Religions > Atheism > Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief?
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Dr. Jai Maharaj" |
| Date: |
12 Apr 2005 07:04:44 PM |
| Object: |
Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief?
Three forwarded messages below:
[ Subject: Jesus Christ - a fabricated "khichdi" of Hindu mythological belief?
[ From:
[ Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005
Jesus Christ - a fabricated "khichdi" of Hindu
mythological belief?
Since the militant Christian missionaries and fanatical
Muslim "Jihadis", as well as, of course, our beloved
"secular intelligensia", have taken it upon themselves to
constantly scrutinise (and generally misinterpret --
either deliberately or through plain ignorance) each and
every minute detail of Hindutva, I see no reason why we
Hindus shouldn't be given exactly the same freedom to
look through their own religious beliefs in just the same
manner.
Unfortunately, it is of course evident that whilst Hindus
constantly provide all the answers to the questions put
to them by their self-appointed inspectors, any similar
questions put back to them are met simply with further
questions regarding Hindutva itself. Still, it is worth
pointing out some interesting features, if just for
interest's sake.
Without any disrespect to Shri Karan or Shri Krishna, I'd
like to compare them to the lentils and rice used to make
a khichdi, in that they have been mixed together by the
formulators of the Christian conspiracy to yield the
mythical Christian idol, Jesus Christ. Is he truly
nothing more than a story made by combination of the
life-stories of two of the greatest Hindus ever to have
lived? Take the following comparisons into consideration
. . . I'm sure if the subject were looked into in more
detail, even more analogies would emerge.
o Shri Karan is said to have been the son of a virgin
mother, Kunti.
Jesus Christ is said to have been the son of a virgin
mother, Mary.
o Shri Karan is said to have been the son of God (in
the form of Suryadev).
Jesus Christ is said to have been the son of God ("the
Father").
o Shri Karan's "father", the charioteer of King
Dhritarashtra, was actually no more than his adopted
father.
Jesus's "father", Mary's husband, the carpenter, was
actually no more than his adopted father.
o Little, if anything, is known of Shri Karan's life
between his childhood and his adulthood.
Little, if anything, is known of Jesus's life between his
childhood and his adulthood.
Shri Krishna's birth and subsequent rule as "King" (by
killin
Is India Really Independent?
By Shilpa Bakre
August 15th, 2003 will signify 56 years of freedom for
the country of India.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister gave a
speech to Constituent Assembly at midnight on August 14th
1947. "At the dawn of history India started on her
unending quest -- she has never lost sight of that quest
or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end
today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself
again." His speech was full of inspirational ideals about
a new beginning.
Has India really lived up to this?
Although the British no longer occupy India, is she
really independent of their influence? While they were
there we had to follow their traditions, their
philosophies, and their lifestyle. We silently let them
desecrate our heritage, culture and religion.
Yet now, it is we, the Indians that continue to propagate
their regime.
We continue to honor those that tried to destroy our
culture.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy has been in the area of
religion. We have continued to carry the torch for the
British missionaries in their attempts to dissuade our
belief system. We continue to allow the desecration of
the core essence of Bhartiya culture, tradition and
heritage -- the scriptures. Not only do we believe in
wrong information, but we also allow for the propagation
of it through college textbooks in prestigious Indian
schools and universities. Fictitious theories about the
Aryan invasion, the history of Indian civilization, the
origin of our scared Sanskrit language are being taught
to our youth even today.
Let's take one example of a great Indian philosopher,
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, President of India[r1] in
1962. Widely renowned for his philosophical writings and
lectures; he was highly influenced by the books of the
European writers who wrote about Indian scriptures,
religion and history. He continued to perpetuate their
belief system rather than the knowledge of Bhartiya
scriptures.*
For example he wrote in his book Indian Philosophy Vol.1,
"Rama is only a good and great man, a high-souled hero,
who utilized the services of the aboriginal tribes in
civilizing the south, and not an avatar of Vishnu.
The religion it reflects is frankly polytheistic and
external."
Further, Radhakrishnan also went on to remark that
"brahamanization of Krsna religion and elevating Vishnu
as the great God took place around 300BC.
In his writings he has called the early Hindus "the
beast', the Divine wisdom of the Rishis "the God-making
factory,' and defined the Vedic religion as "the religion
of the primitive man in the world of ghosts and goblins
who were only satisfied with bloody sacrifices.' He
described the teachings of the Upnishads and the Puranas
as speculation, myth, parables and heretical doctrines,
called Mahabharat a non-Aryan epic poem and tells that
the higher mysticism of Yog Darshan was mixed with drug
intoxication.
Hinduism, originally called Sanatan Dharm, is a universal
religion intended for the whole world, not for any
specific race. The Vedic culture is the heritage of world
civilizations and we should be proud that it originated
in India, not shy away from it. The spiritual wisdom of
ancient India is a gift to mankind and we as Indians need
to cherish, nurture and spread it.
Many of us want to be "like the West". We wear Western
clothes, we watch cable TV, we send our children to
convent schools and we allow them to be taught by the
very textbooks that were authored by the British. The
impressions of our freedom struggle are from a history
book in English rather than our national language.
Trousers and shirts replace the traditional dress. Urban
youth have started shying away from culture and
gravitating toward Western assimilation.
Development has been translated into westernization.
Somewhere along the way 150 years of the "Raj' has
definitely left its mark.
We have somehow lost our way toward the pursuit of
independence, and have continued to be ruled by an
invisible "Raj'. We have lost sight of our quest. We have
forgotten the ideals which gave us strength. There is
still time to change the future, to return to our true
roots. We can re-discover India's timeless teachings, we
can change the generations to come. Perhaps the question
is not whether we have the ability to do it, but rather
whether we will take on the challenge.
* His book and thousands of others just like it are
prescribed higher studies and considered more authentic
than the scriptures themselves.
** The tragedy of this enormous deception is brought out
in stunning detail in a book "The True History and the
Religion of India", by Shree Swami Prakashanand
Saraswati. This benchmark work re-establishes the
traditional Hindu perspective and returns its history to
its original roots. Shree Swamiji was given the title of
"Dharm Chakravarti" by The World Religious Parliament in
New Delhi in 1999 for bringing out the most important
aspects of Hinduism to the world in this book. The Indian
edition of this book was released by the Indian Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting in 2001. For more
information on this book visit
www.thevedicfoundation.org
or
www.authentichinduism.org
How the British re-wrote Indian History?
There are no less than seven Max Mueller Bhavans in India
-- named after the famous Indologist by that name. In
the capital city of New Delhi, Max Mueller Bhavan is a
distinctive landmark in one of the most prestigious
locations of that great city.
Of all the famous "Indologists" -- Max Mueller's name
most evokes reverence amongst the secular governments of
modern India. Elected officials and the English educated
elite extol his service to India and Hinduism.
But Max Mueller was a paid employee of the British
government! In 1847 he was especially employed to write
translations of the Vedas in a demeaning way so that
Hindus may loose faith in their own scriptures!
This is the sad history of modern India -- a nation that
lost it's own past and embraced those that deprived them
of it. A nation that since then has bestowed virtue on
those that saw none in it's peoples, their religion and
culture.
The tragedy of this enormous deception is brought out in
stunning detail in a book "The True History and the
Religion of India", by Shree Swami Prakashanand
Saraswati.
It chronicles how the British schemed to re-write Indian
history, to denigrate it and to misinterpret Hinduism .It
even uses historical records from the writings British
officials that reveal their true intent behind spreading
misinformation.
In a letter to Chevalier Bunsen, Max Mueller writes,
"India is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece
were at the time of St. Paul" and "I should like to live
for ten years quietly, learn the language, try to make
friends, and then see whether I was fit to take part in a
work, by means of which the old mischief of Indian
priestcraft can be overthrown and the way opened for the
entrance of simple Christian teaching."
Max Mueller fulfills his contract to the British when he
writes, "No one would have supposed that at so early a
period, and in so primitive a state of society, there
could have risen a literature (the Vedas) which for
pedantry and downright absurdity can hardly be matched
anywhere… These works (the Vedas) deserve to be studied
as the physician studies the twaddles of idiots, and the
ravings of madmen."
Shocking statements such as these are liberally dispersed
in the writings of this "great friend' of India! Max
Mueller is only one of a galaxy of "great friends' who
under British sponsorship re-wrote Indian history. Sadly,
this re-written history has today become a standard
textbook in prestigious Indian Schools & International
Universities.
So well has the British scheme worked that to this day
its legacy is embraced by modern India and our great
Indian writers.
*The tragedy of this enormous deception is brought out in
stunning detail in a book "The True History and the
Religion of India", by Shree Swami Prakashanand
Saraswati. This benchmark work re-establishes the
traditional Hindu perspective and returns its history to
its original roots. Shree Swamiji was given the title of
"Dharm Chakravarti" by The World Religious Parliament in
New Delhi in 1999 for bringing out the most important
aspects of Hinduism to the world in this book. The Indian
edition of this book was released by the Indian Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting in 2001. For more
information on this book visit
www.thevedicfoundation.org
or
www.authentichinduism.org
o g the existing King, Kansa) is said to have been
foretold by a divine announcement.
Jesus Christ's birth and subsequent rule as "King"
(taking over from the existing King, Herod) is said to
have been foretold by a divine announcement.
o Kansa found out and thus tried to protect himself by
killing lots of babies.
Herod found out and thus tried to protect himself by
killing lots of babies.
o Kansa didn't manage to get the right baby because
Krishna was taken over the river to Dwarka.
Herod didn't manage to get the right baby because Jesus
was taken over the sea to Nazareth.
o Again, a great deal of confusion surrounds Krishna's
life between his childhood and his adulthood.
As mentioned above, a great deal of confusion surrounds
Jesus's life between his childhood and his adulthood.
o Again, Shri Krishna's "father" (as in the guy who
brought him up) was actually his adopted father.
As mentioned above, Jesus's father (the guy who brought
him up) was actually his adopted father.
[r1] Radhkrishnan Stupid ignorant
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[ Subject: Re: Jesus Christ -- a fabricated "khichdi" of Hindu mythological belief?
[ From: "n krishna" <bharatian2001@yahoo.com>
[ Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 21:44:10
Jesus or even his disciples never existed as men of flesh
and blood. There's scant evidence that there was a city
called Nazareth during the first century, and no
buildings have ever been unearthed at present-day
Nazareth that can be conclusively dated to the first
century. The Vatican was constructed upon the site of an
ancient Pagan sanctuary.
Christianity itself has as its foundations the Pagan
spirituality that preceded it. The period of history in
which Jesus Christ is said to have lived was one of the
most well-documented and literate periods in the ancient
world. Noted 36 writers from this time never mentioned
Jesus Christ. The New Testament was a fiction written by
humans. The roots of Christianity been disentangled
after old gospels were discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt
in 1945. The Jesus Mysteries authored by Freke and Gandy
uncovers the mystery religions prevalent in the early
centuries of the Christian era. They came up with
startling fact that Christianity was created by Pagan
intellectuals for manipulating the gullible lower class
for financial profit. The Pagans looked upon such
Christians as holding a foolishly and ignorantly literal
belief in the religious myths that were intended by their
Pagan originators to be taken as allegory for religious
experiencing
The story of Jesus is not the biography of an historical
Messiah, but a myth based on perennial Pagan stories.
Christianity was not a new and unique revelation but
actually a Jewish adaptation of the ancient Pagan Mystery
religion.
There is a great deal of unsubstantiated nonsense written
about the 'real' Jesus for centuries. For 2,000 years
the West has been dominated by the idea that Christianity
is sacred and unique, whilst Paganism is primitive and
the work of the Devil. The tales told about the godmen
of the Pagan Mysteries are essentially the same, although
they take different forms.
The Pagan myth of Osiris-Dionysus, had all the
characteristics of that the story of Jesus.
- Osiris-Dionysus is God made flesh, the saviour and
'Son of God'.
- His father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin.
- He is born in a cave or humble cowshed on 25 December
before three shepherds.
- He offers his followers the chance to be born again
through the rites ot baptism.
- He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage
ceremony.
- He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while
people wave palm leaves to honour him.
- He dies at Easter time as a sacrifice for the sins of
the world.
- After his death he descends to hell, and then on the
third day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in
glory.
- His followers await his return as the judge during the
Last Days.
- His death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual
meal of bread and wine which symbolize his body and
blood.
These are just some of the motifs shared between the
tales of Osiris-Dionysus and the 'biography' of Jesus.
These remarkable similarities not common knowledge
because the early Roman Church did everything in its
power to prevent the future generations perceiving them.
It systematically destroyed Pagan sacred literature in a
brutal programme of eradicating the Mysteries -- a task
it performed so completely that today Paganism is
regarded as a 'dead' religion. To the writers of the
first few centuries CE these similarities between the new
Christian religion and the ancient Mysteries were
extremely obvious. Pagan critics of Christianity, such as
the satirist Celsus, complained that this recent religion
was nothing more than a pale reflection of their own
ancient teachings. Early 'Church fathers,' such as Justin
Martyr, Tertullian, and Irenaeus, were understandably
disturbed and resorted to the desperate claim that these
similarities were the result of 'diabolical mimicry. The
early Christian community was actually made up of a whole
spectrum of different groups. These can be broadly
categorized into two different schools.
On the one hand there were those we will call
'Literalists', because what defines them is that they
take the Jesus story as a literal account of historical
events. It was this school of Christianity that was
adopted by the Roman Empire in the fourth century CE,
becoming Roman Catholicism and all its subsequent
offshoots.
On the other hand, however, there were also radically
different Christians known as 'Gnostics.' These
forgotten Christians were later persecuted out of
existence by the Literalist Roman Church with such
thoroughness that many fled the country. One such group
of refugees came to Kerala in the fourth century as per
historical records. Only a handful of original
Gnostic texts survived, none of which were published
before the nineteenth century. This situation changed
dramatically, however, with a remarkable discovery in
1945 when an Arab peasant stumbled upon a whole library
of Gnostic gospels hidden in a cave near Nag Hammadi in
Egypt. This gave scholars access to many texts which were
in wide circulation amongst early Christians, but which
were deliberately excluded from the canon of the New
Testament -- gospels attributed to Thomas and Philip,
texts recording the acts of Peter and the 12 disciples,
apocalypses attributed to Paul and James, and so on.
The public had been deliberately deceived, that the
Gnostics were indeed the original Christians, and that
their anarchic mysticism had been hijacked by an
authoritarian institution which had created from it a
dogmatic religion -- and then brutally enforced the
greatest cover-up in history. One of the major players
in this cover-up operation was a character called
Eusebius, who, at the beginning of the fourth century,
compiled from legends, fabrications and his own
imagination the only early history of Christianity that
still exists today. All subsequent histories have been
forced to base themselves on Eusebins' dubious claims,
because there has been little other information to draw
on. All those with a different perspective on
Christianity were branded as heretics and eradicated. In
this way falsehoods compiled in the fourth century have
come down to us as established facts. Eusebius was
employed by the Roman Emperor Constantine, who made
Christianity the state religion of the Empire and gave
Literalist Christianity the power it needed to begin the
final eradication of Paganism and Gnosticism. Constantine
wanted 'one God, one religion' to consolidate his claim
of 'one Empire, one Emperor.' He oversaw the creation of
the Nicene creed -- the article of faith repeated in
churches to this day -- and christians who refused to
assent to this creed were banished from the Empire or
otherwise silenced. This 'Christian' Emperor then
returned home from Nicaea and had his wife suffocated and
his son murdered. He deliberately remained unbaptized
until his deathbed so that he could continue his
atrocities and still receive forgiveness of sins and a
guaranteed place in heaven by being baptized at the last
moment.
Although he had his 'spin doctor' Eusebius compose a
suitably obsequious biography for him, he was actually a
monster -- just like many Roman Emperors before him. The
'history' of the origins of Christianity created by an
employee in the service of a Roman tyrant thus was a pack
of lies. It is the winners who write history in their
own way. The creation of an appropriate history has
always been part of the arsenal of political
manipulation. Thus the traditional accounts of the
origins of Christianity first defined the terms and named
themselves as "orthodox" and their opponents as
"heretics". Then they proceeded to demonstrate that
their triumph was historically inevitable, or, in
religious terms, "guided by the Holy Spirit. But the
discoveries of the Gnostic gospels at Nag Hammadi
reopened the fundamental questions. The Roman Church
created a history of the triumph of Literalist
Christianity in much the same partisan way that, two
millennia later, Hollywood created tales of 'cowboys and
Indians' to relate 'how the West was won' not 'how the
West was lost.'
The Catholic Roman church rewrote gospels, invented
gospels and letters, and adopted what we now call the
"New Testament". Church history was once again fabricated
to fit then-current church doctrine.
During the Middle ages one of the interesting relics
which were popular among Christians was the Foreskin of
Jesus. Eventually there were about of dozen of Jesus'
foreskins distributed around Europe, with different
churches fighting over who had the genuine article. This
is the level to which the Christianity was trying to
prove the physical existence of Jesus.
- - -
I will make a "khichdi" with the Hindu mythological
belief with all the information available here from
better informed persons of these groups, and will post it
later. If any correction is required kindly let me know
before we can circulate it.
Namaste
n.krishna
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[ Subject: Re: Jesus Christ -- a fabricated "khichdi" of Hindumythological belief?
[ From: "Bhalchandrarao C. Patvardhan" <kurundwad@eth.net>
[ Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005
Namaskar!
Excellent study and presentation!
A supplementary comment about Nazareth. In "Jesus of
Nazareth" the latter name is most likely to be as much of
a fabrication as the former.
Palestine was a part of the Roman empire at that time.
Rome had a particularly good system of keeping land
records as must be expected of any power wishing to
control far-flung territorial holdings. Apparently,
'Nazareth' does not find mention in any contemporaneous
Roman records. The habitation must have come up in more
recent times. The word is more likely to be a corruption
of "Nasorean", the name by which the people belonging to
the original Jerusalem Church (led by James the Just,
Yehoshua's brother) was known. Yehoshua was most likely a
member of the Qumranian Essene community. Even today,
Chistians are known in some regions as "Nasrani"!
BCP
End of forwarded messages
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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Since newsgroup posts are being removed
by forgery by one or more net terrorists,
this post may be reposted several times.
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| User: "navi-gater" |
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| Title: Re: Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
13 Apr 2005 02:47:42 AM |
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(Dr. Jai Maharaj) wrote in news:qUUYi6531uhJxU@RhaUz:
Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief?
Wow. Imagine that.
A forged story for christains may (or may not) have been stolen from the
forged stories attributed to hindoodoos.
Any more claims of stolen fictional characters you'd like to point out?
gater.
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| User: "charles" |
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| Title: Re: Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
12 Apr 2005 09:23:21 PM |
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Amazing! I have been frequently in several different India groups and
no one really discusses anything, It is as if they had no thoughts of
their own or were afraid to speak. Then I see this over-long
lamantation of Hinduism!
I am not suprised that, as you indicate, there is a feeling in India
that Marxism and Western secularism are denigrating Hindu culture. Now
that I hear from you, I feel that there must be this feeling in India
and that it must be widespread even though few voice it,
I liken what is happening with Hindu culture to what happened with
first the Romans and then the Muslims burned down the Great Library in
Alexandria. Also, the defacing of the Sphinx in Egypt. The examples
are numerous.
Is it possible that you could feel the same way even if you were
secular and scientific enough to reject the idea that the Hindu gods
actually existed?
I am an atheist, but I believe that people should be able to identify
with their own magnificant cultures. It is hard to find a nation
anywhere on Earth that had such an amazing civilization as once existed
in India and whose evidence still abounds there.
I am not HIndu, but I do feel a human pride in what we humans, we of
the human race, have accomplished. What I would like to see in the
future is a world-wide society which had great centers in India, China,
Europe and Islam. In such a society, these mainstream centers would
compete in culture but cooperate to achieve common world goals--such as
equality of the races, protecting the environment, and exploring and
colonizing the universe. Such a society could build a whole new
civilization based upon different cultures.
But it could only happen if it is scientific.
It cannot be built on the concept that "our gods are better than
yours."
Such a new society would also need to establish a sound moral system.
There is too much sensualism and materialism. The need would be for
greater integrity,
In the website, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com
we have a good start on such a project, but it would never work if only
Americans are apart of it. We need interest from people in India and
other countries. It is a one-world project. Tell us what you think of
it.
twoexiles
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| User: "Anonymous" |
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| Title: Re: Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
13 Apr 2005 08:42:57 PM |
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Coward Jai is ***** scared of posting this to christian news group. Hence
cross posting.
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| User: "Richo" |
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| Title: Re: Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
13 Apr 2005 12:59:06 AM |
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Dr. Jai Maharaj Apr 12, 12:04 pm wrote:
Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief?
Here is a really shocking theory:
The reason that there are similarities between myths of different
cultures is that there are similarities between all human beings.
That is, all humans are born of mothers, they all experience the
trials of life, and then they all die.
No one has to steal anothers story - they just make up similar stories
because all people are similar.
Pretty radical idea Huh?
Mark.
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| User: "=?windows-1252?Q?Le_G=E9ant?=" |
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| Title: Re: Jesus Christ - a fabricated 'khichdi' of Hindu mythological belief? |
13 Apr 2005 11:50:05 AM |
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Save Hinduism from Hindus
Besides being morally wrong, events like Babri Masjid demolition,
Gujarat riots harm Hinduism itself
KAUSHIK BASU
Posted online: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 at 0000 hours IST
Kaushik Basu It is time for the average Hindu to reclaim his religion
from the madness being unleashed in its name by the VHP and the RSS.
The most recent complaint against India’s Muslims, namely, that they did
not accept the Shankaracharya’s ‘‘reasonable offer’’ is absurd. The
Kanchi Shankaracharya, true to his reputation, had started out in
earnest — to engage in dialogue, to take and to give. But what was
offered in the end, under relentless pressure from the VHP, was quite
egregious. The Hindus would make no concessions — not on Kashi, not on
Mathura. And the Muslims would gift the disputed land in Ayodhya to the
Hindus.
But this makes a travesty of the term ‘‘gift’’. You can urge your own
side to give away something. But asking the other side to gift something
to you is a misuse of the word. And when that something happens to be
land, created by the illegal demolition of a mosque, this amounts to
taking a person hostage and then asking him to ‘‘gift’’ his watch to you.
This Ayodhya deadlock is just one in a line of events, beginning with
the 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid and continuing with the
massacre in Gujarat, and the bending of the law to protect its
perpetrators. Not only are these events morally wrong, they do great
harm, ironically, to Hinduism itself.
Writing in the middle of the 19th century, Karl Marx had marvelled at
the quiet robustness of Hindu civilisation. It would take blow after
blow of invasions, the economy would shatter, the buildings break; but
no sooner had the dust from the invading cavalry settled, it would
become clear that Hinduism was intact, almost unchanged.
In some ways, it is also a religion of unrivalled openness. There is no
central command that sets the rules of what a Hindu may or may not do.
One can violate its rituals and still legitimately claim to be a Hindu.
One can be an atheist and a Hindu, as was the sage Carvaka.
Aggression towards minorities, as are being preached by the VHP, is
unbecoming of this great tradition. To whip up emotions by stoking fears
that Hinduism is endangered and will perish unless it defends itself
aggressively is to reveal an inferiority complex for which there is no
basis.
The inclination to use the State to ban conversion is founded in this
same complex and a failure to understand that Hinduism may not be loud,
strident and proselytising, but it is strong. It faces no risk, except
from its own fundamentalists, who, by imitating other fundamentalists,
are for the first time threatening to change the very character of this
ancient religion.
And while on this subject, I must add my own belief that, even if it
were an endangered religion, there would be no moral reason to ban
conversion. Religion is a personal matter. People should be free to
preach; and if someone, as a consequence of this or simply because he is
dissatisfied with his own religion, wants to switch to another faith,
then so be it.
Hindus have often treated their own sub-groups poorly. ‘‘To the
Untouchables, Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors,’’ wrote
India’s most famous Untouchable, B.R. Ambedkar. He argued that Hinduism,
as practiced, was ‘‘inconsistent with the self-respect and honour of the
Untouchables’’ and that this ‘‘justifies (their) conversion’’. Ambedkar
himself converted to Buddhism three weeks before his death on December
6, 1956.
If such conversions are thought to be offensive, then the lesson must be
to reform the practices within Hinduism that lead to them, instead of
using the State to block exit routes.
It is time the BJP government dissociates itself from the VHP-RSS
combine. I know it is naive to expect politicians to live entirely by
their morals. To be able to do what a politician wants to do, he needs
to be in power, and this often necessitates compromises.
But at the same time even politicians must draw a line and decide that,
beyond a point, it is better to lose an election than to be held hostage
by a small fanatical group that has no respect for the law. The VHP has
made it clear that if the ASI excavations yield no evidence of a temple,
it will ignore the ASI; and if the Supreme Court does not rule in favour
of a temple, it will use mass movement to counter the verdict.
One of the critical ingredients of a thriving economy is the rule of
law. For the BJP government, this is a good occasion to drive this point
home. A tragedy of this government is that it is spending too little
time on things that matter (like creating prosperity for the people) and
too much time on ‘‘politics’’. For a nation as poor as ours, the
pressing need is to enhance growth, create employment and curb corruption.
India can achieve a growth rate of eight per cent per annum; it is in a
position now to eradicate poverty. However, this will need
determination, brainpower and time on the part of government to crafting
and enforcing good economic policies. Our government is unfortunately so
preoccupied with zero-sum political conflicts — Ayodhya, conversions,
cow-slaughter, resurrection of Vedic Studies — that it is ignoring
policies that can make a real difference to the lives of its citizens.
It needs to put Ayodhya behind it as quickly as possible. If its current
stance is making an early resolution so difficult, I suggest that it
tries what is only a slight modification of the venerable
Shankaracharya’s plan. Ask the Hindus to gift the land where the Babri
Masjid once stood to the Muslims.
— The writer is professor of economics at Cornell University and
visiting professor at the Delhi School of Economics
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