However, I only partially agree with the assertion that the saamanya Hindu has become intolerant. The saamanya Hindu is plain fed up.
Fed up with her kids being used as cannon fodder or bomb fodder. And all she is being told to do is "to remain calm". Or worse, being admonished by asuras like Sagarika Ghosh.
She is angy that her saturday temple premises are being used by missionaries to claim "Vishnu's wife was a prostitute" (if, that is, the temple and its funds are being suborned by the government altogether).
She is sick of having to pay jizya to send muslims to hajj, even as those championing the cause for similar facilities at Amarnath get shot at.
She is sick of her Hindu Samaj being cleansed, quartered and denigrated by all political parties.
She is sick of being told that a bunch of mohammedans blowing up her cities is fine because they're suffering from "Gujarat anger" but she is not allowed to have "Kashmir anger" or "Conversion anger". That anger is "counterproductive" to "national integrity".
More importantly -- she has also realised that the so-called pro-hindu BJP really may not have the guts to do anything.
I fear the worst.
The young Hindu is angry and intolerant. What triggered the change? By Vijaya Pushkarna & Kallol Bhattacherjee
The Ranas of Amritsar could not tolerate the pro-Khalistani terrorism of the mid-1980s. So they shifted their home and business to Mohali on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Many like them, mainly Hindus, fled from terrorised Punjab to safer places. The exodus of Pandits from Kashmir in the nineties, too, was out of fear. But no longer is the young Hindu willing to run away from the battlefield. And for the first time in Indian history, the Centre has sent advisories to four state governments, three ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, directing them to abide by the Constitution and protect minorities. The advisory is just one step short of Article 355, a rarely used formality before dismissing a state government.
The Hindu's tolerance level is dropping, and today he is an angry man. As head of the poly-trauma ward of Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Jaipur, Dr Rajendra Chaturvedi attends to victims of riots, accidents and domestic violence. But the May 13 blasts changed him. "There were more than 60 casualties," he said. "Healthy men bled to death in minutes." The Brahmin now sports a tilak and speaks out against Islamic terror.
On September 13, death visited Rajiv Chowk, New Delhi. Sumeet, owner of a popular DVD shop in Palika Bazaar, was sending SMSes to loyal clients about the new titles in stock when the bombs went off. "Who would not get angry? But we were not scared. We are ready to fight them whoever they are," he said.
Terror campaigns irk the average Hindu. "Delaying Afzal Guru's hanging [in the Parliament attack case] sends out the signal that the government is unwilling to act on terror," said M.L. Gupta, a Jaipur blasts survivor. The sentiment was echoed by Rajinder Singh Shekhawat, a taxi driver who witnessed the explosion at Jaipur's Badi Chaupad. "Hindus have many enemies. The biggest one is terrorism, condoned by a corrupt government," he said.
...
Bangalore-based entrepreneur Savitri Shanker (name changed) said she was annoyed by reports of Hindus baptising their children for securing admissions in Christian schools and colleges. She also talked of her help's cancer-stricken relative who was taken to a hospice. The hospice management promised the family free treatment and other benefits if they would convert. The family refused and admitted the patient in a hospital. Shanker is "sad, but not surprised" by the rampage against churches in Karnataka and Orissa.
While such thoughts and behavioural shifts are seen across the country, unorganised and spontaneous hit-backs have been relatively few. But it is a matter of time before that happens, said a senior BJP leader who did not wish to be named. "We are sitting on a time bomb," he said. "It [the backlash] can happen any time. It is just that there is no pro-Hindu political party." What about the BJP? "Who says the BJP is pro-Hindu?" he asked. "What has the party done for the Hindus? The BJP has taken up the issue of minority appeasement to make a vote bank of those opposed to such appeasement." He said if Hindus had seen the BJP as pro-Hindu, the party would have got more than 400 seats in the post-Ayodhya Lok Sabha polls.
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With Nandini Oza and Lalit Pattajoshi
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