The Great Indian Political Debate - 2

[acharya]

RSS threat to Goa culture festival

A quiet Latin quarter of Panjim that carries a distinct Iberian stamp to it has
become the target of right-wing fanaticism of the RSS brand.

Tying up with a motley group of freedom fighters under the Desh Premi Nagrik
Samiti (DPNS), RSS members have threatened to shut down a popular art and
culture festival scheduled to open on Saturday, because the saffron group
believes it "encourages and promotes Portuguese culture".

A residential area of close-knit houses in the European style, Fontainhas is
being encouraged and promoted for conservation by heritage lovers. A successful
attempt to this end has been the Fontainhas Festival of the Arts promoted every
year by the Goa Heritage Action Group and the city's municipal corporation,
which has rekindled an interest in the distinct architectural and cultural
identity of the area.

The organisers scheduled the festival to coincide with the ongoing International
Film Festival here, but many are worried about RSS threats. Goa's Deputy
Inspector General of Police Ujjwal Mishra said adequate security would be
provided and the festival would go on.

The festival is "a blot on Goan society and encourages Portuguese culture" RSS
Goa chief Subhash Velingker's son Rajendra Velingker told the media.

John Dayal's response o Questions from the Media on this issue:

Indian Christianity long ago came to terms with its history in the subcontinent.
We accept and rejoice our antiquity, the racial memory of St Thomas the Apostle
and Thoma of Cana. We accept the advent of Vasco d Gama and its consequences. We
remember the Italian Jesuits who were at the court of Akbar the Great in India
History's Golden Age. We also accept the imperialism of the British empire,
without forgetting that the East India Company harassed Priests and Missionaries
even as Indian feudal Lords and tyrannical kingdoms made their peace with the
British adventurers and helped them rule this giant land with a handful of
British officers and soldiers. We honour the Catholics who rose in revolt
against the Portuguese rulers in Goa long before the `first war of
iondependence' of 1857. We are grateful to our forefathers who worked with
Mahatma Phule in Pune in the early Nineteenth Century, and with Mahatma Gandhi
in the continuing freedom struggles of the 20th Century, who went to jail and
were punished by the rulers of the time. We hail the Christians who were nation
builders, teachers and healers. We have accepted the good and the bad of
history -- and do not feel the need to rewrite history as hagiography.

The RSS and its ilk live a life of delusion, political dishonesty and cultural
monopolist insensitivity to God-given diversity that is the strength of this
country.

The RSS and the VHP and the Bajrang Dal who confuse mythology with nationalism
and bigotry with patriotism will never understand restoration of heritage --
which reminds so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, and which is
proof that we have finally reached national maturity to understand reminders of
Buddha, of St Thomas, of Adi Sankara , of Akbar, Vasco Da Gama, East India
Company and the two Mahatmas in the context of their times.

Goa need not be ashamed of its Portuguese Connection, nor Pondicherry of its
French Connection nor Nalanada, destroyed not by Mughals but by zealous
feudalism, for its Buddhist links.

The Taliban of the RSS should be challenged -- with resounding silence when
needed, and when required, with an exercise in political will as demanded by the
secular premises of Modern India.