“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” — Martin Luther King Jr

Introduction

Uniting a community as large, diverse, and ancient as Hinduism—which encompasses over a billion people with vast differences in language, geography, caste, traditions, and philosophies—is a complex and multifaceted endeavour.

The biggest hurdle is the mindset of Hindus who feel that ‘Hindus can never get united as one monolithic entity’. This is also understood by other religions and they say it in your face- Hindus- that you can never stand together- historically they can give several examples. And they are absolutely right.

Rest, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims all stand together and you can see it. They are absolutely right and why not? There is a sense of belonging and support within them.

Basis this they also jeer at Hindus that they are cowards and selfish. We take the shelter under the garb of being very liberal, inclusive, tolerant and righteous- better than the rest of the world. We take pride in being trolled and ridiculed. ‘Oh, we can take all this…’.  The word ‘crap’ is implied. We have survived for 5000 years. That way cockroaches survived millions of years. Cockroaches did not just survive the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago; they actually predated them by over 100 million years. We are not Cockroaches.

Recent panorama

We did enough foolishness before Chinese invaded us in 1962. We kept flying white pigeons of peace and singing the slogan ‘Hindi Chinee Bhai Bhai’ and they usurped our land; lot of it. India lost approximately 38,000 square kilometres to Chinese in one war.

We lost lot of people too.

Killed- 1,383Wounded: 1,047 Missing in action: 1,696 Captured as Prisoners of War (POWs): 3,968.

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”  Said Peter Drucker.

We have been fed old rhetoric for far too long

Hindus have been lecturing Hindus sitting on a moral high horse repeating the same old record of tolerance, Ahinsa, accommodating, inclusive, world is one family for far too long and which never worked to unite Hindus. We keep blaming caste system and several other issues and never thought of a new approach. The caste system is so badly embedded that hundreds of movements by hundreds of great reformers have never really worked.

There are three types of Hindus in particular and Indians in general behaviour wise.

The first type is the one who is actually anti idea, faith or government.

The second group is for the government and ideas.

But there a third one who is totally confused. These are the people which is a “Anpadh (ill-informed) group” which watches all nonsensical stuff and for no reason criticises the system- whatever it may be- these are called- ‘toon kaun main khaamakhan’ types a small yet significant number- but ignore them.

We have been Barking up the wrong tree for centuries

A tree has hundreds of branches. Individually if you tell them to come together, the branches of the same tree are sovereign and separate- they will not come closer, but when there are strong winds and hurricane- they will bend in the same direction and stand together as one tree. You need a storm and not a storm in a cup of tea- to move in the same direction.

The caste system (jati and varna) has historically been one of the most significant sources of fragmentation within Hindu society. Actually, this is the main cause of disunity.

Most politicians actually were happy that classes exist, as they can play caste politics. They could divide Hindus into different castes and did their political calculation to put one against the other- and their calculus always worked in their favour.

Some of our leaders and people who tried to unite Hindus of different castes were probably taking a very simplistic approach of persuasion They were saying we have lived this far with caste system since the time of Manu. We can keep doing so. This is a defeatist stance.

Promoting internal social equality, ending caste-based discrimination, and encouraging inter-community marriages are widely seen as fundamental to unity. All different saintly and sane methods got just partial success- I would say, even at the cost of being generous. Actually, they never worked and you still have the dagger of reservations hanging on the head of Hindu society. Hindus have changed the DNA within. You look at a brahmin and a Kshatriya or (Khatri) or a Shudra, the difference is in your face.

Idea of Manu

In Hindu cosmology, Manu is the progenitor of humanity and the lawgiver who established human civilization, while Vriti generally refers to the cyclical state or “modes of existence”. A progenitor is a direct ancestor (such as a parent or forefather) or an originator/founder of a movement, idea, or development.

The name “Manu” comes from the Sanskrit root man, (as in pun) meaning to think. He is regarded as the Indian equivalent of Adam—the first human being and lawgiver.

Manu Vriti (meaning “the duties, behaviour, or occupation as defined by Manu”).

The jobs are very well defined, dividing the society into four groups.

‘You, are different by (manus philosophy) but be different and yet come together’. That is what we want and preach.

‘Respect every one’- now this is a saintly advice that is good to hear in mandirs and churches but is not appealing to the extent of unacceptability. People cannot except this intellectual discourse in a modern society. That is why it has not worked. Governments tried too but had to go for caste-based reservations for those who belonged to lower caste- as defined by Manu. And this goes on, in fact worsens as days pass. Over the centuries these four groups or Jatis got differently privileged- to the extent of being mutually exclusive. With such diverse differences getting them together as one monolithic group is asking for too much.

We have divided ourselves and want to stay together? This is a weird dichotomy.

What is the need of the hour and what should be done

We need one collective cause and call that I will examine soon.

Litmus test- West Bengal

This as such is a case study by itself. Of Hindu unity.

‘Proof of the pudding is in the eating’. This time during West Bengal assembly elections in May 2026 the voting percentage shot up to 92% plus across. This was a record of sorts and all the Hindus united and voted for BJP. No one expected Hindus to get united- but they did. They were punished and discriminated for 15 years collectively, and the central government ensured a fair and free elections and people who were afraid to come out to vote-especially Hindus-   came out (in a way under protection of central forces) and voted with all their might.

The “Politics of Memory” and Cross-Border Anxieties were a factor too psychologically.

A highly influential psychological driver was what political scientists call the “politics of memory.” The BJP effectively tapped into the historical trauma of Partition-related displacement and violence among Bengali Hindu refugee communities.

This collective memory was reawakened and amplified by contemporary external events, specifically the rise in anti-Hindu sentiment and violence in neighbouring Bangladesh. By framing Hindu identity around a shared sense of historical and current vulnerability, it forged a strong ideological cohesion that superseded traditional lower-caste or regional divisions.

Counter-Polarization Against Local “Dadagiri” and Appeasement added to this sentiment of solidarity.

Today this is being done by all opposition parties especially open appeasement of minorities to catch votes as a vote bank block.

The consolidation did not happen in a vacuum; it was a direct reaction to the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) visible minority outreach and its system of local governance, often referred to in Bengal as Dadagiri (everyday coercion by local party bosses).

Highly publicized incidents involving local strongmen in areas like Sandeshkhali and Falta created a deep sense of insecurity/fear in Hindus.

Many Hindu voters felt that the state machinery, through “franchisee politics” (where local leaders were given free rein in exchange for loyalty to the ruling party), was indifferent to their grievances. This created a strong defensive counter-polarization, driving voters to look for a powerful political alternative to protect their interests.

This understanding for Hindu Samaj is most important that you should vote as a block to protect your- self. You may be left leaning, right leaning or being in the centre of the political spectrum but lineage and survival is important than ‘leaning’. Therefore, representing yourself together as a block of Hindus during elections is extremely important.

Today it is not Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ but ‘survival of the united’.

Which party will protect you, your lineage and civilization/culture are the moot questions. Once you have assessed this you have clarity and mind crystal clear who you vote for.

Fear as a binding glue

Let us assume that there is a gated community where 200 families reside. With fast paced life people do not get time to meet each other and in this case too, families do not interact much with each other. But if there is a fire in the building everyone comes to douse the fire and help each other. The reason is ‘collective fear’. They forget who owns an Audi, a Volvo or a simple home grown Maruti Desire. They all come together to help each other. Different status is thrown out of the window.

Hitler rallied Germans by creating fear in their minds (even for a wrong cause) – imaginative fear- of communist invasion and jews as a race which he defined as greedy. He positioned the Nazi Party not just as a political choice, but as the absolute, final line of defence against a violent Bolshevik takeover.

Of course, he finally got the whole nation destroyed. But the fear factor worked.

Proponents of this view often point to historical instances globally where communities or nations achieved high levels of mobilization and unity primarily when they felt their survival or core identity was at risk. Even Britain united under Churchill during Second World War out of fear of getting conquered by Hitler. Aristocrats to the labour class, fought shoulder to shoulder.

We shall learn in the subsequent parts of this article what individuals can do and other factors to unite Hindu Samaj.