Pratap Bhanu Mehta as dharmadhvajin

Suppose a big Church was constructed for the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Its consecration might well be celebrated all around the world. Something similar is happening in Ayodhya for 'Ram Lalla Virajman' and Hindus around the world are celebrating. 

Not Pratap Bhanu Mehta who has run away from Modi's India to an America which will soon be Trump's. 

He writes in the Indian Express-

There are moments in history that appear to drive wave after wave of people in a great torrent of catharsis, ecstasy, emotion and an elevated group mood that almost all conventional analysis, historical categories, moral measures and political prognosis seem beside the point.

This is something wrong with this sentence. Some word or words are missing. I suppose what this cretin means is something like 'there are moments in history which trigger such intense emotional responses from the masses that conventional analysis is rendered otiose.' But, because Mehta's English is poor and his brain is full of shit, he is unable to express this idea. 

It must be said, it is a foolish idea. There have been plenty of previous inflection points of the sort that is occurring today in India. Skilled politicians, administrators, moral and economic entrepreneurs as well as marketing mavens know well how to capitalize on such occasions. Even Mehta, is using the occasion to serve up once again his own warmed up vomit. 

It would be foolish to deny that the pran pratishtha of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya is one such event.

The Karnataka Congress is doing a good 'bundobust' today so as to consolidate its hold on the voters. Sadly, Kharge has put the kybosh on Sonia- and by extension Rahul- gaining some goodwill on this occasion by reminding voters that Rajiv Gandhi had set the ball rolling. 

Just in sheer magnitude, of the tens of millions of people mobilised, whose identity, emotions and hopes are, at least for the moment, oriented towards Ayodhya, this event has almost no precedent in history.

The precedent is not far to seek- viz. the 'shilanyas' on 5th August 2000. This came close on the heels of the Supreme Court judgment awarding the disputed site to the deity.  

It is a watershed moment. The pran pratishtha following the foundation stone of Ayodhya, marks the consecration of Hinduism as a political religion pure and simple.

Hinduism, like other religions, has a long tradition of 'consecrating' or 'anointing' Kings or other political leaders. Nehru was anointed by Hindu priests and a holy Hindu sceptre was handed over by Mountbatten to Nehru to signify the transfer of power. 

No religion has ever been itself consecrated or turned into a purely political, as opposed to soteriological, entity. Mehta confuses the affirmation of a particular religion as the State religion - which has not happened in India- with 'consecration' which is a service Organized Religion may offer the Head of State. Thus, when Henry VIII broke with Rome, though the Church of England was established as the creed of the State, it was not the case that the monarch consecrated the Bishops. Rather it was the other way around.

Mehta's English is poor. He does not understand the meaning of terms like 'consecration' because he is ignorant of English history and traditions. Also, he is as stupid as shit.  

It is not just a moment where the state, which has pulled all its mighty power behind this event,

Some Indian States are doing good 'bundobust' for the event. Others aren't. Indeed, they may be seeking to oppose private celebrations. The plain fact is that Hindus agitating for the Temple were opposed by the State. But Hindu votes and Hindu sentiments changed the distribution of political power. Legal arguments made by Hindus were eventually accepted by the Supreme Court. This is a case of Hindus using legal and democratic channels to change the policies of the State. Mehta, cretin that he is, pretends the reverse has happened. Modi gained supreme power and then created the Temple. Yet, Mehta must remember that Modi was a nobody till his contribution to making the 'Rath Yatra' a success brought him to Advani's attention. This is a case of the Ram Temple movement propelling the ascent to power of a particular political party and particular politicians.  

ceases to be secular. It is also the moment where Hinduism ceases to be religious.

This is nonsense. 'Secular' in India, Iraq, Syria etc meant fucking over the Hindu Mahasabha or Muslim Brotherhood or other supposedly more 'free-market' oriented 'bazaari' middle-class political movements. But that type of dynastic 'Secular Socialism' produced shitty economic outcomes. It could only stay in power by using the Army and the Secret Police to kill lots of people. In India, however, assassination tempered autocracy. Even Dynasts and Dictators need to think of the after-life.

Hinduism would cease to be religious if it ceased to concern itself with what happens after death. Mehta, being brain dead, may not understand this. 

The sheer spectacle of the event, now fusing modified but still traditional yama and niyama, with mass broadcasting and mass mobilisation, is itself considered an achievement.

Just as the 'shilanyas' ceremony was an achievement. This is bigger and better.  

The spectacle is the statement: That Hindus have asserted their collective power, reclaimed their historical agency, and overcome the deep sense of insecurity, and despite some murmurings, for once managed to make something a show of unity. The BJP has kept its promises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi now donning the mantle of Hindu kingship, has the ability to get millions of people to play their parts for an audience of One, with all institutions, corporations, sects, civil society, media singing the same tune. It is a terrifying spectacle on any proper measure of democracy.

Mehta thinks a Temple which is being constructed on orders of the highest Court should not receive mass adoration. The proper measure of democracy is the degree to which ordinary people are empowered to shit on all that is sacred or venerable. Sadly, Mehta's new country of domicile- America- shows little enthusiasm for doing any such thing.  

But as a form of deference to mass sentiment it is now carrying its own democratic imprimatur.

The 'democratic imprimatur' was received in 2017 when Yogiji was elected CM of UP.  

There is something quite astonishing about this mobilisation of power.

Not if you remember the 'shilanyas' celebration. Obviously, this would be much bigger and better because the temple deity is being 'brought to life'. 

You have to struggle to remember its ominous origins and shadows.

Mehta struggled but failed to master the English language.  

Some parties may contest the ceremony.

No. They may object to it or criticize it. They can't 'contest' it.  

But everyone has to rush to declare their allegiance to Ram.

No they don't. Mehta is mad.  

Even Opposition parties are obliged to pay allegiance to Ram in the form that ironically was best described by Iqbal when he called Ram the Imam-e-Hind.

Fuck off! The Communists aren't doing any such thing. Nor is Owaisi. How the fuck is Iqbal relevant?  

The Ram whose role in Indian cultural and spiritual life was one whose centre was everywhere and circumference nowhere, has now been anchored to a centre.

That was always the case. Similarly, Christ was born in Bethlehem. Mehta, cretin that he is, confuses an incarnation- which has oikeiosis- with the Godhead, which does not.  

Ram has been transformed from a radiant glow of righteousness, compassion, and imaginative power into something merely instrumental:

Lord Ram, like Lord Jesus Christ, is an incarnation of the Godhead. He is an instrument. There is a specific task on Earth that only He can perform. 

A litmus test for national loyalty.

This cretin doesn't get that there are plenty of non-Indian Hindus. Does this nutter think Rishi Sunak is loyal to India?  

We are now more valorous devotees of Ram — more than Tulsidas or Gandhi, who rejected the logic of retaliation. You now have to swear allegiance to this Imam-e-Hind, or else.

Or else, you can't get refugee asylum in USA.  

In many ways, Bhagwad Gita 17.18 captures the spectacle being made out of this ceremony perfectly. It goes: satkara mana puja artham tapah dambehna cheva yat/kriyate tadiham proktam rajas am chalam adhruvam (Penance and austerities performed ostentatiously out of pride for the sake of gaining honour and recognition are all in the mode of a passion. Its benefits are unstable and fleeting).

Mehta is a cretin. The Gita is speaking of austerities- e.g. standing on one foot for ten years- performed so as to gain super-natural powers or else so as to secure adoration as a God-man. It is not talking of adoration (puja) of the Deity.  

This is both an accurate description of this mode of worship

No. It criticizes austerities done to gain 'puja' (adoration). It does not criticize 'puja' itself- which is what Modi and other Hindus are doing. The Gita is a theistic text. It approves 'bhakti yoga'- or 'puja' worship of idols of the incarnate Lord.  

and a warning. It names this worship for what it is: A spectacle.

No it does not. Puja is not criticized at all. Seeking to gain puja adoration by performing some stunt- e.g. standing on one foot for ten years- may bring benefits but they are temporary or unstable.  

But the fact that the passions and emotional resonances it produces are transitory is not reassuring in this context.

Mehta does not understand that Hindus do 'puja' every day. He is under the impression that, quite suddenly, they have all decided to do Puja on a particular day. After that, they will omit such worship and thus gain no lasting soteriological benefit. 

It will require that the deep insecurities and needs this spectacle has tapped into be constantly satiated.

By praying regularly in your local temple or, the 'puja-room' in your own house.  

The passion around Ram is not a form of ecstasy finding its final repose in a radiant calm.

Yes it is- for Hindus. Mehta's is getting very passionate about the Ram Temple but he is not radiant, he is fucking retarded.  

It is going to be one in a long chain where our pride will have to be constantly fed.

Mehta's pride needs to be constantly fed. Ashoka University was not massaging his ego sufficiently. So he left his students in the lurch and fucked off to Amrika.  

This is because in an inversion of dharma, the relation between pride and its object is reversed.

Svadharma is, as the Indo-Greeks understood, eusebia linked to oikeiosis. Mehta, being an ignorant cretin, does not know this. One can take pride in one's 'oikos' or family or community even though one is oneself included as an object of that pride.  

We no longer take pride in genuine achievement;

Millions of Hindus genuinely contributed money and time to the construction of the Temple which is genuinely going ahead in an exemplary manner. 

generating pride is considered the achievement.

Mehta writes hysterical virtue signalling shite so as to feed his own ego. But he has no fucking 'achievements' as a 'scholar'. He is an illiterate, incontinent, nutter.  

In the Mahabharata there is an evocative word, Dharma Dhwajii.

Mehta is a cretin. In the Mahabharata, Ashwatthama (the Hindu Cain or 'wandering Jew') describes Yuddhishtra as 'dharmadhvajin' whereas actually it is he himself who has been blinded by ego. He is similar to others of 'Bharadwaj' gotra who sinned through hubris. 

 The word also occurs in the Srimad Bhagvata - नैतत्खलायोपदिशेन्नाविनीताय कर्हिचित् ।न स्तब्धाय न भिन्नाय नैव धर्मध्वजाय च. The meaning is that the Vaishnavite doctrine should not be given to the hypocrites. But it is Mehta who is the hypocrite here. He pretends that Vaishnavs don't build temples for the incarnate Lord. He believes Ram speaks to him but not to the actual Nirmohi and other Vaishnavs who agitated for or built this Temple. 

It is a pejorative for those who make a show of their worship

Like Mehta who claims to be so great a devotee of Ram that he gets upset if ordinary people refer to him as 'Lord Ram' or if they build a temple for Him.  

in what is a sign of lack of real faith.

Mehta's real faith is that Ram comes to him for a nice chat. Mehta admonishes Ram because Ram has temples and millions of devotees. Where are Mehta's temples? Even in rural Haryana, his students were not worshipping him properly. This shows Hindu religion has turned to shit. Modiji should come and worship Mehta on regular basis. Failure to do so is nothing but Fascism! 

The term Dharma Dhwajii refers to those who, as it were, care about the flag more than they care about dharma.

The dharmadhvajin is condemned in Manu Smriti. The meaning is 'one who shows the outward appearance of virtue but lacks the thing itself'. Mehta is not a Brahmin. He clearly does not understand the reference to Rishi Bharadwaja and the manner in which hubris, or lack of guidance by a proper Guru, can lead to ethical calamity. 

Mehta is supposed to be a scholar. But, because his English and Sanskrit are poor and because he is as stupid as shit, he has merely the outward appearance of erudition. 

The Dharma Dhwajiis have, for the moment, won the political, cultural and emotional battle fair and square.

No. Ordinary Hindus prevailed. That's how Democracy works. Sad.  

It is the overwhelming power of this moment, and the fact that we now inhabit a political universe solely dominated by power, that expressing even ambivalence about this pran pratishtha seems more like blowing straws in a hurricane. Bearing witness, fighting for republican ideals, are all now reduced to self-satisfied snarks or expressions of sour grapes. There is no real ideological counterpoint.

Not from this cretin at any rate.  

Rallying around the dhwaja is clear. What dharma it portends is less clear.

Vaishnav dharma. Sankaracharyas have lost prestige.  

The content of this new Ramrajya, is, for a moment, founded in a logic of retaliation and blood, rancour and division, that India’s post-1951 constitutional ideals sought so hard to avoid.

India did have its own corrupt dynastic 'Secular/Socialistic' Dictatorship- but assassination tempered autocracy.  

That project was, first and foremost, betrayed in many different ways by its own custodians.

Socialism turned the economy to shit.  

The Dharma Dhwajiis, with popular acclaim, have reduced whatever was left of the dharma of that republic to ruins.

Nope. Rahul didn't want to get assassinated. Congress didn't have a PM candidate. Modi won by default.  

The only content to the new dharma one can see on the horizon is, ironically, to intensify the logic of the 1930s: To create an ethno nationalist state with its cult of power and violence, its worship of purity and concentration of power. This is a project that never ends well. It produced devastating wars in Europe, and the partition of India.

Nonsense! What produced two devastating wars in Europe was France's lack of an offensive doctrine. Incidentally, British India was partitioned in 1937, when Burma went its own way. The failure of Congress to reach an agreement with the League so as to establish a Federal Government under the terms of the 1935 Act, delayed Independence. It was Nehru who pulled the trigger on Partition.  

This time the partition is more intimate and close:

Mehta parted from his students in Haryana and ran away to Amrika 

It is running through families.

and involves running away to Amrika- right?  

It is also a fissure within Hinduism. Worshipping idols is central to Hinduism, no matter what deracinated intellectuals might tell you. It gave Hinduism a playful intimacy. But the idols we worship are no longer intimate; they are mega showpieces. More grievously, concentration on the idol was a path to self-consciousness. But now, as the philosopher, Arindam Chakrabarti,

senile cretin still, his English translations of Sanskrit, though tendentious, are luminous enough

once wrote, the idol has been replaced by the I-doll, the worship of the “I”. We are consecrating our own collective narcissism in the image of God.

Arindam is a visiting Professor at Ashoka. There's plenty of narcissism on that campus. But the rest of Haryana doesn't give a shit about these nutters. They got phoren degrees in useless shit instead of getting rich. 

In the Ramayana, in any version, there is always a sense of sadness around Ram himself.

Incarnation is a sacrifice made by the Creator for Creation.  

Bhavabhuti captured it beautifully: Ram has been filled with the rasa of pity/ kept hidden by his profound demeanour/the sharp pain of it held deep within/ like a clay pot baking in embers. This moment of triumphalism is also accompanied by a pain that cannot even be expressed. It will cook in the embers of this moment. Ram’s dhwaja has been planted. But the question of dharma is met only with a yawning and ominous silence.

This is incoherent gibberish. Mehta does not understand the rasa/dhvani aesthetic theory. Ram's dhvaja was that of the Raghuvamsha. This is closely associated with cow-protection. I may be a South Indian but I lived for three years in Delhi and thus know at least this much about the religion and politics of the Doab. To be clear, there is a deep connection between Go raksha, Gorakhnath, Yogiji and the Nirmohis.  The question of which dharma has triumphed is crystal clear even to me. Brahminical Advaita must yield gracefully to Theistic 'sampradayas' open to all castes. This is not an occasion for yawning or keeping silent, but for uttering condign praise and expressing gratitude to those humble millions who made this glorious event possible.