'Secularism', Colonial Hegemony and Hindu 'Fanaticism'

'Secularism', Colonial Hegemony and Hindu 'Fanaticism'
by Arjun Bhagat

If human beings feel that their way of life is truly being threatened, NO MATTER WHAT THE RULES AND LAWS STATE – they will react strongly to get rid of that perceived threat. Yet, when Hindus in India – a group that has been awfully maligned, their traditions and spiritual practices denigrated, their objects of devotion heaped scorn upon – resist what they see as an Abrahamic onslaught of proselytization, they are branded as xenophobic fanatics.

Now, if one were to use the above observation to explain the phenomenon of 'Hindu fanaticism' as defined and articulated by the Indian and Western media, one would get some – but only a partial – understanding of the issue. Because there is a far more profound explanation for this phenomenon. To understand the true significance of the issue, one needs to look at not just 'Hindu fanaticism' but equally, the vitriolic attacks Hindutvaadis face at the hands of the media, both the Indian secular as well as the Western.

Why, in a world where proselytizing is banned by virtually every Islamic country, where Hindus have been virtually 'cleansed' out of Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Kashmir valley, are Hindutvaadis singularly such a key target of the world press? Why, in a world where the Pope – the official head of the largest Christian denomination of the world – talks about “harvesting Indian souls” is it that there is such a concerted effort by the popular media worldwide to demonize aggressive Hindus – and only Hindus – as 'fundamentalists'?

That the effort by the media to taint the emerging 'vocal' and 'public' Hindu as a fanatic is a concerted one hits one smack in the face every time one reads anything on this issue. By the choice of words (Gujarat 'pogroms')[iii], by the selective focus on victims (Dalits, Muslims, missionaries, but never a Kashmiri pandit or Hindu worshipper); by the number and prominence of articles focused on 'Hindu fanaticism' (front page news) versus 'other fanaticism' ('40 pilgrims gunned down” blurb half way down on page 26 of your local newspaper).

It is only when we understand that the creators, definers and propagators of the 'rabid Hindu fanatic' image worldwide – the secular intelligentsia and media – is but the other face of the same coin, will we understand the true dimension of the battle being waged.

For a battle it is. A battle at the most fundamental level of man's worldview on human rights and religious freedom. IN ITS ESSENCE, THE BATTLE IS BETWEEN THE RELATIVE MORALITY VERSUS IMMORALITY ASSOCIATED WITH RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS. On one side, we have the Abrahamic juggernaut, draped in a pristine white secular garb, using as its awesome cudgel the worldwide media; on the other, we have the dharmic perspective that various indigenous movements claim to represent, but that are savvy neither in the projection of image in worldwide media nor savvy enough to compete in the academic marketplace where scholarship is bought and sold under the garb of endowments and other means of power projection.

It is a skewed playing field. The winner is pre-determined.