Thread by @PankajSaxena84

1. I see academic toll-tax officers sitting in the hyper-sanitized departments of American universities, denying any cultural pathology behind the #UvaldeschoolMassacre. ‘Tribal Hindus’ (1 billion Indian Hindus) are admonished when they point out cultural reasons of the massacre.

2. It is assumed that just because we speak on American issues we are heartless monsters who gleefully rejoice killing of American children. Shockingly this is exactly how entitled white colonialists imputed lack of feelings & emotions to ‘bloody natives’ (tribal/Indian Hindus).

3. Just like it was a handful of colonialists who were the guardians of pontificating on all matters civilizational, now it is a handful of academic toll-tax officers in American universities who wear that mantle. We, the billion Indian Hindus, have no right to speak on anything.

4. They argue: America boasts robust community with racial diversity; victims were multi-ethnic; they feel sad when someone dies. What is most surprising is that the toll-tax officers making this irascible rant have built careers on finding cultural reasons behind everything.

5. Setting aside the unverifiable claims and the incongruous connections between different reasons given above, they don’t realize that the rosy picture that they are busy painting now of America would invalidate most of their ‘academic work’ arm-chair, or not.

6. To come to the point: Indians are not rejoicing anything. We are devastated & shocked that such a tragedy can happen because societies like India are not used to it. All the cultural reasons are imputed to the killer, who was capable of killing children for no reason.

7. The victims were of course multi-ethnic. But does it even matter? They were kids who got massacred. How does it matter to bring their race into it to prove America a ‘tolerant society’? When such a tragedy is being discussed, anybody who brings race into it, take a beat.

8. The community culture of America that is showcased is the culture of immigrants. It is not representative. The culture of the shooter is representative who symbolizes the collective angst against a culture which forgets to give them values, teach them ethics and morality.

9. What is sure is that the shooter belonged to the disgruntled, rudderless, nihilistic American youth, who feel no moral compunction in killing innocent kids. To not impute this to culture is only possible by massive sterilization by academic jargon & theories.

10. Nobody is arguing America has no human beings with a good heart. But the West, as a whole, is also a society which is capable of creating nihilistic terrorists like the Texas shooter, and then give them all the means to fulfill their deepest desires of killing innocents.

11. Indian Hindus are commenting because they see the same American culture seeping into India. If they do not take preventive steps then India will soon see shootings like this. So it is very much our job to comment upon what goes on in America, when global culture is upon us.

12. At last the argument against Indians speaking on US is always this: if you do not live on the sacred soil of America, you are not entitled to speak on it. Not to address the stupidity of it, but by this token the Chicago address of Swami Vivekananda will be null and void.

13. And interestingly by that token all the theories about India and Hinduism of the American academics should be null and void and yet they have built a career out of it. So my advice to them: take a break from arrogance and just empathize.