Why the 2024 Indian Elections Will Be a Civilizational Battle #399

Once your worth is destroyed, there is nothing left to fight for.

That is when the power-hungry rejoice. In the helplessness of your own making.

The journey to genocide is paved by the use of legitimized and normalized hate. Once you are established as one to be hated, violence against you and your consequent destruction becomes a noble act.

Socially you are an eradication waiting to happen.

Such an intent, when expressed by someone, is the time to fight back. For your very survival.

You see, it is not about your actions anymore that irks the hater. It is your very presence on this planet.

You are a monumental rebuke to his ideological edifice.

We are seeing the creation and doubling down on the unleashing of extreme hate against the Hindus in India as an election plank. The battle strategy of one side is being constructed ground up on an impending genocide. Eradication and annihilation of everything that the Hindu and Dharmic civilization stood for.

But Dharma is just a proxy.

You are the target.

A History of Hate and Power

Let there be in Pakistan, the separate centre of Islam,
We shall not in Pakistan have to look at the faces of non-Muslims.
The abode of the Muslim nation will brighten up only
When in Pakistan there remain no idolatrous thorns.

So went the song at the Muslim League Conference at Sultankot in 1945. (Source: "How Jinnah Divided Muslims" by MJ Abar / Open Magazine)

As an aside, this mirrored the sentiments of Amir Khusrau who writes this in his book Ashiqa:

Happy Hindustan, the splendour of Religion, where the Law finds perfect honour and security.  The whole country, by means of the sword of our holy warriors, has become like a forest denuded of its thorns by fire… Islam is triumphant, idolatry is subdued.  Had not the Shariat Law granted exemption by death by the payment of poll-tax, the very name of Hind, root and branch, would have been extinguished.Ashiqa, Extract from “The Legacy of Jihad” by Andrew Bostom

Comparing Hindus to "thorns of Hindustan" was something that the Islamic invaders did to remove the indigenous population and culture while replacing it with their own ideologies of hate and violence.

A sentiment, mission, and objective that the Muslim League appropriated to itself to succeed in its hate-filled mission.

Hate against the Hindus was normalized by Jinnah as a legitimate expression of his and his party's polity.

The Seven Men from the Academy

The Academy was a school that traced its origin to the great Greek philosopher Plato.

Its other great members at various times included greats like Aristotle, Heraclides, Eudoxus, Philip of Opus, and Crantor. There was a time when the entrance of the Academy had the words "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here" inscribed there.

In 532 CE, seven men started a journey out of Athens with whatever they could gather in tow. Justinian I, the Roman Emperor who was passionate about spreading Christianity in the then-pagan land, had ordered the closure of the Academy for its "pagan character". These seven men were moving to Persia where Pagans could still live.

They lived there until the Islamic forces took over.

In 529 C.E., the Byzantine emperor Justinian I closed the school in because he considered it a pagan institution, which date is often cited as the end of Classical antiquity. According to the sole witness, the historian Agathias, the remaining members of the academy sought protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I of Persia in his capital at Ctesiphon, carrying with them precious scrolls of literature and philosophy, and science. After a peace treaty between the Persian and the Byzantine Empire in 532 guaranteed their personal security (an early document in the history of freedom of religion), some members found sanctuary in the pagan stronghold of Harran, near Edessa. One of the last leading figures of this group was Simplicius, a pupil of Damascius, the last head of the Athenian school. The students of the academy-in-exile, an authentic and important Neoplatonic school surviving at least until the tenth century, contributed to the Islamic preservation of Greek science and medicine, when Islamic forces took the area in the seventh century (Thiele). One of the earliest academies established in the east was the seventh-century Academy of Gundishapur in Sassanid Persia. (Source: Platonic Academy / New World Encyclopedia)

Between the Christian and Islamist zealots ended the once great Platonic Academy that had provided the Western hemisphere with great advances in learning.

The question one needs to ask is what caused such an end to the glorious institution in the land of its birth, Athens?

Here are two quotes from two people, known in their own groups, as exemplary. (Source: "The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World" by Catherine Nixey)

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus signo Eusebius was the last great orator in the Roman Empire in the "Pagan" tradition.

Please carefully read his quote. Does it not echo the sentiment of the shloka from Rig Veda (1.164.46)?

एकम सत विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति (that which exists is One: sages call it by various names)

Now read what the other quote says. It is a legitimizing of hate against the Pagans using divine sanction.

That the very living of those who were inclusive in their fundamental character was an anathema to their "one true god"!

The leader of those seven men leaving Athens was Damascius. He was known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists."

The last scholarch of the Neoplatonic Athenian school - The Academy.

There were times when every citizen and neighbor was turned into a weapon. Against their own. Once one person was converted from his Pagan roots, he was a weapon to be deployed.

Read the atrocities below and think - does what happened to the philosophers and "Pagans" in Damascius' time remind you of the horrific killing of BK Ganjoo in the rice drum after his neighbor gave him away?

Weaponizing Hate

If you take the legitimizing of hate as an expression of the religious right by both - Jinnah and his men against the Hindus or the Christian Roman emperors and their hordes against the Greeks - you see a pattern.

There is one fact here that is missed by everyone.

After that has been done successfully, the unleashing of violence against the target is easily justified.

After all, if there was no barrier to unleashing of hate, then what can really stop the impending violence? Even the victims of hate justify it as a natural consequence of the other's religious and ideological right.

The victims don't retaliate because of the twisted "you cannot fight 'hate' with 'hate' argument" is ringing strong in their minds.

In one clean swoop, defense against hate is given full equivalence to the unleashing of hate in the first place!

Pagans had a legacy of pluralism to live by. That legacy was the burning tire around their neck - used to kill them brutally. They were chided, pushed and shamed into living by that standard even when their complete annihilation was at stake.

Even when both Jinnah and the Christian fanatics of the 5th century turned their lands into Civilizational Deserts!

The 900 years between the 5th and the 14th century in Europe were known as the "Dark Ages." (a term coined by Petrarch, an Italian scholar, in the 14th century).

Areas like Western Punjab, Sindh, and Gilgit Baltistan are now devoid of any civilizational character of their past.

Baltistan, for example, was the home to a group of people called Dards. They have found mention in the works of Herodotus in 4 BCE and in the Puranas of the Hindu scriptures.

Afghanistan, Syria, Persia, and most of the Middle East are now devoid of any cultural enrichment after their civilizational past was destroyed. In the name of legitimate religious duty.

The results may be apparent soon or may take decades. But the final destination is unmistakably a cruel and horrific one for any endeavor in arts, culture, science, or learning. For, the finer and more profound explorations were never the central mojo of the hate-filled narrators in the first place.

Power was.

And, power they got.

At the expense of everything that is profound and beautiful about human existence.

Legitimizing Hate against Sanatana Dharma

This election season in India, another round of hatred has been unleashed by those who will do anything for power. Anything!

And, they turn to the very tools that closed down the Platonic school of Athens - The Academy and those that made Lahore, Karachi, Multan into killing fields.

Legitimized hate as a religious (and Political) right!

The most prominent salvo was thrown by Udyanidhi Stalin, the DMK Leader and Minister in the Tamil Nadu government. He equated Sanatan Dharma to mosquitos, dengue, and malaria and pushed his followers to eradicate it.

As if on a cue and emboldened by the cover fire from the "opposition" ecosystem, A Raja - the tainted and corrupt politician - went one step further and dug deeper. Udaynidhi, his leader, Raja said was "very gentle" with the Hindus (Sanatan Dharma followers). For, he argued, Sanatan Dharma should be compared to HIV and not just dengue.

Another DMK Minister Ponmudi laid out the political and election plank of the new opposition alliance I.N.D.I.A very clearly - "fight against Sanatan Dharma".

Horrific in its portent and genocidal in its import, this kind of hate on any other target group would be unacceptable in any society. But in today's India, as in Jinnah's times, is a normalized form of expression!

The truth is that power via the hate and violence against Sanatana Dharma is the objective.

And, the roadblock to that power is the current PM Narendra Modi. He has been presented as a proxy for Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism by the Congress leadership - the President of the party himself!

That Modi is synonymous with Sanatan Dharma and any power to him is power to Sanatan Dharma. Ergo, the destruction of Modi is also the destruction of Sanatan Dharma. Which, per the President of India's opposition, is a "legitimate pursuit".

His son, Priyank Kharge, also echoes his father's hatred against the Hindus.

It is the tendency of those who bat for hate to trivialize the extent and potency of hate that has found expression.

"Oh, these are just words," goes the general argument.

No, they aren't.

This hate, just like that of Amir Khusrau and Jinnah and Justinian I, is actioned. And brutally so.

Here is an excerpt from the speech of a DMK Member of Parliament, TR Balu.

“I’ve demolished a 100-year-old temple - a Saraswati temple, a Lakshmi temple and a Parvati temple. All the three temples were in my constituency. It was on the GST Road. I demolished them knowing that I wouldn’t get the votes. But I also knew how to get the votes,” Balu reportedly is heard saying in the clip. (Source: Demolished century-old temples in my constituency: DMK MP in now-viral speech / India Today)

The DMK Tamil Nadu government is targeting common people who are either involved in making murtis of Hindu gods or installing them in the temples.

These women were victims of DMK's campaign of terror.

As were these devotees during the Ganesh Chaturthi period.

The destruction of temples and the curtailing the right to religion and prayer by the "pagans" in Tamil Nadu under the bigoted DMK regime mirrors the times of destruction of the Greek civilization and how their temples were destroyed.

For they, as Catherine Nixey puts it were a "monumental rebuke to monotheism".

Just the presence of a Hindu and his place of worship is a monumental rebuke to monotheism!

Since the time of the British, the monotheist's hatred for the Hindu was legitimized by his prejudicial characterization of "caste".

Jean-Antoine Dubois, also known as Abbé Dubois, was a French Catholic missionary who lived in India for 30 years in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was ordained in 1792 and sent to India as a missionary. His goal was to convert Hindus to Roman Catholicism. His writings laid the foundation for unleashing hatred upon the Hindus as a legitimate pursuit.

To understand the current unleashing of hate speeches against the Hindus, we must go into the legacy of DMK a bit.

Erode Venkatappa Ramaswamy aka Periyar was the "father of the Dravidian movement" and started the Dravidar Kazhagam movement. In 1949, Ramasamy's main deputy, Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai, formed a distinct organization known as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation. Annadurai's only departure from Periyar was his acquiescence to being within the Indian Union, while Ramaswamy wanted a separate Tamil state.

Ramaswamy was the instigator of the first secessionist movement against India at the birth of the Indian state.

That is the person that the Indian National Congress of today finds venerable!

Legacy of Ramaswamy (alias Periyar)

On May 27, 1953, EV Ramaswamy Naicker, also known as Periyar, publicly destroyed an idol of Lord Ganesha at Town Hall Maidan in Tiruchirappalli. Prior to breaking the idol, he had delivered a speech declaring his intention to do so.

Veerabadran Chettiar, a devotee, filed a case against Ramaswamy under Section 295 and Section 295-A.

They are about the hate speech and actions against religions in India.

The Madras High Court bench of Justice Somasundaram held that the Ganesha murti was no more than a "doll"! Even though Ramaswamy Naicker 's aim was to insult the religious feelings of the Hindus, but the act was not within the IPC Section because, the judge decided, the murti was not sacred since it was no more than a doll!

When the appeal was taken to the Supreme Court against the interpretation of the Madras High Court, the Supreme Court judged that the High Court's interpretation of Section 295 was faulty. Yet, it dismissed the plea because the "action of the ... accused.. was foolish" and that action should be taken "if there is a recurrence of such a foolish behavior."

Foolish?!!

Just foolish?

Not hate?

That is the tragedy of the game that is played by the power-hungry hate-filled ideologues. Their aggression fueled by intense hate is characterized as simply silly or foolish.

It is not.

The tradition that Ramaswamy set in motion, and that the Indian Supreme Court rather ominously and idiotically called "foolish", is still alive and kicking.

Kicking the very lives and existence of Hindus in Tamil Nadu!

Convergence of Ramaswamy and Jinnah (and Ambedkar)

Not many know but Jinnah had reached out to EVR for an alliance. They wanted three nations - Hindustan, Pakistan and Dravidastan for Hindus, Muslims and Dravidians respectively. Of course, Jinnah also dreamt of breaking a Sikh nation from India.

Although EVR went to meet Jinnah in Bombay with his trusted lieutenants, Annadurai did not accompany him for the meeting.

In fact, in a public meeting in Dharavi slum on  January 7th, 1940, EVR even bragged about how with the help of Ambedkar and Jinnah, he would be able get the freedom for Tamil Nadu!

Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Pakistani scholar teaching in Sweden has published the email exchange between EVR and Jinnah in his book "Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and Role in History".

It is quite obvious that EVR has linked the separation for a Muslim nation of Pakistan with the separation of a Dravidasthan as well. Jinnah would have nothing of it. He was focused on getting his own nice territory for the Muslims.

Thus the convergence between the Dravidian movement and Islamists started in India. A combination that has continued to this day.

The Coming Battle

The Battle lines in India have been drawn by the opposition.

To win power, the aim is to destroy Dharma or Hinduism from India.

Just as the Greek civilizational expanse was destroyed by killings, violence, burning of books, destroying temples, and smothering freedoms of the citizens, the same is in the plans in India by the I.N.D.I.A alliance.

Nobody has put it better than Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya. Swamiji, a Hindu spiritual leader, educator, and Sanskrit scholar outlines the difference very clearly.

It is not a BJP vs. Opposition battle anymore. It is a Dharma vs. Adharma battle from here on.

This characterization is not what BJP had wanted it to be but how the I.N.D.I.A alliance wants to fight it as.

The politics of the opposition alliance will also be formulated along those lines.

The Muslim Vote Bank

Using religious groups as vote banks and cornering it completely to one's advantage and the peril of other communities is as old as the modern Indian state.

In fact, India was built on the Muslim vote bank principle!

The Provincial elections were held in 11 provinces in the winter of 1936-37.  Results were declared in February 1937.  The results showed two things clearly:

1. Congress was the clear winner.  It was a winner in eight of the 11 provinces (Source)

2. The Muslim League was the biggest loser.  Even the Muslims did not prefer them.  This can be seen from the percentage of their seats won vs. Muslim seats in the different provinces.

Central Provinces and Orissa did not have Muslim seats (Source)

Congress had won a massive vote which led to forming government in 8 out of 11 British Indian provinces.  In their mind, the results vindicated their programs and policies.

In this light, Congress did not form any coalition with any other party.  Certainly not with the now-routed Muslim League.

In the subsequent months, Congress seemed to provide progressive governance and was able to maintain law and order comfortably.  A scenario that made them confident and laid back.

When the 1946 Provincial elections happened the fortunes had changed. (Source)

Congress formed its government in Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Central Provinces, Madras, NWFP, Orissa, and United Provinces, while the Muslim League formed its government in Bengal and Sindh.  In Punjab, a coalition (comprising Congress, the Unionist Party, and the Akalis) formed the government even though the Muslim League was the largest party with 73 seats (Congress had 51).

In less than 10 years, fortunes had radically changed and India was facing a certain partition led by the Muslim League.  A party that in 1937 could not even represent Muslims was now ready to form a nation for Muslims!

What went wrong?  

How did Congress leaders fail India so spectacularly?

The seed for the destruction of India was probably in how Gandhi with his bewildering and nonsensical tantrums hurt the decision-making within the Congress cadres.

Jinnah, on the other hand, was very clear.  He had to steal the Muslims away from the many Muslim parties/groups and the Congress Party.  He found refuge in minority provinces where it was easier to rile up the Muslim youth.

Confusion of the Congress Party under Nehru and Gandhi was no match for the focused mind of hate-filled Jinnah.

2024 round of 1946-style genocidal moment

That is why, the hate for Sanatana Dharma as the electoral plank is a well-thought-out ploy by the opposition alliance.

Their objective - the same Muslim Vote bank.

Whatever the internal political battles in their states, the component parties want to corner all the votes of the so-called "minorities" (which is a euphemism for only Muslims, not Parsis or Jains, etc. who are the real minorities!).

Interestingly, the India Today exit poll in 2019 had given an interesting insight - that over 80% of the Muslims voted for Congress in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar.

In UP, however, their votes went to the SP-BSP alliance.

It is the Muslim vote that these parties are working to catch everywhere under one roof - the I.N.D.I.A alliance.

The I.N.D.I.A alliance follows the exact footsteps of Jinnah. In fact, one can call it the Jinnah Strategy of first eliminating all barriers to consolidating the Muslim votes under one roof and then using it to annihilate the Hindus and Hinduism/Sanatana Dharma from society.

The question for the Hindu electorate is very clear:

How to react to the same strategy that brought them destruction in 1947 in this second round? Will they remain confused as in 1946-7? Or will they wake up to the genocidal future that the power with the Hindu hating I.N.D.I.A alliance promise?

What will it be?

You may forget your tragedies, but if you misinterpret their intent of hate, your story will be no different from the sitting ducks that millions of Hindus and Sikhs became against the onslaught of the mobs of Muslim League National Guards unleashed by Jinnah.

That is how Dharma vs. Adharma will unfold on the street level.

Video Corner: Who Am I?

We don't even know who we are and we are doing everything for that "I". Isn't it rather astonishing?

This discussion by Swami Sarvapriyananda remains one of the most interesting expositions to the analysis of the question - "Who Am I?"

Please do watch.