#andals are colonizers? how is this “forgotten?”

[rhaenin-time]

ok one reason I get so pissed off about the way "colonization" is misused in fandom is because it's a reminder that if you have half an idea and care in how the world functions, you can't even escape from that shit in fandom. All you can do is get to engage with it in various other contexts that lack the real-world degree of personal involvement — but not all of it. And that might actually be a good thing, a break from the personal connection and a chance to look at those issues in a different, less glaring light.

Or it would be. If not for all those people that can seemingly recognize that colonization is a "singular evil" when it benefits them, but who will immediately drop the subject or even get angry when it no longer does. And my big issue here is that I'm not just talking about fandom.

Now, I could write a huge essay on this and I probably will, but I've learned I tend to get things done more when I simply release little posts on the subject to gather into one for later. So that's what I'm going to do.

So I'll keep this short and sweet, and say for now, one of many reasons the overbearing misuse of "colonization" in the asoiaf fandom bothers me is because it echoes the same misuse and/or weaponization I see over and over again in real life. I see it when white anglo westerners speak of white Russians, white Latinos, Han Chinese, Arabs, Muslims, Jewish people be they zionist or not, and honestly the list goes on. Even in how European nations and overseas settler states sometimes talk about each other.

The following sentiment is shared by many I know: for a variety of reasons, I do not like it when people from colonial nations use the idea or even the fact that another group has engaged in colonialism as an excuse to be xenophobic. And I especially don't like how that's often the only time people are interested in the concept of colonization.

Probably because I do not like the mindset behind xenophobia, and I especially don't like colonization being trivialized and weaponized, often by beneficiaries of colonization, to support that mindset. And I truly hate how freely and thoughtlessly people do it to the point that it permeates not just real life but even fandom discourse, and how angry people become when you point it out.

[hindulivesmatter]

I'm from the USA and took a lot of Indian history courses at my university. You might already know this or have guessed it, but a lot of what we learned was taught from a leftist--and at times explicitly Marxist--perspective. This was even stronger in other (but thankfully not all!) social studies departments where there were classes focusing solely on various social ills of Hinduism with regard to caste and issues of feminism, yet almost nothing negative could be said if it might be critical of Islam or Muslim figures, (Mahmud of Ghazni being a notable exception for one of my professors.) There was a whole class on British colonialism; no details were spared. Horrible famines in the Deccan, Odisha, Bengal. The decimation of the textile industry. Banning bharatanatyam. The salt tax. Accounts of how a British man kicked one of his servants to death, and another of how the poor and sick congregated outside the gates of a hospital in the south that at the time would only help Europeans. Jallianwala Bagh. But Aurangzeb? Completely whitewashed. You would think Sikhs carry a kirpan for no reason. It was only through reading additional books and documents for my essays and projects that I learned about how he tore down temples, smashed murtis (and stole valuable ones,) levied a double tax on non-Muslims, etc. I remember reading an account of a traveler going through the south at the time of the Deccan wars, remarking on how you could find entire villages empty and deserted fields full of unharvested crops because the people had fled advancing armies. In one region his forces simply killed some Telugu-speaking Brahmins serving the local king rather than force them to convert, and in another his forces captured a royal scribe, forced him to convert to Islam, and forcibly circumcized him before the man killed himself. Obviously the history of all things under the umbrella of Hinduism or any other system is not perfect, but there was a huge difference in how critical you could be of Hinduism (and even western traditions/ideas) compared to Islam.

Sometimes I daydream about what it would have been like to study Sangam literature in India or to experience Andal without needing an English translation, or going to translate old Sanskrit copies of the Mahabharata whose telling is unique to a certain village or something. But ultimately I'm glad I chose to be a research scientist instead and have a career in that, because I don't think I would have been able to succeed in academia unless I were a leftist. :\ Honestly I feel like even going to hang out with ISKCON for a few days would be a better introduction to Hinduism for the average person abroad with zero knowledge than a class called "Intersections of Gender and Caste in Hinduism" or something.

Very telling how Hinduism, and even Christianity is ripped apart in academia, yet when it comes to Islam, it is a religion of "tolerance, and beauty that respects women."

Honestly, though, it's because of how severely they react when their religion is criticized or even inspected. Apostates are given death, women who do not obey are given death, anyone who utters a word against their precious prophets is given, you guessed it! Death.

No religion is perfect, humans can be horrific creatures, and even Hinduism cannot escape that. But Islam has committed far more war crimes than any other religion.

It absolutely boils my blood to see traces of colonizers in our cities. One side of my family hails from Aurangabad, named aftre Aurangzeb, and you already know the atrocities he committed.

It's so fucking insidious to see how the youth have been told what to think. My own friend claimed to me, verbatim: "You cannot be neutral in the Israel-Palestine war. Either you support Palestine, or you support genocide."

Support Hamas? Support terrorism? The same terrorism that affects us? Has everyone forgotten 26/11?

It makes me so sad to think of the future we could have had. Sanskrit would be the most spoken language, instead of English. Gurukuls would exist, and India would still have all of its wealth.

You're right, even ISKCON is better than the propaganda they feed people about our religion.