By S Paul
Bringing in the UCC, the modified Waqf bill, anti-conversion law, etc., is a bold attempt of the present national government. These are efforts to shake out of us centuries of addictive traditions introduced by our conquerors to keep us servile and divided. Having lost huge, very fertile land, our cultural identity such as the people of Sindh due to some very short-sighted leadership, we are finally a self-governed nation. That is what the present leadership is trying to inculcate in us, a sense of nationhood. We look forward to legislation for strict family planning and resurgence of the Vedic discipline among us also. To be able to live in an ambience dreamed and put down in the verse by our famous thinker poet Sri Rabindranath Tagore.
“ Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action –
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” – Rabindranath Tagore in Gitanjali .
To start with, consider the name changing mania of the politicians. Rightly our physically exhibited remembrances of those who vanquished us and violated us must be eradicated completely. Their sight and reverence shown to their memories hurts our pride; especially that of the post-independence generation. These vanquishers’ memories may be permanently consigned to archives to only help those who would research our humiliation at their hands and the deprivation that was imposed on this land which was known to be flowing with milk and honey. The vultures who looted and plundered our symbols of cultures and traditions, preserved for centuries, could not suppress and destroy our ‘way of life’; the Sanatana Dharma and our wisdom chronicled in our Shastras. Our resilience stood fast and although severely dismembered we now stand as a nation.
However, we have not been able to completely get rid of the weakness of our society which had been and still are the ‘Achilles heel’ for our national unity. These are the numerous traditions that we have germinated in our social fabric. Our castes, our region, our language and our faith in the universally acknowledged, the one and only Divine God – Paramatma. And we have let all these weaknesses be used cleverly by our ‘necessary evil profession’ of politics. We speak so often with respect about Chanakya’s ‘Arth Shastra’ in which it is indicated that in realpolitik it is right to sow seeds of discontent among one’s enemy camp. As was used by the then Emperor Chandragupt Maurya to conquer the kingdom of his enemy. Unfortunately, in our democratic set up, our political leaders have forgotten this real use of realpolitik and have started using it the British way of dividing our society to garner votes. This has given rise to radical groups even among the Sanatana dharmis. The Vedic perspective of “Sanatana Dharma” is “the eternal way”. It encompasses the fundamental principles of the universe, emphasising the eternal nature of truth and the inherent dharma of individuals to uphold cosmic order and righteousness. Our modern-day orators use it often to term our ‘Hindu’ religion as a way of life based on this Vedic concept, yet it has not been able to uplift those who have got trapped in the quagmire of lesser ways of life conceptualised by races from outside our boundaries.
The belief that the poor are vulnerable to material enticement for conversion because of foreign funding being done mainly to aid some NGOs to convert by proselytisation or Jehad may be justified. But such foreign funding has been stopped by the central government by bringing in the disputable Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). The spirit in which this has been implemented has adversely affected some very worldwide reputed educational, medical and philanthropic institutes being operated by the minority in Bharat. Even though the government has very generously brought these institutes under its control, the international reputation and quality of such institutes has taken a hit for the worse. However, the marginalised groups, mainly the Dalits and untouchables have been targeted by these foreign aided NGOs to convert with the assurance that they will be treated equal to others and be given special help to come up in their life standards. These Dalits are the victims of the misinterpretation by our selfish religious leaders of the social division based on Karma (work culture) in our society. It is not hereditary. Somehow, our spiritualy deficient clergy deemed it as ‘caste’ that one cannot come out of. Our alien conquerors exploited this, our fault, as a successful means of ruling us by dividing us. This caste divide has been the greatest weakness of our social fabric which even our own political leaders have been using to play their nefarious political games. We keep on harping on our cultural ethics of considering the whole world as a family (Vasudeva Kutumbakam) yet in our own nation we look down upon the poor uneducated backward class of our society called the ‘Shudras’ by those who consider themselves naturally more endowed as ‘upper class’. A child born at any level in the society is sinless (Niragas) as an angel. It is the atmosphere and the exposure to the other grownups around it that makes the child a Brahmin or Shudra. Our dharma would not become ‘shudra’ but ‘shudha’ if we treat these children of lesser Gods with respect and care for them to rise to be the nation that we ought to be.
The non-Bharatiya religions give hope to these Dalits that they would not be looked upon and given a chance to come up in life. Hence the conversion being popular at that level of society. But certain radical Sanatanis do not realise this festering fissure in our social fabric and favouring this misguided tradition would deny the Dalits even this advantage. I would like to implore the BJP government, which is determined to bring in complete Bhartiyeta, to pursue eradication of this weakness. Stop the political ploy of quota and reservations and guide their cadres to specifically work for the Dalits all over the nation and make them feel respected and human. RSS which is an -old effort of certain intellectuals to inculcate discipline in their cadres are requested to promote this attitude rather than encourage faith-based hatred and sow seeds of discontent among us. Do this and we will see conversion only of the spirit and not of numbers. Let us ourselves become a family before considering the whole world as a family. Please stop persecuting those who have seen Bhagwan Vishnu’s avatar in some place other than our Vedic land and liked his teaching of love and peace and humility.
