Resurgent Bharath III Edition with the message, “The future depends on what we do in the present,” organised by IT Professionals was held on 24 Apr 2022 at Chinmaya Heritage Centre, Chennai. The event was attended by about 500 people.
Sri. Ramakrishna Prasad, Saha Pranta Karyavah addressed the gathering on the need for organised strength in order to attain what we aspire to as a society. Mahanagar Sangachalak, Sri. Chandrasekhar, felicitated the speaker, noted Supreme Court Advocate and powerfully articulate representative for dharmik causes, Sri. Sai J. Deepak, with a memento.
Sai Deepak began his talk that lasted about half-hour by asking how many students were in the audience. The intent of the speaker was to show the pertinence of the presence of students at such nation-building events.
He then moved into his chosen topic by mentioning the cries of helplessness of the Sivacharyas. “Their condition is reflective of the condition of dharma in Tamil Nadu,” he said, indicating the treatment that the state is meting out to the guardians of dharma.
“The temple freedom debate will require us to address the issue of caste significantly as it is not possible to address one without the other. He considers the present a serious window that history is presenting us to understand how this institution is to be run, what kind of stakeholder-ship to have for the future and how to use the temple to resolve some of the outstanding civilizational issues especially in the realm of caste. But that will happen only with some amount of preparation particularly in history. Dignified silence in public life rarely gives decent outcomes, after a point it is to be construed as cowardice.
“This movement has been going on for 2-3 decades; the only things that have I brought into the movement are vertibracy (spine) and articulation, nothing else; I will not budge from my position under any circumstances if I am convinced of my position. A product of the ground realities of the state such as opposition to wearing vibhuti on the forehead and the dialect that one spoke, the lesson I learnt is that if the opposition knows that all they are going to get is arrogant stubborn resistance, after a point they have no other option but to engage with you. It is time to spread this message across the community because you are not fighting for your community, you are fighting for dharma.
“Physically you have started vacating this place, where is the question of occupying the mental space?” he asked indicating that there is no young generation to take this fight forward. To quote Maha Periyava, ‘the only way to save this particular dharma is when this community starts going back to the village’.
“Start protecting your kuladevatas and gramadevatas at least, which the HR&CE legislation has not stopped you from doing. We can use the HR&CE problem as the larger excuse and run away from what you can do OR you can fight the battle and continue to do what you can. Assuming that nothing can be done legally, are we without solutions altogether? No, we have solutions.
“The tendency of the Hindu community to constantly look to the state for support needs to go when it comes to these issues. Empower the community independent of politics. Cultural rejuvenation starts with society being awakened and you becoming aware of your responsibilities and what it is that you can do.
“Before 2024, can leading organisations of multiple castes come together to forge some kind of a common roadmap? One way is to destroy all the identities and have a common Hindu identity, the other way is to have these and also the larger federal Hindu identity. Is there an active outreach and interaction between these organisations? Don’t give up on any community – these are your people. You have a significant role and responsibility thanks to what dharma says due to your position.
“Find contemporary ways of balancing day to day issues with the larger issues; if you don’t, your livelihoods will also be affected in the name of religion and jati in the short run, not in the long run. Especially in the white collared atmosphere it will happen because at least in the previous generation members of this community had some sense of cultural rooting, but today certain colonies of this city are single-handedly producing the most anti-dharmik woke voices. The standing example is the evolution of Kasturi and sons. Read their editorial from 1878 and see how they have changed. You must find ways of taking back and reclaiming rather than merely boycotting them. If not, we will not have our platforms.
“Do you want to reinforce the stereotype (which is, there is a lack of spine) or shatter the stereotype? Otherwise, your children will stand up and question the point in having this identity. Whatever organisations are there must forge the community and not split it apart.
“Give incentives to your children to stay back in the country. Go, educate yourself, use the country, milk the country but come back. Foreign education must be used to acquire skills, nothing else. Beyond retaining a strategic presence, the rest must be here.
“Sanatana dharma is not an ethnic dharma but a rooted dharma which means that we are connected to the environment. Abrahamic religions are expansionist, have one epicentre, keep moving to other places morph and create another epicentre. Unlike these, Hindu dharma is rooted and you will not be able to recreate Hindu dharma even if you build multi-million dollar temples in New Jersey. Instead of Bharatakhande, you want sit there and do Americakhande! Your heroes and ancestors have lived here and your deities have walked this space therefore this land is sacred. We have to look for a reverse brain drain rather than treat this country as a launch pad.
“You have problems with the other communities. He may not have patriotism but he is willing to take ownership of the place. Are you willing to do it? If this is your place, then behave as if you wish to stay here. First you vacated the village, then the district, then the city, now the country. How do you expect to change the demographics without physically being there?
“You have given up the unorganised employment space completely. You too must be present, have a share in the unorganised sector. Presence is imperative across the board. Anybody who demeans the use of hands is completely killing one essential building block of the chaturvarna system. With this I end the talk and am open to take questions.
Q: The word Dravida as I understand is one of the three temple architectures as stated in Brahma Samhita. Thus, Dravida Munnetram means raising temples. But the govt is doing the opposite. Why does the Supreme Court not take a suo moto case, quash the HR&CE and release all temples from Govt control?
A: The SC typically reacts to the seriousness shown by the community. Come out of 2 myths:
Myth 1. Pressing the button once in 5 years is sufficient. No, it is not.
Myth 2. If you think that the legal process is an academic insular process which is not influenced by public opinion, you are being an ostrich. The fact is, every institution reacts to public opinion to some extent.
So the sense of urgency taken by the court is a function of the sense of urgency displayed by the community. This is pushing the system to act. This paralysis is across the board is resolved only when the community shows a certain degree of resolve.
Just writing letters to Hindu editor or filing petitions do not mean that work is done. Feet must be on the ground.
Q: Why are Hindus not proud of being Hindus? Many parents merely want them to be good human beings and do not want to thrust religion on them.
A: If you think teaching religion to your child is going to radicalise them, then you don’t have Hinduism in mind. Freedom can be with respect to certain choices but with respect to rootlessness if given the choice all together, they have abandoned the responsibility of being parents.
The Hindu community was better positioned in the 60s and 70s to repel the ideologies that were just named, than it is today, because now it has started producing traitors from within, hardcore.
Why are you appropriating white guilt to yourself? You are not the white man of this country, you are the persecuted community of this country. You are applying foreign history on India. The white man of the country is actually the white man who did all of this. The problem is deeply and solely within, so solutions must come from within.
Q: Many of my friends visit temples and are staunch Hindus but also support Dravidian ideology vociferously. How to make them understand this?
A: Their minds are split into two: one is their culture and the other is what they are taught. Thanks to the education that you have been through you have compartmentalised these two aspects and you don’t see the conflict between their positions. You are comfortable straddling both these universes. One is a real universe, another is a fictional one.
There is a deep relationship between language and consciousness. Muslim inspector of schools of Eastern Bengal writes: ‘Hindus hail Raja Rammohan Roy as saviour of modern Bharat; within one generation they could not spell their names in their mother tongues. Muslims who stayed away from colonial education retained their collective civilizational memory and insisted that even if they consumed western content in education, they will consume it in Urdu and Urdu alone. And if they consume it in Bengali, it will be de-sanskritised Bengali.’ Blame the other but learn from the other, this is conviction. This attitude has continued across generations. Even after 1740 to 1925 there was no change in thought process although Mughal rule came to an end in 1740. The thought that things will happen only if we have power is wrong. Political wilderness is a fantastic period for preparation.
Q: Considering the huge number of crypto converts that are enjoying the benefits of SC/ST reservation it there a legal way to identify and stop this. How can we identify the planned infiltration of the anti eco system into every institution?
A: Never reduce the issue of cryptos to just SC/STs, aren’t brahmins converting? Again, we conveniently blame the other community. Cryptos exist across the board.
Stop looking at law for every problem. We can only use legal system to stop conversion but cannot stop them from holding a position. Again, what does it show? He feels he owns the country whether at the state level or the union level. He thinks this is his country. There is a clear orientation and direction for all of them. In 2011, I have written that SC/ST reservations cannot be extended to Dalit Christians.
You cannot hope to remove the reservation system until you provide an alternate. One, you can slowly remove the creamy layer beneficiaries and see if you can find a way of generating scholarships to subsidise education for those from these communities and subsidise the education for them. The PM tapped into the public conscience by asking them to give up LPG subsidy. You might have only social solution to this; no political party will have the gumption to do this because electoral arithmetic is huge, optics are huge.
Devendrakula Vellalars have asked to be removed from SC status which is commendable, recognise this. It is incumbent upon this community and other communities to reach out to them and ask, “How do we support you?” What can we do?” If you think of yourself as the guardian of a particular community then behave so by taking leadership and ownership of a particular situation. But since you don’t have numbers on your side you need to be able to forge it. Talk to people. If tomorrow, major temples come together in sync, can we say that we will take responsibility for at least the first-born child of oppressed communities, their education both from a dharmik perspective and from modern so-called secular perspective. There is a certain degree of social dharmikata that exists notwithstanding all the vicious voices and politics, that I believe that the response will be positive.
A true practicing Brahmin will continue to get respect in this so-called land of Dravidians regardless of whichever part of the state he is in because if you are true to it, you will get the respect!
– Compiled by Mrs. Yamuna
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