260 responses so far.
– 95% male
– 55% S. Asian and 35% white
– 50% USA, 25% Asia (mostly India?). A lot of the rest is Europe
– 50% completed postgraduate work
– 35% no religion, 35% Hindu, 20% Christian
– 35% atheist, 25% skeptical of gods, 25% conventional theist
– More Right of Center than Left, but ideologically diverse, with the exception of very few “Far Left” respondents
– Diverse views on Hindu nationalism.
– 40% English speakers (mother tongue). 10% Hindi, 10% Tamil.
– 25% {{{Brahmin}}}. Means nearly half the brown respondents are {{{Brahmin}}}.
– More people come to the side via links from other sites than social media or search engine
Brahmins seem divided on their backing for hindu nationalism.
The groups that left sees as potential bulwark against incumbent government are overwhelmingly supporting the project. Although more representation from them would have given more granular data across geography and linguistic groups
That seems to be the opinion of the nation based on their relative numbers. And ‘ So shall be done !’
I am the only SC. Am i?
not everyone responds to the surveys. but there aren’t many
Harshvardhan
I put myself as Shudra: Forward Caste.
Everybody in Sri Lanka is a Shudra.
No Brahamins, Vaisiya etc
Can non Hindus be still be categorized as Shudra-Non shudra? Debatable
Maybe high AASI is Shudra ?
I think (and hope) I have high AASI.
People who answered ‘mixed’ on hindu nationalism, what aspects do you support / oppose?
Just curious.
I’m not a Hindu nationalist (I’d probably vote INC if I could) but some of the following things make me empathize with them on various topics. I’ve lived mostly in Canada and the US, so that probably affects things.
– Born into a religious Hindu family, that plays some role in having some sympathy for Hindus and Hinduism.
– Some of the issues related to religious accommodation and Islam in the West has made me more sympathetic to some of the practical requests made by Hindu nationalists.
– Post modern post colonial scholarship that sometimes claims crazy things like “Hinduism was invented by the British”, “Hindus and Muslims lived harmoniously and syncretically until the British pit them against each other” [poor noble savages; they’re still fighting because they are so dumb], “British invented caste system”, etc.
– Contemporary Western scholarship that seems to downplay how terrible the Muslim conquest of India was. I can understand INC doing this to further the nation building project, but Western scholarship in particular irritates me.
– “Woke” culture that calls India South Asia.
– Paknationalists that say absurd and hateful things.
– The prohibition on criticizing Islam. Not sure what bothers me more — the terrorism risk you face when criticizing the religion, or the ostracization from woke people. Can’t even include Muhammad on South Park. Like what the fuck?
– Anecdotally, the exclusionary nature of the Muslim religious community (feels like a strong distinction is drawn between Muslim and non-Muslim, especially as you get older and leave school) and the proselytizing zeal (had roommates and such try to convert me).
– The double standards in how the woke West views India and Pakistan. Pakistan can do whatever it wants.
– Agreement or empathy on specific, concrete issues:
— I would prefer that India implement UCC.
— Changing the name from Allahabad to Prayagraj — this isn’t something I would vote for, but I am empathetic to the fact that most Hindus have called it Prayag for thousands of years and still do; that it is one of the holiest cities for Hindus; that it was renamed to a very religious Muslim name by a conqueror.
— Requiring meat be slaughtered in abattoirs for health and hygiene purposes during Eid.
— Not having loudspeaker calls to prayer.
— Giving some right of return for adherents of Dharmic religions that originated in India, especially from neighboring countries. I don’t support CAA or whatever because I don’t think that’s what it does. In its application, it will disenfranchise legal Muslims and I don’t want that.
@Hoju
I would agree with all points , except the last one. CAA is not about Indian citizens of any religion. What the critics are afraid are the National Registry of Citizens , which can be a bureaucratic nightmare to implement and create needless stress. I agree with that criti9cism, and GoI should make NRC as painless as possible. For example, wherever there is information about citizens like Adhar card , it can be incorporated without second questionnaire. Given that majority are Indians are without records like birth certificate, sensible regime be followed Nothing wrong with GoI keeping a registry of it’s citizens as long as the process is sensible, without favour or vindictiveness or victimization
Most countries have Citizen ID card, which India does not have. Any model state to function properly , especially in emergency times like COVID needs to know who it’s citizens are
If Aadhar can be the basis of citizenship then y would we need a NRC in the first place. Wouldn’t Aadhar suffice as a citizenship document then. Why waste money and resources on NRC?
Also i don’t see any extra benefits of finding out who ur real citizens are. There are 2 types of non citizens living in India, one who are expats, who dont really need Indian citizenship, and the second are refuge/immigrants who “procure” Aadhar card anyways.
“I’m not a Hindu nationalist (I’d probably vote INC if I could)”
Given all those reasons, wondering why you would still vote for INC if you had the choice ?
No judgement either way btw, genuine question.
“Given all those reasons, wondering why you would still vote for INC if you had the choice ?”
Here are a few reasons that come to mind. Happy to be corrected on some of these observations since they are from afar:
– Incompetence. INC has plenty of incompetence, but in a relative sense they have had examples of competent leadership. Nehru, despite all the hate he gets, I think did a good job of building up India’s institutions and bringing about some stability. Rao / Chidambaram / Singh, while prodded to do so by the IMF, were able to liberalize aspects of the economy and spark high levels of growth. UPA I and UPA II, despite lots of corruption scandals, produced consistent, high levels of economic growth.
Modi’s administration hasn’t been all that competent. Things like demonetization seem representative of his way of doing things. Dumb idea with bold, dramatic execution. I give the BJP some credit for containing the coronavirus, but the lack of help given to the poor and handling of migrants were big flaws. Again, I think part of the issue was making this dramatic lockdown out of the blue unlike other countries which kept warning a lockdown is impending so that people could prepare.
– Authoritarian tendencies. I don’t like the crackdown on press / journalists, the abuse of sedition laws, and perhaps the worst part is the only Hindutva trolls — so dumb and hateful.
– Things they say. I am empathetic as I noted above to many Hindu interests, but some BJP members say truly awful things. It’s one thing to say that we should revert the name of a city that means a lot to Hindus, but another thing to incite riots and say hateful things about other communities. I give the BJP the benefit of the doubt that they are not actually themselves engaging in riots, but when you know that the law and order situation is very weak and that you’re targeting a notoriously sensitive minority community… maybe exercise some restraint?
– Hindi imposition. They don’t really do this anymore, which I appreciate and recognize. But back in the day this used to be a bigger issue for them I believe.
– Homogeneous view of Hinduism. I think the post modern post colonial scholars saying Hinduism doesn’t exist are crazy, but it should be appreciated that Hinduism is diverse. Sometimes it feels like Hindutva adopts one aspect of Hinduism (basically a more muscular Hinduism centered around Ram) at the expense of the other (IMO, just as or more interesting) aspects of Hinduism.
– Liberty to live a ‘Western’ life. This isn’t the BJP in specific, but there are those Hindutva organizations that go around doing dumb things like yelling at women going bar hopping or breaking up Valentine’s Day celebrations or whatever. Live and let live.
Agree with all the points. To add
They need to let go of ideas coming from groups like Swadeshi jagaran Manch when they hardly make any sense.
Also build a competent team of experts who can proof check some of the crazy ideas.
At this point incompetence of opposition helps them but the costs are paid by the country.
INC has abdicated it’s historic responsibility by being beholden to The Dynasty. Party of Indian freedom struggle and a galaxy of real luminaries and thinkers has for the last 30 years sucking at the feet of the G family. How the mighty have fallen. Getting rid of the dynasty and dynasty loyalists lock, stock and barrel will do it some good and good for India.
The rot started with the unseemly haste with which Rajiv was elevated in the aftermath of Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. Of course that rot has a precursor in the promotion of her sons in politics by Mrs Gandhi herself. Mrs G made INC addicted to Dynasty.
I had answered mixed as well, honestly mostly based on my feelings rather than any well thought out points.
But a lot of good points here I have to say.
The above stated reasons are why I became a Hindu-nat sympathizer but it’s always good to keep an eye on right or left groups that steer a little bit away from center, if you don’t then one day you’ll wake up to something like Nazism or 1960s China or USSR.
Btw, I was apprehensive about CAA but I have changed my opinion and I fully endorse it now.
I claimed mixed because i understand why they are required {without their challenge many of the ideas being re-researched in Academia would not have been relooked} at the same time almost nothing what they offer politically is appealing to me, so it’s a case of utilitarianism then any kind of investment in the issues propagated by Hindu nationalists.
I oppose beef ban esp. on religious grounds & due to economics involved but i argue in favor of ban by using academic consensus regarding meat production Vs global warming.
I oppose or have no stand on right wing’s idea of Vishwa Guru, Greater India, Ram-Janmabhoomi temple {no stand} & so on.
For each issue {from right or left} i have my own take & i use ideas from both sides to challenge either sides.
I am conflicted because my family isn’t really religious but i like Indian Culture.
Sumit, as someone a bit oppositional to hindu nationalism, I entered mixed to give it the benefit of the doubt that we haven’t see its best manifestation. I don’t think it or other ethno-nationalisms (even islamism) are axiomatically evil or anything. I just don’t see it as a good fit for my specific ethnic and regional affiliations, but I understand its appeal to others.
We need more diversity (females). I am not joking.
Yeah more from India than anyplace else.
On a related note, I noticed that a majority of history/geopolitics oriented blogs such as this are populated mostly by men.
As much as I don’t like to stereotype, I feel that a smaller proportion of women are interested in these things. When I spoke to people at universities, the majority of the casual discussions on these topics had more men in them, even in pol. science electives where some of the top scorers were women, with the exception of a few policy wonks and international affairs types.
If you see the history of nationalism and world religions, most of the leading figures were men, so perhaps there are historical reasons behind this where women feel they don’t have much of a say in these matters. Even today, most rowdy nationalists on the streets and religious nutjobs of varying denominations are men, so women probably don’t want to associate with these figures.
That being said, industries where women’s decisions dominate, like consumer goods, tend to fly beneath the radar. Apparently, most shops and decorators are oriented towards women as they make more of these household decisions even if they aren’t the earning type.
As for this blog specifically, in absolute numbers, it can certainly do better when it comes to bringing more women (I’m sure there are more than 13 women interested in these topics).
That being said, I’m not sure if all the replies in the spreadsheet are genuine. For example, #215 is a female Jewish Pashto-speaking Brahmin anarchist who is mixed-race of Asian, middle-eastern and black descent.
Yes I remember thinking about that entry. Must be the troll who wants to be everything at the same time.
Yeah, jump straight from observation to opinion, while stating you don’t want to. Perhaps most women who are the same demographic (late 20s post grads of brown extraction) are mothers and heavily involved in child rearing than hanging out in blog comments trolling? It has to be about interest and not about time and utility of peer network for child rearing?
Historically, it’s the same thing where violence costs women her children rather than just herself. Even then, there wasn’t any lack of women Indian freedom fighters.
Maybe with all this super intellectual discussions, anyone would think you can avoid jumping to nearest stereotype, eh?
for wutever reason my blogs always are 80-95% male. i asked a friend if there was a bias in poll responses toward men, and he said no, it’s the other way around (he’s a sociologist who does surveys). so idk
Shocked by the 35% white; I was expecting 10%; I am Indian-American. Anyway, thanks for this platform.
I was expecting 80% Brahmin.
Pakistanis always underestimate Indian/ Hindu asabiyah 🙂
– 25% {{{Brahmin}}}. Means nearly half the brown respondents are {{{Brahmin}}}.
this does not surprise me. brahmins…always the armchair intellectuals…too much time on their hands…thinkers rather than doers…
i say this as a rebuke really. brahmins, where are their nobel prizes? the jews beat you to pulp even in abstract thinking.
Brahmin are the trads and OBC are the raytas *Twitter*
Far-left responders and readers are rare for a reason. Revolutionary actions such as protest, undermining corporate/bureaucratic structures and union activity are all things that require a quixotic level of dedication that armchairs and liberals would soil themselves over.
Where is the “vaishya backward caste” option 😐 ?
P.S – Just a doubt but do all “hindu” jaatis have to be within some kind of varna ?