Not buying it

We're in Delhi.

I keep being told (by media and tour guides) that India's got an 85(ish)% Hindu majority. And yet, everywhere I look I see evidence to the contrary. I get the feeling it's a bit like claiming the US is a Christian country.

On the same note, I had no idea of the incredibly pervasive Islamic influence here. I know that Hyderabad and Delhi were Muslim kingdoms at different points (I think one King built stuff in both places) but still--even in Kolkata/Calcutta and Mumbai--lots of mestizaje. The north more so than the south.

One amusing thing about it: our guide today kept referring to the Muslim invaders like it was a recent thing: first ones were about a thousand years ago. We went to Qutb Minar, the first mosque in India. They tore down Hindu temples to build most of it, and while they destroyed a lot of the faces and bodies, a lot is still visible. So, you see these Hindu pillars inside a mosque, complete with Islamic script. It's a gov't monument now, noone uses it for worship--and apparently they had to cover (with a green metal cage) a bit showing Ganesha; people were praying there. And if you have Hindus praying at the site of a mosque, well. All hell could well break loose.

And I kept wondering about my skepticism about holding that particular grudge, especially given the comparisons I keep making to colonial Mexico, where I think calling the Spanish invaders makes total sense. It comes down to cultural politics: in Mexico the Spanish won hands down. To this day anything European is privileged: materially and culturally. In India, that's really not the case. Muslims are a minority, especially in terms of cultural capital. While the biggest monuments in Indian cities are Muslim and English (the historic Hindu stuff was trashedby the invading armies), cultural and religious hegemony belongs to the Hindus. Indigenous tribal people here are as dispossessed and marginalized here as they are in the Americas; only here, nobody ever talks about them.