What is Wrong in Bharat Becoming a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ ? : Barrister Khalid Umar

It is alleged that Narendra Modi / BJP want to make India a Hindu State. If that is so, I question, what is wrong about India becoming a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ ? My rationale follows below.

Bharatvarsh, a civilization as old as 5,000 years, needs no introduction of it being the original homeland sheltering 95% of all the Hindus in the world and birth place of Sanatan Hinduism. India should not be shy of recognising her identity as a Hindu Rashtra.

Hinduism is the 3^rd largest religion in the world after Christianity and Islam. But it is not demographically as widely spread on the world’s map as the first two. 97% percent of all Hindus live in the world’s three Hindu-majority countries (India, Mauritius and Nepal). It is the most geographically concentrated of all the major religions. 95% of the Hindu population live in India, whereas only 1.6% of Muslims live in Arabia, the birthplace of Islam.

The left-liberals have no problems with the 53 Muslim dominated countries (Islam is the official religion in 27), 6 Buddhist and 100+ Christian dominated countries in the world. In 15 countries, Christianity is the official religion. These Christian countries include England, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Hungary and Denmark. Israel is a Jewish state. But, when it comes to India, their rationale fails to make me understand as to why Hinduism can’t be state religion of India ?
There is no evidence that it threatens the secular ethos of the country, if India is declared a Hindu State. All faiths have flourished in India, including Parsis, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims, Zoroastrians because Hindus are not intolerant towards other religions.

One can go to a religious place associated with any religion and find Hindus there. There is no concept of conversions in Hinduism. There are Christian and Muslim Nations in the world, who raise their voice on the human right abuses and religious persecution of Muslims and Christians the world over. The world remembers Myanmar, Palestine, Yemen, etc. but not the Hindus & Sikhs of Pakistan or Afghanistan or that of other Islamic Nations !

Does anyone remember what happened with the Hindus in Bangladesh during the 1971 genocide by Pakistan Army or the Pandits in Kashmir or the 1998 Wandhama massacre in J&K, systemic elimination of Hindus in Pakistan, the elimination of historic temples and Hinduism in the Arab world, e.g., in Muscat ?

The policies of the Indian State have been anti-secular. There has been blatant religious reverse-discrimination against Hindus, its majority community. There are many examples. Have you heard about the Hajj Subsidy ? Since 2000, over 1.5 million Muslims have used the subsidy. It was only recently that the Supreme Court passed an order that directed the Government to phase out this subsidy within 10 years.

Which secular country will subsidise religious tourism for one faith group ? The average airfare subsidy was (US $1,000) per Muslim pilgrim in 2008.
While the Indian Government was supporting their citizens’ religious tourism, Saudi Arabia, a country where Hindu icons are condemned as Idol worship, was spreading Wahabi extremism worldwide. Hindus are not permitted to build temples and Indian tax payer money was being used to facilitate the Saudi economy by pilgrimage subsidies.

In a truly secular country, all citizens irrespective of religion would be covered by a single set of laws. In India, however, people of different religious beliefs are covered by different personal laws.

Government controls temples, but mosques and churches are autonomous. There were subsidies for Hajj but not for Amarnath Yatra or Kumbha Mela. A truly secular country would not subsidize any pilgrimage ! PERIOD !

Hindus have always welcomed and protected minorities. Let’s have a look at its history of tolerance. The Hindu community of India welcomed Parsis when they were persecuted the world over. They have flourished here for over a thousand years. The Jewish tribes found refuge in Bharat nearly 2,000 years ago and the same goes for Syrian Christians 1,800 years ago. The Jains, Buddhists being religions derivatives of the Hinduism have co-existed for 2,500 years and Sikhs for 400 years.

It’s time to look back at the facts to feel proud to be a Hindu, and shy not anymore !

Even today, India is secular, not due to a Constitutional Amendment of 1976 and lawyers and law makers, but because the majority of the people of India are Hindus. It is the very nature of this religion that ensures secularism, not a piece of paper that came into account after thousands of years of tolerant practice. India should openly declare itself as a ‘Hindu’ (Hindu/Sikh/Jain) Rashtra. India should interfere to protect the interests of all of the aforementioned people because no other country is doing it.

Declaring a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ will open a new door of safeguarding the majority against forced conversion and minority appeasement. India will remain a progressive country only till it remains a secular country. And it will remain a secular country only if Hindu domination persists in its demographics.
Secularism and Hinduism are the two sides of one coin. You toss it, and either way you win !

If India becomes a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, that would be the best thing to happen. There would be a Uniform Civil Code with no allowances for anyone (including Hindus). The rule of law has always been one of the main reasons for growth in any country – Germany, Japan, USA are all based on the rule of law. Conversions (to and against) will be banned, proselytizing which is the root cause of religious friction will stop; no Tablighis anymore. Once conversions are stopped, each person can follow whatever religion he chooses or choose to be an atheist (there is a sect called ‘Nirishwaravad’ in Hinduism itself). Show me another religion that recognises non-practitioners of the faith with such regard !

Secularism and religious tolerance are the ethos of the inhabitants of this region much before the Muslim invaders ransacked this land.
Muslim invasions into the Indian subcontinent started around 1000 AD and they lasted for several centuries till 1739. Destruction of about 100 million Hindus is perhaps the biggest holocaust in the whole world history. Hindus did not take any revenge from the offsprings of these invaders.

It is not Hinduism but the implementation of pseudo-secularism which is causing interfaith friction between the Hindu majority and the Muslims. In a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, religious freedom of the Non-Hindus will not be clipped.

Hindus must take pride in the history of the land they belong to. They must resort to facts to sort out frictions. Their shying away from reality will result into disaster of a land that has its sheer ethos and rich culture of tolerance deeply etched in its soil.

India has been foolish enough to give away precious slices to fulfill the demands of Muslim Nations. India has been tolerant enough to practice appeasement in the name of secularism.

Its time now Hindus should UNITE and proclaim the peace they have inherited. A ‘Hindu Rashtra’, that values secularism through its very nature of practice, devoid of any preamble, will be a citing example for the world.

The time is NOW.

The Reality of Sufi Islam

Popular media promotes Sufism as a spiritual, peaceful, mystical brand of Islam. Is it really so ? But if it is true then why did Sufi Saints always have such good relations with the Islamic kings ? Why were they in cahoots with the rulers ? Was it not a typical Church and State relationship or something more sinister than that ? How peace and aggression can be partners ? Two of the most respected Sufis shrines in India are Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi) and Moinuddin Chishti (Ajmer) and in Pakistan they are Syed Ali Hajweri aka Data Ganj Bakhsh (Lahore) and Baba Farid Ganjshaker (Pakpattan). All of them had connections with the invaders. According to the claims in the Sufi literature, it was Moinuddin Chishti himself who captured Prithviraj Chauhan in the battle of Tarain and ‘handed him over to the army of Islam’.

Is Sufi Islam a symbol of diversity ?

Today, Sufism is celebrated as an ethos of diversity as Hindus also revere the Saint. I am not against the social cohesion but understanding the history is a must. We must not ignore the context of the arrival of Sufism in India and how it was a channel of conversion by force and persuasion. Conversion, be coercive or sublime, attacks the core value of diversity by trying to thrust people to one singular identity of faith – Islamism. I sincerely believe that the truth of the torture and horror of the Mughal period has been compromised under the political correctness of secularism. Do we really believe that the pain, torture, killings, humiliation, hunger, trauma, death, slavery, which our ancestors faced does not survive in the collective subconscious of the society ? Can one-sided propaganda spewed through media, curriculum, movies and dramas resolve the pain ?

Hiding the truth is not the solution but a national truth and the reconciliation program is the answer to resolve the conflict left over from our past. That is what can bring an everlasting peace in the society.

– Barrister Khalid Umar

– Barrister Khalid Umar, UK (Khalid Umar lives in Portsmouth, UK and describes himself as a secular humanist, supporting freedom of speech as a Universal Right. This article has been taken from his FB account.)

Declaring a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ will open a new door of safeguarding the majority against minority appeasement !