Are Hindus in Danger?
There is a deep longing in the present world for a dictatorship. People seem to be fed up with liberal democracy. The majority of the world seems to be shifting towards the right in the political spectrum. They are trying really hard and quite successfully to revive the old traditions, whitewash all the evils of authoritarianism, and paving the ground for a majoritarian politics. In the name of preservation of identity and culture, the culture which claims itself to be supreme than the rest.
Human beings have always desired for one powerful ruler. In past times, it was God. But in the modern world, scientific advances have shaken up the ground of God in reaction to which the lovers of the old have contributed to the making of political leaders with authoritarian attitudes. The macho men are rising all over the world.
When a belief system grounded on fantasy is undermined by reason and science, then the insecure people resist the wave of change, and in order to preserve their belief fabricate an enemy. Not so surprisingly, the enemies are mostly the minorities, mostly the second most powerful group of people in number. For instance, if a country like Bangladesh has Hindu minorities then the conservative (majoritarian) politicians would tend to demonize them. There are some exceptions though, like Paul Kagame (an authoritarian) who became president of Rwanda for the third term in 2017 with about 99% votes and would remain as president till 2034 belongs to a minority Tutsi group.
It seems quite an easy task to lead the way to dictatorship. A group of people will always have people with various ideas and volatile political affiliations. All a group needs to do to unite a group with most of the common cultural grounds is to demonize some other minority. The Islamic fundamentalists are doing so for centuries by considering people of other religions as impure (kafirs). In India, Muslims are the second-largest groups and are constantly being targeted for any of their actions.
The wave of anti-Islam propaganda has percolated into the minds of many Nepalese too. The case of this upheaval of insecurity in Hindu minds is particularly interesting because it has arisen out of jealousy. Yes, out of jealousy! It might seem bizarre but that seems to be a plausible point of view. Adherents of Hinduism do not even know all the names of their Gods and some of the Hindus were and are atheists too! This lack of organization for centuries pretty much kept Hinduism a liberal religion. But the Mughal invaders and Christian missionaries taught them a lesson that religion is a fantastic super-glue!
The brilliant Hindu minds of India began justifying the religion incorporating in them a scientific touch. The believers began attributing all the contributions of this part of the world in science, mathematics, and art to the religion. But still, a clear voice of unity from the majority of the population (the non-Muslim) was needed which included dalits and people of other (so-called) lower castes for jealous Hindus to establish themselves as political figures. And it was successfully done by demonizing the minority religions.
Out of jealousy! Out of a desire for an authoritarian figure, a macho man who would speak for them dauntlessly and against the minority group India succeeded in electing a right-wing self-proclaimed Hindu savior. The overthrown Hindu monarch along with far-right almost unconstitutional party of Nepal (RPP) is floundering in the muddy waters of Hindu nationalism attempting to revive the Hindu monarchy. And, people have begun to speak unpleasant things about minority groups.
But whatever may be the history concerning the times of Mughal invasion or British Empire, are Hindus in danger now? To unify Hindus (for solely political motives most probably), it is constantly fed to them that Hindus are in danger! The main reasons pointed out are that Muslims are fundamentalists and that Christians convert Hindus in exchange for money. Considering both the claims are true (which are true to some extent only, some Muslims are fundamentalists like some Hindus or some Christians are and some convert to Christianity for money), these are not strong arguments in favor of authoritarianism. If some Muslims are fundamentalists, then how would it affect Hindus? If some Hindus convert to Christianity for money, then is it not the fault of Hindus that they are so buyable?
The case that Hindus are in danger is quite baseless. If Hindus are in danger from some miscreants, then it is the job of the government to punish them. Not demonizing a whole sect of people or all the followers of a particular religion.
Love of authoritarianism reflects only a lack of humanity. Dictatorship in any form is not a reasonable alternative to democracy.