On December 6, Pakistani Journalist Durdana Najam who writes columns for Arab News Pakistan, The Express Tribune and Roznama 92 News, went on an anti-Hindu rant on Twitter. In a tweet, Najam said, “So what, start worshipping Dogs. It would be a good addition to the list of animals you Hindus worship…from snake to monkey to elephant to rat and not to forget the sewerage laden waters of Ganga.”
Najam was quoting an alleged defence consultant Danvir Singh who had ranted against a K9 officer as he was presenting flowers to Union Home Minister Amit Shah during BSF Raising Day Parade at Jaisalmer Rajasthan. In his tweet, Singh alleged the K9 officer would have gone through abuse while training for acts like presenting flowers to a guest. While many refuted Singh’s claims and said their dogs were trained by Police and BSF trainers, a few like Najam took advantage of the situation and used Singh’s tweet to propagate the anti-Hindu narrative.
Most of the time when Najam talked about Hindus or India, she used derogatory and offensive language. In a November 7 tweet, Najam alleged the courts in India acquitted main suspects of Gujarat riots and claimed it was genocide against Muslims. She conveniently forgot that 59 Kar Sewaks were burnt alive by a Muslim mob in Godhra that had led to the riots.
In an October tweet, she called PM Modi a terrorist.
In another tweet from September 2021, she alleged Hindus linked to RSS molest women in Kashmir. Interestingly, she might have skipped the lesson from the history where Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the valley or face death at the hand of Islamists backed by Pakistan.
Dogs are already worshipped in Hinduism
Interestingly, while Najam sarcastically asked Hindus to start worshipping dogs, she does not know that Hindus already worship dogs. There is a special Hindu festival of Dogs in Nepal known as Kukur Tihar, in which dogs are honoured and worshipped.
Dogs hold a special place in stories linked to the Sanatan Dharma like of Mahabharata. As per the epic, Pandav king Yudhisthir had a dog which accompanied the Pandavas on their last journey to Heaven. Towards the end, only the dog was left with Yudhistir, and the rest of the Pandavas had lost their lives on the way. When Bhagwan Yama asked Yudhisthir to leave the dog behind, he refused to do so and said he would enter Heaven only if Yama allowed the dog to accompany him.
According to legends, Bhagwan Dattatreya, who is believed to be the collective incarnation of Trimurti or Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, is often surrounded by dogs and a cow. The four dogs, who always accompanied him in the paintings, are believed to be the symbol of four Vedas, and the cow symbolises mother earth. Some stories suggest the four dogs represent four inner forces of human nature that are Iccha, Vasana, Asha and Trishna.
Dog (Shvan) is also believed to be the mount of Bhagwan Bhairav.
Yama, the God of death, is believed to have two dogs, Shyama and Sharvana, who guard the doors of hell. Notably, Shyama and Sharvana were four-eyed dogs and sons of Dog deity Sarama who is believed to be the mother of all dogs, in particular the two dogs who guard the gates of hell.
In some sections of Nath Sampraday, dogs are considered to be ‘Darvesh’ or the one who comes at your door for ‘Bhiksha’. Many localised rituals in Hinduism are linked to feeding dogs on auspicious days as well as during the month of Shraadh.
