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Fundie Alert

On July 14, Sabrang, the "NGO" aligned with Communalism Combat, rang an alarm to instigate a campaign in order to influence the United Nations Economic and Social Council to reject the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's application seeking consultative status as an NGO: "The VHP -- best known for its role in the mobilisation for, and the actual demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, and for its hate campaign against Christians in the last two years -- has applied to the UN Economic and Social Council for ECOSOC consultative status as an NGO... With the application of the VHP currently deferred, thanks to an intervention by Pakistan, there is time for individuals and groups to flood the UN with strong protests against such status being accorded any time in future to the VHP."

To refresh your memories, Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt Ltd is the august body that issues the pinko rag run by Javed Anand and wife Teesta Setalwad, who had been lying low ever since they'd been hosted by a Congress MP in his posh flat in Delhi, from where they had put out lakhs of rupees worth of full-page newspaper ads reviling the caretaker government and accusing the BJP of being anti-minorities and anti-women during the run up to the last elections. We know the result of that effort: The Congress' funeral pyre just has to be lit.

Sabrang issues an "ALERT" every week with the help of the Forum of Indian Leftist: An international pinko network aids this element of the supposedly neutral Press to influence Indian affairs. Naturally, that entails having an extensive network of like-minded dorks, and working against everybody who could be of help to Hindus as a group even during Hindu-Muslim riots. Another manifestation: Since Pakistan objected to the VHP's inclusion by accusing it of being in the forefront of anti-Christian attacks, Javed Anand was distressed that Pakistan didn't mention the targeting of Muslims. As Ali Mian said: "Muslims all over the world, including those of India, were hopefully looking up to Pakistan for help and guidance"...

To tell you the truth, it sticks in my gullet to defend the VHP. I believe that God loves to punish fools, and a mortal shouldn't intervene in His arrangements. Here are some of this Mensa-grade org's activities I remember off-hand:

• The campaign against McDonald's because of the VHP's conviction that it would dish out beef;
• The campaign to replace the tiger as the national animal with the cow;
• The demands for the complete closure of mechanised abattoirs and a ban on the export of meat;
• The attempt to send a consignment of rakhis to soldiers of the Indian Army;
• Acharya Giriraj Kishore's deeply deliberated statement on sati: "There is nothing wrong if any woman who cannot bear the separation from her husband opts to join him in his funeral pyre";
• The bid to "immortalise" the nuclear tests at Pokhran by setting up a "shakti peeth" near the blast site;
• The plan to build a Rs 100 crore monument near the Qutab Minar, depicting the "massacre of Hindus by Muslims and British invaders";
• The campaign against the Tehri Dam as it "obstructs the free flow of the holy Ganges"; and,
• The agitation to delete "India" from the Constitution and retain the name "Bharat."

However, even the VHP serves a purpose. I've said it before: Because there is a VHP, the media, even if to mock and criticise it, publicises its demands and thus propagates its line of thought. The VHP is a foil, a check, a balance to all those for whom it is profitable to make Hindus an impotent political group. The Sangh Parivar -- until such a time that another national Hindu org emerges -- is just as cardinal for Hindus' future in this country as is the Supreme Court for litigants. It would be extremely asinine, arrogant and self-defeating of me to deny the VHP its plaudits just because I do not accept their madcap schemes.

If not for the VHP's activism and constant harping, we'd have been completely unaware of a plethora of subtle but calculated changes in the Indian polity - changes that some day would have broken into the Hindu's home and usurped his quarters. Even after all the VHP's ruckus about the changing demography of India, I know self-styled intellectuals who brush off the threat to Hinduism with "What can 2 or 10 per cent do to the great majority? Hinduism has survived because it is flexible."

Point is, Manipur, which was 19.4% Christian in the 1961 census, became 34.1% by 1991. Meghalaya is a Christian majority state with 64.6%, where it used to be 35.2%. Mizoram is 85.7% Christian. Nagaland jumped to 87.4% from 52.9%. Assam -- thanks to the Congress-encouraged influx of Bangladeshis -- is 28.4% Muslim. No, wait, not "is" but "was". For this is the year 2000 and I am absolutely certain that all these figures will show shocking differences at the next census. The Left strives for just that -- for Hinduism has been its greatest stumbling block in the brainwashing of India, and which is why pinkos suddenly began sponsoring Durga Pujas. On the other hand, Hindu secularists, especially the "intellectual" variety, are dipweeds. You tell them about the nefarious designs of the Pope, and they tell you, "gadey murde ukhaadne se kuchh nahi hoga." Meaning, problems will aap-o-aap disappear...

They won't. Every age, every era has its own dynamics: What held strong 400 years ago will not stand firm today. Religious and cultural values anyway dissipate, but with globalisation, that pace has taken a quantum leap. People do not get all that worked up about preserving one's religion or culture anymore. And that's a fine thing -- IF it isn't being deliberately worked to death by external forces. When that happens, and it's noticed, those who don't like such artificial interference, revolt. They close ranks. They devise means, some of which are horrible, to ward of that influence or coercion: The hardening of the caste system is one such manifestation; sati is another; the emergence of Dara Singh is yet another. And let's face it, there would've been no BJP if there had been no Shah Bano amendment.

The real damage is yet to come. Just as the unchecked conversion to Islam cost Hindustan the land now occupied by Pakistan and Bangladesh, unchecked conversion to Christianity will cost her the Northeast. The Church, and Hindu secularists, like to say that a mere 2% shouldn't frighten Hindus -- and yet the NE is already at war. Imagine what could happen when the Christian establishment, far more resourceful than the Islamic, succeeds in its proselytising crusade: India will cease to have a Hindu civilisation. "Educating" and "health caring" and "empowering lower castes suppressed by the upper castes" is nothing but means to undercut Hinduism...

The best way to fight that is by strengthening Hinduism -- by eradicating the false and perverted interpretation of Caste. *All* the evils of contemporary India have their roots in it. Dr Subhash Kak informs us that the Rigveda speaks of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra as having sprung from the head, the arms, the thighs, and the feet of Purusha, the primal man. This mention of varna was taken to indicate that a caste system existed in Vedic times. But it's repeatedly mentioned elsewhere that each human is in the image of the Purusha, which indicates that each human internalises aspects of all the varnas. Many texts proclaim that one's nature alone, and not birth, determines to which varna one belongs. It's also agreed that in the Aryan society, varnas were functional groupings and *not* closed endogamous birth-descent groups. Basham says that the caste system in its modern form developed very late; indeed, Huan Tsang, in the 7th century, wasn't even aware of it.

However, that by itself is not enough. For without a simultaneous movement of Hindu awareness, without a Kshatriya mentality of taking up arms against the invader, there won't be a time and place for the lengthy process of reformation and restoration. And that's where the Parivar -- minus the Mahatma's BJP -- scores points in my book. All that these goats have to do is inculcate a Brahmanical intellect for chess play and a Shudra heart to work.

But what about us? We who will not join the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or preach away in villages or wield the lathi during a riot...? Today, we know the genesis of the "Hindu persecution" of Christians (no wonder Pakistan chose to mention only them); we know that Dara Singh was never a part of the Parivar; we know exactly how many nuns got raped and by whom; we know the history of the conflict over Ayodhya and the role played by pinko historians of the ICHR; we know the opinion of John Joseph of the National Commission of Minorities; above all, we know the goals of the Church in India... Should we sit back and let the VHP field all the brickbats and then reap the fruits watered by its blood? No, na? Then do this: Circulate letters and flood the mail boxes of:

1. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights
World Conference Secretariat
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
e-mail: husbands@un.org

2. Development and Human Rights Secretariat
United Nations, Room S-1040,
New York, NY 10017,
USA
e-mail: vasic@un.org

Write letters saying why you believe the VHP's claim -- "While it has taken the responsibility of representing and promoting the welfare-related activities of Hindus, it also, without discrimination, promotes moral and ethical education, provides medical aid for the needy, relief to the poor, advances general public utility and pursues socio-religious, scientific and general research" - is a just one. Maybe we'll fail, but at least we'll have tried. This is not a call to division and discord. This is a call to Dharma. Hindu Dharma raahilaach paahije.

Varsha Bhosle