As Nehruvian ethos roll back and secular pretensions dissipate, India wakes up to its ​Hindu past

In a recent TV event in New Delhi, BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi pointed out to the Jinnaesque and extremely vocal AIMIM supremo Assauddin Owaisi, that only 2 percent of Indian Muslims, from amongst some 15 percent of the population, were educated. This, down from 24 percent at Independence. Trivedi contrasted this illiteracy and consequent lack of contribution to the nation’s progress with that of the Parsis, who constitute a dwindling 0.1 percent of the population.

Owaisi mumbled that the educated and privileged Muslims went to Pakistan at Partition. He did not answer why seven decades since Independence have not produced educated Muslims while almost every other community stands in contrast to this. Not that looking at the failed state of Pakistan today provides any comfort in Owaisi’s defence.

For long, the likes of Owaisi were, and still are, assisted by those political parties that feed off Muslim vote-banks. The posing involves the laying of chaddars and the reciting of namaaz at mosques, wearing clothes echoing those of common Muslims, such as caps, black waistcoats and white chooridars. The shameless shunning of sindoor amongst the visible women of the household. The craven photo-ops with long-bearded maulvis and maulanas.

This may still be working to an extent but for how long more? Birth rates amongst Muslims will not return a Muslim majority state even in the whole of this century. Pockets of concentration will not make for an overall picture. The politics of regional pride, gender and blatant populist grants will not do the trick nationally.

But, if anything, it is the broad-thinking Hindu way that is garnering the admiration of the international community, including those Muslims in Arabia, Africa, the Asia-Pacific. These are Muslims not carrying the cross of conversion. They have a clear sense of their birth identity and are not confused by having been converted from Hinduism under the Islamic sword.

It is dawning on the more discerning followers and inheritors of Abrahamic religions that their temporal history is undeniably soaked in blood. This has bred widespread atheism and agnosticism in the West, with many people finding themselves in Church only when they are dead in a coffin — for the funeral service.

It is true that only the Hindu religion and some of its spinoffs have no back story of conquest, domestic or foreign, except for the sporadic resistance to Mughal aggrandisement. This is providing a natural attraction for people who want the depth and wisdom of the oldest religion in the world that has survived every attempt to wipe it out. These things lived in the realm of theory for decades but today it has gained provenance. There is greater global knowledge of Sanatan Dharma, Yoga, Indian culture, music, dance, ancient Ayurveda, science, great civilisations that existed hundreds of years before others, with their architecture and ruins as a mute witness.

And so now, under the aegis of a Hindu nationalist government, we see a rollback of both the Nehruvian ethos of Marxism, Mughal prominence and suppression of Hindus as obscurantists. The old order is fading fast. The pseudo-Christian celebration of Christmas by deracinated and Westernised Hindus is realised today as a British Raj hangover. It is, of course, a legitimate occasion for Christians themselves. And to participate with them in food, cakes and so forth is akin to them taking part in Diwali or Durga Puja in turn. The tonal difference is unmistakable. There is no voiding of Hinduism as a pagan and misguided majoritarian danger. Today the shoe is on the other foot. It is Nehruvian secularism that is increasingly thought to be bogus.

Official iftar parties have been stopped. So have the donning of skull caps and ruling party politicians trotting off to mosques. Temple visits and attendance at pujas have gained considerable prominence in their stead, with the Prime Minister and several BJP chief ministers leading from the front. Control over temple monies is being returned to the priests, as in a recent decree concerning the Char Dhams.

That temple funds should be accessed by the government is a strange impertinence given that the wealth of the Christian institutions and that of the Muslims is not touched. It is also a fact that the Church and the Wakf are still the biggest landowners in India.

Over the last seven years, a number of strides have been taken to restore Hindu pride. This not only serves a civilisational purpose long-suppressed and neglected, but in due course, it has every potential to get the country out of the clutches of mass block voting from the Communist-Populist-Islamist combine. Fortunately, this is persistent and successful only in West Bengal, Kerala and to an extent in the half-state of Delhi.

Cumulatively, the Hindu revival moves not only to reveal momentum but a clear road to the future. The temple at Ayodhya is being built. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has been inaugurated. The road access and facilities at the Char Dhams are being transformed. There is to be a ropeway to Kedarnath. A Shankaracharya statue has been established there. A massive statue of Lord Ram is being built in Ayodhya. Other statues to major deities are also springing up all over the country. Train services to pilgrimage circuits including those that concern the Buddhists, have been established. Destroyed temples are being rebuilt in Kashmir, and now there is an intent announced to do so in Goa, where they were destroyed by the Portuguese.

The special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, a more or less Islamic state within a state, has been revoked. A new delimitation exercise is enfranchising sections of the embedded long-term population left out during the decades of Sunni domination in the Kashmir Valley. Karnataka has just passed legislation to outlaw induced or forced conversion, principally of Hindus into Christianity. Other states at risk are likely to follow suit.

Triple Talaq has been outlawed in its most abused form. There is a proposal to raise the marriage age for girls to 21 and this is intended to be for all religions. Mosques and Islamic monuments which have been usurped from earlier Hindu edifices or built on destroyed temples are also being looked at. Other temples, ravaged by time, neglect and paucity of funds are also now on the restoration and renovation lists. Earlier only the Islamic structures used to receive government attention to an extent. They still do in places where the Islamic vote is considered crucial.

Today, if the Aga Khan Foundation, for example, wants to do some more continued good in this regard they are most welcome.

Mughal names to our best roads, our great and ancient cities are being replaced. Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh has already become Prayagraj. Faizabad district has been renamed Ayodhya, and its railway station has become Ayodhya Cantonment. Mughalsarai has been renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyaya station. Ahmedabad in Gujarat may soon be renamed Karnavati. The name for Hyderabad may be changed to Bhagyanagar, though native Owaisi stoutly opposes the move. Aurangabad in Maharashtra, likewise, may be changed to Sambhajinagar, though Aghadi constituent Congress opposes the move.

Name changes of cities and even states based on native sentiments and de-anglicisation, such as Bombay into Mumbai and Bangalore into Bengaluru have been ongoing for quite some time. But the trend away from starting the historical clock with the Mughals has only begun since 2014.

Progressively, it is expected that either invoking Muslim grievance, as in Owaisi, or pandering to Christian and Muslim vote blocks, will not return those who practice it into power, or even the reckoning.

This, because of the once thought impossible consolidation of the Hindu majority vote riding over the schisms of caste, region and language.

It is then that Sudhangshu Trivedi’s argument will begin to prevail over that of Assauddin Owaisi. Muslims must educate themselves and join the mainstream. It is not politic to emphasise their differences. If they are behind today, it is largely a consequence of political pampering, a madrassa-based outlook, and lack of initiative. A minority that is 200 million strong cannot excuse itself indefinitely.

The writer is a Delhi-based commentator on political and economic affairs. The views expressed are personal.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.