One of the stupidest tropes you’ll hear diaspora express is fear of “legitimizing” hindutva, as if the 300 million Indians who voted for the BJP in 2019 are waiting to have their world view validated by a bunch of English speaking activists on the other side the world.
In any case, this helps preserve an aura of mystique around hindutva that is useful to critics of the ruling dispensation who seek sympathetic western audiences. They want validation, not understanding.
This aura of mystique is also useful for the most cowardly of our own, who have never once stood up for themselves (they’ll always be the kid in the cafeteria, embarrassed about their “strange smelling” lunch)
I’m sure @SadhanaHindus considered releasing a statement to commemorate the millions of Bengali Hindus who were killed, raped, and forced out of their homes by the Pakistani army, but decided against it, lest they embolden the “hindutva” narrative of historical grievance
And herein lies the rub: they can hide, self efface, and diminish their own Hindu-ness all they want, but this is history, it is fact, and ignoring it as they do is precisely what emboldens the forces they claim to be fighting against. Craven, cowardly, embarrassing.
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