“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
― Martin Luther King


Hindu-ness etymology
Under the garb or habiliments of being inclusive and lofty yet benevolent slogans /ideology of being all-inclusive all the time enshrined in ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam’ – ‘world is one family’, Hindus have been tolerant to many atrocities committed on them by other philosophies or beliefs over the centuries.
The original verse appears in Chapter 6 of Maha-Upanishad; also found in the Rig Veda, it is considered the most important moral value in the Indian society. This verse of Maha Upanishad is engraved in the entrance hall of the parliament of India too. Therefore Hindu philosophy in away has been enshrined into our democratic values also.

Hindutva (Hindu+ Tva), ‘Tva in Sanskrit means to perform or to do’ is Hindu-ness, Hindu-pan or Hindu-panti or simply behaving and acting like a Hindu. Now what is wrong with this? If a Christian behaves like a Christian and a Sikh like a Sikh, a Parsi like a Parsi and a Budhist like a Budhist or a Muslim like a Muslim then in the same way a Hindu must behave like a Hindu. No rocket science here.
Then why so much of ruckus for the word Hindutva? Today, confused people are trying to confuse those who are already confused.
Let me explain in simpler terms, If Hinduism is a way of life it means Hindus must live their life like Hindus and that is what Hindutva (Hindu-ness) means. QED.

Winds of change
Second World War was fought on political fault lines and not like religious crusades many centuries ago. It was more for conquering land and economic retribution than religious ideology on the face of it.
For the last few decades especially after the collapse of USSR which virtually halted the cold war other pockets of trouble mostly on religious/ideological lines started erupting. Religions started asserting themselves more in modern times and politics and religions got entangled- politicians and religious leaders or religious netas made the world dance to their tune. Public sentiment was also high jacked by these religo-political self-appointed custodians of faith. I don’t think in recent history or technically contemporary history there was so much of noise/assertion by people on religious lines as we have been witnessing in the last three decades or so.

In this entire jig saw puzzle the most puzzling and intriguing fact is that Hindus never asserted for their religion. As such, on the other hand religions across the board especially Christianity and Islam who openly converted people of different faiths into their own and made no qualms about this. Missionaries were there to accomplish a mission of propagating their belief across the planet. Hindu religious leaders never did this and were happy to be where they were even if others coaxed their followers into conversions. The politicians in India where majority of Hindus live took advantage of this weakness after independence in 1947 and went whole hog for appeasement of the so called minorities for political gains.

The politicians therefore instead of galvanizing Hindus as one force to reckon with made them irrelevant in their own way. And no Hindu spoke against this. What Hindus thought to be their strength (resilience) was taken as a weakness by others and still is. People stopped taking Hindus seriously as Hindus themselves didn’t take Hinduism seriously as other did with their faith. With politicians pushing their own agenda in their own direction, Hinduism possibly started losing steam. Politicians in the last six decades kept on experimenting and testing the waters of Hindu tolerance and kept on succeeding and coming out bolder every time after every push over trick they tried and came out with flying colors.

They were happy that no Hindu even spoke against these actions and punches. It was an attitude of ‘Let me mind my own business’. In fact Hindus were happy doing their business and making a living for themselves. In a way a very self-centric living, to an extent selfish. It was me, my earning and my family. Most became so timid and subservient that they even shied away from calling out what their religious identity was! If you belong to an ideology then at least be proud of it and say so. Some of the Hindus who may have been overly influenced by the British Raj thought of themselves a ‘Brown Sahabs and mem sahabs’ and created a bubble of their own and these guys rose to the so called better positions in the social hierarchy. They became self-proclaimed Intellectuals and were supposed to be better than the other Hindu mortals who by now had become indifferent.

“If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.”
― Jack Kerouac
In the present context in India there has been a shakeup of thought process. When they watch the PM performing ‘Aarti’ in a Temple, fasting on Navratri, worshipping a Cow, being a total pure vegetarian and a devout Hindu there was a ray of confidence kindled amongst the last amongst the equal- that is Hindus.
For a Change Hindus got ‘British- Christianity Mukt’ and Hindus started thinking ‘Oh, we also exist.’ I live in my country – Eureka! Good mornings slowly changed to Namaste. Your own Prime Minister addressed international summits in Hindi and received a roaring response from not only the world leaders but our own diaspora too- Oh my God. Let me tell you what I feel- we still require a stamp of approval from the west, even if he is an Indian living in the west. We still clamor for a nod of approval from people like Hindus who are doing well in Europe, US or anywhere else abroad and feel proud of the fact that the rich big brother has also appreciated Hindutva demonstrated by PM Modi on his foreign trips (Times square) speech where he addressed a 20,000 packed crowd inside the Madison Square Garden for which nearly 40,000 people had applied from across the nation.

Hindus needed a big push towards pride and all this started restoring their pride literally.
How dare you?
The biggest problem is change. And those living a cozy life of you scratch my back and I will scratch your —, didn’t know what hit them. Bhai almost 100 crore Hindus who had been in a state of rigor mortis of brain, body and heart’ for 60 long years after independence started showing signs of life. The Sahibs saw a ghost!
They thought they were intellectuals and could put this imagined Jinni back in the bottle and started coming up with words hitherto never uttered or heard. These were inventions of the third kind – Intolerance, danger to freedom of speech, break down of constitution, fundamental rights. Worst was a direct assault on Hinduism the absolute wrong and unethical way of addressing the entire environment as saffronisation- Just because for Hindus Saffron or bhagwa is a sacred color. What are Hindus saying that is troubling some- and their own selfish brethren? ‘Say it with pride that you are a Hindu- Garv sey bolo hum Hindu hain.’
What is the big deal? If you don’t speak even this much posterity will never forgive you.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak for me
Martin Niemöller