Meenakshi Madhur comments : secularism indeed seems to have become a bad word or something not worthy of media attention ! also because in the name of secularism political parties have tried to win the votes of the minority by appeasing them on unfair terms.
a very well written editorial ! congratulations, Sunanda !!
Deepak Ganju comments : I feel ashamed of Hindus like you who are disgrace and will always blame Hindus for retaliating. Hindus always have been a peaceful community. We never invaded or forcefully converted anybody and we always suffered because of Jaichands like you amidst us.
Have you forgotten when thousands of Innocent Hindus including women and children were and are still being butchered in Kashmir?
Have you forgotten when thousand were rendered homeless and forced to Live like refugees in their own country??
Have you forgotten when hundreds of our Temples and sacred places were destroyed in Kashmir???
For people like you it is a National tragedy when a Muslim is killed and it is a National Tolerance with Pride when a Hindu is murdered. Spineless, Gutless Hindus like you have started blaming VHP for all this. These so called secular Vishal Hriday hypocrite Napumsak Hindus will always blame those who have guts to fight for righteousness. Our enemies are not Muslims but Hindus amongst us who will malign those who have the will and the guts to strike back. Have we not learnt a lesson from history, Muslims in connivance with British divided Hindustan in three parts, have exclusive right on two parts, want one more portion called Kashmir because they are in majority there and still live in India with much more freedom and rights than Hindus??????????
How much will you give, how much will you tolerate and how much will you suffer???????????????
In Mahabarta the biggest enemy for Pandavas was not Duryodhana, but the highly respected Bhishma and despite his greatness Lord Krishna ordered Arjuna to eliminate him for a bigger goal of restoring righteousness. This is not a matter of building a Temple of Stones and Bricks. Our Matri Bhumi was raped and this is our moral duty and Dharma to restore its honor. We have to stand up or at least give moral support to those who are fighting back, or else be prepared to let the Hindu identity get eliminated..................... We don't need Preachings or Gandhinian teachings any more ...........................
SUNITA MEHRA comments : Sunanda!To hell with your stupid pseudo secularist views and the same old Mantra of blaming Hindu leaders for violence.
We have suffered far too long because of the appeasement policies of the congress Government and their stooges and Chamchas like you. Hindus cannot live in peace in their own country, because whenever a Hindu strikes back, our stupid pseudo Hindu secularist like you start blaming hindus for all the evils! Sunanda! Who burnt alive 55 people including women and small children at Godhra, and who destroyed the Ram Temple and bult a mosque there? Have you read about that Muslim tyrant called Babbar or you only have heard about Hitler? Hospitals are needed in addition to our Hindu Pride. . Go and teach Secularism in countries like Pakistan where Hindu is a second-class citizen and stop writing as a stooge of Stupid Shahi Imam and Crook Mulayam Singh.
I found your article sensibly apt. Who started the fire? Or rather should I say rekindled it? The Hindus accuse the obvious target-the Muslims, who started the whole thing by firebombing the train and massacring 57 Hindu fundamentalists returning from Ayodha, who say it was provoked because the Hindus destroyed a piece of their heritage (our heritage if you consider the fact that it was made IN INDIA), a 16th century historical monument and slaying people in the 1993 riots, who blame the Muslims for destroying the Ram temple which rightfully stood on the same site centuries ago. So do you think it ends here? It's a vicious circle with no apparent head or tail.
Evidently, most faith-based tensions are rarely instigated by the common man himself. Rather it is a result of the clever few who manipulate the fears of the many and use them as a source for the antagonism.
So as 500 people die in pointless riots (not including the other 58 who died on the bus and the 1,000 people who died in the 1992 riots and the other 65768322657465 hapless victims of stupid, stupid wars of faith that have plagued our country since the glorious decade of the 1940's) let us be stubbornly unyielding and pile up a bunch of hate inspired rocks to build a house of love and peace. Ironic, huh?
Oh yeah, Kudos to VHP.
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it.
-- C.C. Colton
Sunanda Vashisht comments : Thanks everyone for reading the article and thanks even more for responding honestly. i would like to thank Meenakshi for liking my article and thanks to Divya for carrying my thoughts further. I would also like to thank Deepak and Sunita for their views. I am really touched by their mails because they reflect how much they are affected by this current crisis. I understand your point completely well. I also understand your anger when you say that we should teach Muslims a lesson in secularism before we tell VHP and other associated parties anything. Obviously it does very clearly seem that time and again hindus have to pay a huge price for their liberal attitude and that too in their own country. This is the view most hindus have at this time. I have also heard from my friends that if 55 muslims were burnt alive in a train by hindus they would have actually brought the nation to the brink of civil war.That might even be true. Why then should we exercise tolerance. That is probably the problem with Hindutva ideology and Hinduism. Hinduism teaches you to be liberal, tolerant, understanding but it does not teach you to be a pacifist. It does teach you to raise your voice where you feel what is rightfully yours is being denied to you. Hindutva on the other hand or at least as it is practised by our friends in VHP and associated organizations teaches you to be an extremist, it teaches you to divide rather than unite and alienate instead of assimilate. Same is exactly true for all muslim fundamental organizations. I am only pleading to my friends that let us stop talibanization of Hinduism. Because India is a great secular, democratic country only because most of its people are governed by basic Hindu Ethos. Otherwise we will become another theocratic state like Pakistan or Afghanistan where instead of progressing forward we just keep regressing. I am not worried about the temple mosque issue. I read a very enlightening quote by the kanchi Shankracharya who said that most temples in north India are in the state of dilapidation and decay, why build more temples when we can't take care of the existing ones. I really found this quote very apt. I know most people say that it is not the question of temple. It is the question of so called Hindu Pride. I think Hindu pride should lie in how much progress we have made in placing Hindustan on the map of progress instead of how many temples were made. Even if a temple was wrecked to build the masjid, it is history now. Kings did what they liked to. It was more about proving their supremacy but we have progressed much further than that. Muslims with extremist ideology should also realise that. We really have to stop killing people in the name of religion. Religion should be a private territory for most people. State and Religion have to be kept apart for our country to progress forward. I don't know how much this will convince my friends but i hope they will at least stop to think. Thanks again sunanda
Shahla Nakvi comments : dear sunanda! while browsing around i stumbled upon this site,it's a great site i must say. i just wanted to write a thankyou note for such a sensible article,it helps ppl like me who want peace. May the good Lord bless you,you really inspire me. take care
Divya Bhatnagar comments : Sunanda must be living in a fool’s paradise. She thinks that to act in self-defense is becoming like Taliban. Hindus like you are a disgrace in our society. Go and read The Bhagwat Gita and the teachings of Lord Krishna in the battlefield. Thousands of innocent lives were lost in that war which was a 'Dharm Yudh'. Hindus have tolerated for long and now is the time for same 'Dham Yudh', but unfortunately, people like you will not understand the other side of Hinduism which preaches you to act when your enemies are out to eliminate you and your identity.
Tolerance has a limit and try to preach this to your Muslim friends.
Thank you for your editorial on this topic. It is sad to see the comments of so many readers who could not understand what you are trying to say. Fundamentalism and ignorance bring destruction. History has shown this again and again. But mankind still doesn't learn. Fundamentalism is really something! It picks up bits and pieces from a religion (doesn't matter which one) and then twists them and uses them out of context to poison the ignorant and immature minds of its own people. Instead of learning the original messages in the scriptures and trying to understand them, which requires effort, the poisoned mind takes the easy way and learns the fundamentalist's message, which requires no effort, thus working as a slave to fundamentalism, perpetuating ignorance! Sad indeed!
Deepak Ganju comments : Does anyone wonder how Hinduism has survived the onslaught of Muslim savagery for so many years. Let us not blame muslims. It is fashionable these days to compare our own Hindu brothers to Taliban since they will sometimes retaliate. Hindus will still not learn from their bleeding wounds. Be it Kashmir, Mumbai, Godhra, Akshardham or Kerala, our own will preach you to be tolerant and get killed.
We have been tolerant with our conquerors, now be even more tolerant with Christian missionaries, and even terrorists. The future looks bleak for Hindu survival in India only because of our own people who have decided to bury their head in sand. Vey sad indeed........
