“Religion?” he asked.
“Madhuism”, I replied without hesitation.
He glanced at the questionnaire and after a second of
hesitation, he said: “There is not religion like that”.
“Yes, there is”, I smiled. “I am the only one practicing
it”.
“Hindu”. He turned back to the questionnaire to mark the
relevant column.
“This country has no religious freedom now”, I said.
Guru Nanak and his followers created Sikhism during the
Mughal period by combining Hinduism that was already transformed by Buddhist
and Jain thoughts with elements of Islam. But in this day and age, I am not
allowed to create a religion by combining Sufi and Zen traditions? I was pissed
off.
The Haryanavi school teacher who was taking the census was
not perturbed. Life among cows and buffaloes does that to you. He went on to
the next column in the questionnaire.
***
The Lingayat issue in Karnataka gives me hope. I can now try
and assert my religion.
But of course, Madhuism won’t work. The religion explicitly
forbids any other follower. So it cannot have the political clout, like the
Lingayats had.
But I won’t be covered into the Hindu fold by the next
school teacher who comes to take census. I am not a Hindu. I don’t have the
pride, the hate, the stridency of the Hindus. And Trump does not love me.
So I will declare myself a Shaivite and insist that the next census allows me my religious freedom. I want myself to be recorded as a Shaivite
and NOT as a Hindu.
I request the other citizens who do not hate Muslims,
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Jews or Zorastrians, in spite of not
belonging to any of these religions, to support me.
Let me please be a Shaivite and not a Hindu. I don’t accept
Krishna and Rama as gods, but definitely as characters in great stories. I
enjoy them perhaps more than Frodo and Gandalf.
***
Being a shaivite has great benefits.
Swayam bhoo Mahadeva.
My self-generated god, please help me face the next census
with an assertion of my religious freedom.
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