Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Jain Studios on the Meandering Stairway to Success
- 2 Translating Metaphors of Nation-Building
- 3 Hindutva's Media Phantasmagorias
- 4 Re-mapping the Nation-Space: place and displacement
- 5 Re-making History: ‘The Truth shall not be touched!’
- 6 Mother India's Heroic Sons: a passion play of martyrdom
- Epilogue: ‘Making India a Dharmic Superpower’
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Videography
- Index
6 - Mother India's Heroic Sons: a passion play of martyrdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Jain Studios on the Meandering Stairway to Success
- 2 Translating Metaphors of Nation-Building
- 3 Hindutva's Media Phantasmagorias
- 4 Re-mapping the Nation-Space: place and displacement
- 5 Re-making History: ‘The Truth shall not be touched!’
- 6 Mother India's Heroic Sons: a passion play of martyrdom
- Epilogue: ‘Making India a Dharmic Superpower’
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Videography
- Index
Summary
A Hindu who fights for his country and dies is as much a Hindu martyr in the religious sense as one who fights for his temples. … For the Hindus every inch of their land is divine. … Every inch of our land is sacred and so are the rivers and the mountains. … To fight for the motherland is therefore the same as fighting for the vedas [sacred texts] or for the temples. … In that way the Hindus can never be really secular in the Western sense. … There is no such thing as a secular Hindu … that is why Hindus do not differentiate between religious martyrs and secular martyrs. … There can be no Gods without the land, and there can be no land without the Gods. … Therefore, those who are fighting for a temple at Ayodhya are as much political Hindus as those who are laying down their lives for Kashmir. … To me the struggle for Ayodhya is not a religious struggle. It is as political a struggle as the struggle in Kashmir.
Our specialness lies in the fact that we have been a nation for eternity, and although enemies have come and gone, they have not been able to touch our culture and nation, we have remained India and Indian … Walking on the path of truth is the pride of our country. We cast aside untruth. This is our pride … It is for the sake of our truth that our heroes have been martyred.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empowering VisionsThe Politics of Representation in Hindu Nationalism, pp. 233 - 278Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2004