Naxalism and the Social Disharmony Project
- In Current Affairs
- 03:45 PM, Aug 11, 2020
- Sagar Kinhekar
This is second article, in the series on "Naxals and their hidden agendas", the first part can be read here-https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/naxals-and-their-hidden-agendas-part-1
“The Shudra (and perhaps the unadulterated) reading of Mahishasur–Durga story goes like this. Mahish means buffalo. Mahishasur means the Buffalo Demon. Demon (asur) is different from god (sur). Sur means god. God means Brahmin or S(a)warna (upper caste). Surs do not work. Asur means those who work – in today’s parlance, workers. Mahishasur means people who rear buffalo, the buffalo-rearers, those who trade in milk -the dairy people. Asur may have changed to Ahur and then to Ahir (the present-day milkman caste). Mahishasur or the buffalo-rearers must have been the people dominating the Banga region. Racially they must have been Dravidians. They must have also been opponents of the Aryan culture. Aryans had to defeat them. These people used Durga.
In the Banga region, prostitutes mention Durga to be of their clan. Even today when one makes the Durga idol, some soil must be brought from the house of a prostitute. It took Durga nine nights to kill Mahishasur. The Brahmins who sent her waited nine nights with bated breath.”
The above passage is from a pamphlet circulated in Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2013 during Navratri festival. A simple fact that Asur and Sur both were descendent of sage Kashyapa (a Brahmin) is enough to disprove the utter nonsense written in the pamphlet. So, while a cursory examination of this can expose its falseness, the question is who wants to propagate such meaningless charade and why? In my first piece in this series I wrote, about how Naxals, urban or otherwise, need a group which feels oppressed. There lies the answer.
One needs to just do a simple search on Mahishasur and Tribal. There are left leaning sites replete with stories connecting Mahishasur with Gond tribe that is found in large part of central India. Gond society has large tribal population in states like Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra and also large urbanized / semi urbanized population in states like north of MP and UP. Idea of left cabal is to make this group feel alienated and oppressed which in long run can provide a large recruitment catchment for leftist. The propaganda that Gonds are not Hindus and somehow have roots in Asur clan, has found quite a bit of traction with many organisations mushroomed claiming they represent the Gond community.
Whether Gonds are Hindus are not can not be ‘declared’ by one Organization or other. This question needs objective examination. Let’s first see what is the connection Gonds have with Mahishasur. After reading many ‘explanations’ of Mahishasur connection with Gond community, all I could find was some pointing out the headgear with horn worn by Gond people during festival. If headgears are the connection here, Vikings would be the closest relatives of Mahishasur as they wore horned helmet much more than Gonds do.
Further, some of the names of Gods which Gond tribe (depending on the area) worship are, Narayan-Pen, Thakur-Pen, Ghansam-Pen, Shambhu-Pen. These gods are in addition to natural objects like Sun, Trees etc. The festivals Gonds observe include, Akhari, Jiwati, Diwali, Dussera and Phag. All these Gods and festivals are typical Hindu in nature. True that they follow different customs in different states during these festivals, just like every other Hindu sect have different customs. Marriage in Raj-Gond (the ruling clan of Gonds) was done as per Hindu customs. Common Gond marriages involve Vadhu-shulka (bride price) which is an old Vedic tradition.
Arguably most famous personality in Gond history is Queen Durgawati who reigned in 1500s. A Gond queen who was daughter of Chandel royal family (Rajputs) and was married to Gond King Dalpat Shah. This clearly shows that Gonds not only followed Hindu traditions but were also very much integrated with Hindu society as a whole, having relationships even by marriage. Therefore, this propaganda that Gonds are not Hindus is an attempt to weaken Hindus by alienating a large of population.
Gonds are not the only group which are targeted. Similar misinformation is spread about other tribal groups and sects of Sanatana family. Jains and Buddhists are targeted in similar fasion by spreading imaginary stories of massacres by Hindus. There have been attempt to instigate hatred by spreading theories that Buddhism vanished from India due to widespread violence by Hindus. Hindus are often blamed for demolition of Buddhist religious structures. All this is insinuated without giving any historical proof. Any widespread violence was not possible against Buddhism as kings from time of Mauryas in 3rd century BC until Pala dynasty in 1200 AD, either followed Buddhism themselves or were patrons of Buddhism. Most historians agree that reason for disappearance of Buddhism was assimilation of practices and rituals with Hinduism and not any violent damage. But for Leftists aka Naxals facts never mattered. Therefore, the fact that major Buddhist temples and edicts survived to this day in most parts of India also does not bother them. A detailed enquiry on disappearance of Buddhism from India is not subject of this article and can be dealt with separately.
We saw how the naxal cabal (both urban and otherwise) has used the fissures in society to its benefit. If there is no victimhood, no feeling of oppression (real or perceived) the idea of left will die. Therefore, for their own survival, they will keep inventing new oppressed groups. It is imperative that we remain vigilant and do not let them succeed in breaking our Society.
Comments