--- On Mon, 4/5/09, ss <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: ss <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] In UP, Brahmins do tactical voting, not Muslims
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Monday, 4 May, 2009, 10:13 AM
> On Monday 04 May 2009 8:59:06 am
> Bharat Shetty wrote:
>
> > > At independence Hindus decided "OK - so you
> > > folks have no caste - your religion unites you
> right? So we Hindus will
> > > handle caste matters and you look after your
> affairs" (This has a bearing
> > > on the "rise" of Hindutva - which I will post in
> a separate message if
> > > anyone is interested)
> >
> > I'm interested. Please do post more on this.
> >
>
> Well a lot is being said about "the rise of Hindutva" and
> the "increase in
> intolerance" and the "New, severe, form of Hinduism raising
> its head in
> India".
>
> Anyone who has observed the changes in India over that last
> 30 to 40 years
> will be able to pinpoint what is going on.
>
> As I stated earlier (and in the article I linked) India
> after independence
> specifically targeted Hindus for reform and a whole lot of
> reforms were put
> in place - regarding issues that would have been impossible
> to meddle with
> among Muslims.
>
> All those reforms had the single minded aim of unifying the
> diverse peoples of
> India and reducing their differences. Everything the Indian
> state could do to
> Hindus to reduce their social splintering was done -
> reducing the impact and
> importance of caste, community and language. Anyone
> who remembers the 1950s
> and 1960s will recall the degree to which it made a
> difference being
> a "Punjabi" or a "Madrasi" , or Brahmin and Shudra compared
> to what it is
> today. Much is written about the caste issue and the North
> India south India
> issue. Even Naipaul has a hilarious passage about this in
> one of his early
> India books. On the other hand next to nothing is written
> about the overall
> effect of reducing the effect splintering of Hindus into
> caste, region and
> color.
>
> Hindus are gradually being made into a relatively uniform
> homogeneous mass in
> response to the very criticsim Hindus faced about their own
> social
> fissiparous tendencies. And when you have an increasing
> percentage of Hindus
> seeing eye to eye, minus the divisons of caste and region,
> you see a Hindu
> virwpoint that begins to appear like "The menacing rise of
> Hindutva"
>
> Many of the questions being raised by "Hindutva" are a
> direct consequence of
> the coming together of Hindus due to decades old policies
> of Hindu social
> reform and pro-active upliftment of the much advertised
> Hindu downtrodden.
>
> On the question of Muslims, the reformed Hindus are asking
> why no effort was
> made to impose any reform on Muslims in India unlike the
> reforms that Hindus
> endured. Particular sore points are the fact that the
> govenment of India
> controls Hindu temple funds and might spend those funds on
> vote bank sops.
>
> As a Hindu growing up in India I can quote several
> instances as a child of
> being made aware of the feeling that there was something
> wrong about being
> Hindu. I will not go into detail about that now - but I
> bring that up to
> point out how Hindus are now behaving like the worm that
> has turned and there
> is little you can do to tell them that they are wrong, at
> least in some
> areas.
>
> For example, the economic growth rate of 3-4% was called
> the Hindu growth
> rate. Whilst there was no protest at this cliche from
> Hindus at that time,
> the same Hindus are taking credit for India's
> improving economy now. After
> all if poor performance can be blamed on the majority
> Hindus of India, there
> is absolutely nothing wrong in the majority later taking
> credit for a good
> performance.
>
> One of the less recognised aspects of Hindutva is that
> there is
> nothing "resurgent" about it. It was always there covered
> over by colonised
> mindsets and a Hindu community divided over various issues
> and under constant
> criticism from "culturally superior" people for having such
> divisions. Hindus
> have responded to those criticisms and what do you get?
> Hindutva of course.
>
> shiv
Shiv,
Your utterly fascinating posts of 6:44, 6:53, 9:41 and 10 something.
Unfortunately, I just got to see them, and have to rush out; will be tied up
until past noon.
I have some really good stuff for you.
Don't go anywhere.
IG
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