In the United States, we’re aware of the dangers of homegrown Christian extremism, and 9/11 and other events brought the dangers of Muslim extremism to the fore, but Hindu religious extremism — a major problem in India — rarely makes headlines.
While doing research for a story about animal rights I came across news stories about an October 15, 2002 atrocity in India.
Five men who were Dalits — the lowest and so-called “untouchable” caste — were seized by a mob and lynched. Their crime? The five were accused of killing a cow.
These men were trying to eke out a living by skinning dead cows and selling the skins for leather products. When accusations that they had killed a living cow circulated, police said a mob of 4,000 to 5,000 showed up, seized the men, and lynched them.
The next day, Hindu extremists were quoting Hindu religious writings to the effect that the life of cows and pigs are worth more than the life of a Dalit, and that one of the scriptural penalties for killing a cow is death.
This is especially troubling because it is part of a pattern of Hindu religious extremism and right wing politics. In the United States, for example, there is a lot of consternation when Christian fundamentalists want equal time for creationism in biology textbooks. In India, Hindu religious groups have managed to reintroduce astrology into universities and the military is wasting resources trying to develop weapons based on literal readings of ancient Hindu texts.
And, of course, there is the often deadly interplay between Hindu extremism in India with equally dangerous Muslim extremism in Pakistan.
Which is why this atheist counts his blessings that he lives in a secular democracy where the political system by and large keeps such religious extremism on the fringes (and where our neighbors to North and South seem to have also largely escaped the scourge of religious extremism).