Another article denigrating India and Hinduism has been published in the Independent dated 27 March 2015. Dr. Zareer Masani a ‘ historian and broadcaster’ does the honors this time. He starts with the now familiar breast beating about the banning of India’s Daughter documentary. India banned the documentary because procedures were not followed and a convicted rapist was interviewed while awaiting his sentence. This documentary was a hatchet job depicting India as a world leader in violence against women. The statistics suggest otherwise. The UK has a far bigger problem. The abuse of women and children that has gone on for over two decades has ruined tens of thousands of lives.
Jimmy Seville and many others carried out their depraved activities with impunity while the authorities looked the other way. One wonders why Leslee Udwin did not turn her attention to this unparalleled abuse of the vulnerable women and children in her home country. Zaheer goes on to moan that though the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of expression it forbids anything that might offend religious sensitivities. He recalls reading of a satirical retelling of the Ramayana. In it Lord Rama was depicted as a male chauvinist and Sita succumbing to the charms of Ravana. The author of this book he says was Aubrey Menon who was according to him gay, anglicized and half British. Zareer sheds a special tear for M F Husain. His only crime he says was to depict Hindu goddesses in nude. How intolerant of Hindus he observes.
Would Husain have dared to do such mischief with the revered figures of other religions? Was he not trying to foment violence by his acts and is India not right in banning such so called freedom of expression? Husain gambled on the legendary Hindu tolerance but went a step too far. The author also laments the withdrawing of Wendy Donigers book, ‘ The Hindus: An Alternative History’. This book was full of inaccuracies and a deliberate attempt to denigrate Hinduism. The self righteous, so called secularists are finding it very uncomfortable to come to terms with a more assertive Hindu! Zareer goes on to the rewriting of Indian History. He questions the new version of Indian History which sheds light on the plunder of India first by the Mughals and then by the British.
Zareer would rather Indian’s not learn how the world’s wealthiest nation was reduced to nothing by almost 1000 years of foreign rule. Zareer is also outraged that Hindus are claiming that India was a cradle of Human civilization and that some of the greatest discoveries in many fields of life were made in India. Some of the greatest European philosophers and thinkers have said as much. Attacks on Christian minorities are on the rise and amongst other things women wearing Jeans or carrying cell phones in campuses are targeted according to Zareer. In a country of over a billion people actions of a few individuals are highlighted and magnified as oppression by the Hindus. Hindus do not need any lectures on tolerance. The Parsis, Jews, Bahia’s and many others have found a safe home in India. Converting people by taking advantage of their innocence is what has to stop.
A colossal amount of money comes to India for the purpose of conversion. Zareer ends with a strange conclusion. He says even Narendra Modi did not dare take any punitive action against the BBC for showing India’s Daughter documentary because money may speak louder than words. Can someone remind Zareer that India is one of world’s biggest economies and it is all set to overtake China. It is the Western nations which are keen to get a piece of emerging India’s cake! Sycophancy is rampant amongst India’s secularists, left wing Historians and so called Socialists who in their other avatar are Lords and living in considerable luxury. They get published in national newspapers of Britain and hope that it will hurt India which is like an elephant walking ahead majestically not caring for little obstacles on the way!
Nitin Mehta
28th March 2015
Source: WHN Media Network