How I Became A Proud Hindu
The popular narrative goes like this. One day, in 2014, Narendra Modi ascended to the chair of the Prime Minister of India, waved a wand and it immediately turned hundreds of millions of Indians into despicable, self-respecting hindutva-wadis, who then without question, proceeded to accept him as their supreme leader.
The Marxist, leftist intellectuals draw a clear line between pre-and post-2014 eras. They curse that day in 2014 when Hindus all of a sudden became "extremist". Or, in other words, unmanageable.
Because you see, the Hindus of old were easy to manage. Their history was written by the invaders and the imperialists. Their religion was diluted, disfigured and the resulting new identity shoved on them left no doubt in their minds that they were a meek, non-confrontational people, eager to offer the right cheek when slapped on the other.
Many in Lutyens Delhi still long for those glory days when the Hindu masses of this nation were easy to manage. If not for that Modi, that would still have been the case.
But is that really true?
Did the rise of Modi turn "normal" Hindus like me into Hindutva-wadis ?
On the contrary, the day Narendra Modi came to power, I along with my similarly inclined leftist friends mulled over the decline of democracy in our country. On many an occasion my Muslim friends had me convinced that the lives of Muslims in India were in constant danger post 2014. Or as the imbeciles across the border say “Deen khatre mein hai”.
With much fervor the old me would criticize "fascist" organizations like RSS that were allowed to function in our country. The nodding heads of my fellow city-dwelling, privileged friends would give me great satisfaction. It was a great bubble of groupthink nursed liberally with bottles of expensive scotch.
For my foreigner friends, the old me was accustomed to putting on a show of liberalism and well-internalized western values. I really wanted them to believe me when I said “Look, I am not like the rest of those other Indians. I am better.”
While they took turns mispronouncing my name, I had no problem perfectly pronouncing Joaquin and Giacomo. After all, I wasn't like the rest of those uncultured Indians - I could pronounce difficult words and understand subtle references to pop culture misgivings.
But if I was such a well-behaved specimen of the success of the Macaulay system, what brought about the change?
You. It was you the Leftists —supposed liberal harbingers of unneeded change— that forced this revelation upon me.
When you constantly criticized every single step taken by PM Modi, even those that were good for the country, you forced me to take a deeper look into his politics. For the longest time I sat on the wall, trying to get a hang of his way of running things and honestly, I didn’t find it all that bad. I would’ve voted for him based on the infrastructure developments alone.
When you constantly made fun of my religion, my rituals and my festivals, you forced me to learn about Sanatana Dharma. I am obligated to you dear leftist scum, for making me see the incredible beauty of the Hindu Dharma. For forcing me to discover the extraordinary people that have contributed to this tradition and the incredible sacrifices they have made to ensure the continuing existence of the last pagan civilization of this world - us.
When you constantly paid blind obeisance to Abrahamic religions—that according to you were perfect—it forced me to research what was so great about them. All I found were jealous gods, unquestionable prophets and a thirst for blood & world domination. I learned that depending on whether I was speaking to a skull cap or a frock, I was either a kaffir or a heathen. In any case I was going to burn in hell, which of course, depending on the daydream I was in, would either be dozakh or hell.
When you constantly portrayed the Hindu thakur as the villain, Hindu sadhu as evil incarnate & made jokes at the expense of my gods in your movies, it made me question why you didn’t dish out the same treatment to other religions. Instead of the angry young hero expressing his disappointment at the Hindu god for not helping him, why didn’t we ever see a hero standing in a church, angry at Christ for disowning him? Why were the padri and the maulvi always the good guys but the Hindu guru, always a pervert or a scammer? You forced me to stop watching your movies and cancel my OTT subscriptions.
And when you couldn’t even wish me happy Holi without giving me a sermon on water wastage, or happy Diwali without mentioning the alleged pollution, it pushed me into the warm embrace of Hindutva. Because at that point I knew that no matter how much we Hindus bend over to appease the mullahs, the Marxists and the missionaries, nothing will ever be enough.
Because for them we are not humans, but merely a label. We are unbelievers that must be converted, uncouth subalterns that need to be told what to think and at worst, kaffirs who are to be killed. As per them, if I was to practice my religion at all, it should be the approved version, dictated by the sarkari, secular Hindus (in name only).
I didn’t become a proud Hindu 'coz Narendra Modi brainwashed me. I became one, dear leftist scum, coz you left me no choice.
