of life now that they have been unleashed from a position of power it can be said that hindu fundamentalism is a response to islamic fundamentalism but the fact remains that the liberal tolerant nature of hinduism is in danger although the rss chief may not have been off the mark with his statement but such statements embarrass liberal hindus more than anybody else the recent beef ban in maharashtra is another example of majoritarianism just because 99 of hindus do not eat beef it does not mean that other communities should be banned from doing so while many may argue that the middle eastern countries and pakistan practise dictatorial religious majoritarianism it should be noted that those countries were created by the colonial powers as islamic countries islamism is in their dna and their constitutions it is not so in india a deeply patriarchal society means that sadly it is women the victims who are blamed for the rape irresponsible statements by mps make us hang our heads in shame men in khaki shorts who celebrate bachelorhood should not advise women on what to do or not to do instead of banning documentaries that expose our hypocrisy towards rape and comedy acts that roast celebrities it would be better if the government banned hate speeches and people with criminal records from entering the parliament and ban the ban on books and films that have been banned lest we end up becoming a nation of bandhan while during upa2 the mps were gagged by sonia gandhi in this government we see too many loose cannons firing this is where goa can set an example it is a state where all faiths have coexisted in harmony for centuries whether in the preportuguese era the colonial period except during the inquisition and postliberation most children in goa grow up being exposed to a multireligious and multicultural atmosphere of hinduism islam and christianity developing an openminded outlook towards religion in the renaissance literature of portuguese i came across a concept called aurea mediocritas which means the golden medium this is the same philosophy that was preached by gautam buddha in the 600 bc it means avoiding the extremes of anything to embrace the middle path or moderation gursharan das lamented in his book that it is difficult to be a liberal hindu today he wrote the book in 2009 in an era when everything is expected to be in black white when a person with x opinionbeliefthought is branded as a supporter of y political party there seems to be no room for openminded discussion where things may have fifty shades of grey i read a post on facebook which said that in todays society hindus have to prove that they are secular while muslims have to prove they are patriotic now i am neither sickular nor an aaptard but it is disheartening to see liberalism fading away in todays society it is for this moderation and liberalism that we need to