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Critical Podium Dewanand Hinduism
Are the Hindus Destined to Become an Extinct Race
by Ishani Chowdhury
Sacrificer Ishani Chowdhury
Sacrifice code wfor0238
Sacrifice date 25 march 2009
Are the Hindus Destined to Become an Extinct Race?
By Ishani Chowdhury
In the Spring of 2000, the democratically elected Fijian government led
by
Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was held hostage by a guerrilla group,
headed
by George Speight. They were demanding a segregated state exclusively
for the
native Fijians, thereby legally abolishing any rights the Indian inhabitants
have now. Port Louis, Mauritius witnessed three days of racial violence
in
February 1999, when popular reggae singer Kaya died in police custody.
Riots
quickly developed along racial lines with black Creoles attacking Hindus.
Police
stations housing terrified Hindus were not spared. Likewise, Northeast
India has witnessed a surge of nearly 200% in their Christian population
in the past 25 years due to the wily tactics of foreign missionaries.
So strong is their grasp there that practicing Hinduism is forbidden in
these areas. Durga puja has become almost obsolete as deities are destroyed
or stolen in broad daylight. This confrontational
climate has led to numerous militant outfits, sponsored by the Church,
who are
fighting for secession from India.
Every minute of everyday an innocent Hindu is attacked solely because
of his
faith. It is absolutely heart-wrenching to see that being Hindu gives
almost
everyone the right to automatically verbally and physically abuse us.
Have we
taken ahimsa [nonviolence] to such an extreme that merely standing up
for one's
own rights has become a dreadful thought? It is a sad fact to say that
while
Southern Baptists are openly calling for the conversion of "heathen"
Hindus,
that the vast majority of us sit quietly in our fancy homes and luxury
cars
falsely reassuring ourselves that "they do not mean me." But
indeed they do, and
it is happening every minute of everyday in almost every country in the
world
where we live. So pathetic is the present situation that not only are
we being
abused and terrorized by the minorities in our own country, but also by
the
majority population in the lands where we live abroad. Indeed we can distinctly
go down in history as the most cowardice race that has ever lived.
This long tradition of having a slave mentality started thousands of
years
ago. History has been witness to the numerous onslaughts that we have
suffered
not only due to disunity, but also to our selfish interests. Even the
prior
knowledge of Alexander's conquest did not stop many Hindu kingdoms from
willingly joining hands with him. This led to the successful expansion
of Alexander's empire. Even after Alexander's death, many kingdoms, such
as that of Raja Parvataka's Keykai, chose to remain a lackey to the Greek
governor appointed to the region. It was only one brave man who came forward
to set India free. It was
the passion in Chanakya's heart that led him to form the great Mauryan
Empire,
an empire which brought together the many small, fragmented kingdoms.
For the
first time it was demonstrated how one man could stir a person's soul
and
become a force to reckon with.
But history has played a cruel joke, for the Mauryan Empire lasted but
a
short time, and so by the seventh century AD, we became the targets of
another set
of tyrannical conquerors -- the Muslims. For eight hundred years we watched
as our women were raped, our treasure house of books burned (including
the
world-renowned Taxila and Nalanda university libraries), our temples destroyed,
our people sold as slaves to Middle Eastern countries, and killed or forcibly
converted. At that time very few Hindus, if any, chose to rise. Instead,
we were
too busy being a traitor to our own people and becoming a foot-boy for
the
king. The Koran, with the countless verses calling for jihad against the
"infidels," became a weapon for every Muslim ruler from Mahmud
of Ghazni to Tipu Sultan. So poisonous is the Islamic creed that having
a Hindu lineage did not even matter as was the case with Jehangir, son
of Akbar and his Hindu wife,
Jodabai.
By the arrival of the Portuguese and the British, much of Gandhara
(present-day Afghanistan) and Western India (present-day Pakistan) was
demographically lost to the Muslims. The terrible pogrom known as the
Goan Inquisition led to the forcible conversion of Hindus to Christianity
and the large-scale confiscation of ancestral property. Scores of temples
were demolished and churches built in their place. To add insult to injury,
one of the greatest so-called
"saints," Francis Xavier, feverishly declared "When all
are baptized, I order all
temples of their false gods destroyed and idols broken into pieces. I
can give
you no idea of the joy I feel seeing this done."1 With the cross
in one hand
and the sword in the other, these European forces went about annihilating
Hindus, so much so that we have now lost about 35% of our Goan brothers
to
Christianity.
The British drained us of our wealth and left us crippled in 1947. The
rising, violent Muslim demand for the separate homeland led to the vivisection
of
one-third of India. As Gandhi was preaching "shanti, shanti"
[peace, peace],
Muslims perpetrated the most heinous pogrom remembered in partition history,
the
Noakhali Danga. There is not one family in India that has not seen or
suffered
the brunt of partition. Gandhi did not do much or say much when his fellow
Hindus were being hounded like prey, instead he accusingly stressed to
us that
we be kind and considerate to our "gentle" Muslim brethren.
One cowardice act
led to another, as Nehru created our problem of Kashmir and chanted
"Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai" while the Chinese were attacking Arunachal
Pradesh. By this act, we have lost a large portion of our land to yet
another set of modern
invaders.
In 1971, while troops under Indira Gandhi's direction liberated Bangladesh,
it turned a blind eye to the nearly three million Hindus killed by the
Pakistani army and the ten million refugees that flooded the border. She
willingly
fed, sheltered and handed over 90,000 captured Pakistani troops. Inconsiderate
of
the fact that we lost hundreds of our soldiers in the front line, she
returned to Pakistan a portion of POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) that
we managed to re-capture from them. Is this the way one treats one's enemy?
Certainly let us not forget Kargil, when bodies of Indian troops were
found butchered, their
genitals severed, tongues cut and eyes gouged out. This scene takes you
back to
the medieval days when Muslim kings would not only kill their own relatives
for power, but use these same exact means to slowly torture them to death.
Indeed, the injunctions of the Koran are followed even in this most advanced
day
and age. And what does our beloved India do after seeing the condition
of these
unfortunate Kargil martyrs? Exactly what she did over eight hundred years
ago, absolutely nothing!
Our government has become a lackey for the minority population, just
begging
to appease them at any instance they get, even if it may be an unreasonable,
outrageous demand. But what has happened to the 85% of the population
who are
Hindus, do our votes not count? Apparently not. And how is it that our
most
"loyal" civil servants are feeling this way? It is simple, because
we ourselves
do not care what is happening, so why should they?
The fault lies not with ministers, governors or the Prime Minister, it
lies
solely with us. We are the people, and the voice of power. If we are weak,
why
should they even bother? But, if 12% of the population, the Muslims, scream
and shout, they win the battle, as well as the war. While the rest of
the
world's democratic, secular countries only allow for one man to marry
one woman,
India has given Muslims the special privilege of marrying up to four wives,
not
to mention alimony for only three months. Even the Supreme Court did not
have a
say when Rajiv Gandhi overturned their verdict in the Shah Bano case,
and
instead enacted a law making sure that the court finds no scope of jurisdiction
in the matters of Muslim marriage, divorce, etc. in the future.
Minority institutions, namely churches, madrasas (Islamic schools), etc.,
in
India receive special funding from the government. Likewise, minorities
also
receive subsidies on pilgrimages, such as the hajj [a Muslim's pilgrimage
to
Mecca]. Yet there is no such facility for Hindus, even though we have
become a
minority in six states in India.
Millions of Kashmiri Hindus have been driven from their ancestral land
and
are living a dismal life in squatter camps, yet not one government minister
is
doing anything to address the situation. Sixty ancient temples were destroyed
in 1992, but no one said a word. Hindu marriage parties and neighborhoods
are
singled out and attacked, even children as young as eight are not spared
and
our papers remain silent. We have become refugees in our own homeland.2
We are not second class, but third class citizens in our own country.
Documented numerous times, Christian missionaries are openly calling
our devas
"shaitans," compelling tribal converts to illegally confiscate
land for building
churches, urinating on deities, forcing marriages of Christian girls to
Hindu
boys (so as to make the "nonbeliever" a convert) and pressuring
converts to force
family members to embrace Christianity.3 SIMI, the Students Islamic Movement
of India has declared an open jihad against Hindus. Posters being circulated
include one that exhorts young Muslim boys to follow the teachings of
Islam
passionately and trample upon those who are kaafirs (non-believers in
Islam).4
If tribal Christians pelt stones at Hindus and we retaliate, we are blamed.
If Christians and Muslims openly slander our devas, it is considered natural,
but if we try to defend ourselves or retaliate in kind, we are considered
communal. It has come to the point where even saying that one is Hindu
is a
shameful thing. Many organizations are aghast at the thought of putting
the sacred Om on booklets, or rush through pujas so as not the risk losing
the audience. We
have successfully demeaned and cheapened our religion to such an extent
that
images of deities are sold on shoes and goddesses are drawn naked. Has
Hinduism become so much of joke that Christians and Muslims find it so
easy to "buy" a Hindu convert? How can a few saris induce one
into discarding his ancestral faith? Why are millions of Hindus fleeing
Bangladesh, is it because the rest of the Hindus can not help or stand
behind them? Has Chanakya's dream of a
united Hindu nation become a mockery?
While India is a total failure in protecting the Hindu population (case
in
point: Kashmir, the Northeast, the border districts of West Bengal) Hindus
in
other countries are not that well off either. According to the Fijian
constitution, Indians can not own land, and Parlimentary seats are not
allocated as per normal democratic means. On July 27, 2000 two hundred
terrified Indians were
rounded up and held hostage by George Speight's supporters. Even at 44%
of the
population we can not do a thing, and the Indian government does not say
a
thing.
Fifty thousand Hindus in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh were killed in
1964
when a holy relic from a mosque was stolen in Kashmir. In 1992, three
thousand
Hindu temples were destroyed and thousands of Hindus killed in religious
riots
in Bangladesh. This is not something new. "There were riots in East
Pakistan
almost every year, and severe killings in 1944, 1947, 1950, 1954, 1958,
1960 and
1963," states S.K. Bhattacharya in Genocide in East Pakistan/Bangladesh.
Added to the long list of mass attacks is the daily harassment of Hindus.
The
Dhaka newspaper Sangabad reported on September 24, 1989, the story of
Ms.
Birajabala Debnath of Niradabad. She became a widow after her husband
was murdered because he refused to give up his land to his Muslim neighbor.
Then she and her five children were abducted in the middle of the night
and murdered. Amnesty International's 1996 report details the attack on
innocent Hindu students at Dhaka University's Jagannatha Hall. Seven hundred
law enforcement personnel
raided the University's only Hindu hall firing tear-gas, stealing valuables
and
raping and beating students. The three hour raid saw hundreds of deaths
and
injuries.5
There have been legal assaults against the Hindus by the Bangladesh
government as well, most especially the Vested Property Act, formally
called the "Enemy Property Act." It allows for the lands of
a person who has fled the country
to be seized and redistributed. In 1989, Bangla Land Minister Sunil Gupta
stated that between 1984-1989 700,000 acres of land was confiscated from
the
Hindus, plus thousands of homes, shops, ponds, etc. The Bangladesh government
is totally nonchalant about this and other incidents. It can be safely
said that the
government is indeed playing a major role in systematically exterminating
the
few remaining Hindus. Even as early as 1971, the new Bangladesh government
chose to turn a blind eye to the incidents that were happening around
them.
The Ramna Kali Bari in Dhaka, hundreds of years old, was shelled by the
Pakistani Army and the new Bangladesh government confiscated the land,
bulldozed the remains and turned the 66-acre area into a park. Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheik Hasina goes one step further to say "Bangladeshi
Hindus have one foot in India and other in Bangladesh" and asked,
given the divided loyalty, what
should they expect and how much the local Muslims will listen to her government.
It seems as though Sheik Hasina is suffering from an acute case of amnesia
as
it was her family that the Indian government saved from the hands of a
military
coup and the assassination of her father in 1975. Indeed, the Koran's
injunction of not trusting a non-Muslim, as stated in 4:144 of the chapter
entitled
An-Nisa (Women): "O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers
rather
than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?"
is
followed to this day.
Bangladesh has indeed followed in Pakistan's footsteps of exterminating
Hindus. Pakistan's Hindu population, once numbering 15% has been reduced
to about 1%. In a recent Indian Express article, the remaining few are
adopting
Christian names so as to escape persecution by the Muslims.
6
India Today's November 8th (2000) article details the life of Pakistani
Hindus who are crossing the border to settle in India, all due to sustained
harassment by Muslims.7 Bangladesh has successfully driven its once 35%
Hindu
population at partition to a mere 10% now. Conceivably, by 2050 Bangladesh
will
achieve the status of Pakistan: no significant Hindu population.
Nepal, the only Hindu kingdom in the world, has not escaped either. The
Christian population, which was almost nil in 1960, has increased by leaps
and
bounds. Billions of dollars have been pumped in for conversion activities.
Christians are asking everyone, via the Internet, to save the "lost
Hindu" souls of
Nepal. Islamic madrasas are cropping up in the border districts. The Muslim
population of 2.5% in 1981 has increased to 3.5% in ten years. In December
1998,
Muslims held rallies in Janakpur, Sita's birthplace, calling for the
conversion of Nepal to an Islamic state. It is indeed apt to ask if Nepal,
in effect,
is a Hindu state.
8
While Americans are displaying pictures of Sri Krishna in gay magazines
and
branding the images of our deities on lunch boxes and t-shirts, half-way
around
the world, Hindus are losing their lives to Christian and Muslim fanatics.
What is the use of organizing massive conferences detailing our past history
when we are losing our future every single minute? Can such conferences
save our
fellow Hindus from the wrath of Abrahamic radicals? How many of the world's
one billion Hindus protested when 25 Hindus were massacred in Kashmir?
9
Compare this with the immense Hindu response that was given when one bamboo
church was burned in the Dangs. Are Hindu lives that dispensable? The
Kurds, a
people without a homeland, rocked the world with simultaneous protests
when
their leader was handed over by Greece to Turkey. But the Hindus remained
silent
when in 1997 50,000 Reang tribals fled Mizoram -- in fear of the Catholic
spree of looting, burning, raping and killing. We are blissfully ignoring
Sri
Krishna's message to Arjuna: to fight adharma [non-religion] wherever
it may be.
It can safely be said that not only are we the most cowardice race that
has
ever lived, but also the most selfish one. Sending our children to Ivy
League
colleges can not wash away their Indian features or their Hindu heritage.
We
are doomed to be confined to the exhibits of a museum to be gawked at
by curious
onlookers, for many of whom we are ancestors.
Let us remember Swami Vivekananda's words regarding conversions: "And
then
every man going out of the Hindu pale is not a man less, but an enemy
more." At
the same time, let heed his warning: "Religion and religion alone
is the life
of India, and when that goes, India will die, in spite of politics, in
spite
of social reforms, in spite of Kubera's wealth poured upon the head of
every
one of her children." 10
***
Critical Podium Dewanand Hinduism
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