I had a conversation about this just a month or so ago – very frustrating. A guy who used to be Catholic blaming God for the genocide in the Old Testament and compared it to genocide during the Holocaust. I simply asked him why genocide is wrong and he couldn’t answer.

I don’t understand how this becomes an argument that becomes such a stumbling block to people.

Lets just say, we take the example of Orissa. What exactly happened there was that, there were 2 tribal groups. They, both of them, were completely backward, most importantly in education. The rich upper class people, used these people almost as slaves and never allowed them progress in the society. That’s when a Christian missionary group (Catholic, from the reports I’ve read) intervened and offered them education and medical facilities. One of the tribal groups, willfully just took up Christianity and started progressing socially. Now that was a big hindrance to upper class, and they turned the other tribal group against them using Hindu fundamental groups. This is what actually happened.

Now from what I said, you’d know there was no apologetic involved. They were dealing with uneducated people. In most parts of India, this is exactly what happens. Truth be told, there’s not much of apologetic in India, at all. And as for you suggestion, that opposite groups would accept if you give them evidence, you are talking about literate people aren’t you?

(Honestly, I think they oppose it only to have stand which is opposite to that of Congress).

Ha! LOL!

My Indian co-workers tell me that there are no principled debates about economic policy in India. I tell them that there are no principled debates about economic policy in the USA, except on right-wing talk radio and in private conversations. Our journalists are completely ignorant, and our political debates are a joke.

As for the definition of left-right in India, in economic terms they are quite unclear to a common Indian. I mean, I don’t think the BJP can be truly considered as a fiscal conservative. That’s because as I mentioned earlier India has a majority rural population which requires populist schemes like loan waivers and the likes, which the BJP would never oppose. This has got more to do with their Hindu ideologies.

I don’t know whether you might know that the Congress in India started as a Socialist party. India had cordial relationships with the Soviet Union, and the Congress basically endorsed Soviet propaganda. As a matter of fact, India never got along with the US. Pakistan bought their F16s from US while we bought our MiG24s from Russia. It was only when Manmohan Singh, our current PM, took over as India’s Finance Minister that India embraced free markets. FYI, Congress is for free market capitalism whilst BJP is against it(Honestly, I think they oppose it only to have stand which is opposite to that of Congress).

To tell the truth, both parties’ economic policies have never been quite clear to the common man, and I seriously doubt a hungry farmer would have ever cared to know. It’s in Indian villages that the elections are won.

Excerpt:

But human rights organizations in the eastern state of Orissa, which has the lowest per capital income in India, say the students are unwitting players in a political experiment driven by ancient Indian hatreds and partly funded by donors from the United States.

They say the schools, run by India’s foremost Hindu nationalist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are indoctrinating students with a militant version of “Hindutva” (literally, Hinduness): hatred of Muslims and Christians and a desire to turn India into a Hindu state, using violence if necessary.

The National Council for Educational Research and Training in New Delhi, the government body that evaluates teaching materials, said the schools’ curriculum is “designed to promote bigotry and religious fanaticism” and has asked state governments to prevent the publishing and use of RSS textbooks.

Yet the RSS and its allies, collectively called the Sangh Parivar, say they have enrolled more than 5 million students in about 30,000 Hindu religious schools across India.

Sounds like Muslim madrassas, only for Hindus! Scary. I should write a post about this. It does seem like there are some parallels between Hindutva and Nazism. For example, they are both nationalist. I wonder if Hindutva teaches socialism (government control of the economy) as well?

If you want to say more about it, please remember to include a citation from a respected source!

Also, can you explain to me why they are calling this group the Hindu right? It seems to me that to be on the right-wing, you need to believe in free market capitalism and fundamental human liberties and rights. On the left, you find socialism and government control that that can violate fundamental rights and liberties. This is something else I need to post on – what does right and left mean? People may think that I am a nationalist because I am patriotic, but I am actually a globalist – I believe in free trade between nations. I am a global capitalist! The opposite of national socialist!

I also wonder whether apologetics is widespread in India among Christians, or whether they are just preaching without evidence. One way to curb the rage of people towards your side is to hold a fair debate with people on the other side and to engage them and let them see the evidence of what you believe. This is what the first Christians did when they were being persecuted by the pagan, polytheistic Roman empire.

You know what I find really strange is that the RSS (a fundamental Hindu organization in India) preaches Nazism in the schools run by that organization and says they should adopt similar methods to obliterate Muslims and Christians from India. Oh and of course, Hitler IS a Christian, in their text books.