Hindu Taliban
Encyclopedia
Hindu Taliban is a pejorative
term sometimes used to describe the supporters of the Hindutva
movement, similar to the term Christian Taliban. The term derives from the name of the Taliban, an Islamist fundamentalist
movement and organisation. Fritz Blackwell, associate professor of history at Washington State University
, in his book India: A Global Studies Handbook writes Hindutva movement is not supported by majority of Hindus. India
n journalist Praful Bidwai
described the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) and other related organizations as Hindu Taliban.
Tunku Varadarajan
wrote in an article dated January 11, 1999 in The New York Times
, "What we are witnessing in India is the growth of a sort of Hindu Taliban movement. Although it is difficult to gauge the numbers accurately, the various extremist groups are believed to have tens of thousands of supporters." He then described the violence against religious minorities in India by Hindutva activists.
New Delhi
-based journalist Kuldip Nayar
in an article titled India's Hindu Taliban published in Pakistan
's Dawn
on January 25, 2008 wrote that the Indian state of Gujarat continued to be in the grip of the Hindu Taliban who destroyed the office of the NDTV
at Ahmedabad
because the channel reported that Indian artist M.F. Husain was the people's choice for the Bharat Ratna
, India's highest civilian award. Husain allegedly faces danger to his life because of death threats from people described as the "Hindu Taliban". While Nayar also criticized Islamic fundamentalists describing them as "Muslim Taliban" because they demonstrated against the Godrej
for their hosting of Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses
, he asserted that this "Muslim Taliban" in India might be less active than the Hindu Taliban.
Indian film director Govind Nihalani
in the wake of the protests against the film Fire, which depicted homosexual
relations, said "we are witnessing the emergence of a Hindu Taliban." Regarding the anti-Fire protests, Indian journalist and gay rights
activist Ashok Row Kavi
in his article Expose the Hindu Taliban! wrote "This whole business of fighting Fire with fire displays the ridiculousness of the Indian concept of secularism." He argued the attacks on cinema houses showing Fire were un-Hindu in nature because Hinduism, unlike Christianity
and Islam
, does not regard homosexuality as a sin and to support his argument he pointed out a quotation from the Rigveda
: "Vikruti Evam Prakriti" (perversity/diversity is what nature is all about, or, what seems un-natural is also natural). He then pointed out Leviticus
in the Old Testament
forbids the practice of homosexuality which states 'Thou shall not sleep with a man as thou sleep with a woman', and the punishment is death in both the Torah
and in the Qur'an
. Since the view on homosexuality in Hinduism differs from that in Christianity and Islam, and the death sentence for homosexuality was being carried out in Afghanistan
by the Taliban, Ashok Row Kavi argued " the Shiv Sena activists are actually the Taliban who are falsely claiming to be Hindus."
On January 24, 2009, Sri Ram Sena
,a Hindutva
group gained notoriety by attacking girls in a pub in Mangalore
, Karnataka
, claiming the women were "violating traditional Indian values". In another incident, they also condemned Valentine's Day
and threatened to "force unwed couples" found dating to marry. This statement by the Sri Ram Sena, often referred to as the 'Hindu Taliban' by critics, sparked a protest throughout the internet; as a form of retaliation, angry young women sent cartloads of pink panties to their office.
Pramod Muthalik
, the founder of the group, recently held a press meet in Bangalore to release the photographs of the members of Hindu suicide squad undergoing training in handling arms and ammunition to take on Muslim Jihadis. According to Mutalik there are 1,132 members in the suicide squad. The Janata Dal (Secular) chief and the former PM of India, H. D. Deve Gowda
, accused Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa of being responsible for Talibanisation of Karnataka.
in a column in India Today
dated back to 1999 criticized Tunku Varadarajan's opinion that there is a "growth of a sort of Hindu Taliban movement" in India as "preposterous suggestion". In response to Varadarajan's suggestion, Indian author, columnist and diplomat Navtej Sarna
, titled as Counselor for Press, Information
and Culture, Embassy of India in the letter, wrote to the editor of The New York Times
, "India is not, as Tunku Varadarajan should know (Op-Ed, Jan. 11), a third world country swept by 'shadowy armies' of a 'Hindu Taliban movement'." Praveen Togadia
, a member of the VHP, while talking about his "Padshahi yatra," refused to consider the VHP some sort of "Hindu Taliban", while at the same time saying those who describe the VHP as a "Hindu Taliban" and propagate that a VHP rally, or programme, always results in riots and/or other violence have been silenced as this yatra (march) passed off peaceably.
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
term sometimes used to describe the supporters of the Hindutva
Hindutva
Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. Members of the movement are called Hindutvavādis.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva...
movement, similar to the term Christian Taliban. The term derives from the name of the Taliban, an Islamist fundamentalist
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
movement and organisation. Fritz Blackwell, associate professor of history at Washington State University
Washington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
, in his book India: A Global Studies Handbook writes Hindutva movement is not supported by majority of Hindus. India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n journalist Praful Bidwai
Praful Bidwai
Praful Bidwai is an Indian journalist, political analyst, and activist.-Journalist and columnist:Praful Bidwai is an Leftist political analyst and commentator, a social science researcher, and an activist on issues of peace, global justice, human rights and environmental protection.Bidwai's...
described the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
(RSS) and other related organizations as Hindu Taliban.
Usage
Political analyst Amulya Ganguli in his article Rise of the Hindu Taliban? writes:Tunku Varadarajan
Tunku Varadarajan
Tunku Varadarajan is a New York-based journalist who is editor of Newsweek International. Earlier, he was writer-at-large for The Daily Beast. He has also worked as executive editor for opinion at Forbes, assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal and as bureau chief of The Times of...
wrote in an article dated January 11, 1999 in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, "What we are witnessing in India is the growth of a sort of Hindu Taliban movement. Although it is difficult to gauge the numbers accurately, the various extremist groups are believed to have tens of thousands of supporters." He then described the violence against religious minorities in India by Hindutva activists.
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
-based journalist Kuldip Nayar
Kuldip Nayar
Kuldip Nayar is a veteran Indian journalist and syndicated columnist, noted for his long career as a left-wing political commentator.-Early life and education:Nayar was born at Sialkot, Punjab, British India on 14 August 1923....
in an article titled India's Hindu Taliban published in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's Dawn
Dawn (newspaper)
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...
on January 25, 2008 wrote that the Indian state of Gujarat continued to be in the grip of the Hindu Taliban who destroyed the office of the NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
at Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
because the channel reported that Indian artist M.F. Husain was the people's choice for the Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna...
, India's highest civilian award. Husain allegedly faces danger to his life because of death threats from people described as the "Hindu Taliban". While Nayar also criticized Islamic fundamentalists describing them as "Muslim Taliban" because they demonstrated against the Godrej
Godrej family
The Godrej family, like the Tatas, is a Parsi Zoroastrian industrial family who are the driving force behind the Godrej Group of companies, founded by Ardeshir Godrej and his brother Pirojsha Godrej.-External links:*Ashok kumar.P...
for their hosting of Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...
, he asserted that this "Muslim Taliban" in India might be less active than the Hindu Taliban.
Indian film director Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani is an Indian director, cinematographer, and also a screenwriter and film producer. He has been directing Hindi films since the late seventies, and worked in the television medium.- Biography :...
in the wake of the protests against the film Fire, which depicted homosexual
Homosexuality in India
Homosexuality is generally considered a taboo subject by both Indian civil society and the government. Public discussion of homosexuality in India has been inhibited by the fact that sexuality in any form is rarely discussed openly. In recent years, however, attitudes towards homosexuality have...
relations, said "we are witnessing the emergence of a Hindu Taliban." Regarding the anti-Fire protests, Indian journalist and gay rights
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
activist Ashok Row Kavi
Ashok Row Kavi
Ashok Row Kavi is an Indian journalist and one of India's most prominent LGBT rights activists.He was born in Bombay, British India, now Mumbai, India, on June 1, 1947. He graduated with honors in Chemistry from the University of Bombay. Later, he dropped out of engineering college...
in his article Expose the Hindu Taliban! wrote "This whole business of fighting Fire with fire displays the ridiculousness of the Indian concept of secularism." He argued the attacks on cinema houses showing Fire were un-Hindu in nature because Hinduism, unlike Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, does not regard homosexuality as a sin and to support his argument he pointed out a quotation from the Rigveda
Rigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
: "Vikruti Evam Prakriti" (perversity/diversity is what nature is all about, or, what seems un-natural is also natural). He then pointed out Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
forbids the practice of homosexuality which states 'Thou shall not sleep with a man as thou sleep with a woman', and the punishment is death in both the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. Since the view on homosexuality in Hinduism differs from that in Christianity and Islam, and the death sentence for homosexuality was being carried out in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
by the Taliban, Ashok Row Kavi argued " the Shiv Sena activists are actually the Taliban who are falsely claiming to be Hindus."
On January 24, 2009, Sri Ram Sena
Sri Ram Sena
The Sri Ram Sena is a right-wing Hindu extremist group founded in the late 1960s by Kalki Ji Maharaj right hand Bal Thackeray, a former leader of the Shiv Sena, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Kalki Ji Maharaj is a devotee of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna was born in Vrindavan U.P....
,a Hindutva
Hindutva
Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. Members of the movement are called Hindutvavādis.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva...
group gained notoriety by attacking girls in a pub in Mangalore
Mangalore
Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...
, Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
, claiming the women were "violating traditional Indian values". In another incident, they also condemned Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
and threatened to "force unwed couples" found dating to marry. This statement by the Sri Ram Sena, often referred to as the 'Hindu Taliban' by critics, sparked a protest throughout the internet; as a form of retaliation, angry young women sent cartloads of pink panties to their office.
Pramod Muthalik
Pramod Muthalik
Pramod Muthalik is the chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, the parent organization of the Sri Ram Sena. He was born in 1963 to a Marathi family in Hukkeri in the Belgaum district of Karnataka, close to the border with Maharashtra.After the 2009 Mangalore pub attack, where women were beaten Pramod...
, the founder of the group, recently held a press meet in Bangalore to release the photographs of the members of Hindu suicide squad undergoing training in handling arms and ammunition to take on Muslim Jihadis. According to Mutalik there are 1,132 members in the suicide squad. The Janata Dal (Secular) chief and the former PM of India, H. D. Deve Gowda
H. D. Deve Gowda
Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda was the 11th Prime Minister of India and the 14th chief minister of the state of Karnataka ....
, accused Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa of being responsible for Talibanisation of Karnataka.
Criticism of the term
Indian journalist and columnist Swapan DasguptaSwapan Dasgupta
Swapan Dasgupta is a senior conservative Indian journalist. At various points in his career, he has held senior editorial posts at The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Times of India, The Indian Express and most recently India Today, where he was Managing Editor till 2003...
in a column in India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
dated back to 1999 criticized Tunku Varadarajan's opinion that there is a "growth of a sort of Hindu Taliban movement" in India as "preposterous suggestion". In response to Varadarajan's suggestion, Indian author, columnist and diplomat Navtej Sarna
Navtej Sarna
Navtej Sarna is an Indian author-columnist, and diplomat, who is the present Indian Ambassador to Israel.He was born in Jalandhar, India to noted writer in Punjabi, Mohinder Singh Sarna, and passed out of the 1980 Class of Indian Foreign Service...
, titled as Counselor for Press, Information
and Culture, Embassy of India in the letter, wrote to the editor of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, "India is not, as Tunku Varadarajan should know (Op-Ed, Jan. 11), a third world country swept by 'shadowy armies' of a 'Hindu Taliban movement'." Praveen Togadia
Praveen Togadia
Praveen Togadia is the International General Secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad , Hindu religious organization. A 'Cancer Surgeon' by profession, he was appointed chief instructor of an RSS officers training camp in 1979 at the age 22....
, a member of the VHP, while talking about his "Padshahi yatra," refused to consider the VHP some sort of "Hindu Taliban", while at the same time saying those who describe the VHP as a "Hindu Taliban" and propagate that a VHP rally, or programme, always results in riots and/or other violence have been silenced as this yatra (march) passed off peaceably.