Secularism seems to require separation between religion and State. Regarding India, itwould be better to speak of ‘equidistance’ between State and religious denominations. Nonetheless a ‘balanced treatment’ towards the religions leaves the question open as to what form that equidistance should take. This is the reason of some contradictions in today’s Indian social and political life. It is likely that without the Moghul and British domination Hinduism would not have acquired a militant identity. It was the ‘epiphany’ of well-armed, powerful ‘Others’ (Muslim, Christian or secular) which generated frustration and fear to such an extent that a religious nationalism (Hindutva) was born.

Nehru and the Left of the Congress Party leadership thought that modernity would overcome religion, which is a remnant of the past. They were confident that a political culture based on pluralism and tolerance would become the foundations of the new society. This is exactly what Hindu Nationalism takes issue with: the ‘pseudo-seculars’ project of building the national identity without Hinduism or against Hinduism. Hindutva asserts that Hinduism is the basis of the Indian civilization. The Hindu ethos is the soul of the nation.

Just before the festival of Deepawali, “Save Environment” campaign comes in full force as if pollution occurs only during Deepawali and motor vehicles are fine, industrial waste is fine , construction dust is fine but don’t you dare burst crackers!! Similarly as Holi approaches we will be hell bent on Saving Water. People are even coming up with more creative ways to mock Hindu festivals like the new Surf Excel ad. You may never see any ad in which anyone is trying to save a goat during Bakar Id. Just don’t burst crackers as it harms the street animals.

I think we have a habit of demonizing the majority. We believe that the majority is always dominant and exploitative even if its not true a perspective has been created. Also, it is glamorous to go against the majority view, to mock old traditions and practices, it makes you “intellectual” and famous.

But recently we see in India cultural nationalism is on the rise people are more aware now than before, contributions of social media is helping people of awareness. Our fourth pillar of democracy which has monopoly over news spreading which has is own propaganda lies on channel spreading fake news and information. The rise of social media busted their monopoly over information and propaganda.

A massive backlash erupted against web streaming service Eros Now as they posted memes on social media platforms that denigrated the revered Hindu festival of Navratri.

The streaming platform had sexualised the Hindu festivals by attaching vulgar texts to photos of Katrina Kaif that read, “Do you want to put the ratri in my Navratri”, an image of Ranveer Singh that depicted him lewdly saying, “Let’s have majama in my Pyjama”. Another damning post was the one in which Eros Now had put up a caption for a meme featuring Salman Khan, saying, “You need a dandi to play dandiya – I have one.”

Here are the few outrageous memes put out by Eros Now making sexual innuendos at Hindus and its festivals.

As these derogatory posts spread like a wildfire on the internet, netizens took offence to the blatant act of slandering Hindu festivals and called for the boycott of the streaming platform.

As usual, the streaming platform fearing against the economic boycott issued a statement on Thursday morning claiming that it has now deleted the posts and also issued a so-called apology for “having offended anybody’s sentiments”. However, by the time Eros Now expressed their ‘remorse’ for the deplorable act, the damage was already done.

Arre – a far-left website joins Eros Now in sexualising Hindu festivals

Arre, a far-left website, which often spews venom against Hindus and its culture, also descended to another low by posting a similar sexual innuendo against Hindus, targeting their cultures and festivals.

Amidst the outrage against Eros Now, Arre, in an act of provoking Hindus, posted an image of Maa Durga holding severed heads. The severed heads of asuras symbolically depicted as, “Rapist, Assaulter, Molester, Predator” was put out by Arre to subtly insinuate that Hindus were essentially sexual predators.

“It’s time to bali the bully,” read the infographic shared by Arre, apparently ‘wishing’ Hindus on the occasion of Dussehra.

The selectivity in accusing Hindus alone of being sexual predators, rapists, as done by Arre in this case, is not a one-off incident.

In 2017, Arre, taking its creative liberty to next level, had called ‘Navratri’ as a ‘mating’ ritual. “For those nine nights, all the bundled-up, repressed hormones of the year would come roaring out and the mating dance would commence,” wrote Arre in one of its report explaining how dandiya – the Gujarati socio-religious folk dance performed during Navratri.

According to the author, the Garba events in Gujarat are nothing but a ‘mating’ event, where Hindu daughters in the name of “cultural exposure” enjoyed sex in parked cars after the dancing events.

“After the nine nights, hormones would take cultural cognizance of the land in which they lived, and chastity would return…The Navratri nights, lit up with fairy lights and haunting folk songs, would be charged with sexual tension so thick that you could cut through it with a dandiya,” the article read.

Arre’s vile depiction of Hindu festivals and sexualising it is not limited to Navratri alone. The writers at Arre, who seems to extremely obsessed with mating rituals perhaps cannot think beyond sex, had come up with another article peddling the fake theories of ‘semen filled balloons’ thrown at Delhi University campus during Holi festival.

In one of its report, the author wrote, “Just a Semen-Filled Balloon… Bura Na Mano Holi Hai”. In short, the post compared the Holi festival to an act of sexual harassment.

It is pertinent to note that the ‘liberal-secular’ media outlets have gone great lengths to depict the festival of ‘Holi’ as some kind of crime event. To strengthen their narrative, the liberals have shamelessly passed off fake theories such as ‘semen filled balloons’ to present Holi festival as an event which is inherently ‘misogynistic’.

Secular establishment preaches morals and guilt-trips Hindus

The ‘liberal-secular’ media’s act of denigrating Hindus and their festivals is not a new phenomenon. Ever since the indigenous faiths of the country began to assert themselves, the ‘liberal-secular’ establishment have begun to preach morality to Hindus in an attempt to shame them for openly flaunting their religious identity.

The Hinduphobic media having the dubious distinction of maligning Hindu festivals have now stepped up their fight towards demonizing Hindus and the customs and traditions they hold sacred. 

Not just our traditions, even the routine practises followed by the indigenous faith has now come under act from these ‘secular’ establishment. These ‘secular’ media establishment have started maligning Hindu festivals while glossing over the uncomfortable truths about the festivals of other religions.

The left-wing outlet ‘The Quint” had once vilified the Hindu festival of Holi and termed it as an occasion used by kids to unleash terror on the streets. Another notorious media outlet, Scroll, known for its anti-Hindu inclinations had resorted to publishing a post sending those celebrating the festival of Holi on a guilt trip by pointing out the terrible water crisis gripping the country.

Perhaps the most offensive post targeting the Hindu festivals was from the ultra-left wing rag – The Wire, that too had come up with the semen filled balloons theory and carried a post that said, “The festival of Holi perpetuates rape culture”.

The vile agenda against Hindu festivals is not just limited to Holi alone. Even, Deepavali – the festival of lights has time-and-again come under the scrutiny of the ‘liberal-secular’ media, who have wasted no time to indulge in their usual antics of bashing it by associating it with a false sense of being the source of pollution.

The champions of secularism have made a common point against celebrating Deepavali by accusing Hindus alone of causing pollution and guilt-trips Hindus about how they are causing serious harm to the health of kids and adults alike by bursting crackers.

In addition to that, the ecosystem often reminds us how animals feel threatened and disturbed by loud noises during Deepavali. On Diwali, the Quint published an article claiming that there should be an end to busting of firecrackers as there’s nothing religious about them. The Wire known for its anti-Hindu inclinations was disturbed over pollution caused by bursting of crackers that accompany the Hindu festival of Diwali.

Routine practises, beliefs under attack by ‘secular-liberal’ intelligentsia

The hatred for Hindus and their belief system is such that the ‘liberal-secular’ have left no stone unturned to pontificate and push Hindus into a corner by constantly shaming them for practising their faith.

Just a few months ago, during the nationwide lockdown, Times of India had published a story claiming at least 12 children from Hyderabad and surrounding areas had lost eyesight during the lockdown and had blamed the popular ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘Ramayana’ serials that were rerun on TV.

The ToI report had claimed that many children had started playing with homemade bows and arrows fashioned mostly out of broomsticks. This has resulted in injuries to kids, forcing parents to rush their kids with pierced eyes to the nearest hospital.

Liberals-Seculars turn blind eye to vices of other religion

Interestingly, the virtue signalling of the liberal-secular is only limited to Hindus. The liberals and seculars have always found a way to slander Hindu customs, festivals under the pretext of ‘secularism’ while ignoring over the uncomfortable truths about the festivals of other religions.

The modus operandi espoused by such media outlets entails pontificating Hindus about the vices purportedly associated with their festivals and holding the festivals responsible for the perpetuation of those vices. The lofty ideals of brotherhood, peace, inclusiveness etc are exclusive only for the Hindu festivals as they intentionally conceal all the glaring vices that are part of non-Hindu customs and faiths.

So much of negativity has been spread around Hindu festivals that Hindus are increasingly becoming guilty conscious.

The Dahi Handi festival is dangerious while a look alike in Catalonia is uniquely interesting. The Supreme Court curbed the height of human pyramid of the Dahi Handi festival.

Sitting in AC cubicles and riding AC cars, celebrities brandish their pro-environmentalism and appeal to people for a ‘Crackerless Diwali’ because it causes air as well as noise pollution. They also oppose the use of sound boxes by Kanvar Yatris and the traffic caused by them. The very same people don’t bat an eye for the same crackers burnt on other occasions and castigate those who raise their voices against the routine sounds from loudspeakers around our neighborhood.

Karva Chauth, Bhai Dooj and Shiv Ratri are a mark of patriarchy.

One Twitter user Ashish Jaggi - @AshishJaggi_1 writes that it's height of hypocracy as it seems they wait to unleash all their Gyaan and negativity for Hindu festivals. Now liberals will tell us that sugar is good for health only oily food is bad.

Liberalism a la West poses the greatest challenge to India’s politico-cultural structures. For, the Western politico-social ideologies are like Trojan horses. They preach lofty ideals to gain acceptability as a civilized and enlightened community to be able to maneuver unsuspecting people to do their bidding. Their unstated, if tacitly acknowledged world-wide, policy is CULTURAL IMPERIALISM that conditions mindsets of all those people who would come into contact with them, impose stigma-generating perverse human relations to be able to keep them under their total control. Such native cohorts are assigned the task of spreading Western hegemony in the same manner as they underwent. They occupy powerful positions, make Western subservience and adoption of perverse human relations mandatory (obviously, unstated) for socio-professional advancement, create religio-social friction, primarily to show the native culture in bad light so that it facilitates “secular” conversions. In short, the international game is to turn India into an amoral and expediency-vested Western country through the proxy (native) army they keep constantly generating. This, not-so-visible challenge that India needs to stave off today if it has to remain really sovereign and protect its unique time-tested cultural genius. Pushed to survival wall, it is true that an increasing number of educated, enlightened, comfortably-placed Indians play second-fiddle to West's surreptitious hegemonic ambitions by premeditated belittling of India's cultural facets.

References:

OpIndia - News Reports
Quora
Neo-Hindu Fundamentalism Challenging the Secular and Pluralistic Indian State - Gino Battaglia