How did the Longest Resisters to Inter-Civilizational Propaganda in History Become Cluelessly Coopted in Just 2-3 Generations ?
Because I study media & propaganda I view the survival of Indian indigenous traditions (aka Hinduism etc.) as a triumph of resistance to not just conquest but also coercion, conversion, persuasion & propaganda. Here's a thread on the subject (1/n)

(2/n) First a definition of terms. I view the birth and spread of expansive totalitarian ideologies (monotheisms, and so-called secular enlightenment civilizing missions) as prime case-studies in propaganda. Other, lesser examples of P can exist, sure. But these are gold-standard. EVERYONE has to BELIEVE and OBEY the same ONE thing. That one thing will of course claim to be the one thing that explains EVERYTHING.

(3/n) The first wave of attacks on deities, temples, sacred sites did not lead to mass change in belief in India. Some conquest, some destruction, happened. But very few left gods, traditions, ancestors because of 'loss of faith.' OTOH, 6 (gens) x 15 (centuries) say 100 gens fought openly...

(4/n).. based on clear understanding that our minds are ours and theirs are theirs and the latter are not alright so yes, where we can, we will defend the temples, we will fight. But as Prof Arvind Sharma notes in Rulers Gaze, British imperialism turned the target from obvious ones like temples to the the invisible realm - of the mind...

(5/n)... the breaks from one gen to another from perhaps just 1850s till now have been huge; I still recall amartya sen's story that he grew up in a house with no pujas.. 2 gens disconnected right there, a void to be filled with dot pdf or dot penguin (when it comes to our knowledge, same things, just prettier)..

(6/n)... but these breaks, like sen's examples, were still among elites, a fraction of elites; even after 1947, most 'science' elites (isro, barc etc types) stayed totally "trad" at home for example. but there was work being done big way on mass IGC too. Bollywood. Textbooks..

(7/n) ... but something still kept it together, even till 90s, which was when first gen to outearn parents bigly grew up. marketing co's still did not try to break IGC then, with MTV etc pitching 'family channel with youth attitude' as right approach for india..

(8/n).. but the ground (of cultural production) shifted powerfully in 2015-14. Globally, traditional MEC arm of terror was swinging wildly, but they were also finessing takeover of the Brit-approach too - propaganda, pysops, media, education. Mess with the minds and then they will do the statue-temple-tradition smashing themselves!

(9/n)... in the US, they bought schools, textbooks, colleges, celebrities, pop culture. In India, which anyway has elites which ape upward to the US, they did the NGO NCERT "archie archie life isn't just for kicks but everything is politics" messaging (Rang de Basanti to recently, of course, Archie)..

(10/n)... now I come to the KEY issue in failure to learn/launch resistance to latest phase of propaganda: earlier generations of Hindus had an instinct about propaganda when they saw it especially if it was religious/missionary kind. They rejected or at least vaguely heard but did not change fundamentally. But what was it about the new system they failed to notice, especially in the US?

(11/n).. In the US, especially, Hindus failed to read the room. By the late 90s, racism/supremacism/elitism were utterly over as acceptable talking points in society. Other migrant groups more determined to take narrative control knew this. See the contrast in their approach. In the 1940s, as Dhulipala's study show, the ML was arguing about their absolute superiority to Indian "LC's".. but by the 2000s, they were claiming a great global oppressed-solidarity with Blacks, Dalits, Indigenous Groups. White/Jew/Hindu became Apartheidists by existing. Muslim/Dalit/Adivasi/Queer/Indigenous etc. became Resistance to that. (great thread somewhere on X on the palestine PR genius who pulled off the task of appropriating US black story into global muslim identity starting in UCB in early 2000s - will share below).

(12/n).. look at the multigenerational suppleness here. Partition-era Gen is arguing for place "at the top" against Whites/Europeans. Post civil rights era Gen is arguing for place "at the bottom," convincing most of the really messed up paavam bottomed-groups like US indigenous genocide survivors that somehow the other "settler-genociders" of half the world are the victims so they should fly "free Kashmir" flag in US colleges etc while poor displaced Hindu kashmiri kids have to walk under it and pretend their ancestors were the settler colonizers of kashmir ...

(13/n).. meanwhile, Hindu Americans, softened from reality by personal success, and occasional Forbes and Nat Geo and White House invite flattery, still believe that their "boasting upwards" will grant them protection from what they think are pesky, insignificant, unwashed, unpaid, little lefty activists on the fringes of shiny society...

(14/n)... not realizing they are digging deeper into the exact TRAP global propaganda psyops have laid for them in their CHILDREN's minds. "EVIL RICH RACIST OPPRESSIVE OLD PEOPLE" is the category every W-J-H kid has been taught to believe in the last 20 years. Others? Well, there, there are only "equals," of all ages, genders, even sexualities don't you know? This, is the real "parent trap." The more you boast, try to show your kids you are the top, the more they expect the behavior expected now of people "at the top" - take the knee for George Floyd, wear only black for Holi, abolish the Hindu name that may be casteist, eventually, topple the statue or turn it into "palimpsest."

(15/n).. so why do Hindu parents fail to see what obviously other adults have in the US have done? I think it's in part due to our "mimesis" learning style (SNB - As Others See Us).
We don't work on a theory born out of books to describe society and us (or if we do, they're all their books to start with).
We imitate, and if it seems to work, on and on we go... but the problem, imo, is that we are imitating badly on two fronts:
a) we are still imitating upwards, I think, because that's what all the "jatis" had to do in India in the early 1900s for jobs, respect, "white adjacency" etc. even after 7 decades of independence, we think that's how society works and abhor any suggestion of "victim" ness.. (of course, some of our talk-leaders will say don't play "oppression olympics" over hinduphobia in america but also say "caste system is greatest system of oppression" in India now.. oh well)
b) we also have a very uncritical idea of "upwards" now.. perhaps in earlier colonial days there was distinction made between what to imitate and what was still different, what was ours. Maybe because of that Hindus could still tell when they were being denigrated, insulted, hurt. Now, because upward-looking Hindus are so convinced they are on a superior trajectory, they are utterly ok with insult and hate as long as it makes them feel they are part of an elite: eg. "stand up comedians"; Bollywood stars and TV soaps razing Hindu names with contempt, and perhaps the example that triggered this long post.. ads for that new wokeflix show about exploited women which tell consumers "how to get the Heeraxxxxndi look" .

(16/16) SO: even if you don't want to tell your kids to stand up and fight because studies visas etc. at least tell them to stare hard at the insults and see them as such. Tell them to think of why some people are so desperate as to pour billions of dollars into unprofitable shows and movies. They need "propaganda." We don't. Ask your kids to think. What is so lacking in them, then, THEY need propaganda, on US, all the f--in time. Teach them to feel pity. But with ruthless clarity to keep to your own.