The 500 words of wisdom penned by Joel Stein in Time, forced me out of hibernation. While there was a huge uproar from America to India, some pundits exercised restraint and lectured people on the limitations of a humourless society.
Oh yes, humour and its many forms. Though one should have an appetite for humour, it should not be humongous enough to tolerate blasphemy. And above all, the author or the magazine did not apologise and stood firm with its agenda of spreading humour by taking potshots at Hindus in particular & Indians in general.
Imagine if Joel Stein had made even a passing reference to Islam or Muhammad. He would have been enjoying the perks of a five star security cordon by now and the magazine would have promptly hosted dinners for Muslim delegations to understand the nuances of Islam, along with a huge apology. Mullahs would have thronged the streets demanding justice, vowing to dislodge the powers that be.
But Joel Stein wrote about Hindus. He is indeed very smart, armed with a degree from Stanford. He chose a religion which is like an open source operating system. You can modify an open source OS according to your needs and customise it to your taste. You can reproduce it with a copyright message attached to it and can also ask others to buy the license before using your version. No one will burn you or threaten you for that.
Hinduism or its parent thought process; Sanatana Dharma, has stood the test of time.
Even the followers of it do not understand it in the same way. It has evolved with additions from all quarters, believers & non-believers.
Yes Joel, we have gods who have faces like an elephant, but we call him Ganesha, the god of knowledge & the destroyer of darkness. Yes Joel, we have gods who have more than two hands but we call him Brahma,Vishnu or Shiva who we believe are responsible for creation, maintenance and destruction of mother earth. Sorry, I called earth as our mother. Can’t help it, it’s in our genes.
When we taught the world how to count, it was this faith system that was driving us. When Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry, he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins’ science not been long established in Europe. We taught this world Religion, Philosophy, Medicine, Governance, Administration, Science, Maths & everything else that can be ever imagined. It was this belief system that was acting as a catalyst for us. Our “not so genius” people as you had mentioned in your article, were instrumental in teaching the world to live, and also to let live, when your country didnt exist.
Yet you expect us to ignore the satiric remarks made by you which hurts our value system. Some columnists in India & America have said that your article should be taken with a grain of salt. They consider themselves to be in a moral pedestal, higher than the common man’s belief. That makes them think that they have an ideological edge over others. So far, so good.
Yes Joel, we are a bunch of emotional people. But guess what, we are happy that way. We can’t read every article with a poker face that questions our integrity. We can’t let our value system perish because we are immigrants in a third world country. And Sorry Joel Stein, we do understand & love, humour.
Ask Russell peters or our very own Raju Srivastava.
Disclaimer : I have nothing against Islam or the people practicing it.I am only comparing the decibel level of the furore caused in Hinduism & Islam.
Oh yes, humour and its many forms. Though one should have an appetite for humour, it should not be humongous enough to tolerate blasphemy. And above all, the author or the magazine did not apologise and stood firm with its agenda of spreading humour by taking potshots at Hindus in particular & Indians in general.
Imagine if Joel Stein had made even a passing reference to Islam or Muhammad. He would have been enjoying the perks of a five star security cordon by now and the magazine would have promptly hosted dinners for Muslim delegations to understand the nuances of Islam, along with a huge apology. Mullahs would have thronged the streets demanding justice, vowing to dislodge the powers that be.
But Joel Stein wrote about Hindus. He is indeed very smart, armed with a degree from Stanford. He chose a religion which is like an open source operating system. You can modify an open source OS according to your needs and customise it to your taste. You can reproduce it with a copyright message attached to it and can also ask others to buy the license before using your version. No one will burn you or threaten you for that.
Hinduism or its parent thought process; Sanatana Dharma, has stood the test of time.
Even the followers of it do not understand it in the same way. It has evolved with additions from all quarters, believers & non-believers.
Yes Joel, we have gods who have faces like an elephant, but we call him Ganesha, the god of knowledge & the destroyer of darkness. Yes Joel, we have gods who have more than two hands but we call him Brahma,Vishnu or Shiva who we believe are responsible for creation, maintenance and destruction of mother earth. Sorry, I called earth as our mother. Can’t help it, it’s in our genes.
When we taught the world how to count, it was this faith system that was driving us. When Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry, he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins’ science not been long established in Europe. We taught this world Religion, Philosophy, Medicine, Governance, Administration, Science, Maths & everything else that can be ever imagined. It was this belief system that was acting as a catalyst for us. Our “not so genius” people as you had mentioned in your article, were instrumental in teaching the world to live, and also to let live, when your country didnt exist.
Yet you expect us to ignore the satiric remarks made by you which hurts our value system. Some columnists in India & America have said that your article should be taken with a grain of salt. They consider themselves to be in a moral pedestal, higher than the common man’s belief. That makes them think that they have an ideological edge over others. So far, so good.
Yes Joel, we are a bunch of emotional people. But guess what, we are happy that way. We can’t read every article with a poker face that questions our integrity. We can’t let our value system perish because we are immigrants in a third world country. And Sorry Joel Stein, we do understand & love, humour.
Ask Russell peters or our very own Raju Srivastava.
Disclaimer : I have nothing against Islam or the people practicing it.I am only comparing the decibel level of the furore caused in Hinduism & Islam.
Good job SK,
ReplyDeleteYou know what our religion does not teach us fanaticism.SO people wonder whether we really have any religion or not.But that is what our religion is.Being compassionate and understanding.And people who take a potshot at Hindu religion and India understand one thing.Sensationalism without any Substance.Let us enjoy the blabbering of some of the jealous souls while we must carry on with what we do best.Carry On gracefully while Some by standers shout.Long live India and long live the religion of Humanity.
BAP from SSB