How is that a religion that once prided itself on the non- violence creed of “ahimsa” has come to be equated with exclusion and belligerence? The sepulchral gloom of the human recipients of the Hindutva violence is in sharp contrast to the syncretic inclusivism of a faith that is places premium on “Moksha” i.e human salvation. The miscegenation of faiths and beliefs that once was a religious blackhole, sucking all alternative creeds pell- mell into the bottomless pit of Hinduism has now been replaced by a misanthropic cult compelling every other faith to shed its identity to merge into Hindutva culture or face extinction. The votaries of Hindutva have spawned a culture of otherness so deftly as to stamp out all vestiges of pluralism in India. Pluralism and integration have given way to ruthless assimilation in Modi’s India.
India’s journey from Gandhi to Modi has taken seven decades but the seeds of a violent nationalism were being sown seven decades ago when the partition of the subcontinent was construed as vivisection of mother India by right wing Hindu Mahasabha and RSS cadres, who were openly contemptuous of the Nehruvian secularism, ironically the very glue that had held India together. The presence of Indian diaspora in greater numbers in the influential world fora and think tanks has built up a false image of pacifist Hindus following a cyclical notion of time. Karma (deeds that decide your fate in next life) and reincarnation are cleverly interwoven into a cyclical concept of time where the soul is immortal and thus gets its just deserts in shape of new incarnation. Good deeds beget a noble birth whereas bad deeds beget an ignoble birth. Human bondage is therefore inbuilt in Hindu system of beliefs, wherein the low caste untouchables and their persecution at the hands of high caste Brahmins is justified as a Karma based comeuppance.
A faith whose scriptures were written 4000 years ago in a language that is hardly understood now by most Hindus is a complex religion where “Om” the consciousness is celebrated to pay obeisance to a God that manifests itself in myriad of forms. Hindu religion as opposed to Abrahamic faiths like Islam, Christianity and Judaism believes in an immanent God that manifests itself in temporal forms. The high caste Brahmins are a manifestation of that immanence and therefore above the rest of the lower castes whom the accident of birth condemns to a lifetime of servitude. Now since the Hinduism does not follow a standard set of rituals due to the amazing diversity of pantheistic deities a common culture is equated with religion. That is why the rise of Hindu nationalism in 17th century manifested in the exploits of Shivaji lays so much stress on culture instead of rituals.
The Hindutva culture according to the founders of Hindu nationalism means common heroes, common mythology, common attire, common dietary habits, common social outlook (casteism) and common superstitions to pander to. The only faith in subcontinent that due to its large number of followers stood in the way of this cultural homogenization was Islam due to its separate iconography, egalitarianism, dietary differences, and lack of reverence for a clergy. Though the last aspect got heavily influenced by the Indian culture inventing its own clerical hierarchy and iconography, considered a heresy by the puritanical followers of an austere brand of Islam originating from Arabian Peninsula still the differences between Hinduism and Islam remained insuperable. The rise of a political Hindu nationalism dates back to nineteenth century when Hindu reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore introduced a reformed Hindu faith called “Brahma Samaj”. This reformist movement endeavoured to introduce reforms of Satti custom, property rights of women, child marriage, idol worship, and caste system.
Raja Ram Mohan established a Hindu college at Calcutta in 1817 for Hindus, six decades before Sir Syed that ushered in a Bengali renaissance for Hindus. This progressive Hindu nationalism however passed into the hands of Hindu Maha Sabha hardliners like Madan Mohan Malaviya who established Hindu nationalist part Hindu Sabha as a rival to Congress in 1905. Later the party was joined by hardliners like Lala Lajpat Rai, Savarkar, Golwalker and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Though Hindu Mahasabha remained a fringe party politically compared to Congress it however birthed a militant organization Rashtriya Swayamesak Singh (RSS) personifying muscular Hindu nationalism, as opposed to the secular ideology of Congress. This is the same RSS that is the precursor of the current BJP led Hindu leadership, embracing a violent and exclusionary version of Hinduism, whose avowed aim is the social and economic cleansing of all other communities especially the Muslims. Hindutva term signifies not only Hinduism but a deeper concept of adopting a way of life that is culturally Hindu. Anyone that does not follow the Hindutva creed in its most narrow sense is apostatized and ex communicated from his or her Indian roots.
The infantile attempts to fictionalize the age of Vedas at 6000 B.C, a full 4500 years earlier, to prove that Hindu civilization predated Indus Valley civilization is another attempt that smacks of cultural violence by a xenophobic
The RSS that was established in 1925 had an avowed aim to fight the Muslims and not the British unlike other political parties like Congress. That is why the RSS never actively participated in struggle for independence which was regarded as vivisection of mother India by their ideologues like Savarkar and Golwalkar. The world must understand that it was the virulently hateful ideology of Hindutva followed by Golwalker and other RSS leaders that killed the torch bearer of Hindu pacifism and intercommunal harmony i.e Mohandas Karam Gandhi. It was Nathuram Godse, a die hard RSS activist, who assassinated Gandhi for his active advocacy of peace between Hindus and Muslims. The killer of Gandhi is a hero for RSS and by implication for the present BJP leadership as well. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has cut his political teeth under a viscerally hateful anti-Muslim ideology for three long decades before coming in power is a very dangerous portent for regional peace.
The US compulsion in keeping India a regional gendarme to do its bidding in a geopolitical game to counter China is actually hurting the US interests. By entering into a strategic relationship with a country led by hateful ideologues, with their finger on the nuclear button the USA risks damaging its national interests. The current carte blanche to the same Modi government to illegally annex Kashmir has initiated a dangerous unrest in the Kashmir State where sooner or later the public resistance to the brutal tactics of Indian Army and police would compel India to externalize the conflict. The annexation of Kashmir that has roots in RSS and BJP’s visceral hatred of Muslims is an act that flows out of a hateful ideology. A culture that despises other cultures on the basis of religion and adheres to antiquated notions of caste hierarchy to keep society in bondage surely subscribes subliminally to the notions of cultural violence, despite putting a pluralistic spin on its religious ideology.
The Indian Muslims that constitute only 13.4% as against 80% of Hindus are the subject of worst discrimination in access to jobs, healthcare and education. Muslim community in almost all states of India holds lower paying jobs besides having shorter life spans because of an institutionalized deprivation. Ludicrous cultural revisionism through falsification of old historical facts and commissioning of superstitious research projects like searching of the origins of Ganges at a mythical place called Kailash, instead of its actual place at Gangotri, indicate the bigoted mindset bent upon erasing the cultural imprint of other civilizations. The infantile attempts to fictionalize the age of Vedas at 6000 B.C, a full 4500 years earlier, to prove that Hindu civilization predated Indus Valley civilization is another attempt that smacks of cultural violence by a xenophobic Hindu revisionist state. It is time that international community took cognizance of the peril stalking the land of the Buddha and Gandhi, both of who suffered to rid the hapless population of the strangulating grip of Hindu cultural violence in their times.
(The writer is a PhD scholar at NUST; e mail rwjanj@hotmail.com)