Ahimsa Times 2007 12 SrNo 90

Author(s): Ahimsa Times
Publisher: Ahimsa Times

Page 17

AHIMSA TIMES - DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE - www.jainsamaj.org
Page 17 of 20
world. It was only with the invasion of India, first by the Muslims and then by the British that the term "Hindu" came into use in India.
(This para has been taken from www.swaminarayan.org)
21. Who is a Hindu? is a 1923 ideological pamphlet by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar wrote while imprisoned in Ratnagiri jail and was published in "Mahratta".
"Hindus", according to Savarkar, are patriotic inhabitants of Bharatavarsha, those who consider India to be their 'fatherland' as well as their "holy land". Savarkar thus extends the concept of "Hindu" beyond religious adherence to a term of ethnic nationalism and irredentism, identifying Hindus with the inheritors of a postulated Aryan race "indigenous" to Greater India. Sarvakar includes all Dharmic religions in the term "Hindusim".
22. From the beginning of independent India, political parties, such as the Jan Sangh and their sponsoring organization the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), often appealed to anti-Muslim feelings. With the rise of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its call for Hindutva or Hindu India, Hindu fundamentalism increased in the 1990s. (A Brief Historical Survey at www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu)
23. Subhas Chandra Bose as a mascot of Hindutva: (Source"BJP TODAY", By Kanchan Gupta, A Political analyst and commentator, May 1-15, 1996)
Champion of Nationalism:-"Hinduism was an essential part of his Indian ness", his Bharatiyata. In other words, he subscribed to what is now considered politically incorrect--cultural nationalism or, call It If you must by its other name, Hindutva."
This "fusion of religion and nationalism" and Hinduism with a "pronounced political character" came into play in 1925 when during his incarceration at Mandalay prison, Bose, along with the other Bengali prisoners.
24. "Our national anthem "Jana-Gana-Mana" by Shri Ravindra Nath Tagore clearly enunciates Jains in its second stanza: Hindua, Baudha, Sikh, Jain, Parsik, Musalman, Christans as a distinct Indian religion." 25. "Essentials of Hindutva: By V.D. Savarkar at www.hindusarise.com/thru wikipedia link"
Down to this day the whole world knows us as 'Hindus' and our land as 'Hindusthan'. They thereby may cease to be Sanatanis, but cannot cease to be Hindus. Sikhs are Hindus in the sense of our definition of Hindutva and not in any religious sense whatever. Religiously they are Sikhs as Jains are Jains, Lingayats are Lingayats, Vaishnavas are Vaishnavas; but all of us racially and nationally and culturally are a polity and a people, one and indivisible, most fitly and from times immemorial called Hindus.
26. In his Allahabad speech on 03.09.1949, our Prime Minister Pt Jwahar Lal Nehru said :
"No doubt India had a vast majority of Hindus but they could not forget the fact that there are also minorities, Moslems, Christians, Parsis and Jains. If India was understood as a "Hindu Rashtra" it meant that the minorities were not cent per cent citizens of the country" (The Statesman, September 5, 1949).
27. The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh launched the Jain Manuscripts Catalogue of the collections in British Library, London, in New Delhi, 27th May, 2006.
on the occasion Dr. Manmohan Singh said: "This ancient land of India has been home to some of the greatest religious movements and religions known to mankind, among which Jainism occupies an important place of pride. It is an important constituent of our composite culture and civilizational heritage. Jainism is part and parcel of the rich tradition of rational intellectual discourse that has flourished in this ancient land of India.
28. Shri. Pranav Mukherjee, India's Foreign Minister said: at a reception hosted in his honour by Ambassador Ronen Sen in New York on Sunday, September 24, 2006:
"Not many people are aware that while the great religions of the East -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and many others grew from the soil of India, the faiths from West Asia were also embraced with equal respect and
reverence."
29. In a recent judgment delivered by Hon'ble judges SB Sinha and Dalveer Bhandari of Supreme Court of India, emphatically states: -
"(The) Jain religion indisputably is not a part of Hindu religion"
30. On 31st January, 1950, the PPS to the then Prime Minister of India, Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru sent a letter vide no. 33/94/50 to the Jain deputation on behalf of the Prime Minister, which reads as under
"With reference to the deputation of certain representatives of the Jains, who met the Prime Minister on 21st Jan., 1950, I am desired to say that there is no cause whatever for the Jains to have any apprehensions regarding the future of their religion and community."
31. That as per Census of India for different decades from 1961-2001 Jains are in tiny minority not only in every State of India but also in every districts.
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8/11/2009