Hindu defeat in India elections

[Lenny]

The Indian elections are over. The results are disappointing to say the least. Share of seats won:


48.4% Congress ; The party of the Gandhis; basically Pro capitalist-liberal-democracy; and in a more narrow sense what we would call center-left within the CLD paradigm
29.3% BJP ; Hindu-National-Patriotic party; akin to the BNP both in name and ideology
14.4% Third Front ; Communist/Socialist bloc
07.9% All other parties ; Mostly caste parties with the ocassional Muslim or Sikh party


This is a disaster, IMO. Most people expected the BJP to perform much better. In 2004, BJP won 33% of seats, barely behind Congress' 35%. People were predicting an equally tight result this time. Unfortunately this is another first-past-the-post system, so, "when it rains it pours". It also doesn't help that only 80% of Indians are Hindu these days, so a 20% base will flatly never vote BJP.

This time, every party lost seats except Congress, who soared ahead to a near simple majority.

If youre interested, take a look at BJP's website and read one or two of the articles. This is a good one. (http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:iqvTGFu4in4J:www.bjp.org/content/view/2650/376/) They have a very healthy attitude towards nationalism (disregarding the occasional nod to the global Zeitgeist). I consider them allies as they favor ethnocultural-continuty as a guiding principle.

[Óttar]

I used to be a hardline supporter of the Hindutva movement of which they are a large proponent, but I became disillusioned for a few reasons. They can be really good as a way to mobilize and unite Hindus politically against the eternal Muslim and Christian aggressor, but they also have many holes in their ideology.

For one thing, their idea of Hindu values is essentially copying Victorian moral standards, which completely disregards their history. Hindutva extremists picketed and protested my teacher's presentation on early Hindu statuary because she referred to an ancient goddess statue as having "fruitful breasts."

Hindu texts are full of referrences to all sorts of sexual behaviour. The Khajuraho temples show various different sexual positions. Hindu women before the arrival of the British walked down the street bare-breasted. In fact the little shirt Hindu women wear under their sari was a British innovation.

Gandhi (who was not a Hindutvadi but still something of a self-hating Hindu) advocated destroying the Khajuraho temples due to his victorian moral notions.

Hindus later were ashamed of the Kama Sutra... The Hindutvadis attempt to thwart historical accuracy also irks me much. They are just another manifestation of Hindu self-hate and confusion. They won't allow for a debate over the Aryan Invasion Theory vs. their Indigenous Origin Theory.

Also a famous nominally Muslim artist received death-threats from these guys for merely tastefully painting the goddess Saraswati nude. (Thousands of Hindu goddesses are depicted nude throughout history going back to the earliest times.)

[Lenny]

moral standardsWell - with the BJP*, as with any true nationalist(s), it's about blood and honor. What is the blood without the honor? What is the honor without the blood?





* - btw, for those who might be curious: "BJP" is an acronym in Hindi which translates to something like "Hindustan Native Sons' Party".

[Óttar]

Well - with the BJP*, as with any true nationalist(s), it's about blood and honor. What is the blood without the honor? What is the honor without the blood?

The point is Hindus need to stop apologizing for their history and attempting to clean up their image to fit Muslim and Christian notions of right and wrong. Hindus should not refer to their statues as idols, but rather use the native term murtis i.e. devotional images.

Many reform Hindu organisations like the Arya Samaj or Brahmo Samaj discourage the use of images, which I see as pandering to Christian and Muslim ideas. Hindus should stand up and say, our devotional artwork is beautiful and noble and so are our historical depictions of the human form.


* - btw, for those who might be curious: "BJP" is an acronym in Hindi which translates to something like "Hindustan Native Sons' Party".

That's correct Bharatiya from Bharat "Hindu India" from a name of a legendary historical king -iya (adjective suffix), Janata related to janam "birth" so carrying connotations of nation, or native --> Latin natio, people sharing a common birth.

[Fortis in Arduis]

The BJP are economic liberals...

[Lenny]

The BJP are economic liberals...
The whole point of the BJP is that they don't care about economics. Economics is something really trivial to men who think like the BJP leadership do (and dare I say like most members of this forum do). What matters is ethnocultural-continuity, not concepts like how "economically open" or "economically just" the society is. (The watchwords of the Capitalist-liberal-democrat and Socialist, respectively).

They're not interested in fighting economic battles, so they just defer to the economic ideology currently ruling.