From: seetam@hub.eng.wayne.edu (Seetamraju Uday Bhaskar Sarma)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: ...... Some more blasphemy  ........
Date: 21 Dec 1992 18:25:20 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Time for more analysis...  This time religious attitudes of people...

Why is the north indian populace more pep'ed up about the RJB-BM
thingy, than say, the South Indians.

Is it because of the infamous lethargy that pervades south india?  Yes,
ofcourse.  But is that the only cause??...  This explains the lack of much
activity in south india.  But what explains the activity in north india?

religious shame ?  Clearly, north indian hinduism is nothing more than
lakshmi-mayi ki pooja.  Centuries of chaos and instability (w.r.t. progress
of hinduism), has stifled any intellectual development of hinduism, after
ofcourse it  cut ITSELF in size to respond to the devastation heaped upon
it by the marauding barbarians.  

Compare north indian hinduism with the vibrance and brilliance of the
festivals and religious fervor in , say, west bengal or kerala.  What is
raam lila : just another mela.  What is dussehra (time to do lakshmi maayi
ki pooja).  Just as the the ancient quacks prescribed a standard prescription
to all illnesses, the north indian celebration of religious occasions is limited
to lakshmi maayi's glorification.  (Nothing wrong with that : the whole of
the USA did just that during the greedy 80's).

But somehow, the feeling that the hinduism being practised in north india
wasnt WHAT it used to be, has been bothering most of the hindus in NI.
Looking around for WHAT ITS USED to be, they found no trace of ancient
history.  slate wiped clean, U may say.  OK, the hindu-pride was revived by
someone (lets not haggle about who it was).  Now that it was revived.... (actually
kokmaya tilak and gokhale did so,, to maharastra, but for another reason --
a symbolic revolt against the british vice grip),... a search for identity is bound to
follow.

````feeling dejected & depressed at not finding one?  Well, there's always the vedas
and upanishads :  lets get some guidelines from those volumes.....'''''

Well, that's exactly what has happened : vedic revival in north india :: yaagaas
yagnaas :: and ofcourse equally ancient sumbols like ashoka (deja vu : worma?)

lakshmi maayi has NOT been replaced.  The inside-the-house importance is
still reserved for L-M.  But now, the so-far-non-existent-hindu character
OUTSIDE_the_HOUSE has been ``constructed''  ((recreated is definitely NOT
the word...)

This hinduism is definitely more dogmatic and intolerant.  Anyone saying something
not in the `books' will be shouted down by the soon-to-be-omnipotnet argument
of ``not-in-the-vedas''...   Given the history of aggressive north indian character,
expect fireworks when the brand-new NI hinduism clashes with the ever-existent
hinduism of the  east and the south....

	Just as the south indian donned the coat to 
please the english masters, but continued the dhoti (or pancha) below it, the south
indians will likely ``accept the definition of NI hinduism'' (when their protestations
against it become futile), but will continue their own brand of hinduism for ever, in
their homes and outside it too (the NI may ``look down'' on SIndians, but they will
not LITERALLY look down to see what the Sindians are upto).  And the eastern parts
of INdia do not exist for them.  They will briefly exist when the hinduvta army marches
to `reconvert' parts of the east back to hinduism, and then, it will be washed off the memory...

Seetamraju Udaya Bhaskar Sarma
(email : seetam @ ece7 . eng . wayne . edu)

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian