Sen-sing the future of Hindus

As someone who marshals the right combination of words, thoughts and biases (pre-dispositions) to easily pass for a Hindutva ideologue, Dr Gautam Sen laments the non-intellectualism of Hindu activists like the RSS.

In his latest online essay titled ‘The uncertain future of Hindus ’ (click here), Dr Sen is calling out to Hindus to transcend “parochial consciousness” and adopt a larger “national perspective”.

Casting his eyes beyond national boundaries, the online-essayist warns that the religions of Islam and Christianity are competitively engaged “in the race for world conquest and domination”. In the face of such a threat, which will not respect India’s borders, the distinguished academic is understandably concerned about the intellectual deficiencies of what he refers to as “the Hindu movement” (which must be a new name coined for 'Hindutva'):

“….. the Hindu movement is simply not intellectually equipped to deal with the complex situation Hindus face today….. And too many people in the movement remain ignorant about basic issues in the wider world, wielding organisational clout to silence serious intellectual criticism.”

But the essayist disappoints by NOT being able to shed the blinkers of bias and prejudice he seems to wear, and also surprises by betraying a level of ignorance one would not expect from a person of his academic standing.

We will examine below some of the viewpoints expressed in his essay.


Blinkered vision and the fracturing of community

The essayist’s field of vision is broad enough to take notice of atrocities committed against Hindus, within and without India, as can be seen from his decrying them as follows:

“….Their ethnic cleansing from Jammu & Kashmir continues unabated and the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh remains desperate…”

However, the essayist’s visual field seems to be an overly narrow one as it leaves out the Hindus of Sri Lanka whose sufferings are no less – in fact, far worse – than the plight of those in Jammu & Kashmir and Bangladesh. The cause of such blinkered or filtered vision must be his Hindutva conditioning!


Preserving privilege and ignorance

On the other hand, the essayist shocks by a surprising display of selective amnesia (or historical ignorance) when he says:

“Even so-called ‘backwards’ develop a more national sense of their being once they are educated beyond high school; actually two years in higher education seems to do it. This is why the disgraceful HRD minister wants reservations in premier institutions, but is careful to ensure that little education takes place at lower levels at all; nearly nil in much of UP state schools, for example.”

This is how education got derailed in post-Independence India: whilst communist China went for universal basic education, socialist India focused on elite institutions like IITs only to train students for jobs in America and elsewhere!

China was keeping faith with its Confucian tradition of emphasis on education; but India’s successive governments (including that led by BJP), hijacked by the brown sahibs who replaced the white sahibs, paid secret homage to Kautilya by grossly neglecting basic education for its teeming millions.

For further discussion, click on previous blog titles listed below:

Kautilya’s hidden influence on post-Independence India? (February 21, 2006)

India's economy & social justice: responding to Ngiam Tong Dow (July 24, 2005)


Deflecting disgrace

The professorial essayist derides the “disgraceful HRD minister” for wanting reservations in premier institutions (read, IITs and IIMs) (Note 1)

Somehow it escapes the essayist, a political economist, that the real disgrace is rooted in the fact that, even after six decades of independence, the Indian minister responsible for education is being forced into undertaking stopgap measures of rationing out the privilege of higher education (called ‘reservation’) because of (i) severe scarcity (of seats), and (ii) the fact that millions of aspiring Indians, not privileged by birth or money, did not have their fair chance of quality education to acquire the ‘merit’ for admission and as determined by fiercely competitive entrance exams.

It is about time that Tamil Nadu – the spring of the Dravidian social justice movement and Thirukkural (the anti-thesis of Manusmrti and Kautilya’s Arthasastra) - should speak out forcefully on this matter to drive some sense into the likes of Dr Sen and, of course, the striking doctors and protesting students.


Re-constituting India’s politics

The essayist is proposing that India’s Constitution should be amended to pave the way for a Presidential system of government in place of the current parliamentary system of government.

It would be difficult to take him seriously when he seems so ignorant or muddled or both about what really ails India’s education.

In addition, one has to also worry about the essayist’s sense of judgement when he seems to be having the legal troubles of the “Kanchi Acharya” in mind when portraying "elected political leaders" as seeking "to crush" one of the “supreme spiritual leaders" of Hindus. If one were to heed the essayist's call for greater intellectual consciousness amongst Hindus, we may be risking questions like: Who (s)elected the “Kanchi Acharya” ? Who or what does the "Kanchi Acharya" represent ?

The fundamental cause of India’s problem is NOT too much DEMOCRACY, but too little, as eloquently explained by Mr P Chidambaram (currently India’s Finance Minister):

India's economy & social justice: responding to Ngiam Tong Dow (July 24, 2005)


Kautilyan subversion

A pre-condition for democracy is an educated citizenry.

It is NOT India’s Constitution, but nearly six decades of Kautilyan subversion of the intent and purpose of the Constitution that denied (quality) education to hundreds of millions of young Indians.

It is this very same Kautilyan subversion that is the single major cause behind the current mess and weakness in many sectors of India’s economy.

Note 1: (to be filled)


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