December 28, 2025 06:22 AM IST First published on: Dec 28, 2025 at 06:22 AM ISTHindutva’s fearless foot soldiers had a busy time last week risking life and limb in service of Mother India. Arming themselves with sticks and stones they set about erasing all signs of Christmas. They smashed the heads of Santa Claus statues they came across, and demolished Christmas decorations outside malls and other public places. If they came upon people getting in the Christmas mood by wearing Santa Claus caps, they tore these red and white caps off their heads and warned them that if they wanted to celebrate Christmas, they should do it at home.The more intrepid of these Hindutva warriors stormed into churches and disturbed services with vandalism and violence. Videos of these ‘accomplishments’ were uploaded on social media. In one of them, I saw a BJP legislator enter a church in Jabalpur and harangue a blind woman, whom she accused menacingly of trying to convert Hindus to Christianity. According to unverified estimates, there were nearly a hundred attempts to disrupt Christmas festivities and nearly all of them occurred in states ruled by the BJP. Nobody was punished and no chief minister openly deplored the violence.AdvertisementThe Prime Minister did speak. On ‘X’ he posted this, “Attended the Christmas morning service at The Cathedral Church of the Redemption in Delhi. The service reflected the timeless message of love, peace and compassion. May the spirit of Christmas inspire harmony and goodwill in our society.” Did nobody tell him about how Sangh Parivar stormtroopers were violating the spirit of Christmas in towns and cities across India? Did nobody tell him that Christians in India live in fear these days because of the actions of Hindutva’s warriors? Did nobody tell him that their activities have been reported in the international media? Did nobody alert him to the Christmas Day bombing of Nigeria by his ex-best friend Donald Trump to protect Christians from further attacks by jihadi groups?It is not so much India’s image abroad that we need to worry about so much as the damage that is being done to the fabric of Indian society within our borders. In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year, the Prime Minister went out of his way to praise the RSS. He said of his Alma Mater, “Its 100 years of national service has been a proud and glorious page (in India’s history) …service, dedication, organisational strength and unmatched discipline are the identity of the RSS.”What we need to ask is why this ‘service’ has spawned organisations like the Vishva Hindu Parishad and its youth wing the Bajrang Dal, whose only motivation is hatred. It was a deep hatred, or perhaps a deep inferiority complex, that inspired young men and women from the Sangh Parivar to attack Christians as they celebrated their most important festival last week. Which leads me inevitably to my next question.AdvertisementIn the 100 years of its ‘service’, why is it that the RSS has never noticed that what they should be trying to initiate is an era of enlightenment? A renaissance. This would need BJP chief ministers to make drastic reforms in the education system in their states. A vital requirement because it is only when young Indians become educated (instead of just literate) that they will appreciate the magnificence of the civilisation they inherit and the wisdom of Indic religions that allow questioning of gods and prophets.most readInstead of this happening the RSS, since one of their own became prime minister has concentrated its energy and its resources on attacking Muslims and Christians. Sadly, this is turning India into a mirror image of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Is this service to our ancient land? Or is it a dangerous disservice? As for me, I confess that one of the reasons why I became a Modi Bhakt was because I hoped he would usher in an Indian renaissance, that is still badly needed, but was more badly needed when he first became prime minister.Decades of rule by the Dynasty had done little more than perpetuate the colonial ideas that we inherited from the British Raj. There was almost nothing done in that time to revive knowledge of India’s immense contributions to the civilisation of the world. Contributions in the arts, architecture, literature, languages, music and religion. The ruling class, of which I was very much a part, was made up mostly of people who knew almost nothing about India and who seemed determined to preserve all things colonial including a brutally colonial system of governance. We were a pathetic lot, but two Westernised ideas that we did manage to preserve were pluralism and parliamentary democracy.As Shashi Tharoor wrote in this newspaper last week, parliamentary democracy is today in danger of total collapse, and this is something that we all need to be worried about. But it will almost certainly be revived some day in the not-too-distant future. What will be much harder to revive is pluralism. As of last week, it appears that it is being systematically destroyed by semi-literate thugs who are so blinded by hatred they do not notice that attacking Santa Claus and Christmas are hardly likely to persuade Hindus to resist converting to Christianity. In any case, they have every right to worship in whichever way they want, not just because this right is enshrined in our Constitution, but because it is enshrined in India’s civilisation.