Author: Esther Dhanraj.
Dear Sanatanis,
What is wrong with you? Why are you fussing all of a sudden? Why are you yelling, and screaming from social media roof tops? Don’t you know the world is not used to seeing you retaliate? You are expected to be that silent sufferer who hides his Hinduness so as not to offend his minority friends. What is your problem in continuing to be that sort of Hindu? The world knows you as someone who savors Haleem at an Iftar party or lights a candle at a midnight church service on 31st Dec, but is afraid to even disclose that you have just taken Prasadam at the temple after offering prayers to your ishta devata, much less offer them the Prasadam. Your minority friends know you as an apologetic Hindu who went all out to maintain his “secular” and “’tolerant” labels, sometimes even at the cost of his own religious beliefs. Why are you shedding that image of yours all of a sudden? Why have you started flaunting your tilak or sindoor on social media? Why are you confusing the world with your new behaviour? What’s with all this wokeness?
Some of your fellow-Hindus, the cherry-pickers, think that you are bringing shame to our ancestors; that they were nowhere close to what you are today; that they have cheerfully taken blows to their heads without even so much as letting out a squeal; and that you are being just the opposite in refusing to take any of that, anymore. Your retaliation has earned you the labels, “intolerant”, “fascist,” “communal” and even “nationalist,” the labels that our ancestors never had to endure, because they took everything silently. Your fellow-Hindus are also questioning your audacity in not just shifting your head to avoid the blow to your head, but also in going on an all-out intellectual warfare. They want you to be mindful of how you are hurting the minority sentiments by refusing to take their oppression anymore.
Are you wondering where the fault lies? I wondered, too, and figured, it is all our ancestors’ fault. They set an example of tolerance and inclusivity, both, leading up to secularism, as it is defined, today in our great motherland. Had they taken up weapons in defence, the very first time the marauders – both Islamic and Christian – came on to them, their women and their children; had they opposed religious conversions the first time they encountered them, history would have recorded our ancestors as being intolerant and fascists back then itself, counting them in with other two intolerant religionists. Resultantly, by now the world would have got used to it, sparing you these labels.
Our ancestors – they were a strange lot. A rare lot. A naïve lot. Why can’t you be like them? Why did you have to educate yourself about your true history? Why couldn’t you continue to remain in the dark?
Our ancestors – they shed a silent tear when their women were abducted or were raped right in front of them. Why are you raising your voice against Love-Jihad, today?
Our ancestors – they chose to remain mum when hordes of missionaries proselytized our population, destroying our age-old, time-tested traditions and practices. Why are you petitioning for the criminalization of conversions, today?
Our ancestors – they silently took insults of their idols, resentment towards their religious practices, destruction of their high seats of learning, demolition of their heritage temples, appropriation of their culture and language. Why can’t you just let bygones be bygones? Why are you bending over backwards to educate the masses about it now?
Our ancestors – they watched in silence, sometimes helplessly and sometimes slothfully, deliberately by some in power, and powerlessly by some, as foreign powers and inbred traitors with vested interests overtook our history books, manipulating it to retrofit the colonizers’ narrative. Why are you, all of a sudden, taking notice of the truth about your own history after all these centuries? Why does AIT suddenly bother you now? Why does the wrong dating of the Vedas trouble you now?
Our ancestors – they had no problem with flawed, incestuous, lecherous, violent passages from foreign religious texts being promulgated as moral science to school students. Why are you suddenly spreading awareness about the doctrinal immorality and logical absurdities from their scriptures?
Our ancestors – they wiped off their faces when they were spat at after being called kafirs and barbarians and were often killed on that pretext. Shouldn’t you do the same, instead of spitting back on them?
You are hurting them by suddenly turning hostile to all their atrocities. They are only carrying on the legacy of their ancestors. Shouldn’t you carry on yours? You have to bear it because your country has declared itself secular and a big chunk of the definition of being secular is letting minorities walk all over you. Don’t think of getting away defending yourself? It is unacceptable. Only because it is all coming very late in your history. These are all the perks of being a majority. If you really want to earn the privilege of raising your voice and of being heard, too, then show some patience. Wait till you become a minority.
As kids, perhaps, you were given long discourses on Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. What they did not tell you is that the principle works only one way. The onus of treating “them” as your own family is on you, not on them. You know why? Because they haven’t been read out the same passages. Luckily for them, their scriptures not only don’t carry them, but they carry the contrary. Hence, like secularism, this, too, is a one-sided affair, expected to be followed only by you. So, blame it on that teaching and your ancestors for practicing that teaching, all these centuries, making Hindu retaliation a novelty today.
Our previous generations had Muslims and Christians for friends and didn’t you hear the stories about their harmonious living? The secret to that harmony was tolerance. A one-sided one. Doctrinal, you see! That say, “Thou shalt be intolerant and put to sword all the k’frs and convert all the barbarians.” How does it matter who displayed tolerance and who intolerance? It was all harmonious in the end. That is all that mattered. It made the Abrahamics happy that they could carry on their atrocious business of appropriation and proselytization, love-jihad and Shariat, uncontested and it made the ancestors happy that they were able to retain their civilizational labels of “melting pot” and “tolerant race.” What a win-win situation!
When the fanatic factions drove our forefathers to the edge, the latter remained unperturbed, quietly containing it, taking the oppression in their stride and carried on with their lives, singing, “SarveJanah SukhinoBhavantu.”
They allowed the Abrahamics’ numbers to grow gradually, taking refuge in the doctrine of Karma, justifying that “their karma will eventually get them.” Unlike you, today, they didn’t turn into hardliners! Why did you have to grow a spine? Why can’t you sit back and watch them grow into a majority? What would happen at the most? A Shariat nation? Or a Christian theocracy? So what? Why are you so intolerant to those ideologies? Didn’t others like Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, etc, allow the rape of their culture? Why can’t you allow it too, Sanatanis? Don’t you know , your rapist turns aggressive only when you riot and resist. He is otherwise a peaceful.
I agree, ancestors are a distant memory. It is difficult to emulate something that is past. How about learning from the fellow, cherry-picker Hindus that want you to stop all resistance to rape , and enjoy it more than ever. Because, resisting rape now has a new definition – it is called COMMUNALISM. So, shove your anger up your backside and roll over and die. The culture rapists won’t take long!
Soon , you will be a minority which will usher in a new era, where there will be no need for proselytization, where peace and peacefuls, love and lovefuls will prevail.
Esther Dhanraj, is a former Christian, and lay evangelist, having quit her faith after practicing it for 25 years. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Osmania University. (View More)
Absolutely brilliant!
Absolutely absolutely brilliant. Bang on. You have echoed my predicament.
An eye opener thank you for the brilliant piece God bless you
Esther, I see the razor sharp Intellect in you cutting smoothly into the “others”. Loved your piece. More power to your “PenKnife”. After Rajivji , may you be one more reason to shake the unshakeable sleeping giant and also your ex-dharmi-fellas as well.
Everything that rises, finally falls. Hinduism rose and rose to its peak and now like everything that falls, it is falling. May be it’s a sign of times to come when the most scientific way of life will be forgotten and annihilated. It’s scary to imagine our nation being taken over by these desert cults but unless absolute unity of Hindus is achieved, it is a scary reality that will manifest sooner than later.
It will NOT. Esther is a bright example of that, and each of us can be another. Please think positive and do your bit. She has called out rape as rape, so can YOU (and I) instead of giving in to it.
If you are not against sanatan dharm if you are trying to showcase your solidarity for Hinduism
I personally want you to be part of our journey to irradicate all the misguidance preached to our Hindu brothers and sisters.
Wonderfully written
First things first . you are a former christian and reconverted after 25 years !!! Before that you must have been a Hindu. So why do you keep changing religion.. It is normal for anyone who changes political parties (in this case religions ) to support his new- love by abusing the other party /religions to gain acceptance .
Nevertheless if we consider ‘the issue’ not ‘your opinion’ dispassionately the following points emerge .
1. Hinduism does not need any advocates. It has survived centuries without such opinions .
2. Hinduism respects all religions and doesn’t believe in conversions from other religions.
3. The so called conversions could materialise only because the Hindus and not hinduism ( especially the upper castes )never let the so called ‘Shudras’ be equals. They ill treated them and forced them to do menial jobs for centuries and still continue to do in a lot of places in India .This became a fertile ground for other religions who believed in conversions .
4. Even today among the so called educated and also the rich, caste system is shamelessly practiced . Intercaste marriage is still not encouraged in Modern India.If any thing we are going on subdividing the castes more and more. Every main castes have hundreds of sub-castes. Nothing wrong in having so many but the scant respect and looking down on the other sub caste is ,to say the least disgusting and the most important cause for Hindus willingly converting to other religions .
6. Until this fundamental issue is addressed ,such articles and political parties advocating such views will only increase violence in the society and encourage tit for tat culture.
Some observations:
1. You say that the caste system of the Hindus is the cause of conversions. It would follow then that people of “lower castes” will only convert since they feel deprived and discriminated. FYI, the author of this articie was herself belonging to an “upper caste” background when her entire family was converted when she was very young. Secondly, she has not reconverted, she has only denounced the religion she had taken up after studying it in very close quarters. . I suppose you have not had a first hand experience of how evangelism works. Evangelism has the support of millions of dollars of Western funding. If the religion is pure and undiscriminatory, what is the need to do aggressive evangelism by taking advantage of poor people.. Europe, in the first milenneum, was a country with many Gods. Now, all that is wiped out of their culture. Does that mean Europe was infected with the “Caste system”
2. “…Hindus willingly converting to other religion”- In 2005, when Tsunami struck Tamilnadu and Indonesia.,if the missionaries had humanitarian concerns only, they would have provided only relief to the stricken people.. but they saw this as an opportunity to convert people when they were very vulnerable. Deserted Hndu children were taken to orphanages and made to recite Christian prayers every day.. How well-intentioned is this?
3. Hinduism is not an organised religion where people converge for mass prayers on particular days of the week and ideas driven into their heads..Massacre of spiritual heads over the past 1000 years has ensured that our texts and practises have been misused(by some vested Hindus themselves) as well as misinterpreting them with mischief in mind by the missionaries.
4. There is a saying which goes – Hate the sin nor the sinner… If there are social ills, please support any ongoing reforms.. Quitting the religions itself is not the solution. As you say , Hinduism respects all religions.. So why shouldn’t its followers be made aware of the pitfalls of conversion and stick to their own faith…
Please understand that “advocating of such views” is to make people aware of what they are getting into.. It is only fair that both sides of the issue should be presented to the people. Ultimately,if they choose to convert, no one is stopping them!!
Lastly, you can continue to remain blissfully ignorant of the dangers faced by the Hindu society that have been systematically and strategically built in over the centuries… As the author says “Soon , you will be a minority which will usher in a new era, where there will be no need for proselytization, where peace and peacefuls, love and lovefuls will prevail.”
Dear Shiva,
You are a victim of the mis-information and propaganda on India’s socio-political and historical antiquity that was cunningly planned and executed by the British (Macaulay, Risley, and many more), and ably supported by the turn-coats of our own society (Ram Mohan Roy, and many more). There is plenty of similar mis-information on many social evils such as Sati, Child marriage, etc simply because of two reasons:
1. Extent and duration of British (and other European and thereafter American) propaganda and its sustenance over centuries,
2. Its perpetuation by their relatives in power thereafter (namely Edwina’s bed-fellow Jawahar and his heirs and successors)
But in today’s information age, you can find facts if you care to just scratch a little below the surface. Do your own research and I assure you that you will find the truth about India’s caste system in less than a day without leaving the comfort of your cell phone or PC. Here is something that came up as the first link in my Google search and I will encourage you to please spend a little time if you really care and go in search of truth as is our tradition in Bharat:
“The so-called four-fold hierarchy … and this system of categorisation was also textual or theoretical; it existed only in scrolls and had no relationship with the reality on the ground.
This became embarrassingly obvious from the first censuses in the late 1860s. The plan then was to fit all of the “Hindu” population into these four categories. But the bewildering variety of responses on caste identity from the population became impossible to fit neatly into colonial theory.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48619734
In doing the above research please be aware that the Church has spent unimaginably large sums of money to build their staggering empire in India. A necessary pillar of that empire is mis-information which is used to first create dis-affection in society (which you amply demonstrate in your response and I agree there are millions with such mis-information based dis-affection) and then further nurtured by timely engagement at an individual level to convert (you should be concerned about such engagement with you individually in near term). This is so especially in India because Christianity is declining in Europe and North America, hence it needs to grow elsewhere and India is the largest populous country that can be worked on – especially because of a past of rape, plunder and oppression by ‘outsiders’ which has left us with a sense of being inferior and ashamed of our own past about which we have been mis-informed. Please do your own research and leverage this one man’s yajna as a tool for your awareness https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3ix1BLMKTIIcjjXo-4X3w
Besides the Church, the other investors in a broken narrative for India and its history and culture are: 1. Communist political ideology (Urban Naxals https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40053710-urban-naxals), 2. Western strategic forces, 3. Islamic fundamentalism. Please factor in an approach to counter for their propaganda in your research as well.
You have shown great potential by finding the time to speak on your country and culture. All I request is please go deep and search for the truth than be a victim. Esther was, and she has broken free. I was (I spoke exactly like you because I knew very little based on popular information and had little time or interest outside of earning my livelihood), but I have also managed to break free. You can too my dear Bharatiya!
and by the way ,the so called tolerance and inclusivity of the hindus is only towards other religions not for people of their own religion. The day that happens no one can dare to approach hindus.
Namaste,
Our helpless acceptance of murder and rape has reached to such a level that we question:
1. Why one is murderede by 400 knife attempts? “Ocould easily kill by one shot” is expected by us. Means one is habituated to murder but be pity on Hindu and kill in one go.
2. Why “they” gang rape? It is barbaric. Rape by single one is seems like forgivable.
We expect peaceful murders and rapes by”them”. This culture has evolved because:
“your country has declared itself secular and a big chunk of the definition of being secular is letting minorities walk all over you”
This article should be shared more Hindus.
Sadhuvad
Thanks. It is such a warm feeling that somebody cares for us Hindus. We have become totally numbed listening to the daily verbal abuse of Christian clergy now. When Christian colonizers refer to us as barbarians, when Pastor Steven Anderson says our God is Satan, when thousands of Hindu girls in Pakistan are abducted raped and converted, when Pat Robertson denounces Hinduism and says it is a demonic stronghold and Says It’s Time To Convert India and Wants to Keep Hinduism Out of US, when Angela Kaaihue issues a press release saying that Gabbard and former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa “worship the devil,” and calls the Democratic Party the “Devil Democratic State”, When Evangelists dub Yoga a Dark Art, then one wonders at the power of brainwashing for more than 2000 years and one gazes in pity at such religious hate mongers because we have never ever heard or learned such hateful words towards others from Hindu Gurus. Really it totally shocks us to hear such hate from the religious clergy!
Well-written piece.. I think the author forgot/missed to ask the following questions:- 1) Who is making you wake up to this sudden realisation? 2) What is their agenda? 3) So, once you achieve the objective of a HINDU RASHTRA, what will be the next agenda??? Is there a guarantee that caste system (which is quite inequal in nature at least now – for the past 500 years) be abolished? Oh – then will Manu Dharma replace the current IPC and Indian Civil Code? 4) Do today’s Brahmins know that going back to the Vedic period’s pristine world means they have to relinquish all their wealth that they amassed through “vysyic” means and go back to unjavrithi – Are they ready for it, or are they going to create some special law that would protect them from doing so BUT bring back the other glorious elements of the Vedic age?
there are hadly any Brahmna left in India. this is the tragedy of hinduism. there is race to become Shudra(job) and Vaisya(business). anyway in Kaliyuga all are shudra. being Brahmna is something you earn, its not entitlement. manusmiriti says all are shudra in kaliyuga (refrence hindu culture by swami Tejomayanand).
1. She has studied Christianity in depth and also evidently the nature of self-hating hindus. That must have “woken” her to a gradual realization.
2. You are assuming someone else caused her realization, and has an agenda for doing so? Are you imagining your favourite Hindu villain(s) and trying to belittle her intelligence? Her own statements (from interview i heard) are that out of self-study and contemplation she has got out of such a situation in Christianity. I have not read or heard anything from her that suggests she read or followed some Hindu leader or group to reach her realization. Not a problem if such is the case, but stick to data you know and stop insinuating things about her background.
3. Where did Hindu Rashtra come up? Her talk is about the bullying, devious, predatory nature of abrahamic religions in their actions towards Hindus; the self-compromising behaviour of Hindus towards these aggressors; the need for intellectual kshatriyatva going forward.
My point is that you are just using this comment section to forward your own agenda of fear-mongering Hinduism. Now, suppose she gives a definition of Hindu Rashtra that is not fitting your fears, answers Manu dharma will not replace IPC etc, tells you that those identifying themselves as Brahmins or shudras may do so and follow their religion according to their convictions (while abiding by the law) – are you ready for such answers? I doubt it: you seem fixated in your own answers. Hindus are moving forward.
BTW Hinduism can accommodate every “sampradaya” under the sun, provided they don’t make it their agenda to mess with another’s sampradaya, through skewed means of deception, coercion, etc. Yes, you can be the Muslim thinking you alone go to heaven, and you can be the Brahmana thinking it is your dharma alone to teach the veda. Those who agree follow with you. Those who think otherwise can have their own sampradaya or religion and pursue God/Truth through that, since that is fulfilling their needs in the soul’s spiritual journey. Discuss and debate among equals on mutually agreed-to platforms; but don’t become clever about so-called “freedom to practice religion to destroy another’s”. Problems begin when religions emerge whose objective becomes to disrupt or manipulate into those of others, so that theirs alone is. A “Hindu Rashtra” if I imagine one, especially after our experience with abrahamics, will ensure that this type of Virus-practice of religion is held in strict lockdown.
Well said. You have brought out the inherent problems in our thought process borne out of self-compromising value system of the Hindus further skewed by the half baked progressive thinking of narrow minded political parties.
Ms. Esther is a very well educated person who has come out of Christianity after thorough research of its history and contradictions. It is a shame that some people try to attribute wrong motives to her views instead of whole heartedly supporting her. Let us wake up to the reality and do our best to stop degradation of our culture and heritage to conversions. This is not the time to pick unnecessary arguments… Else soon we will become a minority as Esther has cautioned.
Esther ji, aap ne bahut hi achha likha hai.(You have written wonderfully)
800
Hindu Temples are controlled by state governments but Churches & Mosques are FREE!! Ha!! Ha!! Indian Secularism! should be called shameless & Anti Hindu!! That will be more accurate & honest!! Hindus donate money assuming that Hindu Priests will be taken care of, Hindu temples be renovated; but the money is used for other religions and by Politicians!! Government control over Hindu Temples shows how weak the Hindu society is. Freeing our Temples must be our top priority!
Meanwhile, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation notice, mentions Muslims as the Criteria for a Job!! The Selection committee of CSI hospital, Bangalore wants ONLY Christians, NOT Hindus!! Yet!! Bakery owner in Chennai was arrested over an advertisement that said: “no Mu$lim staff” @KolkataPolice!!
Wow!! If there is something really SICK in the world, it’s Indian secularism & the weak/impotent Hindu society!!
We have to rise up and challenge the Christian and Muslim organizations.
Writing as a former Christian, am well versed with their divide and rule tactics over us Asians
Brilliant article. She has ripped apart so many at so many levels.
Sama vedas talking about jesus .
Many other vedic inferences to jesus and prajapati.
From Samavedam Thandia maha brahmanam bangala pathram 410), Ch7, Khanda 2: GOD offered HIMSELF as sacrifice and did atonement.
Ohm Shri panchagayaya namaha: Oh Lord who bore five wounds on your body, we praise you.
Ohm Shri vruksha shul aruthaya namaha: Oh Lord who offered yourself as a sacrifice on a trishool like tree (three headed spear), we praise you.