The myth of the Hindu voter lies shattered. Hopefully, for good. While there are Hindus who will vote for leaders who explicitly seek Hindu votes, it is not a norm. Hindus have and will continue to vote for anyone they damn well want. Also, no leader is specifically a Hindu leader. They may ask for votes in the name of Hinduism, but the religion, by nature, does not have any such provision for a single leader, unlike some others.
Now, when will we lay to rest the myth of the Hindu ruler?
Why do I bring this up? Because yesterday was the 350th anniversary of the coronation of Chh Shivaji Maharaj, a hero not just to the Marathi people but nationally. Unfortunately, political and religious leaders have reduced him to a ‘Hindu’ King when, in reality, he was so much more than that.
I would very much recommend Govind Pansare’s, ‘Who was Shivaji?’ (translated by Uday Narkar; if you can read Marathi, do see if you can read the original ‘शिवाजी कोण होता?’) to all my Indian brothers & sisters to better understand the greatness of this amazing King, one of our founding heroes, a brilliant general, and a genius politician who was one of the first to dream of a true Indian sovereign state, the ‘Hindavi Swarajya’ (for those who didn’t know, ‘Hindavi’ translates to ‘Indian’ and not ‘Hindu’ as these politicians would have you believe).
If you want to understand how to govern this country, there is no better place to start than Shivaji and his thoughts, his actions, and his life. The ruling party and their arrogant cultists who worship him as ‘God’ will never understand his greatness as a leader of humans. In fact, I accuse them of attempting to destroy this great man and what he stood (and fought) for by deifying and thus fossilising him.
Let us remove Shivaji from our ‘devghars’ and once again take him into our hearts. Let us rescue him from these usurpers. Let us remember that while Ram Rajya may or may not have existed, Shiv Rajya definitely did. And it was not a Hindu kingdom. But an Indian one.
