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Hindus, not Indian?
top stories from the magazine
Quite possibly, yes!
A 20-yeAr-old’s Frdi: the new FinAnciAl
chAllenge to VikAs in BomB rAises douBts
gujArAt After severe difficulties Religio-political chicanery has hit a new low with communal
An engineering student in coping with SPECTRAVISION
who was a Modi fan demonetisation and polarization being used to mislead and divide the masses on the
turned into his critic and GST implementation, HarcHaran subject of ‘nationalism’
gave a slogan, criticising the country must now Bains
the BJP’s development brace for new banking f everyone born and living in This is how sophistry can sometimes
agenda, that caught the sector reforms that will The writer, an eminent India is a Hindu, then what would backfire — but not often enough.
nation’s imagination, make people’s money columnist and freelance you call the people born and The debate in the country actually is
writes Jini K P Sahajan inaccessible to them, journalist, has been living in Nepal — the only Hindu about another issue — religio-political
notes Bharat Hiteshi a five-time Advisor to country in the world? The defini- stew. And its an old debate which has
Punjab Chief Minister I tion of the word ‘Hindu’ given by been given a fresh lease of life by a state-
Parkash Singh Badal. some politico-religious organizations ment of the highly respected chief of the
He writes regularly reduces Hinduism to a mere geographi- RSS, Shri Mohan Bhagwat describing all
cal identity and it no longer remains
citizens of India as Hindus. Typically, he
rAhul gAndhi — no more AAm AAdmi PArty: A for the English and what most Hindus like to believe it is — a explained later that the term Hindu is
A reluctAnt Prince reVolution BetrAyed regional newspapers religious denomination. There are Hin- only a synonym for the old expression
and journals
Gandhi is now emerging After five years of AAP, dus born and living in Sri Lanka, Burma, ‘Sindhu’ used for the people of the Sindh
as a key challenger to Kejriwal has emerged as Mauritius, Malayasia, Indonesia and also valley which later morphed into the
Prime Minister Modi. He just another politician in the countries of European, African English expression Indus and still later
is emerging as a fulcrum who sold new dreams and American continents. Surely, they to Indes and India.
Thus, essentially, the crisis facing
are not Indians. If all Hindus are Indians,
to engage smaller parties to the people for the then, the Hindus who are nationals of India today is merely a pronunciation
to jointly take on Modi, ultimate goal of gaining other countries are placed in a peculiar issue — or, more accurately, a mispro-
Charanjit Ahuja opines power and in the dilemma of national loyalties, creating nunciation issue !
process chose to fail as all kinds of problems for them in the According to Bhagwat, the problem
a revolutionary, writes countries where they now reside. with ‘pseudo-secularists’ in the country
Harcharan Bains Oh, by the way, there are some peo- is that they haven’t read enough history
ple living even in the Islamic Republic of or, if they have read it, they haven’t done
Pakistan who call themselves ‘Hindus’ so intelligently enough. If the RSS is to
and are even officially recognized as be believed, the whole hullaballoo being
members of a national Hindu minor- raised by the ‘pseudo-secularists’ is the
BjP sweePs uP ciVic BelAted sAlAAms to my ity — which means that the Hindus born result of their own mischievous and
Polls But Vote shAre could-hAVe- Been ruler and living in Pakistan are Pakistanis. over-charged imagination.
But the whole debate, once again, is
And they are Hindus, but not Indi-
diPs Lives of penury led Every faith talks ans. Would the government of India rooted in another debate — the place of
The UP civic polls by descendants of recognize the entire Hindu minority in religion in politics.
were considered to royal families, whose about the State Pakistan and Bangladesh, Nepal, Burma, In 1984, India was rocked by three
be the first electoral forefathers made being guided Indonesia, Malayasia, etc. as Indian traumatic events that almost shook
test for chief minister significant contributions by religious nationals and thus make them ‘traitors’ one’s faith in the destiny of the nation
Yogi Adityanath since to the nation’s glory, in their own countries? as a secular democracy. All three had
With the BJP constitutionally at the
their origins in the ‘fake-debate’ over
the NDA headed by should make us think principles. But helm of the country (India), it may not the place of religion in politics and all
BJP came to power in how we have stopped it has nothing to be diplomatic or politically savvy for its three were foreseeable and, therefore,
March this year, say caring for those who do with mixing sympathizers to openly declare Nepal or eminently avoidable.
Mudit Mathur and are a part of our history, even Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia to Tragedy began with the then Prime
Viviashwan Singh Humra Quraishi religion and be ‘Indian’ countries — Akhand Bharat Minister Indira Gandhi ordering troops
politics can wait till the BJP moves over to the of the Indian army to invade the most
sacred shrine of the Sikhs, Sri Har-
opposition benches in Parliament.
Tehelka / 31 january 2018 8 www.Tehelka.com Tehelka / 31 january 2018 9 www.Tehelka.com

8 Social media.indd 2 12/01/18 3:55 PM 9-11 Bains Spectravision.indd 1 12/01/18 3:56 PM