Praveen Togadia
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Praveen Togadia is an oncologist from Gujarat, India, and the International General Secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a major Hindutva organization advocating for a Hindu Rashtra in India. He is a Jain.
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[edit] Positions
Togadia is seen by some as one of the VHP's most forceful, but controversial, orators, highlighting issues that the VHP says the Hindus of India are facing in their own homeland, which are:
- Indian brand of Marxism-inspired pseudo-secularism that discriminates against the Hindus.
- the plight of the Kashmiri Hindus who have been ethnicially cleansed by Muslim militants and are living in refugee camps in Delhi,
- School textbooks written by leftist/communist Indian historians with an anti-Hindu animus and which whitewash the atrocities committed by the Muslim in India.
- Appeasement of Muslims by Indian government and granting to them more rights than the Hindu majority enjoys (for example, the right to administer religious education using madrassas, the right to practise Islamic Sharia Law in their own communities, and the right to make pilgrimage to Mecca at the expense of Hindu taxpayers.
- Manipulation of Muslim community as a voting block by Indian politicians (like the Indian government granting subsidy on air travel to Muslims for performing Hajj),
- Aggressive conversion activity by Christian missionaries in remote tribal areas using inducement or fraud, which has led to Christian terrorism from radical groups such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura
- Other matters where the Indian secular state is perceived by VHP to be hostile to the Hindus.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the organization he heads, defines as "Hindu'" all people who believe in, respect or follow the eternal values of life - ethical and spiritual - that have sprung up from Indian soil.
[edit] Views on Hindutva
Togadia is a proponent of Hindutva in the defense of Hindus and promotion of the Hindu Dharma. He is reviled by Muslims, Christians, Leftists, and Communists but loved and respected by some sections of the Hindu population. They label him as an answer to the inhuman activities by Jehadi Muslims and Cunning Missionaries whose sole aim is to convert the peace loving and righteous Hindus into Muslims and Chrsitians, by force. Togadia comes from Gujarat and was born in a Hindu family.
According to Togadia, his vision of India is that of an officially Hindu, militarily strong state that gives equal rights to every religion, just like the United Kingdom is officially a Christian country but with strong secular values and equal rights to minorities. He argues that Hindus comprise the only religious community in the world that doesn't have state power to back it.
His strength mainly comes from a section of the Hindus who draw comfort from the fact that he raises issues about Hindu community that are otherwise difficult to discuss in the politically incorrect atmosphere of Indian secularism. Togadia is a Gujarati, and an oncologist by profession, running his own hospital in the city of Ayodhya.
[edit] Media Portrayal and Response
Muslim newspapers accuse him of being a "Kaffir" and a "Hindu Talib"[1].
He has been banned from attending processions [2] and numerous other sanctions have been made made against him.
Togadia has asserted in online interviews that he does not mandate violence in the Hindutva Movement, and stressed that he was not against minorities. he also says that the majority of the work concerning the emancipation of the lower castes is not done by Christian Missionaries but by Hindu organizations[3]:
| “ | "More than 25,000 social service projects are going on among the downtrodden people. It is wrong to say that the church is serving the downtrodden. It is an end to the means of conversion. On the contrary, from 1871, the first census of India, to rule for prolonged time, the British tried to divide Indian society by a census. By converting, the church has given the scheduled tribe people a different identity and tried to destroy indigenous culture, ethos, behaviour rather than serving them"[3] | ” |
| “ | The concept of minorities is alien to India because we don't believe in discriminating on the basis of caste, creed or religion. As such, after Jews, Hindus have suffered a lot in the world to save their culture and motherland[3] | ” |
He has criticized the Christian Church for allegedly "misusing [the Indian Constitution's mandate of religious freedom under Article 25(1)] by violating public order, morality and health" and forcing adivasis (anthropologically aboroginal "proto-Australoid" Indians) to convert to Christianity by subversion, then inciting them to violence against Hindus.[3]:
| “ | A Hindu cannot hate any religion. He believes that to pray to God is the same, so we can't hate Christianity. But we are against the conversion activity of the Church. We love Christianity but we oppose Churchanity as it was opposed by Europe.[3] | ” |
[edit] References
- ^ milligazette interview
- ^ Tribune India
- ^ a b c d e 'Nobody has the right to convert anybody in India', Praveenbhai Togadia Chat
[edit] External links
- The Praveenbhai Togadia Chat - Rediff
| Organisations: | Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - Vishva Hindu Parishad - Bharatiya Janata Party - Bajrang Dal - Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad - Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh - Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh |
| Major figures: | K.B. Hedgewar - Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar - Syama Prasad Mookerjee - Atal Bihari Vajpayee - Praveen Togadia |
| Related: | Hindutva - Hindu nationalism - Integral humanism - Ram Janmabhoomi - India Shining |
