Hindu Assertion is an Effect of Govt Bias | Prof. M.D. Nalapat
573Since the 1980s, there has been a growing consolidation of what may be described as “Hindu-ness” in India. This should not be a surprise because ever since 1947, the major political parties seemed to have forgotten the majority community an kept their incessant focus on the minorities, principally the Muslims. The successive governments in independent India have partitioned the society into majority and minority. Essentially, it is a double partition: At first the country was partitioned territorially, and subsequently, people of different faiths were partitioned in terms of policies.
Now the situation is such that any kind of effort to equalize the field between the majority and the minority communities is seen as cultural, physical or religious persecution of the Muslims. genocide, physical, cultural, or religious. However, unless there is an equalization, we cannot call it secularism. Thus, the growing sense of nationalism in the country is not Hindu assertion, but simply the recognition of a majority as majority.
Professor Nalapat addresses the Muslim community clarifying that the community is perfectly safe in India. Notwithstanding the narrative that certain vested interests have created, not joining the Jinnah-Churchill bandwagon of partition, he states that the Muslim community thus needs to restore its faith in an undivided subcontinent.
One of the big gestures of reconciliation, says he, would be to hand over the greatest sites of the Hindu faith, Ayodhya, Mathura, and Varanasi, to the majority community. For when the places of birth of Ram and Krishna, and the original site of the Kashi Viswanath temple are restored to their former glory, it would go a long way to strengthen the secular fabric of the society.
About the Speaker:
Professor Madhav Das Nalapat is India’s first Professor of Geopolitics, Vice-Chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group and UNESCO Peace Chair at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations at Manipal University, India. He is a professor, a philosopher, an ideologue, and a secularist who, with his mantra as, ‘India First’, has defined India’s rising sense of nationalism since the 1980’s.
He started his career as a fellow of the Centre for Political Research, and went on to work at several national and international media houses. An expert on religious extremism, national security, foreign policy, international affairs, and geopolitical issues, he has written for several national and international publications and global television channels, including but not limited to the Global Times, CNN Global Square, the Diplomat, China Daily, The Pakistan Observer, Gateway House, Radio Free Europe, and United Press International. He is currently the Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian and NewsX Channel.
A collection of his writings can be found at
https://nalapatarchive.blogspot.com ,
https://mdnalapat.wordpress.com &
https://blog.mdnalapat.com
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