HINDU CHAUVINISM
John Dayal on Christians as the Next Target of Hindutva
Over the next decade or so, Hindu-Christian discord could become as vexatious as Hindu-Muslim troubles, says A. Mahesh in perceptive analysis for the Internet (Had) the howling mobs who set buses on fire and raze mosques to the ground following exhortations by their leaders (read it) in mofussil newspapers of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, or southern Tamil Nadu or northern Karnataka. They would have been able to explain away their blood-letting, their many attacks on Catholic priests, rapes of nuns and usurping of Church property and their continuing poisonous diatribe against India's most peaceful minority as a civilisational assertion, "a newly emergent socio-economic Indian demanding to see its own face established as the dominant visage of our nation."
In the midst of the turmoil over the late lamented Babari Masjid in the early nineties, when the apparent political violence was against the Muslim community and culture, sociologists and students of tectonic movements in Indian politics had first cautioned that the Hindutva forces had imperceptibly shifted focus, and had begun the targeting of Christianity in India as a major foe.
The initial incidence of the anti-Christian thesis was perhaps not as blatant as the anti-Muslim stance of the state and the people. The sheer numerical strength of the Muslim community in the region, and the memories of partition, made it inevitable. No one, including the Muslims, were surprised that there was an increasingly militant Hindu reaction against the change in the landscape brought about in the wake of the inflow of remittances from the Gulf ... A backlash was expected against the confident stridency of the Muslim politicians, and the assertion of the middle class and the intelligentsia for its place in the secular Indian sun.
The leaders of the Hindutva movement, the range extending from the matted locks of the obese swamis of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the lumpen thugs of the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena on the one hand to sophisticated mass leaders such as Advani and the 'soft and liberal' Vajpayee on the other, were united in their belief that the destruction of the Babari Masjid, the riots and the violence, was a market correction. "Perhaps today's Hindu India is merely extracting the price for the insults it has suffered in the past at the hands of other faiths," says Mahesh.
Hindu India's interaction with Christianity has been three times as old, historically, as its contact with Islam has been. The (roots) of this interaction go deeper, and the fruit of its cultural intercourse is more multifarious. The full wrath of its reaction, when it comes, will be correspondingly harsher - on that there is no doubt in the minds of any serious and sensitive student of contemporary India.
Tragedy lurks in the inability of many in Indian Christianity to see the writing on the wall, as much out of political naivete as for cupidity and a short-term self-interest. How else can one explain an unreasoned fascination in sections of the hierarchy, Catholic and Protestant, for the BJP, the political front of Hindutva and for some of its other organs. There are any number of priests and bishops who see Advani as a polite person, and Vajpayee as a softspoken elder statesman and are lulled into the belief that he will be able to induce moral decency in the fanatical hordes. Or the many in the Laity, among the professionals, who compromise themselves with the Shiv Sena in the hope of picking up political crumbs, of political office perhaps, or of becoming the token Christian in the socio-political establishment.
At its most benign, compromise has bred complacency. At its debilitating worst, it lulls the masses into a comatose bliss so they are no longer able to respond successfully when the Sangh Parivar - and its occasional allies in the Congress and the Janata Dal – bare their fangs. As they did in Dumka, or Nainital, Pondicherry, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Or as they have done, with greater finesse, in shooting down legislation to restore the human rights of Dalit Christians.
The Sangh Parivar sees the danger that Christianity poses to its own dreams of Asiatic - and ultimately global - domination in the next century. Hindu economists and politicians have taken seriously the American thesis that the twenty-first century will belong to Asia, particularly to India, and will see it as a major military and industrial power. This is an opportunity that has not come since the beginning of recorded history, despite the diaspora to the Far East, to Khamboj and Bali, and willy-nilly to the West Indies in the last century, and to England in this. One may laugh when the Organiser and the Panchajanya, mouthpieces of the Parivar, exult in the naming of a Jamaica-Ganga in the West Indies, and celebrate the fact that Charles of England has visited several temples in the United Kingdom. One may point out that they contradict themselves when they rave about Hindu converts made by the Hare Krishna Movement while objecting to missionaries in India, or are proud of the Angkor Wat temples while seeking to erase mosques form Indian soil.
The fact remains that for the Parivar, Christianity with its emancipating and empowering potential remains a major barrier to the success of its game plan for (Hindu) domination, of coercing into its brand of a crushing Hindutva the Dalits and the Indigenous people, the tribals and the nomads. "We will see movements that espouse the strengthening of Indian languages (Hindi, for the most), Indian dress, Indian culture on television, the abolition of the right to proselytise, a Uniform Civil Code and many more," says Mahesh in his prophetic piece. Behind the O.P. Tyagi Bill of 1977 seeking a ban on conversions, behind the murder of Rani Maria who had given voice to the tribals in Madhya Pradesh or the rape of nuns in Uttar Pradesh as punishment for emancipation of the girl child of western UP, the axing of priests in Bihar and the ceiling in many jobs in the government and corporate sector (lies) an element of fear.
During the movement for the rights of the Dalits, many politicians admitted that the only reason they opposed the Bill was that it could precipitate a mass exodus of India's most deprived classes to Christianity and Islam. For the forces of Hindutva, everything is fair in the battle to keep the stable doors locked.
Christianity's relevance as an instrument of development has declined despite its catalytic role. Its role in the life of the common man is on the decline. Its relevance in political and public life is near zero, barring the demographic islands of Kerala, and the tribal belt. The community itself is fragmented, disillusioned, with morale at a nadir. It is a moot question if the leadership, religious and lay, is alive to the crisis, and geared to take remedial action as the Sangh Parivar unfolds the second phase of its conspiracy.
(Source: The Indian Currents)
RSS: Mission of Hindu Unity and Internal Harmony
One of the important truths about the RSS ... is its silent but steadfast endeavour to unite the Hindu society on the basis of the harmony principle. Barring the noble and notable contribution by some mathadhipatis, whose coordinated activism itself was largely initiated by the Sangh Parivar, there is no other socio-cultural organization which has been working with so much dedication and determination as the RSS to re-forge the weakened bonds of equality and fraternity in the caste- ridden Hindu society since its inception in 1925.
(Balasaheb Deoras) correctly diagnosed that the chief source of the weakness in Hindu society was internal - its hierarchical caste system and the injustice it heaped on those who were unfortunate to have been born into the so-called lower castes. He did not care much for ritualistic Hinduism. Whereas his predecessor M.S. Golwalkar was an intensely spiritual person, Deoras (was) a Karma yogi, with emphasis on action, service-oriented action.
Deoras realized that the Hindu society was losing its vitality and creative energy due to caste divisions, the occasional flare up of these divisions into violent conflict, and the blatant exploitation of these divisions by politicians for their narrow electoral gains. Minakshipuram and the steady, albeit unpublicised, demographic hemorrhage of the Hindu society caused by fraudulent proselytisation in different parts of the country illustrated the other face of the dangers inherent in the neglect of the Dalits and poor in general.
There was ... yet another historical context which led Deoras to realize the paramountcy of social reform. The decades of the 1970s and the 1980s witnessed unprecedented levels of political activism by Dalits and backward castes, occasionally manifested in mindless militancy. Surfacing sometimes as an independent political stream, but oftener being co-opted by the Congress and other parties, the Dalit and backward caste movement had nonetheless one common source of inspiration B.R. Ambedkar. The question before the RSS was: "How do we assess the personality and legacy of Ambedkar?" It was by no means an easy question. Ambedkar had, in the evening of his life, left the Hindu fold to embrace Buddhism.
The raucous and factious band of Ambedkarites, while having none of the intellectualism of Ambedkar, were, however, unanimous in badmouthing the Hindu culture, society and the RSS.
Countless social reformers from within the Hindu fold itself had condemned caste discrimination. Ambedkar himself had a far from antagonistic relationship with Hindu nationalists of his time, such as Veer Savarkar. To cap it all, (his) reason for embracing Buddhism (showed) his innate commitment to India's cultural nationalism. Thus, under the leadership of Deoras, contemporary Hindu movement began a serious and honest re-appraisal of Ambedkar. The process has progressed so far that, today, the RSS considers the great champion of social justice to be pratah smaraneeya (worthy of being reverentially remembered every morning).
The RSS started in 1983 a new affiliated organisation, Samajik Samarasata Manch, solely devoted to the cause of creating social harmony between various castes and sub-castes in Hindu society ... through a combination of samata (equality) and manata (kindness of heart). The RSS movement for samarasata (thus) carries a distinct imprint of Gandhiji's Perspective on social reform.
Undoubtedly, the Hindus have a long way to go before the ideals of equality, fraternity and harmony are fully reflected in their decidedly multi-cultural, multi-caste existence. But if, at long last, this maddeningly plural Hindu society is beginning to experience some king of confident self-identity - an identity which, even while respecting Hinduism's rich diversity, proudly upholds its underlying unity - then a good part of the credit must go to the RSS.
(Source: Sudheendra Kulkarni in The Pioneer, 19 August, 1997).
