I have been totally confused with the Right Wing concept in India. From what I have read and understood through interactions, the “Right Wing” today seems to stand for any one who isn’t ashamed to proclaim that he or she is a Hindu.

The concept of “Right Wing” has come a long way from the time it took birth in during the French revolution, representing people who sat on the “right”, indicating their support of Monarchy, and other status quo components, of those who did not favor change in past / existing systems.

Current day political definitions define a Right Wing as positions that are conservationist and reactionist. And here’s Wikipedia’s definition of Right Wing Politics, India

Coming back to today’s concept of a Right Wing in India, so liberally used by media, people, and so on, it indicates anyone who stands up and says they are Hindus, and that they refuse to accept certain expressions, representations and so on, that go against their cultural, moral and other (often religious) values. Going by these definitions (or my interpretations, misrepresentations of them), I’d love to go ahead and declare here, that I belong to the Right Wing.

Definitively, I am a Right Wing cuz :

• I love to go around and proclaim that I am a Hindu
• I love my culture, my festivals, my Gods and my celebrations
• I have no qualms in shouting out Jai Shri Ram or Jai Bhavani in a crowd that comprises different religions and cultures.
• I wear a tikka whenever I can, and go to temples to participate in aartis and worship my Gods.
• I teach my children, and generations after me what it means to be a Hindu and why I am proud to be a Hindu.
• I tolerate other religions, so long as they don’t come in the way of my religion, and tell me how their Gods are better than mine.
• I don’t like being told that the country I love and live in, is not Hindu but “secular”. My country has been far more Hindu and far, far more secular that it ever can be today, before these “definers and upholders of secularity” came in.
• I am aggrieved when I discover that Govts are taking control of Temple Trusts and using (part of) such monies to subsidize Haj pilgrimage, and levies a Pilgrimage tax on Hindus on a pilgrimage in India.
• I am sad when I see that other communities are being given sops and benefits that I, as a Hindu, am not entitled to, in the name of “secularism”
• The above two points smack purely of minority appeasement and I oppose and reject them from the bottom of my heart.

I declare that the above has nothing to do with my extremely “liberal” lifestyle. That I am not compelled to follow dictats by any person, organization or entity to remain a Hindu. Therein lies my freedom of thought, and my secularity of my expression.

As a Right Wing entity, all I ask that India be declared a Hindu nation. Other countries are not lacking or wanting in calling themselves an Islamic or Christian nation. Why should my country hesitate in calling itself a Hindu nation?

Proud to be Right Wing. Proud to be a Hindu.

Sanjeev Sarma