The so-called 'global growth of fundamentalism' is in fact a global - albeit gradual - collapse of liberalism. This is an abridged version of the lecture given last November at the University of Minnesota by Vishal Mangalwadi.
The militancy of the terrorists, the discrimination and persecution of the religious or ethnic minorities, the corruption and oppression of the state, are together demolishing liberalism's assumption that a human being is good enough to govern himself decently without God.
A phrase such as 'Hindu fundamentalism' is meaningless because in Hinduism there are no theological or ethical 'fundamentals' to which anyone has to adhere. A devout Hindu can be passionately committed to the non-violence of vegetarianism. But a 'left-hand' tantric, practising human sacrifice and drinking the blood of his victim, is just as devout a Hindu as the vegetarian is. Many Hindus would indeed condemn the tantric as a 'bad' Hindu. But what they may not realise is that unwittingly they are judging their faith by 'Western' standards. They assume that whatever does not conform to the Western values is not good Hinduism.
