What Offends...

July 13, 2022

 

My stomach had gone through huge exhausting churnings in the last week, and it might just be that I have serious digestive system issues, but often it feels like internalized churn from happenings in India. 

 

Lately it’s become difficult to express personal choices and opinions about religion. Since I am Hindu, I am speaking about Hinduism. The way religion has been weaponized and politically used has bothered me since LK Advani, a leader of the BJP, zoomed around the country on his Rath Yatra in early 1990’s. It resulted in an ancient Mosque being destroyed by Hindutva fanatics and riots in other parts of the country.

 

I’m simplifying those events by describing them this way, but to me they were the beginning of the divisiveness that is all pervading today. 

 

Hmm, on second thoughts, it isn’t difficult to express religious choices if they are aligned with what the Right-Wing Hindutva (RWH) groups want you to say. The noise around religion got louder recently as the RWH’s started a movement to dig up and destroy more mosques around the country. One called the Gyanvapi mosque had been in the news constantly for the RWH’s believed a lingam—symbol of Lord Shiva, was found on the premises. Apparently though, the residents of the area were not involved or impressed with the news and controversies for they say many shivlings were destroyed when the Central government made the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor, and they wonder why the RWH’s were not bothered then. 

 

I tried to detach myself from the fray but sometimes it felt absurd when RWH’s asked for Mughal emperors to be removed from history books, or for present day Muslims to pay for the sins of those invaders. It was disturbing to hear RWH’s say that Hindus—yes, they were speaking for me too—were offended by this or that. It was even more disturbing how easily the Police helped them to remain offended and exact their pound of flesh by locking up 'offenders' and ensuring they never got bail. It offended me how selectively the law was applied and how 'offenders' on the other side escaped arrest. 

 

I don’t get offended easily around religion but recently it offended me that a priest who called for the rape of  Muslim women was called not a hatemonger but a great Mahant, respected by many Hindus. It offended me that it took so long to arrest a man that called for genocide of Muslims, and after he was out on bail, where one of the conditions was he not make hate speeches, he made more hate speeches, and as far as I know hasn’t been re-arrested. 

 

It feels very absurd that it is ok to abuse actual living citizens, ask for a genocide against them, ask for the women from the community to be raped, call the community jihadist and traitors, economically destroy them by boycotting traders and workmen from that community, even illegally destroy their homes, arrest and torture them in police custody — but it is not ok to say something the RWH’s don’t want to hear about a Hindu God or Goddess. 

 

Just wrapping my confused head around this. 

 

Meanwhile life goes on. My cats will come live with me for a while their parents go for an anniversary holiday. I am meeting a lot of people I normally never would and hearing about their lives through my newest volunteer activity. I find that exciting.