India is a story of 'Slow death': Rajiv

There was a question put up by an elderly person from the audience, that from last 700-800 years, we got a lot of onslaught of foreign invasions in India, but we still survived and in the last 20 years we seems to be reviving and coming up.

Rajiv answered him, by following argument:

Disagreeing with the question, We commonly like to say that we are invincible because we have survived. Nothing can happen to us, we are 5000 years old civilization. This all is NOT true.

Until, 2000 years ago there was no Christianity, there was no Islam, who are 50% of the world today combined. Between Hinduism and Buddhism, there was all of Asia.

If you consider even Hinduism alone, from Afghanistan to Bali (end point of Indonesia) was all Hinduism. From lanka to not just Mt Kailash, but also the Kazakhstan, some part of China also has Shiva temples, Mangolia, Japan. If you take that space or area, we currently now 15-20% of that area, so we have shrunk 80%.

'doobe nahi, bus 80 pratishat shrink ho gaye' (English: Did not drowned, but only shrunk by 80%).

If you work in a company and a man comes to you and says 'Sir, we are still not bankrupt, our market share has gone down by 80%, but good news is we are not bankrupt'. I do not think that you would appreciate that and say it's good news.

You will have to look that, we (India and Hindus) have lost 80% of their territory. Even, as recently as in 1947, we have lost so much of our territory. After shrinking so much, we are not safe with-in India as 'Hindus' even today, there may be more partitions. There may be partition about the North-east, which means a lot Brahmputra river water, there may be partition about Kashmir, so Indus valley water, which means Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan water. Nepal could be going to Maoists (China), which means all the Ganga water.

So, all main 3 rivers are in threat, because of these insurrections, separatists movements and my book 'Breaking-India' writes about these separatist identities like Dravidian vs Aryan.

So, we hardly safe and secure even with-in India. We cannot say that 'humko kuch nahin hua, humko maar pitkar, kisine humaari ek banhh todh di, we are happy that hamari ek banhh to hai. Ek aankh le li, we happy that en aankh toh hai, hum andhe thode hi na hue' (English: Nothing has happened to us. Like even after got beaten up, after loosing one arm, one says no worries, I have one arm left. After loosing one eye, one gets happy that, he is not yet blind as he has one left).

This is NOT a success story, but a story of 'Slow Death'. I agree that it is not a fast death, as we have not been killed, but certainly got setbacks. And setbacks by the 'Siddhantas' (philosophies) which is not so advance than us, not so based on merit as ours.

So, people will say to me that, 'ki Devta ne kaha tha kuch nahin hoga, sab theek ho jayega' (Devta said that nothing worry, everything will be fine), bit for last 1000 years, Devta did not save us. I don't know, but its true.

I would like to quote Bhagwatgeeta here, during the war of Mahabharata at Kurukshetra, Krishna told Arjuna that, both 'Dharma and Adharma' always remains here, and you (Arjuna) have to fight Adharma without any excuse. (You cannot say that, I will stay at home, everything will be done by itself). Arjuna tried to give that argument, but Shri Krishna had to explain to him, that things won't work like that, as Ajuna had the duty to go out in the battle-field and fight against Adharma.

So, Adharma is still there today, it has NOT gone. The Krukshetra is the 'Global Intellectual theater' today. All over the world there is a battle of ideas, 'Siddhantas' (Philosophies), different world views are going on. Some can be seen physical wars and other are fought psychologically and intellectually.

So, I see history differently, I see the battles are still going on and We (India and Hindus) have been loosing, more than winning. And we are shrinking even today, even with-in India.

See the video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZkmwHMe7RA
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Rajiv Malhotra