Posted on 26th December, 2022
Updated on 27th December, 2022
“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)
Sorry, dear readers! Please pardon us for reiterating Marx’s famous quote on religion with a special emphasis on “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature”. We cannot help ourselves but to cite this enunciation, when we were reading the following two articles by Sanjay Kumar:
The rapid rise of pseudoscience in the Modi era triggers ridicule and concern VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 13 FEB 2019 ©The Science) Written by Sanjay Kumar
Hindu nationalists claim that ancient Indians had airplanes, stem cell technology, and the internet VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 13 FEB 2019©The Science)
As citizens of one of the most depressed country, India, we have to consume some peculiar pseudo-scientific healing systems from the various platforms of the social, electronic and print media. All of these “truth claims” (summarized below) were delivered targeting the ailing hungry citizens of India by either the political leaders or by the religious Hindu gurus. These “truth claims” had disturbed us too much. We, as ordinary members of the scientific community, started to question ourselves, since the scientific community thrives by hypothesizing the solutions of problems without making any truth-claims:
Why are political leaders and the religious Hindu gurus spreading such peculiar pseudo-scientific notions in the public sphere? What are the causes?
It is a matter of regret to see that even the scientific institutes are subscribing these pseudo-scientific views as they are controlled by the present ruling party, viz., the Bharatiya Janata Party (henceforth BJP). This kind of attitude is to be expected from these funded institutes since they breed on the patron-client relationship, i.e., science is controlled and appropriated by the theocratic state, which is otherwise a failed state. One of the vice-chancellors of BJP-installed ideological state apparatuses recently remarked:
Are professors not expected to be original thinkers? How the JNU VC has undermined her own role VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 12th September, 2022 ©Scroll)
The following 10 “truth”-claims (hyperlinks shared below) are self-explanatory. Whatever it may be, the fact is that rationality, logic, argumentation, intellectuality, democracy – all are at stake in India.
After going through the compiled “truth”-claims, we have got the following answers after carrying out some loud thinking:
Political leaders and the religious Hindu gurus:
a) are spreading such truth claims consciously to establish Akhand Hindu Bharat⤡; they themselves believe in such pseudo-scientific ethnographic notions;
b) are, perfectly knowing the facts of science, consciously injecting such intoxicating and hypnotic truth claims to veil the “real miseries” of the citizens so that suffering people, after blindly consuming such “opium”, could be distracted from the grave issues related to their food, shelter and clothing; thus all these claims are nothing but distracting tools for diverting poor masses from the realm of ecology, economics, socio-political problems.
c) are utilizing “sigh of the oppressed creature” by providing magical metaphysical solutions by not only spreading such claims, but also by establishing simulated spectacles of spiritual monuments ignoring the historical and archaeological facts, e.g., the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, the Vishwanath Dham Corridor etc.
In this arena of spectacular statue-temple Hindu nationalism, the preachers of the Hindu ideology are gaining voters’ support for their utterly mystic, ethnographic, phantasmic construction of Hindutva as a historical a priori.
I. THE HEIGHT OF IMAGINATION OF THE COLONIZERS’ MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT
Kannada textbook passage saying Veer Savarkar flew on bulbul raises questions on Karnataka textbook revisions VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on Aug 29, 2022 ©India Today)
Savarkar flew on a bulbul says Kannada textbook: Committee says it’s a metaphor VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on AUGUST 28, 2022©The News Minute)
Karnataka textbook says ‘Savarkar flew out of jail cell on bulbuls’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on August 29, 2022©The Times of India)
Satirist Urvish Kothari hilariously explains Savarkar and bulbul story in Karnataka textbook VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on Auguust 31, 2022 ©The Scroll.in)
II. THE COW-MILK AND THE GOLD
Gold is Found in Cow Milk: West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on AUGUST 27, 2021 ©News 18)
Cow milk has gold shows research in US, Poland: Dilip Ghosh VIEW HERE ⤡ (watch from 2 minutes 48 seconds)
III. THE HINDUTVA’S PHANTASTIC GENETIC ENGINEERING
Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 28th October, 2014 © The Guardian)
IV. THE PEACOCK’S I-THOU AND THE INTIMACY OF EYE-CONTACT: “Isharon Isharon Mein…”
Peacocks Don’t Have Sex, Says Judge Who Recommended Cow As National Animal VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 1st June, 2017 ©NDTV )
‘Peacocks don’t have sex’: Raj HC judge’s comment gets Twitterati chirping VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on June 1, 2017© The Indian Express)
V. THE HYPERREAL HINDUTVA
Minister ridiculed for saying ancient India invented internet VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 18th April 2018 ©BBC News)
Internet Existed in the days of Mahabharata: Tripura CM Biplab Deb VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 18th April, 2018 ©The Economic Times)
VI. PHARMAKON OF THE HOLY BOVINE
The use of cow dung and urine to cure COVID‐19 in India: A public health concern VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 2021 May 26 ©The National Library of Medicine )
Drink cow urine to prevent Covid: BJP MP Pragya Thakur; experts reject remark VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on May 18, 2021 ©The Hindustan Time)
Coronavirus: Group hosts ‘cow urine party’, says COVID-19 due to meat-eaters VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on December 03, 2021 © The Hindu)
Coronavirus: These men took a cowdung bath to ‘fight COVID-19 bacteria’ in Karnataka VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 24th March, 2020 ©Scroll)
BJP lawmaker’s Covid prescription: Drink cow urine daily on empty stomach VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on May 9, 2021 ©The Indian Express)
VII. BUILDING CASTLES IN THE AIR AND THE HINDUTVA NUCLEAR (CON-)FUSION
‘Rishi has given guidelines to make planes’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 16th November, 2021 ©The Hindu)
Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago — and other startling claims at the Science Congress VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 4th January, 2015 ©The Washington Post)
Ancient India had aeroplanes, nuclear weapons, says chief of India’s premier history body VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 21st November, 2014 ©India Today)
VIII. THE HINDUTVAVADIN IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS
IIT Kharagpur 2022 calendar on ancient India is an exercise in propaganda – not rigorous research VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 31st December, 2021 ©Scroll)
With IIT Kharagpur Calendar, the Hindutva Right Takes Another Step Away From Science VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 30th December, 2021 ©The Wire)
IX. THE GREAT CLIMATE DENIAL
X. THE MATHEMATICIAN PRIME MINISTER
XI. THE BJP’S MISSING LINK: THE APE SCENARIO
BJP MP again questions Darwin’s theory, says human beings descendants of sages, not monkeys VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 19th July, 2019 ©The Times of India)
BJP MP says his ancestors are sages not monkeys VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 21st July, 2019 ©The Week)
(For the above matter, refer to the movie A Holy Conspiracy⤡, 2022, for the debate on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, based on the Monkey Scopes Trial in the United States in 1925.)
Creating such genealogical fantasy by the Hindutvavadins, especially the BJP leaders, RSS supporters and the religious gurus, has led us to a space of irreal irrationality to distract the attention from the real miseries of the people. Marx was right enough to have predicted such false consciousness with his previously-cited prophecy. The triumph of the BJP can be interpreted as the triumph of the sigh of the oppressed creatures.
Such an atmosphere of fanatic irrationality goes against the Article 51A(h) of the Indian Constitution, which states that is the fundamental duty of the Indian citizens “…to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”.
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