The text of the letter published on August 11, 2024
The increase in Hinduphobia in our neighbouring countries is alarming. India is the only hope for Hindus in the world, and it is sad that the Indian government faces resistance at all levels to even try to help the severely persecuted Hindu brethren in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Turning a blind eye and denying the clear statistics seems to be the most common response. It is unfortunate that the dislike for a single person in the form of the PM is converting into a dislike for all the Hindus. In Afghanistan, the Hindu and Sikh population was 7 percent of the total in the second half of the twentieth century. Now only a few hundred Hindus and Sikhs live in Afghanistan, putting their lives at risk. The proportions of Hindus in West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh now) were around 15 percent and 29 percent, respectively, at the partition of India in 1947. Hindus now make up 2 percent of Pakistan’s population, and Hindus in Bangladesh have progressively decreased to below 9 percent. India and its embedded Dharma present the only hope for multiculturalism in the world to survive. Unfortunately, a uniformly poor understanding, spanning across all political parties, of the nature of Sanatana Dharma or its closest correlate, Hinduism, is causing intense damage to the country’s fabric. The ruling party aims to unite Hindus in order to win elections, while the opposition seeks to divide them into disparate groups in order to gain power. Both these types of political manoeuvres obscure Hinduism’s true essence, resulting in only injustice to the Hindus and the country both.
RANDOM MUSINGS 