Hindu Nationalism

THE RISE OF HINDU NATIONALISM


Introduction :

“Nationalism” and “Communalism” are synonymous in an Indian context and are negative concepts. They are identified with the misuse of religion in politics. Worldwide, the first such misuse of religion in politics took place in late 19th century in America when the Conservative Protestants in the face of rationalism and scientific values came up with reassertion of ‘fundamentals’ of Christianity. Essentially, this was an attempt to re-impose the pre-modern values of birth based hierarchy of gender and class. Later, in Europe, the Nazi and fascist onslaughts used race for similar reasons.

In recent times, we have seen the rise of Islamic or communalism in several countries of the middle-east , typified by Ayatullah Kohemini in the Iran of eighties and nineties.

Communalism in India made its major appearance, in the pre-Independence era, in 1886, with the formation of two communal streams – the Muslim League (based on Islam) and the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (based on Hinduism). Over the years, these two streams have constantly tried to fan the communal passions of their followers, be it in the Shah Banoo case or the perennial dispute with regard to the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. With the emergence of the Hindu right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a major political force in the country, the proponents of Hindu communalism, better known through its ideology “Hindutva”, seem to have gained the upper hand.



Hindutva :

The fundamental goal of the “Hindutva” ideology is the establishment of a Hindu-Nation state exemplified in the fascist doctrine of “one nation, one culture, one language, one religion”. It is a very narrow type of “nationalism” which seeks legitimacy through demonizing other religions and faiths, very specially Islam and Christianity. Whilst it is not representative of the Hindu majority of the country, it makes every attempt to appear to champion the concerns of mainstream Hinduism.

These posturings have created a great deal of disharmony in various parts of the country particularly in the last fifteen years when in 1990 one of the main exponents of the “Hindu Rashtra” namely, Mr. L. K. Advani, (a former Deputy Prime Minister of the country and currently the President of the BJP) went across the country on a “Rath Yatra”. This created a great deal of animosity, blood-shed and deepened the divide between the Hindus and Muslims of the country.

In the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992, India became divided even more, on communal lines. This was followed by several other instances of communal violence which include the bashing up of Christians in Gujarat (North-west India) in 1998 – 99 and the Gujarat Genocide of 2002 (when more than 2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat); among the other communal incidents were the horrendous murder of the Australian Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons (in January 1999 in Manoharpur, Orissa) and the attack on the Sisters of Mother Teresa in Kerala in October 2004.