Will Hindus Become Extinct?

[Guest guest]

Are the Hindus Destined to Become an Extinct Race?

By Ishani Chowdhury

In the

Spring of 2000, the democratically elected Fijian government led by Prime

Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was held hostage by a guerrilla group, headed

by George Speight. They were demanding a segregated state exclusively for

the native Fijians, thereby legally abolishing any rights the Indian

inhabitants have now. Port Louis, Mauritius witnessed three days of

racial violence in February 1999, when popular reggae singer Kaya died in

police custody. Riots quickly developed along racial lines with black

Creoles attacking Hindus. Police stations housing terrified Hindus were

not spared. Likewise, Northeast India has witnessed a surge of nearly

200% in their Christian population in the past 25 years due to the wily

tactics of foreign missionaries. So strong is their grasp there

that practicing Hinduism is forbidden in these areas. Durga puja has

become almost obsolete as deities are destroyed or stolen in broad

daylight. This confrontational climate has led to numerous militant

outfits, sponsored by the Church, who are fighting for secession from

India.

Every minute of everyday an innocent Hindu is attacked solely because of

his faith. It is absolutely heart-wrenching to see that being Hindu gives

almost everyone the right to automatically verbally and physically abuse

us. Have we taken ahimsa to such an extreme that merely standing

up for one’s own rights has become a dreadful thought? It is a sad fact

to say that while Southern Baptists are openly calling for the conversion

of ‘heathen’ Hindus, that the vast majority of us sit quietly in our

fancy homes and luxury cars falsely reassuring ourselves that ‘they do

not mean me.’ But indeed they do, and it is happening every minute

of everyday in almost every country in the world where we live. So

pathetic is the present situation that not only are we being abused and

terrorized by the minorities in our own country, but by the majority

population in the lands where we live abroad. Indeed we can distinctly go

down in history as the most cowardice race that has ever lived.

This long

tradition of having a slave mentality started thousands of years ago.

History has been witness to the numerous onslaughts that we have suffered

not only due to disunity, but also to our selfish interests. Even the

prior knowledge of Alexander’s conquest did not stop many Hindu kingdoms

from willing joining hands with him. This led to the successful expansion

of Alexander’s empire. Even after Alexander’s death, many kingdoms, such

as that of Raja Parvataka’s Keykai, chose to remain a lackey to the Greek

governor appointed to the region. It was only one brave man who came

forward to set India free. It was the passion in Chanakya’s heart that

led him to form the great Mauryan Empire an empire, which brought

together the many small, fragmented kingdoms. For the first time it was

demonstrated how one man could stir a person’s soul and become a force to

reckon with.

But history has played a cruel joke, for the Mauryan Empire lasted but a

short time, and so by the seventh century AD, we became the targets of

another set of tyrannical conquerors - the Muslims. For eight hundred

years we watched as our women were raped, our treasure house of books

burned (including the world-renowned Taxila and Nalanda university

libraries), our temples destroyed, our people sold as slaves to Middle

Eastern countries, and killed or forcibly converted. At that time very

few Hindus, if any, chose to rise. Instead, we were too busy being a

traitor to our own people and becoming a foot-boy for the king. The

Koran, with the countless verses calling for jihad against the

‘infidels,’ became a weapon for every Muslim ruler from Mahmud of Ghazni

to Tipu Sultan. So poisonous is the Islamic creed that having a Hindu

lineage did not even matter as was the case with Jehangir, son of

Akbar and his Hindu wife, Jodabai.

By the

arrival of the Portuguese and the British, much of Gandhara (present-day

Afghanistan) and Western India (present-day Pakistan) was demographically

lost to the Muslims. The terrible pogrom known as the Goan Inquisition

led to the forcible conversion of Hindus to Christianity and the

large-scale confiscation of ancestral property. Scores of temples were

demolished and churches built in their place. To add insult to injury,

one of the greatest so-called "saints", Francis Xavier,

feverishly declared “When all are baptized, I order all temples of their

false gods destroyed and idols broken into pieces. I can give you no idea

of the joy I feel seeing this done.”1 With the cross in one

hand and the sword in the other, these European forces went about

annihilating Hindus, so much so that we have now lost about 35% of our

Goan brothers to Christianity.

The

British drained us of our wealth and left us crippled in 1947. The

rising, violent Muslim demand for the separate homeland led to the

vivisection of one-third of India. As Gandhi was preaching

“shanti, shanti,” Muslims perpetrated the most heinous

pogrom remembered in partition history the Noakhali Danga. There is

not one family in India that has not seen or suffered the brunt of

partition. Gandhi did not do much or say much when his fellow Hindus were

being hounded like prey instead he accusingly stressed to us that

we be kind and considerate to our ‘gentle’ Muslim brethren. One cowardice

act led to another, as Nehru created our problem of Kashmir and chanted

“Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai” while the Chinese were attacking Arunachal

Pradesh. By this act, we have lost a large portion of our land to yet

another set of modern invaders.

In 1971,

while troops under Indira Gandhi’s direction liberated Bangladesh

it turned a blind eye to the nearly three million Hindus killed by the

Pakistani army and the ten million refugees that flooded the border. She

willingly fed, sheltered and handed over 90,000 captured Pakistani

troops. Inconsiderate of the fact that we lost hundreds of our soldiers

in the front line, she returned to Pakistan a portion of POK (Pakistan

Occupied Kashmir) that we managed to re-capture from them. Is this the

way one treats one's enemy? Certainly let us not forget Kargil, when

bodies of Indian troops were found butchered, their genitals severed,

tongues cut and eyes gouged out. This scene takes you back to the

medieval days when Muslim kings would not only kill their own relatives

for power, but use these same exact means to slowly torture them to

death. Indeed, the injunctions of the Koran are followed even in this

most advanced day and age. And what does our beloved India do after

seeing the condition of these unfortunate Kargil martyrs? Exactly what

she did over eight hundred years ago absolutely nothing!

Our

government has become a lackey for the minority population just

begging to appease them at any instance they get, even if it may be an

unreasonable, outrageous demand. But what has happened to the 85% of the

population who are Hindus, do our votes not count? Apparently not. And

how is it that our most ‘loyal’ civil servants are feeling this way? It

is simple, because we ourselves do not care what is happening, so why

should they?

The fault lies not with ministers, governors or the Prime Minister

it lies solely with us. We are the people, and the voice of power. If we

are weak why should they even bother? But, if 12% of the

population, the Muslims, scream and shout they win the battle, as

well as the war. While the rest of the world’s democratic, secular

countries only allow for one man to marry one woman, India has

given Muslims the special privilege of marrying up to four wives,

not to mention alimony for only three months. Even the Supreme Court did

not have a say when Rajiv Gandhi overturned their verdict in the Shah

Bano case, and instead enacted a law making sure that the court finds no

scope of jurisdiction in the matters of Muslim marriage, divorce, etc. in

the future.

Minority

institutions, namely churches, madrasas (Islamic schools), etc.,

in India receive special funding from the government. Likewise,

minorities also receive subsidies on pilgrimages, such as

the hajj. Yet there is no such facility for Hindus even

though we have become a minority in six states in India.

Millions

of Kashmiri Hindus have been driven from their ancestral land and are

living a dismal life is squatter camps yet not one government

minister is doing anything to address the situation. Sixty ancient

temples were destroyed in 1992, but no one said a word. Hindu marriage

parties and neighborhoods are singled out and attacked, even children as

young as eight are not spared and our papers remain silent. We have

become refugees in our own homeland.2

We

are not second class, but third class citizens in our own country.

Documented numerous times, Christian missionaries are openly calling our

devas ‘shaitans,’ compelling tribal converts to illegally

confiscate land for building churches, urinating on deities, forcing

marriages of Christian girls to Hindu boys (so as to make the

‘nonbeliever’ a convert) and pressuring converts to force family members

to embrace Christianity.3 SIMI, the Students Islamic Movement

of India has declared an open jihad against Hindus. Posters being

circulated include one that exhorts young Muslim boys to follow the

teachings of Islam passionately and trample upon those who are

kaafirs (non-believers in Islam).4

If

tribal Christians pelt stones at Hindus and we retaliate we are

blamed. If Christians and Muslims openly slander our devas, it is

considered natural, but if we try to defend ourselves or retaliate in

kind, we are considered communal. It has come to the point where even

saying that one is Hindu is a shameful thing. Many organizations are

aghast at the thought of putting the sacred Om on booklets, or

rush through pujas so as not the risk losing the audience. We have

successfully demeaned and cheapened our religion to such an extent that

images of deities are sold on shoes and goddesses are drawn naked. Has

Hinduism become so much of joke that Christians and Muslims find it so

easy to ‘buy’ a Hindu convert? How can a few saris induce one into

discarding his ancestral faith? Why are millions of Hindus fleeing

Bangladesh is it because the rest of the Hindus can not help or

stand behind them? Has Chanakya’s dream of a united Hindu nation become a

mockery?

While

India is a total failure in protecting the Hindu population case in

point: Kashmir, the Northeast, the border districts of West Bengal

Hindus in other countries are not that well off either. According to the

Fijian constitution, Indians can not own land, and Parlimentary seats are

not allocated as per normal democratic means. On July 27, 2000 two

hundred terrified Indians were rounded up and held hostage by George

Speight’s supporters. Even at 44% of the population we can not do a

thing and the Indian government does not say a thing.

Fifty

thousand Hindus in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh were killed in 1964 when

a holy relic from a mosque was stolen in Kashmir. In 1992, three thousand

Hindu temples were destroyed and thousands of Hindus killed in religious

riots in Bangladesh. This is not something new. “There were riots East

Pakistan almost every year, and severe killings in 1944, 1947, 1950,

1954, 1958, 1960 and 1963” states S.K. Bhattacharya in Genocide in

East Pakistan/Bangladesh. Added to the long list of mass attacks is

the daily harassment of Hindus. The Dhaka newspaper Sangabad

reported on September 24, 1989, the story of Ms. Birajabala Debnath of

Niradabad. She became a widow after her husband was murdered because he

refused to give up his land to his Muslim neighbor. Then she and her five

children were abducted in the middle of the night and murdered. Amnesty

International’s 1996 report details the attack on innocent Hindu students

at Dhaka University’s Jagganatha Hall. Seven hundred law enforcement

personnel raided the University’s only Hindu hall firing tear-gas,

stealing valuables and raping and beating students. The three hour raid

saw hundreds of deaths and injuries.5

There

have been legal assaults against the Hindus by the Bangladesh government

as well, most especially the Vested Property Act, formally called the

“Enemy Property Act.” It allows for the lands of a person who has fled

the country to be seized and redistributed. In 1989, Bangla Land Minister

Sunil Gupta stated that between 1984-1989 700,000 acres of land was

confiscated from the Hindus, plus thousands of homes, shops, ponds, etc.

The Bangladesh government is totally nonchalant about this and other

incidents. It can be safely said that the government is indeed playing a

major role in systematically exterminating the few remaining Hindus. Even

as early as 1971, the new Bangladesh government chose to turn a blind eye

to the incidents that were happening around them. The Ramna Kali Bari in

Dhaka, hundreds of years old, was shelled by the Pakistani Army and the

new Bangladesh government confiscated the land, bulldozed the remains and

turned the 66-acre area into a park. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik

Hasina goes one step further to say “Bangladeshi Hindus have one foot in

India and other in Bangladesh” and asked, given the divided loyalty, what

should they expect and how much the local Muslims will listen to her

government. It seems as though Sheik Hasina is suffering from an acute

case of amnesia as it was her family that the Indian government saved

from the hands of a military coup and the assassination of her father in

1975. Indeed the Koran’s injunction of not trusting a non-Muslim, as

stated in 4:144 of the chapter entitled An-Nisa (Women): “O ye who

believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye

wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?” is followed to

this day.

Bangladesh

has indeed followed in Pakistan’s footsteps of exterminating Hindus.

Pakistan’s Hindu population, once numbering 15% has been reduced to about

1%. In a recent Indian Express article, the remaining few are

adopting Christian names so as to escape persecution by the

Muslims.6 India Today’s November 8th article

details the life of Pakistani Hindus who are crossing the border to

settle in India all due to sustained harassment by

Muslims.7 Bangladesh has successfully driven its once 35%

Hindu population at partition to a mere 10% now. Conceivably, by 2050

Bangladesh will achieve the status of Pakistan: no significant Hindu

population.

Nepal, the

only Hindu kingdom in the world, has not escaped either. The Christian

population, which was almost nil in 1960, has increased by leaps and

bounds. Billions of dollars have been pumped in for conversion

activities. Christians are asking everyone, via the Internet, to save the

‘lost Hindu’ souls of Nepal. Islamic madrasas are cropping up in

the border districts. The Muslim population of 2.5% in 1981 has increased

to 3.5% in ten years. In December 1998, Muslims held rallies in Janakpur,

Sita’s birthplace, calling for the conversion of Nepal to an Islamic

state. It is indeed apt to ask if Nepal, in effect is a Hindu

state.8

While

Americans are displaying pictures of Sri Krishna in gay magazines and

branding the images of our deities on lunch boxes and t-shirts, half-way

around the world Hindus are losing their lives to Christian and Muslim

fanatics. What is the use of organizing massive conferences detailing our

past history when we are losing our future every single minute? Can such

conferences save our fellow Hindus from the wrath of Abrahamic radicals?

How many of the world’s one billion Hindus protested when 25 Hindus were

massacred in Kashmir?9 Compare this with the immense Hindu

response that was given when one bamboo church was burned in the Dangs.

Are Hindu lives that dispensable? The Kurds, a people without a homeland,

rocked the world with simultaneous protests when their leader was handed

over by Greece to Turkey. But the Hindus remained silent when in 1997

50,000 Reang tribals fled Mizoram -- in fear of the Catholic spree of

looting, burning, raping and killing. We are blissfully ignoring Sri

Krishna’s message to Arjuna: to fight adharma wherever it may be.

It can

safely be said that not only are we the most cowardice race that has ever

lived, but also the most selfish one. Sending our children to Ivy League

colleges can not wash away their Indian features or the Hindu heritage.

We are doomed to be confined to the exhibits of a museum to be gawked at

by curious onlookers, for many of whom we are ancestors.

Let us

remember Swami Vivekananda’s words regarding conversions: “And then every

man going out of the Hindu pale is not a man less, but an enemy more.” At

the same time, let heed his warning: “Religion and religion alone is the

life of India, and when that goes, India will die, in spite of politics,

in spite of social reforms, in spite of Kubera’s wealth poured upon the

head of every one of her children.” 10

Footnotes:

1 E Sa, Mario Carbel, Is the March Over?, Hinduism

Today, October 1997, p.49;

2 Ahmed, Mukhtar, Pandits start to trickle out of Kashmir,

Rediff on the Net, March 14, 2000;

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/mar/14jk1.htm

`

3 Alleged assault on boys for refusing to convert, The

Times of India, February 4, 2000;

 

http://www.timesofindia.com/040200/04indi1.htm

11 NLFT rebels shot dead by Bangladeshi troops, India

Today, June 18, 2000;

 

http://www.india-today.com/ntoday/newsarchives/100/6/18/n24.shtml

 

Goel, Sita Ram, Pseudo-Secularism, Christian Missions and Hindu

Resistance, Voice of

India, 1998;

Shourie, Arun, Missionaries In India: Continuities, Changes,

Dilemmas, HarperCollins, 1994;

Agrawal, Dr. Ravindra; Church Conspiracy In The Guise Of

Service

http://hssworld.org/all/baudhik/christianity/CHURCH_CONSPIRACY.html

Bhosle, Varsha, Heaven's Gate, Rediff on the Net,

July 10, 2000;

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/10varsha.htm

Bhosle, Varsha, Preying Chruch, Rediff on

the Net, January 21, 1999;

 

http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jan/21varsha.htm

Kashyap, Samundra Gupta, More reconversion stories, this time

from Assam, Indian

Express, July 10, 2000;

 

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000710/ina10046.html

Kumar, Raj, Sahibganj sits atop conversion volcano,

The Times of India, March 7, 2000;

http://www.timesofindia.com/070300/07mpat1.htm

Niyogi Commission Report on Christian Missionaries

http://www.secularindia.com/niyogi_commission_report.htm

 

4 Verma, Amita, UP students’ body calls for all-out jihad,

Asian Age, June 20, 2000;

http://www.asianage.com/asianage/21062000/detfro05.htm

5 Amnesty International,

http://www.amesty.org/ailib/aipub/1996/ASA/31300496.htm

6 Vij, Bhavna, Shyam Sharma turns Peter Joseph, but

still doesn't feel safe in Lahore,

Indian Express, May 3, 2000;

 

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000503/iin03050.html

7 Parihar, Rohit, Home Away From Home, India Today,

November, 8, 1999, p. 6;

8 Jha, Hari Bansh, Whither Nepal?, Hinduism Today,

October 1999, p.13;

9 Kashmir: The Slaughter of Hindus Quietly Continues,

Hinduism Today, June 1999, p.21;

Mercenaries massacre 23 Pandits in Valley, The

Hindustan Times, January 27, 1998;

 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/ht/nonfram/270198/detFRO01.htm

Dutt, Vijay, Evidence of Pak Support to ultras in

J&K: Amnesty, The Hindustan Times,

April 3, 1999;

 

http://hindustantimes.com/confram/040399/detFOR99.thm

10 “Quotes & Quips,” Hinduism Today, August 1999,

p.9;

------------------

Frank Morales, M.A.

Languages and Cultures of Asia

University of Wisconsin-Madison

fmorale1 (AT) students (DOT) wisc.edu

Home (608) 288-0266

Dharma Central:

http://www.dharmacentral.com/

"How many have not asked 'What is Truth' and at bottom hoped

that vast spaces would intervene before truth came so close to him that

in the immediate now it would determine his duty for action at that very

moment?"

Soren

Kierkegaard