Nagaland Post published on 20.9.2018 part of the speech delivered by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in which the RSS leader claimed that ‘Everyone who lives in India is Hindu by identity, nationality’. My reaction may neither necessarily reach the RSS leader nor will it deter him, even when it reaches him, from further claiming falsely that every Indian citizen is a Hindu. We know the Hindus of today that they are so obsessed with the burning aspiration to transform the democratic country of India into theocratic nation. With such degree of obsession, Bhagat possibly hallucinated that every Indian is now a Hindu. It is an indirect claim that India is Hindustan and that India belongs to Hindus alone. Such assertion is a mere figment of one’s imagination, and yet it is intended to bully the religious minorities. The claim is unrealistic as it can never happen no matter how hard the majority Hindus try to subjugate the minorities. The more the suppressive measures used by Hindus for proselytization, the bigger will be the chasm between the Hindus and the rest.
The pioneers of the Nation India knew much better that religious, race and language pluralism in India is a reality, and each group deserves legal protection as every ethnic section with its distinct religion and culture are equal in the eye of the law. Thus, Art 25 and 26 are provided in the Constitution of India for freedom of religion. What Bhagat asserts is therefore baseless, illogical and coercive too. Such claim is a challenge to the spirit of secularism provided in the said Articles and a definite threat to religious minorities.
To a Christian in particular, Hinduism, as a religion, is so dissimilar to Christianity be it its belief, be it its ethic or be it its culture and principles. Repeating what I have written more than once in the past that Christians believe and worship the Living God Jehovah, the Creator of the universe and have faith in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no other god beside the Living God. Contrary to Christian faith, Hindus have faith in million gods and goddesses including man-made idols. Thus, the Christian believes the Creator and the Hindu believes in the created objects. The Christians are guided by the stories and the messages in Holy Bible. Whereas, the Hindus are influenced by mythologies. Even by Naga traditional religion, animism was a classless system. The Christianity is of pure democracy without classification dissimilar to Hinduism of caste system. There is no compatibility between Christianity and Hinduism. The BJP leaders, in their zeal to place India above other nations in the field of science and technology, ludicrously claimed that plastic surgery and flying technology are ancient Indian inventions. Such claims by no other than the top leaders of the country are nothing more than immaturity and national embarrassment.
The Hinduism is the most divided religion of all as the Hindus are classified into four superior and inferior castes. The system of classification remains permanent and hereditary. Under Caste system, the individual status in religious and social set up remains sacrosanct. Thus, the Hindus in lower castes remained secondary to higher castes in religious and social status permanently. And there is no system of reconciliation under any circumstances between the upper caste and the lower caste in respect of status. Under such rigid tradition, the lower caste Hindus as Dalits are placed below the status of cows. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has just announced that a new department called Ministry for cows would be created. ‘An independent ministry will work in a better way to serve cows’ said the BJP Chief Minister. Whether same amount of care is taken by BJP Govt. in that State for the welfare of Dalits is the question. When the country is reeling under price rise due to skyrocketing rates of fuels which has hit hard the poorer section of people, BJP leaders are giving priority attention to cows. This is Hinduism madness.
Being a Christian does not necessarily make me to be a lesser or inferior Indian national. So also, a Hindu is never a superior Indian national. What matters today is how RSS and cohorts are destroying the fabric of coexistence amongst the different ethnic groups in India in the name of cow vigilantism abetted by BJP administration. There are unaccounted instances of suppression of religious minorities by Hindus as rapes and lynching. The latest was how a techie was shot dead by UP cops just the other day for which the Police manipulated the FRI so filed. The country’s integrity is now weakened as the religious minorities and the Dalits are exposed to Hindutva terrorism. What the Congress leader Digvijay Singh said is true that intolerance leads to violence, and violence leads to terrorism. India is so vocal in international forum against Pakistan for keeping its territory as safe haven for extremists. India may be right in exposing its neighbour for abetting terror activities. Yet, what about internal security for religious minorities in India in the face of Hindutva terrorism?
I, for one, rejected the claim of Bhagwat. I do not accept the claim of Mohan Bhagwat to be a Hindu either by identity or nationality. I am a Christian by religion and a Naga Indian by nationality and nothing more and nothing less.