~By Dilip Bobb
It’s a Hitlerian concept with some additions. Adolf sought to create a Master Race of tall, blonde, blue-eyed Aryans by eliminating those with inferior genes like Jews and non-Whites. There are many in India, and the Indian government, who are seeking to create the Indian version of a master race and the perfect progeny. Suggestions on how this can be done, aka “Indic Thinking”, are pouring in from all over. Here are some of the more prominent ones.
AYUSH: For those with inferior genetics who may not be aware, AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. It is a ministry created by this government, upgraded from an obscure department in the ministry of health. It is headed by the aptly-named Yesso Naik, the BJP representative from Goa. The sensitive representative has taken the lead in forming the genetic code for creating the ideal Indian. Its official line: to produce healthy (Indic) babies, pregnant mothers should avoid feelings of lust, hatred, anger, attachment, desire, and avoid sex and meat, and have spiritual thoughts all the time. Sounds utopian? Here’s the Ayush-type answer—hang beautiful pictures in the bedroom and all will be fine, impure thoughts will be banished and only the purest baby will emerge. Oh yes, a little Yoga will help too.
Baba Ramdev: The man who turned an ancient spiritual discipline into a huge corporate empire knows a thing or three about the superior being, being one himself. His tenets on yoga and its connection to a healthy mind and healthy body are well-known, but he’s also got a thing about how to produce a healthy child, a healthy male child, that is. Ramdevmedicines.com, a website selling Patanjali products, states: “Divya Putajeevak seeds help make a female potent to conceive a child. It is an extremely effective herb that has been used for ages in ancient India to rectify the defects in a woman’s body to make her conceive. According to ancient texts, it is also helpful in conceiving a male child.” He also has a more drastic (final) solution to purify the gene pool—behead all those who do not chant Bharat Mata ki Jai!
Bajrang Sena: Again, a saffron group that wants the banishing of all impure thoughts, especially lust. It has taken a position on positions, and demanded a ban on the sale of the Kama Sutra, the celebrated ancient Indian treatise on perfect pleasure. It has also petitioned local authorities in Khajuraho to stop the sale of figurines in the temple complex, on the grounds that these are against Indian culture. The sacred ousts the profane.
AYUSH 2: Avoid tea, coffee, sugar, white flour products, garam masala, fried and oily items, egg and non-vegetarian food. This advice is officially laid down in a booklet, titled Mother and Child Care, released by the Ayush ministry. Such touching concern would be laudable were it not for the fact, scientifically proven, that avoiding many of the forbidden foods in the booklet lead to protein deficiency, malnutrition and anemia, all serious health hazards for pregnant women. When religiosity trumps reason, we have reason to worry. Pregnant women also need to look at friends and family with a more critical eye. Ayush recommends that they avoid bad company and only be with good people. Should not be so difficult since we are surrounded these days by saints and yogis.
Yogi Adityanath: The new saffron star in the BJP leadership pantheon has some words of wisdom for women and all of us in general. His classic line is that “it is only a protected (meaning controlled) woman who gives birth to mahapurush, or great men. Women cannot be left independent or free”. He also added this philosophical gem: “The thoughtless storm of women freedom of the western world will drive them to an even more disastrous condition and it will hamper the creation and stability of the home and family and prevent the glorious re-building of the nation and motherland”. Sieg Heil!