My misadventures with "The misadventures of Lotus Brothers"

Yesterday at the SAATh festival, I was shocked and deeply offended as I watched the reading/performance of the play  "The misadventures of Lotus Brothers" whose script and direction was by Ms. Pampi Das. What deeply offended me is the blatant Hinduphobia rife in it coming from either a place of complete ignorance, at best, or mischief and malice, at worst. 

There were visuals playing in the background with some art but what caught my eye is one banner that showed up that said "Hinduism is colonialism". What?! So the one ancient culture that survived 1000+ years of physical, emotional and psychological attacks and severe attempts at trampling and stamping it out of existence is now being labeled colonial?! Have you wondered why the Hindu culture is the most ancient in the world today? Because its peers were killed off. By colonialists. And no, these colonialists were not Hindu. In fact, not only did Hindus never go on colonizing campaigns trampling other cultures and faiths across the world, the Hindu kings in Bharat actually gave refuge to the other persecuted faiths who were driven out of their own homelands. The Zorastrians (Parsis) and Jews are two such faiths that were given shelter with respect and dignity and the freedom to practice their faiths. Does that sound colonial? 

Then the script itself which claimed to be borrowed from some folklore that was then interpreted by Ms. Das to read "Caste discrimination" in it and then extrapolate and slap that on top of the entire culture. I have one question for Ms. Das. Can she tell me an indigenous word for "caste"? From any Bharatiya language, even better if it is from the language of the shaastras, the scriptures i.e. Sanskrit? Is it Jaati? Or Varna? Or Kul? Or Shreni? Or Gotra? Which one is it? Has Ms. Das even heard of these other words that are native to the land and can be found not just in Sanskrit but in most regional languages? Here's an article where I try to explain two of the most abused terms of Jaati and Varna and how they are not "caste".

"Caste" is an English word with Portuguese roots. A word foreign to the culture on which it is blamed. Today's Indian "Caste" system is a gift of the British, a divide and rule policy created by them to divide the people they were trying to rule. Rajiv Malhotra ji talks about this here in this video.  

Does the Hindu Sanatan Dharma endorse such or any discrimination? The Dharma that has the Upanishads at its very core and foundation which talk about that "Brahman" or divine supreme being who is in everyone and everything. One of the Mahaavaakya (profound sentences) of the Upanishads is "Sarvam khalvidam Brahman" (the universe we see and everything in it, is this Brahman). Brahman is not to be confused with Braahman, the name of a Jaati or Varna. In fact, the word Braahman means one who is in pursuit of the realization of Brahman. All Hindu scriptures, including the Bhagvad Geeta, echo the same sentiments as the Upanishads and this video explains it beautifully using the foundational scriptures, the Vedas as an example.

This growing obsession in this country about a false narrative around a minuscule Hindu population is certainly a disturbing trend as articulated by Nikunj Trivedi ji in this video. It is as if there is no discrimination of any kind in communities of other faiths when the truth is far from this.

The play description and flyer use the words "genocide" and "brahminic empire". What genocide is Ms. Das talking about? The one created by Winston Churchill, in 1943 that claimed more than 3 million lives in Bengal? Or the series of famines and genocides that were creations of the colonizers, namely, the Mughals and the British as they systematically looted the country? Here is a video by Raj Vedam ji explaining this and how the world's richest country (and not just in wealth but in culture too), was reduced to the poorest in wealth with serious attempts still being made today to deride and degrade its rich culture. The "caste" and "brahminic empire/supremacy" false narratives are among such attempts.

As to the "brahminic empire", if Ms. Das sees all the above referenced videos from scholars who have devoted their life to the study of Bharat's history, culture and scriptures, she will have realized that people belonging to the Braahmin jaati were not allowed to accrue wealth and were held to the highest standards in discipline and study by not just the society but their fellow jaati members as well. Since she seems to like folklores perhaps she should also read the many local stories across Bharat where the description of a Brahmin is always preceeded by the word "poor" indicating the material status of this jaati. Where then is the question of having any kind of empire? In a book written by Dharampal called "The Beautiful Tree" the author references the 19th century British census of Gurukuls across the country where each village had its own Gurukul school where the teacher was a Brahmin and 80-90% of the students were from lower castes. Does that sound like the makings of a Brahminical empire? Of course, the British census helped identify what was to be attacked first which were the Gurukuls. Here is one more article by a German author, Maria Wirth, that talks about this so called "Brahmin supremacy". Have you wondered how the scriptures that we still have today survived? The Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayan, Mahabharat, and all these grand scriptures survived in large part thanks to the efforts of the Brahmin jaati who followed the oral tradition and had these works memorized from generation to generation. Undoubtedly, there was significant help from the other jaatis in protecting, transporting and hiding these texts but the oral tradition and memorization played a huge part when written works were savagely destroyed (along with those found protecting them, of course).

Does this mean all Hindus in Bharat were and are evil less? Of course not. They are humans, just like humans belonging to any other community in the world and thus are subject to the same failings. But to throw an entire culture and religion under the bus because a few may have erred is the real evil here.

So my humble request to Ms. Das is to please educate herself on the real history of Bharat and her vast, ancient heritage before accusing it indiscriminately. Doing so would be the real discrimination! The very fact that there is so much rampant Hinduphobia in the world and especially even within India is proof of the fact that the Hindus are peace loving, tolerant people who shy away from confrontations and would rather focus on their family, education and maintaining what they can of their traditions to pass on to the next generation. I wonder which other faith or community will tolerate such accusations under the guise of freedom of speech, even if we assume for a moment that those accusations are true? In this case, these accusations are not only historically and scripturally blatantly false, they are also disturbing because of the division and hatred that they breed. And for those reasons they are deeply offensive.