Guha on hijab ban

The always idiotic Ramachandra Guha- who is of Tamil origin- writes of 'How Hindutva will hurt Hindus' in Scroll.

His first example is Sri Lanka where the majority Sinhala gained land, government jobs and economic opportunities at the expense of the Tamil minority who suffered greatly. Had Sri Lanka not weakened its Army (fearing a Burgher (Christian) coup) it would not have had a problem with Trotskyites or Tamil Tigers. The Sinhala majority could simply have continued to expand by ethnically cleansing Tamils and Moors and so forth. 

Did the Tamils gain by fighting back? No. Their armed struggle backfired and left them poorer, weaker and more vulnerable. The lesson of Sri Lanka is 'if you are a minority don't fight the majority. Keep quiet.' What is the message for the majority? 'Bully the minority and then have a strong army to slaughter them on an industrial scale if any insurrection occurs.' Suppose the Sinhalas had not taken an aggressive posture, then the English speaking classes would have continued to dominate the economy and the administration.

Writing in the 1980s about the ethnic conflict in his home country, the Sri Lankan anthropologist, SJ Tambiah, 

who fled Sri Lanka after first hand experience of the 1956 Gal Oya pogrom and the even worse Colombo pogrom of 1958. This was after Bandarnaike passed the Sinhala Only Act.  

described the Sinhalese as a “majority with a minority complex”.

Tambi (as he was known) had the sense to run away first to Thailand where he did field-work on the basis of which he could get to Cambridge and then the University of Chicago before ending up at Harvard. His book on Sri Lanka's communal problems was banned there and he himself was accused of being a sympathizer of the Tamil Tigers. He kept away from that country- which had turned to shit after it embraced proportional representation- because of death threats. 

Having studied Buddhism in Thailand, Tambi was appreciative of it as a religion. Sadly because he was an anthropologist, his brains turned to shit and so he could not understand why his island was suffering so much. But the answer to that question was obvious to anyone who hadn't wasted their life in a useless branch of the Academy. 

Consider the following- “In 1958, while I was leading a research team composed of university undergraduates, all of whom were Sinhalese, that were engaged in a sociological study of peasant colonization in Gal Oya, ethnic riots unexpectedly broke out in our midst, and at Amparai, Sinhalese public workers went on the rampage in hijacked trucks, attacking Tamil shopkeepers and Tamil peasant colonists. My students, very solicitous for my safety, insisted that I stay behind closed doors while they stood guard. And I was later hidden in a truck, and spirited out of the valley to Batticaloa, a safe Tamil area. That experience was traumatic: it was the first time the ethnic divide was so forcibly thrust into my existence. And intuitively reading the signs, I wished to get away from the island, for I experienced a mounting alienation and a sense of being homeless in one’s own home.”

What phrase stands out in the above? For an economist it is 'peasant colonization'. This was about land. Sri Lanka is a small island. Who owns which piece of land is always going to matter a great deal. But having said that, anthropology can add little else. 

Of course, it is possible that Tambi was being charitable when he spoke of the Sinhalese as having some sort of psychological complex. But the truth was obvious. Their motivation was economic. They took land and jobs from Tamils and other minorities. Later the religious angle was played up so that the up country Sinhalese could share in the gains of their English speaking cousins. This was a successful strategy of a familiar type. All newly independent countries  adopted majoritarian policies and 'bhumiputra' style reservations for 'sons of the soil'. Where a Communist threat existed, blood flowed in greater quantities. This is what happened in Sri Lanka after Indian and Pakistani soldiers put down the JVP Trotskyite insurrection. But where there was no Red menace and minorities kept their heads down there was little need for carnage.

The Sinhalese constituted more than 70% of the population, they controlled the country’s politics and dominated the bureaucracy

 Tambi himself says that Tamils were 50 percent of the bureaucracy in 1956. The Army's upper ranks were dominated by Christian 'Burghers' who attempted a coup in 1962.  Both groups lost out as educated Sinhalese- guys with names like Benson Wilmot- returned to Buddhism- taking on new names like Madihe Pannaseeha Nayaka Thero- and their economic and political power increased because their up country cousins were ready to back them. 

and the army, their religion, Buddhism, was the country’s official faith,

it became so under the 1972 Constitution 

their language, Sinhala, enjoyed a superior official status to other tongues and, yet, despite all this, the Sinhalese were consumed by a pervading sense of victimhood.

Because the Tamil rebellion had begun in 1983, after a vicious pogrom, and it was obvious that if India intervened then they would win. However, it must be said that elected Tamil politicians made a mistake in keeping contact with the Revolutionaries. The Government had agreed to devolution in 1980 which was the best deal the Tamils could have got. But by then the Tigers were dreaming of something bigger. A second chance at peace was lost in 1989 when Tigers turned up to meet two of the most prominent elected leaders who, for some reason, they decided to shoot. After that things just got crazier and crazier. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and the Tigers belatedly decided to take responsibility for it rather than maintain plausible deniability. Thambi looked a fool for gassing on about 'minority complexes' when it was blindingly obvious that some of his own people were as crazy as bed bugs. Why was this vaunted 'anthropologist' so utterly useless when it came to his own community? The answer, obviously, that he was teaching a shite subject. The same could be said for Guha. Why has he said nothing about the DMK campaign of hate against Brahmins like himself? The answer, I suppose, is that as Hindus we feel Brahminbandhus who think they are a cut above need to be given a couple of tight slaps and then told to sit down quietly or fuck off elsewhere. Majoritarianism has been good for T.N. No violence was needed because the 'majority complex' of the Tambram was quickly dissipated. They were just ordinary Hindus who wanted the State to promote education and industry so all could rise up a little. Anyway, Karunanidhi wrote great Movie scripts and MGR and Jayalalitha were very nice to look at. Also they were less shite at running things than Gandhian or Socialist nutters. 

They felt threatened by the minority Tamils, complaining that the Tamils were better educated because they were favoured when the island was under British colonial rule,

Change 'Tamils' to 'Tamil Brahmins' and the sentence defines the Dravidian ideology which has been hegemonic in Tamil Nadu since 1968. 

that they were assertive because they had the support of India (a country much larger and militarily more powerful than Sri Lanka), and that if their aggressiveness was unchecked the Tamils would overwhelm the Sinhalese in their one and only homeland.

Such indeed would have been the outcome if the Tigers and their Indian supporters hadn't screwed the pooch. The fact is that the utter defeat and annihilation of the Tigers left the Sinhalas in an enviable position which was undermined by the profligacy and economic mismanagement of their own leaders. 

I was reminded about Tambiah’s formulation about Sri Lanka when I read a newspaper report about a meeting in the town of Udupi between some citizens and the swami of the Pejawar Matha.

Is Guha saying the extremist Popular Front of India is acting as stupidly as the Tamil Tigers and that this is going to help Hindu consolidation- previously imperiled by caste rivalries and the split between Lingayats and Veerasaivas? If so this is a warning Karnataka's Muslims, not Hindus, must heed. The Sinhala majority gained by their brutal tactics. The Tamils lost by their attempt to fight back.  

The town and district of Udupi have, in recent years, emerged as Karnataka’s laboratory for hardline Hindutva.

Guha & Co previously referred to Gujarat under Modi as the 'laboratory' for Hindutva. What was the result? Gujarat rose and Modi became Prime Minister. Guha, fool that he is, is saying that Karnataka will prosper under the BJP. Hindutva will expand to neighboring states. Is Guha doing propaganda for the extreme wing of the Mahasabha? No. He is simply a fool.  

It is the town where a local college, encouraged by a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, enforced a ban on the hijab that did not exist before,

but which was upheld by a Bench upon which a female Muslim was sitting because the Muslim girls involved were making a ridiculous claim- viz. that Muslim women who don't wear hijab are not true Muslims 

sparking a statewide and countrywide controversy with deeply damaging consequences for communal peace.

But it is only minorities who suffer at the end of the day when such peace is disturbed. The majority gains land and jobs and economic power.  

The Pejawar Matha is one of the eight religious institutions, which collectively run the famous and much-visited Krishna temple in Udupi.

They will now get more pilgrims and thus more revenue. Politically they will become a force to be reckoned with. 

After their success in enforcing a ban on the hijab – thereby denying many young girls their right to education

if they are foolish enough not to take off their hijab in class 

– the Hindutva hardliners of Udupi had got a pliant administration to impose a ban on Muslim shopkeepers

i.e. enforce a law enacted 20 years ago 

participating in fairs associated with Hindu temples or festivals, although they had done so for many years previously to the benefit of thousands of customers of all faiths or none.

Muslim traders lose but Hindu traders gain. That means Hindus vote for Hindutva so as to continue to prosper at the expense of the Muslims who are a minority. It appears the hijab protests have backfired. 

Knowing that they could get no succour from the state government, or even perhaps from the courts, a citizens’ group, which included some Muslims, called in desperation on the head of the Pejawar Matha and asked him to intervene against the ban on Muslim traders and, thus, help promote communal harmony.

It seems they failed to intimidate him. The question is why these guys didn't try to get the law changed. After all the head of the Math is supposed to observe the law, not defy it.  

The swami told them that Hindu society “had suffered a lot in the past”.

Which is perfectly true. The Indian Constitution considers past suffering- e.g. that of Dalits- to be a proper basis for the granting of superior entitlements. 

Then a newspaper quoted him as saying: “When a section or group continuously faces injustice, its frustration and anger pour out. Hindu society is fed up with injustices.”

Again, this is perfectly true. Christians and Muslims have superior rights when it comes to running educational and other institutions. In 2018, Congress sought to give Lingayats the coveted minority tag but this caused internal friction because some Lingayats were also Veerasaiva. Former Congress Minister, M.B Patil is now proposing a joint Lingayat-Veerasaiva minority status after the 2023 poll. It is this type of injustice with which Hindu society is fed up.  

Note that the swami began with an invocation of history, the claim that Hindu society “had suffered a lot in the past”. I suppose the reference here is to the Muslim kings who ruled over much of what is now India in the medieval period.

Guha is not aware that there was a Christian King Emperor in London. 

Such references are, of course, ubiquitous to Hindutva rhetoric, as witness the speeches made in Uttar Pradesh in recent months by the prime minister, the Union home minister, and the state’s chief minister.

In other words, this is what the Indian people, quite reasonably, believe. Guha may object but can he provide any reason for his objection? Was there or was there not persecution of Hindus by Muslims and Christians in that region? Is there no anti-Hindu violence and proselytization? Is it not the case that minority educational institutions get superior treatment?  

The working-class Muslims living in Lucknow or Udupi in 2022 have not the remotest connection to these Muslim rulers of the past;

They belong to the same religion. Guha may not understand that there is no class distinction in Islam. Nor does the religion change over time. A pious Muslim today is equal in every way to a pious Muslim of the past or the future. The same is true of Hindus and Christians and Jews and Confucians.

yet the accident of a shared religion is used to intimidate and shame them.

Faith is not an accident. It is a gratuitous gift from the Creator. Those who have faith in God are not 'intimidated' or 'shamed' by anyone or anything. It is a different matter that one may be on the losing or winning side in a political, or economic, or military matter.  

Making Indian Muslims today feel guilty

This cunt is trying to make Indian Hindus today feel guilty 

for what the Mughals or even Tipu Sultan may (or may not) have done centuries ago is a pernicious practice.

Guha's historiography is a pernicious practice. By his logic, only those directly involved in a crime are morally responsible for it even if that crime is occurring right now.  

Note, however, that the Pejawar Swami himself moved on almost seamlessly to the present by speaking of Hindus “continuously facing injustice”.

This is what Guha is doing. He is moving seamless from past to present. Why? He is seeking to shame or intimidate Hindus. But he is doing it in the hysterical style of Huccha Venkat. Thus he affords us much hilarity. 

From whom and how?

From the Congress party and the Left. Does Guha really not understand this? The argument here is that the Congress party, misled by senile Leftists, is out to harm Hindus while supporting anti-national Leftists and Islamists. It is usual to speak of the 'tukde tukde' gang in this context.  

In demographic terms, Hindus are even more dominant in India than Sinhalas ever were in Sri Lanka.

Which is why their hegemony in India must be even more pronounced.  

Their hegemony over the political process and the administration of law and order is pretty near complete.

Not while Congress and the Left can still capture one or two seats. Let there be an opposition by all means but let that opposition come from 'kattar desh premi' (dedicated patriots) like Kejriwal who starts chanting Hanuman Chalisa at the drop of a hat.  

Muslims in Karnataka are utterly powerless – politically, economically, socially, and culturally.

In which case they should keep quiet rather than launch protests about the hijab. Guha himself is reminding them of what happened to the Tamils in Sri Lanka.  

They are underrepresented in the legislature, in the civil services and the police, in the judiciary, and the professions.

And, unlike the Tamil Tigers, they will get no support if they launch an insurgency. They will simply be slaughtered.  

Their economic status is precarious. Furthermore, a party committed to Hindu supremacy is in office both in Karnataka and India as a whole.

So Muslims should keep quiet. Their hijab protest led to a 3 day closure of schools and colleges. This makes them look like stupid cretins who oppose modern education and social progress. 

And, yet, the Pejawar Swami can present Hindus as victims of discrimination and injustice.

Thus gaining prestige and influence by voicing genuine Hindu grievances which will be redressed sooner or later. Guha, by contrast, is trying to shame and intimidate Hindus but is failing spectacularly because he mentions Sri Lanka where the majority gained but the Tamil minority (Guha himself is Tamil) were crushed and pulverized.  

When the head of an ancient, well-endowed, well-respected and hugely influential religious order speaks in this manner, we know that we are in the presence of a majority with a minority complex.

No. We are in the presence of a majority with a majority complex. Tambi was speaking at a time when the Sinhalese feared that the Indian Tamils would back the Tigers with more than words. They were a majority on the island but a minority once the mainland was taken into account.

In how they feel, Hindus under Hindutva are in danger of becoming a majority with a minority complex, plagued by a sense of paranoia and persecution.

Guha is certainly paranoid. Some crazy small town lawyer filed a sedition charge against him and the guy felt he was being persecuted in the same manner as Mahatma Gandhi. 

France, of course, is the country where- as the Presidential race hots up- a majority claims to fear being turned into a minority. They have a hijab ban. Le Pen proposes to go after head scarves next. Will she win? It is doubtful. Europe needs Macron to help create a European Army able to seal the borders and stand up to Russia.  

However, in how they act, Hindus under Hindutva are in danger of becoming a majority with a majority complex.

In other words, there is a danger that Hindus will do things which benefit them. Oddly, this is the best outcome for minorities. When the majority gets richer, the minority too prospers and becomes more secure. 

Using the power of their numbers, they are ruthlessly enforcing their will on those who are not Hindus through their control of the state, the administration, the media, and even allegedly sections of the judiciary.

Because that is how democracy works. Guha, cretin that he is, thinks Democracy means the minority rules while the majority takes it up the ass.  

The most recent examples of this brute majoritarianism are the attempts by Hindutva groups to ban the hijab, halal meat, and the azaan,

just like some European countries. But then Europe began defeating and expelling Muslims long ago after which Europeans took over the American and Australian continents and imposed their rule on much of Africa and South Asia.  

although, of course, the process of subjugating and humiliating Indian Muslims takes many other forms as well.

Guha waggles his buttocks at Muslims and reminds them that it is against their religion to fuck him in the ass. No doubt, he thinks they find this very humiliating but their hearts have been subjugated by his shapely haunches. 

There are two distinct, if inter-related, dimensions to Hindutva’s attack on Indian Muslims. The first dimension is political, the diabolically successful endeavour to create a winning “Hindu” vote bank, by getting a significant section of Dalits and OBCs inside the Hindutva tent.

This cunt is a 'Tambram'. There was a Congress legislator named Santhanam who protested to Olivier, Secretary of State for India, that an 'Ulster type' situation had been created in Madras. That stupid cunt was referring to Non-Brahmins taking power through the ballot box and seeking to redress glaring imbalance in Civil Service recruitment. Guha, like Santhanam, does not understand that a Brahmin is no more or less a Hindu than a person of any other caste. He thinks OBCs and Dalits are inferior to himself. He is very angry that an OBC is Prime Minister. He hates the fact that a Dalit is President. But what can he do about it? Nothing.  

Since, in most states, roughly 80% of the electorate is composed of Hindus, if the BJP can get roughly 60% of them to vote for it on this Hindu-first and Muslim-excluding plank, it is home and dry. (This is where the BJP has only one major political party to oppose it. In states where several parties have active stakes, even 50% of the Hindu vote would be enough for the BJP to win.)

That's why Kejriwal is 'kattar desh premi' and recites Hanuman Chalisa. It is easy enough for Hindus to compete with the BJP just by showing themselves to be patriotic Hindus rather than anti-national anti-Hindus like Gooo-haha.  

The second dimension of Hindutva’s attack on minorities is ideological, the conviction that Hindus are the only true, authentic, reliable citizens of this land,

Which Hindu thinks Guha is reliable? None at all. The man is anti-national. Which Hindu thinks Arif Mohammad Khan is anti-national. None at all. You may as well question the patriotism of Abdul Kalam.  

and that Indian Muslims (and, to some extent, Indian Christians too) are somehow rendered inauthentic and unreliable because (in VD Savarkar’s notorious formulation) their punyabhumi (holy place of worship) is located outside of their pitrabhumi

Guha is trying to throw a scare into Indian Muslims and Christians. But they know that the BJP will promote patriotic Muslims and Christians on the basis of merit. The enemy of the Indian patriot is the Indian anti-national.  

(homeland). This sense of being the only true owners of the land prompts Hindutva activists to continually provoke and taunt Indian Muslims about their dress, their cuisine, their customs, their forms of economic livelihood and so on.

Guha may be trying to provoke and taunt Hindutva activists. The problem is that their dress and cuisine and form of economic livelihood now vary very greatly. He has in his mind a stereotype of a guy with a kudumi (shikha) who roams around in a dhoti saying 'aiyayo! eating korma is it? God will curse you!'.

In a recent public intervention in Mysuru, the brave and much admired Kannada writer, Devanur Mahadeva,

a champion of Kannada language instruction in schools. I must say, I now support this. That language is a treasure-trove of Hindu and Jain spirituality and religion. Hindutva gains when kids get proper instruction. I admit that I gave up trying to learn Kannada very quickly. I lack mental discipline. But if I'd had that instruction as a kid my Faith would be stronger. I'd have led a better life. Sadly, that would have meant being even poorer than I am now. But if you have religious belief you are content to do menial work for low pay provided that work is socially beneficial. The problem with 'anglo' education is you get a sense of entitlement. You want wealth without yourself contributing to wealth creation. You will end up a virtue signalling cretin like Guha if you go down that path.  

bought halal meat in defiance of a ban imposed by Hindutva goons.

Apparently there was a fair where 'jhatka' meat was sold at a discounted price.  

As he did this he said, “hate is the energy drink of the right-wing”.

While halal meat is his energy- or publicity- food. 

This was a brilliantly succinct description, to which I may be allowed to provide an addendum. This is that the hate in this energy drink is mixed with paranoia.

Guha & Co's paranoia has marginalized them. They lost the History wars. 

For Hindus under the influence of Hindutva have become both fearfully insecure as well as consumed with an irrational hatred towards their Muslim fellow citizens.

While Guha & Co are consumed with an irrational hatred towards their Hindu fellow citizens who prefer to vote for the BJP or AAP because they want better governance.  

In the short-term, the playing out of this ideology in practice will grievously hurt Indian Muslims (as it is already doing). In the long-term, however, it will come to haunt and hurt Hindus as well. The Sinhalese stigmatisation of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Sunni stigmatisation of Hindus, Christians, Ahmadiyyas and Shias in Pakistan, and the Buddhist stigmatisation of Rohingyas in Myanmar are all cautionary tales in this regard.

No they aren't. The majority communities did well in each of these places. Economic mismanagement is a separate story. Malaysia had good economic management. It is doing very well indeed after it showed its minorities who was boss. The Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh are very quiet. Good economic management has led to that country overtaking Pakistan and West Bengal in per capita income. 

These three countries would all have been far better off today had they not each become so captive to an ideology of religious majoritarianism.

No. They would have been better off if they followed sensible economic policies. Minorities didn't matter at all. Beat them if they grow restive and then make them work harder for less money. The odd thing is that they then rise up more rapidly. Since they are net contributors to the exchequer they find they are safe enough. UAE and Saudi Arabia are Islamic states where Hindus and Christians want to live. Why? Nutters will be killed or locked up. Economic management may continue to be quite good. That's all that matters. The NYT claims there is Muslim 'brain drain' from France. But such brains can be easily replaced. What matters is that the Socialists have been pulverized. Thus France is likely to rise economically and as the leader of Europe. Its majoritarianism will be an advantage to it.  

For hate and paranoia are not the means by which peaceful and prosperous societies are nurtured or built.

Every 'peaceful and prosperous society' extant in the world today dealt severely with restive minorities and then pursued sensible economic policies.  India too has given secessionists and other trouble-makers short shrift. This is good for minorities. Guha's hatred and paranoia for the BJP hasn't really helped him. Initially we bought his books because he wasn't a Marxist and could write decent middle-brow English. Then he went mad and began raving hysterically like Huccha Venkat. We suddenly remembered the fellow was a Tambram- i.e. as stupid as shit. Then we had a good laugh at the tosser. It is ridicule which triumphs over stupidity and paranoia. If only Guha could laugh at himself he'd be more peaceful if not more prosperous.