"We may welcome it, or we may condemn it. We cannot deny it. Hindu upsurge is a fact, and, in all probability, it is there to stay India has taken a historic turn. Only the pace of the march may be a matter of speculation and discussion.

A long-term reversal and defeat now appear to be out of the question.

Four points need to be borne in mind in assessing the long-term trend. First, the existing order is in irreversible decline. Second, its defenders and supporters cannot put their act together, except perhaps temporarily; for they can neither reassemble under the badly leaking Congress umbrella nor replace it. Third, intensification of the search for identity in India is part of a similar development all over the world, especially in the wake of collapse of Communist 'universalism'. Finally, identity must Centre round Hinduism; no one can circumvent this reality.

The dominant elite in the academia and the media are genuinely convinced that a Hindu upsurge must mean Hindu revivalism, fundamentalism, obscurantism, triumph of irrationalism and superstition, return to primitivism and even Fascism.

The Hindu upsurge cannot possibly end in revivalism. It is not an accident that Hindus do not bury their dead; they cremate them because they do not believe in resurrection, which is the source of the belief in the possibility of a religious-cultural revival.

Hindus believe in kala dharma which provides for change according to the needs of the time we live in India's view of her golden age is that of spiritual anarchy which obviously cannot admit of any kind of fundamentalism.

The Hindu upsurge has assumed anti-Muslim overtones. The long-term causes of the Hindu-Muslim conflict(are) competition for the Muslim vote among 'secularist' leaders and parties the consequent distortions in the country's political life, the decay of the Nehru order, the defeat of the Congress at the polls in 1989, Muslim leaders' intransigence on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babari Masjid issue, V.P. Singh's duplicity in this regard, his decision to implement the Mandal Commission 'report', aggravation of caste divisions in Hindu society as a result the compulsion for the BJP to respond to this twin-faceted challenge and a number of other related questions.

The central issue in this regard is that fact of the Hindu-Muslim civilisational clash.

In Iran, Islam finally succeeded in submerging Zoroastrianism.

A similar victory did not attend Muslim arms in India. The issue is not whether this was good or bad. The issue is the fact of the partial success and the consequent civilisational stalemate. This point has been sought to be confused by insistence on matters of secondary importance, such as the presence of Hindu generals and soldiers in Muslim armies, and vice versa, or the adoption of Persian Muslim culture by Hindus in Muslim courts and employment, or the persistence of Hindu practices among the converts, and of Hindu features in Muslim architecture.

The British disarmed Indians and sought to supersede the Hindu-Muslim civilisational conflict in that they sought to superimpose their own on the whole Indian society. But that made the contest triangular and so it has remained after independence- partition in 1947 because India has continued to be dominated by a Westernised intelligentsia which has served as legatees of the Raj.

It is self-evident that a more successful economic and political order would have not faced a challenge from those who believe in Hindu self-affirmation. Similarly, it is self-evident that the fate of the order has been irrevocably tied up with that of the Congress; that in the absence of an anti-Congress coalition, the BJP could have remained a marginal factor in the country's politics; that without the BJP's electoral success in 1989, the RSS-VHP combine could not have made the kind of headway it has on the Janmabhoomi issue. So, it is a chain of events that we have to keep in view when we discuss the present and explore the prospects for the future."

(Source: The Sunday Mail, 30 Dec. 1990)

Press Council: Decision On Private Complaint Against The Telegraph And The Sanmarg

Calcutta, New Delhi, 5-6 Nov 1990

The principal question for consideration by the Committee, is whether the publication of these impugned advertisements, in some of which Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are exhibited as commending some food products like Dosas, Kachori, Uthappam, Kulcha Garam, etc., are contrary to good taste and journalistic ethics even if there is nothing in them, indictable in law. In the Committee's opinion the answer to this question should clearly be affirmative. Nothing can be more repugnant to journalistic ethics and good taste than commercial exploitation of the names of prophets, seers or deities which are worshipped (sic) by large sections of the people... In view of the regrets expressed by the respondent editors and the action taken by them to stop publication of these advertisements, the Committee is of the opinion that no action is warranted against the respondent newspapers. It recommends it accordingly to the Council. The Council decided accordingly.