Whom should we call non-Hindus? There are sects and movements in Hinduism who call themselves non-Hindus. For instance Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are unwilling to be included among Hindus, in Hinduism and the Hindu society.

It is mainly the lure of the special protection and special rights and privileges available to religious minorities of this country which is responsible for this situation ...

In the legal definition which ... Ambedkar has given in the Hindu Code Bill, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are included among Hindus. The Hindu Code Bill is therefore applicable to them all. If any of them challenges it, then the onus of proving that the Bill does not apply to them rests on the concerned sect ...

Then who are non Hindus? The Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews are the religious groups following their own respective method of worship easily qualify for inclusion in the category ... The bulk of the Jewish population migrated to Israel after that country came into existence. The number of Jews now living in India is very negligible.

(The Parsis) have identified themselves with the nation in terms of culture, language and dress styles. They have made rich contribution to the country's patriotic struggles with foreign powers and were pioneers in the area of industry and trade. They have not raised any problem before the country in the name of religion.

The same unfortunately cannot be said of Muslims and Christians who have a turbulent history of expanding their religions by proselytisation. The Muslim invaders converted large number of Hindus by-brute force. The Christian missionaries followed suit ...

The erstwhile Hindus who were converted to Islam and Christianity were not only forced to change their modes of worship but they had also to change their dress, their names, their culture, their value system and their lifestyles. Their conversion, had it been purely religious, would- have been confined to their mode of worship as had happened in the case of China ...

Ours is an ancient and enduring national civilisation. We call it the Hindu civilisation. It covers modes of worship and prayer, philosophy, religion, culture. They all are comprehensively called Hindu. When our 'converted brothers' who were like us before conversion, take anti-national stand, it creates grave problems. The change in dress habits, languages and values of life after conversion produce fissiparous tendencies which in turn are followed by demand for separate states. Demands are voiced for secession from the country. An important aspect of our country's history is that whenever Hindus in any of its parts are pushed into minority, that part or province secedes from the country. Afghanistan, Baluchistan, North-West Province, West Punjab and East Bengal broke away from India because Hindus there were pushed into minority by Muslims. The same scenario is emerging in Kashmir and North-East. Muslim majority areas in the country pose a threat to the unity and integrity of our country. We have made constant efforts to awaken our people to this extremely serious danger ..

We inherit a rich and ancient civilisation called the Hindu civilisation. We have our own distinct way of life, customs and traditions, philosophy and literature and religion. We call this comprehensive civilisation the Hindu nation. When a convert from Hinduism to Islam or Christianity takes a hostile stand against this civilisation, it created a plethora of problems ...

The Christian and Muslim problem transcends the barriers of faith and worship and tends to create social and political tensions in an anti-national perspective. It is not that only we are aware of it. Mahy luminaries have underscored this great danger ..

To bring non-Hindus into the mainstream politics is exceedingly a difficult task. In the past such efforts were  made particularly in the field of spirituality. Guru Nanak and Sant Kabir strove for such integration, but their efforts proved futile ..

In the political sphere, Mahatma Gandhi made efforts to bring Muslims in the mainstream. He advised Hindus to regard Muslims as 'younger brothers' and concede to them their various demands. This attitude of Gandhiji is known as the appeasement policy. It was a grand and resounding failure. Muslims' demands went on growing and culminated in the partition of the country.

In the context of this appeasement policy, Guruji Golwalkar used to refer to the story of Bakasur in the Mahabharata. Bakasur's demand constantly grew and the time came when he required a cartload of food, a man and a bull. Finally this appeasement came to an end when Bhim destroyed Bakasur. Problems are required to be solved on our strength, not by abject appeasement ...

Muslims who had supported the demand for Pakistan remained in India. The Christian movement for secession did not have complete success. It was difficult for these people to join the mainstream nationalism. The concept of secularism emerged to accommodate them ... At the practical level, in actual operation, it came to mean appeasement of minorities. Some people floated phrase 'majority communalism' ... This is a ridiculous expression. Majority in any country forms the core of the respective nation. How can it be communal? Secularism gave the right of veto to minorities. Minorities used this veto to oppose uniform civil code, family planning, ban on cow slaughter, ban on religious conversions. Because of this use of veto, the basic problems remained unsolved.

There have been many efforts and experiments to tackle the problem of non-Hindus at the national level. The efforts were designed and implemented by those who call themselves secularists .

Now there is a force called Hindutva. Henceforth this problem will have to be tackled by the Hindu society in the context and perspective of Hindutva. Hindutva is now a force to reckon with in this country. It occupies a top position in the social and political reference books and in all walks of national life. The political transformation will occur in this country on the basis of Hindutva only. All national problems will have to be solved with reference to Hindutva and the Muslim and the Christian problem is on the top of the list.

... Three difference solutions appear before us. They are 1) to massacre them 2) to drive them out of the country 3) to convert them all to Hinduism by an act of Parliament. These methods appeal to different people in different ways ... People who want these types of methods in our country are negligible. Massacres are totally alien to the temper of Hinduism. Violence and bloodshed do not fit in the Hindu religious outlook ...

It is inconceivable to even think of driving out non-Hindus from this country. They belong to the same Aryan race and their forefathers lived in this country. Their racial and cultural roots are deep in the soil of this country. There are very few non-Hindus who have come  from other countries. It would be perfectly justified if they are sent back to their countries.

Mass conversions of Muslims and Christians are beyond the pale of practicability. Doors of course should be kept wide open to those who want to return to Hinduism, their original religion. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad at its session at Prayag has passed a resolution that Hindus converted to other religions can come back to Hinduism. The idea of compulsory reconversion to the Hindu fold should however be discarded. Procedures should be simplified for conversion only of those who out of their free volition wish to return to their ancestral religion. Others should be allowed complete freedom of faith and mode of worship and efforts should be made to assimilate them in our cultural and national mainstream ...

Our civilisation is inclusive and comprehensive. From time immemorial it has absorbed and assimilated countless thought processes, religious sects, philosophical nuances, races, castes and languages. This process of absorption continued till the advent of Muslims and Christians ... Unfortunately both of them did not assimilate in our cultural life. This was our cultural defeat. The formation of Pakistan was not only our political defeat but more seriously also a major cultural reverse. We are proud of our cultural heritage and to strengthen and enhance it is our bounden duty. The cultural defeats should spur us to greater and greater efforts to bring non-Hindus in our cultural mainstream, to assimilate them. in our great and glorious civilisation.

The population of non-Hindus in our country is conflicts, riots and will involve threats to life and property. Democracy has come to stay in our country and ... all citizens have equal rights, adult franchise and right to contest for legislative seats. The dependence on foreign countries on the part of Muslims and Christians will create conditions of political instability and against the interest of everybody.

In the light of these three points we must chalk out a strategy to tackle the problem of non-Hindus from the Hindutva point of view. We must take into account our  own strength and social and political environment. Today we are occupying a centre of power and non Hindus for this reason may seek a dialogue with us ...

... First and foremost to educate the people we will have to train our own people, swayamsevaks, workers and karyawahs in the perspective of the problems of non Hindus and the needs and techniques to absorb them in our cultural mainstream.

In educating the Muslims we will have to break the bubbles of their three illusions viz 1) The global Islamic fraternity (Pan-Islamism), 2) They were once rulers of this country and 3) The Congress or the Janata Dal will protect them.

Pan-Islamism or Islamic brotherhood is a great illusion .. Muslim unity is a mirage; it will ever remain mirage ...

Muslims thinks that they have ruled this country for some time. That is not true ... Turks, Afghans, Iranian and for a long period Mughals were masters in this country. They fought among themselves. The Muslims In India today need to remember that they were converted Islam by Muslim rulers of yore.

The third illusion of Muslims relates to political parties. No political party in India can extend effective protection to Muslims. Only the Hindu society car provide protective cover to Muslims. Political parties tend to exploit them for their political advantage and subject them to squalid bargaining. Vote-bank politics extremely dangerous for Muslims.

.. If all the Hindus had been zealots, no law and-other machinery in the world could have prevented the massacre of Muslims who are scattered in villages and towns all across the country". MA Akbar, India - The Siege Within (Penguin, UK, 1985 p 24).

Christians too need this type of enlightenment although among them the separatist tendencies are not pronounced as they are among Muslims. Converted  Christians have attraction for Western cultural trait languages, dress and life styles. They are taught despise and run down Indian culture. Foreign missionaries are enemies of local Christians. They various intellectual tricks and chicanery, strive to sow the seeds of disloyalty and separation among Christian.

There is need to explain this to Christians uncertain terms that they should not hange their dress form, their language, their cultural traditions and their life styles ...

At the cultural level joint programmes need to be organised. Mutual visits to each other's families and households would also be a cementing factor (and) develop common cultural outlook. It would go a long way in bridging the cultural chasms if festivals like Id, Holi, Xmas were celebrated at the cultural level.

Social and humanitarian service is an important means of forging unity ... We undertake numerous relief works in calamities and to alleviate social distress. Service to the sick and ailing ... are offered to Christians and Muslims ... The structure of a society is shaped by leadership ... Among Muslims leadership is either foisted on them or it is produced by circumstances. No farsighted leader in its true sense emerged from among Muslims in this century. Mohammad Ali Jinnah's leadership was the handiwork of the British and the Congress ... Efforts will have to be made to produce national leadership among Muslims.

Religious leadership should emerge from among the respective people themselves.

Intellectual leadership must be invested with nationalist thoughts ... Barring a few exceptions like

Muzaffar Hussein and Wahiuddin Khan there are no nationalist intellectual leader among Muslims.

The responsibility of different organisation in the Parivar is enormous so far as the problems of non-Hindus are concerned ... The interpretation that Hindutva means anti-minorityism completely wrong. But we will have to prove this through our actions. Our meaning of Hindutva must be shown through our programmes, and thought by the member institutions in the Sangh parivar. The Sangh work through Shakha is limited to the Hindu society, at least today. At present, there is no plan to accommodate non-Hindus in the Sangh Shakha ...

The member institutions in the Parivar have to accept the terminology of their particular fields ... The concern of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is students ... Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) concerns itself' with the workers ... BJP, thinking about the government will look at the people as citizens ...

Since every field is recognized separately, the Hindutva ideology has to be expressed in such a way that all the people can be carried with it; that it can protect the common interests of all ... Some Sangh workers have been asked to pay special attention to Dalits. Similarly organisations in the parivar should pay special attention to non-Hindus. They must be brought closer with efforts through special contacts.

We will have to exhibit ... Hindutva through our behaviour. Only thoughts do not change anybody's opinions ... Hindutva will have to manifest not only through intellectual demands but also contacts, cooperation and cohabitation. (This) will bring about the right psychological transformation ...                               (Source: Publication No. HVK/17 of Hindu Vivek Kendra)