(The downside)
Did @NarendraModi’s #LightningStrike of Balakot against Kashmiri terrorists in Pakistan-held Kashmir break the jinx, which, for nearly ten centuries has undermined Hindu Power?
I have been praising and defending Hindus so much in the last thirty years, through my articles, books and conferences, that I may be allowed to criticize them too: Hindus are the worst enemies of Hindus. Indeed, we always point the finger at Pakistan, but let me tell you, for having covered Kashmir extensively, that it is the Kashmiri Muslims themselves, from the retired High Court judge, to the Shikara boatman, who want to separate from Hindu India, and that in the name of Islam. Pakistan is only using this discontent for its own selfish purpose, mostly because it wants revenge for the breakup of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, for which it holds India responsible. The same is true of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks: nobody ever bothered to find out who were the local Muslim scouts and suppliers of information, as it’s too embarrassing for a Hindu majority Government to admit that it is its own Muslim community which may want and trigger such attacks – witness the thousands who attended in Mumbai the burial of Yakub Memon after he was hanged.
There is also no way that foreigners could have invaded India without Hindus having betrayed each other, from Alexander the Great, who allied himself with the Hindu king of Taxila (Ambhi) against Porus, also a Hindu, to the sack of Vijaynagar, the last great Hindu empire, which was betrayed by the Lingayats. Today, Hindus still undercut Hindus – the community of exiled Kashmiri Pandits is so divided that you hardly ever hear their voices; Hindu associations in the USA vie with each other for a photo opp with a Congressman, instead of coming under one united umbrella, to have the kind of lobbying power that the Jewish community for instance possesses; even the RSS, which is called the HSS there, often snubs other Hindu organizations. The most lethal enemies of Hindus in modern India are Hindu intellectuals, whom you find in every newspaper, every think tank, every American or British university, always ready to brilliantly denigrate their own culture. I have defended the BJP from the beginning, when MM Joshi went to plant the Indian flag in Srinagar, which I found rater patriotic, though the entire Media made fun of him; and when LK Advani did his Rath Yatra. But I soon discovered that Advani and Joshi could not stand each other and that Vajpayee made sure that Advani never became PM. Today we see Arvind Kejriwal, a Hindu, question the veracity of the strikes against POK of Narendra Modi, another Hindu.
I have criticized Islam a lot in the last thirty years, through my articles, books and conferences, but here I will praise them. There is a universal brotherhood amongst Islam: when I drove from Paris to Delhi, in a caravan of five cars, my best friend was a French Moroccan Muslim, named Ahmed Mzali (he has unfortunately died since then). In every Muslim country, we crossed – Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan – he would say ‘Salaam Alaikum’, and people would smile, open their doors, feed us, shelter us… Try to say ‘Om Namah Shiva’ to a Hindu in New York, London or Delhi: either he or she will look nonplussed, or most likely give you a dirty look ! Indeed, Muslims all over the world are proud of their religion and flash it without any self-doubt. But look at Hindus: many of them are ashamed to be Hindus, to the point that sometimes they wallow in self-denial. Islam has established some moral boundaries which attract new converts to them: no alcohol or smoking for instance. Whereas alcohol is a huge problem in Hindu India, from the villagers who spend their salaries on cheap arrack, beat up their wives and spoil their health, to rich kids who think it’s hep to down a bottle of Black & White whisky in one evening.
We know now that Muslims will die for their beliefs – in fact they will go on murderous sprees if they think their God has been insulted, even as a joke – see what happened in the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris, an attack that has been silently endorsed by millions of Muslims in the world. But look at Hindus, you can insult their Gods and Goddesses as much as you want – and nothing will happen to you. The painter M.F. Husain knew that very well and that’s why he painted Goddess Laxmi, naked, or Sita being sodomized by Hanuman. He should have asked himself what would have happened to him if he had been a Hindu insulting Islamic beliefs in such a crude and disrespectful manner! Though Muslim countries have their own agenda, they stand by each other – and this is why Pakistan gets so much support in the UN. Every Muslim in the world feels for Palestine, Chechnya or Kashmir. But a billion Hindus in India and worldwide did not give a damn about 350.000 of their own becoming refugees in their own country, for no other fault than being Hindus. If you are a Muslim, you are likely get help anywhere in the world. But Hindus must be the most selfish and individualistic people on this planet. They rarely care about their brothers and sisters in need and those of lower castes. This is why a Mother Teresa was able to come here and do the work that Hindus should have performed themselves, thereby bring to India the worst image possible, that of a country that leaves its old people die on the pavements and abandons children.
Most Muslims pray 5 times a day, wherever they are in the world. I would say that maybe 6% of Hindus in the United States or the UK perform pujas or go to temples regularly. The rest have thrown their religion in the dustbin. It’s not a question of religiosity, but of using tools and checks that you help your life move in a meaningful and straight direction. As there is no concept of sin in Hinduism, but only of karma, Hindus must be amongst the biggest tax cheaters in the world, they mix ashes in cement, methanol in alcohol for drinking, and have no respect for their environment, littering their country with millions of plastic bags polluting their rivers, and devastating their forests. All our Muslim friends, rich or poor, make sure that their children learn the Koran at a young age – but Hindu kids have no clue about their great scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana or Mahabharata. Thus modern Hindu adolescents grow into adults with no respect for their temples and deities. Muslims have reverence for their ancient language, Urdu (formerly Persian), whereas Sanskrit, probably the most scientific language in the world, has fallen in disuse and no Hindu kids want to learn it. Muslims still worship their historical heroes – even Aurangzeb for instance, revered in Pakistan (and in most Indian and western history books), through he was a murderer, not only towards Hindus, but with his own family (he beheaded his brother, poisoned his father Shah Jahan and imprisoned his son). Hindus have no clue about their heroes and heroines: Shivaji Maharaj, India’s Napoleon, is described as a small chieftain and plunderer in most history books; as for Maharana Pratap, the only Rajput who actually fought the Moghols and held Akbar at bay, he is only known in northern India and he too is undercut in history books. Muslims have finally a sense of collectivity and tend to live together in towns and villages, so as to preserve their identities and customs. Hindus in contrast, want to merge wherever they live, in the US for instance, and often become more American than the Americans, thereby forgetting all about their roots.
Thus Mr. Narendra Modi has a huge task in front of him during his 2d term, if he wants to truly rekindle a sense of brotherhood and civic senses amongst Hindus, that would in turn generate true and dharmic Hindu Power. Therefore the need of the hour for Hindus is: UNITE, UNITE, UNITE and the first sign of this collective will, was a Hindu united vote, from the Dalit to the Brahmin, carried back Narendra Modi to power in 2019, so that he may finish his work and break the Hindu jinx of betrayal and fear. But will he? That remains a mystery… (To be continued)
François Gautier
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