An Indian and a Hindu, asked me to define Indian Hindu
nationalism and what exactly I found deplorable about it. First of all, it is
clearly possible to be an Indian and not be an Indian Hindu nationalist. The
Indian Left has clearly rejected this ideology. I know some Indian Christians,
one a convert from Hinduism, who also rejects it. The one I am thinking of is a
Tamil who supported the Tamil Tigers in
Sri Lanka.
I have spoken to many upper middle class to upper class
Indians, and almost 100% were Indian nationalists of the very worst kind. There
is something really horrible brewing in India. I do not have the faintest idea
what middle class, lower middle class, working class and poor Indians think, as
I have never met one. But Indian Hindu nationalism of the very worst sort seems
to be epidemic in the upper class and upper middle class.
The symptoms are:
Contempt for the West, its medicine, its language and its
perceived superiority. In particular, rage towards the US as being the source
of much of India’s problems, a notion that is absurd.
Strong feelings of rage over perceived inferiority masked by
compensatory feelings of superiority, typically for the most backwards and
fucked-up aspects of Indian culture and the Hindu religion, in particular
caste. In particular, fury that India is referred to as a 3rd world country and
anger that Westerners consider themselves civilized and consider India
backwards, etc.
A notion that India is one of the great countries of the
world, but India’s enemies have held it back from its greatness and kept it
from being the great country it could be. This goes along with some weird
notion that India was the wealthiest country on Earth in 1500, but then it
declined to one of the poorest. This project was apparently done by outsiders,
mostly Westerners.
A lot of anger towards Muslims. In particular, a notion that
moderate Muslims simply do not exist. There is also continuing anger over
abuses done by Muslims towards Hindus in the region from 500-1000 years ago.
There is also the notion that many Muslims in the area are not really Muslims,
since their ancestors were Hindus who were “forced to convert.”
Extreme denial about the worst aspects of Indian culture and
the Hindu religion, in particular caste.
Extreme defense of the most outrageous differentials in
wealth and poverty.
A notion that something called “Bharat India” existed and
that much of the land east and west of India is “really India” in some weird
way, because they were Indianized or especially Hinduized at some point.
These people lay some sort of claims to Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Southern
Philippines, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and the general region of the
Caucasus. Supposedly at some point these countries were all Hindu or Hinduized
of some sort.
A denial that there was ever any religion than Hinduism in
India, along with the notion that other religions such as Zoroastrianism are
just branches of Hinduism. There is also a complete rejection of the Aryan
invasion theory along with a lot of contempt for the lower castes, in
particular, a curious notion the Dalits now run India and the Brahmins have
become the new “niggers.”
Rage towards Christianity for converting low caste Hindus. I
would say that contempt for Christianity is typical amongst this type, over and
above feelings towards any other religion.
Anger towards the “White man” and a refusal to be lumped in
with him in any way. This is apparently all because Whites from England
colonized India for some time.
At the same time, while they often defend Hindutvas, they themselves usually get angry if you call
them a Hindutva or point out that their Indian-Hindu nationalism does not
differ much from the Hindutvas.
Extreme rage and irrationality over the Kashmir issue, on
which India is effectively an outlaw state, defying a security council
resolution. On the contrary, most Pakistanis seem to be fairly calm about
Kashmir. I think Indians are filled with so much rage and fury about Kashmir
because deep down inside they must know they are wrong.
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