Kiran Nagarkar

The Sangh’s Hindutva project is obliterating the inherent liberal and inclusive values of the faith

HINDUISM AND HINDUTVA HAVE ONE CURSE IN COMMON, THE CASTE SYSTEM, ESPECIALLY THE PART THAT DEALS WITH THE OUTCASTS OF SOCIETY

LLET’S FOR A MINUTE look at the title chosen for this series by the editors of the magazine. The meaning of Hindutva, as we all know, is ‘the quintessence of Hindu thought, dharma, and belief system’. If that was truly the case, the title of this piece should have been the conjoined pair ‘Hindu and Hindutva’. But there is a good reason why the title was split with the word ‘vs’ or ‘versus’. Quite simply the reason ‘Hindu versus Hindutva’ is so apt is because despite its flaws and shortcomings, the former is open-minded and inclusive while the latter is fanatical and has no room for Dalits, Muslims, Christians or any other faith barring Hindutva. One other thing, let’s never forget that the idea of Hindutva is the preserve of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its proxy, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Hinduism and Hindutva have one curse in common, the caste system, especially the part that deals with the outcasts of society, the untouchables or the Dalits as we call them these days. Dr Ambedkar tried to overcome the bane of Untouchability by converting his people to Buddhism. It’s debatable whether this move really changed the status of the Dalits. Come elections and every major party attempts to woo the Dalit vote bank by offering bigger quotas in jobs or reserving seats in educational institutions. The elections get over and things go back to normal: the low caste Hindus can once again be victimised.

Both the Congress and BJP claim vociferously that they do not differentiate between caste Hindus and the Dalits. The fact is they both do. But there is a vital difference between the views of the two parties. The study of ancient history tells us that long long ago the Aryans invaded and settled in India. The Hindutva ideologues like to think that they have preserved this Aryan bloodline over millennia. Golwalkar and his ilk bought wholesale into the bogus myth of Aryan purity and superiority promoted by Hitler and his fascist hordes. So despite PM Modi’s voluble praise of Ambedkar, the RSS along with the BJP clearly despise the Dalits.

Paradoxically, it is within a section of the Hindu fold (but not Hindutva) that one has witnessed the most stinging criticism of the caste system. They stress the urgent need to embrace the Dalits devoid of that label and to weave them into the very fabric of our society and give them access to the best in education and jobs. Which is why despite its flaws, Hinduism is still the most liberal and inclusive of faiths in India. It is thanks to Gandhiji, Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Vallabhbhai Patel, Ambedkar and the majority of the leaders of our freedom movement that the Indian Constitution is undeniably the most secular and liberal in this part of the world. That statement, however, will hold true only so long as we live up to its letter and spirit.

HINDUISM’S GREATEST VIRTUE was its inclusiveness. Its arms were always open to welcome whoever happened to seek refuge or do business. The Parsis were amongst the first to settle down in India. A few Muslim marauders followed the Parsis and looted India and occasionally committed unprecedented massacres. And, yet, let’s not forget that many of the invaders who chose to settle down in the subcontinent ruled in a fair and benign fashion. The Mughals, for instance, did India proud on many a score. The Portuguese Christians arrived next and then came the Brits who colonised us for 300 years.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first BJP prime minister of the country and Narendra Modi the chief minister of Gujarat when the ghastly Gujarat riots took place. Conservative estimates put the figure of Muslims massacred way above a thousand and over a hundred thousand displaced. Lest we forget, here’s Vajpayeeji’s memorable tepid reprimand to CM Narendra Modi for this monumental man-made tragedy—‘This is not raj dharma.’ But in fairness to Vajpayeeji, his vision of Hindutva was far more liberal and his cabinet had fine experts in different fields like Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha.

Narendra Modi has been PM for over three years now. For all his bravura talk, he is intensely insecure and has surrounded himself with mediocre colleagues in the cabinet. His connection with the RSS is not only far more pronounced, what you get is a new, extremely aggressive avatar of Hindutva. So far, there have been no anti-Muslim riots in the country but something far more dangerous has been going on with the tacit approval of the government.

Let’s understand, once and for all, that while the Constitution is not sacred for the Hindutva brigade, the cow is. So sacred indeed that the poor animals are often left to starve on the roads and forced to feed on toxic plastic waste while the BJP government has made cow slaughter, beef consumption and sale a cognisable offence. This despite the fact that thousands of Muslims lost their livelihood overnight, not to mention that what any citizen of India eats comes under the privacy clause of the Constitution. But the saddest part of the cow politics is that it is but another instance of Hindutva’s pride in its ignorance not just of our sacred texts, sanskriti, history, mythology, science and our truly superb intellectual traditions. For instance, it is of no consequence to them that the Vedas tell us that cow slaughter was an integral part of many religious ceremonies.

PEOPLE LIKE DINANATH BATRA,

the epitome of a closed mind, are regarded as intellectuals and the PM proudly told us that our ancients knew transplantation techniques, citing Lord Ganesha as an example. While some Hindutva scholars have no problem claiming that the Taj Mahal was originally a temple, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu blasted the Mughals (and the British) for looting, ruining and cheating India. Will someone please inform the vice-president that during the 1857 uprising, 100,000 Brahmin soldiers marched to Delhi in support of the last Mughal emperor and placed him on the Delhi throne?

The beef ban, however, is nothing but cow politics and an excuse to persecute and lynch Muslims on the pretext that they are breaking the law. Time and time again, socalled gau rakshaks murder innocent people. Let’s take just one example. Fifty-five-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten to death in Rajasthan’s Alwar district even though he had documents vouching that he had legally purchased the cows. The five assailants were arrested and confessed to their crime. What followed set a new precedent in jurisprudence. FIRs were registered against the culprits and they were sent to prison for a few days and then quietly let off. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi

Adityanath, was an accused years ago in several cases and yet he was allowed to withdraw the criminal cases against himself. Moral of the story: This is one of great benefits of practising Hindutva: death for the innocent and impunity for the guilty and the murderers.

WHEN QUESTIONED BY FOREIGN MEDIA,

Narendra Modiji grew lofty and spoke of taking stern action against the murderers of Muslims. What followed was silence. In the three years as the highest representative of Hindutva, the prime minister has trained us to understand that speech is one thing and action an altogether different matter.

One of the most dangerous and ultimately selfdestructive projects of the Hindutva regime has been the deliberate erasure of memory. Gandhiji, Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and other leaders and the hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens who fought and won India’s independence with the world’s first nonviolent freedom struggle have all been ‘disappeared’. The only time Gandhiji is recalled is in the context of the ‘Swachhata’ campaign.

Let me end with a very brief excerpt from President Richard von Weizsäcker’s extraordinarily wise and insightful speech given on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of WWII: ‘The young and old generations must and can help each other to understand why it is vital to keep alive our memories. lt is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That’s not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or undone. However, anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to the present. Whoever refuses to remember one’s inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection.’

In fact, I would urge every single Hindutva leader, starting from PM Modi, Shri Bhagwat of the RSS and the millions of their followers to read this speech.

Kiran Nagarkar is a novelist, playwright, film and drama critic, and scriptwriter in Marathi and English. His latest work is Jasoda (HarperCollins)

‘DISAPPEARING’ OUR ICONS HAS BEEN HINDUTVA’S MOST FOUL PROJECT. THESE DAYS GANDHI IS INVOKED ONLY FOR SWACHHATA CAMPAIGNS