In our country, Hinduphobia seems to be the latest fad amongst the intellectually enlightened ‘liberals’ from various walks of life. Though Hinduphobia subtly existed for decades now, it has become more pronounced due to spite towards the nationalist government at the center, which came to power seven years back, or it is simply getting noticed now, what with the advent of social media. The latest in the kitty of hinduphobic pieces of work is the non-fiction book authored by Congress leader and ex-Cabinet Minister, Salman Khurshid, titled ‘Sunrise Over Ayodhya’, based on the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Ramjanmabhoomi issue delivered two years back.
In the instant book, Khurshid compares ‘a robust version of Hindutva’ with the infamous terror outfits of Boko Haram and ISIS, in Chapter 6 titled ‘The Saffron Sky’.
This malicious comparison of Hindutva, in whatever version, with the notorious terror outfits like ISIS and the Boko Haram, who indulge in grotesque killings, mutilations, rape, torture, and slavery, all in the name of their faith, led to massive furor amongst the Hindu nationalists, the BJP, RSS, VHP, and various Hindu outfits, who demanded a ban on the said book. A petition has been filed at the Delhi High Court by two Delhi-based lawyers, Vineet Jindal and Raj Kishor Chaudhary seeking direction to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of the book.
Salman Khurshid’s scathing attack on Hindutva has drawn flak from amongst his own, a few Congress leaders too and their allies. Senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad stated “We may not agree with Hindutva as a political ideology but comparing it with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and exaggeration,” thus expressing his discontent against Khurshid’s anti-Hindutva stand. Priyanka Chaturvedi, leader of Shiv Sena, which is a Congress ally in Maharashtra, too strongly criticized Khurshid’s remarks on Hindutva through her tweet stating –
“A book comparing Hindutva to terror outfits ISIS & Boko Haram is an attempt to demonize Hindu religion that has only spoken of
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.. Half-baked information can get you book publicity but unnecessary consequences of hurting the sentiments of millions of Hindus. Shame,”
Facing ire, Salman Khurshid made a meek attempt at damage control stating that he meant Hindutva and the terror outfits are similar and not the same and that his book is about Hindu-Muslim unity. But that has not helped matters much, nor has it taken away the ignominy he inflicted on the majority community of this country. Such religious bigotry doesn’t befit a leader of Salman Khurshid’s nature, who had served in various ministerial positions with the Govt. Of India, the last being that of the External Affairs Minister. He also happens to be the son of Khurshid Alam Khan, former Union Minister and the maternal grandson of the third President of India, Zakir Hussain. The icing on the cake is his Oxford Law Degree, which proves that education is not enough to rid one of bigotry and inhibitions. Such words from him are not surprising because in the past too, in his book ‘In-home in India’ he had made an extremely insensitive statement on the 1984 Sikh genocide: “There was also a terrible satisfaction amongst Muslims, who had not completely forgotten the Partition’s unpleasant aftermath. Hindus and Sikhs were alike paying for their ‘sins’. The instant statement vindicates his religious intolerance and abject apathy towards other religious communities. He is currently trying to convince all by telling journalists that he is visiting Kalki Dham now and that he wouldn’t do so if he had anything against Hindus.
India is home to the world’s oldest civilization, the Indus Valley Civilization which is at least 8000 years old (though opinions regarding the exact timeline of its existence vary). Incidentally, India happens to be the only ancient civilization that has successfully retained its authenticity and its ethnicity, unlike its contemporary civilizations, all of which simply became extinct. The key to India’s all-encompassing development and self-reliance lies in its ancient history, in its texts – the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and from the works of the accomplished men and women who walked the earth in those times and who were experts in their respective fields of knowledge.
Our religious texts, the Vedas, Purans, Upanishads, our epics – The Ramayan and the Mahabharat bear evidence of India’s excellence in the field of science, technology, literature, art, and sculpture. There is no denying the fact that the man who invented zero, Aryabhatta, the mathematician par excellence, Varahamihir, the man who is synonym with Ayurved, Sushrut, the father of plastic surgery, Charak, the great litterateur, Kalidas, the author of Arthasashtra, Chanakya, the grammarian, Panini, were all born and practiced in India.
Centuries of external invasion, aggression, looting, and plunder which included the destruction of ancient works of architecture, buildings, temples, burning down of old texts which bore evidence to our glorious past could not destroy India’s ancient cultural practices and her heritage. The western conglomerate’s worst nightmare is that of a self-reliant India drawing inspiration and knowledge from its illustrious past because India, with a population of 139 crores is nothing but a vast market to them, where they can smoothly dump their inferior quality goods too. Hence India’s lack of dependence on them is viewed as a threat. Thus, the only way to stop India from developing, from becoming self-reliant, is by cutting her away from her roots, from her glorious past. The western ecosystem or the Left-wing ecosystem have been working on the same for nearly six decades now and the Congress party, which ruled our nation for nearly seven decades happens to be their biggest aide in this matter.
The Congress loyal or darbari historians have tried to whitewash and distort our history by either hiding the fables of brave Hindu rulers or by a minuscule mention of the same, while going all out to glorify our invaders, specifically the Mughals. Our art and literature, have been constantly denigrating Hindus while glorifying other religious communities, for decades now. The reason is the one mentioned above. Salman Khurshid’s book is just an addition to the myriad of anti-Hindu literature being pushed through from our own soil.
The word Hindu is derived from the Indus Valley Civilization – the inhabitants of the civilization which grew up around the Indus river, whose Sanskrit name is Sindhu. As our civilization evolved, the various practices, disciplines, and means to livelihood also evolved, and to lend credence to them, those enunciated as texts so that all could follow those as a way of life. Hence, Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion evolved, not as an organized religion propagated by a prophet, drawing a set of followers, whose task was to draw others towards that particular religion by any means, but as a better way to lead life. Hence, the question of preaching and propagating or imposing it on those who did not wish to follow it, never arose, ever since it came into existence.
On account of a number of invasions cutting across millennia, India had become home to a variety of people from different faiths, ethnicity, race, and culture, thus diluting its original cultural practices to some extent. When India was invaded by the Islamists from the Middle East and Central Asia and later on by the Europeans, culminating in British colonial rule for 200 years, some of the original inhabitants of our country too, converted to different faiths, either due to coercion or fear or after being convinced of a better life post-conversion. However, there is no denying the fact that their roots lay in this land and their forefathers were Hindus. The invaders’ primary concern is to convert the people of the land to their own faith because it becomes that much easier for them to enslave the latter and destroy the cultural fabric of that land so that the invaders can easily impose their own cultural practices on that land, thus preventing any chance of revolt by the inhabitants there, with the intent of going back to their roots by pushing out the ‘outsiders’. Our history is witness that the Hindu rulers never ever tried to change the ethnic character of any land that they won in battle unlike the Islamists and the Westerners. Hence, the allegation against Hindus of excesses against other religious communities will find no takers.
The term ‘Hindutva’ was first coined, used, and explained by the Bengali scholar Chandranath Basu in his essay ‘Hindutva or the Authentic History of the Hindus’ (Hindutva ba Hindu Prokrito Itihas) in 1892. The term was articulated and popularized by Veer Vinayak Savarkar to instill a sense of pride amongst fellow Indians, in their own faith, the Sanatan Dharma, their culture and heritage and to take pride in it. It is only when the Indians start taking pride in their sanatani identity and their culture, laced with numerous remarkable achievements, only then the feeling of nationalism will rise in them, encouraging them to fight with increased vigor against the British colonial rulers and snatch freedom from their clutches. Savarkar’s idea of Hindutva was that of a common nation (Rashtra), common race (jati), and common culture (Sanskriti) which would unify all the Hindus to fight against their common enemy.
As is evident from above, the Hindutva ideology rightfully encourages the Hindus to take pride in their faith and culture – nowhere does it encourage them to aggress on others or mindlessly kill them. Thus, Khurshid’s slanderous comparison is totally baseless and absolutely false.
Salman Khurshid is a true blue Congressi, should not surprise many with his abject Hinduphobia. The Congress, on numerous occasions, have done the same – the most prominent display being that during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, when they had tried to pass off the same as ‘Hindu’ terror and would have succeeded in doing the same had the brave Tukaram Omble not caught Ajmal Kasav alive. Going a step further, the veteran Congress Leader, Digvijay Singh, who was the Congress General Secretary then, released a book written by Aziz Burney, Editor-in-Chief of Urdu Newspaper, Sahara, called ‘26/11 RSS ki Saazish’, an attempt to frame RSS for the gruesome terror attacks.
However, Salman Khurshid’s hypocrisy lies threadbare now that while accusing the Sangh Parivar of imposing ‘robust’ Hindutva whom he feels is akin to terror by the radical Islamist outfits, ISIS and Boko Haram, he forgets the excesses committed by his own party of en masse killings whenever their interests were hurt – the killing of Chitpavan Brahmins of Maharashtra in 1948 to avenge Gandhi’s assassination by a Chitpavan Brahmin, Nathuram Godse and the Sikh genocide of 1984 to avenge the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Not to mention the atrocities on opposition leaders during the 1975 emergency or the mindless banning and censoring of art, literature, and people if those offended the powers that be in the Congress. The Congress, a party formed to act as a safety valve for the British to prevent nationalist uprisings of the nature of the 1857 war of independence and kept on serving their masters till the power of governance of India was transferred to them and also beyond, has a lot of answering to do regarding the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the death of Dr. S. P. Mukherjee, the death of the 2nd Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Sashtri, the death of the Father of India’s Atomic Energy Program, Dr. Homi Bhaba, some of their own leader and a host of ISRO scientists. It is too much to ask if the likes of Salman Khurshid will ever garner enough courage to question their own party with regard to the above before labeling false allegations on an entire religious community with the intent of spewing venom on their political adversaries.
