Why is the west so politically correct

The rise of political correctness must be causing headaches to linguists and wordsmiths. If left to the liberal intellectual and the feminists, language would soon be gender neutral.HIStory would be OURstory, MANkind would be HUMANkind; the list is quite exhaustive. But perhaps the biggest impact would be on the Vatican. God is always referred to as HE in the Bible. Coming up with a gender neutral Bible would be quite a task, that would test not just the patience but also the linguistic skills of our Biblical scholars. Finally, the way we pray in church would be different. Imagine praying "Our PARENT in heaven" instead of "Our FATHER in heaven"!!
However the biggest casualty of political correctness is Christmas (and Santa), at least in the over civilized west. Its ridiculous that the message of Peace, Joy and happiness, Merry Christmas, is taboo in the West. Merry Christmas has been replaced by "Happy Holidays". Santa has been asked to clean up his lingo. In fact a Santa was fired in Australia for singing Jingle all the way!! God alone knows whats nonsecular about Jingling Bells!! Poor Santa cant even greet with Ho Ho.I wonder whether kids actually knew the American Slang synonym of ho. But now thanks to the controversy, I bet a lot of kids would have coloured their vocabulary with dirty American slang!!

Brigade Road in Bangalore in full Christmas Splendour

I work in India for an Informational technology Services MNC. This Christmas all my non christian colleagues and myself greeted our western colleagues with Merry Christmas. We were taken aback when most of our western colleagues replied with Happy holidays!! In India, a Hindu Majority country where Christians constitute just 2% of the population, the whole country is awash with the festive atmosphere during Christmas. Even non Christians join in celebrating the spirit of Christmas. Bangalore's busy shopping arcade Brigade road would be awash with Red, and Santa greeting u with Ho Ho!! All the newspapers would have "Merry Christmas" splashed across the front page in a hue of Red. In fact India's largest selling English daily The Times of India, brought out a special Christmas edition edited by prominent Christians from Bombay!! The Majority Hindus and other minority communities like the Muslims and the Sikhs certainly did not get offended at this overt celebration of an alien Religious Festival. The most popular Hindu festival, Diwali too is publicly and uninhibitedly celebrated in grandeur by all Indians, Hindus and non Hindus alike.

When a non christian multi religious India can publicly rejoice Christmas, I wonder what prompted the christian West and Oceania to replace a beautiful greeting like Merry Christmas with the drab and gloomy sounding "happy holidays"?? Is it to avoid offending the non christian minorities? From India's experience, the non Christians certainly didn't seem to mind the celebration of Christmas, and neither do the minorities grudge the grandeur with which Diwali is celebrated. In fact I would go to the extent of saying that the public celebration of religious festivals in a unobtrusive and non coercive manner has furthered unity and secularism in India. My guess is that "happy Holidays" and other symbols of political correctness are a result of a nonspiritual and paranoid liberal intellectuals. As the former Australian President, John Howard said, let us not take Christ out of Christmas.