Thread by @dikgaj

Here is the key underlying disconnect that's fueling this debate: she pushes the argument that there exists something called "core-religious" in Hindu religious practice, that is distinct from "social practice" & the "social" is inauthentic& doesn't represent "true" Hindu belief.

https://twitter.com/D_Roopa_IPS/status/1328377264220717061

Since she implies she "knows" Sanskrit& she "knows" her Hindu texts, including the Vedas (knowing all 4 wd be a stupendous achievement), "mool" Ramayana/Mahabharata: I hv to assume she also knows that rituals differ slightly or substantially depending on the text, commentaries.

The first serious problem with her is separating out a "core-religious" which is authentic for all times, and the remnant being "social practice" which is inauthentic is that the criteria to separate will vary from one classical school to another - from one era to another.

There is a distinct accretion on previous practices in each stage of historical development that shows an adaptive and pragmatic society that kept up and built on what existed before. Stopping the "Hindu" at a stage comfortable for one's own feelings doesnt reflect Hindus.

What is being dismissed as "social practices" and not "core-religious" is denying the Hindu process of "social practice" of the time when the rituals were being codified itself becoming the basis on which the "core religious" built itself.

It was this latent recognition of the "social" being inseparable from the "ritual" that allowed relatively smooth transitions and modifications of rituals as time went by and social practices had to adapt too.

Restricting Hindus to a specific earlier historical context based on chosen texts and denying its later continuity with adaption to the new is a denial of Hindu history and the process by which Hindus created their laws and practices. Its delegitimizing a big chunk of the Hindu.

The second problem is claiming that only certain textual description of practice is authentic and all else as to be discontinued-is, it also works on other aspects of society. If inauthentic can be ascribed to one set, no excuses to block others which are also not in the texts.

In context relevant here on Deepavali, rituals being intervened in or obstructed are typically responded to in the "Vedic" or the "mool" Ramayana/Mahabharata with severe physical reprisals. Shd all those obstructing Deepavali as practised be deemed rakshashas fit for liquidation?

The third problem is ignoring the perception in the Hindu that is being triggered due to very specific experience on how non-Hindu festivities hv been treated by administration - that the clampdown is an anti-Hindu move cloaked under plausibly deniable humanitarian concerns.

anyone with a formal link to admin can try to deny the sharp contrast in lack of either any attempt to lockdown non-Hindu festivities or do so under such humanitarian concerns. Any argument frm such a source will appear inauthentic to those who want to carry on their festivities.