Is it actually a Hindu India?

Of late, I have been hearing too many Sangh Parivar followers, BJP-sympathizers and self-appointed-Hindu-rakshaks talk about how Muslim invaders and Islam have destroyed our country and Hindu culture. How they systematically killed millions of Hindus and ensured that Hinduism crumbled under their tyranny.

There is no denying that Mahmud Ghazni, Qutub-ud-din-Aibak, Balban, Alauddin-Khilji, Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, Feroze Shah, Babar, and God-only-knows-who-else, were tyrants of the worst order. That part is recorded in history, which is being quoted by the safe-keepers of Hinduism. But they forget that such wars and plunders are the history of not just India, but of the entire world. And they are not just of Muslim warriors... historically even Indian Hindu kings were forever fighting wars and killing one-another and annexing lands, men and very shamefully 'women of the palaces'.

Even Emperor Ashoka (who's better known as Ashoka the Great) is guilty of spreading his kingdom through mass-slaughter of many Hindu Kings and their Hindu warriors. He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors (starting from Chandragupta Maurya) had done. The battle of Kalinga resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, and it was only when he was walking through the grounds of Kalinga after his conquest, rejoicing in his victory, he was moved by the number of bodies strewn there and the wails of the kith and kin of the dead. Sorrowed, he embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. So, just saying that Muslims killed Hindus is showing a very selective part of the history, in my opinion.

Let us talk about the Hindu India that so many are dreaming about, and what is the contribution of current day Muslims to the glory of India.

• India's foremost scientist (and an ex-President) - APJ Abdul Kalam
• India's foremost actor - take your pick from SRK, Aamir, Salman or Yusuf Khan
• India's foremost dialogue and song-writer - Javed Akhtar
• India's foremost music composer - A.R. Rehman
• India's foremost female tennis player - Sania Mirza
• India's foremost film director, actor, singer, et al - Farhan Akhtar 
• India's foremost tabla maestro - Ustad Zakir Hussain 
• India's foremost sarod maestro - Ustad Amjad Ali Khan 
• India's foremost shahnai vadak - Ustad Bismillah Khan
• India's foremost painter - M.F. Hussein
• India's foremost author - Salman Rushdie
• India's foremost fashion designer and first to display at Harrod's - Abu Jani
• India's 3rd richest business tycoon, twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, and the donor of $2 billion of personal funds for improving school education in India - Azim Premji. Azim Premji has become the first Indian to sign up for 'Giving Pledge', a campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, to encourage the wealthiest people to make a commitment to give most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. He is just the third non-American after Richard Branson and David Sainsbury to join this philanthropy club. As of April 2013, he had already given more than 25% of his personal wealth to charity. Now, show me a Hindu who has done so much for Indians?

Without a doubt, there are many fields where Hindus are at the forefront, and this is not a debate about whose contribution is greater - of the Hindus or of the Muslims? This is just an attempt to show the complete truth. Given that what I have stated above are indisputable facts, I have a very small question of those seeking a Hindu India... "Is it truly a Hindu India? And is such a Hindu India the one that we must crave for?"

Would anyone choose Hitler as a leader just for his development agenda... or should we consider his misdeeds and ensure he doesn't ever become a ruler?

Hitler brought a lot of development to Germany, achieving notable economic successes during the first 5 years of his rule. He substantially revived the industry & economy. Unemployment - so pivotal in bringing him to power - dropped from 6 million (when he came to power) to less than 1 million between 1933 and 1937, at a time when the US was still wallowing in the Depression. 

National production and income doubled during the same period. This was partly owing to Hitler's rearmament policy, but also to more benign forms of public spending. The world's first major highway system, the autobahns, began snaking across the country, and a vision to providing every citizen with a cheap automobile, the people's car, or Volkswagen - gave birth to what is today the world's largest and one of the most respected car-makers.

Nazism took root in the world's most powerful scientific culture, boasting half of the world's Nobel Prizes and a sizable fraction of the world's patents. German science and medicine were the envy of the world. The world's first magnetic tape recording is of a speech by Hitler. While the Englishman, Farnsworth, gets credit for the invention of a very rudimentary television, it was the Third Reich that perfected television and conducted the first television broadcast, featuring Hitler's speech at the opening of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

On the social welfare side, in 1938, all artisans came to be covered under compulsory social insurance, and in 1941 public health insurance coverage was extended to pensioners. In 1942, all wage-earners - regardless of occupation - were covered by accident insurance, health care became unlimited, and maternity leave was extended to twelve fully paid weeks with job protection.

But does the entire world - and almost every, if not every, German - remember Hitler for his growth agenda or for his politics of hate? Of the 9 million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately 6 million were killed, including over 1 million Jewish children and approximately 2 million Jewish women. Did Germany (and Germans) not suffer under the Hitler regime because of his supreme ambition of being the supreme ruler of the world, under the pretext of bringing Germany glory.

Should the world forgive Hitler's sins of the holocaust just because he brought development to not just Germany, but many other countries (including foes) who benefited from the Nazi inventions? Should we Indians take a learning from this, or should we be ignoramuses who forget the same while selecting our own national leader in 2014, just for the sake of development? I can't; hope you won't.

The Delhi Rape... awake & arise yourselves; for those who need to take care of us couldn't care less.

Totally pained by the revelations of the rape victim's friend, and the heartless comments by those in power - members of almost all political parties, the police, the so-called moral police and the self-appointed gurus. My heart pours out with these lines...

Jab Duryodhan durachaar ko theek bataye
Jab Duhshasan ka dussahas barhta jaaye
Jab Shakuni har chhal-shakti ka zor lagaye
Tab samjho ki Krishna sabhi ko banna hoga

Jab netraheen Dhritrashtra mook-badhir ban jaaye
Jab daanveer Karna bhee sirf daridrata dikhaye
Jab gyaansagar Kripacharya hee agyaan barhaye
Tab samjho ki Krishna sabhi ko banna hoga

Jab mahaveer Guru Drona bas aankhein churaye
Jab maha-vidvaan Vidur bebas ho sar ko jhukaye
Jab pita-tulya Bheeshm bhee laachaar ho jaaye
Tab samjho ki Krishna sabhi ko banna hoga

Jab rakshak hee bhakshak bankar bas muskuraye
Jab karm naheein, tark-vitark charcha ban jaaye
Jab vivash-laachaar naari par koi taras na khaaye
Tab samjho ki Krishna sabhi ko banna hoga
Tab samjho ki Krishna sabhi ko banna hoga