by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said Hinduism is not a religion but a cultural concept of India.
“All the religions preach love, peace and harmony — be it Islam, Christianity or Hinduism…Hinduism though I don’t consider a religion. It is more than that. It is a broader cultural concept of India,” he said at the inauguration of the Sunder Nursery — a new 90 acre city park — near Humayun’s Tomb here.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) commenced conservation and landscape works at Sunder Nursery in 2007, following an MoU with the Central Public Works Department and the Archaeological Survey of India.
The development of this city park is in line with other similar initiatives by The Aga Khan Trust in Kabul, Mali, Zanzibar, Cairo, Hyderabad, Chantilly, amongst others.
Naidu said that private-public partnership became a success in this project that “combines together nature, culture and future”.
He said because The Aga Khan, current Imam of Ismailis, a denomination within Shia Islam, “believes in serving the mankind, he is serving God”.
He also said the development works undertaken by AKTC reflected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign Swachh Bharat.
The conservation works draw attention to a unique ensemble of 16th century garden tomb.
In 2016, UNESCO extended World Heritage designation to twelve structures conserved by AKTC, including six standing within the Sunder Nursery.
Landscape architect M Shaheer designed this new city park along a central axial spine around which gardens were designed – both formal and informal settings for families to enjoy picnics.
The landscaping of the park includes Delhi’s first arboretum, an amphitheatre, ponds and lakes, nursery beds, a flower showcase, rose gardens and orchards.
Sunder Nursery houses almost 300 tree species, drawing 80 species of birds and 60 species of butterflies.
It continues to have 20 acres of nursery beds managed by the CPWD.
—IANs
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Saket Suman,
Jaipur : The third day of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival witnessed several hard-hitting sessions that addressed the burning issues of nationalism and Hindutva in the contemporary scenario. With acclaimed writers Shashi Tharoor and Nayantara Sahgal leading the charge against what the latter called “Sanghiwadis,” a lot of the day’s happenings on Saturday revolved around Hindutva, and more so reclaiming Hinduism.
Tharoor addressed as many as five sessions during the day and while most of them were themed on literary aspects, the last session of the day was based on his latest book “Why I Am A Hindu”. In conversation with Arundhati Subramaniam, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram waxed eloquently on his idea of Hinduism, which, according to him, is what most Hindus believe in.
In a direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tharoor criticised him and his dispensation for double standards. “The Prime Minister says that the constitution is his holy book and at the same time he hails Deendayal Upadhyaya, who did not believe in the constitution. You can either believe in the constitution or hail Deendayal Upadhyaya. Doing both is troubling,” he said.
“To my mind, most of the people I know are unapologetic about being Hindus and they do not believe in belittling the faith of others. Today it is high time that we take back Hinduism from them. Even some of the greatest of our thinkers like Swami Vivekananda did not believe in what they are practising today.
“I don’t know how such a liberal faith as ours has been reduced to such low but I certainly don’t want to have a part in it,” he said during the hour-long session, which ended with evocative phrases from his book like “Garv se kaho main Hindu hoon” (Say proudly that I am a Hindu) and “Main Garv se kehta hoon ki main Indian hoon” (I say proudly that I am an Indian).
Tharoor said that the current government does not want “unity in diversity” but “uniformity” and that, to his mind, is a sign of dangerous times.
“If people are going to burn effigies and attack buses of school children just to prevent somebody from expressing his creative freedom, that is something to worry about. Hindutva is like Hindu wahibiism. It is high time that those of us who are better Hindus than them reclaim Hinduism,” he added.
Acclaimed writer and a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Nayantara Sahgal, reinforced her sustained attack on the “ideology of Hindutva,” dubbing it an extension of Hitler’s and Mussolini’s philosophy, while also emphasising that the country’s Dalit movement is the “strongest and most organised voice” against the current trials of time.
“When the atmosphere in the country is what it is today, there are only two options: One, to get drunk and the other to write a novel and that’s what I have done,” she said. Sahgal’s last novel “When The Moon Shines By Day” is a satire on an age when there are acute restrictions on freedom of expressions as characters in the novel come face-to-face with subjugation by the state.
“It seems to me that the Kshatriya mentality has taken over the country and is trying to decide what we do. I sense a very war-like situation in the country, not only with Pakistan but also with internal enemies,” she said, before describing that the internal enemies are “others” — those who disagree with the current dispensation.
Responding to an interjection from an audience member, she contended that “Hindutva is a problem to me because I am a Hindu. I am not only a born Hindu and practising Hindu. We rejected a religious identity at Independence because we are a deeply religious society of many religions. Our founding fathers ensured that the practitioners of every religion have pride of place in the country”.
“Under that banner of Hinduism, attacks are carried out on freedom of expression. Scientists, artists, filmmakers and everybody who do not agree with them are attacked and killed,” she added.
(Saket Suman is in Jaipur at the invitation of the organisers of Zee Jaipur Literature Festival. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Saket Suman,
Book: Why I Am A Hindu; Author: Shashi Tharoor; Publisher: Aleph Book Company; Pages: 302; Price: Rs 699
Shashi Tharoor’s new book on Hinduism — the religion followed by a majority of Indians — comes at a crucial juncture when there is an upsurge in fringe elements that practise and propagate the ideology of Hindutva. The book, therefore, was being thought of as Tharoor’s response to Hindutva. However, limiting “Why I Am A Hindu” to the debate between Hinduism and Hindutva will be a grave injustice to this riveting offering as the book is much more than the sum total of this debate.
At the onset, it is a layman’s account of his journey of discovering the “extraordinary wisdom and virtues of the faith” that he has practised for over six decades. Tharoor himself makes it clear in the Author’s Note that he is neither a Sanskritist nor a scholar of Hinduism and, thus, did not set out to write a “scholarly exposition of the religion”. The book comes across as the author’s attempt to understand the religion that he follows, calling it a self-discovery of sorts will be accurate. Tharoor’s exposition travels between personal accounts and his understanding of the religious scriptures as well as the values propagated by the likes of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Pramahamsa and others in the league whom he refers to as the “Great Souls of Hinduism”.
It is thus imperative for the reader to have a clear state of consciousness before setting on to read the book because more than anything else, it is about Hinduism, a religion, and religions are, after all the reasons behind most conflicts.
The book is divided into three sections, the first of which is titled “My Hinduism”. This answers the question raised by the title of the book: Why I Am A Hindu? Admitting as sincerely as is expected of a liberal intellectual as Tharoor, he sets the record straight and confides that he is Hindu “because I was born one”, and goes on to elaborate that religion is selected for most people at birth, “by the accident of geography and their parents’ cultural moorings”. But this analogy is not to suggest that he is not a proud Hindu. “I was never anything else: I was born a Hindu, grew up as one, and have considered myself one all my life.” The section talks at length about Tharoor’s early days, highlighting how his personal understanding of the religion developed with time. “My Hinduism was a lived faith; it was a Hinduism of experience and upbringing, a Hinduism of observation and conversation, not one anchored in deep religious study,” he points out. The section also explains at length what he calls “My Truth,” where he describes the reasons why he is “happy to describe” himself as a “believing Hindu”, before going on to present a fair perspective on the values propagated by the “Great Souls of Hinduism.”
The second section is titled “Political Hinduism” and this is where Hindutva comes into play. It is interesting to note that the author takes 140 pages (about half of the book) to reach to the burning debate of our times and in doing so, he succeeds in providing a background on his belief of the religion, supplemented by the values propagated by the likes of Swami Vivekananda before explaining Hindutva. He begins this section by providing a clear distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva. For Hinduism, he presents an imagery of a banyan tree, in whose shade, “a great variety of flora and fauna, thought and action, flourishes”. From here, he moves to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its ideologues — Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar, explaining their perspectives on Hindutva. Using original quotes, he mentions Savarkar’s assertion: “Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva.” The book then moves, at an incredible pace, to the advent of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and the Bhartiya Jana Sangh and then to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Tharoor then devotes 40 pages decoding the philosophies of Hindutva — not as he perceives it but exactly how its ideologues propagated it. Contrary to all expectations, he does not criticise them or counter their views, at least at this stage. It is from page 183 of the 302-page book, that he unleashes a storm of arguments on “the politics of division” that has led to “a travesty of Hinduism”. Next, the author eloquently elaborates on the uses and abuses of Hindu culture and history in the contemporary scenario, resulting from “the politics of division” that he early mentions.
The 28-page-long last section of the book is all that he spends on addressing what most would have expected from the entire book: “Taking Back Hinduism”. Beginning with a reference to former US President Barack Obama’s speech where he mentioned that “India will succeed so long as it is not split along the lines of religious faiths,” he elaborates on the “travesty of Hinduism” in the contemporary times.
Tharoor is brutal in his criticism of the saffron brigade but equally accommodating when it comes to presenting their views.
“Why I Am A Hindu” is a well-researched exposition and is yet a charming personal account — and it floats seamlessly in rich prose and diction synonymous with one of the most widely-read and revered authors of our times.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Nayantara Sahgal
Kolkata : Describing the current political situation as “not conducive for anybody”, veteran writer Nayantara Sahgal has called for rejecting the idea of “Hindutva” which is “creating violence” and has “nothing to do with Hinduism”.
“Right now, it is a very different situation. In the present political situation, the forces are trying to stamp out all dissent and disagreement. People who disagree with them are being killed. The last person was Gauri Lankesh.
“Not only writers, people who are transporting cattle have been killed. On suspicion of storing beef, people are being killed,” the writer told IANS.
“Remedy is to throw out Hindutva and reject it. This is creating violence. It is a very dangerous ideology and has nothing to do with Hinduism. Many writers have been speaking and writing against this ideology,” Sahgal said on the sidelines of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018 here on Saturday evening.
She said Hinduism was “not a terrorist creed” and did not advocate violence.
“The current (political) situation is not conducive not for just writers but for anybody. Anybody, they don’t like, they file cases against them. There is persecution and murder and (there is) a very evil political climate,” Sahgal said.
The much feted writer said India at the time of independence decided to put democracy before development and it also decided to be secular. “This is something to be proud of.”
During the session of ‘Women Writers: Shaping a New India’ at the Festival, an award – the Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award – in Association with Oxford Bookstore, was announced.
Applauding the initiative, she said: “I always hate to put a dividing line between men and women. Maybe, it is because that in my family men strongly believe about woman’s rights. I always firmly believe in a partnership between men and women.”
She also said that gender and class were not at all limiting factors while a particular writer writes about specific gender or class.
During the interaction, she said: “I have found from what I read that writers from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are much more politically engaged with their political situations than Indian writers are with Indian situations.
“I don’t know whether it is a correct assessment. But what I have read that seems to me… They have written very powerfully about various political situations in their countries.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mohan Bhagwat
Indore : Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has said that India is the land of Hindus but it does not exclude others.
“Hindustan is a country of Hindus. However, it does not mean that it does not belong to others. All those who were born in India, and their forefathers were from this land would be called Hindu. Hence, it is called Hindutva and not Hinduism,” he said on Friday while addressing college-goers at ‘Shankhnad’ event here.
If those living in Germany are Germans, those in America are Americans, in the same way, every person living in Hindustan is Hindu, Bhagwat said.
Despite its diversity, India has consistently exhibited unity, he added.
Bhagwat said public participation was crucial for development of the country and it could not be left solely to the government.
Progress of the government depended on the progress of society, he said.
Saying that change cannot be brought by force, Bhagwat asked for change in “vision, conduct, thinking”.
“We are moving in that direction speedily,” he said.
—IANS
