Indians of any background should have reason enough to celebrate their historical or cultural association with Nagarjuna’s penetrating philosophical arguments…Maitreya’s searching questions, Carvaka’s reasoned skeptisism, Aryabhattas astronomical and mathematical departures, Kalidasa’s dazzling poetry, Sudraka’s subversive drama, Abdul fazal’s astounding scholarship.. or Ravi Shankar’s and Ali Akbar Khan’s music, without first having to check the religious background of each

Sen, Amartya,The Argumentative Indian (Penguin Books 2005), p75

Among the many good habit I am nurturing in me of late is reading books about India. This stemmed from the realization that for someone who claims to be a patriot I know pathetically little about my nation.I began with “In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce” and now am reading this delightful book.

Dr.Sen is a genius and a scholar sans comparison, yet his language is engaging and easy arguments to understand. One of the essays, from which the above quote comes from, examines the Hindutva movement very closely, and in the wake of the renewed violence against minorities in the country, this passage is particularly relevant.

The unfortunate truth is that in the name of “true Indianness” the proponents of the militant Hindutva movement (and those of other religions) are just peddling fascism, and are using the tactic the British East India company is famed to have used to rule India; “divide and rule”. Our colonial overlords were driven out amidst united slogans of “quit India”, I think it is time the same happens to intolerant and militant religious fundamentalism, be it of any religious conviction.

mażhab nahīñ sikhātā āpas meñ bair rakhnā
hindī haiñ ham, vat̤an hai hindostāñ hamārā

Religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves
We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan.

Quit India Hate mongerers!!

Jai Hind

Schizo

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