Readers’ comments: Hinduism doesn’t teach us to oppress other people but Hindutva will

Controlled quiet

Yes, this is correct (View from Kashmir Observer: What could happen if the lockdown in the Valley is lifted?). The Central government should lift sanctions in the Kashmir Valley and also announce from mosques that those who take law in hand will be dealt with strictly. Those who throw stones on security forces will be shot on the spot after a warning. Kashmiri Muslims are taking undue benefit of the leniency of the government. They have driven out Hindu Pandits from the Valley in January 1990 and occupied their houses, agriculture lands, apple orchards and other properties. Still, these shameless Muslims say that their aspirations have not been met. Tell them clearly that if they are not satisfied in Indian Kashmir then they should move to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. After all, Pakistan has driven out all Hindu Sikhs from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. So India should also drive out Kashmiri Muslims who are creating problems. – Asha Gupta

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The population that is celebrating the abrogation of Article 370 will never be able to understand the hardships faced by people who have been placed under this clampdown (37 days of lockdown: Five ways in which daily life in Jammu and Kashmir has been crippled). It is said that “परदुःख शीतल” which means that hardships faced by people other than me are enjoyable and do not disturb my cool. Hinduism never taught this to us but the Hindutva of today will. That is a qualitative difference between the two.– Rajendra Kulkarni

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Shame on India’s so-called democracy. This is fascism, not democracy. – Rahim Khan

All matters judicial

A person or officer has come to court protesting a transfer but some judges have said it’s not a punishment (Tahilramani case: To protect High Courts’ independence, SC must state reasons for judges’ transfers). Why create a hue and cry when a judge does not like the new place? Let her go or resign. She can’t question the collegium’s decision. – SP Kumar

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Excellent Reporting on Tahilramani transfer case. – Ashish Singh

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Read the article about the judge’s transfer. [Then I] checked the whole webpage. You are clearly biased towards Leftists. – Virender Singh

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All of us are proceeding on a wrong foundation on facts. What is actually happening in the collegium is only a deal among the five with an exception since he is unaware of what is happening around and has no contacts with the world outside. All others have their agenda. There is no room for hope because succeeding members are no better – George Poonthottam

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I support your stand. Reason must be given. – Om Dubey

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What we have now is not a fair distribution of power between the different arms of the government, as mandated by the principles of equitable distribution of power [in the Constitution]. Now what is available is a judicial dictatorship. There is no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship in judicial administration. It is just according to the whims and fancies of one or a few individuals [that things go ahead]. It is favours, rather than justice, that are being dispensed from the dark chambers of the collegium. – PD Amarnath

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Justice Gupta is right in observing that raising questions to the government is a democratic right of the people as propounded by the Constitution (Supreme Court judge says criticism of government, army, judiciary cannot be construed as sedition). Unfortunately this right to speak and question the activities of the government is being mercilessly plundered. Even the judges are neither able to protect themselves nor protect those criticising the government. Any criticism or word against ruling parties in Central or State governments is treated as sedition or anti-national [talk]. – Alo Ran

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Justice Gupta is lacking the basic principles of human psychology – that first, we think, then we talk about it and then we act upon it. The right to dissent against the nation, against society, against the Constitution should not be encouraged. Shehla Rashid, Khanhaiya Kumar and liar Rahul Gandhi are preaching anti-national ideologies to mislead the country for their political ambitions. This should amount to sedition – Sathua

Miscellaneous comments

The biggest enemies of Islam are the so-called moderate and progressive Muslims (Slow, half-hearted, confused: How the moderates’ response made liberal Islam lose the battle). And when we accept and hide reality we are doing significant harm by not raising our voice against something unjust and incorrect. Islam is a community-based religion but the community can take wrong postures and incorrect paths and correction or evolution is the prime role of reasonable members of that community. This war will go on unrelentingly unless wise people start discriminating between logical arguments and mere myth or propaganda. – Dinesh Sharma

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First, let me thank you for some excellent reads over time. Scroll.in consistently remains my go-to for some wonderful and interesting pieces (Why do the tigers of Sundarbans eat humans when tigers around the world seldom do?)

I just had a note for this particular article and I understand this is an excerpt from a book I haven’t read so do treat my critique with due discretion. A more serious critic would read the book before commenting but I’m being frivolous here and quite recognise that if I don’t write now, I might not ever.

The author writes about studies by Western scholars and follows up with science knowing relatively little about tigers in the Sundarbans. There seems to be in the article, an unconscious, but, rather real bias toward Western science as holding the only acceptable answers to this question.

To keep this brief, as an indigenous studies scholar that focuses on ecology and forests, I dislike this prejudice in the piece. Indigenous knowledge of environments including the flora and fauna have long been ignored and mistrusted through our colonised pasts. This continues through technocracy and faith in particular branches of Western science and knowledge, as I’m sure you know.

I acknowledge wholly that this may be a result of it being only an excerpt – in which case, I request the wonderful editors at Scroll.in to be a little more careful with their selections. As a fantastic Indian journal, it might be nice to include a piece that speaks of indigenous local knowledge about this phenomena. Although, understandably, that might lack a global comparative background. – Rhea Shah

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I must say that article has nothing to say about the Amazon fires and issues related to that and instead, has been used as a bait to attract people and portray Indian scriptures in poor light (As the Amazon burns, the Mahabharata episode of Khandava forest fire serves up an important reminder).

First of all, many journalists, if not all, and a few self-proclaimed intellectuals are quick to be selective on when to declare such scriptures fictitious mumbo jumbo and when to refer to it as history. These are the lot who do not know anything about metaphors and the art of storytelling in days when there was no written material to record events, science and psychologies and so, symbols and stories with archaic metaphors and exaggerations were used to make it more momorable. This is when truths were camouflaged amid myths.

Secondly, these kinds of writers are selective and misportray things intentionally, I’ll be surprised if it is done even inadvertently. Why, because: First of all, the scriptures narrate stories of heroes who changed evil norms that were prevalent. Dharma [justice] was established by challenging Adharma [injustice]. This means certain norms were popular, but not as per the logic of spirituality, which in turn was described by Kapila and re-emphasized in the Gita by Krishna. Therefore, a lot of Adharma practices were changed, or modified in accordance with Dharma.

Secondly, the Bhagvad Gita very clearly states that flowery speech is spoken by some about Vedas, though they do not understand it conceptually. For those who understand Brahmgyan, which is the knowledge of physical and metaphysical creations and their laws, Vedas are to them, like a small aquifer against the ocean.

Thirdly, they selectively omit the references in the books that are contrary to the points they are trying to prove. Such as Sita’s lecture to Rama on nonviolence against animals. Thereafter when Rama does the ashwamedha yagya, no ashwa [horse] was sacrificed. The horse was let free at its own will for one year and wherever it would go the performer of yagya would have to donate whatever demanded by the people in that territory. Medha [intellect] is not medhya which means to pierce or kill. The interpreter needs to understand this.

Finally, kindly give due respect to the extensive use of metaphors in Indian scriptures and try to derive real meanings, that find sync with other concepts of Dharma and yog, in particular. Yog is, based on the spiritual union of individual souls with a ubiquitous consciousness and from its principles of Dharma such as egalitarianism, utilitarianism, vegetarianism and equality among beings emerges. Therefore, kindly be honest in putting up the facts. – Pramendra Srivastava

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That is so cute and hilarious (Watch: This synchronised build-up to a fight between two puppies has gone fiercely viral). I haven’t laughed like this in a long time. Thank you, you made my day! – Steven Griffin

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The author just, as the archeologists, has committed a serious mistake by trying to supermpose indological chronology on Hindu traditional chronology (Babri Masjid case: Archaeological evidence rules out present-day Ayodhya as city of sacred texts). Because of this they have reached a totally false conclusion about Ayodhya allegedly being of much later origin than the lord Ram himself.

It is generally known, according to traditional chronology as given in Puranas, that Ram lived in the Treta Yug which happened to be 2,500,000 years ago! For that simple reason, it is not possible to find archeologic artefacts confirming the existence of the origin of Ayodhya. But according to tradition, that is the place where present-day Ayodhya is located and it must be accepted as such.

How indological chronology can be wrong can be seen from the example of Mahabharata. Untill quite recently it was considered to be a mere myth. Now archaeologists no longer hold this theory and have found artefacts confirming the dating even to 5,000 years ago – which fits also into the traditional chronology. Lack of understanding can only give birth to false conclusions. – Sahajyogacharya Miwosh