Some religious groups such as Christians and Muslims get reserved spots to top educational institutions regardless of academic performance. Some feel this is not a safe practice for professions such as medical doctors, engineers

By Adity Sharma

The thirst for knowledge is present in each of us from the time we are infants. As we grow and mature, this insatiable curiosity for learning is channeled through educational institutions. Here, we hone our skills, and eventually take up the necessary stations in society.

Swami Vivekananda was one such proponent of education. His thoughts on education can be summed up in the following quote: “Education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man.” Swamiji stressed that education is where a soul free of moral impurities, a healthy physical body, and a mind with tremendous powers of concentration all work in harmony to form character, strengthen the mind, and hone the intellect. He traveled the length and breadth of India in a noble effort to realize this goal.

Swamiji’s teachings on education were profound indeed, and a State with a goal to honestly educate its citizenry can accomplish this task. But what happens when a State prioritizes certain groups over others? The Indian State, in a misguided endeavor to appear secular, drafted the Constitution which unfairly placed certain groups over others in crucial matters of development. Discrimination in several articles of the Constitution still exists. But the article that concerns educational matters is Article 30. ART.30 (1) states: “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.” (1A) of ART.30 goes onto ensure that right by promising minorities a share of property of their choice.

These clauses are not only the antithesis of any remote semblance to secularism, but create a shocking amount of unequal opportunities in acquiring land for educational institutions. The post-partition political establishment was enamored with the idea of secular India, but failed miserably when it came to enacting such lofty aims. Instead, a peculiar trend set in, where successive governments continued to implement the status quo.

So, the upshot is that while minorities bask in State promulgated laws, Hindus received no such privilege. A State, in the true democratic spirit and secular ideals cannot promulgate a corpus of laws that amount to unequal application across religious and linguistic communities.

Not only do such articles in the Indian constitution fail to comport with “fair-play and substantial justice,” but erode the very heart of India’s democratic credentials and its professed commitment to secularism. By placing a stamp of State approval on ART.30, the ruling establishment is not doing secular ideals a favor at all. On the contrary, institutionalizing blatant discriminatory laws only gives rise to one community having privileges at the expense of another, and vexation and resentment from the disadvantaged community.

Scholars such as Dr. Koenraad Elst, have repeatedly addressed this issue in books, articles, and interviews. Many more have expatiated about the discriminations created by ART.30. The debates have raged both online and offline. However it is up to the political establishment to call for a debate in Parliament on this issue.

Since 1949, when the Constitution was officially adopted, no political party has come forth to challenge the very anti-secular character of this article.

But on a positive note, elections are a few months away in India, and the party that proposes a Parliamentary debate on this issue can only bolster true secularism. Perhaps, it would not be too outlandish to suggest, that the party with “Justice to all. Appeasement to none.” as the bedrock of its philosophy, should take the bold first step in tabling ART.30 for an honest rethink.

The author is a student at St. John’s University School of Law in New York. Her writings have appeared on HJS, HVK, Vijayvaani, Beliefnet, and Counterpunch.

Time for Indians to Reflect

(CHAKRA) To The People of India, Greetings, I address you collectively as a nation, as nation builders, and as individuals capable of rationale and reasoning.

As human beings we are endowed with an enhanced intellectual faculty, which is really the only thing that confers us a distinct position in the animal kingdom. Genetically, we are 99% similar to chimps, but that 1% sets us apart. This difference manifests itself in a very special place- the human mind.

Our choices define us, and it is the mind where all choices are made. In the mind alone, transformations that shape the external world are first conceived before being put into action. Indeed, it is a powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, we have been shirking our responsibilities for a long time now.

Today, we live in an age of social crisis. The trouble isn’t lack of intelligence or some debility; rather it is the lack of knowledge, and the subsequent inaction on our part that follows. Without knowledge, we cannot make informed decisions- crucial decisions that shape our future, and that of our nation.

A region having seismic fault-lines is most prone to geological disturbances- more commonly known as earthquakes. India too is replete with its own fault-lines, but on the political, educational, cultural, social, economic and intellectual fronts. These fault lines disintegrate the country from within, making it susceptible to exploitation in one form or another. I cannot possibly address all of the issues here- that would require a voluminous tome, not an essay. I will however give a bird’s eye view of it, touching upon the general ideas, providing the impetus to do your own subsequent research where required.

Time and time again we hear about “India rising”; sweeping remarks about its financial success, or last year’s GDP growth, at par with- at times even overtaking- China. In short, we hear only about the things that make us feel good as a nation, seldom do you hear about what goes about behind the scenes; the foreign and domestic forces at hand in demolishing the national structure, one day at a time, one unit at a time. These keenly neglected newsreels are precisely what we will present here, but first a brief history lesson.

LOOKING BACK IN TIME:

The Hindu/Indian culture was the cradle of advanced civilization. Everything flourished in this ancient land- Philosophy, Mathematics, Science, Literature, Commerce, Arts, Yoga, Ayurveda, Architecture, Governance, Logic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medicine- you name it, we had it. We even came up with the same postulates of Pythagorus’ theorem before he did, presented in Vedic scriptures, detailing the size and shapes of yajna altars. Thus the cornerstone of every great thought found its epicenter in India.

Being a highly evolved and peace-loving culture, we knew the value of our values. We gave birth to some of the most profound luminaries that walked this earth:- Vyasa, Vashishta, Adi Shankaracharya, Mahavira, Buddha, Valmiki, to name a few, and an endless, unbroken lineage of enlightened Acharyas in this Guru-Shishya Parampara (student-teacher tradition). Then things went awry.

When the Islamic invaders attacked India, there was large scale cultural dishevelment. Wealth was plundered, women were defiled, ancient religions were displaced, and scores of temples were demolished. It would be fitting to term the Mughals- perhaps with the exception of Akbar- as less of rulers and more of barbarians. Long lapses of time make us routinely forget that first it was Babar, who destroyed the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, creating an long-standing legacy of temple destruction throughout erstwhile India, which ended only with the demise of the last Mughul ruler, the ruthless Aurangzeb. Thus India underwent a painful transformation from being the most prolific producers and inventors, to passive ones, because we had to direct our minds and resources toward resisting the onslaught.

The next blow came from the Europeans, when they landed ashore under the pretext of trade. We did not them for an extended stay-back to sample more of our curry dishes- they invaded us. Already weakened by the Mughuls, and thus falling technologically behind, we did not put up much of a challenge to the British, and were once again at the mercy of another foreign power.

It is a well recognized fact that India was the world’s economic superpower for the most part of recorded history. However, due to the Islamic and British invasions, contrasted by the Industrial revolution hitting Europe, India fell behind in the GDP race in the early 19th century, and we never again regained our lost position again

It is crucial to note that in spite of our numerous successes, Indians never set out to conquer other nations, we have always been self sustaining and self satisfied. Even with the outsiders who ruled us, we tried to form amicable relationships, allowing them to assimilate into our way of living, despite their best attempts to extricate us from our own. It is in our cultural DNA to always be accommodating, and therein lies the greatness of our Hindu/Indian culture.

The Hindu-Jewish Summit was held in New Delhi, in 2010. The Jewish Rabbis graciously admitted that the Hindus alone gave them shelter when they were chased into exile by everyone else. Whether it was being ousted from their homeland by the Muslims in Arabia, the anti-Semitist movements of the Christians, or facing the holocaust at the hands of the Nazi regime; Jews have faced a long history of persecution. It is in India where they found their long awaited peace.

The same applied for Parsis- the Zoroastrians now integrated in India. Like the Jews, they too were harassed away from their native Persia by the Arabic Muslims, and thus made their way into the Hindu/Indian culture upon their arrival at Gujarat, into which they were peacefully assimilated.

A NEED FOR INTEGRATION OF CULTURES:

Today, India is a potpourri of many world religions, but it is fast losing its culture due to many eroding factors which we will explore. As we made abundantly clear above, historically, it is the Hindu/Indigenous culture alone that has allowed for the peaceful integration of people in our nation. The cultures associated with the major western religions- with all due respect- do not allow for this plurality in India, as they wish for others to do and believe in the same things that they do.

A sparkling example of this is Dr.Zakir Naik. If you have seen him on television or ‘Youtube’, you would know exactly what I mean. For those who haven’t, he is Islam’s answer to Televangelists, performing his theatrical antics on stage believing that the public is comprised of incompetents. Unfortunately that is true, as most of his audience consist of yes-men. The same applies to Christian Missionaries in India, whose primary motive for the most part is to convert the nation to their faith. That will be further discussed as we proceed.

Pre-Independence, Hindus and Muslims co-existed side-by-side in relative peace, until the seeds of divisiveness had been planted into the Indian soil by the colonizers. Almost all Muslims living in India are converts, and culturally are still very much Indian, but today they are being led astray with the solid influence of figures living in the Arab world, and their dialectics are contrary; even antagonistic to the Indian culture. Over time, those figures are transforming the psyche of Indian Muslims to that of the Arabic world. This breaks the nation from within.

Similarly, the Christian Missionaries who “work” in India are trying to mould India from a very Western angle and that has been causing a lot of friction in rural villages, which is responsible for scores of families falling apart.

In India, family has been the most important social unit, and these domestically implanted “push factors” coupled with foreign influenced “pull factors” are causing massive damage to the social structure of India.

The Hindu religion on the other hand does not require its followers to convert anybody; it prescribes a way of living for the adherents alone, and for no one else. We neither wish to be converted nor are we looking to convert, which is what makes the associated Hindu/Indian culture the most pluralistic and accommodating of all.

As a Hindu, one has no personal restrictions against entering a Church or a Mosque, just as freely as he worships in his own temple, but today it is some fundamentalist sitting in the Middle-East, who determines what Indian Muslims should and should not do.

Let me be very clear here. Adopting a Hindu culture does not mean one needs to adopt the Hindu religion, one can practice their own faith, just as the Jews, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and the Vedic followers have merged seamlessly into a unified Hindu/Indian culture, and quite successfully too. This alone can save our country from internal fragmenting.

Our Ex- President Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam serves as a perfect example of this. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that he has been one of the greatest modern contributors to our national structure, and in his capacity has done more for the nation than credited for. His interest at heart has always been India, and despite being born in a Muslim family, he has shown no hesitation in appreciating his Indian roots.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, it only makes perfect sense that those living in India follow the same principle, without having to give up their religious beliefs and practices. Thus we see that adopting an indigenous culture alone can stop the country from the internal fragmentation envisioned by divisive forces.

In this kind of unity alone lies strength. No one loses their identity; they simply become part of a greater Indian story.

UNDERSTANDING PSEUDO-SECULARISM:

When an organization or entity, in their pretentious bid to be overly secular, behaves in a totally un-secular fashion, this behaviour is termed as ‘Pseudo-Secularism’. When such pseudo-secularism is put into practice, the ones who primarily suffer are the majority inhabitants of the country; in our case, Hindus.

A functioning democracy should reflect the interest of the people, providing equal rights to all and sundry.  As we will discover, the major institutions in our country such as the government, media and educational system are severely crippling the nation through their non-secular practices. Let’s take them on one by one.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE GOVERNMENT:

Sonia Gandhi, born in Italy, under the name Edvige Antonia Albina Maino, and the rest of the Congress Party have time and again proven that their governance is detrimental to the development of our nation.

It is entirely frightening that in a country of nearly 1.2 billion people, most are oblivious to the facts surrounding the people they elect to power.

Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has collected plenty of incriminating evidence against the Congress officials on many counts, yet the proceedings are moving at a snail’s pace. It would appear that some are in fervent hope of outliving the prosecutor. The media too has unnecessarily been giving him a hard time, despite his efforts to expose corrupt individuals in power. The supporting evidences for Dr. Swamy’s claims are up for display on his website. You may draw your own conclusions from the same.

I can understand that we didn’t really have that much of a choice thwarting the British; what’s done is done, but honestly, must we make the same mistake with the Italian born as well? We need to wean off this colonized mentality and learn to elect one of our own; someone who understands the nation better, someone who is interested in its well being, and someone who can effectively govern it.

Trivia: The family name, ‘Gandhi’, has merely been adopted to play to the sentiments of the masses; sadly it worked. The lesser said about Mrs. Gandhi’s not-so- illustrious child, Rahul Gandhi, the better. One may also want to do some inquiry into what his real name is, as the family has a long history of adopting names that resonate well with the public.

Dressed in white, smiling and waving at the camera does not qualify one to run a nation of 120 crore people, competence does. On all counts, the Gandhi scion is unfit to bear this impending responsibility. It would be a shame to see him as our next Prime Minister in the 2014 General Elections.

MINORITY APPEASEMENT:

Now, the Congress Government partakes in an activity called ‘Minority Appeasement’, which you may consider one of the package deals under the provisions of Pseudo-Secularism.

Here is how and why it works to their advantage, and this will directly tie in to the need for Hindus to be more organized socio-culturally and politically.

In the process of Minority Appeasement, the Government will be extra nice to the Muslim and Christian populace, but they will conveniently ignore other minorities such as Sikhs, Jews, Jains etc. The reason is very simple. Muslims and Christians in India are highly organized in their joint decision making strategies. There is a very high level of agreement amongst them; hence if you can win the confidence of a few, you win them all. That is why an overwhelming majority of Muslims and Christians will vote for Congress alone, which is the reason they are appeased in the first place.

In the case of Hindus, our votes are divided. We cannot reach consensus even over regional MLAs- let alone electing a National Government. This is the reason why the Government must stoop to the level of Minority Appeasement, because the minorities are highly homogenized in their collective decisions. They have no reason to be nice to Hindus; hence the Hindus lie at the suffering end. This absolute lack of socio-political unity among Hindus is the main cause for anti-Hindu parties running the country.

Even Church and Mosque funds are mainly handled by their respective autonomous religious institutions, but when it comes to Temple funds, for some reason the Government often wants to interfere and take control.

Year 2011 presented a shameful incident regarding the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. It is a matter of pride that the members of the Travancore Royal Family were the caretakers of an estimated US$26.76 billion; not having used it for themselves, and a matter of shame that the State Government wished to manage this fund.

For a very long time, Indian Muslims were being provided a Haj subsidy by the government to go to Mecca. In 2007 the government spent Rs. 47,454 per passenger. In December, 2011, Christians were accorded a subsidy to pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was only after much struggle that the Tamil Nadu Government extended the same rights to Hindus to visit Mansarovar.

United we stand, divided we fall. As Hindus, our lack of consensus on issues is one of the primary reasons for our downfall as a nation.

I once read a joke on the internet: “The second stupidest thing America did was elect Bush as President, but the stupidest thing they did was elect him again.” I sincerely hope our nation does not make the same mistake with the present Government, because if it does, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves. As the saying goes, “fool me once; shame on you, fool me twice; shame on me”.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM:

Educational centers are the most important places to begin shaping our understanding of the world. What we learn in school and college is often what we develop a life-long affinity for.

When you infect the educational system, you are infecting minds; not one, but many. It spreads like an epidemic. Horizontally; it grows by infecting the contemporary population, and vertically; through the generations of culturally deprived children.

It should not come across as much of a surprise, that a large portion of our school and college syllabus is patterned after Western thought, but before I get into that I’d like to point out a fundamental flaw in the modern Indian Education System.

In ancient times, there was equal emphasis on the sciences as well as cultural ethos. Sanskrit Literature abounds with rigorous treatises on logic which would make the Greek philosophers look juvenile in comparison. For sampling purposes, please study one of our Nyaya Shastras. On the other hand, our texts also painted a gentler, more picturesque view of life. The ancients understood the importance of striking this balance and with good reason too.

The brain is divided into hemispheres; the left and the right. The right side is concerned with aesthetics, languages, emotions, intuition, empathy, self image, inter-personal relationships, and a holistic appreciation of things. The left side deals with logic, analysis, objectivity, goals, and is detail oriented. Too much of right with very little left would leave behind a sentimental wreck; irrational and lacking objectivity. Too much of left with little right would give rise to an automaton; a flesh and blood robot with no sentiments or appreciation of the finer side of life. Neither one of these individuals is socially fit.

A well developed person is adequately developed in both hemispheres. He caters to both his emotional and analytical needs as and when required. Unfortunately, our educational system is primarily focused only on the left, turning children into mechanical zombies before every exam, giving no chance to develop their creative side. Parents and teachers need to address this problem. The formative years of children are their school going years, and will vastly determine their future personality.

As the decades pass, we are giving lesser importance to value education and appreciation of Indian culture. The Board of Education needs to recognize this problem, and focus on finding a way to incorporate cultural activities into their education.

Introducing Indian dance forms such as Bharat Natyam, Oddisi, Kuchchipudi, Kathak etc- depending on the State you hail from; Yoga, for a sound mind and body as part of Physical Education, and Carnatic and Hindustani Sangeet, are good steps to take.

These need to find their way into the lives of children. If you are a parent concerned about negative influences on your little ones, try enrolling them into these Indo-cultural activities and mark the difference for yourselves. Even if the schools do not offer them, find a nearby cultural center for Indian arts; every major city in India has at least a few.

Small efforts on your part will turn them into well rounded children, and that can only happen if they are familiar with their cultural ethos.

PRESERVATION OF SANSKRIT:

For several reasons, attempts to bury Sanskrit as a language have been made. One of the primary reasons being that the majority of Hindu literature and scriptures have been written in Sanskrit, so when the language dies, automatically there are fewer people taking interest in these ancient works, so the associated religion and culture start dying along with it, leaving plenty of room for those with ulterior motives to take advantage of this situation.

If there exists an option between Sanskrit and a foreign language offered in school, opt for Sanskrit. It is only the pseudo-secular mentality in our heads that we feel something “foreign” is better, or “cooler”- well it isn’t, nor is it going to impress anyone. It is simply an idea that has been fed to us for a very long time, which we have digested quite successfully.

The good news is that Sanskrit is not a dead language yet. The bad news is it will be if you allow it to happen. Please don’t. We should be just as proud of it as we are of English. It is an important part of your heritage, and its preservation lies in your hands.

MARXIST CURRICULUM:

Every country having a rich and varied heritage would be proud of it. It is disparaging that in spite of living in the land of the Ramayana and Mahabharata; two of the lengthiest and culturally meaningful historical epics, they do not find their way into the school curriculum despite having some very good English translations, yet we find mention of Shakespeare, Gilgamesh and Rumi. Furthermore, we learn tales from Aesop’s Fables, for “Value Education”, but not beautiful ones from the Puranas or Panchatantra.

To illustrate, there is a story in the Puranas, where Ganesha and his brother Karthikeya decide to have a race to see who can go around the world the quickest. Karthikeya sets off like a bolt of lightning, while Ganesha slowly encircles his parents- Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati- 3 times before Karthikeya returns. Ganesha states that his parents mean the world to him, and is declared the winner.

This is what India is about; there is so much to learn from these little stories. It is painfully evident that however good things are, Pseudo-Secularism will always undermine the greatness of our culture.

Dance and music in India have always been hinged on devotion to the Lord, one cannot separate the means from the end, yet we find just that happening. In Kalakshetra, a renowned fine arts school in India, most Ganesha images on which (as per tradition) pooja would be performed, were removed in an attempt to be a more secular.

It gets even worse at University level; pointedly in the case of Liberal Arts majors. Now their entire syllabus not only ignores Hindu Literature, but is often antagonistic to it. Once again, it is very becoming of them to read philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Marx, Descartes and other Westerners, but not any Indian school of philosophical thought such as Vedanta, Tarka, Nyaya, Sankhya, Vaisheshika and etc. If they do happen to read ancient Indian texts, many do so only with a critical eye, not with the reverence that they were intended for, and how can they, when their schools did not provide them any appreciation of these texts via culture based value education? So they end up writing acidic papers on the Hindu culture in the light of their warped understanding of contexts and perspectives.

In summary, you have little kids that have grown up, all ready to be sent off to college, still traditionally impoverished in their thought process. Then due to their inadequate supplementary education, they set themselves up for more more-of-the-same, and get sucked right into the game of rebelling against their own culture, scoring self goal after another. It is truly a no-win situation for them.

These sadly misplaced students find their way into popular media by becoming Journalists, News Reporters, Authors, Historians, Social workers or Western styled Lobbyists. Several of them take up teaching positions, and they teach their students the same things that they had been taught. Thus the vicious circle completes itself, with another generation getting ready for the same treatment. It should be noted that there are still a few exceptional people that I appreciate in each of these disciplines cited above, who do have their understanding in right place; however the general trend is still downhill.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE MEDIA:

As mentioned, some of the graduating batches of pseudo-secular individuals are likely to pick careers in media/broadcasting, and here is where they wreak wide-spread havoc.

Already steeped in Marxist thought, having only a perfunctory academic knowledge of Indian tradition, and completely removed from our cultural ethos, these media men and women think they understand what is good for India better than many Indians who have fortunately not undergone such a cultural alienation as them.

So far we uncovered the mechanism at work, but who is pushing the buttons? As a common civilian lacking access to inside information, I will refrain from making any statements I cannot fully substantiate, so as an exercise, I do encourage typing the phrase ‘Who Owns the Indian Media’, and performing an internet search on it, from which you can draw your own conclusions.

It isn’t surprising that the vocabulary of some media personalities is replete with mocking adjectives for Hindus taking up some prominent public position; be it a Swami or a Politician. In other words, it is okay if you are a devout Christian or a Muslim, and taking part in politics, but if you are a Hindu, you are automatically associated with one or more of the following terms: “God-men”, “saffron brigade”, “fundamentalist”, “Right-winged terrorist”, “communal’ and more.

There are deviants found everywhere, but for every scandal one can associate a Hindu figure with, ten or more scandals could be pointed out connected to the Church. Would the Indian Media dare extend the same disrespect to Christian Clerics or Muslim Imams, as they do towards Swamis? Not by a long shot.

Another favorite pass-time of the Media is R.S.S. (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) bashing. We have all heard it on television and read it in the papers; the media spends more time dogging after R.S.S. than it does chastising real terrorist organizations.

However not everyone is that biased, here is what a former SC Judge, K.T. Thomas, has to say:

“There is a smear campaign that RSS was responsible for Gandhi’s assassination just because the assassin was once an RSS worker,” he said, adding that the organisation had been “completely exonerated” by the court. “This smear campaign must end against RSS,” he said.

“I am a Christian. I was born as a Christian and practise that religion. I am a church-going Christian. But I have also learnt many things about RSS,” he said.

“During the Emergency, RSS was the only non-political organisation which fought against it, he said. “We owe very much to RSS for sacrificing many lives for regaining our fundamental rights,” said Thomas.

That should put the matter at rest. Plenty more could be said about the media, but this gives the general idea.

Read PART 2: Open Letter to India: A Call to Action

By Prashant Parikh