Now that we have your attention, let’s talk about Hindus and Hinduphobia.
It is an undeniable truth that crimes against Hindus are downplayed by global media and even Indian media time and again. The Bhainsa riots that occurred in Telangana has hardly received the attention that it deserves.
It is not the first time that Hindus have been attacked in Bhainsa and yet, this time around as well like all the other times, the media and pretended that it just did not happen. The most obvious instance of the slanted coverage of Hindu related matters in the media and preconceived agenda that dominates it became evident when a Muslim boy was thrashed for trespassing on the premises of a Hindu Temple.
The media went to town with it and used the incident to paint Hindus as intolerant and bigots. But in the same temple, the Dasna Temple, there have been at least two incidents of dacoity in the past seven years. Yati Narsinghanand, the Mahant of the Temple, and other locals allege that there have been repeated instances of sexual harassment of Hindu women and there have been murders as well and yet, the media has kept mum on them all this time.
When the thrashing of a boy for trespassing receives more attention than sexual harassment and murder and theft and dacoity precisely due to the religion of the victims on the separate instances, it is bound to attract suspicions regarding the motivation behind the same.
The first time is a chance, second is coincidence and third is a pattern so goes the saying. And this is a pattern we have observed time after time after time for years and years. Media coverage is curated with one sole objective, to paint the Hindu community as oppressive bigots and the other community as oppressed victims despite the stark reality of events.
So why are we not talking about this? The reason is simple. For the media, Hindu lives count for very little. The Hindu community is a punching bag that is to be used to augment their secular credentials. And if Hindu sentiments are hurt in the process, then that is completely fine because at the end of the day, their reputation is only augmented in international liberal circles by such coverage.
It is this Hinduphobia that has led to a situation where every crime against the Hindu community is whitewashed and every act of self defense on the part of the community is considered further evidence of their bigotry. Only a day before this was written, Hindu houses were attacked by a Muslim mob in Delhi because a Muslim woman decided to marry a Dalit man out of her own volition.
When will the people who claim to care so much for ‘human rights’ and tolerance and communal harmony speak up for such victims? Probably not, because in their worldview, a Hindu can never be a victim. He is always the oppressor, always the bigot. It is textbook Hinduphobia.
Another glaring evidence of it came up in the manner in which Rutgers University defended its professor Audrey Truschke. The professor in question has a history of engaging in genocide denial and slandering Hindu Gods and Goddesses. She has even attempted to whitewash the crimes of the universally acknowledged Islamist maniac Aurangzeb whose cruelty even among Islamic tyrants was out of the ordinary.
When criticised by Hindus, Truschke has demonstrated an unnerving tendency of branding her critics Nazis and fascists, which is ironical considering the fact that it she who is defending a genocidal maniac and engaging in genocide denial. Hindus in Rutgers University demanded that Truschke be barred from teaching courses related to Hinduism due to her bigoted worldview.
Faculty members of the University defended her saying that students should be ‘intellectually challenged’. Is genocide denial an acceptable form of intellectual pursuit in this day and age? Will teaching African Americans the glory of slavery be considered ‘intellectually challenging’ them?
Would an ‘intellectual challenge’ involve an intellectual defense of Adolf Hitler’s genocidal rhetoric against Jews? In civil society, such ‘intellectual challenges’ would be considered abhorrent and rightly so. But somehow, when it comes to Hindus, all of this is considered perfectly acceptable.
Hate crimes against Hindus have been extremely frequent lately, perhaps fueled in part by the narrative that paints Hindus as bigots and fascists. Such rhetoric convinces antisocial elements of the righteousness of their bigotry and what follows are attacks against the Hindu community.
Liberals may continue to ignore the hate crimes and the rampant Hinduphobia that permeates large swathes of society today but in doing so, they only reveal the hollowness of their commitment towards the virtues of human rights and tolerance. It is well past time that we discuss Hinduphobia and hate crimes against Hindus. Failure to do so would have and continues to have devastating consequences for society.
