An Open Letter to Indians ------------------------------------ Article Link: hinduhumanrights.info/open-letter-to-india/ ------------------------------------ I address you collectively as a nation, as nation builders, and as individuals capable of rationale and reasoning. As human beings, we are endowed with an enhanced intellectual faculty, which is really the only thing that confers us a distinct position in the animal kingdom. Genetically, we are 99% similar to chimps, but this 1% sets us apart. This difference manifests itself in a very special place- the human mind. Our choices define us, and it is the mind where all choices are made. In the mind alone, transformations that shape the external world are first conceived before being put into action. Indeed, it is a powerful tool; but with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, we have been shirking our responsibilities for a long time now. Today, we live in an age of social crisis. The trouble isn’t lack of intelligence or some debility; rather it is the lack of knowledge, and the subsequent inaction on our part that follows. Without knowledge, we cannot make informed decisions- crucial decisions that shape our future, and that of our nation. A region having seismic fault-lines is most prone to geological disturbances- more commonly known as earthquakes. India too is replete with its own fault-lines, but on the political, educational, cultural, social, economic and intellectual fronts. These fault lines disintegrate the country from within, making it susceptible to exploitation in one form or another. I cannot possibly address all of the issues here- that would require a voluminous tome, not an essay. I will however give a bird’s eye view of it, touching upon the general ideas, providing the impetus to do your own subsequent research where required. Time and time again we hear about “India rising”; sweeping remarks about its financial success, or last year’s GDP growth, at par with- at times even overtaking- China. In short, we hear only about the things that make us feel good as a nation, seldom do you hear about what goes on behind the scenes; the foreign and domestic forces at hand in demolishing the national structure, one day at a time, one unit at a time. These keenly neglected newsreels are precisely what we will present here, but first a brief history lesson. LOOKING BACK IN TIME: The Hindu/Indian culture was the cradle of advanced civilization. Everything flourished in this ancient land- Philosophy, Mathematics, Science, Literature, Commerce, Arts, Yoga, Ayurveda, Architecture, Governance, Logic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medicine- you name it, we had it. We even came up with the same postulates of Pythagorus’ theorem before he did, presented in Vedic scriptures, detailing the size and shapes of yajna altars. Thus the cornerstone of every great thought found its epicenter in India. Being a highly evolved and peace-loving culture, we knew the value of our values. We gave birth to some of the most profound luminaries that walked this earth:- Vyāsa, Vaśiśṭa, Ādi Shankarāchārya, Mahāvīra, Buddha, Vālmiki, to name a few, and an endless, unbroken lineage of enlightened Acharyas in this Guru-Śiśya Paramparā (student-teacher tradition). …and then things went awry. When the Islamic invaders attacked India, there was large scale cultural dishevelment. Wealth was plundered, women were defiled, ancient traditions were displaced, and scores of temples were demolished. It would be fitting to term the Mughals as less of rulers and more of barbarians. Long lapses of time make us routinely forget that first it was Babar, who destroyed the Rāma Mandir at Āyodhyā, creating a long-standing legacy of temple destruction throughout erstwhile India, which ended only with the demise of the last Mughul ruler, the ruthless Aurangzeb. Thus India underwent a painful transformation from being the most prolific producers and inventors, to passive ones, because we had to direct our minds and resources toward resisting the onslaught. The next blow came from the Europeans, when they landed ashore under the pretext of trade. We did not invite them for an extended stay-back to sample more of our curry dishes- they invaded us. Already weakened by the Mughuls, and thus falling technologically behind the Industrial Revolution that rocked Europe, we did not put up much of a challenge to the British, and were once again at the mercy of another foreign power.It is a well recognized fact that India was the world’s economic superpower for the most part of recorded history. However, due to the Islamic and British invasions, contrasted by the Industrial revolution hitting Europe, India fell behind in the GDP race in the early 19th century, and we never again regained our lost position again It is crucial to note that in spite of our numerous successes, Indians never set out to conquer other nations, we have always been self sustaining and self satisfied. Even with the outsiders who ruled us, we tried to form amicable relationships, allowing them to assimilate into our way of living, despite their best attempts to extricate us from our own. It is in our cultural DNA to always be accommodating, and therein lies the greatness of our Hindu/Indian culture. The Hindu-Jewish Summit was held in New Delhi, in 2010. The Jewish Rabbis graciously admitted that the Hindus alone gave them shelter when they were chased into exile by everyone else. Whether it was being ousted from their homeland by the Muslims in Arabia, the anti-Semitist movements of the Christians, or facing the holocaust at the hands of the Nazi regime; Jews have faced a long history of persecution and extermination. It is in India where they found their long awaited peace. The same applied for Parsis- the Zoroastrians, now integrated in India. Like the Jews, they too were harassed away from their native Persia by the Arabic Muslims, and thus made their way into the Hindu/Indian culture upon their arrival at Gujarat, into which they were peacefully assimilated. Read the complete article on the link provided above. --------------------------------------- Author : Prashant Parikh (An engineer by degree and a Nationalist by deeds), blogs at "Informed India" hinduhumanrights.info/open-letter-to-india/
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 08:38:29 +0000
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