For the past close to one month there have been innumerable protests by secular intellectuals against the increasing intolerance of Hindu hardliners. The protesters include artists, painters, writers, film personalities and now the much celebrated national award winning film makers.
Before commenting on the Hindu hardliners, it would be worthwhile to check why is it happening only now? Why it did not happen earlier? Or did it happen earlier and nobody paid much of attention? There are so many dimensions to this. Let us take a deep dive in history.
Hindu religion or culture whatever it may be, dates back to over 5000 years. It was the only religion then. Rather it would not be wrong to say that nobody at that time knew what a religion really meant!!! It was only the culture and way of life which was developed by trial and error over long time of many centuries. Man learnt farming, started developing a kind of phobia for rains, floods, fire, strong winds, etc... and started to worship the "power" behind these natural phenomena. Cow was treated as a "best friend" as it gave almost everything mankind required. It gave milk to build health, cow dung and urine became good fertilizers. Bulls worked in farms to produce food grains. Thus a culture of not killing a "best friend" developed with man who otherwise was a carnivorous creature.
Over a period of time different religions flourished world over and in India Islam gained prominence along with Hinduism, Buddhism, etc... There were several invaders form middle east, the Ghaznis, the Abdallys, Timurs, etc... They came and looted the golden sparrow not only of its gold and wealth but also took back with them the women as their jananis. And then came Babur who established the Mughal dynasty way back in 15th century. The Mughal Dynasty ruled India for over 350 years till its last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. All this while the Hindu community in India was reluctant to resist as they were totally divided into princely states. They lacked the confidence and a divided India was easy to capture and other prominent reason that Mughals ruled India for so long was due the peace loving nature of the Hindus.
In 1947 with partition based on religious lines, many Muslims migrated to Pakistan. A few who loved India stayed back and decided that India was their homeland for many centuries and it will be forever. However the partition bought with it a genocide of people from both religions, mostly Hindus coming back from Pakistan to India.
Congress government took over and ruled the country for over 85% time of past 68 years. In this period it not only became impossible to proudly say "I am a Hindu" but it became a national shame to admit to be Hindu. Talking about Hinduism attracted sharp criticism from all quarters. The policies of Congress government were clearly minority centric and majority Hindu who voted for Congress was the electorate who was illiterate, poor and heavily dependent on government food through the PDS system. However the so called poor Hindus became literate, well educated, well cultured and above all wealthy in past 68 years and gained a significant confidence which was dented all along in Congress rule. In between people like Shri Balasaheb Thakeray, LK Advani did try to unite Hindus under one flag with glimpses of success.
On the other hand, Muslims who ruled this country for over 350 years were probably frustrated at the sight that people on whom they ruled for so long are now in position of power. Muslims were not really at the mercy of these erstwhile servants or slaves but then the feeling slowly but steadily built in their minds. Further the policies of government were to protect the religious nature, personal law of Muslims which further pushed them to be more hardcore religious. All this has costed the Muslim community to a great deal as compared to the Hindus. Hindus chose to ignore the religion factor and focused on self development and gained power, status in the country by sheer hard work. Those Muslims who gave importance to self development rather than religion too are in a good shape however the number is quite small.
All the while for over 1000 years Hindus have been crushed by some or the other way and have actually tolerated the intolerance and atrocities of other communities. They went on tolerating till they found a messiah in form of Mr. Narendra Modi. This man changed it all. Hindus re-invented their strength, economical, intellectual and physical (count of Hindus) might after Godhra and slowly steadily started thinking otherwise. They were fed up with Congress and many other parties for their anti Hindu and pro minority policy. What happened in 2014 is history and in front of us.
Whatever religious intolerance if any is happening today from the hardliner Hindus is due to the frustration of past 1000 years of tolerance the Hindus have shown to various other religions. Does this mean that this so called intolerance is going to remain forever? A BIG NO!!! I am of the opinion that this intolerance will increase till there is a resistance from the so called intellectuals, seculars and liberals. And if at all this so called intolerance increases for some time, there is nothing to worry. Each country in its history faces such periods which are only a passing phase, surely for the tolerant Hindu culture. The more this intolerance is resisted, the more time it will prevail. Hindus today are too busy in developing themselves to be intolerant for long time. Therefore its only a short time when Hindus will realize that this cannot go on for long. But how long? That decision lies in the hands of the so called intellectuals, writers, film personalities who decide to resist and are hell bent to prove the Hindus wrong and are teaching Hindus, tolerance, who have tolerated injustice in their own country for over 1000 years.
The questions such as "why were these so called liberals, writers, etc... silent on 1984?" are being asked now from the hardliner Hindus as a counter to the lessons of tolerance. The double standards of these so called liberals and seculars stand exposed when they chose to keep silent when Taslima Nasreen was prevented in West Bengal, AR Rahman cancelled his concert in Delhi, some guy was murdered in Karnataka, there was no debate similar to Dadri and innumerable occasions in the past.
The more these liberals and seculars resist and return their awards, the more the Hindus will be provoked to be intolerant. Therefore it is my opinion that the intolerance from hardliner Hindus will fade as soon as the liberals and seculars start tolerating some of the intolerant Hindus for some time. Resistance creates more resistance and this time around the 1000 year steam has more power than liberals and seculars. Although the normal tolerant Hindu who is not a part of this Hindu intolerance physically, there is a sense of support in his mind for these hardliner Hindus. They may not come out in open and endorse these hardliners or even may oppose in public. But then they will have something different in mind to show in ballot box. Till there is intolerance towards the intolerance of hardliner Hindus, there is no threat to Modi government. The quicker the Congress and opposition of Modi realize this, the better chance they have to gain more seats in many upcoming elections. Otherwise all put together they will be reduced to number of seats which wont cross double digits.
