By: Mandar A. Pattekar MD., MS., FACR.
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the Darshana exhibit on Hinduism: https://hindudarshana.com. I was overwhelmed by the appreciation of the great humanistic view of the Hindu Dharma and the universally applicable philosophy it teaches to all humans regardless of their way of worship. I was glad that we were sharing this marvel with our fellow Americans through the avenue of the exhibition throughout the USA. Sadly, few days after the exhibition, many of our esteemed public official guests who had graced the exhibition, received letters from a group of miscreants spreading false information about Hindus, Hindu organizations, and Hinduism to besmirch the goodwill generated by the exhibition. I contemplated why somebody would engage in this behavior.
I realized that the people who denigrate Hindus generally fall into five categories:
1. The first category are the good-natured people who are misguided by the articles and news items in the mainstream media. Many respectable media houses selectively highlight unfortunate events in India. They almost never have stories of any positive stories about Hindus or India. These media sources will selectively splice stories to demonstrate how a Hindu group in India violently reacted to some provocation and will not talk about the inciting act itself. Historical wrongs like the destruction of the temple at Ayodhya (the birthplace of Lord Ram) will not be discussed. Instead, the reclamation of the ancient space will be addressed in a negative light (for review on this topic please read, https://pattekar.medium.com/the-epochal-beginning-of-the-restoration-of-one-of-the-holiest-sites-of-hindus-a-story-of-loss-3e2f19d70e5). Attacks on Hindus are never addressed in American news. Hindus are lumped as Indians or minorities are described by their specific religions. The prime example of this phenomenon is the selective reporting about the riots in Gujarat in 2002. None of these stories mention that the riots were a reaction to the 58 Hindu pilgrims being burnt alive by a communal mob. Atrocities committed by minorities in India are never given airtime. No American media reported on the recent decapitation of a Hindu shopkeeper by a minority mob in India for expressing support to a Hindu politician. Only people interviewed for news items are those with a particular slant to support the media’s intentional preconceived bias. The Hindu genocide in Kashmir gets minimal airtime on media like NPR in contrast to the wide negative coverage of Indian government’s attempt to maintain the rule of law. The good-natured American people who read the articles believe them without understanding the background and the multifaceted premise.
The onus for responding to these people falls entirely on the American Hindus. Hindus in their daily lives should interact with their neighbors and colleagues and take the initiative to explain any news about Hindus and India to friends and colleagues. Hindus should also be more represented in the media, a refrain voiced by many for a long time.
2. The second category are the religious zealots who are frustrated by the resistance shown by Hindus to their attempt to convert them into their own religion. These zealots spend millions of dollars and extensive effort to convert Hindus. They want to spread misinformation, disinformation, and mal information about Hinduism and Hindus to decrease the confidence their vulnerable Hindu targets have in their own Hindu upbringing and philosophy. These missionaries also aim to increase the monetary donation collected from their supporters to “harvest the souls” of Hindus. Really nice American people who will never hurt a fly in their own life will donate their hard-earned money to the missionaries with a misguided good intention of “pulling the Hindus out of the darkness of Hinduism”. When we hear our American friends or acquaintances say proudly that they're going to India for missionary activities, please question them on why they want to practice the violence of breaking the Hindu society. To quote the great Hindu teacher Swami Dayanand Saraswati, “Conversion is an act of violence because it hurts deeply, not only the other members of the family of the converted, but the entire community that comes to know of it”.
I have seen extensive conversion activity targeted towards the Hindu students in American Universities. These students are very emotionally vulnerable due to financial, psychological, and educational stress. The vulnerable young students are preyed upon by people to convert them to their own religion. This psychospiritual genocide of Hindu University students can be counteracted by the Hindu American people living in University towns who should take an interest in the welfare of Hindu students. This can be done by socially engaging the existing students and new arrivals. The established Hindus should connect with Hindu student organizations at the universities, participate in cultural programs and invite student groups to their homes, temples, and social functions.
3. The third category is people who themselves, their loved ones or ancestors have been abused by the many bad people who have misinterpreted and misrepresented Hindu scriptures to discriminate and exploit their own Hindu brethren for generations. These people have perverted the original ancient horizontal organizational system of classification of society. This system divided people into groups called varna based on an individual’s natural inclination as well into professional family guilds of jati. The system was corrupted into a vertically stratified caste system where the groups who were in power by virtue of their knowledge or physical/economic strength exploited and abused the people from the lower weaker strata. On one end of the spectrum, I have firsthand witnessed discrimination against people based on their caste during my student days in villages around my medical school. On the other end, I have also intimately experienced the noblest human beings of the ‘so-called upper castes’ who strived for uplifting the people from the lowest social groups. I am a product of a mixed jati parentage myself. Discrimination based on jati and varna is illegal in India since the establishment of the Republic of India, in the year 1950, although in certain quarters of Hindus, this behavior unfortunately persists.
Every Hindu especially those in the privileged groups, should take upon themselves to integrate the people of marginalized communities into their own social circles. This has to be done on an individual basis. In terms of America, this means keeping your eyes open and figuring out who among your colleagues and our neighbors are from the community which has been historically mistreated by the socially advantaged Hindus in India, and take upon themselves to form friendships, include them in the religious rituals and by just be a true Hindu.
4. The fourth category is the academics who have made a career by calling themselves experts on Hinduism by selectively highlighting adverse societal phenomena and interpreting every possible Hindu principle to twist it into its worse possible interpretation. These are highly intelligent malevolent individuals who willfully ignore the true universally benevolent nature of Hindu Dharma. These people can only be counteracted by Hindus entering the liberal arts fields of study. Unfortunately, in America, most Hindus are in STEM careers. If more American Hindus including non-Hindu Americans, with a true understanding of Hinduism enter the academic world and present the Hindu principles, these rabid wolves in the sheep’s clothing will be exposed.
5. Lastly, falling into the fifth category are Hindus who believe that since they have achieved fame in one field like acting, modeling, or business, they have a acquired qualification to make ignorant baseless blanket statements about Hinduism. These people usually parrot whatever their friends want to hear and cause grave damage since many young Hindus value their opinion, which is circulated on popular social media. The only way to neutralize these people is to immediately repudiate their statements on the same media platform by large number of true scholars.
There may be many more categories which I believe the readers would come up with their own observations. I implore you my friends, to please not be a passive witness but be proactive and if needed, reactive to this onslaught on Hinduism. Please make sure that the beautiful treasure trove of universal principles is shared with humanity and not relegated to some musty corner of obscurity.
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