Unintended or deliberate? The missing “H-word”…
I picked up this story on intellibrief.
Addressing the audience during his recent visit to Deoband, Shri Rahul Gandhi said:�
“I only see every individual here as an individual. They are all Hindustanis. Who is a Muslim, who is a Brahmin, who is a Thakur?…”
How many of you noticed the missing “H-word”*?
Thank you Rahul, for telling us that there are really no Hindus – only Dalits, Thakurs and Brahmins…
***
…and while on Deoband, this is what Salman Rushdie wrote about Dar-ul-Uloom almost two years ago in the Sunday Times in London (July 18, ’05):
“Darul-Uloom, in the village of Deoband…is the birthplace of the ultra-conservative Deobandi cult, in whose madrassas the Taleban were trained. It teaches the most fundamentalist, narrow, puritan, rigid, oppressive version of Islam that exists anywhere in the world today.
In one fatwa it suggested that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Not only the Taleban but also the assassins of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were followers of Deobandi teachings.”
…but its probably too much to expect Shri Gandhi to pay any attention to spoilsports like Salman Rushdie.
.
* p.s. see also: “The dreaded “H-word“
true …..he is a bad arse……idiotic indians still vote for the congress though….time to ostracise nehru gandhi clan….and remove gandhi as father of nation…..i dont accept him as one anyway.
Until Hindus vote as “one community”, political men / women of all shapes and sizes will ignore them. We have to have one voice and than only will we be heard.
The Nehru / Gandhi clan has usurped the mantel of Mahtama Gandhi by a cruel irony of surnames. Its time Indians, and Hindus in particular, learned that its no good holding on to a dynasty of any sort. Let merit prevail – in politics as well as business and life in general.
Nice blog, you do a great job of cutting through the politically correct fluff, and “writing between the lines”.
Just another try from the Gandhis to impress the community and create a vote bank for the next election. There’s not even a single party(NO, NOT EVEN BJP) in the country who is really worried about the Hindus and their rights. Being in the majority it is us who have to bear the grunt of being a majority. But no one is to be blamed when Hindus stay divided and only think of their individual benefits and not think and work like a community.
Yes Kanchan, I agree. When will we learn to work like a community? Hindus has to come together by sheding off all the differences and work together for the benefit of Hinduism.
I think one reason why Rahul Gandhi and his ilk can use these descriptors is because casteism is rife in Hinduism*. Most Hindus describe themselves as a Brahmin, Kayastha, Baniya etc or even a Punjabi Saraswat or a Marathi Deshastha first, and a Hindu as an after-thought.
However I see a richer side to this. A multi-layered identity, none of which is an add-on to anything else (unlike words such as African-American), is a uniquely Hindu phenomenon.
As for successful branding, so that Hindus are proud to call themselves Hindu, perhaps a better group of leaders than the British Hindu Forum etc. is needed. The challenge is to produce a unified concept and identity – which may be very complex for a nuanced, rich context such as this.
Good post.
* I believe when people convert from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam, they carry this caste system with them, as also noted by Ed Luce in his recent book. This is probably a uniquely Indian phenomenon then..
B Shah: I agree with your sentiments. We need unity amongst ourselves…and better leaders as our politicians…sadly both seem to be missing.
Anil: Thank you for your kind words.
Kanchan and Indian: You have hit the nail on the head…the problem is within ourselves and unless we act/behave like one, we cannot really blame anyone else for this – as Shefaly has pointed out in her comment.
Shefaly: I agree with you that it is a challenge to create a positive, unified identity – especially given the underlying complexity within our great religion…
I have some thoughts on this and will post them in the next few days….
What we really need is a “Swami Vivekananda”.
I do wonder about where Rahul Gandhi fits on the grid, or better still, where he sees himself fitting.
Technically, Feroze Gandhi, who married a non-Parsi, would not have had his children ‘admitted’ to Parsi religion. So Rajiv Gandhi either did not belong anywhere or was a Hindu Brahmin (which his mother was, and she also famously cultivated bearded Hindu ‘gurus’ like Dhirendra Brahmachari or Chandra Swami etc).
Rahul then is the son of a father with no clear religious label or identity and a Catholic mother. His sister is married to a Christian person too.
My hypothesis is that Rahul Gandhi’s understanding of all this complexity is very sketchy and he just says what he can think of at the moment.. Which means he is in fine company in this world.
P Mulay: Sorry I missed your comment right at the beginning… Agree that we need to move beyond the clan…it doesnt look like it will be easy though.
Shefaly: Good point…
I would probably bet on your side re. your last paragraph…However, if I were to give him the benefit of doubt, I think he probably sees himself as representing the diversity, the complexity and the richness of different strands that is Bharat…
At one level, that may be true…but the sad part is that he is forgetting the underlying bedrock on which this complexity, this multitude of beliefs and faiths and diversity has survived – which is in essence, “Hindu Dharma” (or Sanatan Dharma, to be more accurate).
As for his grandmother cultivating bearded “Hindu” gurus, that association had almost nothing to do with Hinduism or her desire to better understand the genesis of our rich cultural heritage…It was more motivated by personal interests or political calculations .
Politicians of almost all hues have cynically exploited “Hindu” causes when it has suited them and equally quickly abandoned them when it has seemed to be politically unwise…
The same thing has also probably happened with “Muslim” causes and there is the whole politics of minority appeasement to show for it.
Sadly, in this game, neither the underlying problems of Hindu society (such as casteism) nor the problems within Muslims (such as socio-econonic under-development) have ever been addressed…but thats probably a topic for another post.
“I think he probably sees himself as representing the diversity, the complexity and the richness of different strands that is Bharat…”
You are generous, Shantanu. I would not give him this benefit of doubt.
You may be right, but I would not attribute it to his understanding of any complexity. See this:
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/23cong4.htm