There’s a fascinating set of Hindu Nationalist Greeting Cards from the 1990s over at Tasveer Ghar, with an accompanying essay. All of the cards were made for New Years, and intended to be used used on Diwali and Vikram Samvath. My favorite two are below.
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The card on the left is a Diwali card celebrating the first Indian nuclear bomb explosion, and yes, that is a lingam in the center of the explosion.
The poem at the back of the card tells the reader that “Today, the nation’s sleeping pride has woken up …. Shiva’s third eye has opened, and the World-destroyer has woken. … The nation’s sleeping pride has woken up.” [link]
The card on the right depicts “Mother India calling her sons to fight against capitalism, Islam and Christian missionary activities” [link]:
The primary dangers represented in this New Year card are cultural domination (Westernisation); the alleged threat to Indianness from ‘alien’ religious practices of Christianity and Islam (conversion and separatism), and the politics of economic globalisation (capitalism as colonising practice) [link]
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p>You can imagine what they must think of Bobby Jindal. 
These cards and other images by the same artist are used throughout Sangh Parivar institutions, including their schools. The message they bring is that Christianity, Islam and Capitalism are foreign colonizers on Indian soil, which must be rejected and the foreigners either driven out or assimilated:
“Whenever Shakas and Huns bared their bloody claws and terror struck the masses, and evil people troubled us, bringing bloodshed and rape, seeing that every day the Hindus were threatened, Vikramaditya once again would reveal his brave masculinity and courage by slaughtering and beating them up or making them Hindu. So we commemorate that with the Vikram-Year.” [link]
This message is the reason why I find the VHP’s educational activities problematic, because it teaches that India belongs to Hindus alone, and that all others must either convert or leave. They do have cool iconography though
48 · Ponniyin Selvan said
Dear Hindutva Apologist,
FTR.
Signed, Secular Progressive Liberal
See this right there? This kind of crap is exactly the problem. Does your tone then make you a terrorist apologist?
Hmm. Maybe some day we will be able to see such comments arise unprompted. What a wonderful world that would be where everyone agrees to control their dogs’ pee!
52 · Yoga Fire said
I have a long history of exchange with Ponniyin Selvan, and I do not say this lightly. How come you fail to notice his habitual usage of the phrase “Secular Progressive Liberal” (especially the scare quotes)?
52 · Yoga Fire said
I’ll let my comments speak for themselves.
Yoga Fire, you’ve started commenting recently. Just to let you know, PS and I have long made peace with each other’s opinions, I think 🙂 At this point, I’m immune to his name-calling (and vice-versa, I believe).
That’s right. I’m in agreement with portmanteau. 🙂
Yoga fire,
I think we should not care much about the labels we are assigned. It is not that people are stuck with the same label all the time. Once they change their opinions they move from one label to another.
48 · Ponniyin Selvan said
Yeah, but the extremists on both sides reject the free speech doctrine (and the Indian Constitution and jurisprudence have a notorious bias against even slightly controversial speech, sacrificing it to preserve ‘communal harmony’ and ‘public order’). The Muslim extremists go nuts over the Danish cartoons and Nasreen, while the Hindu ones can’t take weird representations of Hindu Gods and Kamala Surayya.
The difference is that the “secular progressive” brigade (that is almost the whole of Indian media and “intellectuals”) will pounce on the Hindu nutcases while giving a free pass to the Muslim nutcases claiming somehow the rules apply differently for “minorities” .
20 · Yoga Fire said
You sir…have quoted one of the essential philosophies of Hinduism that have been ignored for ages now. Remember how hopped up on soma we used to be…
Wow the pix all looked scary. It is just a milder version of brain-washing about the “other”.
I will be the first to admit that I think some Muslims have acted as fifth columnists and the Congress has sold the country for money, its “ideals”, votes and what not. But BJP/VHP has done no better – they are supposed to defend Hindu causes, instead they just keep the issue alive for votes/power.
But, the pictures paints ALL Muslims and Christians as universally bad. That’s just propaganda and will lead to more fault lines between the different communities. I hope these kind of images don’t get posted at SM again since this is supposed to be a neutral site.
Digressing a tad from our usual religious/political discussion, doesn’t anyone else find the first card with the lingam amidst the explosion rather cute, in a somewhat retro nostalgic manner? It brings back memories of old movies where sex scenes could only be hinted at, with scenes such as a couple falling into bed dissolving almost immediately into scenes of fireworks.
If you’re self loathing enough to convert to Christianity in INDIA, then get out.
I assume you don’t have a bhangi or chamar in your social circle?
Shaad,
Lingam isn’t really meant to be sexualized in a concrete (pun unintended) way. The only time I have seen it so, e.g. man actually referring to his penis as “lingam,” is in crappy erotica written by white women.
Perhaps the below rough dates will cause you to rethink that statement:
1200 – 1800: Islamic Sultanates 1700 – 1947: British Raj 1947 – 2009: Partition of India, birth of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and the Socialist, Secular Democratic Republic of India
63 · gangtok slim said
Are you kidding me here? Firstly, I was talking about modern India, not what happened hundreds of years ago. Secondly, you need to go back an re-learn some of your history, a mere change of rulers at the top cannot redistribute political power throughout an entire society. It was very difficult for any rulers who came from outside India to rule India successfully unless they were able to get the consent of the majority of the population and the collaboration of the indiegenous elite, which was largely Hindu. when these were withdrawn or became hostile as in the great Zamindari revolts against the late Mughal Empire and the mass movements against British colonial rule, these systems of imperial domination collapsed. you might actually want to look at the personal histories of people like Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah – they all started out as loyal British imperial citizens of Empire before they moved gradually towards a more radical stand.
Conrad, i think if you reread Yoga’s comment, you’ll see that he lists out examples for just that–modern india. The examples are all pretty damning of the congress party’s anti-secular actions–especially in Andhra Pradesh.
Hindus may be in the majority, but the strategy for many parties, esp the congress (notorious for formulas like KHAM-Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) is to fragment the hindu vote and consolidate minority votes–with attempts at rent-seeking i.e. bethlehem and haj subsidies. That’s how elections are won in India, and that’s how the majority itself can have diminished influence in the power structure. after all, hindu temples are the only ones that are managed, and whose funds are redistributed to other religious institutions, by the Indian government (whither an establishment clause?). That’s why Yoga’s polite point about this post is relevant.
Satyajit Wry,
Yoga Fire’s comment included just one reference to an action that could be construed as “anti-Hindu” by the state which related to the extension of govt control over lands that would be administered by the TTD. Since this is a govt-sponsored trust that is meant to run the temple complex for the public I am at a loss to understand how this could be see as an “anti-Hindu act by the state”. My understanding is that the TTD trust has administered the temple complex since the early 1930s fairly successfully so I can’t see the problem here. In anycase Yoga Fire’s objection was to the description of the protests against this action as “Hindu chauvinism” rather than the action itself; I would agree with him that it is not correct to label these actions as Hindu chauvinism but that is not what the initial point was about.
Hindus may be in the majority, but the strategy for many parties, esp the congress (notorious for formulas like KHAM-Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) is to fragment the hindu vote and consolidate minority votes–with attempts at rent-seeking i.e. bethlehem and haj subsidies. That’s how elections are won in India, and that’s how the majority itself can have diminished influence in the power structure. after all, hindu temples are the only ones that are managed, and whose funds are redistributed to other religious institutions, by the Indian government (whither an establishment clause?). That’s why Yoga’s polite point about this post is relevant.
‘Bethelem subsidies’ could you be a bit more specific here about what you mean. There is no obligation or need for Christians to go to Bethlehem and neither does the GoI provide any subsidies for Christians to do so. If you are going to make comments about other religions, you should make an effort to get the basic facts right. I am unaware that there is a redistribution towards other religious institutions in the manner which you describe; there are some targeted subsidies given by the state by these are neither extended in a wholesale fashion or given to all minority religions in the fashion which you are implying. Plenty of religious events whose administration expenses come from general taxation revenue that everybody pays but which are primarily for Hindus like the Kumbh mela, Amarnath pilgramage etc. but I don’t see non-Hindus up in arms but this and rightly so. The state isn’t an accounting firm which pays out what you put in; it has to enforce certain rights and maintain a balanced order regardless of costs. Specific subsidies like the Haj ones are small beer imo.
Secondly, there seems to be some confusion about the distrbution of political power and whether we are talking about (i) the dissipation of political power from Hindus to Muslims and other non-Hindu groups or (ii) the downward distribution of power from upper caste Hindus to middle and lower caste Hindus. I see no evidence for (i) but of course there is a significant social revolution as (ii) is occurring.If (i) was the case, then I think the complaints that are often wheeled out would have some force but if what people are really complaining about is the loss of power by the upper caste Hindu elite; well this is really a feature of social democracy and cannot be reversed.
Conrad, right and wrong. GOI doesn’t, the Andhra govt does.(link)
Lupus – really thanks for that; almost couldn’t beleive it when I read it. That is really wrong imo; the govt should not be wasting money on things like that esepcially since it isn’t even mandated in the religion. Encouraging visits to the Holy Land has brought no end of grief to that piece of territory and has just aided reactionary and divisive tendencies in all the religions involved. I don’t know why the AP state govt has indulged in this act particularly since Christians are such a small minoirty in the state; if they were serious about their welfare they should spend that money on some social welfare or educational schemes to benefit the deprived in the community rather than wasting it like that.
We are fortunate that this kind of thing is not constitutionally sanctioned and it looks to be a relatively recent development. There certainly wasn’t anything like this when I was growing up.
India is growng more “secular” by the day. 🙂
What do you mean not constitutionally sanctioned ?. This is done by the state government of Andhra Pradesh.
I mean it isn’t something that is contained in the constitution as a right that should be granted to religious minorities (like say freedom of worship etc.) or separate personal law codes. I think it is quite insulting to Christians actually that the govt that use this as a cheap gimmick (the amounts involved so far seem to be small) especially since travelling to the Holy Land has got nothing to do with faith or practise in Christianity and mounting these ridiculous pilgramages are what Catholics are are poked fun at by other denominations. Unlike Hindusim or Islam such pilgramages have been historically peripheral for Christianity and when this issue has come up it has invariably been to distract attention from other problems and been reactionary (eg the impetus behidn the early Crusades). That it took till last year for a state with a mall Christian population to engage in this gimmiclery indicates just how irrelvant this issue is (or at least should be).
If it isn’t constitutionally sanctioned, then it is simply a matter of govt policy and the AP govt should it desire can stop this overnight.
Conrad, so I hope you see what we mean now. The problem is that YS Rajasekhar Reddy is a determined evangelical–his brother in law actually being a TV evangelist along the lines of CBN (Benny Hinn, et al). Demolishment orders for numerous temples have been given, and to the point about the TTD, an actual government order was given to restrict TTD only to 2 of the 7 hills (Venkateshvara being the Lord of Seven Hills and all), so that YSR could build megachurches on the other 5. This is after he raided the TTD’s funds and forced it to be 2.2 crores a year for his religious activities. So as you can see, the AP govt doesn’t want to remove Bethlehems subsidies. And in order to declare their “secular” credentials, both Naidu and Chiranjeevi have promised to expand Bethlehem subsidies to give them a crack at a new religious minority vote bank. sonia gandhi, as the extra constitutional locus of power has seen to similar activities at the national level, as seen with the 2 RS Cross Coin above. since for the mass rural base in India, these type of cheap transactional gimmicks work, we can only expect them to grow and continue to waste indian coffers (which already have a 10.8% fiscal deficit thanks to this “economic dream team”).
Part of the concern that many of us share is that religious rent-seeking then opens up to hindus–could you imagine subsidies for every hindu pilgrimmage under the sun? And the ironic part is that haj subsidies themselves are illegal under islamic law. Saudi Arabia frowns on it, a Lahore high court struck down a Pakistani version of it, and numerous Indian Muslims themselves have called for a repeal of this.
Ultimately, the vast majority of hindus, and yes, even the bjp leadership, don’t want an exclusionary hindu india. we embrace pluralism and respect the christian tradition in india that dates back to Gondopharnes in the 1st century, as well as all the others. but these type of activities compel them to vote for the only alternative to the congress.
Satyajit Wry,
I think you are getting a bit carried away here. What evidence is there that the AP govt has given the “order to demolish numerous temples” or that “mega-churches” (by which I assume you mean cathedrals) in itself an odd claim since churches of the same deonomination would not be built in so close proximity to an area which has little direct historical connection with Christianity as Tirupati? And targeting a minority that is barely 1% of the population is not going to get you very far in Indian politics these days.
The economic deficit is also a structural porblem not one caused just by a single admin or by religious subsidies. But I suspect you are just pulling my leg with some of these claims.
The CM is a Christian. He is aslo famous for stomping over the religious rules at Tirupati to allow Sonia to visit it.
The hindu situation is a bit like the boiling frog scenario.
The consititution offers protection to non-hindu institutions from government interference, while offer no such protection to Hindu Institutions. As a result the Hindu institutions have been weakened dramtically, by various governments, stealing the funds, the lands, ruining the temple administration by distributing the posts ot their todies, limiting various functions etc.
Also because the non-hindu religious institutions are strong, they wield considerable influence over their communities voting habits. So it is highly beneficial for governments to curry favor with the non-hindu religions. This has always occured, right from independance.
Whether the CM is a Christian or not isn’t the issue; in fact it is irrelevant to the point I was making. I didn’t realise that he had to violate that many rules for Sonia Gandhi to visit Tirupati; I thought she had already visited the temple before in 1999, without this level of furore.
I haven’t seen any evidence of this as a concerted campagin or a widespread pattern. Most temples complexes are relatively well run considering the demands they have to cope with; where mismanagement occurs it is down to poor administration and corruption and this can be corrected by the appropriate public action.
Excuse me but how yould you know exactly? Communities like Christian, Sikhs and Muslims have many internal divisions and come into conflict with each; quite often violently. This just sounds like an over-generalisation without any real evidence.
Conrad, I truly wish I were just making it up, but alas:
Temple Demolishment: 1 2 3 4 5
As for the deficit 1.you might recall NREGS and the Farmer Loan Waiver which hit the $20B mark 2.this administration presided over an unprecedented rise in tax revenue but squandered it away 3.india’s bonds are now facing junk rating status thanks to the current administration 4. virually zero progress on the Vajpayee golden quadrilateral project—but i’m sure they’ll still find a way to name it after Indira Gandhi
Satyajit
That is surprising, I don’t know why all these examples are coming from AP. I just want to add though that all the examples you cite seem at least partly to be driven by urban development – in the 2 cases of roadside temples being demolished to accomodate road-widening. Personally, I find this objectionably since efforts should be made to try and find a compromise which won’t involve demolishing places of worship; I think development is important but should not come at any cost. One example seems to be more in the guise of reconstruction to improve access at Tirupati by the TTB; I have no idea about the details of that case, the only grounds in which I could see it could be criticised is if ancient or historical parts of the temple complex have been damaged since this is part of our heritage and should not be destroyed under any excuse. One case (3) is attributed to unknown vandals, so I don’t see why the state should be blamed for this. There is only one solitary case of temple demolishment in a village, with no explanation given as to why it was done. Maybe further details would be appropriate before one can find out exactly why this was done but I agree that unless there is a good one, there needs to be some accounting of why this was done. In conclusion, I don’t think this fits some sort of anti-Hindu pattern that you seem to be suggesting as the motivations for actions carried out were for other purposes – this doesn’t make them acceptable to me but then our govt demolishes peoples’ houses with minimal compensation in the pursuance of development schemes. This is a governance problem imo not one of discrimination.
Re your other points.
Conrad,
Please read the articles in entirety. Of course YSR cannot openly demolish temples for religious purposes so they are disguised under “Road Development”, but the ISCKON temple, out of the many other roadside religious shrines was the only one scheduled for demolishment. And I think we’ve been over the TTD example enough to establish the agenda. I have tried to restrict myself to the english language media which underreports these activities as the private owners don’t want to antagonize the government. You are more than welcome to do your own research if you really find all this to be that incredulous
The Farm Loan waiver was a completely corrupt operation which wasted money and didn’t help farmers at all (And, the CAG reported 50,000 crores missing). Add that to the growing list of corruption scandals (Satyam and D. Raja Telecom scandal) and underpaid/underarmed and humiliated military.
2&3. Yes, India is better placed economically–hence it should have a more responsible government. Please don’t excuse away this deficit when this deficit was for the previous years’ (before economic collapse)spending
4.Dude, where are your figures on the National Highways? here’re mine:
Arun Shourie on the boiling frog
Please watch the video and challenge his facts. Not saying you don’t do this, but unfortunately other commentators have. Thanks.
Okay I am confused now, if only the ISKON temple is being singled out then how is it an ‘anti-Hindu’ move as the other shrines are being left in place. I don’t know the details so I can’t comment. And no such ‘agenda’ has been established by anybody on the TTD, several allegations have been made but that is all. Without further evidence I really don’t see the credibility of saying anything more.
Are you having a laugh? From 10 years spent in Africa, all I can say is that the World Bank is an extremely stupid organisation when it comes to development. It has inflicted untold damage by its so-called approach and no country will develop by following its strategy. Yes, I am quite convinced, I spent two years studing the NREGA in UP and am satisfied with my findings that it is a vital programme. Corruption scandals are common to every regime and as for the military that is also something that needs to be changed but it is a policy of the entire political class, the BJP included, that has underfunded and demoted the status of the army and the officer corps in particular. No govt for various reasons has taken any concrete steps to solve this issue; this is a structural problem.
Shourie should spend less time swanning around university campuses and more time actually traversing the NH then he could see what progress or lack of is being made. I have for the Delhi-Kolkata route for the past few years, so I don’t need to listen to Mr Shourie to know what the lack of progress under successive govts is like. My figures for the fiscal deficit are somewhat different for Shourie’s of course what he won’t tell you is that the high oil prices in the previous fiscal year acted as a huge drag as it automatically raised the subsidy – independently of govt control. We can talk figures if you like but I always go to the original data, I would not rely on data provided for by an intermediary, especially a politician on this score (which is what Shourie is).
The other shrines were apparently non-hindu. And Conrad, plenty of examples have already been provided upthread about the evangelism of YSR. Here’s another article.
2, Dude, please watch the video. The data Arun Shourie actually quotes are from a Morgan Stanley report…so no need for him to personally inspect the NH. The CAG already does that. Please show data. Yes, Shourie is a politician, but he is also an economist and he uses third party facts. I mean for god’s sake, he actually thanked congress babu Pranab Mukherjee for preventing Sonia Gandhi from gifting away Siachen. he may be a bjp’er but he’s a patriot first.
As an aside, given your PhD studies, do you have any good academic data on rural poverty/farmer suicide links from policy institutes? Links? Thank you in advance. Who says we can’t be productive while we debate ;)…
UPA economic mismanagement and subsidies
is (facebook-style) waiting for someone to bemoan how the blog has been taken over by
Hindutvadians,Hindutvadites,Hindutvandans…IndiansSomehow, when the US actually nukes a nation – its worthy to be repeated ad nauseum on discovery, etc. When Pak develops a nuclear weapons ring, touts its islamic bomb – no biggie there. But when India – finally- goes nuclear, and some Hindus tie it to cultural nationalism, we have some NRIs get all worked up. Grow up. At the end of the day, all said and done, all the soap and water wont make you anyone else..but Indian. Keep crapping on your own people, and you are the ones who will suffer as the real India – not the one full of snake charmers, urine drinkers, heathen idol worshippers, “daleets” / oppressed untouchables gets smeared further.