World Hindu Congress and the global shift in demography

By M.R.Lalu

There has been a lot going on in the news lately, the events in Gaza and the protest against the Israeli aggression and much more. In India, the election fever in five states has successfully been spread to the rest of the country and predictions to see its outcome as a semifinal before the 2024 battle has also begun. The Uttarakhand tunnel crisis made occasional ripples while political mudslinging from the states going to polls took the headlines. Silent, yet making a global impact on the essence and presence of the Hindu religion, the World Hindu Congress has come to an end in Bangkok, Thailand. Conducted for three days from November 24 to 26, one of the largest intellectual gatherings of the Hindus has now become a platform for its people from across the globe to assemble and discuss the issues and propagate the values. This time the Congress maintained its theme “Jayasa Aayatnam   Dharmah which means “Dharma, the Abode of Victory.” Ever since its first assembly in Delhi in 2014 there has been significant progress in passing awareness on the challenges that the Hindu society faces globally. The Congress assembled in Chicago in 2018 the second time and the present one in Thailand was the third. Undoubtedly, its first gathering in 2014 must make us infer the sense of urgency with which the Modi government must have given it a beginning. The significance of such an intellectual gathering was intended to discuss matters that concern the Hindu community across the globe with adequate guidance being framed while giving it a nudge in order to consolidate its political bargaining powers and to strengthen its cultural as well as spiritual depth.

Contradictory to the present political posturing of the opposition parties in India, the World Hindu Congress came out with a startling declaration. The WHC decided to denounce the term Hinduism and declared to embrace Hindutva and Hindu Dharma to refer to the world’s oldest and eternal religion. Dharma for all positive reasons is a better term suitable to refer to the Hindu way of life in the Indian context. The religious texts that the Hindus consider holy are deep reference guides on aspects of Dharma and the world began to seriously ponder on those subjects of spiritual contemplation as Christianity and Islam had failed to  naturally flourish maintaining a justifiable momentum of inclusion and coexistence. War savagery, ethnic unrest and intense religious radicalization took hold of the human conscience making amiable coexistence a Himalayan challenge and search for better ideals began to gain thrust. Hindu religious philosophy fits in this vacuum. And it is seen as an adequate alternative which can profess, propagate and promise solutions to a deeply divided world. The term Hinduism, according to the Hindu Congress is defined as an oppressive and discriminatory attitude of belief. The declaration in the Congress preferred the word Hindutva as the accurate term that includes all that the word “Hindu” implies. Now, the political opposition that often stands against the eternal values of the Hindu Dharma will have to discover new phraseology to frame more abusive vocabularies against it.

Probably, compelled by the recent vitriolic attacks on Sanatan Dharma, the WHC called for more closeness among organizations that stand for the Hindu cause and ideally put forth its commitment to bring them together with more openness chiseling their unity. To politically corroborate it, the Hindu unity has always been a tricky conflicting affair. Those who stood to make it viable had stumbled politically with meager progress being made in the beginning. But the impact of the efforts got pronounced to a reasonable and visible range ever since Modi came to national politics with his relatively modified and an intensified version of the Hindu way of politicking. Of course the challenges that the majority in the country is frequently made to face need better calculations to defend. Often the Hindus have to face confrontational political arrogance from multiple corners and the ethnic confusion and the disarrayed existence of caste and gender disparities often pushed it harder to the corner of political irrelevance. Warmongering in the name of exclusive religious beliefs have turned the world into a space of horror and uninterruptedly disgraceful maligning by certain groups and individuals hold Hinduism also deeply vulnerable internationally. Attacks on Hindu temples and centers in some countries could be seen as an intolerant tendency vehemently articulating its disgraceful alignment worldwide with hostile forces that for years have been waiting for the fall of a congenial belief system.

The demographic scenario all over the world has dangerously been altering. Pew Research Center’s recent findings have some alarming facts to fire up our thoughts for a world that is largely going to tilt in the Islamic way by 2050 with its population possibly outnumbering Christianity. According to it, the newborns in Islam will outnumber the Christian births by 2035 and the former would gain a steady momentum in its population by drastically altering the present demographic status. Being the fastest growing community, Muslims by 2050 will make up to10% of the overall population of Europe. Of an expected total population of 9.3 billion by 2050, the Muslim population is projected to increase by 73% while the Hindus and the Christians will keep an average momentum of 35% population growth. Anger and outcry in the streets of different European countries against Israel’s retaliation in Gaza was an indication of the adverse impact on the European free world’s democratic freedom and values. The Hindu population is projected to arrive at 1.4 billion worldwide while the Jews, probably the smallest religious group, are expected to stay at 16.1 million. So, the challenges to catch-up with the pace of Islam are multiplying and India with its multicultural social design remains more exposed to aggression and rift among various religious groups.

Challenging democracy and its powerful monarchy, almost 300000 protesters crowded in the streets of the United Kingdom and they sloganeered for the eradication of Israel soon after the Israeli retaliation began post October 7 Hamas horror. Open criticism on the Jihadi sympathizers and their grouping in the streets of the country had resulted in Suella Braverman’s expulsion from the Rishi Sunak cabinet. Literally, the trend booming with rapidity corners the anti-Jihadi narratives as far right and a media caucus is deliberately glorifying its exclusivist radicalized madness. Expectations have been raised and alarming bells were sounded in the WHC on threatening facts that are gaining attention and sympathy worldwide. The changing demography of the European region and the flashpoint on which India’s administration balances its complicated chemistry of societies has been extensively debated. Islam is still a no go area for the governments and reformists alike as it invites furious reactions if questioned. The Udaipur butchery is a perfect example for the deep seated animosity that silently reverberates in India’s underbelly. A trickle of reality is dripping in with a shudder and instances that happened in Udaipur and elsewhere in the country is calling for caution. The jubilation for the Ram Temple inauguration and the speculation on a possible Modi comeback in 2024 is the juncture in which the WHC culminated at Bangkok.

(Author is freelance journalist and social worker based in Kerala. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author.)