Biggest Threat to India

What do I think is the biggest threat we face as a nation?

According to me, it’s not Naxalism (as our Prime Minister wants us to believe), its not Kashmir militancy, its not external aggression from Pakistan or China, its not regional militancy in North East, and it’s not immigration from Bangladesh. The biggest threat is not rural-urban divide, the growing gap between the rich and poor, the exploitation of environment, or the rising population.

The biggest threat to India is its religions.

As we progress, and as we bring more people out of poverty into the mainstream, as education trickles down to the masses, as access to opportunity gets to everyone, and as we become better off as nations most of these issues will fade away. If we make some quick and bold decisions, which may sound unpopular in the near term, but have better prospects in the long run, most militant issue within borders will become insignificant.

On the other hand, Religion is on the rise with increase in education and upward mobility of the masses. Belief in superstition, blind belief and irrationality is getting institutionalized with increase in prosperity and with better access to opportunity.

Like a moth, religion is eating away into the very fabric of this nation making it hollow from inside. It is infecting this country like cancer crumbling all its institutions one by one. In the name of ‘hurt sentiments’, which takes on sacred ground when it comes to religion, we are slowly rolling back all our freedoms. We are giving away our freedoms to the state and goons. Religion is taking the main stage by inundating the instrument of state, making a backdoor entry by playing on sentiments of common people. We are rapidly losing our hard earned universal values making way for an intolerant and radical society.

Growing intolerance and suppression of freedoms

In our zeal to curb the voices that we don’t like, thus enjoying momentary pleasures, we are forsaking our enshrined rights in the long run. To reap benefits now in the near term, we are giving away our freedoms for the future. And nobody is realizing that. Here are some excerpts from contemporary India.

Taslima row

First, Taslima was obstructed from giving audience in Hyderabad by some protestors who ransacked her proceedings. These goons were actually supported by the Muslim parties seated in power. Next, a grand showdown happened in Kolkata, where Muslim protestors took to street to burn up everything in sight to show their disapproval. And the puny government, not knowing what they were doing, just succumbed and asked her to leave the city. Later, one of the central ministers gave her permission to stay in the country as long as she promised not to incite the Indian Muslims. For that, he asked her to apologize to the community whose ‘sentiments were hurt’ with folded hands, as if that atonement was a necessary and sufficient condition to stay in this country, being apologetic at all times.

This minister cited a deplorable precedent, shamelessly, not knowing that he was in fact stultifying every tenet of our constitution, where India imposed ban on Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. This country joined the rank of most retrograde nations by being the first country in the world to ban Satanic Verses, even before Ayatollah of Iran decreed a fatwa against the author. Instead of admitting how foolish we were, this minister says, ‘‘we did not allow Salman Rushdie's book when it caused a flutter and raised controversy. She will not be an exception.”

And imagine to what extent we can stoop low. When a foreign nation wanted to honor Taslima, our shameless government intervened to stop them, all in a vain attempt to ‘pacify’ Indian Muslim zealots.

What is funny about Taslima’s episode is the brazen hypocrisy of Hindu zealots. While they want to ransack, torment and terrorize a painter for depicting Hindus goddesses in nude, they went overboard in their enthusiasm to invite and give homage to Taslima for ‘offending’ Muslims.

Sania Mania

The Muslim population in India along with all other sex-starved youth of India is obsessed with Sania Mirza. Whatever she does somehow brings wrath of peevish Indians, and mostly from radical Muslims of India, who seem to have a say in almost everything this woman does. She is everything the radical Muslims don’t want her to be. She was first berated for wearing short dresses on the court. Then she was chastised when she posed for an ad before a Mosque. Didn’t she know that women are not allowed inside the Mosque? The fact that she did NOT enter the mosque but posed outside the gates did not satisfy the mullahs and Muslim political parties who went onto protest against her. She had to apologize profusely to escape the wrath of ‘hurt sentiments’.

Then came an episode where she kept her legs up, and for some weird reason, a flag was transported from another universe and appeared right before her legs. So, once again, our peevish Indians filed a case against her for dishonoring our national flag. So, this time around it is not just radical Muslims. It is patriotic goons too who are baiting her.

Sania, who is just 21 years old, could not take this pressure anymore and has recently decided to stay away from playing in this country. Wow! Look how jubilant our religious forces are now!

Sexy Shriya

While Indian public lap up the sexy dances on the screen, in all vulgarity, they somehow do not extend the same benevolence when it comes to seeing their stars in public. A public litigation was filed against Shriya for dressing up obscenely. Shriya had to apologize to pacify the ‘hurt sentiments’ and for defiling the Great Indian Culture. Mallika Sherawat had to face the same music in another episode.

Lost virginity

You can lose your virginity before marriage, but you cannot admit it in the public. When Susmita Sen and Khushboo discussed losing virginity before marriage, it hurt our sentiments badly and we had to berate them and draw them to courts to make them apologize. Our sense of morality coming from our religions is now ready to enter our legal system too!

Ransack artists

Whether it is MF Husain who paints Mother India in nude, or a painter in Vadodara who showcases nudity in art, it draws ire from Indian Hindu religious groups who think it is their karma (duty) to defend the izzat (honor) of this country and its culture. Since there felt they were not alive when Muslim hordes descended upon India, or when British gentry taught Indians civilization, they think they should make up for it, by being ultra-conservative and Victorian now.

MF Husain has fled the country and has refused to come back, because the Indian people and the courts are baying for him.

Sacred Sethusamudram

So according to Indian Hindus, humans existed in India 1.75 Million years ago, stultifying every scientific observation known to man. According to these Indian Hindus, Lord Rama, using sophisticated managerial and taming skills recruited thousands of monkeys, while conversing with a bear, to build a giant bridge from India to Sri Lanka around 1.75 Million years ago.

And that belief is good enough to launch country-wide protests, in the process burning down buses and killing few innocent, and filing petitions in the court, and ridiculing every iota of intelligence found in India.

Very soon, they will be fighting for middle earth as proposed by Tolkien in Lord of Rings.

Heretic Da Vinci Code

Indian Christians saw something more in Da Vinci Code movie than the Christians of the West. While most countries in West allowed this movie to be screened, Indian governments, in their eagerness to satisfy its Christian protestors, went ahead to ban this movie from getting screened.

The funny aspect of this story is that Muslims supported their brothers-in-arm Christians in this ban. One blind fellow showing direction to another blind!

Peevish Sikhs

Just because one of their leaders wore certain attire to impersonate a great guru of the past, the present day Sikhs thought it was such a big insult to their great religion that they had to protest, riot on the streets, all in the name of ‘hurt sentiments’.

The biggest threat

The biggest threat to India is its religions. To start with, we made a mess of the definition of Secularism. Instead of sticking to the original definition of ‘no importance to religion’, we conveniently redefined it as ‘equal importance to all religions’, thus making sure we never keep our state separate from religion.

Most government officials unabashedly follow and practice religious rituals in their official work. The elected leaders go and attend religious festivities and organize events commemorating religious idols, all on official business. Organizations like DRDO start of events based on Hindu astrological predictions followed by Hindu religious rituals. Doling out freebies to different religious groups to gain vote banks is now a ritual in Indian Secularism.

According to Pewglobal.org and as described by Meera Nanda, 92% of Indians believe that ‘religion is very important’ to them, making us the second most-religious country in the world. [We came second only to Senegal which polled 97%. Even countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, and other Islamic nations fared better compared to us].

If this is not enough, Indians also believe that belief in God is an indication of personal morality. 66% of Indians think that ‘it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values’. No wonder our legal system is now quoting from religious books instead of legal books.

Religion is opium of mankind said Karl Marx.

Indians are high on their religious standing. They are intoxicated and inebriated on religious fervor. Most Indians believe their culture is the greatest while other cultures are inferior, again basing it heavily on their religion. India’s institutions, so carefully crafted and installed by our founding fathers during the time of Independence, are slowly crumbling away, eroding to the grand sweeps of religious sentiments. India’s sciences is taking a nosedive, thanks to growing blind belief, superstition and irrationality, again relying heavily on religion. Its political scene is heavily imbued with religious colors, which are now taking the seat of the pilot, driving us into the abyss.

India’s religions are the greatest threat to India and Indians. If we go this path, very soon we will be losing all our rights as citizens. We will be judged by our allegiance to a god and jailed for non-belief in god. Religious morality will replace Indian legality. Gods and goddesses will be our institutions. Sati and untouchability will be sanctions of god to get rid our evils. Tsunamis are not natural disasters, but signs of omen sent by god. Covering our women in from head to toe will be preserving our national honor.

India’s religions are chipping away pillars of this nation – its judicial system, its legislature, and it is eating away all our enshrined values.

Related Topics: 'Our sentiments are hurt', 'Our sentiments continue to hurt' II, India Curbs Freedom of Expression I, India Curbs Freedom of Expression II, MF Husain and nude paintings.