Er P L Khushu
Unlike Hinduism, the word ‘Hindutva’ did not come into popular discourse until 1923. It was coined by V.D. Savarkar in his text. For him, ‘Hindutva’ was not the same as Hinduism. . Given this, it can be said that Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same, but they aren’t contradictory either. What Hinduism does in the social lives of the people, Hindutva does so in the political life. It had nothing to do with the practices and beliefs of the religion, but was only concerned with the political domination of the Hindus, being the major partners of Indian population in number, which has shrunk, with the opportunist political parties ruling this country till 2014, by exploiting the vote bank emotions of the minorities, Muslims, Dalits and other back ward classis of this country with the policies of appeasements through the false slogans of pseudo secularism. Given this, it can be said that Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same, but they aren’t contradictory either. What Hinduism does in the social lives of the people concerned, Hindutva does so in the political life. In keeping with the race doctrines of the times, Savarkar conceived Hindutva as an indefinable quality inherent in the Hindu ‘race’, which could not be identified directly with the specific tenets of Hinduism. Hindutva, he declared, is so varied and so rich, so powerful and so subtle, so elusive and yet so vivid that it defied such definition’. Savarkar asserted: ‘Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva’. To him, the religion was therefore a subset of the political idea, rather than synonymous with it, something many of its proponents today would be surprised to hear. Savarkar, however, argued that: ‘Failure to distinguish between Hindutva and Hinduism has given rise to much misunderstanding and mutual suspicion between some of those sister communities that have inherited this inestimable and common treasure of our Hindu civilization. It is enough to point out that Hindutva is not identical with what is vaguely indicated by the term Hinduism. By an ‘ism’ it is generally meant a theory or a code more or less based on spiritual or religious dogma or system. But when we attempt to investigate into the essential significance of Hindutva, we do not primarily and certainly not mainly concern ourselves with any particular theocratic or religious dogma or creed.’ In the present day concept of multi religious living population in India, Hindutva’, has to mean Indian- ness. Hindus, thus defined, constituted the Indian nation-a nation that had existed since antiquity, since Savarkar was explicitly rejecting the British view that India was just, in Churchill’s notorious phrase, ‘a geographical expression. No more a single country than the Equator.’ Savarkar’s vision of Hindutva saw it as the animating principle of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu Nation) that extended across the entire Indian subcontinent, and was rooted in an undivided India (‘Akhand Bharat’) corresponding to the territorial aspirations of ancient dynasties like the Mauryas (320 BCE-180 BCE), who under Chandragupta and Ashoka had managed to knit most of the subcontinent under their territorial control.
In the words of a later RSS publication, Sri Guruji, the Man and his Mission, ‘It became evident that Hindus were the nation in Bharat and that Hindutva was Rashtriyatva [nationalism]. It thus includes all the Indians of today who are living in India without any cast, color or religious bias. Then came the most significant development of a great consequence. Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS Chief , extended his outreach to the Muslims of the country. Speaking in an event ‘ Hindustani First’ organized by Muslim Rashtriya Manch in Gaziabad UP, some time very recently, he said that those who indulge in lynching are against Hindutua. He said that there may be differences in worship and lifestyle but Hindu and Muslims are one, not different and our belief should be to live together to strengthen the nation. Mohan Bhagwat added that we live in democracy which does not permit dominance of one religion over the other, ‘dominance has to be of Indians.’ Indeed, a huge statement from a person who matters most in the current political scene of the country and is heard with respect, by all. While RSS Chief obliquely admonished those in the majority community who indulge in lynching, he told common Muslim not to get ‘trapped in the cycle of fear that Islam is in danger.’ Mohan Bhagwat referred to the Constitution many a time during his address to emphasize the point that the document nowhere talks about Hindus only. In his reference to Haldi Ghati battle of 1574, he was a telling a recalled history that while Mughuls were fighting Rajputs many Muslims were on side of Maharana Pratap and the Mughal army was led by a Rajput, Raja Man Singh. It is a remarkable that the RSS Chief has sought to downplay the religious divide and fore grounded national identity together with emphasis on rule of law. This is an acknowledgement of multi- culturalism that defines idea of India. It has come at a time when nation is paying heavily for caste and creed division. We have to reduce the cost of social strife. More so, at a time when threat of deadly waves of corona are looming large on the horizon. Polarization does not pay, when dialogue is must for removing misgivings, he said. What is being observed today in the most of the sectors of governance across the country is that the cast and religion is being exploited to its grit, by the so-called politicians of the day, with short and binary visions? They are dividing the nation in the name of religion, cast and creed. A new trend and approach is now in operation by a few ruler politicians, when they are slow poisoning some selective sections of the population of India, in the name of sops and freebies, at nations cost, thus dividing the people of India on economic cycles too, apart from causing a big gap amongst the various sections of people on cast and religious factors. It is going to impede the growth of the nation and its people heavily. It is going to make some sections of the people of India, recluse to work, with hermit habits of an easy go life. It is to set a dangerous trend amongst the society, thus resulting in a big drop in the country’s GDP growth. Then who pays for such sops or freebies. It is the other section of the same society. He or she is taxed on two counts, the normal tax line of the country and the freebies component too. The development works, the growth and modernization of the surroundings around is a big dream for the forward looking sections of the society. One is helpless under the circumstances. It is certainly not the ‘Indian-ness”, in other words the “Hindutva”, the love for one’s nation. Delhi is a practical example of this epidemic, when its political rulers have spread it to other parts of the country, when they are abuzz to take this epidemic to other already developed states of India like Gujarat. Punjab is already drugged with this opium. What is observed is that the mastermind politicians of such proposals of freebies, who do it to remain in power somehow, are bent to spread it through lies before the people of the nation. It is said that a lie spoken ten times is taken as a gospel truth. That is what is happening through these ambitious political leaders, who are mad after political power, forgetting the development of the country as a whole on the planks and designs of ‘Hindutva’. What is the state of condition of Delhi presently in its ecology and get up, particularly when it is the capital of a big country. Is Delhi competent to be classified as a novel city to be claimed as a golden capital of the great India. Certainly not. Who has done it? The selfish politicians, by speaking lies about sops and freebies, risking and abating the development of Delhi as a comparable capital of India with any capital of any of the developed nations, across the world. These politicians are involved in various scandals and have the cheeks to contest the same, when their corrupt deeds are visible on the open radar. The liquor scam of the Delhi government is an open example in this regard. These hypocrite political leaders are not for nation, they are for political power and loot. It is here where ‘Hindutva’ is trampled and killed. Of late the nation observed that one of the veteran Chief Minister of a big state of India changed his color for power. He supposed to be a staunch follower of Jaiprakash Movement which was launched in India by the veteran socialist leader Sh. Jaiprakash Narayan to remove congress from power in 1975. He forgot the national interest and joined hands back with the conglomerates of the corrupt politicians when one of its veteran leaders is still cooling his heels in jail for the last more than 7 years. This is where the national interest is forgotten. Thus ‘Hindutva’ is defeated to grow and club the Indian nation in its cover for making India prosperous. He has preferred cast over honesty. “Indian-Ness” which is ‘Hindutva’, is put in the cold storage. There are much more examples to cite, but the space does not permit here. What is the reverse of ‘Hindutva’, it is ‘Pseudo-Secularism’. Pseudo secularism is the worst farm of communalism, where in one section of society gets jealous over the other community, resulting in communal clashes between various communities, both on the mental levels and the physical levels.
Kashmiri Pandits genocide in 1990 is one of the worst examples in this regard when theirs is a displaced community from their homes and hearths and are living in exile in their own country as refugees. Their tales of doom and turmoil due to their forced displacements are now becoming histories of the past, as there is no one who is sincerely bothered to listen to their tales of destruction and devastation. Probably they are now getting added to the age old historical events and pages, when Kashmiri Pandits have been massacred, forced to get converted, or flee from Kashmir during certain tyrannical Islamic rules. Is it the pseudo secularism of congress and other pseudo secular political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, which is responsible for our present condition of being refugees in our own country? Where is “Hindutva” about them? Do not they belong to the big race of the Hindus of this great “Bharat”. It is now very much unfortunate for them to seek refuge under this cover of Hinduism as the enormous and enough drum beating of the pseudo secular credentials of the nations commitment to the Constitution has failed to protect them from their extinction from the mini map of Kashmir and the bigger map of the great India. RSS having made enough clarity about the concept and definition of ‘Hindutva’, should fearlessly carry it forward to make India and its people to adopt it for the overall prosperity of this nation and its people which includes all sections of people irrespective of cast, religion, color and creed. It has to be fore told to that entire ‘Hindutva’ means Indian-Ness’ and not ‘Hinduism’. Congress party, which is now on its last legs and other regional or national political parties are working mostly on cast and region based politics, for their vote bank politics. Such political parties will exploit it to their benefits using it perversely for their vote bank goals.
(The author is a Chartered Consultant Civil Engineer, passionately attached and devoted to his motherland Jammu & Kashmir).