A Durga Mata Temple At Manali Mall Road

I have always been a Liberal. Even with the India-Pakistan war, I have always scoffed at the people that tried to say that Islam is the problem and not just the extremist, terror cells in Pakistan. I wasn't excited about the idea of a war, but I saw it as the result of literally nothing else working out. I heard about Kashmiri Pandits, but I thought what happened to them was because of the militant groups coming in. I was sure that they'll be helped to go back home in time.

Now the Hindus in West Bengal are being slaughtered.

West Bengal has been one of the leading forces of the freedom struggle in our country. We have had brilliant philosophers, artists, dancers, poets, singers, screen play writers, writers everything from West Bengal. It is a state that produces brilliant intellectuals every year. Liberals and socialists. I don't know if you've ever talked to a Bengali, but they're the most capable, well spoken, talented people you will ever come across. It's the stronghold of the Shaktism sect in India. Ma Durga is revered the most in that land.

And now our people are being slaughtered. Hindus are being driven out of their land by the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and certain extremist Muslims. It's like watching the Kashmiri Pandit exodus in real time. For centuries they've coexisted together with no issues, enriching the culture of Bengal, and suddenly brother has turned to foe. Houses and businesses are being burnt. They're looting people and issuing rape threats to women. People are being killed. They're throwing around bombs. They're attacking the police forces.

This is a land that has embraced refugees and shared everything with them. There was no reason to attack these people.

People had to cross rivers in boats to escape. 500 people had to leave their homes overnight because of the sudden extremists. Only Muslims were spared.

Locals say this has been going on since 2020.

Please, I'm begging with folded hands, keep the Bengali Hindus in your mind. Look at what they're facing. This is scary. If even the Liberal and safe Bengal can be turned overnight, no place is safe. What tf are people supposed to do?

गुणातीत गुणाधार गुणबीज गुणात्मक ।

गुणीश गुणिनां बीज गुणिनां गुरवे नमः ॥

I wanna know the whole lore now. What's with the rats and hammer and radish?

Japanese Buddhist version of Shiva be like

I find it slightly humorous how he went from full youthful yogin to very well fed older gentleman with hammer, bales of rice and rats, but hey he flourished

still same functions he actually has a similar form to the continental Bhairava but he looks like this most of the time

Naaah how is he so cute?? Also is he riding a radish in the first picture? Lol

Love how Shiva has evolved through cultures and practices. Japan also has other versions of Hindu deities like Ganesha and Saraswati. I’ve heard about it.

I would love to study more about the symbolism of the rats and the radish!

Jai Hanuman

@mrityuloknative 's thanks for this.

This is a call out post. This is not coming from a feminist, but a Hindu.

True Hinduism gives equal respect to feminine and masculine energies.

So, men, you need to evaluate how you view women while claiming you're a Hindu.

How can you call yourself a Hindu while calling women names, while making and laughing at gr*pe jokes, while turning a blind eye to assault?

What are you even doing? You chant "Jai Shri Ram" and use the same vocal cords to hurl a slur at a woman you all have collectively demonized. You comment gr*pe threats under a woman's post like you’re above consequences.

And since I mentioned Shri Ram, let me remind you:

He continued to treat Surpanakha with respect, continued addressing her as "devi", even after she expressed her desire to kill Mata Sita so that she gets to marry Shri Ram. Even after she crossed every line of maryada.

He didn’t degrade her, didn’t mock her.

What would he think of you now?

You add sanskrit shlokas in your bio, but your comment history drips with filth. You bow at Mata Durga’s feet during Navratri, then talk about women’s bodies in a degrading manner.

This isn’t Hinduism. This is *misogyny wrapped in saffron*.

You're so desperate to not associate with what Islam or other Abrahmic religions stand for. And yet you're an equal part of the misogyny that they perpetuate on women everywhere in India.

Take out some time and really think about it. Are you a true Hindu or is it just for social media?

Are you really ready to fight adharma? Do you not know that for any fight with Adharma you want to win, you'd need the feminine energy on your side, by your side, and at times have them lead you. Our ancient texts, our folklore, our puranas are evidence for it.

If only we had the original manuscripts and texts, we'd be able to answer these questions. A lot of things get lost in translation, sadly ofcourse.

Reading is such a journey cz sometimes you know what you're reading and the story has a base but sometimes it's just mahabharat and you can do nothing about it.

literally sat down with clenched teeth and had to calm down myself after I started reading Sambhava Parva.

I've read until Arjun's birth if anyone's wondering

My thoughts until now:

Shakuntala deserved better.

no way you just said that

yes wayy you just said that! Slayyy

Ok so I was cheering on the wrong side apparently

So then Devyani was the earliest sister-zoned lady

Devyani is such a papa ki pari.

Sharmistha— girl— that's not how it's supposed to work and we all know it.

Brother find a therapist— wait did they have therapists back then?

It can't be that bad???

Oh it is sO BAD!— who allowed this?

I have absolutely zero idea if that's how it's supposed to work.

And what about that one time you lied to Devyani sir?mmmmmmmm sus

BHISHMA NO

BHISHMA YES

bhisma wait— what are you TALKING ABOUT!?

Satyavati what shampoo dyu use gurl— snatched an entire king

Me killed Myself kinda situation ngl

Hmmm earliest teenager guy.

oh he dies right

Yeah he died

Who is making these rules ohmygod

BLUER EYES HYPNOTISE TERI—

red heads? back then? is this mahabharat?

no way you just said that

no wait they seriously had blue eyes?

Wait no what

When i asked who was making these rules i didn't expect an answer sir

Oh wait so like this existed!?

I don't know whose side I'm on now so I'll just wait it out until krishna pops up and has arjun kill yall

The amount of things that make no sense whatsoever

Lmao Vikrodara and Duryodhan born on the same day twinsies

Aint no way a child cracked a mountin tho

No wait thats bheem were talking abt

Arjun was born the main character

Im dying

Wait— they mentioned a guy before but his name aint here

Aaaand he pops back here somehow...

Pakistan is the one attacking Indian cities and civilians.

And what do we do if you hide your terrorists in your homes and religious places. What do we do if you turn your schools and hospitals in terror base camps. How are we to be blamed if you use innocent children and women as shields to save your terrorist men.

It is like saying "please don't attack our homes" all while you're keeping terrorists as guests in your homes. Ofcourse you'd feel bad if someone comes and attacks your guests. But that doesn't make them saints. Neither does it make us villains.

What you sound like is nothing less than a manipulator.

me: cities in pakistan are under attack

some idiot in my notes, inevitably: OH SO YOU FEEL BAD FOR TERRORISTS? YOU SUPPORT TERRORISTS? YOU THINK INDIA SHOULD NOT BOMB TERRORISTS? YOU THINK WE SHOULD DO NOTHING?

do you really not have any fucking self-awareness when you're equating cities and the people living in them with being terrorists by default just because they're pakistani. imagine being so blinded by hatred you start sounding like a zionist. then again calling a hindutvadi a zionist is probably aspirational to them.

For humanity’s sake, stop siding with abusers!

Wow how well manufactured this is smh

Nearly ten days after the Pahalgam attack, watching the various responses to said attack...part of me is shocked, and another confused. Yet another thinks that something like this is inevitable.

Too many people reacted to what is undoubtedly a terrorist attack by channelling their rage and grief into persecuting innocent people because the terrorists asked those they killed to recite the kalma, undoubtedly being Islamic in their origin.

Yes, they were Muslim. Does that mean there should be violence against innocent Kashmiri students because 'Hindu khatre mein hain"? No. Do you know why? Because a large part of why such Islamic organisations sway local sympathies towards them is by the catchphrase "Islamiyat khatre mein hain." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Why wouldn't it? We've heard an alternate religion version of it over TV channels and so-called "news" and "leaders of the free world" screaming Hindu khatre mein hain, khatre mein hain, after all.

So many of us believe it, too.

Why, some of us may ask, shouldn't we believe so? We are Hindus, and we aren't safe even in our own land, our own country. Perhaps we should look deeper into the 'why' of it. So much of violence against us is by ourselves, for daring to be different. Lynching, beating, far more for far too less. So what if someone eats meat? They aren't stopping you from living your life. Why should you put an end to theirs?

But, then, as people who hold power today ask, what about the invaders who invaded India 1000 years ago, 1200 years ago? People whose descendants divide the country today, covet its assets for themselves? Including Kashmir, the jewel of India?

To that is my answer: If that is what you believe, then we should all leave this land. Most of us, at least. None of us are indigenous to the land we live in, except perhaps the tribes in Sentinel island. Other than that, all of us, except for the populations that are tribal/adivasis, probably migrated from somewhere else, simply some time longer ago than 1200 years.

But then, argue some, what about religious texts that speak to tens and thousands of years of ancestry? The Mahabharata, the Itihasas, the Puranas?

In that case, well, might I remind you that Sanskrit is not the single sole classical language that speaks of thousands of years of history? There is the matter of at least one other culture and language that exists alongside. The Sangam literature too speaks of thousands of years. Three whole Sangams, might I mention.

Almost every single ancient culture claims grandiose descent. We do not know how much credence should be given to any of these claims, but, if we are giving credence to one claim, why leave the others behind? Give equal credence, why don't you?

Coming back to 1200 years of "slave mentality" and "coveting territory" I will be paraphrasing words written nearly a 100 years ago by a man who identified as Kashmiri, if not perhaps Hindu, though he rather did admire the title Pandit. He very famously preferred to be known for his scientific temper, possibly a reason why today's rulers loathe this man.

He said, and I paraphrase, that those rulers are not considered foreign rule because there was marital intermixing of races and blood relations, because whatever money was made was spent inside India, because it did not go to another country (Ghori and Ghazni aside, the temple was rebuilt within 50 years, though the 'collective trauma' was first heard of in the British parliament sometime in the 19th century)

People have a beautiful tendency to syncretise, to meld with each other, to form cultures of harmony. Look at each state of India, the cultural plurality (that a homogenous overarching 'desi' identity cannot and will not encapsulate, but this discussion is for another post) especially Kashmir. There is amazing cultural syncretism in their literature, art, architecture, even notions of Kashmiri identity.

There is a unity in diversity. When is this threatened? When a section of the population felt trampled on by the 'high-handed' handling of things (in their own words) by the 'elected' powers (there is widespread allegation of electoral rigging over the years in Kashmir)

In the '80's and '90's it comes in the form of 'Islamiyat khatre mein hain' because at that point, they felt they weren't given the opportunities they should by the Indian Government. There was liberal support from external organisations, and insurgency flourished. The Kashmiri Hindu exodus takes place in these decades, and there is an element of "Hindu khatre mein hain" which is fanned by the government. The following two to three passages are from a report by Human Rights Watch in 1992, during said exodus.

A number of Hindu refugees from Kashmir have subsequently denounced the government for encouraging them to leave under false pretenses. In a letter to the editor of Alsafa in October 1990, some 20 Pandit refugees alleged that: There can be no dispute about the fact the Kashmiri Pandit community was made a scapegoat by Jagmohan, some self-styled leaders of our community and other vested interests ... [T]he plan was to make the K.P.'s [Kashmiri Pandits] migrate from the valley so that the mass uprising against occupation forces could be painted as a communal flare up.... Some self-styled leaders of the Pandit community... begged the Pandits to migrate from the valley. We were told that our migration was very vital for preserving and protecting 'Dharm' [religious integrity] and the unity and the integrity of India. We were told that our migration would pave the way for realizing the dream of Akhand Bharat [undivided India].... We were made to believe that our migration was very important for Hinduism and for keeping India together.... We were fooled and we were more than willing to become fools.205

At the same time, it is clear that many Hindus were made the targets of threats and acts of violence by militant organizations and that this wave of killing and harassment motivated many to leave the valley. Such threats and violence constitute violations of the laws of war, and Asia Watch was able to document many specific cases. • On September 20, 1989, O.N. Sharma, a 47-year-old travel agent from Srinagar found a letter written in Urdu in his mailbox, signed by the JKLF. Sharma told Asia Watch that the letter was addressed to him by name and it referred to him as an "Indian dog." The letter told Sharma to leave the valley by September 27, or he and his family would be killed. At the time, Sharma was living with his wife, two children and his mother.

Again paraphrasing words written very soon after Indian independence. "Minority communities should feel secure in their rights as Indian citizens and that is the part of the majority to ensure. Communalism in all forms is the greatest danger to Indian sovereignty as a whole."

Even today, Kashmiri rights are not ensured. The Indian Army and militant/terrorist bodies have both behaved horribly with Kashmiri women over the years with multiple documented cases of rape still pending action (Human Rights Watch has multiple reports on such cases) and so...such boiling over feels inevitable, on some counts.

The Kashmiri people deserve a voice in their own fate.

@scribblesbyavi bhaiyya, you may like to read this.

This is exactly why I started sharing posts/screenshots from tumblr. Yes I branded it as "in my activist era✨" because yes I wanna voice out my opinions and views. Not just about Hinduism, hinduphobia, but also feminism, and LGBTQ issues, and environmental issues.

I have many followers who are good friends and support Gaza and are leftists. But if I have still stayed friends despite not agreeing to their views, they do have a choice to be friends with me if I have different opinions than them. So yes so far I haven't lost any followers/friends over it. And I hope I don't.

Some conversations I’ve had with Hindus: “I can’t post about hinduphobia because I don’t want to upset the friends who follow me-”

Me: first of all why are you friends with people who would be upset with you for posting about Hinduphobia? And why do their opinions matter to you more than fellow dead Hindus?