Indian Secularism is Dead, No Need to Shed Tears

Over the years the secularism in Indian political context has come to mean different things to different people.  In Europe where it originated it was meant to define a societal project where in the people of different faiths had equal access to the public institutions and resources and none was denied space in the public sphere because of his/her faith.

In Indian political practice the term has come down to mean that the majority subordinates itself to the minority in the public sphere just  so that the minority does not feel insecure.   The corrupt politicians nurtured this feeling of insecurity among the minorities as it guaranteed them their votes in the elections.    Minorities got special privileges that the majority did not.   The religious and educational institutions of the minorities got financial aid but not subject to scrutiny or takeover by the government.  But Hindu religious institutions and worship places are governed by the government in spite of the constitution mandating the religion out of the reach of the government.  The liberal elite corrupted the meaning of secularism even more and they interpreted secularism as encouraging minorities to flout their faiths in the public sphere while such flouting by the majority was not only discouraged, but even criticized.  Any Hindu publicly showing or asserting his faith was labeled as a fascist.
 
For our Muslim brothers the secularism has come to mean wielding a veto power on the national policy initiatives, whether it is about improving the relationship with United States or Israel, or implementing the Uniform Civil Code. For Christian brothers the term secularism has come to mean a license towards unhindered proselytizing of their faith to erase Hinduism out of India. 

The common man is confused because none in the public sphere speaks the truth any more, whether they are in politics, media, academia or social reform movements. Politicians do not speak the truth because of the fear of loosing minority votes and thereby the election.  The many in the media are paid and contracted by people in power.  Academics are living on the handouts of the government and people in power and the elite among them are rather proud of aping the west while denigrating the indigenous traditions and culture.  Among the social reform movements there is an active cottage industry called NGO's claiming to work towards human rights and religious freedom under the patronage of western countries who contribute large sums of to keep India for ever a backward country by keeping a pliable government in Delhi.

This kind of nonsense has been going on ever since the independence.  People cannot be fooled for ever and they do wake up at some point in time.  It appears that they have done so for the 2014 Loksabha election.  Congress party is staring at a disaster in the election and the liberal elite, academics and social reformers are all screaming loud that the nation is about to face ruin if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister.   Power corrupts but the fear of loosing power does lot worse things to people whether they be politicians, the so-called intellectual elite or the quota salesmen and it shows in their outbursts.

No wonder that secularism has become a dirty word in India.

Hinduphobia in the Media

           Abdul Quadar Mollah, "The Butcher of Mirpur"




This morning I heard on the radio news that Abdul Quadar Mollah was executed by hanging in Bangladesh.  For those of you who do not know Abdul Quadar Mollah, he was convicted  for assisting and participating in the killing of over three million people and raping of over 200,000 women in Bangaldesh by Pakistani soldiers in 1971.  This news item was covered in many large newspapers as well.  However, none of the media outlets mentioned that most of the three million victims were Hindus.   These are the same news media outlets who, when they talk about Gujarat or Narendra Modi, always add their refrain about the so called "pogrom in Gujarat where over thousand people were killed, most of them Muslims".  The media has been silent when the victims are Hindus.  The same people scream loud when the victims are Muslims.

The fashionable thing to talk about these days is "Islamophobia".  What about the Hinduphobia in the media?  Does anyone notice the elephant in the room?  Only if people open their eyes and minds.  I hope they do.

Following are some of the major media outlets that covered the news.  They all talked about three million killed, two hundred thousand raped, but were silent about the fact that most of the victims were  Hindus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bangladesh-approves-execution-of-opposition-leader/2013/12/12/3b50ee8a-62f9-11e3-af0d-4bb80d704888_story.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bangladesh-executes-islamist-leader-and-convicted-war-criminal-abdul-quader-mollah-over-deaths-in-war-of-independence-9001691.html

http://www.news.com.au/world/bangladeshi-war-criminal-abdul-quader-mollah-executed/story-fndir2ev-1226782100831

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bangladesh-executes-opposition-leader-abdul-quader-mollah-1.2461467

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/world/asia/islamist-in-bangladesh-sentenced-to-death-in-killings.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1386953797-VeSuH2gL6YRFMacezBANLA

Only the following New York Times article mentioned that "Many of those killed were Hindus", but silent on how many out of that three million were Hindus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/world/asia/execution-for-71-war-crimes-spurs-protests-in-bangladesh.html?ref=world

OBAMA'S TRIAL BALLOON OVER DELHI

These days there is a balloon floating over Delhi. It has nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games that are going on there. Instead, it is a trial balloon created and floated by a team of bunglers in Washington. I hope that the leadership in Delhi will puncture and let the air out of the balloon as soon as possible.

The trial balloon I am talking about is the proposal by Obama team offering to consider India's request for admission to UN Security Council as a permanent member in return for giving up Kashmir. While US global influence has been so miserably degraded that it does not even have the clout to override China's veto on this or any other matter, why would India even look at this proposal?

Long ago when the Eisenhover administration gave away to Kennedy presidency, John Foster Dulles, the ever paranoid anticommunist Secretary of State was being replaced by Dean Rusk who would keep the top diplomat job for the next eight years. Kennedy team wanted to bring China into the global community and they offered recognition to China on the basis that China would be "flexible" on the issues of Taiwan and Tibet. Chinese were smarter as they always have been and they told the Americans team to take a walk. Lyndon Johnson got involved in Vietnam and the overture towards China disappeared background.

When Nixon inherited the Vietnam mess and hired Henry Kissinger to manage his foreign policy, they both knew they were in a hole and would be unceremoniously thrown out of Vietnam with the Soviet Union gleefully watching their exit. Kissinger wanted to get out of the hole with minimal losses all the while trying to limit the gains by the Soviets, so he ended up reaching out to China. He and Nixon also wanted extract a price in the form of China writing off Taiwan and Tibet. Chinese said, "No deal on Taiwan or Tibet. Not only that, we demand that you to stay out of our internal policies and let us sit in the permanent seat in Security Council with veto powers". US was in a mess, so the Chinese got everything they demanded. Chinese were smart to assess the situation rightly and negotiated wisely.

Today a significant contingent of his army is stuck in Iraq and likely to stay there for years to come. A larger contingent is in Afghanistan actively fighting with no hope of ever accomplishing any of their goals and anticipating an ignominious departure. They have to keep watching their back while Pakistan, their chief ally in their war on terrorism, claims to cooperate with them in their war on terrorism. With a Zombie economy at home President Obama will be visiting India in November when he would have lost his majority in the House of Representatives and may be even in the Senate. He will be in no position to offer much to India, instead, will be looking for help from India to bail him out. Need of the hour is for the Ministry of External Affairs is to recognize the present situation and study every step of the US-China negotiations in the 70's to learn from it.

What is happening in Kashmir is not a freedom struggle. It is the jihad staged by a small group of fanatic Islamists intending to create an Islamic state under Sahariah law financed by Saudi Arabia and choreographed by Pakistan. Compromise in Kashmir is a compromise on India's integrity. It will lead to the balkanization of India and reopening the door to the slavery that Hindus endured for eight hundred years.

Muslim Consort of Vishnu in Srirangam Temple

Here is an unusual story of the association of Vishnu with a Muslim woman as his divine consort and worship services offered to her in Srirangam, a major temple in Tamilnadu.

In the temple in Srirangam, one of the largest and most important in Tamilnadu, Vishnu is manifested as Ranganatha Swami in the reclining posture. There is also a painting of one "Tulukka Nachiar" (JYf;f ehr;rpahH) in a small shrine near the garbha-griha. Worship services are performed everyday in reverence to her in which the Lord Ranganatha is offered wheat bread, ghee and dhal for breakfast. (Tulukkar in Tamil means a Muslim, a word derived from "Turukiyar" or Turks, and Nachiyar is a term used in Tamil Vaishnava theology for the divine consort of the presiding deity). What follows is a fascinating story of how this practice came to be, a combination of history, legend and tradition.

When the first millennium of the Common Era was turning over to the second, Rajaraja Chola (985 - 1014 CE), the greatest of the Imperial Cholas was in power in Thanjavur in Tamilnadu. He established an empire which his son Rajendra Chola I (1012 - 1044 CE) expanded to include most of peninsular India, present day Orissa, Bihar, Bengal and Bangladesh and overseas possessions of present day Sri Lanka, the Malay peninsula, Indonesia and Thailand. Like other empires, this too did not last long. It began to disintegrate during the rule of Kulotthunga Chola (1071 - 1122 CE) and completely disappeared in 1279 CE when Rajendra Chola III lost the war with the Pandian king Maravarman Kulasekhara Pandian. That war brought most of what is the present day Tamilnadu under Pandian rule from their traditional capital at Madurai. After the death of the Pandian king in 1308 CE the succession struggle between his two sons (Jatavarman Sundara Pandian and Jatavarman Vira Pandian) reduced the kingdom to a state of civil war. Ultimately the prince Sundara Pandian, after loosing to his brother Vira Pandian, took a step that would radically change the history of Southern India for ever.

At this time the Muslims who had invaded India through the Northwest had established a Sultanate in Delhi and been ruling for over 100 years. They controlled most of northern India from Punjab to Bengal but they had not yet ventured into the South beyond the Vindhya mountains. The Primary revenue for the Sultanate rulers had been from raiding the temples, local rajas and chiefs in addition to whatever they could extract from the poor farmers. The loosing Pandian prince traveled to Delhi and requested that the Sultan help him gain back his kingdom in Madurai.

The ruling Sultan in Delhi at the time was Allaudhin Khilji, considered to be one of the worst tyrants of the Slave Dynasties. During his earlier raid into Gujarat he had come across a Hindu slave whom he was attracted to (the Sultan was a homosexual) and purchased him. The slave was taken to Delhi, converted to Islam, given the name "Kafur" and made a personal attendant to the Sultan. Over course of time the slave Kafur became a right hand man to the Sultan and eventually grew to be a general in his army known as Malik Kafur.

With the knowledge gained from the fugitive Pandian prince, Malik Kafur led the military expedition through the present day Karnataka to Madurai in 1311 CE. He plundered all the places with any kind of wealth along the way. (This would was followed by subsequent raids and the eventual establishment of an Islamic Sultanate in Madurai in 1330 CE during the reign of Sultan Muhammed bin Tughlak. Pandian rulers fled to southern end of their territory, ruled as local chieftains in Tenkasi and slowly disappeared from history. The Sultanate lasted until 1380 CE when it was defeated and Hindu rule established under the Vijayanagara Empire by Kumara Kampanna, the son of Bukka I, one of the cofounders of the empire).

Malik Kafur, on his way to Madurai stopped at Srirangam and plundered the temple. The temple establishment got the news of the expedition ahead of time and in their effort to save the worship Moorthi in the garbha graha (commonly known as moolavar) they covered the area with brick walls and made a confusing labyrinth inside the temple. Malik Kafur's army sacked Srirangam and the temple but did not find the garbha-griha. However, his army took away the Utsava Moorthi (smaller divine image used in festival processions) of Ranganatha made of gold along with other precious jewelry and valuables. His army also plundered other temples including those at Chidamparam and Madurai and returned to Delhi with untold wealth which even caused a temporary inflation in Delhi's economy. Upon viewing the loot, Sultan's daughter fell in love with the Utsavamoorthi of Ranganatha and kept it all for herself.

According to legend, one woman from Srirangam, not wanting to loose sight of the Utsavamoorthi, followed Malik Kafur's army all the way to Delhi and returned to Srirangam to inform temple authorities where it had ended up. For this she was given the name "woman who followed" (gpd;nrd;wty;yp). Guided by the woman, a team of parijanas (temple attendants) traveled to Delhi to bring back the Utsavamoorthi. After reaching Delhi, with the temple singers in the fore with their performance, they were able to please Sultan Khilji who offered them presents. The singers, refusing the presents, asked for the Utsava Moorthi of Ranganatha which the Sultan obliged. The devotees returned to Srirangam and resumed their ritual practices with whatever available resources.

Legend also has that the Sultan's daughter had fallen in love with the Utsavamoorthy (or Ranganatha?) and traveled all the way to Srirangam since she wanted to be close her beloved. She was known in Srirangam as Surathani, a corruption of "Sultani". Surathani died shortly after reaching the temple, supposedly at the feet of Ranganatha. (Her death would invite more raids from Delhi but that is the story for another day). She was accepted by the temple devotees as a divine consort of Ranganatha and is known as Thulukka Nachiyar. There is a shrine with the painting of Surathani in the temple as a standing testimony to this tradition. This tradition is preserved in a Telugu folk song called the "Surathani Kalyanamu".

This tradition has spread beyond Srirangam. During the annual Chithirai festival in Madurai, Kallalagar, a manifestation of Vishnu, travels to Madurai to attend the wedding of his sister Meenakshi to Lord Sundareswarar who are the presiding deities there. After crossing the nearby Vaigai river, tradition holds that he spends a night with Thulukka Nachiyar before he gets to the divine wedding function. The tradition is also present in the Thiru Narayana temple at Melukote in Karnataka where the Muslim princess is known as Bivi Nachiyar.

U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan

Hypocrites and Traitors in Indian Politics

During the last three days there were two news items which specially caught my interest.

1. A powerful politician, while talking to press in New Delhi on Saturday (7/24/2010), said that the Popular Front of India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a “Muslim country” in the next 20 years. PFI is a Muslim organization which hit the headlines recently after its activists chopped off the hand of a college lecturer for allegedly insulting prophet Muhammad. Using unusually harsh language, the Chief Minister said the PFI was pumping money to lure youth into Islam and persuade them to marry Muslim women⁽¹⁾. “Their strategy is to make Muslims a majority community in Kerala. In 20 years, they want to make Kerala a Muslim majority state," he said referring to recent cases of Love Jihad.

These words were not spoken by any member of BJP or RSS. They were spoken by Mr.V.S.Achuthanandan, a Communist Party (Marxist) leader and the Chief Minister of Kerala! Indian Express reported⁽²⁾: His party, CP(M), has leading role in nurturing this monster - Popular Front - it has earlier used the PFI to divert votes from the Congress-allied Indian Union Muslim League. However, there isn’t a shred of doubt that the PFI, or a significant strand of it, is an extremist and violent organization that has not let go of its SIMI antecedents. Through the ’90s, after the Babri Masjid demolition polarized India, the PFI (formerly the National Development Front) grew and tightened its grip — it specializes in acts of shocking brutality, like the incident when it hacked off the hands of the college lecturer, for supposedly insulting the Prophet in an examination paper. It has a repressive social agenda, from demanding headscarves in Christian schools to moral policing, along with a media mouthpiece and softer outreach activities. In northern Kerala, where it is locked in fierce competition with the RSS and the CPM, it has developed a neat line in political intimidation. That it seeks to impose its social ideology on Kerala’s Muslims is a clearly visible fact.

For many years on, the BJP has been raising this issue in Kerala, but they were marginalized, and neither Congress nor CP(M) wanted to confront the reality of foreign funded talibanization of the society in Kerala. All communal incidents were squarely blamed on the RSS/BJP, and politics of appeasement was allowed to prosper. Now, in this late hour, people are sitting up and taking notice. We will have to see how much follow up in done on the statement by the Chief Minister and the CP(M). This may only be a lip-service to shore up Hindu votes as CP(M) has become unpopular among the other communities in Kerala of late.

BJP and Congress criticized the Chief Minister for being "communal". Surprise, BJP calling CP(M) communal for raising Talibanization issue? There are hypocrites in Indian politics everywhere you look.

All the Islamic organizations, as they always do, condemned the Chief Minister, wanted him to apologize and retract his statements. Islamic ethos has no room for self-introspection, and as always, they stand to defend the brand name of Islam regardless of whether the issue is right or wrong.

***

2. Mr. Manishankar Aiyar, currently a Rajya Sabha member and Congress party leader, said that he would be “unhappy” if the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi turn out to be a success and that those organizing it are “evil.” He further said: "I am delighted in a way because rains are causing difficulties for the Commonwealth Games. Basically, I will be very unhappy if the Games are successful because then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games,” he said. And added: “Those who are patronizing the Games can only be evil. They cannot be God."⁽³⁾.

Mr. Aiyar's acquaintance with Rajiv Gandhi during his years at Doon School and Cambridge University got him a berth among the Congress party establishment. A rabid Marxist who is against any kind of development, he was the Sports Minister in the year 2006-2009. That shows why India has been doing so poorly in international sports. When he was a student at Cambridge University he was an active member of Marxist Society there and supposedly collected donations to help China win its war against India in 1962. With such antinational traitors in power, no wonder India is spinning its wheels when it comes to progress.

References:

(1) http://www.indianexpress.com/news/PFI-trying-to-make-Kerala-a--Muslim-country---says-VS/651344

(2) http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Defending-the-front/652613

(3) http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Too-much-Mani-continues-to-be-wasted-on-the-Games/652739

External Affairs Minister Krishna's Visit to Pakistan

Indian external affairs minister S.M. Krishna traveled to Islamabad last week for talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi and returned empty handed. Pakistan, as usual, played the victim of India's alleged intransigence. Three days later Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State came to Islamabad carrying goodies ($500 million as first installment of the $7.5 billion) and presided over a meeting between Pakistan and Afghanistan where they signed a transit agreement between the two countries that specifically excluded any shipment of Indian goods to Afghanistan through Pakistani territory. I find it mind-numbing to see such clumsiness of our External Affairs ministry.

Qureshi knew ahead of time that Hillary Clinton was to visit Islamabad begging and bribing Pakistan for its support in Afghanistan and push Karzai to sign the Af-Pak agreement. With this knowledge, Qureshi had no interest in reaching any agreement with India and he wanted to show that Pakistanis can beat India in diplomacy and check-mate India. Our diplomats in South Block were clueless when they traveled to Islamabad.

India had strategic discussions with United States last month and it is not clear
if anything was accomplished. If those talks were successful, why would Clinton come to Islamabad with goodies so soon after the breakdown of talks between Qureshi and Krishna and preside over Af-Pak agreement which disenfranchised India in Afghanistan? All the development works that India did in Afghanistan over the last several years have come to nothing.

Indian team had so many trump cards in their hands(1,2): the ISI involvement in the 11/26 attack in Mumbai as revealed by Headley, the information of Pakistani Navy frogmen training the Mumbai terrorists, ISI providing money to LeT to purchase the boat to travel from Karachi to Mumbai, the ISI being in control and coordinating the attack from the beginning to the end, ISI colluding with Haqqani network, the notorious group which raised alarm in the US Senate last week, and on and on. If Pakistan is not responsive to these many evidences, is there any use in talking to them? So called "soft power" that Congress politicians talk about does not work beyond our borders (it never worked even within the borders).

Indians are under a stupid assumption that the dream of a prosperous India cannot be realized without a peace agreement with Pakistan. Pakistan knows this very well and is carrying out its usual blackmail as it has been doing for the last sixty years. By the manner in which they handled the talks they essentially declared that they have no interest in a working relationship with India on mutual terms because of their confidence that United States would bankroll them and China would provide diplomatic support. It is about time to wake up from the our Gandhian day dreams and face up to the world of realpolitik.


Reference:
1. http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/19/pakistan-navy-trained-2611-terrorists-headley.htm
2. http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/20/stories/2010072062181200.htm