गर्व से कहो हम हिन्दू है ... !

Pride in Hinduism    

Though Vivekanada was world famous as a “Hindu monk” he launched the still popular slogan:

“Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain.

गर्व से कहो हम हिन्दू है …!!!

“Say it with pride : we are Hindus”, is what Swami Vivekananda taught his fellow Hindus. Some anti-Hindu people insinuate that this slogan implies a doctrine that Hindus are superior. In that case, Black is beautiful would mean that white is not beautiful; it would therefore be a racist slogan and quite reprehensible. In fact, every colour is beautiful in its own way, and it is quite alright to express pride in the long-despised black colour. And everyone is entitled to have and to express pride in his identity. Expressing pride is not a matter of superiority, but being denied the right to express pride, is very certainly a proof of an imposed inferiority.

In order to instill a proper and well-founded pride in Hindus, it is (once more) most important to restore the truth about Hindu history, especially about Hindu society’s glorious achievements. Pride in being Indian means, for 99%, pride in Hinduism…So, this legitimate pride has to be nourished with broad and in-depth knowledge of Hindu culture. The two enemies of this effort are the secularist morbidity that glorifies the destroyers of Hindu culture, denies the unity and integrity of Hindu culture, and discourages its study altogether..”

Much of India’s backwardness has been created by the foreign occupies. This is not just a convenient allegation: in other countries too, we see the destructive impact of foreign occupation on the flourishing of arts and sciences. The flourishing of science needs a safe political as well as economical cradle. In India too, we see total stagnation in the sciences during the entire Muslim period, and a mere passive adoption of Western science under the British rule.

Of the British occupiers, it is known that they destroyed the existing system of education, that they dismantled industries and disturbed agriculture in order to integrate India into the colonial trade system. They also obliterated quite a chunk of Ayurvedic medical knowledge, by discouraging and sometimes even forbidding its practice and teaching. Earlier, the Muslims had destroyed many universities, and if Hindu pandits are such an obscurantist lot, it is largely because the academic framework that gave life to their scholarship, has been destroyed. Hindusthan was always a proverbially rich country. Now, mother Theresa has made it something of a synonym with poverty. But this poverty cannot be blamed on Hindu culture.

(source: Ayodhya and After – By Koenraad ElstVoice of India Issues Before Hindu Society SKU: INBK2650 p. 349-353 and Decolonising The Hindu Mind – Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism – By Koenraad Elst  Publisher: Rupa ISBN: 81-7167-519-0 p.116).http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ayodhya/)