An act of violence against innocents is an
indefensible act and must be condemned. What I would like to know is if
these people engaged in massive breast-beating exercises over each and every
incident that happens in India have ever honestly pondered fundamentalists
waging war in other countries. All we hear in such cases are human
rights issues against the very people challenging such violent groups. A
few years back, many churches were burned deliberately all around the United
States, but no one raised a hue and cry about it to the level that has arisen
even over a small incident in India.
Could it be due to the stark reality that
despite our liberal face it is still considered politically correct to point
out that the majority of India is Hindu, and hence all such incidents of
violence against non-Hindus are the work of Hindus implicitly and
collectively? It is still considered politically correct to denounce
Hindus' religion publicly. It is still considered politically correct to
mention the demographic map of India in almost every news item, whereas the
same yardstick is seldom applied to other countries of the world. It is
still politically correct to denigrate Hindus for the flimsiest reason.
It is still politically correct to ignore without condemnation when Hindus get
killed or become victims of racial, religious persecution. It is still
politically correct to implicate India for being against minorities just
because it is majority Hindu. It is still politically correct, in almost
every incident with negative connotations, to carefully point out the
religious identity of an individual or group as Hindu.
Religion is always an issue when it comes to
India, and bashing Hindus under any guise is very systematic in news reports
as well as letters that get published. The worst thing is that it is
considered politically correct to do that. In fact, the common
perception is that the only way to get something published is to write
something against Hindus or India no matter how unreal, unproved, unjust,
vicious and fabricated the stories may be. Can someone please explain
what is "Hindu fundamentalism"? One must remember, however,
that many of the yardsticks and terminology in vogue to describe religious
fanaticism don't even apply when seen from the Hindu perspective.
Unless we do some soul-searching ourselves,
we will continue to be hounded by the skewed perceptions, wrongful ideas and
mythical notions about Hindus individually and as a whole around the world.