Having refused the full rendition of the pure, sacred, historical, and fiercely patriotic national song, Vande Mataram, and engaged in blatant Muslim appeasement, this was precisely the kind of conduct one expected from Rahul Gandhi. Last week, a resolution opposing the national song Vande Mataram was passed in the Congress Working Committee, and this week, under the pretext of interacting with students, he once again pursued Muslim appeasement by launching a direct attack on Sanatan Dharma.
Rahul Gandhi is well aware that Sanatan fundamentally means the process of moving forward with ever-new evolution and renewal. Had this not been the case, would we not be trapped beneath countless social evils today? For instance, we Sanatanis abandoned the practice of polygamy without a trace of resistance. There are numerous such social evils from which we Sanatanis have freed ourselves with absolute ease. For this, we required no artificial reform movements or elaborate maneuvers. Hindutva underwent an organic churning, and its evils simply fell away. This will continue to happen in the future. Whether these politicians arrive on the scene or not, Sanatan will forever embrace renewal.
Driven by the sheer terror of Muslim invaders, Hindu society was compelled to adopt the purdah system and perform marriages under the cover of night. These very same Muslim invaders also acted as barriers to Hindu women’s education. In due course of time, we Sanatanis successfully uprooted these very evils. Today, Hindu women are leading their families from space itself. In truth, the very words patriarchy and matriarchy are foreign imports. The Hindu family institution has never drawn such gender-based divisions; the holistic vision of man and woman—meaning the complete vision of human existence, has always been our core tradition.
While shouting slogans of ‘Smash the Patriarchy,’ Rahul Gandhi did not even bother to study his own family! If a rigid patriarchy truly governed India, how could Indiraji have ever become Prime Minister?
Rahul Gandhi, along with all politicians, must exercise caution when commenting on Hindu texts, civilization, and cultural traditions from political platforms. Will these leaders continue to say and do anything whatsoever purely for the sake of ‘Muslim appeasement’?!
Rahul spoke extensively on patriarchy during his event in Pune, passionately calling upon the youth to eradicate it and raising the slogan ‘Smash the Patriarchy.’ In a land where we revere the ancient dictum, ‘Where women are worshipped, there the deities reside,’ Rahul Gandhi—and the Congress party in particular—possesses no moral right whatsoever to preach on this subject.
The most glaring and fiery manifestation of true patriarchy is the infamous Shah Bano case itself. If one genuinely wishes to strike a blow against patriarchy, the crusade must begin within Muslim society. Why does Rahul Gandhi maintain absolute silence on the hijab, the purdah system, and the burqa? Will Rahul Gandhi ever dare to challenge the institutionalized patriarchy that was freshly reinforced by then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the Shah Bano episode?
Reputed to be a man of progressive ideals and raised abroad, Rajiv Gandhi used a parliamentary resolution during the Shah Bano case to thrust centuries of regressive patriarchy right back onto Muslim women in a single stroke.
While pontificating on patriarchy, Rahul Ji did not utter a single syllable regarding the practice of multiple marriages in Muslim society. Nor did he muster the courage to speak about the limited ancestral inheritance rights of Muslim women, or the property rights and maintenance allowances of Muslim widows and divorced wives.
There are numerous Muslim-majority, Sharia-governed countries across the world that have long since adopted the ‘one wife’ rule; then why do Muslims in India retain the legal right to four marriages? Is Rahul’s crusade of ‘Smash the Patriarchy’ blind in one eye?
There are many Muslim-majority nations around the world that have rejected the burqa, the hijab, and the veil, declaring them incompatible with the Quran. Why do the hijab and the burqa find no place within Rahul Gandhi’s slogan of ‘Smash the Patriarchy’?
Two or three years ago, a meaningful wave of ‘anti-hijab protests’ began sweeping across India from Karnataka. At that time, Rahul Ji kept his mouth firmly shut. Yet, with the return of a Congress government in Karnataka, Muslim schoolgirls are once again compelled to attend classes clad in hijabs, veils, and burqas! Let Rahul travel there, toss a hijab into the air, and boldly shout ‘Smash the Patriarchy’—then perhaps his rhetoric would carry some credibility.
Do not play politics steeped in double standards, Sir! If young men hurl abuses, it is wrong; stop them. But Rahul Ji, are you actually inciting our girls to engage in abuse? What on earth is your underlying game plan?
India’s civilization is a vast, flowing stream shaped by the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh philosophies, folk cultures, and countless shared social experiences. If Indian culture were solely about the systematic oppression of women, how could traditions of legendary female scholars like Gargi and Maitreyi have ever flourished? How would the Vedas record profound, scholarly dialogues involving women? Indeed, the sacred codes and rules of Hindu marriage were authored by the maternal force itself.
Undoubtedly, Indian society harbored social evils, inequalities, and numerous rigid orthodoxies. However, any civilization must be evaluated not merely by its historical flaws, but by its innate capacity for self-correction. India has continually given birth to reformers from within its own fold and waged successful struggles against social malpractices.
Taking selective, out-of-date lines from any ancient text and projecting them as the mindset of the entire Hindu society is sheer intellectual bias. This is outright anti-Hindu sentiment. Portraying Indian culture as inherently anti-woman simply to reap political gains is nothing short of ‘mental Naxalism.’
During his Pune program, Rahul Gandhi rightly hailed women as a major pillar of India’s strength and advocated for their independent identity—a sentiment worthy of welcome. However, when this very discourse is weaponized to cast aspersions on Indian cultural traditions, it raises the inevitable question: are our youth being deliberately alienated from their civilizational roots rather than connected to them?
Today, India’s youth are deeply conscious of their identity. They desire to be modern, yet fiercely Indian. They want to excel in science and technology while taking immense pride in their heritage. They demand gender equality, but they will never accept being forced to feel hatred toward their own culture to achieve it.
Rahul Gandhi’s message of women’s equality might have been worth listening to had it been delivered impartially across both Hindu and Muslim contexts. However, a message delivered by placing Indian culture under a cloud of suspicion is entirely unacceptable. Indian Hindu culture is not so fragile that it must be abandoned for the sake of modernity, nor is modernity so narrow that it cannot walk hand in hand with Indianness.
Politics must address the genuine problems of society, not manufacture cultural self-alienation. Modernity will never be achieved by assaulting India’s culture; a truly New India can only be built by understanding our roots, executing wise reforms, and marching forward with unshakeable self-confidence.
Dr. Praveen Dataram, 9425002270 – 9425193075
