The Hindu Identity Crisis
The word "Hindu" seems to have become a bad word today. Our own people shy away from using it as if confessing to having a disease. Hindus here in the west almost seem to be leading double lives, where they are a devotional and traditional Hindu at home, but then they take off all signs of being a Hindu, wipe off the tilak or bindi, change out of their traditional clothes into western ones and step out making an attempt to "blend in". To be honest, have been there too so this is not to criticize any way of dressing, but simply trying to get us to think and be our natural selves without going out of our way to fit in. Others wear their faiths and beliefs with pride, then why not us? In a country where diversity is respected, why are we afraid of being different? It seems to point to a deep inferiority complex, a deep rooted belief that being Hindu and wearing it on one's sleeve is not a good thing. This is "sanitization", a scrubbing off of the Hindu-ne