The Congress working committee's recent reference to Hinduism as the "most effective guarantor of secularism" has been interpreted by the BJP as "a repudiation of the motivated attempts by the Congress party itself to characterise the BJP's ideology of cultural nationalism as communal and anti-secular". A BJP spokesman saw the working committee's pronouncement as an echo of the "BJP's conviction that Hindutva is the bedrock of Indian nationalism and national identity".
The synonymity of Hinduism and Hindutva has helped the BJP to claim that there is no difference between the two ... However, after the BJP's appropriation of the word, Hindutva has acquired a political rather than a religious meaning. It no longer stands for Hinduism but for a quite distinctive world-view which is better expressed in the other phrase which the BJP uses in this context - cultural nationalism underlying the concept of one people, one culture, one nation - a political slogan.
Nor is it an ordinary political slogan. The "one people ... "etc. phrase ... echoes the Nazi chant of "ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer", which sent shivers down the spine of the minorities in Hitler's Germany ... Another similar phrase which ... "eie volk, eie taal, eie land" (our own people, our own language, our own land) from South Africa of the apartheid period, which also represented fascism in another form, and which brings to mind the "Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan" mantra of the ultra-right in this country. The meaning of these phrases is self-evident. They denote an oppressive philosophy favouring the obliteration of all cultures excepting one - that of Hindutva imposed by the majority community. Hindutva, therefore, really means Hindu Rashtra - that long- cherished goal of the Sangh Parivar. It has nothing to do, therefore, with Hinduism as a religion but only with a state system in which Hindu rituals and customs will apply not only to Hindus but to the followers of other religions as well. So the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and other children in schools will have to sing the Saraswati
vandana, which is an invocation to a Hindu goddess.
Patriotism will be judged in accordance with obedience to Hindu norms. It will be a unicultural society, where non- Hindu cultures and communities will have secondary status.
This particular meaning of Hindutva is not a new one. It derives from Savarkar's thesis that "a Hindu ... is he who looks upon the land that extends ... from the Indus to the seas, as the land of his forefathers - his pitribhu (fatherland) ... and who above all addresses this land ... as his punyabhu (holy land) ... these are the essentials of Hindutva -- a common rashtra, a common jati and a common sanskriti ... the first two essentials of Hindutva - rashtra and jati -- are clearly denoted and connoted by the word pitribhu, while the third essential of sanskriti is pre-eminently implied by the world punyabhu."
Savarkar himself explains, with reference to the Sikhs, the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva ... He says that the Sikhs ... "are Hindus in the sense of our definition of Hindutva and not in any religious sense whatever. Religiously they are Sikhs ..
Unlike Hinduism, therefore, Hindutva is not a religion. It is not concerned with the salvation of the soul but with the racial, national and cultural aspects of a state system ... So those who may have other holy lands - Mecca or Rome - are automatically excluded from being the true children of the fatherland even if they are born there.
It is evident that this is a primitive, tribal attitude, harking back to the medieval ages. Such concepts have no place in a modern society where citizens are not given passports on the basis of their race or rituals. Besides, all citizens are equal in a modern country, irrespective of whether their holy day is Sunday or Tuesday or Friday.
Clearly, therefore, Hindutva cannot be an effective guarantor of secularism, for a secular state makes no distinction between individuals on the grounds of race or religion or any other factor.
Hinduism, on the other hand, has nothing to do with a state system. Its concern is with an individual's soul, his inner being, his attainment of moksha by treading the razor's edge. It has no connection with the polity or with India as a pitribhu and punyabhu because a Hindu neednot be an Indian at all ...
What makes Hinduism an "effective guarantor of secularism", however, is its liberal ethos, encompassing in its fold beliefs ranging from animism to atheism. The absence of a single prophet or a single holy book has made it the most eclectic of religions. But what gives it special distinction and undoubtedly enabled it to survive nearly unchanged for centuries is its "fundamental individualism", for it left a person free to worship in his own humble way, without the intercession of priests or the need to assemble at a house of prayer ...
... It is this atmosphere of freedom and non- conformism which makes Hinduism so unique and so amenable to a multicultural society. Hindutva, on the other hand, is a prescription for a theocracy. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 8 February, 1999)
