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--- On Sat, 10/10/09, Sandeep Heble <sandeephe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>I always thought that Frederick was a rationalist but I found his logic >on
>that day peculiar and highly absurd to say the least.
>
Sandeep,
You were naive to believe that Noronha was a rationalist. He has always been
the exact opposite. Frederick Noronha has never cared for rationalism or
secularism. He is a classic knee-jerk anti-establishment cultural relativist
who does not know the difference between sense and nonsense, reason and
superstition, justice and prejudice, tolerance and intolerance, parochial and
universal, harmful and useful, and good and bad. He also makes arbitrary
exceptions to his relativist mindset when it is convenient for him to do so.
For example, he fancies himself as an eastern chauvinist who believes
secularism, rationalism and science are western inventions, and therefore, need
to be opposed with greater vehemence than is reserved for Hindu extremism, to
which he paradoxically grants an arbitrary exemption from his eastern
chauvinism, when it serves his agenda.
Here are quotes from his latest response in this thread, which substantiate
what I am saying here:
"My view is that the irreligious (if not anti-religious) attitudes of some
early politicians (Nehru, for instance) could well have pushed religion to the
defensive, and only given a fillip after some time to the more intolerant,
chauvinist and extremist faces of religion we see resurgent for the past decade
and more."
.....Frederick Noronha
Please note the twisted logic here. He blames non-religious people for the
criminal behavior of religious extremists. He has no problem about taking
temporary leave from his relativistic position and his senses to indulge in
this flight of fancy.
"At one level, calling the Bhakra project as "temples of modern India"
reflects the genuflection of a Nehru towards that god called Science
and Technology, and looking down on things traditional."
.....Frederick Noronha
Please note the absurd intolerance here towards Science and Technology, and
once again, the insinuation from the context that India's problems, including
religious extemism are a consequence to Nehru's affinity towards something
which all rational people believe is the single most important cause of human
progress.
"Maybe a Gandhi was more apt in understanding the role of religion in a
hyper-religious space like South Asia. Such an attitude, which seeming
obscurantist at first, might have been more sustainable."
....Frederick Noronha
Please note that he conveniently forgets the historical facts that Gandhi was
killed by a Hindu extremist because of his political views and actions, and
that violent communalism emerged contemporaneously with Gandhi's non-violent
struggle for freedom, the largest Hindu-Muslim riots having taken place during
the partition, for which Gandhi was in part responsible.
"The traditions which Sandeep mentions about secularism come largely if
not entirely from the Western world, and have little to do with the
Indian reality. Here, secularism was born less out of a "revolt
against the Religious Orders" and more out of the need for a
multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-caste nation state to co-exist
amidst all its diversity."
.....Frederick Noronha
Please note here that he is utterly oblivious or ignorant of the history of
secular thought and practice in India since at least the 5th century B.C. - the
fact that the Indian tradition comprised of atheistic religions, atheistic and
agnostic schools of thought, secular pluralistic religions such as those of
Kabir and Akbar, and that religious minorities from other parts of the world,
such as Parsees and Jews came to India to escape religious persecution, and
have since lived in peaceful co-existence and harmony.
Cheers,
Santosh
