In response to the question: What is one accomplishment you are most proud of, a Hindu Quora user replied:
That I am living
This is a picture from NASA, see the lights in India during our Hindu festival Deepawali, then move west and see in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many years ago they also must be celebrating just like us but today, the difference is stark.
Today because I am living, you are living we know a festival. Had we not fought we would have never known, the world would have never known. Its a festival but had we not survived could we have celebrated?
Today millions of us NRI’s celebrate Diwali with so much gusto in whichever land we live.
Aboriginals of Australia
Completely vanished, a whole culture is lost, it was their land where they are no more…
It’s a known fact that India’s Muslim population is growing faster than its Hindu population. According to Pew Research:
Muslims are expected to grow faster than Hindus because they have the youngest median age and the highest fertility rates among major religious groups in India. In 2010, the median age of Indian Muslims was 22, compared with 26 for Hindus and 28 for Christians. Likewise, Muslim women have an average of 3.2 children per woman, compared with 2.5 for Hindus and 2.3 for Christians.
The article goes on to say that Hindus will remain a majority there until well past 2050, when Hindus will still be about three-fourths of the population. What the article neglects to mention (and it goes without saying) is that if these trends continue, eventually, India will be majority Muslim.
Another factor is that according to Islam, Muslim men may not marry Hindu women unless they convert. There is no such law in Hinduism. Some Hindus are aware of the implications of such an imbalance. From a BBC article:
The decision by an Indian court in May to annul the marriage of a Hindu woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man has grabbed headlines in the country, with many referring to it as a strike against “love jihad”.
The term was popularised by radical Hindu fringe groups, who accuse Muslim men of participating in a “conspiracy to turn Hindu women from their religion by seducing them”.
Marriages between Hindus and Muslims have long attracted censure in conservative Indian families, but the attachment of a deeper, sinister motive to them is a recent phenomenon.
I think “Love Jihad” is an appropriate name for this phenomenon. One needn’t be a sociologist to appreciate that such a disparity between two religions will bring about a ratcheting up of Muslim converts, and an attrition of the Hindu population. It might take decades, or even centuries, to tip the demographic scales, but it will happen. Those “radical Hindu fringe groups” are right.
The government of India has a responsibility to encourage birthrates among Hindus, and it has a responsibility to discourage marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men.
I don’t think there’s a “democratic” or “progressive” way to accomplish this. In an open and free society, men and women marry whomsoever they please, and having children is their own personal choice.
Unfortunately, failing to take such measures will lead to a Muslim-majority India. It will be the new “East Pakistan.” In the long run, women’s rights will suffer even more in that scenario. It’s not possible to stem the tide of Islam without “playing dirty,” since Islam does the same. There is no solution that will satisfy the requirements of “human rights.”
Both Islam and Hinduism have their flaws, and this post is not a defense of Hinduism as a religion. It’s to recognize that Indian Hindus have a right to self-determination. I hope that over time they become more civilized, and I don’t think that a transformation into a majority-Muslim India will serve that end.
I almost forgot. Here’s a nice short video:
Your video recommendations are interesting.
Hopefully entertaining, for at least some of my readers.
The only thing that makes Hinduism preferable to Islam is that Hinduism does not attempt to grow by force, whereas we all know the history of Islam in that regard.
However, the appeal of Islam in India is based on the intractable caste system. Islam promises equality before Allah and therefore is quite attractive to the dalit (formerly known as “untouchables”). While India has done much to undo caste lines (and I believe I once read of a dalit who had become a multimillionaire entrepreneur), much more needs to be done, being a necessary condition to keep Islam from growing into an existential threat.
Definitely. Hinduism is far from perfect.