Sunita Vishwanath & the Bharatiya Nazi Party

What motivates the great hatred displayed by some Hindu origin Americans to Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party?

For South Indians, it may be the old fear that the numerically preponderant North might impose Hindi on us. But there has never been any prospect of that happening. Still, old habits die hard.
Another explanation is that behind Modi is the R.S.S- a voluntary organization which seeks to break down barriers of caste and class among Indians- more particularly the ultra-orthodox Hindus. Since, from the point of view of the orthodox, all who 'cross the black water' lose caste, it may be that resentment of the RSS has to do with wanting to preserve the sense of having been 'high born' in the old country.

There may be other motives of a more self-interested sort.
Consider the following article written by Sunitha Vishvanatha which appeared in Scroll.in a couple of years ago

I will never forget that cold and rainy day in New York in March 2011. I was part of an inter-faith vigil to support the creation of a Muslim cultural centre at lower Manhattan, close to Ground Zero of the September 11, 2001, attack.

This was two months after Imam Abdul Rauf had been removed from the project. The developer no longer wanted an 'inter-faith' prayer space. He wanted money from the Gulf for posh condos, maybe with an in-house mosque, to be sold to ultra-rich Sheikhs. But, as with a lot of such luxury developments which pretend to serve some social purpose, though luxurious apartments have indeed been built, nothing as yet has materialized to serve God or the Community.

I don't know whether the developer paid anybody to generate media controversy regarding a 'ground zero mosque', but it was certainly opportune.

Just as I began to lament the absence of Hindus at the vigil (as is often the case), I heard a beautiful Hindu prayer over a megaphone. But to my horror, I realised the prayer was being sung by a saffron-clad man on the other side of the police line, who was protesting because he believed that to build a Muslim centre and mosque close to Ground Zero was to dishonour the hundreds that died at the hands of Muslim terrorists on 9/11.

 Or else it was merely to attract attention to himself as he handed out flyers for his meditation classes.

Until then, my Hinduism had been private and my activism public. But on that day, I vowed to never again allow someone to use Hinduism to preach hatred in my presence without countering them saying: “Not in my name.”

So the dude in saffron gained at least one convert to public and visible Hinduism. It was this lady- whose husband is Jewish- and who probably wanted to get in on the whole 'self-hating' shtick while still being able to point to a terrible Holocaust back in the old country. I deeply sympathize. I myself escaped persecution by Iyengars- abetted by Marathas like Varadkar- who have renamed Iyerland the Republic of Eire. Sunitha has merely escaped the death camps of Adolph Modi and the Bharatiya Nazi Party.

But even as I write this piece, I come across news of yet another lynching in India – this time of a 15-year-old Muslim boy died after he and his brothers were allegedly attacked by a group of 10-12 Hindu men on a train.
This is not the Hinduism I recognise, or accept.

It was not Hinduism which motivated the attackers. One of the accused is a 'Health Inspector' for the New Delhi Municipality. In other words, he is a thug who extorts money for the politicians. The Muslim kid was killed over a seat in a crowded train. It could have happened to me- except I immediately gain spiritual enlightenment when cuffed on the head and show an inclination to sit at the feet of the great Guru who cuffed me. This is the Hindu way- unless a whole bunch of your hefty caste fellows are on the train, in which case the thugs prostate themselves to you.

Since, in this case, the thugs outnumbered the innocent young victims, the thugs did what thugs do. Needless to say they are out on bail. Killing people and spending a bit of time in jail is good for your C.V if you are a thug. The case against the these evil men will be drag on for years till all the witnesses turn hostile. Meanwhile, people who are being extorted will sell their own kidneys to pay up for fear that one of these men will turn up to kill their young sons or to rape their daughters.

In 2011, a few of us created the group Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, headquartered in New York, because we could no longer bear that there was no politically progressive Hindu voice in the face of a growing and rampantly Islamophobic and casteist Hindu nationalist movement.

Islamophobia is fuelled by something real- viz Islamic terrorism. Hindu nationalist movements are fuelled by something real- viz the need to rid India of casteism and regionalism. Young people nowadays are educated and career oriented. How can you find a match for your IAS officer daughter if you restrict yourself only to your 'jati'? Let her marry a batchmate from some other region provided his family has similar 'values'- i.e. claims to be vegetarian but admit to eating omelette though actually everybody except Granny relishes Chicken biryani preferably washed down with Kingfisher beer.

Sadhana’s founders and members are Hindus who were raised to believe that the heart of our religion is pluralistic.

The same could be said of the RSS. Vaishnavites are discouraged from quarelling with Shaivites. Casteism is not tolerated.

We were taught to embrace the teachings of oneness of all (ekatva), compassion and nonviolence to all beings and all the universe (ahimsa).

We were not taught to tell stupid lies- e.g. that the RSS or the BJP is casteist. The fact is we held aloof from the RSS because we felt it infra dig to take orders from people of lower status, wealth and education, who, however, had risen by merit within that organization.

We have worked hard over the years – writing, speaking, marching, organising events and holding Hinduism classes for children that are grounded in the teachings of social justice at the heart of Hindu texts – and have been recognised for our efforts.

You have been telling lies about the BJP. Why? You want to pretend that Hindus in America escaped Adolph Modi and the Bharatiya Nazi Party. Now you are risking your life denouncing the genocide that is underway in the old country. In this way, Sunitha gains a sort of moral equality with her Jewish husband- whose people genuinely were victims of an utterly evil Dictator.

In the years since we began, our numbers have grown, but not nearly enough.

That's the problem with telling stupid lies. People think you are a stupid liar and give you a wide berth.

What has, meanwhile, grown in monstrous proportions in this period is the movement of Hindu nationalists.

No. What has grown is support for the BJP because it is better at governance and is less corrupt than its rivals.

Amid the growing incidents of lynching, in recent weeks we have come across several articles by writers and intellectuals in India

who, however, are reviled by Indians for their stupidity and shameless self-promotion

asking the same question in various ways: Where are the progressive Hindus?

Nirmala Sitharaman is a progressive Hindu. She is the Finance Minister. Jaishankar is a progressive Hindu. He is the Foreign Minister. Why do neither write shite articles? The answer is because nobody reads shite articles written in English.

In the Wire, Harsh Mander asked: “Where are India’s Dissenting Hindus?”

Why ask it in the Wire of all places? Communists aren't 'dissenting Hindus'. They are atheists.

In the Hindustan Times, Ramchandra Guha wrote:

“Hindu liberalism, once so vigorous and on the ascendant, is increasingly besieged, as the leadership of the community passes into the hands of bigots and reactionaries.

When was 'Hindu liberalism' vigorous and on the ascendant? Before Gandhi took over the INC. After Independence, Socialism, not Hinduism, was in the ascendant. But it failed to deliver economic growth. So, Mrs Gandhi and then her son turned Hindu. But this was dynasticism, not liberalism. Vajpayee emerged at the end of the Nineties as the inheritor of Nehru's mantle. Modi successfully fended off VHP type nutters, sidelined boring Brahmins like Murli Manohar Joshi and concentrated on governance by delegating authority and letting merit rise to the top.

Having (to quote Gandhi) once lived in a house whose windows were kept open to let the breeze from outside come in freely,

What breeze? The cretin believed in 'Swadesi'. Only stupid ideas were allowed in. Gandhi did, it is true, delay Independence but he could not avert it though he did his best to get the Japs to replace the Brits coz the former were such sweethearts as the Chinese could testify.

having once (to invoke Tagore) gloried in the illumination of a lamp lit anywhere in the world,

Yup, Tagore really did understand the Theory of Relativity. He wrote a book called 'Vishva Parichay', 'Introduction to the Cosmos', after meeting Einstein. It is as vacuous as anything else he wrote. Indian scientists either emigrated or, if they remained in India, their brains turned to shit.

Hindu leaders are now turning inwards, looking backwards.

While Sunitha is foaming at the mouth at Adolph Modi and the Bharatiya Nazi Party.

And large sections of the community are following their lead.

Yogi Adityanath is a Hindu leader. He seems to be doing very well as Chief Minister of U.P. If he gets a bigger majority next time then he will be Modi's natural successor.

Thus ever larger numbers of Hindus ‘seem to have locked their sensibilities with a huge padlock and have thrown the key away’.

If that padlock keeps out Sunitha's drivel, that is all to the good.

Besides, ‘it has become difficult to open that lock. If you choose to break it open you are considered an enemy of Hinduism and an anti-Hindu person’.”

The truth is Hindus will happily vote for an anti-Hindu if that means improved governance. Look at Tamil Nadu or Kerala. Some of the most orthodox Hindus in the world have been voting Communist or DMK decade after decade. Why? Congress is useless.

Ananya Vajpeyi, in a piece for Scroll.in, spoke of the erosion of public empathy and warned, “Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je peed paraai jaane re. Soon there will be no one of that description left in the majoritarian Hindu Rashtra.”

But Vajpeyi is married to Kashmiri separatist Basharat Peer who is 9 years younger than her and who is based in New York. This isn't exactly the profile of a typical Hindu woman in her Fifties. Why does she say 'the Vaishnavite is one who knows the sorrows of others?' The fact is a Vaishnavite is one who worships Vishnu. A true Vaishnavite, in between worshipping Vishnu, feels the sufferings of others. However, a guy who is not worshipping Vishnu- on the grounds that to do so would involve 'shirk' and thus bring about one's eternal damnation- is not a Vaishnavite even if he feels the sorrows of others like nobody's business.

Also on Scroll.in, Samar Halarnkar wrote in the context of the response to recent lynchings: “But this is not just about the conservative Hindu Right. What is not in evidence among most Hindus is condemnation, sympathy for those lynched or public expressions of unity with minorities.”

This is the problem with quoting guys who write for Scroll or the Wire. They don't bother re-reading whatever shite they dash off.

Some Hindus want to eat beef. Some want cows to be slaughtered for economic reasons. But they don't want to say so. Nor do Muslims in States where there is a long standing taboo on beef. Similarly, Christians in Muslim countries feel repulsed by pork. Anyone who has lived in England any length of time feels an aversion to horse flesh- or claims to. Interestingly a lot of Hindus now claim not to eat onions and potatoes in imitation of the Jains- who are a small minority but are high achievers and thus a target for Tardean mimetics.

Conversion to Islam is the proper way to show solidarity with the Ummah. Participating in Jihad is even better. Sidling up to them and saying 'hey guys, I want to virtue signal on your behalf- because you are such pathetic creatures- is that cool with you?' won't win you any friends. Look what happened to Harsh Mander's 'Caravan of Love'. No Muslim was inclined to bunk up with that sad loser. Still the Delhi Police, for some unknown reason, seem to want to put him in prison. So, things are looking up for his Love Campervan.

In my experience, everyone speaking up for human rights in India, even if their name sounds Hindu, is loath to identify as one.

Maybe because they don't live in America with a nice Jewish husband.

And anyone identifying publicly as a Hindu, almost without exception, supports the idea of Hindutva.

One could identify as a Hindu and condemn Hindutva because it violates Manu Smriti. Indeed, that's why the RSS was unpopular with orthodox casteists.

I have reached out to numerous progressive Hindu-born Indian thinkers and activists, including some of those quoted above, asking if they would identify as a Hindu when they critique and condemn Hindutva. They either explain politely that they are not religious, or say that they are avowed secularists and to speak up as a Hindu in India would alienate minority communities, cause non-Hindu allies to mistrust them, and compromise their commitment to secularism.

This is hilarious. Has this cretin never heard of Swami Agnivesh? He will give you anti-Hindutva rhetoric by the ream. But he is now a laughing stock.

The fact is the only type of believing Hindu who is against Hindutva is a bigoted casteist.

Generally, Indian Leftists and progressives react to the notion of a progressive Hindu movement with respectful scepticism.

Because they remember the trajectory of Swami Agnivesh. The fact is people like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were 'progressive Hindus'. Swaraj had a 'love marriage' with fellow advocate Kaushik Swaraj despite opposition from both families. She was RSS and he was a Socialist. Similarly Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani and so forth are 'progressive Hindus'. They have done well in a meritocratic party and thus outshone their equally capable husbands.

I am sometimes told that Hinduism and Hindus are irredeemable because our scriptures are casteist and elitist at their core.

Why listen to shitheads? Why not refute them by quoting Scripture?

The result is that practicing Hindus who are against the violent Islamophobia of the Hindu right feel alienated from and unwelcome in the human rights movements in India.

Practicing Hindus don't feel alienated or unwelcome in any group which is concerned only with the truth. But soi disant 'human rights movements in India' are in the business of telling stupid lies. On the other hand, there are plenty of good lawyers and economists and journalists who will get behind any genuine human rights PIL. This is actually beneficial for your own career. People will pay good money to people with a reputation of getting to the truth. Anybody can tell stupid lies.

Keeping this massive group out strikes me as a strategic, ethical and practical blunder, if the desired goal is justice for all.

This is the crux of the matter. The desired goal of these virtue signallers is to feed their own vanity if not advance their careers.The last thing they want is effective campaigners gate crashing their party. Not that there is any danger of that. If you want to fight casteism and misogyny and so forth you have to do it in vernacular languages amongst the rural masses.

The response that many practicing Hindus have to the deep suspicion of Hinduism and Hindus on the part of Leftists and progressives is an understandably defensive one:

Why be defensive against a vanishing minority of senile shitheads? Why not laugh heartily at them instead?

all Leftists and progressives are accused of being anti-Hindu or Hindu-phobic.

But this has helped the BJP so much that you have to wonder whether they whole thing isn't a put up job.

The anger that ought to be directed at Hindu nationalists

which is perfectly justified- if you are a Pakistani Islamist

ends up being directed at Leftists and progressives.

When Leftists, like Kerala's Health Minister, Shailaja, does a good job nobody feels anger against her.

Any critique of Hindutva is seen as a critique of Hinduism itself and of all Hindus.

Hindutva is merely an ecumenism of a useful and uncontroversial sort. There is about as much point 'critiquing' it as there is in criticising the YMCA or the boy scouts.

Asking “Where are the progressive or dissenting Hindus?” and bemoaning the rise of violent Hindutva is no longer enough.

Sunitha must tell some even stupider lies.

It is imperative we work together to open the eyes of practicing Hindus.

To what? Imaginary atrocities remain invisible no matter how much you look for them.

Many may be quietly living their lives, praying rather than protesting – perhaps too afraid, too apathetic, or just too worn out to rise up against Hindutva.

Or else they may be laughing their ass off at Sunitha. How come she hasn't risen up against Donald Trump's genocide of Jews, Blacks, Homosexuals, the Poor, the Hungry, and those struggling to breathe free?

I believe many are grieving the deaths of those lynched at the hands of Hindus, but just feel powerless.

Why hold such an absurd belief? Why not phone a few Indian people at random and ask them why they aren't worried by the actions of some random thugs getting up to what they have always got up to?

We need to include them, mobilise them, inspire them to take a stand.

Where? In New York? Could you also arrange some nice Jewish spouses for them? I'd be willing to sign on if Ivanka Trump divorces that thin, babyfaced, loser and marries me without a pre-nup.

When progressive Jews (both practicing religious Jews and those who aren’t religious) advocate for Palestinian rights and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, they do so as Jews who refuse to cede the public voice of Judaism to right-wing Islamophobic Jews who are committing human rights atrocities.

But such Jews aren't all deracinated tossers. They can get votes in Israel. Also, lets face it, Jews are smart. They make intelligent arguments. Indians, by and large, are as stupid as shit because what's the point of having lots of degrees from fancy Colleges if you say smart things? Only if you say stupid things will people say 'You know, that cretin was the youngest Physics PhD from Princeton. Look at him now! Truly, hamara Bharat mahan.' 

I call on every Hindu Indian who cares about justice, whether they are religious or not, to speak up as Hindu, and refuse to cede Hinduism and the Hindu public voice to those who want to make India a Hindu Rashtra.

Yet, by and large, India is a Hindu Rashtra. Since Modi and Adityanath and so forth are doing a better job than the competition, we don't mind India becoming more Hindu just as we were perfectly happy for India to turn Socialist if that would mean better governance and more nice things to eat and shiny things to buy.

In the words of a wise man from another faith, Rabbi Hillel, from 2000 years ago: “If not now, then when? And if not us, then who?”

Does this silly woman not get that Hillel was saying 'If I am not for myself, who is for me'? You should stick up for yourself. A community should stick together and stick up for itself. That's what the Jews did- which is why they are still around while the Canaanites and the Phoenicians and so forth have disappeared from history. Similarly, Hindus should stick up for other Hindus. They should not repeat slander against them. A Pakistani Muslim or I.S operative may well want to say 'Hindus are butchering Muslims. They are a beastly people'. But why would a Hindu want to repeat this lie?

Israel, is a small country surrounded by neighbors which profess, but seldom practice, hostility towards it. It makes sense for some Jews to attack Netanyahu for possibly endangering Jewish lives. But India is a big country. It can easily defeat any Islamic coalition. Thus Hindu lives are not in danger save where they a minority.

It may be that Sunitha and her Jewish husband wish to ingratiate themselves with their Muslim neighbors in New York. But it is foolish to do so on the basis of stupid lies. Saying Jews and Hindus are slaughtering Muslims feeds into a sense of injury which can cause young Muslims to join terrorist cells. That is bad for them, it is bad for us, it is just bad.

Still, Sunitha got an award from Obama. So, I guess, her lies advanced her socially. But for how long? The truth will out. Indeed, it already has. India has moved on. America has moved on. Israel has moved on. Sunitha, however, has not moved on. She looms large in her own twilight. She is ready for her close up. 'I am big' she says, 'it is the pictures that got small.' Sooner or later the Hindu masses will turn to her and she, a female Moses, will part the Oceans so we can all walk dry shod to Manhattan. This is the Promised Land- the Shvetadvipa- mentioned in our Scriptures. Columbus got it right. Vasco da Gama got it wrong. India is actually America. Now, if only Sunithaji arranges my marriage to Ivanka and I move into the Trump Towers penthouse, I too will hearken to her.