The Concept of India a Hindustan continues...

There have been valiant attempts, but these had been circumscribed by the political compulsions of the time foisted on us by invasions and imperialism. Often these attempts at renaissance had to be aborted due to these compulsions. In 1947 however we Hindus had an opportunity to usher a renaissance without compulsions; but the misfortune of a long tenure as Prime Minister of a self-confessed agnostic and the political culture imported from a God-less Communist Soviet Union thoroughly froze the distortions in Hindu religious practices. It is imperative therefore to create a new Hindu corporate awareness to confront these distortions frontally and remove them. Otherwise, the forces ranged against Hinduism today will succeed in their nefarious designs.

I am particularly concerned with the effect that the varna vyavastha [caste system] is having in promoting religious conversions. It gives a talking point to the enemies of Hinduism. It is not that other religions do not have a stratification based on origin of the individual. Dalit converts to Christianity for example learn the hard way about their low status in their new religion, and hence they are asking for reservation in jobs and education even after conversion! Of course, we should never agree to that because reservation is strictly a correction for the malfunction of the Hindu society in the past, and in fact reservations should have been confined to schedule castes and tribes only who have remained Hindus despite all the atrocities heaped on them for centuries.

Christians and Muslims have been ruling classes in India for a thousand years and hence they are certainly not deprived or discriminated against in any way. In that sense, persons belonging to the scheduled castes are more steadfast Hindus than those of other castes, for they have remained Hindus despite being deprived, humiliated and discriminated.

Moreover, I may add that I regard Dr. Ambedkar as the twentieth century intellectual who should be most admired by Hindu society for his profound perception of India’s history which perception he has fortunately for all of us recorded in books and articles.

to be continued...