From: pinto@enuxva.eas.asu.edu (Kevin A. Pinto)
Subject: Re: TIME FOR CHANGE ....
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:19:19 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.203039.8068@cbfsb.cb.att.com>, mohans@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (mohan.sekhar) writes:
> 
	--- Khaki version of history deleted ---
> 
> THE TIME TO CHANGE HAS COME, ITS NOT UNREALISTIC to expect a "NEW INDIA" 
> For the HINDUs, By the HINDUs, Of the HINDUs.
>  
> A country where Hindus can be proud of their religion and a 
> government/constitution which protects their needs first.
> Like an ITALY where a non-christian can live, A SAUDI ARABIA where a non-muslim
> can live, India can continue to be a home for non-hindus.
> 
> IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE A COUNTRY WHERE HINDUs COME FIRST ......
> 

I, for one can assure you that I would not like to go back to an India
where non-Hindus are treated in the same way that non-Muslims are treated
in Saudi Arabia.

Is this really what you are suggesting?  That all mosques, churches,
gurdwaras be torn down?  That all non-Hindu forms of religious worship be
banned?  That people be arrested for praying to their own God?  That
people be forced to observe all Hindu ceremonies and holidays?  That the
consumption of meat be forbidden?

To diverge slightly, it is a recurrent theme that Hindus are second-class
citizens in their own country.  This is a ridiculous claim; Hindus are
82% of the population and control the government, business, commerce
and virtually every aspect of civilized life.  While there are several parties
which seek Muslim votes (which are not the monolithic block that they are
made out to be), the same parties also run after the votes of the backwards,
Brahmins, Harijans, Jats and virtually every caste and community the
country has produced.  The BJP is not immune to this - it derives a great
deal of strength from trader communities.

The Muslims on the other hand are poor, uneducated and ignorant.  They
incidentally are by far the victims in communal riots - these are leaked
GOI statistics.  To say that the Muslims are pampered is to imply that
they control the government, business, commerce and everything worth
controlling.  Look around you and see if that is the case.

One piece of "evidence" used in favour of this claim is the Muslim Personal
Law.  I am strongly in favour of a common civil code as it is my belief
that the individual citizens of the Republic should not be denied justice
because of their religion.  I must however point out that to say that
the Hindus are the losers is again silly.  It implies that all Hindu
men are being denied the right to have 4 wives and to divorce their
wives by uttering a mantra 3 times.  The only losers in this Personal
Law Business are the Muslims.

While on the subject of Personal Laws, let me talk about the Christian
Personal Law, to which a relative of mine had to take recourse.  The law
dates back to Victorian times and was used to enforce Victorian standards
of morality on British women.  It now enforces Victorian standards of
morality on Indian Christian women.  Among other things, a man may claim
adultery and brutality as a ground for divorce, while the wife, believe
it or not, may not.  There is, by and large a consensus, in the Catholic
Church at least, that this law is medieval and deserves to be amended.
Despite several representations to the government, nothing has been done
because Christians, politically, are insignificant and there is no
political mileage to be gained.  The BJP and the rest of the "true
secularism" brigade is well aware of this but hasn't bothered to do
anything about it.  So much for their concern for a common civil code.

Wake up - Hindus aren't likely to vanish from India in a thousand years.


--
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Kevin Pinto			agkap@acvax.inre.asu.edu
Chem Engg, ASU, Tempe, AZ
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