Ignorance as an Opinion Piece
Thursday, 16. July 2009 - 1:47 AM
I’m pretty sure this singular piece by Jawed Naqvi has given multiple orgasms to the worthies in our secular intelligentsia. He writes from Pakistan, and in the article, doesn’t merely parrot the same fantasy tales that our eminences call history. He distorts these tales to an extent that both delights our eminences and enkindles their envy.
You’re not really sure what he intends to convey in his article but if I grasp it right, it seems to cohere with the title: Bamyan syndrome: A bit of Taliban in many of us. I think he basically wants to say we’re all as rotten and depraved as the Taliban varying only in degrees. He uses every example from Ashoka to the Guptas to Jahangir to the British to Savarkar to the US forces in Iraq to Mayawati to “prove” this. I suppose that makes him some kind of a Great Leveller. Unfortunately, the path to that levelling is filled with crater-sized potholes.
Some samples of the potholes follow.
- The fact that Buddhism was uprooted by a combination of Brahminical and Muslim inroads into its territory across much of India indicates a historical viciousness.
- A Brahmin king is believed to have been so motivated to eradicate the egalitarian faith of the Buddha that he uprooted the Bodh Gaya tree near Patna under which Buddha meditated and is said to have attained enlightenment.
- Veer Savarkar, a rightwing Hindu leader who thought Hindus and Muslims formed separate nationalities way before the Muslim League got into the act, should have had no place in independent India. But his statue was unveiled in the parliament house by the Manmohan Singh government despite, reflecting the signs of the time.
- Injection of ultra nationalism in the country’s mainstream politics saw many regional satraps from mediaeval period occupying prestigious spots as national icons. Rana Pratap may have had nothing to do with Lucknow but his statue is placed prominently on the railway station road.
- Maratha chieftain Shivaji was also brought into the Indian capital…
And the la creme da la creme:
…Mayawati.is busy erecting statues of Buddhist figures in Uttar Pradesh unmindful of history which saw Buddhism being exported out of India lock stock and barrel, with the kind of fanatic zeal that we currently identified with the Taliban.
Look at how Naqvi tries to blur the line between false history and blatant assertion. No evidence to backup any of these. Even if you grant that Naqvi learnt his history from the books written by our Eminent Historians, it the unadulterated crap he’s written about Buddhism doesn’t stand to reason.
Let’s grant that Buddhism was/is an egalitarian faith. And this is where I have a problem with terminology. Buddhism is not merely a faith. It is a well-conceptualized, systemmatic, and refined philosophy. But never mind. We’ll agree it’s egalitarian for our present purpose. And by mentioning some nameless Brahmin king, Naqvi gives the game away: who exactly is this king? A name would suffice.
But Naqvi isn’t new in propagating the fraudulent history that Brahminism–or Adi Shankara in other variants of this falsehood–was responsible for driving Buddhism out of India. Buddhism declined, and was destroyed in India chiefly, for two reasons: its internal weaknesses and Islamic invasions. When any religion mandates Sanyasa–renunciation of worldly life–as a prerequisite, it directly hits where it hurts the most. As renunciates, celibacy was strictly enforced. The other mandate of absolute non-violence meant there was no way you could defend yourself against wanton aggression. Even if you wanted to, there was no way ordinary Buddhist mendicants could possibly face an army of well-trained soliders. Additionally, when Islam first knocked on India’s doors, Buddhists were rife with corruption and squalor and had long past deviated from the Tathagatha’s noble teachings. Islamic hordes found them ripe for picking. The Buddhist massacre at the hands of Islamic barbarians is a carefully-suppressed fact in the annals of secular history. Another place that gives us a glimpse into this is the accounts of contemporary Muslim chronicles/historians: their use of the choicest obscenities are almost always reserved for Brahmins while there’s little mention about the Buddhists.
The relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism has remained relatively peaceful throughout. There’s very little evidence to show that Hindu kings actively persecuted Buddhists on religious grounds. Philosophical debates and disagreements were plenty between the two schools but they were just that: debates, not violent massacres. As I’ve shown earlier, Buddhism was just an offshoot of Sanatana Dharma. But accepting this fact is very dangerous in secular circles. And so they advance this pet theory: Buddhism was the “common man’s” rebel-religion that arose in opposition to tyrannical Brahminism.
Doesn’t this explain Naqvi who goes so far as to equate Brahminism with a “Taliban mindset?” Sigh. Now we have to contend with Indian history pontificators from across the border. As if our homegrown stalwarts aren’t enough.
Tags: Buddha, Buddhism, Commentary, Hinduism, History, India, Indian History, Indian Philosophy, Islam, Islam Watch, Jawed Naqvi, Pakistan Watch, Politics, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Sanatana Dharma, Secularism
16. July 2009 - 6:28 AM
“…history which saw Buddhism being exported out of India lock stock and barrel, with the kind of fanatic zeal that we currently identified with the Taliban”.
The above comment shows how ignorant the author is. He has the answer in himself… Who is objecting in India for statues of Buddha? We still worship him and Buddha Purnima is a holiday in India, whereas the budda statutes were blown up in Afganistan was a holiday in Afganistan. This report is a total garbage.
There is a difference between a tinge of jealousy in a normal woman and a borderline personality disorder type vengeance displayed by Farah Fawcett in the movie Fatal Attraction. To equate both and conclude, both are one and the same makes me throw up. There is no need to amplify the hidden agenda of the author.. Bring all us down to the level of taliban barbarians or elevate Taliban to an acceptable level.
16. July 2009 - 6:31 AM
Well the first Buddhists were often very smart upper castes who had converted to Buddhism…they forget this fact.
Who created the alphabet for the Tibetans? Who taught them to paint? Many HIndu Kashmiris who had become Buddhists. What happened to Buddhists in central Asia and AFghanistan. Who wiped them out?
It is interesting that Tibetans have preserved Buddhist teachings without much innovation in terms of philosophy–I guess they copied and preserved the origianal texts.
And Tibetans were not always peaceful as now: they were tribal and warlike once and Buddhism changed their nature. Even still it was a feudal society where 5% were Lamas and others were serfs until very recently.
It is interesting that most of the central Buddhist teachings all stem from India–with the exception of newer movements like Zen which are so different from the original Buddhism…I think Buddhism ceased to be innovative after it left its homeland although it enriched many countries outside India.
16. July 2009 - 6:59 AM
Also HInduism and Buddhism were very syncretic and borrowed from each other–There was NEVER any systematic persecution of Buddhists by Hindus in the way Islam wiped them out…Andre Wink on the chapter on Buddhism mentions that leftist historians in India have perpetuated the notion that HIndus persecuted Buddhists. He says there are no grounds for it. (See his three volume Al HInd)…Overall HInduism and Buddhism have been syncretic faiths at the popular level.
17. July 2009 - 7:30 AM
Beautiful piece Sandeep. This is precicely why everytime I hear that Indians lack asense of history I feel puke. You have the worthy historians passing off scholarly pieces like “A brahmin king tried to uproot….” no names , no facts and the same worthy eminences sermonize in secular circles of how we Indians lack a sense of history. I’ve always believed there is no greater dishonesty or corruption than academic corruption and Mr. naqvi qualifies for that . Great eminences like hiom and Nehuru have deliberately confused our sense of history by building fiction of hearsay , street gossip and intellectualised it by saying we have an oral as opposed to an archival tradition. has any one seriously looked into this.
The Barbaric Hinduism vs Tolerant egalitarian Buddhism argument shouldnot not surprise anyone.The same masters who taught them history also taught them the principle of divide and rule
Ravi
17. July 2009 - 8:27 AM
“Sigh. Now we have to contend with Indian history pontificators from across the border. As if our homegrown stalwarts aren’t enough.”
I beleive that Jawed Naqvi is a Delhi-based indian journalist.
17. July 2009 - 11:42 AM
Good work. Keep more of those coming. One minor thing Sandeep,
I think Naqvi is an Indian citizen based in Delhi. He just contributes articles to the dawn on issues pertaining to India in his own puke worthy way.
17. July 2009 - 12:00 PM
There is a bit of Taliban in every Muslim, from Javed Naqvi to Saeed Naqvi to Javed Akhtar. Mocking other faiths, fudging history, inventing “facts” and denying reality comes naturally to them.
These “English outside, Taliban inside” Muslims have a fan following in some deranged Hindus who have addled their brains with marxism and Nehruvian secularism. But essentially, these kind of Hindus are only “useful idiots” for the Muslim “intellectuals.”
Actually, what Naqvi does in the above opinion peice is the “you too” strategy. In this, when one finds facts about oneself that are shameful and too difficult to digest, then he turns around at others and alleges: “You too are like this.” This is what Naqvi is doing in this writeup.
18. July 2009 - 9:26 PM
I would add that apart from the destruction of their centers of learning, and apart from the wholesale massacre of Buddhists of Cental Asia and Afghanistan by barbaric invaders, Buddhism also became very over intellectualized–losing its connect with the lay people. This is one reason for its decline in India even before the Islamic invasions. Sure it enountered some hostility from Brahmins as any new movement enounters hostitliy, but not to the extent that they resorted to wholesale massacre of Buddhists as the author of the above article asserts.
19. July 2009 - 8:46 PM
I agree with Madhav. Javed Naqvi is an Indian indeed. (I remember he used to come on some news show on DD about 10 years ago.)
An Indian distorting Indian history to defend Taliban cause. It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
19. July 2009 - 9:00 PM
??? “Mayawati busy erecting statues of Buddhist figures” ???
Since when did Mayawati or Kanshi Ram or BR Ambedkar become “Buddhist figures” ?
20. July 2009 - 2:08 PM
It is quite amazing how Muslims and Christians so coolly appoint themselves as experts on Hindu history.
21. July 2009 - 8:27 AM
The fact that Muslims and Christians have been appointing themselves as experts on Hindu history is only corollary to the principle that they have been victors, who have ruled over the Hindus for over 800 yrs. It is then hardly surprising that history has been written by the victorious.
All this big talk of “Unity in Diversity” is simply big talk to keep the rule going, because Hindus have always been diverse, never united!
10. August 2009 - 12:46 AM
As regards the silly comments about how Hhindus persecuted Buddhists by Naqvi, I recall it was either Huen Tsang or Fa Hien who wrote that he was unable to distinguish between Hindus and Buddhists in Kashmir. That should tell the author something. It is the same way till today in places like Nepal where Hindus and Buddhists celebrate each others holidays…(of course the country now is Maoist and different)..But now even Nepal is rapidly turning Christian as well….The Koreans have mostly given up their Buddhism…you see it of import in Japan…