Welt- und Zeitgeschichte sind reich an Beispielen, welche die schädliche Rolle der Religion vor Augen führen. Zwei große Schadenskategorien sollte man aus analytischen Gründen (mindestens) unterscheiden. Zum einen den intellektuellen Schaden, den religiöse Weltanschauungen anrichten, indem sie wahrheitsnahe Theorien (und die Suche nach ihnen) unterdrücken und statt dessen Hirngespinste in Millionen von Köpfen pflanzen. Teil dieser Gärtnereitätigkeit sind in der Regel Hass auf Andersgläubige und Minderheiten.

Die zweite Schadenskategorie besteht in unmittelbarer Gewalt gegen Andersgläubige und Minderheiten.

Wer diese Mechanismen in einer aktuellen Laborsituation studieren will, kann dies in Indien tun, wo radikale Hindus seit Jahren nicht nur geistig Amok laufen. Besonders en vogue sind dort derzeit (verbale und tätliche) Angriffe auf Historiker, die statt mythologisch-nationalistischen Geschichtskonstruktionen zu propagieren, sich auf historische Fakten beziehen. Nachzulesen ist das in der New York Review of Books 6/2005, in der William Dalrymple ausführlich diese Vorgänge beschreibt*:

In his book, Laine wrote that Shivaji’s parents „lived apart for most if not all of Shivaji’s life,“ adding that „Maharashtrians tell jokes naughtily suggesting that his guardian Dadaji Konddev was his biological father.“ This was interpreted as a suggestion by Laine that Shivaji was illegitimate; after a horrified review was published in a Marathi weekly magazine, a series of protests began. In October an elderly Sanskrit scholar whom Laine had thanked in his acknowledgments was beaten up and had his face smeared with tar. To forestall further violence, in November the book was withdrawn from the Indian market by Oxford University Press, and an apology for causing offense was issued by the author.

The Indian newsmagazine Outlook ran its story of the attack on the institute across two pages under the banner headline „A Taste of Bamiyan,“ and most of the leading Indian papers carried editorials attacking what one referred to as the „Talibanization“ of India. „We cannot have the mob write our history for us,“ said Indian Express.

Unluckily for Professor Laine, the attack took place in the months leading up to India’s general election and the book soon became an election issue. The militants who carried out the attack held public meetings announcing that they wanted every Indian named in the book’s acknowledgments to be arrested, questioned, and tried. Opening his campaign in Maharashtra, the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, issued a „warning to all foreign authors that they must not play with our national pride. We are prepared to take action against the foreign author [Laine] in case the state government fails to do so.“

Leaders of the normally moderate Congress Party, which was in power in Maharashtra, not wishing to be outflanked on the issue, took an even harder line, and announced that they had instructed the CBI (the Indian equivalent of the CIA) „to arrest Laine through Interpol,“ adding: „Do you think the government will tolerate insults to national figures like Shivaji?“

* Der Artikel ist Teil des kostenpflichtigen Archivs der NYRB.