Civilizational Challenge to Hindu Identity

A Civilizational Challenge to Hindu Identity Deolekar has dared to say things that few have in the past dared to utter for fear of being called communalists. His warning is clear. Do not, in the name of secularism, engage in self- destruction. Has the time come in India to stop naming the Muslim community as a minority? At what percentage level can a community be described as a ‘ minority’? In fact, it is claimed, next to Indonesia, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. According to the 2001 Census, every third person in Assam is a Muslim. Every fourth person in West Bengal and in Kerala is a Muslim. In Uttar Pra ¬ desh in 1991 the districts of Bijnor, Moradabad and Rampur had a Muslim population of as high as 40.34, 48.71 and 47.96 per cent. In six towns in Uttar Pradesh Muslims form the majority. Four of these – Moradabad, Santhal, Amroha and Rampur in 1991 had Muslim population of 55%, 71% and again 71% respectively. The growth of Muslim population in almost all border districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam has created a Muslim belt. The population growth of Muslims in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat where Muslims are educationally and economically better off, according to Madhu Deolekar, author of this reveal ¬ ing book proves that poverty and backwardness are not the real cause of Mus ¬ lim proliferation. Their reluctance to follow family planning is the main reason. In Kerala, Muslim literacy is 89.4%, a little below 90.4 of overall literacy but the growth rate is enormously high at 16%, as against 9% for Kerala as a whole. In Maharashtra, Muslim literacy is 78.1%, higher than the overall literacy of 76.9%. et Muslim population is growing at the rate of 35%. Actually, as Deolekar reports, quoting official figures, contrary to common perception, literacy levels of Muslims is better off than that of Hindus in seven states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. Muslims, besides, own marginally more lands in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The demographic picture of some of the states is very revealing. Out of the 24 districts of Assam, six districts have 60% Muslim population while another six have about 40%. Bangladesh infiltrators have not only intruded into every nook and corner of Assam, but they have already become kingmakers. Hindus, of course, have been literally driven out of Kashmir by jihadi fundamentalists in lakhs. In 1947 the Hindu population in the Valley was 15%. It came down to 5% in 1981. It has been reduced to 0.1% in 1991. Deolekar quotes a professor from Aligarh University as saying: ” Hindus cannot keep us permanently in a minority… the only solution to Muslim problems is the establishment of an Islamic State in India.” Towards that end Muslims from Bangladesh have been steadily infiltrating into India and now they number more than 5 million. In the normal course, Muslim infiltration would not have raised fears in Hindu minds but, according to Deolekar ” the present state of Hindu- Mnslim relations can best be described as precarious, like a lull before a storm” and ” one does not know where and when hostilities will break out in the country”, with Pakistan, especially, planning to unleash large- scale terrorism in India. Deolekar quotes a noted Muslim reformist, Hamid Dalwai on the Hindu and Muslim mindsets, with the Hindu mind being ” essentially individualistic, indeed narcisstic”. Deolekar himself has a lot to say about Hindus, who, he claims, are ” looked down by the world” as cowards. As he put it: ” Some secularists, Human Rights activists and rootless Hindus do not find anything wrong or dangerous in the growing number of people of alien faiths. They entertain a perverted notion that only a minority community has rights to protect their religious identities. The Majority has no such right to protect its age- old culture, identify and interests.” He also quotes an American scholar, David Frawley as saying that “ a defeatist tendency exists in the psyche of modern Indians perhaps unparalleled in any other country today”. Frawley, one suspects understands the psyche of our modern westernised Hindu – the socalled secularist – very thoroughly. The conclusion seems to be that the worst enemies of India are our secular Hindus. The theme of this book is: A civilizational challenge to Hindu identity. Muslims, it would appear, want to remain Muslim, and may one day even become a majority in India. Asks Frawley, and Deolekar agrees: ” Given such a twisted and self- negative national psyche, can there be any hope for the country? At the surface the situation looks dismal. India appears like a nation without nationalism or at least without any national pride or any real connection to its own history”. Our secularists who hate Hinduism who speak derogatively of Hindutva may do well to read this book, it only to understand how others look at them. In a way this book is a wake- up call, correctly titled: ‘ Wake Up Or Perish’. Deolekar has dared to say things that few have in the past dared to utter for fear of being called communalists. His warning is clear. Do not, in the name of secularism, engage in self- destruction. Hinduism has a great role to play. Play it, with pride remembering India’s past glory. Wake Up or Perish: A Civilizational Challenge to Hindu Identity Madhu Deolekar Published by Hindu Voice Pages: 201; Price: Rs 150