Guest guest Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 Museum of Natural History on a subject, very emotional and sensitive to many Hindu Americans, the focus of the discussion was carefully crafted, controlled and narrowed down just enough to demonize a particular community, the movies played hurt the emotions and sensitivities of that community. The main event was a documentary showing people donning `Hindu' robes and chanting `Hindu' slogans terrorizing Muslims and inciting mobs to demolish a mosque. This documentary `In the name of God' is a Marxist caricature of Hindu ideals and ethos, it associates Hindu identity and symbolism with terrorism and demolition of religious places, represents Hindus as terrorists, Muslims as victims and Marxists as the only sane Indians. This is a political documentary used by the Marxists in India to recruit communist cadres in universities. Communists in US universities are now discovering the convenience of this and other tangential recruitment tools. Over the years the communist strategy in India has been to debase Indian religion and idols, recruit Muslims by being congruent with the anti idolatory aspects of Islam and recruit Hindus by breaking them out of idolatry/Hinduism. Here, they start with their own act of demolition, of `Ramayana', the `sanctum sanctorum' of Hindu consciousness, with `We Are Not Your Monkeys', a music video by the same director Mr. Anant Patwardhan, that reworks `Ramayana' into a slanderous representation of caste and gender oppression. Viewing those two movies negates every positive impression someone has of Hinduism and Hindus, assuming he/she is not very acquainted with the communist way and the Indian political process. It belittles Hinduism and Hindus, may provoke someone to look at his Hindu friend thru his perception of WTC bombers. It also lends a false sense of credibility because both the director and moderator have Hindu names. An ideal documentary like this should have started with the logic of demolitions, the idea that religion can command believers to raze houses of worship of infidels; which would also be a good background to focus on the reasons for this outrage. Parallels and precedence of this demolition abound all Indian subcontinent. But doing so would turn the purpose of this documentary on its head. Because, all other acts of demolition in the Indian subcontinent has been directed against Hindus since eleventh century AD and has been perpetuated by Muslims. And to this day the Shrines on the sanctum sanctorum (Garvgriha) of Hindu Avatars Rama (in Ayodhya), Krishna Janmabhoomi (in Mathura) and most sacred Siva temple (Varanasi) are replaced with the domes of West Asia, the structures of subjugation and insult, made to remind Indians the vulnerability of their Gods and the triumph of the 'only true God'. Temples are still being destroyed in Kashmir, the only Muslim majority province in India. Most mosques build over demolished temples have their stairs build with demolished Hindu idols, this is meant to compel neo-converts to step on 'once sacred' idols and reaffirm their commitment to denigrate Hinduism. Indian neo-converts to Marxism use Patwardhan movies in a similar way to bash Hindutva and rise in rank and respect amongst the believers. Both the movies are political documentaries meant to polarize a particular electorate, and like all political docs; it is exclusivist and presents a biased one-sided view of an extremely sensitive and long debated issue. To let Dr. Rajgopal use this and his anti-Hindu view as an instrument of malice makes NYU policies partisan. Most foreign audience watching these movies are not aware of the context and perspectives that necessitates such movies to prop `secularism' in India. Our Indian definition of 'secularism' was to exclude Hindu traditions from state policy. Most Hindu politicians in pre-partition India made a career out of co-opting the Muslim community with communal sops and concessions giving more space to Islam in the political discourse. All these were meant to preempt any desire for separation amongst the Muslims. Post partition, those policies and the politicians were at risk of becoming irrelevant. Secularism was then designed to fit the needs of those pre-partition secular Congressmen, to exclude/debar the competition and marginalize the role of the Hindu clergy and ex maharajas in politics. The then Indian premier Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi's personal ties with Soviet Union reinforced the need for secularism - to leave the Indian political space uncontested to the Marxists, the communists went on to take over most state institutions. If we compare the way India fared, wrt other countries, the decision to exclude religion wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It let us practice the hard and soft sciences without any ideological bias. It let us adopt ideas from outside- fast, and made social conditions appropriate to absorption of modern technology and statecraft. We got a liberal state by preempting any religious extremism and the 7% Muslims played an important role in the enforcement and adoption of this secular idea. Just like the army protects democracy without practicing it, Muslims in India protected secularism without practicing it. And now, as their ratio in the political population cross the critical line, the power fulcrum they so long exerted for a secular state is flipping an exact 180 degrees. This change is expressing in the ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims in Muslim majority province of Jammu and Kashmir, terrorism and extortion in the rest of India. The extortion barons are Muslims based in Pakistan, the Middle East and India. They create their political muscle with the props that Patwardhan and the communists provide to make them mainstream. The electorate in India is slowly becoming aware of the perils of an unsecular minority group and Patwardhan movies are gaining in importance to demonstrate that the majority is as unsecular as the Muslim minority. The Patwardhan movies obfuscate the fissures in an Indian identity, the conflict of being an "Indian" or a `Muslim'. That was also the ground logic of partition of the subcontinent `Muslims and non-Muslims constitute two separate nations'. Let's see what we have after 50 years of partition. We have a Secular Democracy and two Islamic states. In India, we have socialists, capitalists, free marketiers, communists, nationalists; visionaries of all sorts and a politically aware electorate shaping our collective polity thru the past 50 years. Our counterparts on the other hand debated on rightfully representing Islam and in their zeal to do so, had to outsmart each other in bashing the kafirs at all occasions, and channeled all ire, frustration at the great Satan India (now India, Israel and US). That resulted in systematic liquidation of minorities (read Hindus), while the silent majority looked the other way. Muslim population rose from 4 percent to 20 percent in forty years in India, and non-Muslim population went down from 40 percent to less than 10 percent in Bangladesh and 2 pct in Pakistan. And Mr. Patwardhan shows the victim, a lamenting old Muslim man and his dilapidated mosque. Very symbolic. And diabolic, to show the victims as aggressors, just to substantiate his rhetoric, to alleviate the embarrassment his Muslim friends from Bangladesh has to go through when asked about the molestation of Hindu women by the Bangla Taliban. In the last three months there were hundreds of documented cases of gang rape of Hindu women by ruling Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh (Amnesty Intl Report). As we speak 60+ Hindus traveling to Ayodhya are burned to death by Muslims in Gujarat, India. But Mr. Rajagopal wants to muse on a 12-year-old event in Ayodhya. Does that suggest something? Is he trying to promote his Marxist perception of Hindutva as NYU's official one, Having Dr. Rajagopal moderate a discussion on Hindutva is like inviting a microbiologist to moderate a seminar on particle mechanics? Which is implausible? Then, is NYU as an institution lampooning the ethos and ideology of the largest democracy? That too is hard to believe. I'd rather believe that Dr. Rajagopal is using NYU privileges and premises to further his own agenda of grooming more Marxists by creating an environment where all South Asian Hindus around him will be forced to disassociate from, and downplay his Hindu identity, and identify with Dr. Rajagopal and his cohorts of Marxists, who move in the garb of `leftist liberals'. The discussion session could have been a debate on managing fault lines of `religious solutions to incentive traps'. Why `public goods dilemma’ made enforcing `religious solutions' inevitable, and why aberrant behavior is not a choice in societies depending on `religious solutions to incentive traps'. Hating an aberrant behavior also compels one to hate all icons (including shrines and idols) associated with that behavior. That would have been an ideal topic to discuss. The panel had a member from three major religious faiths and this would have provided all an opportunity to reflect into the syncretization of religious order, why India has been the natural abode of this syncretization, and what can be done to replicate this process in other places. But instead of broadening the scope of this discussion, Dr. Rajagopal set the stage by focusing on just the most extreme of `Hindu response', in isolation. The scope of the discussion was limited to just one event; the panelists took the freedom of deconstructing and expanding that event without even a cursory reference to the cause or the background. There was no reference to the events and circumstances leading to that response, or the parallels of such response in other faiths and dispensation. The timing of the screening too is significant, reminding all that the WTC bombing and Buddha razing Talibans have company in other religions. Indians, mostly of the Sikh community have suffered a backlash after being wrongfully identified and associated with the Muslim community after the Sept 11 bombings. It is impossible for an American to discern the subtle differences in the appearance, accent and behavior of a Wahaabi fundamentalist from a South Asian Hindu. Efforts such as Dr. Rajagopal's will identify Hindutva as part of the thread that spawns the culture of demolition, and provoke retaliation, so far directed towards Waahabism. Is that what Dr? Rajagopal wants? Speakers in the panel did not exercise caution/respect treading on religious feelings of Hindus, they focused on the diversity in Hindu thought as chasm/differences (showing the Hindu as a Tamil pot worshipper or a Kashmiri Brahmin) and questioned the very existence of Hindu identity, then stepped back to identify the resurgent Hindu consciousness as consumerism. They went on to castigating organizations working tirelessly to educate and uplift the poorest segments of Indian society, assailing the efforts of Hindu Organizations VHP-A to operate schools in India, questioning the fund raising and contribution of American Hindus. Dr. Raza Ali Mir called Hinduism a `contested space'. It really is, and the troika of Reza Ali, Val Daniel and Rajagopal with their own ideology contesting for this space called Hinduism, they are really like the Clovis people debating on the distribution rights and strategy to bring down the last Mammoth. That the venue is a museum makes it even more ironic, the other behemoths of the Aztecs, Sumeria, Greece, and Persia can now be found only in museums. Events like this, brings into question the credibility of institutions and individuals sponsoring such events. Should a government institution be someone's platform to trample on the feelings and sensitivity of a gentle minority? Should it screen movies considered malicious and slanderous by a large section? NYU's efforts have always been to highlight the contributions of all threads in American Diaspora, and coming from a pluralistic society we respect and share traditions that strengthens the diversity of the American life. Hindus have been a very hardworking, law abiding, patriotic community contributing positively in all spheres of American life from healthcare to education and industry. There are several challenges faced by someone of Indian origin as he/she works his/her way up in academia/industry. There is the feeling of missing close relations including parents, the challenges of surviving the difficult immigration process, and the challenges of moving forward in job and society, after overcoming the disadvantages of being a person of color and accent. Patwardhan's movie and discussions moderated by Dr. Rajgopals' will add one more to this list of handicaps. It will facilitate a prejudice against their religious beliefs and social conduct and eventually destroy the delicate ecology of tolerance and respect of others, so characteristic of American society. Communist threat to Bharat! According to intelligent people Communism and secularism are two sides of the same coin to destroy Hindus and Hinduism on the whole.Communist portray being pro- Bharat but they are the biggest anti - national they have for years resorted to bogus voting and now have gone a step ahead by legalizing illegal immigrants (Bangladeshi's) in the country see the example of Assam a total change in demographics where the legal populations have now become minorities. The same is being done by the Congress turning a blind eye to the Bangladeshi's entering India. An example of this is the posh suburb of Mumbai Bandra where the local MLA has gone ahead and constructed row houses in Bandra Reclamation below the Bandra -Worli bridge to legalize all the illegal Bangladeshi's so as to never lose an election.It is high time this topic of Communist and Congress attitude be exposed and a movement to impose a legal immigration bill to deport any person having overstayed his visa or is without right to reside in India be chucked out. Finally a word on the overseas Indian Passport while an Indian of Indian origin born in India after 1950 can avail of this facility the restriction imposed upon him/her is that he/she cannot be a member of parliament nor the legislature nor can he anvil of employment in Government offices. This is total hypocrisy whilst a person of foreign origin can acquire Indian passport and become even the Prime Minister of the country this restriction needs to be overthrown. ============================= How low will we go? 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