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Hinduism is the world’s best religion because it is created by the anonymous, written by the anonymous, for the anonymous. Anonymous writings are the most powerful in the world, nobody can claim any copyright or patent the ideas.
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The day I read a news item that Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Sarasvati entered a Harijan slum, I commented to a friend, ‘he has written his own arrest warrant.’ My friend did not understand. Many of us are totally ignorant about the functioning of the Secular State in a country like India, a point we shall return to later.
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This attack on this sacred institution must be understood in the broader context of the threat to Hindu civilization from the so-called neutral secular state.
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The secular state was tolerant of these sacred symbols as long as these were separate from the laukika issues. This is because these mathams derived their legitimacy from their position and not to any secular support. Once some Mathams began to get into social reform or education or health care, the secular state was upset because the actions of these seers carries phenomenal conviction among the poorer strata and de-legitimizes the hegemony of politicians and bureaucrats over poverty or caste-oriented issues. In the case of the secular-Utsava seers, the state is not unduly concerned as they are mostly individuals with charisma but do not have a hoary tradition and thousands of years of legitimacy.
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…This is the backdrop in which the Kanchi Seer tried to solve secular problems using his sacred institution. When he tried to reach out to Harijans, exploring the possibility of a dignified life for them, the political class was disturbed. The secular state was worried since the accepted model in the political discourse for “liberation” of Harjans is either conversion to other religions or a possible overthrow of the caste system.
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In a curious coincidence, the orthodoxy attacked the Matham for the same reasons for which the secular political forces were upset! It was, in political parlance, an alliance of the left extreme with the extreme right, to neutralize the middle.
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…Witness the violence against the arrest of suspects in a criminal /ISI related case (2004) at Hyderabad, where even the Chief Minister had to observe why the arrests were made in a holy month of Ramzan. But the Kanchi Acharya could be arrested on Diwali day! Remember the global hue and cry when the UP police searched the religious school at Nadwa, and how the Prime Minister intervened and expressed regrets?
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Obviously, the State can be secular or neutral only with respect to Indian religions, which are non-intimidating, and not with respect to the desert faiths.
