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Hindu choices

Source: TW

How to tame the beast?

Having internalised enlightenment values and all the paraphernalia associated with the modern way of life, Hindus have been struggling to deal with the problem of peaceful coexistence with samuday vishesh for over a century. But in vain. Hindus’ encounter with RoP predates the Industrial Revolution by many centuries and using the lens of modernity to make sense of it is to misdiagnose the problem by unconsciously caricaturing RoP.

For instance, making fun of flying horses, condemning animal slaughter on their big day and declaring their practice of offering prayers five times as regressive may earn you points on tv news shows but raise questions on the legitimacy of your own beliefs and practices like Pashubali and Trisandhya, paving the way for the State to outlaw them with your consent.

It is not that the Indian Ms are unaffected by the zeitgeist of this age. But their struggle does not involve the question of accommodation, for they are convinced that theirs is a superior way of life and the only place for Hindus in their scheme is as second class citizens at best. Their path is therefore clearly defined - it is the classical RoP path of righteous aggression that employs caricaturing as a strategy to cancel the pagans. Misrepresenting and ridiculing the kafir way of life is a core skill in their theological toolkit.

Hindus have three choices:

Continue misunderstanding RoP and lose all ground to it in the long run. This is primarily an exercise in self deception. Let us politely call it the Sanghi strategy.
Weaponise the act of caricaturing RoP and play a zero sum game with the opponent. In other words, mirror their strategy. This is almost impossible in the absence of a totalitarian ideological grip on society. This is the classical Hindutva strategy.
Understand RoP from a Hindu perspective. Obviously, that would involve understanding the Hindu perspective first by giving up the obsession with enlightenment ideals. This opens up the possibility of playing an infinite game with RoP and eventually winning it. I would like to name it the Ram Swarup school in honour of the great man.

PS: 2 can be of some use only as an addendum to 3. Without 3, 2 is an unmitigated disaster.