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1/ Reading Camilla Townsend's FIFTH SUN about pre- and post-Conquest Mexico, I recognized a lot of things: the exploitation of internal divisions, the brainwashing of the children of nobles, the propaganda war, the attempts to preserve a besieged & smeared past.
2/ It brought home that Hindu India represents an anomaly in the histories of missionary monotheistic imperialisms: the polytheistic civilization that was supposed to be superseded has, albeit in damaged form, survived. The overwritten text can still be read very clearly.
3/ The resistance continues worldwide with unprecedented vigor: Political organizing (aggressively demonized), artistic and literary expression (I'm personally part of this), the rediscovery, re-articulation, & reform of ideas, stories, & social structures.
4/ Whether these efforts are doomed is anyone's guess. True, the anomaly has survived this long, but that guarantees nothing; the same extinction that hit indigenous American Gods may be happening on a slower time frame.
5/ The argument could be made that the time frame has *accelerated* since Independence. Many speak of "South Asia" but those who do, gloss over how the square mileage where Hindus can exist free of grotesque (and seemingly invisible) persecution has increased rapidly since 1947
6/ The other, more difficult question is whether the Dharma will survive by adapting into an unrecognizably "rigid" or aggressive form that ever more closely resembles the forces working to destroy it. The metamorphosis is ongoing; we have yet to see what color our wings will be.
