By Stephen
Knapp
From the information that has been provided, we can
fairly safely say that since Islam existed only from 622 A.D., the majority of
Muslims in India and Bangladesh today are descendants of captured, mistreated,
or distressed Hindus. A blatant example of this is the story of one Nazir Ali,
which appeared in a Letter to the Editor in the Weekly Organizer (New
Delhi, July 13, 1997). Nazir Ali was a Muslim man who had settled in the United
States. He and his family had been away from India for a long time and invited
his grandfather from Mehrauli (New Delhi) to come to America to get acquainted
with his grandchildren. After the grandfather's arrival, the children would
gather around him in the evening for a nostalgic chat. On one such occasion
Nazir Ali asked his grandfather as to why the male elders in their family
always wore dhotis (the traditional Indian Hindu dress) though
they were Muslims. Thereupon, to Nazir Ali's great consternation and distress,
the old man broke into uncontrollable sobs and tears, and stuttered out the
words, "Beta, how should I tell you? Ours was a Brahmin family owning a
Hanuman temple in Merauli. But 400 years ago as victims of an invading Muslim
army some of our ancestors were slain while some others with sword points
pressed on their throats agreed willy-nilly to survive only as Muslims. But to
keep alive the memory of our Hindu ancestry, our elders made it a rule that all
males should invariably stick to the dhoti."
Hearing the heart-rending account, Nazir Ali was in a
great fix. Like Nazir Ali's ancestors, a number of so-called Muslims continue
to tenaciously stick to tender tokens of their Hindu ancestry, such as
imprinting Ganesh on their wedding invitations, retaining a tiny Bhagavad-gita inside
the Koran, calling in a Hindu priest to apply a bindi to a
bride, and lisping the name of Lord Rama while doing the Namaz (Muslim
prayers). Thus, Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus, some of whom still
hold dear to their hearts their ancient Vedic heritage. In this same line of
thought, we can also point out that most historic buildings and townships credited
to Muslims are captured properties that were once Hindu. In this way, it is
time to recognize the glory of Vedic India and work to preserve it and keep it
the home of Vedic culture.
We must realize, however, there is much that is working
against this from happening. The deterioration of Indian Vedic culture is
rapidly taking place. One thing that is very prominent in causing the
disintegration of Vedic culture is the so-called "secular" nature of
the Indian government leaders over the past several decades. Secular should
mean democratic, in which every religion is protected. However, for the sake of
getting votes and approval, many politicians have pandered to the demands of
Muslims, promoting Islamic interests in India at the expense of the Hindus, Sikhs,
Jains, and others. They have carved up Malabar district just to create the
Muslim majority district of Malappuram. There are states in which the whole
school gets half-a-day off on Fridays to offer Namaz, even if only two students
in a class are Muslim. Yet, for the real progress of Muslims, which depends on
education and modernization, they have done nothing.
Other ways that Vedic principles are being eroded away
can be recognized in the following example: Article 48 of the Indian
Constitution states that, "The state shall take steps for preserving and
improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and
other milch and drought cattle." This should mean a complete ban on the
slaughter of cows, bulls, and calves. Protecting and preserving cows is
definitely a Vedic principle. However, the courts have interpreted this article
to mean that aged and disabled bulls can be slaughtered. Taking advantage of
this loophole, cattle are maimed and "certified" as disabled and then
slaughtered. In the years from 1976 to 1992, beef sale has gone up from 70,000
tons to over 1,100,000 tons. This not only goes against the principles of India
and Vedic culture, but it makes cows more scarce and milk expensive.
Article 44 of the Indian Constitution says: "The
state shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout
the territory of India." This would include a uniform ban on polygamy, but
the Muslims want to be free, and have been, from following such a law. Thus,
Muslim men can easily have several wives. However, such implementation of the
law would provide a greater security for Muslim womanhood, and also prevent
irresponsible Hindu males from converting to Islam simply to have more than one
wife.
To show even further how Congress-trained politicians,
though Hindus themselves, have been following the suicidal policy of curbing
Hindu rights and pampering all kinds of minorities by conferring on them
special privileges can be seen in a special report. This was written by Dr.
Edmund Weber and presented at the fifth International Hindu Conference in
Germany in 1992. Some of the findings are: "The religious minority of
100,000 Ladakhi Buddhists are officially marked as Hindus and they, in contrast
to the over 100,000,000 Indian Muslims, have no right to follow their
traditional marriage law."
"The pseudo-secularism of India is not even today
ready to fulfill the demands of the Hindu democrats to introduce the same civil
code for all their citizens. This mentality has only the mind to maintain
privileges of powerful groups.
"The pseudo-secularism discriminates particularly
the Hindus in the educational area. The education bills are valid only for
them, while the minorities constituted by the state are over privileged, e.g.
they are exempted from all those rules.
"The Tamilnadu Education Acts do show in a special
way (that a) Hindu institution must get permission before starting a school.
Prior permission is not required in the case of minority [Muslim or Christian]
schools.
"Hindu institutions must adopt communal
representation for appointing teachers, i.e. Muslims, Christians, etc., but a
Minority school need not (follow) that rule." This means that Muslim or
Christian schools do not have to provide any Hindu teachers, although the community
may be primarily Hindu. This is how the Vedic culture is disappearing. The most
efficient way to take over a country or change the viewpoint of a population is
to take over all forms of communication and the educational systems. This is
the legal right that has been given by the politicians to the minority groups
in India.
The report goes on: "While every Hindu school must
have a school committee including teachers, Minority schools need not have such
committees.
"The most dangerous kind of blockade against the
renewal of Hinduism is that the great monasteries and temples in India were
forced to have temple committees. . . while pseudo secularism, out of political
opportunism, grants non-Hindu religions full autonomy (over) their holy
buildings and places; e.g. in Kerala a non-Hindu was deliberately (made a)
member of the Guruvayoor temple committee. The nomination was canceled only
after a vehement protest and the non-Hindu member was replaced by a Harijan
[Hindu].
"Those so-called secular governments who do not dare
to interfere in any manner in the management of churches, maqbaras, mazars and
mosques [of the minority groups] make unjustified and most objectionable and
unethical evil attempts to take over control of Hindu Mutts and Mandirs
[temples]."
This is further explained by Dr. Gopalacharya in his
book, World-Wide Hindu Culture (p.v), "The anti-Brahmin
movement started by the cunning policy of the Britishers was followed by the
post independent Indian secular Governments, which made laws to uproot (general
Hindu society) by the tenancy acts enabling the Government to make the temples, maths, and
religious educational institutions lose their lands and other resources for
their maintenance. For want of resources, the above institutions became
defunct. The greatest tragedy was that these laws were not imposed on non-Hindu
religious institutions. As their properties of the religious institutions were
given special facilities, instead to get lump votes, the urgent need of
the majority community is to get all the unjust laws repealed and choose only
those which do justice to all the communities without partiality."
This is very important, otherwise many of these problems
that we have mentioned will only increase. You find these problems today as
when you have colleges run by the Catholic church in India who penalize you
with a fine if you speak your native tongue on their campus. They want English
only because the vernacular languages are associated with "heathen"
deities. Bible and Christian prayers are mandatory at the start of class is
such schools, yet secular government ministers are known to have objected to
including Indianized moral and spiritual education in regular Indian schools.
The Bible can be taught in Christian schools, but to impart moral codes based
on the Upanishads or Puranas in regular
Indian schools becomes highly objectionable.
The same thing goes on with the Muslim schools, only Urdu
is spoken, not native local languages. Thus, such students grow up knowing
Urdu, which assists in directing them to become Muslim converts, if they are
not already Muslim. By also encouraging Muslim principles throughout India,
like allowing Muslim men to have four wives and easy divorces, and have the
government pick up the tab for maintaining them, is a way to break down Vedic
society in India and make it an extension of Pakistan.
This same bias is viewed in other ways as well. Taxes are
collected from Hindu charities but none from Muslim or Christian religious
properties, which are tax-free. Even in West Bengal, the Communist-run
government admits being anti-Hindu and recently pulled down a Shiva temple.
Other government ministers have halted Vedic yajnas, fire rituals,
because they considered it a waste of using ghee. Yet, in order to show their
secular tendency, the same ministers participate in the Muslim Bakrid festival
when many milk-producing cows are slaughtered in the name of religious tenets.
Does this make sense? Personally, I think it is outrageous.
Though Christian churches and Islamic mosques cannot be
touched, Vedic temples are often taken over to be managed by the government.
Then they often appoint members to the board who may be atheists, Communists,
or of different faiths who care little for the well-being of the Vedic temple.
What is worse, they may simply run the temple down, or steal funds meant for
maintaining the temple, or take land and jewels of the Deity that were lovingly
donated by devotees over many centuries. It is in this way that secularism in
India works for upholding Christianity and Islam at the expense of Hinduism.
Even now the wealthy classes in India often prefer to
send their children to schools where English is taught. Unfortunately, many of
the English schools are operated by Christians, in which Christian tenets are
expounded and any regard for Vedic culture and history is ignored. Thus, Indian
children of the wealthy and influential classes grow up with little regard for
their own culture. Meanwhile, children of Muslim countries and schools are
taught strong respect for the Koran and Islamic principles. Thus, Vedic culture
is being lost even willingly in India.
All Hindus and followers of the Vedic culture had better
understand the meaning of the above information and begin to demand changes in
their government in India. They must remove from power all who talk of
secularism at the expense of, or to kill, Hinduism. Annie Besant once said that
India and Hinduism are always connected: One cannot be without the other. India
is India only with the presence of the Vedic culture. If that is not
maintained, then the Vedic motherland of India will no longer be the
motherland. And then Hindus may wake up one day to find that they no longer
have a home.
Although it will take much time to recover from the great
degradations and deterioration that have occurred in Indian society from the
time of the Vedic reign, and it may never fully recover, nonetheless it is time
to bring back the united, peaceful, purposeful, and pious Vedic culture. The
first thing to do is for Hindus to arm themselves with knowledge about their
great World Vedic Heritage. India should make sure that it is a place where the
practicality of Vedic culture is permanently preserved. This culture, properly
called "Sanatana-Dharma," which is the everlasting social
order based on the eternal nature of the soul, refers to the righteous,
enlightened order meant for the impartial and affectionate upliftment of every
individual.
In order for this to take place, the 82% Hindu population
of India must no longer be a timid people who are afraid to give up their
neutralist stand, avoidance of proselytizing, or defending themselves. It is
time to recognize the elements that are working to stifle and push down Vedic
culture. To keep itself from certain death, Hinduism, Sanatana-Dharma,
those of the Vedic culture, must once again enter a phase of self-assertion and
subdue the various forms of intimidation and discrimination in order to assure
that India remains the home of Vedic society.
In India, such governmental discrimination should be
stopped, and everyone should follow one set of laws, not that minorities have
the liberty to set their own laws at the disadvantage of the majority of
Hindus. India has already been broken into parts, such as Bangladesh and
Pakistan, for the sake of separatists. How much more does it need to be broken
up, or broken down, in order to satisfy or calm the minority non-Hindus in
India who refuse to change their ways? All Indians should be made to follow one
set of laws. It is time to draw the limits and set the standard if we are
intent on the survival of Vedic culture. And that time to change is NOW!
