[Reader-list] The Hindu plight!

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Subhrodip jee

As I reply, I must state that I didn't get a complete understanding of your
mail. What I have understood, has made me reply in this manner as below. If
anything is wrong or you feel I have misunderstood something, please do
reply back.

My response is as follows:

1) I have no religious trauma Sir jee. I know very well that religion is
political, and what I think would be good for the people of our state would
be that religion is used to unite people, not divide people. What I see
instead is that religion is being used to divide people, whether be it
Karnataka, Ayodhya, Gujarat, Kandhamal or elsewhere in India. People cutting
across all religions are using it to justify their activities, and this
would be harmful both to the people of India as well as the nature of the
state itself.

As far as Bin Laden and Sri Ram Sene are concerned, I believe they are
actually religious. The reason is that religion basically involves politics,
and politics means bringing people together for a common cause. In the case
of Laden, the cause is to establish the Caliphate, or Islamic (Sunni) rule.
In the case of Ram Sene, it is to ensure that women are made to live in a
certain manner and men are given the supreme role in society.

They are not faithful towards their religions, however, as I see it. Their
faiths are not Islam or Hinduism, but simply useless ideas which will go
against the teachings of Hinduism and Islam (the teachings are meant to be
objects of faith and those who read them I believe have the choice to accept
them or not. Instead, they are now being used as tools for personal vendetta
and gains)

2) Your second comment is I believe on community. First of all, I remember
Aashish Nandy, whom I have read in this regard. Nandy has always stated that
with today's ideologies of privatization and consumerism gaining acceptance
across the world, people have become more individualistic, and therefore
there is no sense of attachment to things. Even if it's there, it's
temporary. Lots of people are uprooted from their culture, and anything
which can be used to bring that attachment to something, a cause, an object
or anything else, brings a kind of psychological and emotional satisfaction
to people.

Now I am not sure how much this is true. It could be or could not be true. I
personally don't know what kind of attachment would our ancestors have had
with their culture which we don't do with ours. May be it's the sense of
community you are speaking about, which is not there.

However, community formation does not mean that people form communities
which get satisfaction by committing violence on others. I have no objection
with a 'Ram Mandir Mandal' or a 'Khwaja Moinuddin Group' or something, but
my contention is that people should at least realize rationally whether the
attachment they have is good for the community, the society, the nation (or
the state) and the human race itself or not.

After all, what's the use of a section of middle class supporting Hindutva,
when all it can lead is to making the minorities of India politically,
economically and socially vulnerable on one hand, and re-introducing the
caste system on the other. (which is what the RSS believes in) Therefore,
associate yourselves with social service, that's fine with me. Not with
ideologies which can lead to problems for the human race.

3) I didn't get at all your para from here:

*Many of these peple at ground level have varied
 emotions and thoughts attached to our place of worship not on religious
seggregationary lines, and if we do not know our verses well not certainly
on idealogies. Not Saffron millatants, this is just one community, a strong
community which we depend upon! Let us assoscite. We do not nowadays even
attack aethists,let us survive!It would not attack your regime,so no need to
overstrech secularism!*

Is there some community you are referring to? What ar e you associating with
that community? And as for secularism, I never mentioned anything connecting
atheism and secularism. Where does that come from?

4) My final point is that while in a conflict people do have rational
reasons also, the major problem as you stated is incompatibility. For
example, on this very forum, we have Kashmiri Pandits and those supporting
the separatists' stand. The point is that both have faced problems and
miseries which they shouldn't have, but their stand as it seems now is
incompatible with respect to each other. So they do have some kind of
rational backing on their side, but they are incompatible.

Regards

Rakesh