Reflections: On “Being Different” by Rajiv Malhotra

Mr. Rajiv Malhotra is a hero for those Hindus who think that they know for sure that the truth is on their side but they don’t know what it is. Being Different of Mr. Malhotra shall surely help Hindus whose culture is denigrated in popular culture through vulgar interpretations of outsiders (the term – to understand which you shall read “The Battle for Sanskrit) whose agenda is driven by ulterior motives. I was first introduced to Mr. Malhotra through his book – Invading Sacred.  I could not complete it, just read some 50 pages. I felt that Invading sacred was more of a collection of quotes and utterances (mostly derogatory and pervert) of western scholars in their work about Hindus in particular and Hinduism as a religion in general and their culture rather than any analysis. But that book (invading the sacred) has indeed outraged Hindus as they have come to know the truth as to how Hinduphobia was spread systematically by left-wing groups abroad and in India and other enemies of India.

But Being Different is indeed different in its approach. It shows the mirror to the abusers of Hinduism and Hindus in a scholarly fashion. And the arsenal of Hindus is now surplus with the vocabulary, arguments and truths about the proponents of religions of middle east’s deserts (mainly Christianity, which Mr. Malhotra calls as western universalism) and return the favor by making them understand who they really are and the dogmas that haunt the cult which they espouse as greatest of all, is nothing but a heap of unpractical garbage. No profanity intended. Much of it is certainly garbage, if not all.

In this book Mr. Malhotra has shown that how the middle east religion (Christianity) which the west has accepted unquestioningly insists on sameness and how India celebrates the difference, by meticulously going through their positions one by one and highlighting the hollowness in their arguments. The major breakthrough in this work is that the author shows how Christianity is a victim of History-Centrism, that at a particular date in a year Jesus was born and he did certain things and that we are all born sinners and these should be accepted unquestioned and uncontested. The whole foundation is based on that historical incident be it the birth of Jesus Christ or other incidents. On the contrary Hinduism allows questioning of its core principles and there is a freedom for practitioners to experience things on their own through the methods prescribed without explicitly accepting anything as an ultimate truth. In this context I would like to use Sadhguru’s phrase – “India is a land of seekers, not a land of believers” ie., people have the freedom to seek the truth, they don’t have to believe it because it is said by some priest.

Some honest scholars (like Prof. Morgenthau for eg) in west accept Christianity (including all its denominations) as a political religion. Ever since Constantine codified much of what we know today as Christianity (including the Nicene creed) millions perished for resisting the dogmas of Christianity. The worst victims were women. For centuries the Church debated whether Woman should be considered as a Human being, i.e., on par with a man. These are the same people who have no qualms about lecturing Indians about sanity.

The methods may have changed, but it is the same old game – For centuries the church used direct violence with the help of kings, queens and emperors for conversion but in the recent years they have found a useful ally, especially in the case of India. When it comes to the destruction of India and its culture, Missionaries collaborate with Leftists, in fact the communists collaborate with any one including the Islamic Jihadists to destroy India.

An important theorization by Mr. Malhotra in this book is about “Mutual Respect V/S Mutual Toleration”. The west (i.e., Christianity) has realized that it cannot be at war with others all the time, hence it has come up with concept out of necessity called Mutual Toleration, without realizing the inherent weakness of that term which also exposes itself. Now what exactly they mean by mutual toleration? Let me explain. During the Goa inquisition Hindus were burned alive and Hindu women were raped enmasse on the halls of church in Goa for practicing their religion, now the church cannot tolerate such acts (ie., Hindus practicing their religion) hence the violence is meted out to them as a punishment. Only recently it has realized that it cannot commit resources on such direct violence, because in the post colonized world the hard power of former colonies had grown to a considerable extent, hence it cannot use the past methods like direct violence, but other methods like inducing them through money. Mutual Tolerations means – “I want to kill you, but since I can’t I will tolerate your existence”, there is nothing to celebrate about it. On the contrary Hindus believe in Mutual Respect – Tolerance is a given thing, beyond that Hindus say “we respect you for who you are (ie, your religion and culture) and we have no objections about your way of worship and other things.” That is the nature of a Hindu. There is no scripture of Hinduism that demands from its followers to engage in violence against non-believers. The moral standards of the Mutual Respect which Hindus offer cannot be matched with the sub-standard Mutual Tolerance.

Digestion of Cultures – One remarked difference of between Christianity and Islam is that Islam rejects outright any concept beyond its stipulated prescriptions whereas Christianity observes the best things about other cultures and claims as its own and discredits its source. The first step is imitation. Have you seen Churches built like temples and pastors donning saffron robes and chanting “Om Jesus namah “etc.? And mother Mary carrying Lord Ganesh instead of Infant Jesus? This is primarily to confuse Hindus to begin with. Missionaries practicing such acts of chicanery is not a new phenomenon. In Being Different, Author shows Jesuit Roberto do Nobili as an example, who studied Tamil and Sanskrit rigorously and lived life like a Brahmin and went about marketing Christianity among Hindus. Christianity lacks the esthetic appeal; hence it takes the best things from others. To give you an example, Christian Yoga. It is a monumental stupidity of Hindus who cannot assert Yoga with Hinduism, and there will be protests on the roads of India if someone dared to call Yoga as a gift of Hindu culture to the world.

Felling proud because we are studied by West – The foolishness of Hindus has no bounds. They feel so elated because they are being studied by west. A cockroach or a frog being studied in a biology lab may not celebrate because some scientists are studying it. Ultimately both the cockroach and the frog will be cut in to pieces. Hence, the author urges Hindus to reverse the gaze. Enough of West of studying us. It is time for us to study the west and interpret it through our lens, i.e., a first step towards Purva Paksha.

If the combined metaphysical muscle of Hindu Civilization is used to respond to Western and Christian distortions of Hindu culture among other things, the whole Western Civilization will collapse like a house of cards on the intellectual plane.

Oh Hindus! wake up, is the clarion call of the author. It is time to begin reading Mr. Malhotra’s next book – Breaking India.