I belong to a tribe of families who, for generations, are diligently secular in their religious beliefs. In our households our parents and grandparents have meticulously practiced secularism, sowing seeds of 'respecting diversity', since our childhood. In spite of being victims of several religion and politics based riots they have held on to their faith of “All faiths lead to one god”. And now we do the same with our kids.

When our children are given their social studies books we cautiously try to inculcate enough respect for all faiths as well as atheism and avoid exposing them to any stereotypes. For eg. If there is a chapter which has pictures of four main religions and their respective places of worship, we make sure to tell our kids that -- particular attire may describe a person’s faith to a large extent but then there might be many who don’t adhere to that attire. So it is imperative never to judge a person by his religious attire or lack of it.

We don’t talk about caste. Our marriages are not based on caste. We don’t even ask a groom’s or bride’s caste during such alliances. We don’t advertise our caste and don’t wear it on ourselves in any form. For eg. We have done away with thread ceremony. We do not use terms which describe any caste, region or religion in a derogatory manner. We do not allow our children to make fun of people from any particular region.

We have alters where we keep images and idols of every possible faith so that our child is aware that there is no harm and no difference in worshipping different gods. We celebrate all festivals and try to visit all accessible places of worship.

I have not been initiated into any faith, but since my parents told me they are Hindu, so I believe that I am primarily born Hindu. After that they said, “but you are free to practice or take any other faith. There are many good things to learn from each faith.” So now I know I have many and no religion in particular. I regularly visit Churches, Gurudwaras, Temples and Sufi shrines. At the same time I don't think its mandatory for me to visit temples.

It is a very had practice, especially when we are surrounded by pseudo secular, seemingly progressive people, who make it very difficult for us to shield our child from the onslaught of caste, religion and region based newsfeed.

Living in a social structure we can’t avoid meeting such people and still keep our values intact. There are some people who think that there is nothing called a Hindu Radical. Unfortunately I have met many but what always hits us below the belt is when we can’t recognize the ‘Closet Radicals’ and are suddenly shocked by their attitudes.


So I have been making some notes on -- How to identify closet radicals

These are some of the things I gathered from a large number of people I have met over 30 years.

1) When you first meet them, they will promptly ask you your surname and try to figure out your religion or caste.
2) They will be shocked to hear that Hindus do eat beef and pork in many parts of India.
3) They will refuse to believe that in Vedic times Hindus used to eat all kinds of meat.
4) They refuse to believe the Vedas have no mention of caste system. Also that evil practices like sati; child marriage, dowry etc are not part of our true Vedic culture.
5) They are neck deep in the cesspool of caste system and will make sweeping statements like,
“we don’t have matrimonial alliances with people of this caste or that” ;
“People of this caste, religion or region are like this only and they deserve what they are getting.” (whatever maybe the context) ;
"we have to take or give dowry, it is part of our culture, it is our family tradition".;
"there is a lot of pressure to produce a heir, we have to have a son"
(maybe they burn brides as part of culture and tradition; maybe they kill girl babies as well) we'll never know
6) They will forever claim that the congress govt. is on an appeasement treaty with most religions other than Hindus.
7) They will openly criticize or find faults with religious leaders of other faiths like Buddha or Jesus or the prophet, but will not take a single word against Ram or Krishna.
8) They believe that it is better for a villager or tribal to die of abject poverty and hunger rather than getting some help and new lease of life from missionaries, because the missionary is going to take him to his god. (Thus they justify the killing of nuns and priests, as those who convert religions deserve to die.)
9) They are shocked to see women lighting pyres, doing shraadh, not wearing sindoor and so on.

Also they have other very strong weird and outlandish beliefs like --

1) Gays are mad or suffer from some illness.
2) Living-in is a sinful practice
3) Most beggars are slightly deranged people.
4) Villagers should not create such a furor over land loss and govt. should not give them so many subsidies. In other words they should remain poor and helpless
5) Slum dwellers should be dead because they don’t add to the GDP.

And so and so forth…..

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I am now on guard all the time and will keep myself and my children at a safe distance from such people. But what worries me is what would I do when they go out alone to the college and are surrounded by such people.

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what triggered my fear and this blog is that --- Recently I met a young couple, in their 20’s, with lots of degrees and gold medals from the best colleges of the country and now pursuing PHD, working in high level offices, seemingly quiet progressive.

On a couple of casual encounters the woman made three statements which really changed my view of the masks people wear in the name of being progressive.

Incident 1 -- On proof of Malegaon blasts she vehemently argued and certified that – “There is no such thing as Hindu fanatics and Hindu fanatics can never become as bad as other faiths’ fanatics.

Lucky for her she has “NOT YET” been beaten up in the pubs, discos or restaurants, for her western attire, or for celebrating Valentine’s day, or for drinking or smoking.

Incident 2 – On the Hindu rituals that are polluting the rivers, for eg. – throwing the dead bodies, shaved hair, used flowers in the rivers, she got furious that the govt. should first control all the other malpractices of other religions and then point a finger at Hindus. It is a tradition.

Lastly what hurt and shocked me most was…

Incident 3 – when she sneered On Buddha, “He couldn’t even look after his own family properly, what good could be the religion he professed.”

I did remind her that at least Buddha left his wife in comfort and his son later joined him as a disciple, but Ram lived as a king and abandoned his pregnant wife to live in the jungle who was later burned.

That pissed her off thoroughly. Ram is her god, Buddha isn't.

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There are closet radicals all around us, who secretly vote radical parties into power. They are secretly wishing that India should become a Hindu Rashtra, thus destroying the dream of my ancestors who fought for a Secular Democratic Republic of India. They are the real enemies of the nation who are destroying the dream of Gandhi, Subhash and Nehru. Like unseen termites they are eating up the values and morals of the Vedic truth of a profound religion which has professed that all paths of god are of equal importance.

I know when I say this there will be very few sane voices to support me. I want to know who are the people who are supporting such elements to use my religion as a tool to hurt people?

The question that crops in my heart is that – “Are you going to sit back and keep quiet till the radicals come and beat up our daughters for wearing western clothes or buying valentine day cards?”

Isn’t our silence in a way giving them a support? They are getting support in some people. Isn't it time for us who don't support them to stand up and voice our displeasure.

As I salute the flag on every 26th Jan and 15th Aug, I fervently hope that let this country be saved from its Closet Radicals. Because the hooligans can be jailed but the masked support system which is hidden behind a thick veil of lies is even more dangerous.