Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone: Issue #315 - Paternalistic Dismantling of Pluralism
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“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.' - from "Collected Sayings of Maud'Dib'' by the Princess Irulan” ― Frank Herbert, Dune
For pluralism to be your mojo, denunciation of the mono and exclusivism has to be your credo.
You cannot aspire for a pluralistic and liberal world joyous in free thought when you are wearing the shackles of one-world order which is predicated on beliefs that promote only one ideal and one god.
When you root for monotheism or one world order and consequent domination then you will have a deadly fear of everything that harbors plurality.
Of thought. Of the sacred. And the narratives that emanate from them.
One cannot control free thought. Those infected with the disease of domination, therefore, seek control and annihilation of all that can be inclusive and plural.
The threat to pluralism has been ever since monotheism became the wind under the wings of the imperialists. Since then, that fundamental hatred for polytheism has been ingrained in every narrative, every word, every book, and every tenet of religion and state. The self-styled Western liberals, even when they profess a deep love for pluralism, do so in the semantics of a theology that prides itself in the hatred for the polytheistic and the pluralist.
The world needs freedom. But not a dishonest one. Real, honest, and credible one.
The “Othering” of the Hindu to ‘Justify’ Persecution
The suffix ‘tva’ in Sanskrit means the essence or quality. For example, ममत्व (Mamatva) means the quality or essence of “my” or put another way the my-ness. It has also been used for mother's love, where her being extends to her kid as the latter becomes a part of her.
हिंदुत्व - or Hindutva means the essence or quality of being a Hindu.
A certain group of actors, specifically in academia, politics (Communist, Islamists, and anarchists) who have seen their game of domination being challenged in India as the native indigenous groups assert their rights of basic and fundamental expression; have come together to run an agenda of “Othering” the Indian natives.
Because the power and domination of the colonialists is their currency and means to profit.
When that is challenged, and their livelihoods and free run of crimes and social manipulation are being called out and law of the land is being applied, they see a threat to their agenda of domination.
The fundamental tool of domination - righteousness.
They have been working hard to create a strawman called Hindutva, define it the way they want, just to make it a useful proxy to attack Hindus and their traditions.
Who are these people?
The Moral snakeoil
IN 2016, one native tribal man in Chattisgarh, Shamnath Baghel and his friends had filed a complaint with the local police station (in Tongpal) that Nandini Sundar, (and her friends/colleagues) were inciting them against the government and pushing them to join the Maoists. Baghel and his friends were challenging the anarchist actions and crimes of the Maoists in their area. In retaliation, Maoists came at night to the tribal’s house, dragged him to the street and killed him in a brazen manner. Baghel’s wife then went on to file a complaint against Nandini Sundar and other professors who had promoted, backed and pushed the Maoists in their agenda of antagonizing the tribals against the government of the day. Chattisgarh had BJP government then.
A battery of lawyers descended in Chattisgarh to defend these professors who had been accused of being instrumental in the death of a tribal who had dared to call out their agenda. The strategy they devised was to push the case till after the elections and strangely in that election, Congress defeated BJP and the case against these professors was taken back.
“After the investigation, police have found no direct evidence against Nandini Sundar and other four in Tongpal murder case,” Superintendent of Police (Sukma) Jitendra Shukla told the Hindustan Times. “The statements of the villagers were taken which suggests that they were not present at the time of the murder. Hence, we have taken back the cases against them.” (Source)
Very convenient.
Siddharth Varadarajan, the founder, and editor of the online political vendetta rag TheWire jubilantly announced on Twitter about how the act of tribals standing up for themselves was .. well.. a “vindictive” act.
Ms Sundar is his wife.
Clearly, the sense of morality on offer by these societal judges is spurious. They can attack the very “poor and disadvantaged” they profess to fight for - if they dare to use their brains and freedom of expression to voice their own thoughts and what is right for them.
As opposed to the socialist snake oil they have been pushing down the throats of these unsuspecting tribals.
This use of Moral Absolutism as the source of power while using violence and aggression as the bedrock of an agenda for domination is not new.
The Righteousness Framework
Step 1: A Moral Framework and the source- In Christian theology, a “god” was defined by the believers. He (even the gender came pre-defined) was hoisted as the source of all morality. (Source) In fact, morality in such a theological narrative could not exist sans the primacy of the Christian God.
Step 2: Install the Source of Morality - A Biblical circular argument was used to then anoint Jesus Christ as one and the only agent of that God, the source of morality. (Source)
- The character and wisdom of Jesus are such that his views about reality are (or are likely to be) correct.
- One of Jesus' views about reality was that God exists.
- Therefore, the view that God exists is (or is likely to be) correct.
The “word” of Jesus, as interpreted by the “faithful” (for the benefit of the faithful) therefore became the only narrative of morality.
Everyone was to be judged by that moral narrative in a manner and way of the choosing by the believers and the faithful.
That is where the concept of Righteousness comes in. It has been defined in larger Secular texts as “The quality of being morally right or justifiable.” (Source)
Only the Christian God, as the arbiter of morality, is the sole preserve of righteousness, as per theology in New Testament.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Source - Romans 10:3-13)
So basically, faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only authentic way to achieve righteousness. Imputed Righteousness, albeit.
Step 3: Acquire Agency of Righteousness - Jesus and his word in Bible was decided to be the source of morality and unquestioned belief in the story of Jesus, as peddled and crafted by the believers, to being in compliance with that morality.
Morality became a function of an ideological tenet, as opposed to any alignment to the good of mankind.
Whether one drags and mercilessly kills Shamnath Baghel or Hypatia, as long as you swear by the tenets defined by the believers fueled by the idea of domination of mankind, one is in the realm of righteousness.
An Imputed agency of righteousness.
This we call the Righteousness Framework of Imperial Domination
We discussed its theological history, connotations, and details in our earlier newsletter - Issue #228 - The Righteousness Framework
Let us see how this Righteousness Framework is used by every Imperialist - Religious, Communist, and ‘Liberal’.
As one would notice, no one has Agency of Righteousness inbuilt from the ground up as strongly and overtly as the self-defined Liberal.
Step 4: Imperial Empire by the Righteous - The lure of domination and the profits that such a complete sense of power brings has been the greatest bane of mankind.
You cannot attempt such a large-scale atrocity without devising ways to numb one’s inherent human instinct.
The sense of righteousness which comes with the pre-defined morality of the imperialist paves the way for such a horrible endeavor.
Let us see how it is employed right in front of us without us suspecting it.
Mathew Arnold, the Victorian poet, in his popular poem “Dover Beach”, talked wistfully of his time and his faith and how its global superiority was waning, using the sea and the tide as a metaphor.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world. (Source)
The waning of Christendom was melancholic for him as it bared the naked understructures of an ugly world. The poet’s imagination is loaded and heavily ideological and sounds akin to the exhortation of George Bush - “Either you are with us or against us.”
My belief is beauty, yours in naked ugliness, Arnold really implied.
Any pretense of justice and equality was not even there, nor demanded, in poetry.
Arts, writings, and orations have been about normalizing the urge for domination by the sociopathic ideologies which have bought their sponsorship from a “god” of their own making.
It is easier to do the biding of a “god” whom you define, restrictively of course, and use for unleashing aggression on the path for domination, killings, genocide, rapes, and destruction.
It has always worked.
When the 9-11 hijackers were ready to go on their final mission that fateful day, they were given clear instructions. Clean yourself, check papers and weapons. And when the “time of truth” comes… welcome death “for the sake of Allah.”
Make sure your body is clean and your socks pulled straight inside your shoes. Check you have your identity papers, your ticket and your weapon. Make sure nobody is following you. Then, "when the time of truth comes and zero hour arrives, straighten out your clothes, open your chest and welcome death for the sake of Allah". (Source)
This had a few connotations:
- The actions were akin to an act of “truth”. For, when they ram the planes into towers full of people hurling them to certain death, it was in “pursuit of truth.”
- Their own death - at that “moment of truth” (aka the deaths of 3000 innocents) was for the “sake of Allah.” Apparently, Allah demanded the lives of those innocents.
Terrorists! That would be our response.
But, for anyone to choose death over a normal life takes a certain level of commitment to a path and goal. Even an ant prizes her life and will fight for survival, for it is inbuilt into the physicality itself.
So when someone deliberately walks to his or her death, we need to understand that person’s level of commitment.
The hijackers who would have fought all moral relativisms to hit the planes in the towers while escorting their certain death really believed in the notion of ‘someone’ called Allah whose errand they were on.
When those believers who call themselves ‘moderates’ try to confute such men who choose death “for the sake of Allah,” one needs to ask them “can you choose death consciously for the ‘sake of your definition and interpretation of Allah’?” Do you have that level of commitment?
For, these suicide killers do.
In that commitment lies the benchmark of the value of those ideologies. They have internalized the ideology deep enough and so fully that nothing is greater than that. Not even their own lives.
Their masters of course used their definition and concept of “God” to consolidate their plans for global domination. A world where they were the victims, the sufferers, and the martyrs.
Martyrdom is a big leveler.
It can take an aggressor and place him above his victims as the ‘greater soul.”
Martyrdom, of course, can be manufactured. It need not always be real. In fact, it rarely is. Real martyrdom shuns publicity and often withers away from public memory.
Manufactured martyrdom is brought about for a purpose. That purpose, ironically, has been the domination of others.
On the evening of September 11, 2001 - President Bush spoke to the American public for the first time post the attacks that day.
As you would notice, even the US President was sure that his God, Christian God - for he invoked the Bible - was with them. He and his countrymen were the ‘victims’ and they were going to “win the war against Terrorism.”
And finally, he ended his address with “God Bless America.” Just as every President since Ronald Reagan has done. Except for Donald Trump incidentally. (Source). He thanked Mike Pence, instead.
But the question is - Why should God bless America?
Because America owns the God? Because the invoked God is really the Christian God. And since America is the spearhead of the Christian world?
Just as the hijackers, while “fighting for the sake of Allah”, and invoking the atrocities on their people, were targeting the innocents to build their masters’ empire of domination using martyrdom as the central column; the American government (as we learned in the previous newsletter Issue #314 - Afghanistan's Future and the Global Chessboard) was also using the martyrdom of their citizens as they were getting ready to target innocent people in other societies (Afghanistan and Iraq, when it should have been Pakistan).
In the quest for global domination, of course.
But why are Hindus the target of the Ideological Imperialists?
Bernard Lewis, the British-American historian who specialized in “Oriental studies” and who was Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, wrote a detailed essay titled “Islam and Liberal Democracy.” He starts the essay with this assertion.
From a historical perspective it would seem that of all the non-Western civilizations in the world, Islam offers the best prospects for Western-style democracy. Historically, culturally, religiously, it is the closest to the West, sharing much—though by no means all—of the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman heritage that helped to form our modern civilization. (Source)
That is a telling statement.
Let us unpack it a bit:
- Judeo-Christian heritage and Greco-Roman heritage is shared
- Islamic heritage is based on the Judeo-Christian heritage, so shares the same bonds
- Because of the historical sharing, Islam offers best prospects for Western style democracy
He later goes on to decry how the lack of councils and power of the state instead has taken Islam away from that ideal of Western democracy.
But what Lewis, his historian credentials notwithstanding, forgets is that Christianity was built on negation, destruction and cannibalism of Greco-Roman civilization; while Islam’s main target were Jews, Pagans and Christians. The Crusades, the siege of Constantinople and the proverbial clash of civilizations affirm that rivalry between Islam and the Judeo-Christian heritage.
The shared bond is of enmity and negation. Not inclusion and embrace.
When Bishop Cyril and his men hounded Hypatia, daughter of Theon of Alexandria (man whose commentaries and works on Euclid are our only window to the works of that Greek mathematician because Christians destroyed all the libraries and books, including the legendary one at Alexandria), and dragged her, disrobed her, and then took her apart one limb after another; the “bond” between Christian barbaric legacy and Greek Civilization became amply clear.
‘This lady, a teacher of the Neo-Platonic philosophy in Alexandria, distinguished for her beauty, her intelligence, her learning, and her virtue, and esteemed both by Christians and by heathens, was seized in the open street by the Christian populace and fanatical monks, perhaps not without the connivance of the violent bishop Cyril, thrust out from her carriage, dragged to the cathedral, completely stripped, barbarously murdered with shells before the altar, and then torn to pieces and burnt. (Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume 3: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, A.D.311-600, Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1819-1893, p. 50)
Please read “The Murder of Hypatia: How Christian Fanatics tore apart the Greatest Mathematician of her time” for a detailed account of Hypatia’s death.
The aggression by the monotheists against the mystic traditions started from the Greco-Roman times.
The equivalent of एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति (ekam sat, bipra bahudha vadanti - There is one truth, which the Sages approach from different paths) from Symmachus versus the unabashed hate-filled pronouncement from a guy who came to be regarded as a Saint in Christendom.
Guess whose words and works survived?
Survival that shows the primacy of power - state, violence, monetary and social - in furthering ideas that societies ultimately live by.
In most of the ‘native or indigenous traditions,’ the observances and ‘religion’ became an individual thing. And individuals are fickle in how they approach the fundamental and existential question. As long as their fight for their money and food is taken care of they are happy, until something negative happens. For that they need the ‘insurance of God’. When that relationship becomes shallow and a joke, then it is easy to change that tenuous link if proper propaganda is used.
It was this link that the Christians targeted amongst the Greeks and Romans. It took a preoccupation of 20 people to reach a population of ‘believers’ of 30 million by the end of the 4th century!
Numbers are an effective way to enforce dominance. The fruits of domination are alluring enough for those in the dominant group to ignore the excesses of the perpetrators of such a structure.
In that inertia of personal morality lies the secret of longevity of the structure created for domination.
A structure that is erected on the back of one-way doors. For example, the move was always exclusive and final. There was no way back for the ones who were converted.
Christianity succeeded in large measure because it required potential converts to make a decision that was exclusive and final. If they chose to join the church, they had to abandon all previous religious commitments and associations. For the Christian faith, it was all or nothing, so as it fed its own growth, it devoured the competition. (Source)
The Christian faith when it devised ways to battle for domination against the Greco-Roman civilization and thereafter in every indigenous culture, ensured that the rituals of conversion were a one-way door.
The nuts and bolts of this one-way door was built on hatred for the previous beliefs and gods that the converted held dear hitherto.
This was the secret of its rise.
The same tactic of defining apostasy as the greatest crime against god - whether it was the Old Testament (Source) which became the base for Biblical theology (Source) or Islamic theology (Source). The Maoists in India follow the same template as well (Source)
Why is apostasy and its crime so central to our questions of “Why Hindus?”
The answer lies in the most fundamental and subliminal hatred that monotheistic belief systems and narratives reserve for polytheists.
“The most important Compliment that monotheism has ever paid itself is that it is the religion of justice. According to the widely held conviction of the monotheistic religions, morality and law first came into the world with belief in a single god.”1 Jan Assmann’s words accuse the monotheisms of an enduring view that ethics and the moral life go hand and hand with the assertion of the existence of one true god, and with the rejection of the many. Such ethnocentric arrogance has deep roots. (Source: Page DuBois - A Million and One Gods - it has mentioned Jan Assman in his book “The Price of Monotheism”)
This hatred is derived from the Righteousness Framework that we discussed earlier.
And, Page DuBois shares that hatred for Polytheism in India - partly due to the supremacy of monotheistic ideology and partly confusion with their version of the polytheistic narrative of spiritual traditions in India - necessitated the imposition of extreme monotheistic belief systems by the British. The predominant agenda was based on the Colonial imperatives of these rulers.
The ways of the early Christians against the Greeks were no different. They demonized the Gods of the Pagans just the same way!
The most important thing to understand is that it is easier to manage, control and interpret ONE concept for the purposes of domination. Polytheism begets freedom of thought. Monotheism begets slavery of mind and body.
The latter cannot survive in the land or world which is proliferated by the former.
Hinduism is not just the poster child of independent and plural thought, but it is the only framework of pluralism that has survived the attacks from the most ruthless of the monotheistic aggressors in human history.
Its survival predicated and harbinger of its success spells doom for all narratives that promote domination on the back of One Single Ideological Structure - whether that is Islam, Christianity, Communism, or Wokeism.
market corner: 10 quick bytes
- Google is set to collaborate with startup Setu, which will now allow GPay users to open fixed deposits (FDs) within the application (Source)
- FDI equity inflows up 168% to USD 17.57 billion during April-June 2021-22 (Source)
- India's economy ready for faster growth says economist Ashima Goyal (Source)
- FinMin extends the deadline for making payments under Vivad se Vishwas scheme till September 30 (Source)
- Pharmaceutical firms turn focus to inhalation products for Covid-19 (Source)
- Resting on climate action an $11 trillion opportunity for India (Source)
- National Green Highways Mission: Over 5,000 km of avenue plantation work worth Rs 650 crore done so far (Source)
- Centre buys record 874 lakh tonnes of paddy so far at MSP for Rs 1.65 lakh crore (Source)
- Tata Steel to invest Rs 8K cr in CAPEX on India ops in FY22 (Source)
- FM Sitharaman announces Rs 1,300 crore development package for tribal people in Tripura (Source)
nota bene
Explosion after Biden Warning: A little after the US President Joe Biden warned against another possible attack in Kabul, a loud explosion was heard in the capital city of Afghanistan. While it is not yet clear where exactly did the explosion happen, smoke was seen rising from the Khwaja Bugra area in PD15. The source of the explosion was a rocket that has hit a house near the north gate of Kabul airport. However, the airport has not been hit. (Source)
Jaish ‘leaders’ meet Taliban for terror collaboration: In a concerning development, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists reportedly held meetings with representatives from the Taliban and sought the latter’s support in their ‘India-centric operations’. The discussions took place in the third week of August at Kandahar and news agency ANI was reportedly informed of the same by senior officials from the intelligence agencies. (Source)
Private ex-military rescue Americans from Afghanistan after Govt fails: With the Taliban growing more violent and adding checkpoints near Kabul's airport, an all-volunteer group of American veterans of the Afghan war launched a final daring mission on Wednesday night dubbed the "Pineapple Express" to shepherd hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families to safety, members of the group told ABC News. Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport. (Source)
Cryptocurrency Companies want access to Fed’s payment system: Cryptocurrency companies want to tap into the Federal Reserve payments systems that traditional banks use to move money around quickly. The banks are pushing back. The companies include Avanti Bank, which aims to provide custody services for institutional investors in cryptocurrencies, and Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange platform. They say direct access to the Fed’s payment systems would allow them to more quickly and cheaply process orders from customers buying and selling digital assets. Currently they must partner with traditional banks that have accounts with the Fed. (Source)
video corner: The Sharia Law
This is one thing where apologists try to back and save it from being challenged. And the ones who even talk against it are termed as Islamophobic. Here is an interesting take on this law by Palki Sharma Upadhyay.
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