Nationalism redefined

The RSS has been presented as an illegitimate creation of the Indian secular tradition. Its very name has yielded a tool for the secularists — the Nehruvian and the Left. It was used by Nehru to gain the upper hand over rivals inside theCongress like Sardar Patel and P.D. Tandon.

However, the power of ideology could not be restricted by the force of state-sponsored intellectual propaganda. By the 60’s, the Indian socialists and even the Communist Party of India (CPI) felt the need to solicit the support of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. In the next decade, veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan unhesitatingly showed his comradeship with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the RSS cadres.

The Sangh is a primarily activism-based movement, and derives its intellectual strength from the Hindu world-view. Dr Hedgewar, founder of the movement, believed that nationalism was not merely a war-time spirit but an essential ingredient for the survival and progress of the nation. The RSS shakha was made the nucleus for indoctrinating the cadres for the task of the national regeneration. The continuous process of the individual purification is considered a concomitant of socio-cultural transformation.The Sangh is not a Hindu reformmovement like the Arya Samaj, nor does it believe in the political ideology of Hindu majoritarianism as propagated by the Hindu Mahasabha. It represents the views and ideas of Hindu cultural tradition since the Vedic age to Tilak, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Bankim Chandra and others.

When the disputed structure at Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by the kar sevaks, it was not motivated against Islam or the Indian minorities. It was an outburst of the anger against the anti-Hindu intellectual atmosphere and the desire to restore the centre of faith of the Hindus which was seized by Aurangzeb, the Islamic ruler who in the Hindu mindset represents not Islam but the tradition of the aggressor.

Minorities must be defined by the parameter of the nation’s cultural values rather than the `numbers theory’. Unlike in the British or European history, there has not been any instance in India of victimisation of the people of smaller sects due to their lesser number by the majority. The Hindu majority does notform a monolithic sect. Hinduism is a federation of sects. Pluralism and a democratic debate at the religio-cultural plane have a central place in the Hindu tradition.

Indian history has to be seen in national terms whether it is pre-Muslim or pre-Christian history. Acceptance of this does not mean reverence or forced adaptability. It is a sense of owning the long cultural history. How would you evaluate people, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who did not utter a single word for reforms among the Indian Muslims or Christians? His whole effort was aimed at regeneration of the Hindu socio-cultural tradition. Still he is designated as `the father of Indian renaissance’.

A century ago, the Hindu believed that the Muslims and the Christians were mlecchas, but this notion was gradually dispelled by the efforts of the successive thinkers. But the same is not true with the minority communities which see the contradictions in the social and cultural value system of the majority community as an opportunity to increasetheir number and political bargaining capacity. The reaction of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Gujarat is, perhaps, a reply to such anti-Hindu behaviour.

However, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal should be cautious in their reaction. Violence and burning of the Bible only damage its image. The minority communalism in India gets a large number of self-styled defenders of their cause. The chief source of support for it lies in the Nehruvian and the left schools. The organisers should not allow the unindoctrinated cadres to demonstrate overenthusiasm.

The meaning of the Hindu nation has a positive content and it is not based on a reactionary role. As M. S. Golwalkar, successor of Hedgewar, said, “There are some who imagine that the concept of Hindu Nation is a challenge to the very existence of the Muslim and the Christian co-citizens and they will be thrown out and exterminated. Nothing could be more absurd and detrimental to our national sentiment. It is an insult to our great and all- embracing culturalheritage.”

Hedgewar silently refused to play a role of propagating the concept of political majoritarianism, espoused by the Hindu Maha Sabha which was dubbed by Golwalkar in his well-known Bunch of Thoughts as reactionary. The VHP has the enormous task of setting the Hindu house in order. If untouchability and the vicious caste disorder goes, the Christian missionaries would lose half their appeal. Why does India attract missionaries and Mother Teresas? This is a question first intellectually deliberated by Vivekananda, and the tremendous RSS work among the Adivasis of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and the oppressed sections of the Indian society was a practical answer to the missionaries’ hidden motive. The latest expansion of the Sangh activities in the north-eastern states has also perturbed the church.

The pseudo-secularist propaganda against the Sangh Parivar about its supposed `Hindu fascism’ is not related to the ground reality. Even the communal incidents of Gujarat have been blown out of proportionto put the BJP government in the dock. The language Press which reported incidents in detail has been dismissed as `RSS-influenced’. Such perverted intellectualism can only prepare the ground for offensive minorityism.

The writer teaches political science at Delhi University