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India and Secular? Fat chance!!

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. It intensified during Delhi Sultanate, continued through Mughal Empire, and then in the British colonial period.[23][24]"

Why am I sharing all this? In the whole debate about Modi, secularism et.al. one thing that is never taken into account is the history of relationship between Hindus and Muslims in India. And how this history has shaped the "psyche" of Hindus living today. 

Now let's jump from violence to secular. Are Hindus secular? If you ask me, the Hindus never LIKED the brutal and repressive Muslim rule over them. However, their rulers were so weak, they had little choice. Hinduism as a religion is inherently broad-minded. Which makes Hindus more tolerant than most other religions. But does this imply that Hindus are Secular? 

Based entirely on definition of the word, Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries.

This clearly requires an extreme level of ethics for people who are working in the government. 

Can this be expected in a nation which is extremely corrupt, and where "jugaad" is a buzz-word? The media today is ready to do anything to get a sound-byte. We common people will do anything to escape being caught by a cop. If someone gives us a stock tip, we are more than happy to benefit from that and make money. We are always ready to pay a small bribe to get things like a license made quickly (I am myself guilty of many of these acts). 

And yet we expect our elected representatives to adhere to a completely different set of morals, the moment they get elected. Is this really fair? 

Don't get me wrong. I am all for Secularism. But by hounding Modi and BJP, we are not going to turn them into something they are not. Let us first accept the fact that Secularism is an ideal that Gandhi taught us. None of us are inherently secular. If we can agree to this, the next point we need to think about is that should we aspire to be Secular?

And if yes, how do we do it? 

History has shown that differences can be easily ignored if there is something bigger that motivates people. During the fight for independence, we all fought as one against a common enemy. Today that common enemy should be poverty. If we all - Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs get engaged in creating a stronger, more developed India, then over time, as people get educated and more evolved, the spirit of tolerance will once again become stronger.  

So coming back to the original question, are Hindus violent? Even today I think the answer would be a NO (compared to any other nation in this world) though definitely today's Hindu is much more assertive and vocal and which is why we supported Modi against a bumbling Rahul Gandhi. 

But make no mistake. If the opposition is able to bring forth a credible PM candidate like Nitish Kumar in 2019, who is also more tolerant and secular, a repeat of Bihar might just be around the corner! 

And this more than anything is why I am proud to be an Indian! We might not be as great executioners as the Chinese or the Japanese. Or as clear headed strategists as the Americans. But average Hindus behind all their laziness, verbosity, politics, caste-ism, corruption, are inherently HUMAN and spiritual (how all these can co-exist is a miracle!). And which is why we will never become either a China or a Pakistan, but muddle through and forge our own path ahead!!


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