Letter to Justice JS Khehar, former Chief Justice of India — on making a case for a ‘Hindu Rashtra’

Dear Justice Khehar,

Pranam!

I had the opportunity to listen to the Lal Bahadur Memorial lecture you delivered at the National Museum on 11 January 2018. After the lecture i had walked up to you to ask a question:

“If 80% Indians were to become, Muslim, as opposed to being Hindu, would India & its values, as we know it, remain?”

To this you had responded broadly with the answer that ‘if we can keep the state separate from religion, then yes’. To this i had asked ‘can it be (separated in the case of Islam)?’. Your response was, ‘since we have embarked on this journey of secularism we must take a shot’.

To be honest, sir, i was shocked at this statement. For India is not a piece of land that we can lose to a people who have no cultural rooted-ness in the values and spiritual pursuits of this geography.

Netaji Subhas Bose called Durga, ‘the mother, the motherland and the Universal mother at the same time’. This sentiment is not restricted to Hindus alone. Hindus in the larger sense, or ‘Indian Religionists’, have an ancient spiritual rooted-ness in this country. We may compete, we may call ourselves different from each other, but no one has a bigger claim to this homeland of ours than any other home-grown Indian religion. There is an unseen thread of spirituality that ties all Indian Religions and Indian Religionists together. It is this thread that inspite of our differences binds us together.

Infact, if there are any two major religions of the world, it is only Hindus or Jews who have a claim on what could be their ancient homeland.

Osho famously has had this to say about India:

“India is not just geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields which no other country can claim. For almost ten thousand years, thousands of people have reached to the ultimate explosion of consciousness. Their vibration is still alive, their impact is in the very air; you just need a certain perceptivity, a certain capacity to receive the invisible that surrounds this strange land.”

Would you not agree that at the root of the inherent secularism in India, lies the inclusive philosophy of Indian Religionists? Would you equally not agree that nearly all examples of Islamic countries in the world have failed to demonstrate any modern liberal values such as secularism or even democracy.

How then are we ‘take a shot’ at trying to lose our country to Islam? Or even Christianity. This is not a land we can lose to religions which have no cultural, or more importantly, spiritual rooted-ness to this land.

Perhaps you are not aware that both the Church and Islam have the clear goal of converting all peoples of the world to respectively their religion. The Quran clearly advises how Muslims must live & negotiate (with non-Muslims) when living in Muslim controlled territories, versus when living in non-Muslim controlled territories. The theology is based on political expansionism to territories which are not Islamic, and establish the rule of Shariah and Hadith.

Let’s look at Christianity. The Pope, and even Mother Teresa’s open acknowledgement has been that service needs to be followed by conversion to Christianity.

Not a single home grown Indian religion behaves this way. They all conduct themselves not for the purpose of #SoulHarvesting, but occupy themselves with the supreme goal of seeking the Truth. And in such seeking they may argue about one path being better than the other. But the motive is always seeking Truth, not gaining numbers by conversion —coercive, deceptive, with the lure of money and with force where none of this works.

In this context i do also want to comment on the piece of history you shared. You equated Hinduism (and Marathas) & Sikhism with Islam by saying they were all equally brutal with each other whenever they were in power. Let me remind you, that no Rajput, Maratha, Bundel or Sikh ruler is known to have taken both women and little boys as sex-slaves. No Rajput, Maratha, Bundel or Sikh ruler killed boys of spiritual leaders of the Muslims (as the Muslims did with sons of Guru Gobind Singh). No Rajput, Maratha, Bundel or Sikh ruler threw slaughtered pigs in Mosques to desecrate them as the Muslims did to both Hindu and Jain Temples repeatedly with slaughtered cows.

Please, sir, never again publicly equate the standards of morals of Muslim rulers with that of any Indian Religionist rulers. The only religious terrorist India probably ever saw was Ashoka who slaughtered 18000 Jain and Ajivika monks as revenge for a painting that showed Buddha bowing down to a Jain Teerthankara. Ironically, Ashoka is projected as a man of peace having converted after the Kalinga war (perhaps you are unaware that Ashoka was a Buddhist before he fought the Kalinga war; only a sample piece of history we’re lied about).

To conclude, my humble submission is that if India is to remain — in thought, in philosophy, in its sacredness, in its pursuit of Truth — then Hinduism, which forms the foundation of the religions of this land, must be protected. Diversity is excellent, we’ve always embraced it, but when religions behave like an exotic invasive biological species, which invade and threaten to eliminate native biodiversity, then these invasive species need to be controlled (if not entirely eradicated).

Hence, in my opinion even the Constitution of India must be subservient to the survival and protection of Indian Religions or Dharmic Religions. The only way perhaps to ensure and enshrine this is by making India a Hindu Rashtra or in other words a Dharmic Rashtra.

I would greatly appreciate if you could respond to this letter with your thoughts.

Regards,