Thread by @SuhagAShukla

My friend @dhume analogizes social media outrage over a racy depiction of the Goddess Kali with the beheading in France. Raises the Enlightenment. I agree that Hindu anger on social media is often crass/crude (experienced it!), but sharing some quick thoughts (thread)

https://twitter.com/dhume/status/1320051501981749250

Comparing inchoate tweets to a beheading in France or an attack on a politician in Bangalore over a FB post fails as an equivalence in my eyes. @dhume may be right in Hindu outrage seeming new when deities are defiled, but there's a reason certain speech was outlawed in India.

Muslim demands that certain speech be made off-limits led to hate speech laws in the Indian Constitution. Hindus reciprocating utilizing those extant laws is more a response to what they see as Muslim success in rendering speech that's intended to outrage or insulting as criminal

Galileo was jailed for arguing that Earth revolved around the sun. So France's hard secularism that @dhume seems to admire is rooted in a hard break between the Dark Ages and the European Enlightenment. India's historical trajectory is different & secularism defined differently.

Indian/Hindu civilization is predicated on a pluralistic worldview -- Ekam Sat -- accepts existence of more than one path to Truth/God/Guy in the Sky, does not proselytize, and has no conflict with physics, astronomy, evolution, etc. Social evils, retrograde thoughts? Of course.

But India doesn't need a Judeo-Christian Enlightenment. Solution to problems, prejudices, patriarchy, etc. is right there in Vedanta, Upanishads, Gita. Vishesha-dharma requires fighting adharma. Time and place matter. So how do we go about it? With truth, restraint & compassion.

May I offer my approach to Meena Harris' depiction of Durga as an example. Don't take the bait. Don't pile on. Explain, contextualize, educate. If you champion free speech, use your voice to argue and convince.

https://twitter.com/SuhagAShukla/status/1317915322654117888?s=20

Having a right to say something doesn't necessarily make it right. And remember and be proud of the fact that the Dharmic traditions have flourished because of an intrinsic freedom of thought & exploration that opens up when there's no fixation on only one way or one true God.