hasty eyes, wasting minds!

[venkatesh nayak <venkateshnayak@yahoo.com>]

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Dear all,
This debate on the conversion issue has gone far and
and convered a wide range of issues. Nevertheless I
wish to respond to Parameswar’s rejoinder to my piece
trying to establish the innocence of the RSS in all
those incidents of discrimination which I have cited
in Hindu religious practice.
It is sad that most of us do not have the time to read
carefully what someone bothers to write about. This is
just a carry over of our habits in day to day life
where we do not pay much attention to others when they
talk to us. Instead we assume they have said something
and that needs to be criticised. It does not matter
whether what you think you are criticising may not
have been said or implied by the other person in the
first place. Commentators in cyberspace should realise
that uploading opinions on to the NET is not an
electronic form of masturbation. Cyberspace is a forum
for debate and needs to be taken seriously albeit with
varying degrees of sarcasm and humour permitted.
If one reads through my pieces carefully, any
intelligent person will realise that I accuse the
chaddi brigade of not doing anything about the evils
in Hinduism while crying itself hoarse to other
religions to Indianise and reform. It would be puerile
to hold the RSS responsible for all the evils of the
Hindu way of life. let alone be held accountable for
such evils, the RSS and its brotherly Hindu mafiosi do
not even understand the complexity of evils that
infest the Hindu way of life in their proper
perspective. I have tried to point out this ignorance
or neglect of theirs. when you want others to reform
you should first begin by cleaning your own backyard.
That is what Gandhiji believed, whom the Hindutva
brigade has incorporated into its list of acceptable
national leaders of the past despite the fact that a
person trained by their predecessors assassinated him
on grounds of ideological differences.
If the RSS wants to be the conscience keeper of the
Hindu community it cannot do so by playing the tunes
endearing to the richer classes which support it with
money bags. It must address issues of discrimination-
caste, gender, old age etc. head on and do something
to reform them. Has it been successful in rooting out
the evils of caste system from any one of those
villages or towns where it holds its shakhas
regularly? They have only been successful in vitiating
the local atmosphere by selling inflammatory
ideologies backed by cooked up bits of evidence to
increase their own membership.
Every major newspaper carries matrimonial adverts. of
‘educated’ upper middle class parents looking for
prospective matches belonging to their own castes for
their children everyday. Is this how India will
modernise in the future? If education does not make
you realise the truth that good and eligible grooms
may be found in other castes as well what is the point
of spending so much money on your education? If you
still operate with the belief that caste determines
you capabilities and talents how much have you
progressed since the days of Manu? With such glaring
obscurantist tendencies continuing to infect the Hindu
community  the RSS assumes that all was well with
Hindu society in the past and that the past should
serve as the model for the present. It is only making
a laughing stock of itself before the modern world.
The hindutva brigade cannot get its politics right. It
cannot get its economics straight. It is at a loss for
a credible and practical programme to combat the evils
of globalisation that are plaguing India. It is
surprising that an organisation like the RSS which has
several highly educated people in its think tank
cannot come out with a good alternative to take to the
masses in opposition to the NDA’s economic policies.
Perhaps they do not have the confidence of being able
to rise up to this challenge. Hence the preoccupation
with Hindutva and an atavistic plan of action. Please
reform yourself and think about the Bharat of the
future. You cannot cure social evils by altering the
language of reference of certain terms- Bharat instead
of India or Baharatiya instead of Indian. You cannot
find a solution to inter-community tensions by singing
Vandemataram in a cacophonic style or copelling others
to do so. What you indulge in is tokenism most of the
time and social terrorism at others. Grow up and try
to understand society in its fullness and rich
diversity. It will give you the solutions instead of
you imposing your half-baked ideas on it which only
create more and more dissensions. We cannot afford it
as we cannot afford you.
Jai Hind.
Venkatesh Nayak


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