Raping India's Forests — The highest Point of Political "Hindutva"
Shrikant G. Talageri
I had thought of giving this article the title "….The Highest Point of RSS 'Hindutva'", but realized that would be shifting the blame from the tree to the branch. It is the fashion to consider the BJP to be a wing of the RSS and under its control, but it has been decades now since I have realized that it is the opposite way round (and many people who were initially sceptical have now come round to my point of view): the BJP is not the "political wing" of the RSS; the RSS (even though it was technically born decades earlier) is the "recruitment wing" of the BJP.
From the first inklings of the recent political crisis in Maharashtra, which led to the toppling of the SS-Cong-NCA alliance government, I had predicted that the first thing the BJP would do as soon as it came to power would be letting loose the cannons of war on the Aarey forest in Mumbai. After all, the successful midnight slaughter of over 2000 Aarey trees is one (and the first) of the only two times that we witnessed "midnight coups" in Maharashtra in the last few years. [The second, people who accuse the Shiv Sena of betraying the voters by aligning with the Congress-NCP conveniently forget, is when the BJP made a failed midnight attempt to install a BJP-NCP government in the state to avoid giving Chief Ministership to the Shiv Sena — a contingency which they do not seem to have been able to avoid this time round. But then the "Balasaheb Shiv Sena", not exactly a part of either the BJP or the RSS, seems no different from the BJP in their lust to attack India's forests, as today's first decision of the new Maharashtra government shows; so my choice of the word "political 'Hindutva'" in the title was right: neither the term "BJP" nor "RSS" Hindutva would have covered them].
This (except in the Aarey matter) is not in support of the toppled Shiv Sena government. The BJP and the Shiv Sena (after the demise of the second Hindu Hriday Samrat, Bal Thackeray, the first being Veer Savarkar) were the tweedledum and tweedledee of Pseudo-Hindutva politics in India. The Shiv Sena government, whose attitude during the sadhu-slaughter episode in Palghar can never be forgotten, and the statement of the Pramukh of whose Dakshin Mumbai Vibhag (that the sound of the azaan is the sweetest sound he has ever heard, and that, every time an azaan ends, he eagerly awaits the next one — a blatantly false statement at which many Muslims of my acquaintance also could not refrain from snickering) also comes to mind, was noted for its sharp swing away from Hindutva and towards "Secularism", and its record, even allowing for the covid-and-lockdown interlude, was a dismal one. And, in his zeal to make the party and government a captive plaything in the hands of his son, Uddhav Thackeray made the same mistake that the BJP had earlier made: the BJP had taken the support of the Shiv Sena for granted ("TINA - where else will they go? What else can they do?") and often downgraded and sidelined them for more than five years, and Thackeray did the same to the other Shiv Sena leaders.
But the BJP in the last eight years has stabbed Hindutva in the back in countless lethal ways. To enumerate just a very few:
1. They redefined who is a "true Hindu" and what is true Hindutva on the basis of Islam and Muslims: “The day it is said that we don’t want Muslims, Hindutva will cease to exist” (RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat), or (the following quote is something I saw somewhere, but failed to note the exact source, and if I am right, I will welcome someone telling me the source, and if I am wrong, I will welcome correction) "A Hindu who hates Islam is not a true Hindu" (PM Modi).
2. They redefined Hindu prayers: many of the "minority" wings of the RSS and BJP have been doing this for years, but the one that comes to mind immediately is the BJP leader Piyush Goyal who "revealed" a few years ago that he recites the kalma la ilaha illalla, mohammadun rasulallah in his daily prayers. Clearly a mullah must reveal to him what Islamic law prescribes for someone who recites the kalma and thereby becomes a Muslim, and then apostasizes by praying to other Gods even once, let alone on a daily basis.
3. They refused outright to give Hindu religious and other institutions the same autonomy that Muslim and Christian religious and other institutions enjoy in India, and then looted all the wealth and properties of Hindu temples and maṭhs (this was a major activity in Rajasthan under the Vasundhara Raje government) and used the funds (and other Hindu taxpayers' funds) to promote massive minorities-only schemes for Muslims and Christians to the tune, in monetary terms alone, of more than 70000 crore rupees. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
4. They showed full sympathy for the hurt feelings of "minorities" (including Obama when he complained about minorities in India being persecuted!) whenever the opportunity arose, then turned a blind eye when non-Hindus abused Hinduism in the dirtiest possible terms, expressed full sympathies when minorities and anti-Hindus suffered anything (even, as in the case of Shabana Azmi, a minor injury in an accident), and turned a completely blind eye and deaf ear when Hindus were given death threats and even killed in the most gruesome ways (the sadhus in Palgar, Kamlesh Tiwari, Kishan Bharwad, Kanhaiya Lal, etc. etc.).
What happened to Noopur Sharma (and in thousands of other such unpublicized cases) is not new or unique. A few years ago, Koenraad Elst, who had been invited to an RSS sponsored Seminar in Goa, was woken up in the middle of the night and bundled back home to Belgium (although he was supposed to be at the Seminar till it ended) because an Arab Shaikh who was a chief guest at the seminar had objected to something he said in his talk on that day!!
But, instead of wallowing in all the all dirt dug up by them, let me come to the highest point of their "Hindutva": it is the rape and gang rape of India's forests, trees, ecology and environmental heritage. If Mother India is Draupadi, the BJP leaders have shown themselves to be Kauravas. While all the above points deal with Hindutva matters about which "Hindutva" leaders don't really care two figs either way, except at the time of elections (or of disputes with other "Hindutva" leaders), the mass destruction of India's forests is a hardcore part of their true ideology, which is "Money". It is in the destruction of forests, grabbing of forest lands (and not just forest lands), and "development" (not just only in the grabbed forest lands, but anywhere where there is land of any kind), which provides the most massive, certain and inexhaustible source of wealth for politicians, and in the case of the politicians who ask for votes in the name of Hindu issues, it is this wealth which represents their "Hindutva" ideology. And it is not just forest land in mainland India: in the Andaman islands, natives of the islands, who have lived in those areas for over 50000 years, are being evacuated from their ancestral areas and herded into camps so that their lands can be used for making massive amounts of money in the name of "development" (and, in order to facilitate this, they started out by opening up reserved parts of the islands to foreigners with vested interests, including missionaries).
Let me add: there are absolutely countless committed monkeys on the internet (not all of them necessarily members of the trolling brigades of the party) who will be jumping up and down and clapping their hands in glee at all this "development", and I can expect to have them viciously snapping at my heels and spouting vitriol over what I am writing here. There is always a heavy price to pay for speaking the truth!
I have written on this subject before. Ever since the BJP came to power at the centre and in the states, land grabbing, destruction of forests and greenery (and India's natural heritage), and "destructive "development" have been the most central aspect of their activities. The following newspaper reports, all appearing on one single day (4 December 2018), all in the neighborhood of Mumbai alone, will give a small idea of the amount of destruction that has been taking place all over the country in the last eight years:
1. Times of India Front-page Headlines: "8 acres of mangroves to be cut for Navi Mumbai airport road":
2. Hindustan Times Headlines: "MSRDC destroying mangroves for Bandra-Versova sea link: Mumbai locals":
3. Mumbai Mirror Front-page Headlines: "Bonanza for builders, industrialists ahead of elections: Tribal lands, flood zones, forests now open for creation of integrated townships":
4. And the blockbuster or piece de resistance, highlighted in most newspapers:
Mumbai Mirror Headlines: "Fire breaks out at Aarey forest":
Indian Express Headlines: "Fire at Aarey Colony, tribals evacuated":
DNA Headlines: "Mumbai Fire: Massive fire breaks out at Aarey Colony, operations underway to douse flames":
Hindustan times Headlines: "Massive fire in Mumbai's Aarey forest near Infinity IT park doused...a heavy damage to the forest is being feared":
Times of India Headlines: "Mumbai: Massive fire breaks out at Aarey Colony in Goregaon: no casualties reported":
Three to four kilometres of forest trees were devastated in this fire. Tribals have been "evacuated" from their ancient ancestral lands. [In Mumbai, in the last few decades, we have seen mysterious fires breaking out in slum areas and "low-class" settlements and liberating for "developmental purposes", for influential builders, large tracts of lands on which politicians, builders ("developers") and land-sharks had set their sights].
I remember, on a visit to the RSS center at Uttan in the Bhayandar area to the immediate north of Mumbai in 2018 (the occasion was the sixth International Conference and Gathering of the Elders — an important confluence of members of Pagan religions worldwide), an RSS functionary was pointing out to some eminent visitors that people in Mumbai were facing the continuous inconveniences of major "development" works (the Metros, Coastal Roads, etc. which seem to have turned most parts of Mumbai into veritable ruins in the last many years) without a murmur of protest because they knew that all this was for their ultimate benefit. I just managed to stop myself (not being in the mood for any arguments) from pointing out to him that Hindus in India have been bearing the injustices of blatantly anti-Hindu laws, administrations and governmental acts for decades since 1947 without a murmur, perhaps because they also know that all this was for their ultimate benefit? Being naïve, gullible morons is nothing to be proud of.
I don't know what these politicians will manage to do to India in the next few decades, and what will be the environmental, cultural, religious and political picture at that time. I am not a blind believer in Divine Justice and Karma, but I have no option except to philosophically say "jo hoga so hoga" in the happy knowledge that I will not be there to see it happen. The only purpose of writing all this was to get it out of my system, since nothing is going to change anything, and (if there is such a thing as "posterity") to have it on record for posterity. I cannot expect anything better to come out of it, and can only expect plenty of immediate hate reactions of all kinds, starting perhaps with the title of my article itself.
POSTSCRIPT added a few hours later: I was wrong. I am alive to see it. The Supreme Court "judgment" on Noopur Sharma's petition (to club together all the FIRs against her) shows that these politicians have already converted India into a Sharia State.
POSTSCRIPT added 3-7-2022: In my article on political figures that I admired the most, I had named Raj Thackeray. Now here is his son unexpectedly showing himself to be a chip off the not-so-old block:
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/raj-thackerays-son-on-eknath-shindes-metro-car-shed-move-shocking-3122232
Sir sorry for my pessimism, I don't trust political parties anymore (specially Hindutva political parties). Atleast congress and other secular parties committed to their muslim vote bank. But Hindutva political parties only use Hindutva for electoral gain but after grabing power they backstabbing their core hindu voter.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even begin to imagine the state of Noopur Sharma's feelings right now. She must be feeling like a Jew in Nazi Germany sentenced by a Nazi court to a concentration camp, with the Nazi "judges" and Nazi politicians laughing at her plight.
DeleteApparently, Noopur has said those "controversial remarks" three times on three different channels....
ReplyDeleteHow are they controversial? Western "scholars" have written books claiming that Ganesha's trunk symbolically represents a limp penis, and that it shows that Ganesha was addicted to oral sex. Is there any action taken, or even outrage expressed, by anyone for such filthy abuse based on nothing? Noopur Sharma only pointed out what is actually there in their hadis, and what Islamic speakers and spokespersons like Zakir Naik and many others have themselves affirmed in so many videos (as yet) openly available on video. And in response to abuse against Hindu Gods. Is India an Islamic state where such things are the only rule?
DeleteAnd the brazen government is still totally unrepentant after it has set the nation on fire by throwing Noopur Sharma to the dogs.
I think it's also about her tones, she seemed condescending and she was there as a ruling party's representative. Personally, I don't like taking potshots on those scriptures because it'll be a 2 way street, tomorrow someone might talk about "Indra - Ahalya or Brahma - Saraswati" stories. I've seen plenty of attrocity archeology being done on Puranas on daily basis.
DeleteEx - "O Nārada, it is true, (quite) true, that the vulva of women becomes moistened on seeing a well-dressed man, whether he is her brother or son" - Padma Purana. https://www.quora.com/Are-there-misogynistic-verses-in-the-Puranas-If-so-how-do-Hindus-justify-them/answer/Ambika-Vijay?ch=10&oid=337732317&share=e48ad16e&srid=uKE2d&target_type=answer
(Side note - I would be very happy if someone from the Hindu side gives a proper response, one that doesn't say "cancel the Puranas")
That being said, it does not really matter if she had made those remarks as a response to hate speech by Muslims or just to offend them, they are fundamentalists with expansionist ideas who just behead everyone who stands against their ideology to suppress any dissent. There is no way a character like Muhammad would have survived if he was a Hindu, He would have definitely been cancelled in today's age by rationalists, humanists and feminists.
This topic has been dealt with by me in many articles. To begin with Hinduism is totally independent of any of its scriptures or even all of them put together. But Islam and Christianity exist on the basis of particular personalities and single books. There are erotic passages in the Rigveda as well: read Griffith's disguised Latin translations of them and Jamison's direct ones. No-one denies them, and they are quoted all the time, as you yourself state that you have seen "plenty of" it.
DeleteIn my article "Apologetics in the Guise of A "Hindu" Response to Criticism of Puranic Personalities", I asked: "should we continue to follow the common Hindu policy of whitewashing other religions — while allowing other religions to blacken Hinduism or at the most protesting (even while knowing it to be an exercise in futility) against such blackening? [Strangely, this is indeed the stance adopted by most Hindus: "you whitewash or ignore our molehill, we will whitewash or ignore your mountains". Sadly for them, their enemies refuse to oblige, and Hindus end up (like the proverbial prisoner) getting both the hundred lashes as well as the hundred onions].
I further wrote, we should "take the path of Truth and look objectively at all religions, secure in the knowledge that in the final analysis an honest look at all religions will show Hinduism shining bright against the black record of Christianity and Islam, firstly because, as already pointed out, while Hindu texts and history contain a few molehills of wrong/bad things, the texts and history of Christianity and Islam contain veritable mountains of wrong/bad things, but secondly also because the bad aspects in Christianity and Islam are fundamental and basic to the central ethos and identity of those two religions, while the bad aspects of Hinduism are really peripheral and incidental in Hinduism."
Well said sir, as Sitaram Goel said that long time ago-"Again, it would have been same solace if Muslims, Christians, neo-Sikhs, neo-Buddhists and neo-Jains had subscribed to sarva-dharma-samabhava and shown respect for Hinduism. But what happened was just the opposite. While Hindus were harangued, even forced, to swear by and practise sarva dharma-samabhava vis-a-vis Islam, Christianity, neo-Sikhism, neo-Buddhism, and neo-Jainism, followers of the latter creeds were left free not only to propagate their pet dogmas but also to attack Hinduism and proselytize Hindus. What emerged as a result was a united front of Muslims, Christians, neo-Sikhs, neo-Buddhists and neo-Jains (the so called minorities) which stood arrayed against Hindus, and insisted vehemently that Hindus accept the 'secularist' version of Hinduism thus forcing Hindus to become apologetic and remain on the defensive always."
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