Sunday, March 4, 2018

What Is Hindutva

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


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 What Is Real Hindutva











The great Hindu heritage is based not on one book, preceptor, or dogma. The Hindu heritage and culture flow from the great Vedic teachings: ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti ,Truth is One, Sages Call it by Many Names, and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam -- The Whole Universe is one Family. That is why the Hindu society has a proud and indubitable history of tolerance for other religions and their spiritual beliefs. So we find that Hindus gave refuge to many people fleeing from kinds of persecution, - Jews, Zoroastrians, Tibetan Buddhists etc.

The universal inclusion, so characteristic of the Hindus made the society so vibrant and unassailable that the successive invaders beginning with the Islamists who were the damned bloodiest in history failed to destroy  Hinduism or even contain it.

But despite such barbarism meted out to them by the hordes of Islamic invaders from Central Asia and Turkey, Hindus never paid them back in the same coin. They refused to adopt the barbarian rules by which the Islamists played. No Hindu ever tried to match the level of cruelty of even a moderate Muslim ruler.. Hindus sustained their tolerance and the adaptability to change, to evolve through all adversities.

However, the Muslim society’s inherent unwillingness to change, to adapt, abetted by the Islamic clergy never realized or considered the debt they owed to Hindus for their tolerance and lack of vengeance. Instead Hindus  were forced to divide the country and partition it, - a country that had millennia of common culture. In spite of that, "Hindu majority India continued the Hindu ideals by remaining secular.  India even gave the Muslim minority gifts such as separate personal laws, special status to the only Muslim majority state, Kashmir, and also other rights that are even unheard of." elsewhere. It is these characteristics of Hindu society and the still un-evolved Muslim psyche that remain today.

The self-appointed guardians of India, the Congress, called themselves secularists to play vote bank politics. They  feigned ignorance of the fact that it was the Hindu psyche that believed in secularism that prompted to declare India as secular  In the guise of vote-bank secularism Hindu traditions and customs were ridiculed and mocked at.as archaic and regressive to be changed to achieve modernity. They ignored the fact that  it was the Hindu thought that had inspired some of the greatest intellectuals of the world and that it was Hindus, who were the most nationalistic people in India.

The pseudo-secularism sought to relegate the majority in to mere spectators and bystanders in the game of politics. The majority then had no other go but to demand true secularism "where every religious group would be treated the same and a government that would not take Hindu sentiments for granted". .Thus Hindutva, homogeneous in history, culture and ethos, awakened to a new consciousness of a new national order leading to a new world order wherein India  had great contributions to make and will play a dominant role.

"Hindutva will not mean any Hindu theocracy or theology. However, it will mean that the guiding principles of Bharat will come from two of the great teachings of the Vedas, the ancient Hindu and Indian scriptures, which so boldly proclaimed -truth is one, sages call it by many names - and - the whole universe is one family..