From: bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com
To:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Make-space-for-true-values-of-Hinduism/articleshow/46972987.cms
From: rdsg2...@gmail.com
To:
Make space for true values of HinduismTNN | Apr 19, 2015
It is depressing to witness a regime of intolerance sweeping across this
country. The topic of religion is a sensitive one that has political
connotations. I am no expert on religion and neither a hardcore supporter of
any political party. I am a liberal, secular agnostic who has not set foot in
any place of worship for the past many years. I remember the Ganesh Chaturthi
celebrations at my ancestral place during my college and university days. I
used to invite my friends to celebrate the festival with us, most of whom were
Christians and Muslims. They all used to join in the festivities; nobody ever
felt discriminated on the basis of religion. It is the spirit of the festival
that matters.
There are many, including me, who feel that Hinduism is not a religion in the
Abrahamic sense of the word: there is no one founder, no prophet, no one
religious book, no 'chosen people' and no monotheistic or jealous god. It does
not proselytize or hunt heretics. Instead, it is a set of rituals and practices
of living in harmony with nature. It has to be noted that most of the
traditions and rituals of Hinduism have a scientific explanation. In other
words, it is a way of life. Many years ago, I received an e-mail titled, 'Why I
am a Hindu', in which the writer explains to a young American girl the features
of the 'religion'. He claimed that anybody can be a Hindu: a person belonging
to any religion, one who believes in many gods or even one god, or even an
atheist. It is perhaps this feature that has given Hinduism a quality of being
tolerant, accepting and broad-minded. I guess that is why all those people who
invaded India in the past (except the Europeans) settled down and assimilated
easily into the culture, creating a rich, multi-cultural milieu. There were
also the Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Baha'is who fled to India to escape
persecution and found refuge in this country.
Gurcharan Das in his book, 'The Difficulty of being good', says that Hinduism
is a civilization based on a simple metaphysical insight about the unity of the
individual and the universe and has self-development as its objective. He goes
on to state that when he told his friends and acquaintances that he wanted to
study the Mahabharat, they accused him of turning saffron, an accusation which
left him peeved. There is a misconception that the Ramayana and the Mahabharat
are religious texts. They are just what they state to be: epic stories, like
the Iliad and the Odyssey, meant to be read by everybody, but with morals that
are still relevant today. Even the Bhagwad Gita contained in the Mahabharat is
more of a philosophical and moral discourse, if one has to contrast it with
other religious books.
This is why it is sad to note a rise in regressive attitudes and intolerant
mentalities on the part of the so-called guardians of the Hindu way of life,
now that they have been unleashed from a position of power. It can be said that
Hindu fundamentalism is a response to Islamic fundamentalism, but the fact
remains that the liberal, tolerant nature of Hinduism is in danger. Although
the RSS chief may not have been off the mark with his statement, but such
statements embarrass liberal Hindus more than anybody else. The recent beef ban
in Maharashtra is another example of majoritarianism. Just because 99% of
Hindus do not eat beef, it does not mean that other communities should be
banned from doing so. While many may argue that the Middle Eastern countries
and Pakistan practise dictatorial religious majoritarianism, it should be noted
that those countries were created by the colonial powers as Islamic countries.
Islamism is in their DNA and their constitutions. It is not so in India.
A deeply patriarchal society means that sadly, it is women, the victims, who
are blamed for the rape. Irresponsible statements by MPs make us hang our heads
in shame. Men in khaki shorts who celebrate bachelorhood should not advise
women on what to do or not to do. Instead of banning documentaries that expose
our hypocrisy towards rape and comedy acts that roast celebrities, it would be
better if the government banned hate speeches and people with criminal records
from entering the Parliament, and ban the ban on books and films that have been
banned, lest we end up becoming a nation of "bandhan". While during UPA-2, the
MPs were gagged by Sonia Gandhi, in this government, we see too many loose
cannons firing.
This is where Goa can set an example. It is a state where all faiths have
co-existed in harmony for centuries, whether in the pre-Portuguese era, the
colonial period (except during the Inquisition) and post-Liberation. Most
children in Goa grow up being exposed to a multi-religious and multi-cultural
atmosphere of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, developing an open-minded
outlook towards religion. In the Renaissance literature of Portuguese, I came
across a concept called 'aurea mediocritas', which means the golden medium.
This is the same philosophy that was preached by Gautam Buddha in the 600 BC.
It means avoiding the extremes of anything to embrace the middle path, or
moderation.
Gursharan Das lamented in his book that it is difficult to be a liberal Hindu
today (he wrote the book in 2009). In an era when everything is expected to be
in black & white, when a person with 'X' opinion/belief/thought is branded as a
supporter of 'Y' political party, there seems to be no room for open-minded
discussion, where things may have fifty shades of grey. I read a post on
Facebook which said that in today's society, Hindus have to prove that they are
secular while Muslims have to prove they are patriotic. Now I am neither
"sickular" nor an "AAPtard", but it is disheartening to see liberalism fading
away in today's society. It is for this moderation and liberalism that we need
to stand up, not as members of any political party, but as libertarians who
want to live in a multi-religious and multi-cultural country in an ambience of
tolerance, acceptance and open-mindedness, that embraces the true and inherent
values of the way of life called Hinduism.
(The writer is a lecturer in Portuguese at the Goa University)
