The Hindu society has been divided on social media in recent days over a social media user named True Indology. The actual name of this user is said to be Dimple Kaul. Even the gender of this person is not known with certainty, as the account user has been anonymous for years now. Some believe that the person lives in India. Others believe that the person is a citizen of Canada or US.
True Indology's social media posts have been supported by lakhs of Hindus for the past few years. TI is against Marxists, Christian missionaries, and Islamists. A few weeks back, TI wrote a controversial post about social reformer Savitribai Phule (1831- 1897), who is considered India's first female teacher.
In the controversial post, TI talked about British rulers sexually exploiting Indian girls in the 19th Century. Many followers of Phule accused TI of insinuating that Phule established girls' schools with the intention of supplying innocent school girls to the British.
Since then, a huge political controversy has erupted in Maharashtra, where Phule is an icon. NCP and Congress, the two prominent Maharashtra parties, demanded that the BJP-Shiv Sena government arrest TI immediately for hurting the sentiments of the OBC community.
In his recent address in the State Assembly, BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that TI will be dealt with as per the law. He also added that TI would be hanged to death if that's what the law says should be done.
BJP supporters have been the biggest and only supporters of TI. And now, BJP itself is threatening to arrest TI. This has divided Hindus. Some Hindus are saying that BJP has betrayed the Hindu "intellectual", while another section of Hindus are arguing that TI shouldn't have written the controversial post.
How can Telugus, for example, make sense of the whole brouhaha? Let's just take the example of a Komaram Bheem or some other historical personality from Andhra Pradesh. If someone today writes an ambiguous social media post "insulting" them, a huge political controversy would take place if their community members feel offended. That's what is happening in Maharashtra today.
Hindu society stands divided over a Twitter thread written by one popular person. Meanwhile, TI (who tweets under BharadwajSpeaks these days) has begged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant clemency. The issue will go to courts soon.
https://twitter.com/BharadwajSpeaks/status/1685559706805243904
