Examining the Mahishasura Martyrdom Day and Dalit-Bahujan History Writing

From the stable of the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), a new propaganda has emerged. This time it is the Durga Puja which is on the line of fire. In a completely bizarre theory, it is being claimed that Durga Puja is the celebration of the genocide of natives or Mulnivasi of Indian sub-continent by the Aryan invaders. The theory goes as follows- Aryans invaded India some 4000 years ago and carried out the genocide of the Mulnivasi. Those who survived were enslaved by reducing them to lower castes. In the course of their expansion, Aryans reached Bengal which was inhabited by a buffalo rearing tribe (it is claimed that it is Yadava caste of today) of the Dravidian stock. The tribe was ruled by Mahishasura who was a just, brave and beloved ruler. Aryans could not defeat him in battle so they send an Aryan prostitute named Durga to fight Mahishasura. Battle raged for nine days during which Aryans fasted and prayed for victory. The tradition has continued as the festival of Navaratri. Durga managed to kill Mahishasura on the tenth day after which Aryans unleased their barbarity over the defenceless population. A general massacre was carried out, children were beheaded and women were raped. This is celebrated as the festival of Vijayadashami or Dussehra. But Durga was distraught at the sight of massacres and committed suicide by jumping into the river. Thus, the tradition of immersing the Murti of Durga in rivers was born. The festival must be banned as it’s a celebration of genocide, murder and justifying caste violence against descendants of the asuras i.e. depressed castes.

It is being claimed that it is part of the rediscovery of the history of the Mulnivasi which comprises of the all the population which does not falls into the Hindu upper caste category. It is the deconstruction of the Aryan myths propagated by the perfidious Brahmins who perpetuated them as a tool to maintain their supremacy by suppressing the “real” history. It will serve the two important functions –

Firstly, it will instill a sense of identity and pride among Mulnivasi who have been demonised and made to live without a sense of self-worth for far too long.

Secondly, it will reveal the true history and lay bare the real historical structure of exploitation. People will realise that Hinduism is nothing but a system of caste imposed by the foreign invaders.They will realise that destruction of caste is not possible without destruction of Hinduism and without destruction of Hinduism, they will not achieve victory in this most ancient freedom struggle.

Why it needs to be countered?

The theory sounds far-fetched at the first glance and the first reaction is to laugh away such constructs. But such reconstructions of the Hindu Puranic tales have started to appear with increased frequency in the recent years. And they have gone unchallenged most of the time because of indifference, unwilling to argue on something considered as absurd and lack of knowledge of history, epics and Hinduism by modern Hindus themselves. The most commonly held view is that such silly theories need not be glorified by opposing them and they will anyways die out. But this is a fatal mistake. It is necessary to systematically and visibly rebuke such theories.

Firstly, because they present a false and distorted version of the Puranas and Hindu Dharma and this must be countered for its own reason. The claim that everybody has right to interpret sacred texts and Hinduism has thrived on such tradition is alright but that does not preclude challenging such re-interpretation of the texts.

Secondly, it presents a false version of history. The self-deluding argument that it is impossible to decide what is the true narration and what is false narration of historical events does not stand ground. Because it is possible to differentiate the true and false versions by subjecting them to the test of historiography, archaeology and modern methods like genetics etc. At the minimum, we can root out the completely bogus claims about history.

Thirdly, it is an attempt to create new divisions in an already fractured society by casting caste divisions as racial divisions. It then goes on to propagate that these racial groups have nothing in common and also that each caste is a separate nationality with mutually contradictory interests and culture.

It leads to the conclusion that Hinduism is not the Dharma of Mulnivasi but just an instrument of their enslavement to the upper caste Aryans. Thus, liberation of Mulnivasi depends on their abandonment of Hinduism and ultimately its total destruction. It creates hatred and sense of alienation among the depressed castes not just towards the Hindu Dharma and culture but anything Indian. Imagine the thought process of a person who believe that his people lost their country to invaders, suffered genocide and the popular culture, symbols and history of this political entity-India-celebrates those massacres. Now add to this the belief that continuing caste violence and discrimination against his community is the continuation of that old race war and Indian laws and institutions protect his race enemies as they too are created by them! In long run, it threatens the political unity of the country itself and not just the violent breakup of the society. More than truth what matter more is what people believe to be the truth.

Fourthly, it must be countered because it is an utter insult to the academic discourse (it is being presented as one-Dalit History, Social & political analysis, Theories of empowerment etc.).Therefore, we must analyse this “history” being peddled by these “Dalit- Bahujan scholars”. This is not to give them undeserved attention but to expose the fraud of this racist pseudo-history which can give tough competition to the Nazi pseudo-history.

Questioning the theory:

Aryan Invasion Theory: The very foundation of this re-interpretation of the Durga Puja is the assertion of the AIT some 4000 years back. Much ink has been spelt on this issue in the last two centuries and the conclusion, as it stands today, is that Aryan was not a race but a cultural-linguistic group and there was no Aryan invasion. At the maximum, it was a slow migration of this linguistic group in Indianhinterland, spread over the centuries. The place of origin is also disputed, whether it was central Asia, or Indo-Iran border or North-West India or in Afghanistan. To quote RomilaThapar-

“Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are language labels, but in the nineteenth century these were also incorrectly used as racial labels and this confusion persists. The correct usage should be “Indo-European-speaking people” and `Indo-Aryan-Speaking-people’, but the shortened labels, Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are commonly used. Language is a cultural label and should not be confused with race, which although also a social construct, claims that it has to do with biological descent.”

– Early India: From the origins to the AD 1300

The theory has been discarded even in the Marxist academic discourse. Most academicians use the word migration rather than invasion while many deny the Aryan migration theory as well. The claims of origin of caste system and worship of Hindu Devatas being rooted in Aryan invasion is an untenable claim. It is not based on any sustainable proof or study. Even D.D.Kosambi points out in his Introduction to Indian History, many of India’s Brahmins rose from ‘Hinduised’ tribes that earlier practised animism or totem worship, or prayed to various fertility gods and/or goddesses. A majority of these Hinduised tribes retained many elements of their older forms of worship, and several Brahmin gotra(clan) names are derived from non-Aryan clan totems and other tribal associations.

There is an extensive literature on this topic but I will just mention an interesting point. India derives its name from Rig Vedic Harayanavi tribe- Bharat. Bharats under King Sudasa and Guru Vashishtha defeated the confederacy of the ten tribes of the Punjab and North-Western sub-continent. They thus became the supreme power in the sub-continent and gave their name to it. Some of the defeated tribes remained in Punjab like Puru while others like Druhya, Pakhta were driven into exile westwards. Parsu were driven out too and are related to Persians (Assyrians too called Persians Parsu). Their Avesta is written in a language almost same as Rig Veda.

They were not familiar with Western Iran but their familiarity with Sapta-Sindhu suggests that they entered Iran from the east. They were very conscious of being outsider and talked about original “homeland” unlike Vedic Indians. Unlike Indians, they called themselves Aryan people which shows them to be conscious of being in an alien land. In fact, so strong was the racial identity among Parsu’s that the region came to be known as Iran-Land of Aryans. Contrast this to Indian identification with Bharats and near total absence of Aryan or any other ethnic identity.The word Arya has never been used in an ethnic or racial sense in India. Moreover, the word itself is used more in Buddhist texts rather than in Hindu texts.

But the discarded AIT theory lives in the discourse of Dravidian & Mulnivasi political movements, Hinduism studies in the Western Universities and in the Missionary propaganda literature. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to say that it forms the central pivot of their socio-political discourse. In this case too, it’s AIT which forms the core of the Durga-Puja theory. But then these “historians” must first prove the AIT without which their claims of re-interpretation of history has no basis whatsoever.

The Story: Even if we accept their claim of AIT for the sake of argument, then they must render proof that there was indeed a buffalo rearing Dravidian tribe in the Bengal region and that they came into conflict with Aryans. What is the time period of this historically important event? Also, they must explain that why a possibility of intermingling of these two groups has been discarded. There is an equal possibility that Aryans adopted the myths and legends of this buffalo tribe and that Durga story is actually a story of this Mulnivasi tribe. It has not always been the case that invaders imposed their religions on the invaded, opposite has also happened many a times. For example, Mongols invaded China but were converted to Buddhism and Confucius thought rather than Chinese converting to Tengriism.

Then they must present the study on why claims of other regions regarding this event have been rejected. Why is the claim of Mysore being the capital of Mahishasura and Chamunda hills being the site of the battle has been rejected? Surely, they must have done their archaeological studies to reject this claim. On what basis have they rejected the claims of various tribes whose folklore narrate the event in rich details and claim that the events took place in their respective regions like Jharkhand? We are waiting to see the research papers published in peer reviewed journals by these “Dalit Historians” and “Mulnivasi theorists”. If Indian academic journals are all in clutches of Aryan-Brahmins, then they must have approached the good Western-Christian journals. Can they present the whole study and research on the basis of which they are writing this “history form below”? Their subaltern studies and Maoist-Naxal friends too must answer these questions.

Then there must be a source from which they have inferred that Mahishasura was a just, kind, heroic and peace loving Emperor and protector of the people. The Puranas form which they have claimed to derived this theory give no such hints.The claim that Purana deliberately portray him in negative light is untenable because Puranas are known to speak prolifically about good qualities of Asuras and even praise them in best of the poetic shlokas.

Then there is the Kalika Purana which narrates that Mahishasura was the greatest devotee of the Devi and she asked him to be reborn as an Asuras to demolish the arrogance of the Devas. Mahishasura followed the Devi’s command but wanted to be liberated from the mortal body by none other than the Devi herself. Thus, Devi took the form of the Durga and killed her in the epic battle. She even ordained that Mahishasura should be venerated in his Asura form whenever she is worshiped as Durga. So, there must be valid reasons for these “historians” to reject this version of the Puranic narration. They have just not explained it to the public. Then they must answer that why Mahishasura worshiped the Brahma- that old Aryan Deity.

Now, we come to the question of the heart wrenching details of massacre and rape of children and women. Sources please? And if immersion of Murti of Durga is to be taken as the proof that she committed suicide by jumping into river, which river? And why the idols of other deities of Durga Puja are immersed too? And does Ganesh Chaturthi festival tells us that Ganesh too committed suicide in a similar manner?

Since, they are claiming their theory to be the correct version of the history, they should present a systematic study regarding the above questions for the Dalit-Bahujan Samaj to take them seriously. Or maybe they fancy themselves to be the Brahmins they despise, that they will narrate some tale and Bahujans will accept it since they never had/have any independent and rational thinking ability.

Examining the justifications for creation of these stories:

After examining the basis of theory of imagined martyrdom of Mahishasura, we find that it is based on total fabrication and baseless propositions. But then what are the justifications/motives for creating such theories and claim them to be the authentic history?

First argument of apologists is that if Mahishasura Martyrdom story is false then Durga Puja story too is just a myth. But if Durga Puja is just a myth then why is it being presented as history in such fabricated narrations? And it’s not the Hindus who are doing it, certainly we don’t find any proposal to teach MahishasuraVadh as a historical event in any academic institution or propagate it as part of mainstream political narrative of India. Then why is this myth being presented as the authentic history of massacre of Mulnivasi by invading Aryans?

Second, it is argued that Durga Puja is based on irrationality and myths or worse it is a Brahminical fraud to fool the people. So a counter narrative of Mahishasura Martyrdom will break the Brahmin-Aryan hegemony based on myths. It is a strange argument because it seeks to counter a myth by another myth rather than rationality and scientific historical analysis. It seems that these apologists do actually think that Dalit-Bahujans are so devoid of intellect and reason that they can’t be simply told that myths are not true and there is no scientific& historical reason to believe in exploits of Durga or such supernatural powers do not exist. Are they dumb that they were deluded by Aryan invaders to celebrate their own genocide and venerate the responsible wicked women because they were fooled by a story? For 4000 years! And even today they need to be sold a new story. These pseudo-historians actually believe in it. So much so for their claim to treat all people as equal rational dignified human beings.

Third justification is that history must be re-written to create a sense of identity and pride among Dalit-Bahujans which is the first step of social empowerment in Indian social context. But then there is no reason why they can’t take pride and inspiration from Durga’s victory over Mahishasura. Durga is unborn SakaraRupa of all-pervading Adi Shakti who does not belong to any caste or race and Mahishasura is the symbol of injustice and tyranny. She can amply empower and impart sense of confidence in a Dalit women to resist injustice. In fact, Durga has inspired countless people to fight against injustice and discrimination. Guru Govind Singh invoked the imagery of Durga in Chandi Di Var to rouse a broken people to fight against injustice. He instilled the Hindu and Sikh women with sense of fearlessness and pride. Other was none other than Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who stood against the unspeakable tyranny and religious persecution of Turkish and Mughal overload of India.

Why Asuras and Danavas need to be converted into hero-ancestors for them? And if the present myths are not enough then what is stopping the creation of new myths with different deities and narrative? What is the reason that existing religious beliefs of one community need to be insulted and deformed in order to instil pride in the other community? In answer to this enquiry apologists return to the same argument that Devas are actually Aryan heroes who massacred the Mulnivasi and their worship is actually the celebration of genocide and murder. But then it takes us back to the AIT and these apologist must first prove it, only then they can proceed in their endeavour of re-writing history.

Fourth justification is that Dalit-Bahujan history has been systematically suppressed and we need to resurrect the real history of the people of India. Noble aim but then write history rather than spewing venom based on myths. We agree that in history of India, people of India are absent. It is mostly the history of imperial foreign dynasties entrenched in Delhi. So one expects these Dalit-Bahujan historians to do some serious work in historical research. They must restore the Maratha history to its proper pedestal. After all, Marathaswere Shudras a couple of centuriesback. What can be more inspiring for today’s depressed castes than the history of rise of Marathas? Where is their work on history of Pasi of Awadh, Ahoms of Assam, Jats and Gujjara, or the Yadavas of Devagiri?

At least some work on the Nanda dynasty of Magadha is surely expected. Have they done any work on the history of tribes of North-East and Tribals of central India? Have they ever convened a national seminar on the martyrdom day of Uda Devi or other such Dalit heroes and freedom fighters who have been neglected in the mainstream history? Or do they think that working on real history of the Dalit-Bahujan is a meaningless project? May be they simply lack intellectual capability to work on such topics or have no real intentions of resurrecting the history of suppressed sections of society.

There only interest seems to be demagoguery based on pseudo-science and pseudo history. On one side they denounce myth as cooked up irrational stories but on the other hand they want to re-write those myths as real events. They do love to deal in irrationality and cooked up stories! But what purpose does turning myths upside down serves? Answer given is what has been discussed in the previous point.

Fifth and most bizarre argument is that since Dalits-Bahujan still face discrimination, violence, reserved seats are not fulfilled as candidates are systematically awarded 1 or 2 marks in interviews (as revealed by RTI in several JNU centres) even if they score equivalent marks with general category students in the written exam etc. Therefore, they have right to lobby to safeguard their interests and protest the dominant culture. This justification is mostly given by guilt ridden, do good upper caste apologists of Mahishasura Martyrdom day. But is the solution to caste discrimination a pseudo history and racist demagoguery? The answer to casteism can’t be reverse casteism. And one is completely at loss to correlate the Durga Puja and caste discrimination. When asked for the logic behind abusing Durga Puja, we get the same answer that it is the celebration of oppression of depressed sections by the Aryan invaders and such festivals promote and motivate the continuing caste violence! We are again back to the square one.

Reason behind Mahishasura Martyrdom Day:

It is clear that there are no valid reasons for celebrating imagined Mahishasura Martyrdom or even to consider him to be an ancestor of Dalit-Bahujan. Then why are such events happening and how come there is an incessant propagation of such pseudo historical narratives? The answer can be found if we look at the people and organisations involved in such campaigns. The Mahishasura story was first published in an insignificant Hindi magazine called Yadava Shakti. The original story was no more than a perversion of the sacred myth peppered with wild speculations and use of phrases like “must have been”, “must be”, “there may have been” etc. It was then picked up by Christian evangelist hate mongering magazine,Forward Press, run by OBC-Christian turned “Dalit ideologue and Historian” Kanchaillaiha who has faithfully carried forward the tradition of Nazi history writing in 21st century. His obsession with skin colour, height of nose of people, racial behavioural traits to identify Aryans and Dravidians is legendary.

In 2011, it was published in Forward Press and was used by the AIBSF(All India Backward Student Federation) unit of JNU as a poster during Durga Puja. It was largely ignored but led to heated arguments and scuffle between some students in a hostel. The lurking demagoguesand missionaries realised the potential of driving wedge in the Hindu student community in the campus.

Left parties, who are never tier of countering “historical falsehoods”, pretending academic depth and advocating unity and cohesiveness, never countered this completely bogus and hateful story. Instead, they have given all support and legitimacy to such events in name of freedom of expression, religious freedom and Dalit-Bahujan rights and assertion. On the contrary, they have continued to attack and malign Durga Puja in the campus which they have been doing since 2001 when Durga Puja started in JNU.The Mahishasura Martyrdom Day is being carried out of JNU by such activists with active support of the proxy organisations of the Evangelists. This year it was celebrated in 74 districts of the country, as reported by the organisers.

The main force working behind it is the Christian missionaries and their imperialist designs over India in convenience with Western governments as has been meticulously exposed in the“Breaking India” Western Intervention in Dalit and Dravidian Faultlines”. It must be remembered that apart from being an exclusivist, intolerant monotheistic cult, Christianity has always been the tool of political power, imperialism, slavery and genocide of the indigenous people and cultures. In India, they have failed to achieve the success commensurate with their efforts and desires. First, they tried to convert Brahmins by reconstructing their identity as lost tribe of Jews and other upper castes by casting their spirituality as corrupted Christian beliefs. That hardly worked. Then they jumped on the bandwagon of Aryan-Dravidian theory in a well-documented history. They achieved some success but not as expected and todayeven Aryan-Dravidian theory has largely lost its intense appeal.

The only substantial success they could get was among Tribals in North-East and in tribal regions of central India. But even there they have started facing resistance especially in central India. Therefore, since late 1990s they have adopted a new strategy. Now caste system is being casted as the racial divisions by reviving the discarded AIT. Castes are being projected as not just as separate races but nationalities who have nothing in common with each other. In the immediate crosshairs are the Dalits. The strategy is as follows-

1. Present Indian history as that of Aryan invasion and subjugation of Mulnivasi. The conquered people were enslaved as lower caste people and Hinduism was imposed on them which is nothing but a system of caste and justification of casteism.
2. The upper castes are Aryan who still control the resources and power of India despite being a small minority like any invader. Lower castes are Mulnivasi who are deprived of every right and hope in this country.Indian Nation is also a construct of invaders to preserve and revive their hegemony after dissolution of the“revolutionary” British rule.
3. The upper castes and lower castes are two different race and nationalities. One nationality is ruling over the other in a tyrannical manner. Every incidence of caste violence and discrimination is used as a propagandatool to prove this point.
4. The artificial category of Bahujan has been created by clubbing together the SCs, STs, OBCs, and religious Minorities. It serves to hide the nature of caste violence in India which is mostly inflicted by OBCs and upper caste Muslims on SC/STs. But oddly while the reason of such violence is said to be the old race war justified by Hinduism, OBCs and Muslims are clubbed together as Mulnivasi along with SCs.
5. Work among Dalit youth especially in college and universities apparently for empowerment and leadership programmes to raise their “socio-political consciousness”. Attack their tradition and spirituality in the name of rational analysis.
6.  Instill a sense of alienation from the larger society by brainwashing them into believing that Dalits, Tribals and the masses of India had no history, culture, religion and civilization. All they think is theirs is actually imposed on them by invaders. Every cultural symbol, festival and religious thought is actually a reminder and celebration of their subjugation. The culture and religion of Dalits and Savarnas are not just different but mutually contradictory and one has to ultimately annihilate the other.
7. Propagating that emancipation can be achieved only by completely abandoning the culture and Hindu Dharma and by adopting a radically new religion and ideas.
8. Then the tables must be turned on the Aryan invaders to conclude this race war by paying them back in their own language.

Many otherwise rational people among the depressed castes are falling prey to such pseudo history mainly in the name of radicalism and a deep sense/experience of continuing injustice and discrimination. But they must stop and reflect deeper whether road to emancipation lies through this pseudo-scientific and pseudo historical reinterpretation of myths. What will be the cost of such emancipation? What will be the shape of that freedom they dream of? Freedom from oppression and emancipation from whose vantage point? Who will be in control if they walk this road? Are they representing the thoughts of masses and creating an independent Dalit intellectual discourse or are they parroting the words of others and implementing designs of others?

Even Dr Ambedkar had remarked: “Conversion to Islam or Christianity will denationalise the depressed classes. Moreover, if they go to Islam the number of Muslims will be doubled and the danger of Muslim domination also becomes real. If they go to Christianity, the numerical strength of Christians becomes five to six crores. It will help to strengthen the hold of the British on this country.”

The claims of empowering Dalits like Blacks in US is a bogus one. Infusing racial pride and consciousness among people of an oppressed race may help in emancipation by enabling them to assert for equal citizenship and rights. But it can’t help where fault lines are not based on race divide. The caste divisions are not racial divisions. Attempt to project it as such by pseudo history can only lead to widening of gaps within an already fractured society by superimposing a new variable of conflict. It will only lead to hatred, alienation and a violent breakup of the society rather than any empowerment and equality.

If Hinduism must be deconstructed and destroyed because it is the largest Dharma in India and all the ills of society result from Hinduism, then by the same logic first Christianity must be wiped out from the world since it is the largest religion. And it can be forcefully argued that all the ills of the world like racism, imperialism, slavery, discrimination, aggression, intolerance are due to Christianity. But are we here to score brownie points or to seek solutions? These Dalit-Bahujan activists must pause and contemplate.

Road to emancipation: Mahishasura or Market?

The caste is not a religious system but a social system even though it has intermixed with the local traditions in the medieval age and acquired a tinge of religious sanction. The central point in the caste system has been the denial of the economic freedom often enforced by the perpetuation of the organized violence on lower castes. (Upper castes always had possibility of exercising freedom of choice) And it is on the economic freedom that all our other freedoms rest. The caste system can be broken only by providing antidote-economic liberty-to the fundamental reason that sustains it.

The freedom of the people to choose any profession they wish, earn money in the manner they wish and spend money in the manner they have reasons to spend will dilute the caste system by directly assaulting its very roots. For too long these people have been told what to do and what not to do. What they need is liberty, freedom of choice and equality of opportunity.

A system based on the market impersonalizes the economic transaction between parties which means that over time, the caste of the economic agents ceases to matter. Consequently the scope for caste discrimination diminishes. Only a system based on the market can sweep aside the system based on birth and this is not a speculation but a proven fact. It happened in Europe, in Japan where feudal caste system broke down under the pressure of the capitalism. It is happening in India as well. With the advent of the liberalization, privatization and globalization, the social mobility has greatly increased.

A large number of the people from the SC background are finding jobs in the private sector without any need for reservations as caste considerations has become highly diluted in the modern private sector. Further, they are founding their own independent ventures thanks to the space created by the end of the socialist-bureaucratic-raj. Earlier they found it next to impossible to open up new ventures because they lacked the political and bureaucratic clout.

In the market based system of capitalism, it is the economic success and wealth of the individual which determines his/her social status and not the other way round as in the caste system.

Secondly, we must infuse the idea of fraternity. In our public discourse there is much emphasis on liberty and equality but fraternity is always ignored. It is assumed that it will follow on its own when liberty and equality are attained. But it’s a misconception because fraternity is a simultaneous project and in many aspects it precedes liberty and equality. Fraternity is most difficult of the three to achieve. It’s always easy to be a caste leader, religious or regional leader or create new bogus categories like Bahujan, Asuras etc to mobilize people. But to rise above primordial & parochial identities and bridge the gap between different groups is the most difficult thing to do.

So what must be the starting point of fraternity in India? The answer is health and education. They don’t sound radical and exciting but are the fundamental building block of any egalitarian society. Every year around four crore people in India slip below poverty line because of the absence of a well-functioning public health system and lack of affordable quality private healthcare option. Lack of proper healthcare and high rate of debility means a large number of people are not able to perform at their maximum potential. In case of any medical complication, even minor ones, families have to take loans from local moneylender and they slip into infamous debt trap.

Dalits form the disproportionate chunk of this number as they already form the major section of poor people. A person reduced to abject poverty and reeling under debt can hardly feel pride and empowerment by worshiping Mahishasura or by such pseudo historical constructs. Then there is the issue of education. Even after 65 years of independence, we have failed to create a system of affordable and accessible quality education which caters to the skill and employment needs of the people. It is education which enables people to escape their miserable condition of being born in a poor Dalit family in a rural area. It is a great equalizing factor and unmatched in its emancipatory power.

But the rot especially in the public sector is perplexing. Public sector is dysfunctional in India because it has never been made to function. And contrary to popular perception, government has never made available the required resources to these two sectors. India is among the lowest spenders on health and education in the world. All the advance societies in the world have invested heavily in health and education. And they have made such investments when they were merely a developing country plagued with wide social inequality and discontents. In fact, it is a major reason that today they are developed and relatively egalitarian societies.

One wonder that why these champions of social justice, these Dalit-Bahujan activists never devote an iota of time for serious consideration of such issues. They make appropriate noise about reservations but they have never attempted to brainstorm on the problems faced by the education system in general. Contrast this to the brainstorming sessions on whether Durga was a prostitute or which Asura belong to which region and caste.

They have never put their efforts to make health and education the core part of the Indian political and public discourse. There is no detailed and systematic programme for these issues in their socio-economic vision apart from promises to drag out the Aryan invaders from wherever they will be hiding once Mulnivasi take over the power. Rather what we have a shrill ruckus over existing problems, demonization of Hindus and hate speeches based on pseudo-scientific and pseudo historical Neo-Nazi history writing.

Just have a look how lack of proper education in India is explained: Hindus are in majority and control everything-They worship Saraswati as the Goddess of learning-But women are barred from acquiring knowledge under Hinduism-Thus, Saraswati is an illiterate Brahmin women, worshiped because she is an Aryan-Brahmin -And what can be expected from a community who worship an illiterate women as Goddess of learning but to be uneducated, ignorant and full of malice!

Future of Mahishasura Bhakti:

It will die out in an instant if there is an appropriate crackdown on the evangelist string pullers who are funding and giving directions to such fraud “Dalit Historians” and if funding to their proxy organizations like Dalit Freedom Network, Forward Press etc is muzzled. But even without that its future is not promising at all even though flow of funds may sustain the symbolic celebration of imagined martyrdom of Mahishasura for years to come.

First of all, Mahishasura is being propagated as the hero of bogus Bahujan Samaj which is a contradictory and artificial construct. It consists of mutually antagonistic and hostile castes. And Mahishasura has already been associated to the Yadavas-Yadavashiromani Mahishasura. My sympathy to Yadavas who have such a glorious Puranic and historical legacy. And when even great national leaders like Ambedkar and Shivaji have been reduced to caste leaders and other deities like Chitragupta, Vishwakarama are not even know outside the caste that revere them, what hope is there for poor Mahishasura?

Further, it is beyond the understanding of these people that Durga Puja is celebrated not because she is seen as a historical figure or a hero but because she is the Adi Shakti, the supreme reality. It’s celebrated because there is power of genuine faith and devotion behind it. It is celebrated because she grants both worldly pleasures and moksha. There is whole Shakta tradition of rituals, philosophy and tantra behind her. A political construct based on Neo-Nazi rendering of history and hatred cannot replace such a powerful and positive system i.e. not without outright violence like strangling of the worship of Isis by fanatic ChristianEmperor Justinian of Byzantine in 6th century A.D.

But such devious attempts and hate literature needs to be countered because people are usually susceptible to propaganda and rabble rousing especially when it is linked to parochial identities. And as it is said, we should never ignore the power of stupid people in large numbers. JNU national convention on Mahishasura Martyrdom Day stands testimony to this.
I am waiting for the next part of this story which is how Mahishasura suffered for the freedom and happiness of the people. His suffering is just like the suffering of Christ on the cross. One fought for independence of the people while the other sacrificed himself for their salvation!