Back in 2002, a photographer took pictures of the California coastline for a government project. Among them were aerial photographs of the estate of vocalist Barbara Streisand.
Streisand reacted by suing the photographer
and the companies who digitally stored these images. She claimed an invasion of
privacy and sought $50 million in damages. The frivolous lawsuit was dismissed, but it had
unintended consequences.
Prior to the lawsuit, the images of
Streisand’s property were downloaded only 6 times—with 2 of the downloads by
her lawyers. Following her lawsuit, the images were downloaded over 420,000
times in just a month.
Had Streisand ignored the photographs, nobody
would have ever known of its existence. Instead her lawsuit and made the images
a forbidden fruit that everyone coveted. This phenomenon came to be known as
the Streisand Effect
The moral of the
story is to choose your battles wisely. Discretion is the
better part of valour.
Now for the Anti-Hindu
conference.
This has been a
standard ploy of the left.
They cannot be anti-Semitic
in the open, so they claim to oppose Zionism or the policies of Israel. They
reiterate that they have nothing against Jews. While their words may be carefully chosen their fanatical viciousness reveals their real motivations. Quite
often one among their accomplices allows their bigotry to get the better of
them and the naked truth is revealed.
The same cabal has
adopted an identical ploy against Hindus. They claim to have
nothing against forward-thinking, peaceful, pluralistic, progressive
Hindus, thus creating the premise that most Hindus brimming with prejudice.
Many Hindus read this
and instantly place themselves among the ‘good ones’, and move on.
But their remark is
similar to when someone says ‘You don’t stink of fouled curry like most
Indians”. That isn’t a compliment to you, it is an insult to all Indians.
They define Hindutva
as founded in deep bigotry. They compare the RSS with stormtroopers and the BJP
to the Nazi party. They still will maintain that they have nothing against
Hindus claim that Hindutva is distinct from Hinduism.
They will attempt to link Hinduism and Hindutva to some acts of criminality in India.
As always a bigot in
their camp reveals their true intentions.
The truth
remains Hindutva and Hinduism advocates the principle of एकम सत विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति, which literally means that truth is one, but the
enlightened may perceive it differently. Hindus do not have terms such as infidels
in our vocabulary. Hindus truly respect everybody which is the very definition of
pluralism.
Hinduism is also among
the few religions that is reforming with time.
There are some Hindus
who wonder if the minds of Hinduphobic people, such as those attending the conference, could
be changed via a healthy debate? This is almost like wondering if the Nazis
would have changed their minds if the Jewish people had engaged in a healthy
dialogue with them.
Bigotry knows no
reason. Bigotry is visceral. Bigotry is irrational. You cannot possibly win
when you are against those an individual with a closed mind.
Hinduism has
prevailed over everyone from Mahmud of Ghazni to the Mughals and from
the Portuguese to the British. A few bigots trash talking will make no
difference.
The only way to deal
with this bunch that nobody cares about is to ignore them.
You do not troll or
threaten anybody including the ‘professor’ who is leading the hateful madness? This
gives them a reason to whine away to eternity claiming victimhood and fundraise.
You do not hold protests outside the venue of the ‘conference’ because it ends up giving them the attention that they never got.
You do not tweet against them using their hashtag because it causes
the hashtag to trend and gives them attention.
You do not have reactionary
conferences that seem like a pale imitation.
You do not send
emails to their superiors demanding that they be fired. These cowards wouldn’t
lift a finger if it actually caused harm to their careers. They are doing so
because their organizations are backing them.
Making a
demonstration of adhering to the groupthink by hating Trump, Modi,
Right-wingers, Hindus, etc will actually boost their careers. While
they claim to be brave, standing up against adversity and speaking ‘truth to
power'. They are in total harmony with the chimes of the echo chamber.
Will they ever dare
to speak truth to power and call out left-winger such Obama or Biden for war
crimes? We know the answer to that.
Unfortunately, many of
the detractors of the anti-Hindu conference have caused the Streisand effect.
There are those who have claimed that drawing attention to the conference will educate Hindus who were probably not aware of the extent of Hinduphobia. If those Hindus haven’t woken up after all these relentless assaults, this conference will most certainly do very little to knock out the slumber.
There are those who
claim that conferences such as these will fuel anti-Hindu violence. This is certainly valid, that if
hate movements such as these gain momentum, it could have an effect.
The first step of
genocide is creating a rationale for it without actually mentioning your intentions.
This is done by dehumanizing and vilifying your target. They are already
claiming that it is impossible to be bigoted towards Hindus.
Hindus hence have to
keep a watchful eye.
But most importantly Hindus
must focus on building their own narrative and not just be reactive. Hindus
must write more books, articles, host
podcasts, and use every media possible to highlight our rich cultural heritage. We
have been successful in educating people about the benefits of yoga. We
have to continue in a similar spirit.
Hindus must also hold
their governments accountable. Hindus must not fall for petty polarizing
campaign talk or for a politician performing or attending a Pooja in his
personal capacity. Leaders must be judged by what they have actually done for
Hindus.
Hinduism has its
roots in greatness, we are great when others were living in the stone age. It’s
time to revive that great narrative again, only that will dissolve the poison
of bigotry.
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