There has been a fervent appeal in politics always, asking for all the hindus to unite together. Now the appeal is increasingly being heard in Social media too.
The uniting issue is surrounded around "opposition to PK movie". These months there were lot of issues on which hindus were asked to unite--against conversion, bringing back Ram temple and during elections- rallying hindus against the pseudo-secular parties. It is said that via PK movie a muslim actor has insulted hindu religion. Parallels are drawn comparing the unity of other religions against freedom of speech like that of Christians against Davinci code and muslims against vishwaroopam movie.
"It is possible to view the hindu faith as a river with many tributaries, some that feed into a mainstream and others that leave it. Perhaps the image itself is mistaken, for in many respects there is no main river at all. This is a religion which is decentralized as no other. Each district has its own holy shrines, each run by its own locally revered priest".(quoted from India after Gandhi)
The RSS chief M.S.Gowalkar tried in vain to unite hindus by trying to make cow-slaughter a national priority. The cow was found all over India and hindus too were all over India. While the Hindus worshipped the cow, other religions butchered it. The main theme of communalism itself is to portray secular interests of religions are not just different but also conflicting to each other and so it was not possible for these religions to co-exist. Appeal against cow slaughter never gained a nation-wide momentum.
The Ayodhya controversy helped greatly to converge the diversified hindu traditions into a unified movement.The Historian Ramachandra Guha says this hindu consolidation was also helped by the serial Ramayan telecasted on sunday mornings in doordarshan during 1987-88. With an estimated 80 million viewers streets were empty on sunday mornings with hospitals and factories too reporting large-scale absenteeism. Viewers used to take a ritual bath, garlanding television sets before the show began. Anthropologist Philip Lutgendorf wrote ' never before had such a large percentage of south Asia's population been united in a single activity'. A decentralized religion lacking a single holy book or a unique singular god, the serial in fact introduced a congregational imperative into hinduism and Ram became the most glamorous of all Hindu gods.
We very well know who benefited from this unity. This unity was never used to reform any irrationality. Instead in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, acts of sati were encouraged and worshipped. History was written to portray all muslim rulers as invaders and destroyers of holy shrines. Diversity was throttled. Tribals who have no connection with hindu culture were appended to hinduism. Riots were orchestrated and translated into votes.
Trying to a forge an unified and uniform culture for hindus is threatening every local traditions. Diwali in north and south India fall on different dates and have differing myths behind its celebration. Farmers celebrate festival of harvest in many states on different days irrespective of their religion. But these harvest festivals are getting hinduized and being termed as hindu festivals.
People justify this idiotic spirit to unite as 'nationalism'. And this nationalism is measured not by the love you have for your country but by the extent to which you are mainstreamed. And this mainstream culture is what the majority determines.
The latest weapon now is now to unite hindus against PK movie.
If hindus are the majority, then how can their pre-eminence be threatened by a movie or by proselytization work of other religions.
Why do we regard every criticism directed towards us as something threatening our very existence? If we still regard everything as sacred, and scriptures written in 2000 B.C as relevant and immutable in A.D 2014 too, I guess that would be the biggest threat to hinduism.
Instead of trying to unite hindus for a destructive work, let us unite to do something constructive. I feel the single most dividing factor in hinduism is caste.So, why dont we unite in promoting inter-caste marriages??
