Random Musings

Are Hindus violent people?  As someone who grew up in India in the 80s and 90s, this question seems so laughable. For most of us used to be frustrated and angry with the average "docile" Hindu.  Are there any facts to support this belief? Ok, depending on how credible you find Wikipedia, here goes: "Historical records of religious violence are extensive for medieval India, in the form of corpus written by numerous Muslim historians.  Will Durant  states that Hindus were historically persecuted during  Islamic  rule of the  Indian subcontinent . [19]  The total number of deaths of this period, are usually attributed to the figure by Prof.  K.S. Lal , who estimated that between the years 1000 AD and 1500 AD the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. [20] [21] [22] Religious violence in medieval India began in centuries before the start of Delhi Sultanate, with the raids by Turko-Mongol, Persian and Afghan armies....

Lately there have been a number of debates about why if Germany can be a Christian state, India cannot be a Hindu state. Such conversations have especially become more relevant ever since BJP - the so called "Hindu Nationalist Party" - came to power with a stunning majority last year. Recent events like the unpardonable killing of a Muslim in the state of UP by a mob of Hindus suspecting that he had killed a cow calf has added to the confusion and division I am seeing especially in the educated upper middle class of India. And the basic ideologies that are clashing are very simple. Supporters of Hindutva believe that it is high time to liberate India from the clutches of the pseudo-secularists (i.e. Congress) while many educated Indians believe in the concept of 'Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Issai - hum sab hain bhai bhai' (i.e. the brother-hood of all religions).  And this debate is played across news channels, news papers and social media every day! While I myself have ...

The case of Jasleen Kaur which I presume you must be sick of by now brings home a disturbing trend. So while after the revelation of the truth, most people are bad-mouthing her and feeling bad for the man, a more pertinent point I feel we are all missing is OUR OWN involvement in this whole episode.  Social media is a great medium for "mobo-cracy". But the concept itself is nothing new is it? If we just think a bit, as long back as in 399 BC, the great Greek philosopher Socrates became a victim of mobo-cracy. The history of Christianity over the last 2000 years in Europe throws up numerous instances of rationalists and scientists who were hounded into hiding or killed. In Japan, the 13th century Buddhist monk who revived Buddhism - Nichiren Daishonin - was repeatedly attacked by mobs who felt threatened by his philosophy of "humanism" in a feudal, decayed Japanese society.  In all these cases, what is the common thread? Is it that of the powerful silencing an in...