[In the December 2006 issue of INSAF Bulletin,
we argued that Maoists were not a major threat
to India. In the March issue we wrote that globalization
is also not the most important threat to India.
In this final article of the
series, we express our position that Hindutva
poses the greatest threat to India. Editors]
Hindutva is a political ideology that has become
entrenched in the consciousness of a very significant
segment of the politically active Indian population
over the last two decades. Due to specific historical
reasons, Hindutva is concentrated, politically,
in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra,
and the northern and central states of Delhi,
U.P., Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
and Jharkhand, and, to a lesser extent, in Bihar
and Orissa. As a political force, Hindutva has
made less headway in the south, although it
is attempting to become a force in Karnataka,
where its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata
Party or BJP, is part of the coalition that
rules the state. In the east, Hindutva has long
been stymied in West Bengal by the political
dominance of the Left Front. However, it has
pockets of influence in Assam although local
and regional factors play a larger role in the
politics of India's north-east region.
Hindutva can be considered to be an extremist
form of nationalism, which uses religious, racial,
and cultural slogans for strictly political
ends. Historically, Hindutva took its early
inspiration from European fascism in the early
decades of the 20th century. B.S. Moonje, one
of the progenitors of Hindutva visited Mussolini's
Italy and was greatly impressed by what he observed
there. Guru Golwalkar, the Supreme Leader of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, was
full of praise for Hitler and the exaltation
of racial purity in fascist Germany.
The RSS is the ideological nerve center of Hindutva
which coordinates the work of the parliamentary
political arm, the BJP, the cultural and social
mobilization wing, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
or World Hindu Council, the paramilitary storm-troopers,
such as the Bajrang Dal, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha
(the largest and the fastest growing trade Union
overtaking the combined strength of the trade
unions of Communist Party of India [CPI] and
CPI[Marxist]), Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad
(student wing), and a vast array of propaganda
and outreach groups and organizations along
with groups devoted to fundraising. The thousands
of elementary schools run by the RSS, the Ekal
Vidyalayas, carry out ideological indoctrination
of village children in many areas where the
state governments have failed to fulfill their
mandate to provide primary education. This apparatus
has been erected over several decades but it
received a huge boost in the 1970s and later
in the 1990s.
The Hindutva organizations, the RSS and the
Hindu Mahasabha, played no role in the freedom
struggle against the British Raj, in fact their
only role was as minor collaborators of British
rule. Shortly after independence their deep
involvement in the planning and execution of
the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, led to
their marginalization in Indian politics in
the early post-independence decades. However,
Hindutva was brought into the mainstream by
the veteran socialist leader Jaya Prakash Narayan
particularly in the campaign against the dictatorial
Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975,
which repressed all political groups in India
ranging from the far left to the far right.
It gained further respectability when leaders
of the erstwhile Jan Sangh, the predecessor
of the BJP, were inducted in the Central Government
after the defeat of Mrs. Gandhi's Congress (I)
party in the 1977 elections. Although the political
fortunes of the BJP in terms of parliamentary
seats fluctuated in the 1980s, the growth of
Hindutva as an ideology acquired dominance amongst
sections of the urban Hindu middle classes as
a result of the Mandal agitation, which brought
into question the entire RSS strategy of uniting
the "Hindu nation" under a core, upper-caste
ideology, the Ramjanamabhoomi agitation leading
to the destruction of the Babri mosque and the
numerous Hindu-Muslim riots which witnessed
violence being wreaked mainly on minorities
by goons from the Bajrang Dal or the Shiv Sena
as well as their sympathizers in the police
forces.
Violence in fact is central to the Hindutva
project of achieving a Hindu rashtra (nation).
'Hinduism' is viewed as constantly under threat
from "outside" forces that, depending
on context, can range from other religions like
Islam and Christianity, other countries, such
as Pakistan, other cultures, such as the "West"
in general, or from people within the larger
Hindu community who believe in pluralism or
secularism and are dubbed as "Hindu-haters."
Violence against all of these is justified in
the mind of Hindutva's followers as a form of
"self-defense". Documentary films
like Anand Patwardhan's "Ram ke Naam"
shows one of these violent young followers saying
"hum kuchh bhi kar sakte hain" (we
can do anything) when asked what tactics are
permissible against those who oppose them. This
is indeed a classic Nazi, fascistic type of
thinking.
The advent of the NDA regime in the late 1990s,
headed by the BJP, gave a big fillip to Hindutva
as now they had become the ruling force at the
Centre and they utilized it to the full at all
cultural, educational, social, and political
levels. This rule witnessed the horrifying "pogrom"
in Gujarat in 2002 when the whole machinery
of the state was harnessed to the destruction
of the Gujarati Muslim community, including
mass murder in particularly brutal ways, wanton
destruction and looting of minority property,
violent ethnic cleansing by the wholesale removal
of minorities from neighborhoods where they
had lived for centuries, and the refusal to
hold anyone responsible for these violent acts.
Fortunately, the people of India, reflecting
the heterogeneous and diverse nature of Indian
society, rejected the one nation, one culture,
one religion approach of RSS and defeated the
BJP-led coalition in the 2004 national election.
But this defeat may be undone at any later election
as the factors underlying Hindutva ideology
are all very much there. The parliamentary Left
in India, including CPI and CPM, is the only
consistent political opposition to Hindutva.
All other parties, including Congress, compromise
to varying degrees with Hindutva ideology or
politics depending on context. The Left gained
in the 2004 elections and made further gains
in 2006 in its strongholds of West Bengal and
Kerala. Recently, however, a curious coalition
ranging from far left to right and somewhat
reminiscent of the JP-coalition in 1974-75 has
formed in West Bengal against the CPM on the
issue of economic policy, in particular, of
industrialization and the use of agricultural
land to set up industry. CPM's response to the
agitation launched by this coalition has generated
intense opposition among a variety of groups,
including some left intellectuals, to the point
where comparison is being made between Gujarat
and the recent events in Nandigram. From a political
standpoint, what weakens the organized Left
automatically benefits the organized Right.
Furthermore, the utter cynicism of recent politics
in India, like Mayawati's Brahmin-Dalit alliance
in U.P., and in-fighting within Congress leading
to its defeat by BJP in Uttaranchal (earlier
in municipal elections in Mumbai), are pointers
to a possible revival of the political fortunes
of BJP.
To understand what the future of India may look
like if the BJP comes back to power, one has
only to look at the "laboratory of Hindutva",
i.e. Gujarat. Gujarat is being repeated on a
smaller scale in some other states where BJP
is in power; this includes M.P. and Rajasthan.
To erect one culture, one religion, one nation
in a quintessentially diverse country like India
would necessitate violence and repression on
a much greater scale with the active connivance
of the repressive organs of the state. This
is why it is the INSAF Bulletin's position that
Hindutva represents the greatest threat to the
survival of India as a democratic and secular
country.
The RSS has been condemned by all secular, democratic
and left formations. However, the secret behind
its dominance has not been fully assessed. One
can hope some serious political analysts will
deal with the issue so as to be able to defeat
and hopefully bury this menace. Two issues are
raised here as a modest venture in that direction.
The first is the link between patriotism and
the religious right. While patriotism and nationalism
played a positive role during the era of colonialism,
it has turned into its opposite in the post-colonial
phase. RSS has been successful to some extent
in equating patriotism with the Hindu heritage
of India; rather Hinduism was made the leading
feature of patriotism invoking Moghul rule as
a colonial past. The rise of Christian fundamentalism
in the US coincides with its invoking patriotism
and nationalism particularly since 9/11. In
India, Pakistan continues to provide that alibi.
Somehow, the approach of India of one culture,
one nation and one religion as started by the
RSS has been more successful especially among
the influential Hindu middle class than any
other form of patriotism or nationalism. Paradoxically,
there is nothing which prevents RSS from capitalizing
on 1857 and even the revolutionary, socialist
Bhagat Singh.
The second point, perhaps more important than
the first, is the RSS's participatory method
and action-oriented form of organizing. Daily
attendance at a Shakha in the early morning
is one such participatory method. Workers belonging
to the RSS trade Unions meet every week at some
one's house for katha (religious gathering).
This approach develops more organic link with
the organization than simple affiliation through
membership. Within the social and cultural milieu
of India these approaches, even if they look
trivial, seem to be very effective. This participatory
method was most successfully developed by Gandhi.
Whenever Gandhi started a movement, he devised
effective means of participation whether as
a march or as satyagraha. Although it is doubtful
whether RSS copied its approach from Gandhi,
the similarity is obvious. In recent years,
the Rath Yatra
(long-distance marches) of Advani leading up
to the demolition of the Babri mosque generated
a large following for the Hindutva brigade.
Obviously there are other reasons for the success
of the RSS. But simply criticizing RSS policies
does not seem to work, instead an effective
means of countering them must be found.
