No other religion would have suffered the onslaught of vested political interests from within,as Hinduism.It is the only religion which has been subjected to backstabs, every nown and then.Irrefutably,Hinduism is one of the best ways of life,towards peace,harmony and spiritual enlightenment.
When I make this statement I make it categorically sustainable and I do affirm that this statement is not made to undermine the positivities of other religion's scope,height, width and depth.But the woes of Hinduism are self inflicted and no other religion would have ever tolerated self-inflictment to the extent of subordinating its glory to that of other relgions.Unfortunately,the agent of self inflictment in Hinduism is the brutal hand of politics,with its butcher's knife.
Even during the days of partition, majority of people irrespective of their religious belongings and affinities, wanted to live in harmony,embracing the spirit of brotherhood. It was politics that went on a rampage,spilling blood under the garb of religion. Whenever there is conflict of interests, other religions know how to keep their own houses in order,because religious fervour is running through their veins to the extent of shunning the intervention of politics into their fundamental ideologies.
Whereas,Hinduism being called a way of life,has really become a freeway open for all,for anyone's hit and run drive.In this process,they hit the religion black and blue, with their political accelerator gaining utmost speed,to reach their self serving goals as pointedly as possible.Quite often, they do it through the powerful wheels of their chariot yatras.They do not realize that the damage done to the spiritual gates of Hinduism,by the temporal wheels of their Yatra chariots,is irreparable.Many Hindus know that the objective of these yatras is not to please the gods,but to appease the electronic voting machine into the favour of those,who pull the chariot.
If one group of politics pulls the chariot,the other group is smartly ready to halt the movement of the chariot wheels, with a huge blockade called secularism. Most of the pillars of this stalling political wing,cannot be said to be ignorant of the word secularism,which actually means 'the principle of separation of the state,from religious institutions'.But still, setting aside the true meaning of the word,this state of politics tends to pamper other religions at the cost of Hinduism and blow up their misconceived secular credentials again and again,for the sake of twisting the electronic voting machine to their side.
Theism and atheism are personal preferences and cannot become group ideologies to encroach upon or tamper with the religious rights and rites of other people,from within the mask of politics.If one of the objectives of rationalism is to question the prevalence of religious superstition,it should not singularly target Hinduism, bypassing the presence of superstitious beliefs in most other religions. Rationalism can never be exclusively against a single religion.If that be so,it is tantamount to irrationalism.So Hinduism just says,"Oh my dear politics, leave me alone to my own survival,as a pathway to spiritualism.Neither roll the charriot,nor block its wheels for your vote bank".
When rationalism reflects social equality and social justice,it becomes a saviour of mankind.But when it turns its face aggressively against a particular religion, its face turns ugly and becomes unlookable.It can handle separately and dynamically issues of caste supremacy, caste suppression and caste exclusion,with its inbuilt sanity and sense of purpose.
In the event of a particular caste attempting to establish its caste supremacy over Hinduism,rationalism should question only the erroneous outlook of that caste and cannot carry it further,to the extent of casting aspersions on Hinduism itself. Nor should rationalism confine itself to greeting other religions on their days of celebrations,by ignoring the same greeting mindset,towards Hinduism. In short,let not rationalism wear the mantle of politics,to divide and rule castes in the name of religion.or handle religion with partiality,for the sake of electoral gains.Perhaps that was one reason why the most rationalistic leader Thandhai Periyar,did not want to get his socialistic movement transormed into a political party.
It is high time politics realised in good sense,that it has nothing to do with any religion including Hinduism.Let politics stand away from Hinduism,as it does with other religions.Hinduism knows to fend for itself, because its ways are deep rooted,far and wide and cannot become a puppet in the hands of politics,to be stabbed from behind the back,off and on.
Let the Hindutva forces understand that Hinduism does not need their help to flow and glow.Let not rationalism relate itself to atheism so as to form an ideology exclusively against Hinduism, sidestepping its inherent objectives and goals of social justice and upliftment of the underprivileged and backward sections of society.After all,there is an underlying spirit of Hinduism in every Hindu, whichever social background they belong to.Political backstab on Hinduism,is the'unkindest cut of all'.The new generation rationalists will never allow that to continue.
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