Responding to something that came up in the Australian Open thread, and about Sania marrying a guy from the bug country... that seemed relevant here
knarayen wrote: ↑Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:30 pmWe can debate this endlessly, but the day when Pakistan Government treats Hindus and Sikhs, and folowers of Dharmic civilisation with mutual respect and with equality, as India does with followers of other religions as baked into India’s constitution - when that day comes, then I drop my perspective on Pakistan.
Generally you are right, but there are matters where India actually treats her Hindus worse than does Pakistan. At least Pakistan has a prohibitive majority of people who believe that beliefs are beliefs, that they have their respectful place in human lives, and that core beliefs are not there to be questioned. That is unlike the majority of influential Indians (who mostly claim to be "Hindus") who say that we treat all religions equal, but really do not respect any faith's fundamental tenets - whether it is Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, or Sikhism.
Please read this article (
Sabarimala and the dangers of overrating arguments) by a relatively well-respected Christian writer, Manu Jospeh from Kerala, who wrote about how a Hindu temple in Pakistan is allowed to operate, the guard even waving a stick and yelling at Muslims who try to walk in there. Then look at what a state government managed to get the Indian Supreme Court to do to a temple (Sabarimala) where the Hindus are asked that their deity itself be made different overnight. Which of the two countries really allows Hindus to believe what they believe?
The belief that is asked to be changed is not a socially-unacceptable concept at all. Is a God who is believed to have made a promise to stay truthful to a woman who loved him, and promised not to see other young women, promoting a socially damaging concept? Is believing in that, causing anybody harm? When that is the concept of the deity installed at that spot, is any young woman who says they will see that deity a "devotee" of that deity? But the state government took charge of "defending" the Hindu devotees beliefs, and conspired to mislead the Supreme Court by arguing against the concept! An utter failure in delivering justice. And the leftist Indian writers and intelligentsia sang hallelujah.
It seems Pakistanis consider non-Islamic faiths as second-rate but they at least consider a faith a faith. In India, I now feel that people are so ready to think of faith as unimportant and easy prey, whichever religion it is. The Muslims then blame Hindus, while it is not Hinduism but rather the Indian political-constitutional thinking that causes much of the issues. The faiths that get trampled upon so easily by the state in India are Hinduism, Sikhism, etc, which don't have the powerful and politically-aware authority hierarchy that Christianity and Islam have. Thus the state is scared of touching the faiths and practices some religions have, unlike in the Hindus' case where they are easy pickings.
The Nehruvian state managed to lock up Ram's birth place which even the Muslims who had a mosque there agreed (back in the 50s) to be Ram's birth place based on local legends. Those Muslims did not even object to a temple being built there for this reason, back then. Instead, the Indian state tried to keep the truth away from the larger Indian population for decades and the leftist Indian "intelligentsia" spread the canard that Ram itself was a myth and that there was no "proof" that he was born there. The Muslims in Ayodhya did not want to question Hindus' beliefs, as they at least accepted that Hindus' beliefs are beliefs (even if they feel that the beliefs are all sub-standard). But the state tried to make Hindus drop their beliefs altogether. Hindus reacted to it, and the rest is history.
I have lost a lot of respect in the Indian state and our constitution through the latest Sabarimala saga. My Indian passport is due for a 10-year renewal again in 6 months, and for the first time I even considered changing citizenship to USA for which I have been eligible for some 25 years... But I won't do that yet - as I still love India, disappointed to the core as I may be, at the cluelessness of fellow-Indians when it comes to what a religion is, and about the lack of understanding of Hinduism and "beliefs" in general among fellow "Hindus" who influence the destiny of the nation and the course the nation charts.