Hindu nationalism, Modi, and Kashmir

I make no claim to being an expert on either the history of India or current happenings in this vast, complicated country.

But news stories I've read about India's crackdown on Kashmir, which historically has enjoyed a large degree of independence, certainly are disturbing. As is the rise in Hindu nationalism, which bears some disturbing resemblance to the cries of fundamentalist Christians in the United States, "This is a Christian nation!" 

Which is untrue. Just as it is untrue that India is a Hindu nation.

At any rate, I just came across a Washington Post opinion piece by Kapil Komireddi, "The Kashmir crisis isn't about territory. It's about a Hindu victory over Islam." Here's how it starts out:
Download The Kashmir crisis isn’t about territory. It’s about a Hindu victory over Islam.

For two weeks, Kashmir, India’s sole Muslim-majority state, has existed in a surreal state of nonexistence. Since a presidential decree abolished the state, revoked its autonomy and partitioned it into two federally administered territories, the Internet has been shut down, cellular networks have been disabled, and even landlines went dead. Public assembly is banned, and citizens are under curfew.

A soldier has been stationed outside every house in some villages. Eight million people have been cut off from the world — and from one another. Pharmacies are running out of medicine, households are low on food, and hospitals are clogging up with injured protesters. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, insists that all this is for the good of the Kashmiris. India’s grip on Kashmir has seldom been stronger. Its hold on Kashmiris, however, has never been more threadbare.

Modi’s sudden takeover in Kashmir is the fulfillment of a long ideological yearning to make a predominantly Muslim population surrender to his vision of a homogeneous Hindu nation. It is also a way of conveying to the rest of India — a union of dizzyingly diverse states — that no one is exempt from the Hindu-power paradise he wants to build on the subcontinent. Kashmir is both a warning and a template: Any state that deviates from this vision can be brought under Delhi’s thumb in the name of “unity.”

Obviously Modi has lots of support of India, so many people would disagree with Komireddi's view of what's going on with Kashmir. Here's a discussion of his book, which in the view of the author of this piece is correct in some regards and out the mark in other regards.

Comments

[Spence Tepper]

Here was another great opportunity lost for Gurinder to speak out again lethal religious prejudice, but instead tacitly supports it through silence

[Jesse]

What a dishonest title by that media clown. Victory over Islam? In Kashmir where Muslims have killed or removed all the Hindus? Laughable.

Muslims have continuously purged Hindus from Kashmir for hundreds of years straight, continuing until recently, and the world remained absolutely silent.

Now the news gives you instructions on how to feel, you suddenly care and obey? Every day Israel slaughters Arabs and we pay for it with our taxes. Maybe write about those Muslims and Christians who are actually on their land getting mass murdered. So far Modi just took away Kashmirs power to self govern like an autonomous zone.

The indigenous religion and culture of South Asia is "Hinduism" of various kinds. Has been since millennia before Iskam existed. They've already lost the majority of their land and culture. Let them keep India at least.

Muslim have dozens of countries that are free of Hindus and Christians where you can't speak about Islam unfavorably and live. We should let others practice exactly what Islam practices worldwide without a peep from westerners.

Nationalism isn't going away. Thank God. The American baby boomer generation and its John Lennon imagine dreams are finally fading out of existence and hopefully people can carve out THEIR homelands,and not be forced to surrender to whatever USA's dementia and senility victim goverment declares is more moral to the LSD generation.

Jai Hind!

[Vinny]

I want all the mercy, grace and compassion without showing it to others is a big problem with three communities - Hindus, Sikhs and Moslems. Kindly also see the people killed in that state of Jammu and Kashmir in the past seven decades of militancy. When you have shrewd, cunning and appeasement politicians running the show, persons like Modi and Trump become popular. They don't become popular overnight, after decades of resentment of people with appeasement politics they become popular due to their sharp and aggressive approach.

[Meditator]

We as conscious are just simple and secular and do not differentiate among us until religius or political class pushes one above other. I had a few Kashmiri Muslim friends. They were good people.

Likewise we as Hindus are good.

However Indian history reveals oppression of Sikh Saints as Guru Teg Bahadur and a few others by Muslim emperors.

As also Hindus were butchered in Pakistan during partition. So there exist cold animosity even in best of times between the two religions at places and times however not allwhere.

[Chy]

This is one reason m. Charan built the hospital in beas...for a possibility of war! in the region so the story goes...in the meantime it has been used as a charitable hospital for everyone.
I am not sure if this is the hospital that babaji converted into a paying hospital and cut the charity free medical down
a lot if not no longer a charitable hospital at all.
One such charity hospital he did change but this one may not be the one...SAD either way you look at it..
Chy

[Raksha Pandey]

Dear Brian

The article you have quoted is highly biased which is okay but it also plagued with incorrect facts. First of all J&K is not the only province with Muslim majority in India- there is Lakshadweep and you would never hear about religious issues plaguing it. Just to add, there are total 8 states in India where Hindus are a minority but that has never been an issue of contention. But J&K has definitely been the only state that is still suffering from terrorism borne out of foreign intervention. For last 70 years J&K citizens have faced no development vis a vis rest of India owing to security issues and limitations drawn by article 370. In fact we could not even levy Right to Information and hold their officials accountable- all because of article 370. If such a cancerous tumour is removed why should it agitate anyone. Bold political decisions have to been taken with careful measures because there has been enough populism existing in religious appeasement and supporting separatist sentiments. It is a pity that merely stationing security forces and imposing curfews has agitated some people globally- but have you read about the worst genocide that occurred in this state on Kashmiri Pandits- now many wouldn't talk about it because that would only seem Hinduist and what is Hinduist must be anti Islam for many. How many can call a spade a spade!

[Manoj]

I will suggest you keep your writing limited to GSD. Opinions based on hitjob editorials are worth using toilet paper whether it is US or India.

[Manoj Kumar Aswani]

By writing a blog based on a hitjob editorial, you are undermining your own credibility.

[Todd Chambers]

Brian, you really do not know enough about this topic to be blogging about it.

[Jesse]

"Todd Chambers"

Just wondering, is that your call center name? Some people tried getting me to marry a Tibetan chick once whose name was Pema, but her call center name was Jennifer Maples. Todd Chambers comes off as a similarly invented name.

Of course Brian doesn't know a lot of the topic, which is why he wrote that at the beginning of the post.And he, from what I gather, has an egalitarian hope for peace sort of mindset, which comes across as politically insane to me, but it's a hope more than an ideology, which is a good thing. It's not like he supports Kashmiri separatists to further Jihad or to cause disorder to install communism. Those people do exist.

A problem is that "journalists" fail to present these issues honestly in the public. I've seen articles about Kashmir that talk about the evils of population and demographic replacement by media outlets who also write celebratory think pieces about how progressive it is to replace Europeans in Europe with everyone but Europeans. People hate Trump when he points stuff like this out, but this sort of blatant hypocrisy is why the media is hated and why trust in what they say is at an all time low. I think there should be warning labels on most media to be honest. Their lies are far more poisonous and deadly than American food.

So everyone, especially in the west, has no access to any relevant facts on Kashmir. We get emotional screeds in the news about the Hindu blood lust and push for genocide that are literally opposite to the reality ie that it's Kashmir's current population who are the beneficiaries of a genocide "they" committed, and even the most hardcore plans attributed to Modi are simply resettling those who've been stripped of their land or had their family members killed. So far the plan is one of resisting or reversing a genocide.

So, while I disagree with the sentiment that Modi, nationalists or Hindutva are the problem , I think that it's not the fault of Brian, or the millions of others who buy into these stories, because sorry to use this expression, but we're all victims to one degree or another of fake news.

[Todd Chambers]

to Jesse: https://www.quora.com/profile/Todd-Rush-Chambers

[Jesse]

Im sorry you use Quora, Todd. It's like Yahoo answers if the site was wearing a plastic crown studded with fake diamonds and a shirt that read "I'm so smart."

But that's cool that you're a real human supposedly. Because putting a photo on Quora means you're real and that people should dig around your profile trying to learn about you because as a Quora user, I'm guessing you're really important.

Do you know who Captain Ajit Vadakayil is? He's real, but he also has about 100 fake Quora accounts all with photos of humans that he uses to spread his Keralite supremacy ideology.

Great man he is, though certifiably insane.

[Todd Chambers]

Well “Jesse” (is that YOUR real name??) YOU were the one who accused me of using a fake name, so, to verify my identity:

https://qr.ae/TWRzD4

https://qr.ae/TWrVUm

[Jesse]

Todd, I asked a question and said your name sounds odd. Quite different from making an accusation.

If you spend a lot of time online reading India related news, you learn quickly that a lot of Indians make posts with western sounding names so I figured you could be one of them.

I'm just giving you a hard time, man. Couldn't care less who or what you are. Just entertain me more and we're fine.

[Todd Chambers]

Jesse, I (living in the “west,” specifically Alabama) have been getting “relevant facts” about Kashmir since the early 1980s, even co-hosted a radio show about India. I have very little patience with people who are now “just tuning in” and pontificating on blogs about bogus comparisons of “similarities” between “Christian America” and “Hindu India.”

[Jesse]

That's great Todd, but I didn't make those comparisons.

I just want to see Bollywood films take place there again. Dancing in the fields of flowers on the mountainside, lovers hanging out in houseboats. Seemed like a cool place until a few decades after partition when the _____ started ______ to the ______ and were funded by ________ who also planned _______ in other parts of India.

[Todd Chambers]

I know, Jesse. Brian made that false claim, that India is not Hindu.

India is culturally Hindu, just as China is culturally Chinese.

Trying to draw comparisons with current events in America is pathetic.

[SP]

India is culturally diverse and NOT HINDU!!!!!!

[Deepak Kamat]

Yes.... INdia is a HIndu nation... The word India comes from HIndu which became Indic (Megasthenese Greek) and finally India (Brit version). Whoever says that India is not a hindu nation is brainwashed by paid media propaganda.

[SP]

Mr Kamat, get back to reality...... Show me the extract of the Constitution which incidently your beloved Prime Minister swears by as being the only Holy Book he has faith in, which states India is a HINDU State.

I understand the pain that a Hindu feels.

[deepak Kamat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_of_Kashmiri_Hindus

[Deepak]

America is also a hindu nation. Europeans and Christians came much later. https://archive.org/details/HinduAmerica_201511

[Deepak]

We don't need any Constitution to say that we are HIndus. We know it... that's enough. Constitution is just for law and order issue. That's all. FYI.. I never said that India is a HIndu State. I said India is a HIndu Rashtra. There is a difference between rashtra and nation. That can't be brought out in English language.

[Jesse]

"India is culturally diverse and NOT HINDU!!!!!!"

Would you say America was never anishinabe too? Is Mexico not Mexican? Is Saudi Arabia not Saudi? How far do you take your aggression against common sense?

India is the indigenous homeland of Hindus and the place where all of their relics, holy sites, historical personages and everything else they share as a culture come from. Hindustan, Bharat, India, whatever you call it is the only place they have. You can't visit Kurukshetra in Montana. There's no Vaishno Devi in Tunisia. And increasingly, Hindus are losing their culture and pilgrimage sites in India as well to Islamic terror so there isn't even going to be an Amarnath for them to visit if these insane open borders for terror types win.

All you who defend Islam's right to continually expand in all directions without any response, the same Islam who came to India with the intent of slaughtering Hindus, are shameless genocidalists. It's that simple. Even today there is a hadith called gazwa e hind which is becoming more and more popular, and which has been part of the vernacular of Indian muslims for a long time, you still seem ignorant of Islam's goal in the region een as they've spelled it out for centuries.

Why are none of you aware of this, or any of the violent insurgencies that have been plaguing India and its citizens for decades? You only care what the news says to care about, that's why. You're automatons expressing emotions when told.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazwa-e-Hind

And Deepak, that Hindu America book is stupid on the level of Stephen Knapp and Captain Ajit Vadakayil. Don't post stuff like that to these impressionable people. They can barely discern between mud and gold.

[SP]

Post when you aren't high and can pen your thoughts in a coherent manner.

Don't need a constitution to say we are Hindus. Bloody hell it's the Constitution which gives you the right to state this and/or practice it.

You said India is a Hindu Rashtra...... my foot you said that. Twice you stated India is a Hindu NATION. and once you even referred to America being a Hindu NATION.

It's best you disappear from here. This isn't a place for people who post when stoned.

[UNHRC_Kashmir_bench]

Jesse,

Just because
India is the indigenous homeland of Hindus and the place where all of their relics, holy sites, historical personages and everything else they share as a culture come from. Hindustan, Bharat, India, whatever you call it is the only place they have. You can't visit Kurukshetra in Montana. There's no Vaishno Devi in Tunisia.

Doesn't make India culturally Hindu. A Hindu State? Forget it. Other religions and thus their culture not only co-exist, they are glorified and prioritised over Hinduism in India at the moment. The Constitution states India is secular.

Some misguided calls India a Hindu rashtra (what ever it means). Let's say it means Hindu nation.

It's a joke then - if in Hinduland,

- a Ram Mandir at the birth place of Ram has to wait for some judicial pronouncement in the longest running legal case in Indian History.

- that an overwhelming majority cannot have it's way in matters of fundamental religious beliefs

- Janamashtimi (Birthday of Lord Krishna) which just by last Saturday isn't even declared a national holiday

- state ban Durga processions due to Eid processions

- there isn't a uniform civil code for all

- there are minority based reservations

- if minorities can dare show disrespect towards the Hindu cultures, norms and beliefs

I can keep going on.

So what bloody Hindu rashtra is this fellow talking about?

The fact of the matter is Hindus by and large care a damn about matters that concern their religion. They in my opinion take this show of brotherly love a bit too far.

Maybe they think a Krishna will appear in case there is a Mahabharata between Hindus and Muslims who will ensure their victory.

A proud and unified Hindu is far fetched at the moment

4-6 generations down the line chances of an Islamic India are real.

And the blame for this would lie on Hindus and rightly so.

As a proud Hindu I am saddened and when a hallucinating Hindu called Hindu comes by I get angry.

My mother's side migrated from Pakistan in 1947 and father's side : we are Kashmiri Hindus.

Anyways enough said.

[Deepak]

I find it funny that all of you are suffering from hinduphobia.

Anyways... not all foreigners are afraid of hindus... some are in love... for instance... take this..... https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/what-india-means-to-me/220923

Also check my old blog.... saffronthinktank.blogspot.in

[Jesse]

Deepak, nobody here is Hinduphobic in the slightest. They're mostly Hinduphilic if anything. Most commenters here are probably American and know almost less about current events than you do. That's why their views on the Kashmir thing are so skewed.

And nobody cares about your poorly written blog or that you found some pictures of white people who like Hinduism. No lie, I've been on front pages of newspapers in India for nothing more than being white and liking certain aspects of various cultures there. They actually wrote a fake story about me, too. So it wouldn't surprise me if quotes attributed to some foreigners in outlook India were totally invented by the editors of the magazine.

Millions upon millions of your citizens want out of that country and are coming to live in "mlecha" lands, and the even in heartlands of Catholicism. Don't be so arrogant to parade around everyone who reads the Bhagavad Gita as if that makes yours some sort of supreme culture. If you were as great as you think, nobody would leave.

p.s. Also, do not mention the British, Muslims or "looting" as the reason for the mass exodus. None of it is relevant, and it is actually something that people troll Indians with all over the internet. Make better arguments or just stop expressing yourself. You are expendable and you make smart, useful Indians look bad.

[Deepak]

Please educate me then. What is the reason for so much injustice against HIndus.

Is it not Muslims, Christians, Communists and capitalists?

I just said what I felt.

Christianity, Communism and Islam have killed more then a billion people till date and the victims are mostly HIndus and pagans. Did I get my facts right... or will I be trolled for stating the truth?

YOu can also give me some links so that I can correct my poorly written blog.

[Deepak Kamat]

All my blogs were hacked long ago... probably by Paki Muslims... not sure.

I had written a book long ago on anti-hindu propaganda and media. Here it is. https://www.scribd.com/document/18992144/Fascist-Trends-in-Indian-Media

May I know who you are Jesse... If you are a Indophile foreigner who was trolled for defending hindu dharma... then I probably know you.

All pro-hindu journalists including white skinned are targetted by the paid media.

[SP]

Christianity, Communism and Islam have killed more then a billion people till date and the victims are mostly HIndus and pagans.

No sympathies. Get the Hindus to shake off their impotence. No point whining about Hindu persecution at the hands of others. If today Hindus are treated as doormats, it's their own doing.

[Jesse]

"the victims are mostly HIndus and pagans. Did I get my facts right... or will I be trolled for stating the truth?"

You'll get trolled for being so easily trolled,

Hindus are pretty capitalistic, and many are Communist now, too I guess. People often follow religions while also having economic systems which they prefer. In short, you can be commie and Hindu, or a capitalist Hindu.

Islam wiped Christians out in almost all historically Christian lands from Lebanon to Egypt, to the Capital of Byzantium, Constantinople. Nearly 100% Muslim in all these places now. To this day Turkey continues to try to take more and more land from Greece. You saw what just happened in Syria. No Hindus hurt in any of these wars perpetrated by Muslim fanatics.

Also, Christians were the main victims of Communism in its heyday. Not pagans or Hindus. Yes, you have a budding communist threat in India that needs to be decisively defeated, but wait until 20 million or so die before calling yourself the main victims of that ideology.

Russia hasn't been pagan for centuries, and millions of Christians there were savagely tortured and killed by Communists who just happened to mostly come from another religion and ethnicity that we can't talk about without people saying we're "conspiracy theorists". The ugliness of double standards, man.

"All pro-hindu journalists including white skinned are targetted by the paid media."

I'm agreeing that the media is anti-Hindu, but mostly only in India. Most of your media is owned, or has substantial ownership and management, from foreigners, almost none of whom are Christian by the way. But it's less about individual religions as it is about weakening majorities and causing instability. These people are far too strategic and atheistic to have personal feelings for one religion or another. They just attack pillars or strength wherever they are.

In USA and Europe there's a traveling piece of art which includes Jesus' Crucifix in bottle of urine called "Piss Christ", and recently there was an art show in California titled "Why Don't We Murder More White People." Those are two hints for you as to what the problem is. The media isn't taking sides. They're attacking everyone who could bring stability in every place they can. White Christians in the West. Hindus in South Asia.

https://twitter.com/Jonandstuff/status/1132015351862943744

As for white Hindus, who do you think pays clowns like David Frawley? He's not "targeted" as much as he's likely working for intelligence agencies. That guy is doing everything he can to make Hindus look ridiculous and people are so desperate for validation from outsiders that they just eat up his nonsense without thinking. It's one thing to accept outsiders, and quite another thing for them to magically overnight be considered experts and spokespeople for entire religions they just "converted" to.

You don't know who I am because I'm nobody other than Jesse, the guy writing this comment to you here on Brian Hines' blog.

[Deepak Kamat]

Jesse and SP....

Agree with you to a large extent.... agreed on HIndu whites like Frawley too...

Despite being trolled.. I usually speak my mind.....

I am also ex-satsangi. These days.. I am more aligned with Ramana Maharshi and non-duality... that life is fiction.

So troll or no troll... speak the truth in fiction too.

btw.. I was also arrested for speaking against Indian Constitution.

[Jesse]

Deepak, I'm not really attempting to troll you. At least not in a nasty way.

[anami]

Russia...
Conspiracy theory....
I found one!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Bolshevism

[Jesse]

Everything is a conspiracy theory until it's not, Anami.

You can find articles claiming Israel's slaughter of Arabs and AIPAC's extreme political power are both "conspiracies" as well.

I don't even need to look and I can tell you right now that Hindu calls for a return to Kashmir are being attacked with accusations of conspiracy theorizing. "To say without evidence that current Kashmir residents are outsiders or planning terror from the region is a conspiracy theory."

This is what media is. They lie. Long before Trump or Modi ever existed everyone knew the news was mostly propaganda. That's why a man who talks like a 6th grade special education student was elected POTUS. He said what people knew.

Same in India. They've been using expressions like "presstitutes" for a decade at least because they're also banned from Twitter, kicked off Facebook, having important wiki pages vandalized by activists and otherwise unable to respond to the outright bullshit and attacks of the media. That's literal evidence of conspiring by the way. When multiple social media mega corportions remove the exact same opinions and users at the exact same time there's little explanation other than that they worked together. Especially when it happens 100s of times.

Anyway.

Kashmir is Hindu land.

Watch Tim Pool, a real journalist and a leftist as well,on Bitchute.

[Todd Chambers]

Although I am no longer as much of a fan of Frawley as I was, for example, in the 1980s, I would not call him a "clown."

I have wondered, over the past couple of years, why he (and, for example, Subhash Kak, with whom I hung out in the early 1990s) is so vocal in his twitter criticisms of Congress, and of various "secular" journalists, but never once even hints at criticizing Trump.......

[Jesse]

Todd, he's never going to be anything in USA. He exists to gift off of impressionable Indians either by personal ambition or because he's been hired as a propagandist of sorts.

American politics don't concern him and as a Hindutva proponent, so why would he criticize Trump? Trump isn't doing anything wrong to Hindus. One could make the argument that Congress isn't as anti Hindu as some believe either.

Frawley is the worst either way. Just look at him. Isn't he the one who came up with "Sanskrit is the best language for computer programming"? So there'd be like 50 homographs and infinity more problems. He just says stuff like that to get attention.

The dude is a modern cargo cult leader apprentice.

[SP]

Good to begin knowing you.

I once knew of another RSS member (ex by then) who contrary to turning an ex-er was a pretty well known follower and preacher. He is no more unfortunately.

[deepak]

I guess you must be referring to Babbani.

Babbani was also an ex-rss guy. later he was close to Charan singh.

As for me, I am open minded. I even criticised RSS leaders for creating RMM -- a Muslim offshoot of RSS.

... and I practised RSSB meditation of surat shabad yog for nearly 10 years. I was not satisfied entirely but I could feel the aenesthetic effects of surab shabad meditation.

[SP]

Did you know him personally?

Maybe you should have continued with your meditation a bit longer.

Nothing stops you get back to it anytime.

[Deepak]

@ SP....

I am not saying that meditation does not give anything. Meditation will give you a lot of light and sound show.... free cinema.

.... but I am a seeker of truth... so I got more interested in Ramana Maharshi. Even thousand years of medittation is of no use... if one does not have self realisation. That's Ramana's position.

However... I still meditate... it's a long habit.... however.... there are no associated beliefs.... It is more of Zen.... sitting quitely and doing nothing.... just relaxing into the self with awareness.