The dangers of fundamentalism
The vandalism and the destruction of the Buddha statues now being carried out by the Taliban militia in Afghanistan has been condemned, among many others, by the VHP and other arms of the Sangh Parivar. The members of the Hindutva brigade have apparently found in the Taliban's latest act an opportunity to justify their own brand of "patriotism" based on religious denomination rather than on the secular and pluralist traditions in which nationalism evolved in India.
But then, one does not have to be a genius to see that in substance the VHP's world view is hardly any different from that of the Taliban. The Sangh Parivar as well as the fundamentalists of various other hues (the Taliban in this context) base their tactics and strategies on nothing but a sense of medieval revanchism.
Take for instance the campaign by the Sangh Parivar outfits in the past couple of decades; whether it be the manner in which these outfits (and this includes the BJP as a political party) whipped up passions across the country leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, or the communal violence witnessed in many towns in the course of the campaign, one cannot ignore the fact that these outfits thrived on inciting passions among the ordinary people.
In this sense, the VHP's concerns do not arise out of any perception among its leaders that views the Bamiyan Buddha statues and the relics in the Kabul museum as reminders of the rich and effervescent expressions of the Gandhara style of art. For anyone with such a perspective could not have organized crowds to demolish a 16th Century monument and gone about describing such an act as an expression of "national sentiment".
The deeds by the Taliban have reflected the same kind of revanchism that has marked the VHP's actions in India. In this context, there is no way one can resist describing the VHP's concerns as calculated attempts to further whip up passions against the Muslims and conjure up images of the kind its stormtroopers have been doing all these years. And the Taliban's outrageous actions have been picked up to further these fundamentalist ends rather than protect pluralist values.
-- The Hindu, New Delhi