbers of Hindus have been unwittingly co-opted in this sinister
conspiracy directed by foreigners who have no love for
India
and who also see much as Lord Macauley saw in the nineteenth century,
that the hoary Hindu foundation of
India
is a stumbling block for the furtherance of their nefarious perfidious
game.
Adherence to Hinduism is also being sought to be diluted in the
name of modernity and this dilution is made a norm of secularism.
Religion, it is advocated, is personal. To be a good Hindu today is
conceptually being reduced to just praying, piety, visiting temples, and
celebrating religious festivals. The concept of a collective Hindu
mindset is being ridiculed as chauvinist and retrograde, even
fundamentalist.
IV
The concept of a corporate Hindu unity and identity however is
that of a collective mindset that identifies us with a motherland from
the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean and it's glorious past, and the
concomitant resolve of it's representative leadership defined as "chakravartin"
earlier by Chanakya, to defend that vision. It is this concept and
resolve that is being discarded or is just evaporating under the
onslaught of the Nehruvian secularists.
However pious a Hindu becomes, however prosperous Hindu temples
become from doting devotees' offerings, when the nation is in danger it
is this collective mindset of the people that matters, and not the piety
of the individual in that collective.
Hindu society today lacking a cohesive corporate identity, is thus
in the process of becoming fragmented, and hence increasingly in
disarray. This fission process is on simultaneously with the reality of
millions of Hindus who go to temples regularly or walk to Sabarimalai or
participate in Kumbh Mela. This is not what I mean when I speak of Hindu
unity to this august gathering today.
I am instead referring to the Hindu consciousness which
encompasses the willingness and determination to collectively defend the
faith from the erosion that is being induced by the disconnect with our
glorious past. What Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chatterjee, Sri Aurobindo,
and Subramania Bharati had achieved by raising Hindu consciousness to
that end, has now been depleted and dissipated over the last six
decades.
Even the patriotic and anguished writings of Dr. Ambedkar, and his
oration in the Constituent Assembly for a strong united country have
been vulgarized to advocate Hindu society's disintegration. In his
scholarly paper presented in a 1916
Columbia
University
seminar[and published in Indian Antiquary, vol. XLI, May 1917 p.81-95]
Dr. Ambedkar stated : " It is the unity of culture that is the
basis of homogeneity. Taking this for granted, I venture to say that
there is no country that can rival the
Indian
Peninsula
with respect to the unity of it's culture. It has not only a geographic
unity, but it has over and above all a deeper and much more fundamental
unity---the indubitable cultural unity that covers the land from end to
end". Ambedkar wrote several such brilliant books, but alas, Nehru
and his cohorts so thoroughly frustrated him that in the end bitterness
drove him to Buddhism.
Thus, if this degeneration and disconnect are not rectified and
repaired by a resolve to unite Hindustanis[Hindus and those others who
proudly identify with India's Hindu past], the Hindu civilization may go
into a tail spin and ultimately fade away like other civilizations have
for much the same reason.
Of course, this sorry state has come about as a cumulative effect
of a thousand years past of Islamic invasions, occupation and
Imperialist colonization. But we failed to rectify the damage after the
Hindus overwhelmingly got defacto power in 1947. For this transfer of
power, we sacrificed one quarter of Akhand Hindustan territory to settle
those Muslims who could not bear to live or adjust with the Hindu
majority.
That is, by a failure to usher a renaissance after 1947
India
lost her opportunity to cleanse the accumulated dirt and unwanted
baggage of the past. The nation missed a change to demolish the
birth-based caste theory as Ambedkar had wanted to do. The battering
that the concept of Hindu unity and Indian identity has taken at the
hands of Nehruvian secularists since 1947 has led to the present social
malaise. Thus, even though Hindus are above 80 percent of the population
in
India
, they have not been able to understand their roots in, and obligations
to, the nation in a pluralistic Hindustani democracy.
Today the sacrilege of Hindu concepts and hoary institutions, is
being carried out not with the crude brutality of a Ghazni or Ghori, but
with the sophistication of the constitutional instruments of law. The
desecration of Hindu icons, for example the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, is
being made to look legal, thereby completely confusing the Hindu people,
and thus making them unable to recognize the danger, or to realize that
Hindus have to unite to defend against the threats to their legacy. We
Hindus are under siege today, and we do not know it !! That is, what is
truly alarming is that Hindu society could be dissembled today without
much protest since we have been lulled or lost the capacity to think
collectively as Hindus.
To resist this siege we first need Hindu unity. Numbers [of those
claiming to be adherents to Hinduism] do not matter in today's
information society. It is the durability and clarity of the Hindu
mindset of those who unite that matters in the forging of an instrument
to fight this creeping danger.
For example, we had a near disaster in Ayodhya recently.
Pakistan
--trained foreign terrorists slipped into
India
and traveled to Ayodhya to blow up the Ram Mandir. Their attempt was
foiled by courageous elements of the police. But did the representative
government of 870 million Hindus of India react in a meaningful way,
that is retaliate to deter future such attacks ? Did anyone raise it in
Parliament and demand deterrent retaliation ? On the contrary, the Prime
Minister assured
Pakistan
that the peace talks will not be affected by such acts. But what
retaliation was there to be for the sponsors of those terrorists who
dared to think about blowing Sri Ram's birth place ?
Hindus are thus being today systematically prepared for
psychological enslavement and conceptual capture. Indians are being
subtly brain-washed. Hindus are being lulled, while Muslims and
Christians are being subject to relentless propaganda that they are
different, and are citizens of
India
as would be a shareholder in a company run for profit.
We Hindus cannot fight this unless we first identify what we have
to fight. We cannot effectively respond unless we understand the nature
and complexity of the challenge. What makes the task of defending
Hinduism much more difficult today is that the oppressors are not
obvious maraudring entities as were Ghazni, Ghori, or Clive. The means
of communication and the supply of funds in the hands of our enemies are
multiples of that available in the past, for camouflaging their evil
purposes.
V
My contention here today is that Hindus are facing a four
dimensional siege and this siege is pernicious, clandestine, deceptive
and sophisticated. It requires an enlightened Hindu unity to combat the
threats and get the siege lifted. We have to begin by first
understanding the content and scope of the siege before we Hindus can
unite to battle it. These four dimensions are:
[1] The clandestine defamation of Hindu symbols and institutions.
Making Hindus to lose their self esteem by disparaging their
tradition, which also had been the strategy of British imperialists for
the conquest of
India
. Speaking in British Parliament, Lord Macauley said on February 2, 1835
the following:
" Such wealth I have seen in this country[
India
], such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think
we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of
this nation, which[backbone] is her spiritual and cultural heritage. And
therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education
system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign
and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their
self-esteem , their native self-culture and they will become what we
want them, a truly dominated nation".
That basic strategy of those who want to see a weak and pliant
India
remains. Only the tactics have changed. Now the target is the Hindu
institutions and Hindu icons, and the route is not the creation of a
comprador class to subdue the nation, but fostering a psychological
milieu to denigrate the heritage and to delink the Hindu from his past
legacy thereby causing a loss of self esteem and a pride in the nation's
pa. There are already many examples of this happening.
A false murder case was foisted on the Acharyas of the 2500 year
old Kanchi Mutt. Most Hindus have watched it as spectators, and with
nagging doubts about the truth, and in fact about the Acharyas
themselves. The Supreme Court has however held that the case has
"no worthwhile prima facie evidence…" [Court records: (2005)
2 Supreme Court Cases 13, para 12, page 20] and that the alleged
confessions of other accused persons implicating the Acharyas "have
very little evidentiary value"[para 10]. The case thus is without
basis and is bogus because since then the TN police has failed to
uncover any further or new evidence to sustain the case. That the apex
Court has found the foisted case as without prima facie merit should
itself have galvanized the people against the offending authorities. It
has not, because Hindus lack the mindset and guidance to retaliate
against the willful and disguised defamation of Hindu symbols and
institutions. Instead like parrots most Hindus mouth the phrase that
"law must take it's course". Where is the law in this ? Nor
did a single Muslim or Christian organization or their leaders condemn
this atrocity, exposing secularism as a one-way obligation of Hindus.
That the obvious perpetrator of this blasphemous atrocity on Hindu
religion's hoary institution is the head of the TN state government, one
who also claims to be a good Hindu because she regularly visits temples,
has only helped to further confound the already confused Hindu mind from
responding.
That this atrocity could not have been heaped on the Mutt without
the aid and abetment, or even the instigation of the power behind the
throne in
Delhi
, a devout foreign-born Catholic, has not even evoked any anger amongst
the Hindus.
Instead the majority of Hindus have been just passive or satisfied
discussing gossip i.e., whether there was some land dispute of the Mutt
with the government that triggered it or a money angle row with a
politician in power to motivate the misuse of state machinery to frame a
Shankaracharya on a murder charge! It is incredible that in a nation of
80 percent Hindus, the democratically elected state government dared to
foist a bogus case on a Shankaracharya, and without a spontaneous uproar
and mass protest by Hindus. That this atrocity could be the beginning of
further assault on the foundation of the Hindu religion to defame and
discredit it, should have jolted the Hindus into a fierce protest.
Otherwise, the current Hindu apathy will encourage further assault
on Hindu institutions. It is already happening and there is no time to
lose. Further assault is also in progress. In July 2005, an uncouth
official of the TN Government's HR&CE Ministry blocked the Kanchi
Shankaracharyas from entering the holy Shiva temple in Rameshwaram
because, the official said, the acharyas had criminal cases pending
against them. Leave aside the fact that anyone is presumed to be
innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, or that Ms.
Jayalalitha, the CM herself is clothed from head to foot in criminal
cases, what is significant is the audacity of an official in a 80% Hindu
populated country to block a Shankaracharya from performing his god
ordained puja duties. His HR&CE counterpart In Andhra at Tirumala
has pontificated recently that the Tirumala hills except a small portion
do not belong to Lord Venkateswara, making a mockery of agama shastras.
The state government of Karnataka for example, soon after the
Kanchi acharyas' arrest, blatantly patronized the congregation of a
Benny Hinn who is under US Internal Revenue Service investigation. US
Christian organizations such as the Trinity Foundation have exposed him
as a fake. Yet in the admiring presence of the Karnataka Chief Minister
with his Ministers in tow, and Central Government Ministers, Benny Hinn
was allowed to usurp the Bangalore Air force campus and hold a rally to
denounce Hindu concepts and demonstrate his "cure" of the
hopelessly and terminally ill or handicapped persons just by placing his
hand, in the name of Jesus, on their heads.
Bangalore
police officers later told the media that the whole exercise was a fraud
since the "ailing " persons were trucked in from Erode in TN a
week earlier and trained to fake the ailments and the cry of being cured
on stage. Of course they were well paid for this deception. Such
obscurantism was however extolled by the Congress Party leaders, while
mouthing secularism. Benny Hinn in the end publicly boasted that a
"friend of Sonia Gandhi" had helped to clear the way to make
the
Bangalore
event possible.
The existence of nexus had thus tumbled out. Taking a cue other
foreign Christian missionaries in trouble with the law such as Mr. Ron
Watts, made a pilgrimage to
Delhi
and received relief from law enforcers on the same patronage.
These visiting fraud Christian missionaries have the intellectual
endorsement for proselytizing activities from well established Christian
leaders. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict of
Vatican, which makes him an acknowledged leader of Catholics world over,
had released a Vatican document in 1997 titled Dominus Jesus in which
both Hinduism and it's sister religion Buddhism have been denounced.
While releasing the document, the Pope has been quoted as saying that
Hinduism offers "false hope" and is "morally cruel"
since it is based on the concept of reincarnation that resembles "a
continuous circle of hell". He denounced Buddhism as "auto
erotic spirituality". US based evangelist Pat Robertson has
declared that to liberate Hindus from their bondage, "missionaries
will seek to convert 100 million Hindus" over the next few years.
For achieving this goal, even tainted money is welcome for any
missionary from abroad. Thus, Mother Theresa whose proselytizing
activities was perhaps the most camouflaged of all foreign missionaries
in India, once wrote to a US Court judge, Judge Ito of Los Angeles not
to hold guilty one of her contributors by name Charles H. Keating Jr.
who was on trial in his court for criminally defrauding nominees of
17,000 persons of $ 252 million[about Rs. 1200 crores]. Mother Theresa'
plea to the judge was that since Mr. Keating had donated millions of
dollars to her Missionaries of Charity he should be let off and not be
found guilty or even be prosecuted !
The judge asked the Deputy District Attorney[equivalent of
assistant public prosecutor in
India
] to reply to her letter. Mr. Paul Turley wrote back to her giving the
details of the case[ by then Mr. Keating was found guilty and convicted
of fraud]. Mr. Turley in his letter advised Mother Theresa as follows:
"Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given the fruits of a
crime ? I submit that Jesus would promptly and unhesitatingly have
returned the stolen property to the rightful owners. You should do the
same. Do not keep the money". Mother Theresa did not in fact
hesitate at all. She kept the ill gotten money and ignored the advice !
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2002-03 private
bodies with FCRA permission had received Rs. 5046 crores as contribution
from abroad. In 2005-06 it is estimated by insiders these contributions
at Rs 7500 crores, of which two-thirds was going to Christian missionary
organizations. This hefty sum has been used essentially for conversion
and to defame Hinduism. Without defamation of Hinduism, conversion is
not easy for these missionaries.
Another route to defame Hinduism is the textbook portrayal of
Hindu society. Already Swami Ramakrishna Parmahans has been described in
disparaging terms in government prescribed text books. Traitor Raja Jai
Chand has been described as a hero, and Prithviraj as a coward ! Since
English language provides a fast track channel to
India
from abroad for propagation of ideas, books rubbishing Hindu gods and
goddesses, sanyasis, and other icons are being published abroad and
imported for use in
India
's public schools. Lord Ganesha has repeatedly been portrayed in most
hurtful terms. Shiva linga has been ridiculed.
Hence this august Acharya Sabha assembled here in Mumbai should
resolve to fight this and other such atrocities on Hindu symbols and
institutions by aiding mass Hindu mobilization against it.
[2] Demographic restructuring of Indian society.
People of
India
who declare in the Census that they are adherents of religions born on
Indian soil, that is Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains constituted
84.21% of the total Indian population in 2001. In 1941, the proportion
adjusted for Partition was 84.44%. This figure hides the fact that
Hindus resident in undivided
Pakistan
have migrated to post- Partition
India
which is why the share of Hindus and co-religionists have barely reduced
since 1941. In the area now called
Bangladesh
, Hindus were 30% in 1941. In 2001 they are less than 8%. In
Pakistan
of today, Hindus were 20% in 1941, and less than 2% in 2001. Such ethnic
cleansing has not been noticed by anybody. If the figures are adjusted
for this migration, then in the five decades 1951-2001, Hindus have lost
more 3 percent points in share of Indian population, while Muslims have
increased their share by about 3%. What is even more significant is that
Hindus have lost 12% points since 1881, and the loss in share has begun
to accelerate since 1971 partly due to illegal migration from
Bangladesh
.
The lack of Hindu unity and the determined bloc voting in
elections by Muslims and Christians has created a significantly large
leverage for these two religious communities in economic, social and
foreign policy making. Although uniform civil code is a directive
principle of state policy in the Constitution, it is taboo to ask for it
because of this leverage. Politicians fearing backlash anger of
Christian and Muslim preachers are also unable to defend the need for
continuation of a law to ban religions conversions that occur through
inducements and coercion. In the case of Tamil Nadu, in 2004 the
US
Consul General in Chennai called on the Chief Minister to seek reversal
of such a statute [ www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35516.htm]. He had
been empowered raise this issue by a 1998 Act of US Congress on
religious freedom. Incidentally, the AIADMK was administered a
blistering defeat in the 2004 Parliament elections by a total
consolidation of Muslim and Christian votes against the party because
it's government had got passed such a law. After the elections, a
humbled Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha capitulated and got the law
annulled. I have now put the
US
administration to test by asking the Ambassador in
New Delhi
if the
US
would be even handed by asking the TN Chief Minister whether she will
withdraw all the bogus cases foisted on the Kanchi acharyas.
The continued rise in the share of Muslims and Christians in the
total population is a threat to the Hindu foundation of the nation. And
we have to find ways and means to meet this threat. Kerala is a state
where the Hindu population declined from 69% in 1901. In 100 years to
2001, the share has fallen to 56%. Muslims are now 25% and Christians
19%. But Hindus share in agricultural activities has fallen to 24%,
while for Christians the share has risen to 40%. For Muslims it is 33%.
In commerce and industry too the same proportions obtain, while in
foreign employment, Hindus share is just 19%, Muslims 49.5% and
Christians 31.5%.
In the land fertile districts of Western UP, from
Rampur
to
Saharanpur
, Muslims due to a much higher population growth rate are now 40% of the
population. Six of the 14 districts of
Assam
in the northeast are already Muslim majority, and by 2031, all fourteen
will be Muslim majority if present trends of differential population
growth rate and illegal migration from
Bangladesh
continue.
In northeast
India
, minus
Assam
, 45.5% of the population is already Christian. Every one of the seven
sisters states has a galloping Christian population. Arunachal which had
zero Christian population in 1971, now has over 7%.
These two communities today fiercely safeguard their control of
institutions spawned on public money besides receiving funds from
abroad. Take for example the educational institutions.
Jamia
Millia
Islamia
University
has been reognised as a central university with liberal government
grants. But 88% of the faculty is Muslim.
American
College
,
Madurai
's faculty is 66% Christian. It's junior faculty is 95% Christian.
Union
Christian
College
at Aluva, Kerala has 83% Christian faculty. There are no exceptions. All
institutions run by Muslims and Christians have grossly disproportionate
share of their religionists.
Thus, differential application of family planning, non-uniform
civil code, illegal migration, and induced religious conversion have
together created a serious looming crisis for the Hindu character of the
nation. We see what Muslim majority will mean to Hindus when we look at
the situation in
Kashmir
. We can learn from how Muslim majority will treat minorities or even
women of Muslim faith when we look around the world and study Islamic
nations. This is because Muslim believe the world is divided as Darul
Islam where Muslims are in a majority and are rulers, and Darul Harab in
which Muslims are in a minority and are entitled by the Koran and
Shariat, by hook or crook to transform these countries to Muslim ruled
and/or Muslim majority. At present
India
is viewed as Darul Harab, and unless the Hindu majority compels or
persuades the Muslim minority to enter into a contract to live in peace,
whence
India
becomes Darul Ahad, the Muslim population will always play host to
fanatics bent upon creating upheaval in
India
. That is why I am emphasizing that Muslims in
India
must declare that their origin and ancestors are Hindus, and that
Hindustan
is their matrubhoomi and karmabhoomi. Christians too have their view of
the world as divided between heathens who have to be 'saved' by
conversion and followers of Jesus Christ. Now with the publication of
Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and revelations about Opus Dei organization,
Hindus have to go on high alert about Christian missionaries from
abroad.
Hence, Hindus have to hang together or ultimately be hanged
separately. This is no inflamed psychosis. Not long ago, despite being
the overwhelming majority, Hindus had to pay discriminatory taxes to the
Muslim and Christian emperors who were ruling
India
. Lack of unity was the reason, and not poverty. In fact when the
onslaught and enslavement took place,
India
was the richest country in the world. Within 150 years thereafter we
were reduced to the poorest in the world. Now if the demographic
restructuring described herein goes on unchecked, then the danger
becomes several fold than before. This Acharya Sabha may therefore
please address this issue and give a guideline to the Hindu society.
[3] The Rise of Terrorism Directed at Hindus
If one were to study the terrorism in
Kashmir
and Manipur, it is apparent that Hindus have been the special target.
The driving away of the Hindu population from the
Kashmir
valley by targeted terrorism of Islamic jihadis is the single biggest
human rights atrocity since Nazi Germany pogroms against the Jews. Yet
it has hardly received noticed in international fora. Why ? Hindu
population in Bangladesh has declined from 30 percent to less than 8
percent of the total population by deliberate targeted ethnic cleansing
by Islamic fanatics aided and abetted by their government[see Hindus in
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India's State of Jammu& Kashmir: A Survey
of Human Rights, June 17,2005, www.hinduamericanfoundation.org] and yet
there is no outcry. Why ? This is because of the lack of Hindu mindset
to retaliate against atrocities against Hindus. When in 1949, anti-Hindu
riots took place in East Pakistan, Sardar Patel had declared that if the
government there could not control it, then
India
was quite capable of putting it down for them. Soon after the riots
stopped. Terrorist attacks against
India
and Hindus in particular thus is growing because we seem today incapable
of retaliating in a manner that it deters future attacks.
According to the well known National Counterterrorism Center, a US
government body, in it's report titled A Chronology of International
Terrorism for 2004 states that: " India suffered more significant
acts of terrorism than any other country in 2004", a damning
comment.
India
is suffering on an average about 25 incidents of terrorism a month.
India
's Home Ministry in it's 2004-05 Annual report to Parliament
acknowledges that 29 of the 35 states and union territories are affected
by terrorism. Moreover, all
India
's neighbours have become hot-beds for anti-Indian terrorists training.
Because of a lack of Hindu unity and a mindset for deterrent
retaliation, terrorists have become encouraged. In 1989, the Indian
government released five dreaded terrorists to get back the kidnapped
daughter, Rubaiyya, of the then Home Minister.
Kashmir
terrorists got a huge boost by this capitulation. When the Indian
Airlines plane with 339 passengers was hijacked to
Kandahar
,
Afghanistan
, the government again capitulated and released three of the most
dangerous terrorists. Today three of the most murderous terrorist
organizations in
Kashmir
are directed by these three freed terrorists. Then there is the case of
the LTTE which murdered Rajiv Gandhi. We have made no effort to
apprehend the leader of the LTTE who had ordered the assassination. On
the contrary, those MPs[of PMK, MDMK, and DMK] who publicly praise that
leader and hold the assassination as justified, have become Union
Ministers in a coalition led by the widow of Rajiv Gandhi !
Terrorism cannot be fought by appeasement. But that precisely is
what the government is doing. Tragically, innocent Hindus have
invariably been the victims of this capitulation. To combat terrorism,
there has to be a determination to never to negotiate a settlement with
terrorists. Citizens of a country have to be educated that there will be
hazards when faced with acts of terrorism, but that the goal of the
government will always have to be to hunt down the terrorists and fix
them. Only under such a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism, will
the ultimate good emerge. For example in the Indian Airlines hijack case
in order not to risk 339 passengers' lives the government released
Mohammed Azhar from jail. But Azhar went to
Pakistan
after his release and formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed which has since then
killed nearly a thousand innocent Hindus and is still continuing to do
so. How has the nation gained by the
Kandahar
capitulation then ?
Hence I appeal to this Acharya Sabha to call upon the national
political leadership to treat the fight against terrorism as a
dharmayudh, as fight to the finish and a religious duty not to
negotiate, compromise or capitulate to terrorists. The government must
also safeguard the nation by adopting a policy of "hot
pursuit" of terrorists by chasing them to their sanctuaries no
matter in which country they are located.
[4] The Erosion of Moral Authority of Governance
The well known organization Transparency International has graded
about 140 countries according to the corruption levels from least to the
most.
India
appears near the bottom of the list as among the most corrupt. Recently
The Mitrokhin Archives II has been published wherein KGB documents have
been relied on to conclude that shamefully "
India
was on sale for KGB bribes". If
India
is the one of the most corrupt countries today and purchasable, it is
because the core Hindu values of simplicity, sacrifice and abstinence
have been systematically downgraded over the years. Wealth obtained by
any means has become the criteria for social status. There was a time in
India
when persons of learning and simplicity enjoyed the moral authority in
society to make even kings bow before them. Not long ago, Mahatma Gandhi
and later Jayaprakash Narayan without holding office were here
exercising the same moral authority over political leaders. In a very
short period, that Hindu value has evaporated.
India
is fast becoming a banana republic in which everything, person or policy
is available to anyone for a price. The proposal, now implemented in
some states, to have reservation in government employment for Muslims
and "Dalit" Christians is one such sell-out. Reservation
quotas are strictly for those whom the Hindu society due to degeneration
had suppressed or had isolated from the mainstream. But those who were
ruling classes in our nation, such as Muslims and Christians, and that
too for a total of 1000 years, cannot claim this facility. But some
political parties in reckless disregard for equity and history, have
sold out for bloc votes the national interest by advocating for such a
reservation proposal. In such a situation the nation's independence and
sovereignty slides into danger of being subverted and then rendered
impotent. This has happened before in our history, not when the nation
was poor but was the richest country in the world.
India
then was ahead in science, mathematics, art and architecture. And yet
because the moral fibre weakened, all was lost. We had to struggle hard
to recover our freedom. But by the time we did, we had lost all our
wealth and dropped to the bottom of the list of countries in poverty.
In this time of creeping darkness in our society, there are still
venerated souls who draw crowds of people who come on their own expense
to hear such evolved souls and follow them. These are our dharmacharyas,
many of whom are sitting here in this Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha. Just
as Rshi Vishwamitra picked his archers and hunters to put an end to
asuras and rakshasas, the same way I urge and implore this Sabha to pick
a political instrument to cleanse the body politic of the nation. It
cannot be done without Hindu unity in our democracy, and hence
formulating a code of ethics and moral principles is essential for
creating a meaningful and purposeful Hindu unity. The nation looks to
you all on this today, for guidance in this hour of need.
VI
Therefore my call today is first and foremost for the undiluted
unity of Hindus, a unity based on a mindset that is nurtured and
fostered on the fundamentals of a renaissance [see my website
www.indiaright.org for a detailed elaboration]. Only then Hindus can
meet the challenge of Christian missionaries and Islamic
fundamentalists. I can do no better here than quote Swami Dayananda
Sarasvati:
" Faced with militant missionaries, Hinduism has to show that
its plurality and all-encompassing acceptance are not signs of
disparateness or disunity. For that, a collective voice is needed."
Non-Hindus can join this Hindustani unity, but first they must
agree to adhere to the minimum requirement: that they recognize and
accept that their cultural legacy is Hindu, or that they revere their
Hindu origins, that they are as equal before law as any other but no
more, and that they will make sacrifices to defend their Hindu legacy
just as any good Hindu would his own. In turn then the Hindu will defend
such non-Hindus as they have the Parsis and Jews, and take them as the
Hindustani parivar.
India
can be only for those who swear
that Bharatvarsh or
Hindustan
is their matrubhoomi and karmabhoomi. Since the task to defeat the
nefarious forces ranged today against Hindu society is not going to be
easy, we cannot therefore trust those amongst in our midst whose
commitment to the motherland is ambivalent or ad hoc or those who feel
no kinship to the Hindu past of the nation. We partitioned a quarter of
Hindustan
to enable those Muslims who could not live with Hindus in a democratic
framework of equality and fraternity. Hence only those are true children
of Bharatmata who accept that
India
is their matrubhoomi and karmabhoomi.
As Swami Vivekananda said to Hindus: "Arise, Awake and Go
Forth as Proud Hindus". But what does being a proud Hindu entail ?
The core of what it entails can be found by gleaning the writings of our
sages and interpreting it in the modern context. I have tried
summarizing the distilled wisdom in the following axioms:
First, a Hindu, and those others who are proud of their Hindu past
and origins, must know the correct history of
India
. That history which records that Hindus have always been, and are one;
that caste is not birth--based and nor immutable.
India
is a continuum, sanatana. That ancient Hindus and their descendents have
always lived in this area from the Himalayas to the
Indian Ocean
, an area called Akhand Hindustan, and did not come from outside; and
that there is no truth in the Aryan-Dravidian race theory. Instead
Hindus went abroad to spread learning.
Second, Hindus believe that all religions equally lead to God, but
not that all religions are equal in the richness of it's theological
content. Respecting all religions, Hindus expect from others that
respect is two-way. If Hindus are to defend the right of others to
adhere to one's own religion, then other religionists have to stand up
for Hindus too. Thus secular attitude, as presently defined, is a
one-way obligation for Hindus, and hence Hindus must reject such a
concept because of its implied appeasement. At the same time enlightened
Hindus must defend and protect vigorously those non-Hindus who identify
with the concept of
Hindustan
. A vibrant Bharatvarsh cannot be home to bigotry and obscurantism since
that has never been Hindu tradition or history.
Third, Hindus must prefer to lose everything they possess rather
than submit to tyranny or to terrorism. Today those in
India
who submit to terrorists and hijackers must be vehemently despised as
anti-Hindus. They cannot be good Hindus just because they are pious or
go regularly to the temple or good Hindustanis just because they are
citizens of
India
.
Fourth, the Hindu must have a mindset to retaliate when attacked.
The retaliation must be massive enough to deter future attacks. If
terrorists come from training camps in
Pakistan
, Bangla Desh or
Sri Lanka
, Hindus must seek to carpet bomb those training camps, no matter the
consequences. Today's so-called self proclaimed "good" Hindus
have failed to avenge or retaliate for the attack on Parliament, Akshaya
Mandir, Ayodhya, and even a former Prime Minister's[Rajiv Gandhi's]
assassination. On the other hand those who defend these assassins and
praise the terrorist organization behind them are central government
Ministers today.
Fifth, all Hindus to qualify as true Hindus must make effort to
learn Sanskrit and the Devanagari script in addition to the mother
tongue, and pledge that one day in the future, Sanskrit will be India's
link language since all the main Indian languages have large percentage
of their vocabulary common with Sanskrit already.
These five axioms if followed will constitute the virat Hindu
unity, a bonding that Hindus need to be in a position to confront the
challenge that Hindu civilization is facing from Islamic terrorists and
fraud Christian missionaries from abroad, who are also aided and abetted
from confused Hindus within the country. Without such a virat Hindu
unity and the implied mindset, we will be unable to nullify and root out
the subversion and erosion that undermine today the Hindu foundation of
India
. This foundation is what makes
India
distinctive in the world, and hence we must safeguard this legacy with
all the might and moral fibre that we can muster. In this we can get
great moral support from Hindus resident abroad because of their sheer
commitment to the motherland. Free from economic constraints, aching for
an identity, and well educated, I have seen them organize effectively to
challenge the attempts to slander Hindu religious symbols and icon.
Overseas Hindustanis have contributed during our Freedom Struggle, the
Emergency and in enabling our acharyas to spread the message of the
Hindu religion abroad. This has been done without demeaning other
religions.
I urge and implore this Acharya Sabha, that since in a democracy
the battle is in fighting elections, therefore to resolve to foster a
Hindu consciousness that leads to a cohesive vigorous Hindu unity and
mindset, so that the Hindustani voter will cast his ballot only for
those candidates in an election who will be loyal to a Hindu Agenda
drawn up by the Dharmacharyas.
Thank you, I seek your ashirvad and offer my pranams to all the
Acharyas present here.
HINDU DHARMA ACHARYA SABHA
Second Meeting, October 16,17,18, 2005
in Mumbai,
Maharashtra
Text of the Speech
By Dr. SUBRAMANIAN
SWAMY Ph.D (Harvard)
Chairman, Centre for National Renaissance,
New Delhi
Fmr.Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce, Law&Justice
e-mail: [email protected]
web: www.indiaright.com
A-77 Nizamuddin East
New Delhi-11013,
INDIA
Tel: 91 98101 94279
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