The hindu straitjacket: Some ramblings
Some hindu Indonesian pilgrims were thrown out of the Jagannath temple in Orissa sometime in December 2007. The temple priests doubted the visitors religion because they did not look like hindus. The priests remained unconvinced even after the poor Indonesian devotees showed their proof of religion. This incident reminds me of another incident that happened to one of my peers years back in Delhi. A student with mongoloid look was mocked by his friends as he claimed himself to be a hindu. His friends felt that he did not look like a hindu. They also made fun of the fact that he did not eat beef. What the student did to recover his identity crisis is another story. I don’t know if any other religion in this world as its own look!
Few days later, again in Orissa, violence erupted disturbing christmas celebrations of the tribal christians. Violence against christians is not rare in Orissa. Who can forget the murder of the Steins? I do not know what political motive was there behind the orissa carnage, neither I want to know. However these two incidents in Orissa offers a wonderful parallelism to understand the hindu psyche. The hindu society is a caste divided society where the so-called lower-castes live in social isolation. Ambedkar and his followers’ conversion to Bhuddism is the strongest opposition to such social isolation. Though till very recently hindus were not so much worried about the christian proselyting of the lower caste marginalised hindus, but of late the dwindling number of Indian hindus in definitely worrying the hindu fundamentalist. Conversion being of the reasons for such decrease in number of hindus. You cannot persecute a person and and then prevent him/her from reacting against the persecution meted out. If hinduism is to survive in India, we need to open our arms like Islam or Chriantianity. Few days back I saw the video of endless ocean of haj pilgrims in Mecca. I was surprised to see people with all skin colours and ethnicity making beeline to visit the most holy place of Islam. Will the hindus be able to replicate this picture ever?
