What is this Hindu Rashtra ?
by
Sitaram Yechuri
And how should such 'old nations' deal ? The adulation of fascist
Germany could not have been more naked.
"The ancient Race spirit, which
prompted the Germanic tribes to overrun the whole of Europe, has re-risen
in modern Germany, with the result that the Nation perforce follows
aspirations,predetermined by the traditions left by its depredatory
ancestors. Evenso with us: our Race spirit has once again roused itself as
is evidenced by the race of spiritual giants we have produced, and who
today stalk the world in serene majesty' (Golwalkar, 1939, p. 32).
Further:
"To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany
shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races - the
Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also
shown how wellnigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having
differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole.
a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by " (Golwalkar,
1939, p. 35).
Hitler, thus, emerges as the "Guruji's Guru". This, in fact,
exposes the diabolic nature of the RSS' political project. It has no
compunction in borrowing a thoroughly modern and Western concept of
fascism, but making it appear in the garb of upholding Hindu religion and
all
that is ancient. All other Western concepts and civilisational advances
are condemned as 'alien', except for fascism ! Certain advocates of
fascistic pseudo-Hinduism come up with an ingenious defence of such naked
adulation of fascism. `The fact that the information available about
German treatment to Jews was scanty in 1939 should lead one to ignore a
single reference to this issue then or give benefit of doubt to the person
concerned' (Modak, 1993 p. 11). If this were so, pray tell us, why
does
the 1947 edition contain the same passage unchanged ? In 1947, as in
1939, Hitler's crimes were public knowledge. Why did Golwalkar not delete
this passage in later editions ? Not because the information was not
available, but because
Golwalkar and today's Saffron Brigade emulate Hitler's methods. A glaring inconsistency, however, does not seem to bother Golwalkar. If according to him, the Hindus were Aryans, who then were these Aryans that Hitler was championing ? If those were also Aryans, then did they emigrate from India to Germany or vice versa ? According to his theory, both India and Germany should be part of a single nation ! The whole exercise, thus, provides the ideological basis for a fascistic Hindu Rashtra which continues to be the kernel of the present-day Saffron Brigade's mission.
What is this Hindu Rashtra ?
by
Sitaram Yechuri
In the process, they seek to hijack Hindu religion and its rich diversity to
serve their political project. The RSS agenda then, and the Saffron Brigade's
agenda today, has little or nothing to do with religion. It is a communal
ideology which utilises the religious divide, engineered and encouraged
consciously by it, for its political purpose. Its advocates, therefore, spew
venom on those who expose this. The most potent answer has come from religious
leaders themselves (interview with Kundrakudi Adigalar, Frontline, March 12,
1993). The religious sentiments of the people are exploited by them as the main
conduit to achieve their political ends. Thus, by misusing religion, they emerge
as the enemies of the humanistic content of Hinduism itself. Two other important
aspects of the book must be discussed. The first relates to the question of
minorities. Castigating the minority treaties laid down by the League of
Nations, Golwalkar says:
"Our modern solution of the minorities problem is far more dangerous. It
confers untold rights not only on those who by their number and years of
residence (we doubt it) may be considered according to the League as
minorities, but also on all else, howsoever few or recent in their settlement
- rights and privileges far in excess of the minimum advocated by the League.
The natural consequences are even now felt and Hindu National life runs the
risk of being shattered. Let us take heed and be prepared" (Golwalkar,
1939, pp. 49-50).
Seen together with the earlier-toted intolerance against the minorities, this
understanding maps out the vision of purges that may well put to shame Nazi
fascism if the Saffron Brigade succeeds in establishing its concept of a Hindu
Rashtra.
What is this Hindu Rashtra ?
by
Sitaram Yechuri
The second aspect refers to its conception of the social order in its Hindu
Rashtra. Golwalkar acclaims Manu as the "first and greatest lawgiver of
the world" who "lays down in his code, directing all the
peoples of the world to go to Hindusthan to learn their duties at the holy feet
of 'eldest born' Brahmins of this land." (Golwalkar, 1939, pp.55-56).
Now what does the Manusmriti say? Having firmly established the hereditary
division of society into the caste system, the Manusmriti says:
"Serving Brahmins alone is recommended as the best innate
The Manusmriti then proceeds to define the outcasts and untouchables who have no place in society at all and defines their menial activities. The intolerant caste structure finds echo in Golwalkar and the Saffron Brigade today because the Manusmriti is also based on an exclusively 'Aryan' social organisation.activity of a Shudra; for whatever he does other than this bears no fruit for him" (123, Chapter X).
"They should give him (Shudra) the leftovers of their food, their old clothes, the spoiled parts of their grain, and their wom-out household utensils" (125, Chapter X).
"A servant (Shudra) should not amass wealth, even if he has the ability, for a servant (Shudra) who has amassed wealth annoys priests" (129, Chapter X).(All these quotations are from Doniger and Smith, 1991).
'Un-Aryan coarseness, cruelty, and habitual failure to perform the rituals are the maninfestations in this world indicating that a man is born of a defiled womb" (58, Chapter X).Among those who do not fall into this four caste category, are the tribals, Dravidians, and especially the Andhras:
`From an outlaw who is a ruler are born the (castes) 'Pugilist' (Jhalla), 'Wrestler' (Malla), and 'Licchavian' (Lichavi), 'Dancer' (Nata), 'Scribe' (Karana), 'Scab' (Khasa), and'Southerner' (Dravida)" (22, Chapter X),Specific inhuman treatment is meted out to women:"From a 'Hunter' (nisada) is born an 'Inferior Worker' (Karavara), who works with leather, and froma 'Videhan' (the name comes from the ancient kingdom of Videha, on the banks of the river Ganga) come an 'Andhran' (Andhra) and a 'Fatty'(meda), who live outside the village" (36, Chapter X).
"In childhood a woman should be under her father's control, in youth under her husband's, and when her husband is dead, under her sons'. She should not have independence" (148, ChapterV).Further:
"Good looks do not matter to them, nor do they care about youth; 'A man!' they say, and enjoy sex with him, whether he is good-looking or ugly" (14).And"By running after men like whores. by their fickle minds, and by their natural lack of affection these women are unfaithful to their husbands even when they are zealously guarded here"(15).
"Knowing that their very own nature is like this, as it was born at the creation by the Lord of Creatures, a man should. make the utmost effort to guard them" (16).
"The bed and the seat, jewellery, lust,anger, crookedness, -a malicious nature, and bad conduct are what Manu assigned to women" (18).
"There is no ritual with Vedic verses for women; this is a firmly established point of law. For women, who have no virile strength and no Vedic verses, are false-hood; this is well established" (19, Chapter IX).
While there is a lengthy description of the code that should government's relations with women, for the woman the Manusmriti has the following:
"But a woman who is unfaithful to her husband is an object of reproach in this world; (then) she is reborn in the womb of a jackal and is tormented by the diseases (born) of (her) evil' (30, Chapter IX).Not to mention, however, the various other provisions like banning widow marriages (64; 65, Chapter IX). It is not as though such love for the Manusmriti was confined only to this book by Golwalkar. Much later in his Bunch of Thoughts he said:
"Brahmin is the head, King the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet. This means that the people who have thus, four-fold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu people, is our God". (Golwalkar,1966, p. 25 ).It is this understanding that prompted the RSS to oppose the amendments to the Hindu Code Bill after Independence, and it is this understanding that today propels the Saffron Brigade affiliates to reassert the Manusmriti. Witness the aggression at the `Dharam Sansad' held in December 1992 and the castigating of the present Indian Constitution as "non-Hindu". Note the following report that appeared in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser (May 10, 1992):
`The 2nd state Hindu Advocates Conference Organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at Madurai onApril 18 and 19, 1992, has demanded the review and redrafting of the Constitution. Shri V.K.S. Chaudhary, Advocate General of U.P. in hiskey-note address asserted that the Manusmriti rendered `justice for all'. Manu took the entire mankind and its needs for ages and evolved his code. Manusmriti was for all times and ages and for all mankind".In this context, the significance of upper caste Maharashtra Brahmins being the leaders of the RSS till date must be noted.
"The centrality of Maharashtra in the formation of the ideology and organisation of Hindutva in the mid-1920s might appear rather surprising, as Muslims here were a small minority and hardly a threat, and there had been no major riots in this region during the early 1920s. But Maharashtra had witnessed a powerful anti-Brahmin movement of backward castes from the1870s onwards, when Jyotiba Phule had founded his Satyashodhak Samaj. By the 1920s, the Dalits, too, had started organising themselves under Ambedkar, Hindutva in 1925 as in 1990-91, was an upper caste bid to restore a slipping hegemony..." (Basu, Dutta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen,1993, pp. 10-11).The vision of a social order under the Hindu Rashtra is thus one which legitimizes both the inhuman caste oppression and the denial
of elementary rights to women. Under such a dispensation, criminal practices such as Sati may not only be legitimised but may well be glorified. This vision outlined by Golwalkar continues to form the basis for the Saffron Brigade to establish its vision of a Hindu Rashtra. If it today claims not to have republished this book in the 1950s, it has little to do with repudiating this vision. If this was so at all, then it was due more to the defeat of fascism in the Second World War and the liberation of millions from its oppressive yoke. With the Golwalkar-formulated ideal having been smashed, the Saffron Brigade could not propagate it in India. Domestically, following the assassination of Gandhiji, its offensive remarks about the Congress could not have been much of a comfort. But the essential understanding outlined in the book,as noted earlier, continues to be the inspiration for the Saffron Brigade today. The dual objective is: attempt to straitjacket the internal diversity amongst the 'Hindus' under a single domination, and generate hate against a community outside of the Hindus - the Muslims. (For an exposure of the falsehood on the basis of which the Saffron Brigade spreads this hatred, see Pseudo Hinduism Exposed: Saffron Brigade's Myths and Reality: a CPI(M) publication, January 1993). As a digression, it would be interesting to note that even the symbol around which they seekthe internal unification of the Hindu people - Ram and Ramayana - has avery rich diversity. I recollect from my childhood the untenable characters in the Ramayana, the kings south of the Vindhyas like Vali, Sugreeva and Jambavanta who are depicted as animals and not humans. Was this not a reflection of the attempt of Aryan domination over the Dravidians? Or take the legend around the festival of Onam celebrated in Kerala: The people of Kerala celebrate the annual return of their favourite King Maha Bali, who is described in the Aryan version as the king of Asuras (demons) who had to be killed by Vishnu in the form of Vamanaavatara. A hero for one set of Hindus is the villain for the other ! (The Saffron Brigade, however, may say that these kings were different. Like the 'sants' who, when man landed on the moon, screamed that this moon was different from the one referred to in the scriptures.) Or, for that matter, take the entire interpretation of Ravanayana which describes the epic as the story of Ravana, who having earned the ultimate boon of not being killed by any living creature, gets fed up with mortal life and engineers that God comes down in the form
of Rama, to be killed by his hands to achieve moksha. Vijaya Dashmiday, instead of marking the triumph of good over evil, could well mark the moksha of Ravana! (For a greater variety of the story of Ramayana see Paula Richman, 1992.) In fact, the Kamba Ramayana in Tamil is found as aversion authored by one Kamban in Thailand adorning the galleries of the royal palace in Bangkok. A rich story of epic proportions, which as Kamban says "it spreads, ceaselessly various, one and many at once", is today being straijacketed for the political purposes of establishing a fascistic Hindu Rashtra. To return to Golwalkar. In the epilogue to his book he says,
`All past civilisations 'had their day, abode a day or two and passed away', because they had nothing to fulfill. We, however, live on, despite far greater calamities, and ever emerge triumphant masters of the world. We have no reason to loose hope. Act first... a stage sogloamed with woe, We all but sicken at the shifting scenes. And yet be patient, our Play Wright 'will' show, in some fifth Act what this wild drama means. Let us be patient" (Golwalkar (sic), 1939, p' 65).The "wild drama' is unfolding its fascistic proportions. Georgi Dimitrov says that 'It is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois parties. But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks on the bourgeois governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the old bourgeois parties' (Dimitrov, 1972, p. 12 ). Note today the vehemence with which the Saffron Brigade has mounted its attack on the very fundamental pillars of secularism and democracy that define the polity of independent India. Note also the vehemence with which it today places the entire blame for the wanton destruction of the Babri Masjid on the present government policies and not as an act committed by the Saffron Brigade in flagrant violation of the Constitution and the law of the land. Further' Dimitrov notes:
'Fascism puts the people at the mercy of the most corrupt and venal elements but comes before them with the demand for 'an honest and incorruptible government' speculating on the profound disillusionment of the masses... fascism adapts its dem-agogy to the peculiarities of each country. And the mass of petty bourgeois and even a section of the workers, reduced to despair by want,unemployment and insecurity of their existence fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism,' (Dimitrov, 1972, p. 12).It is precisely this feature of fascism that defines the demagogy and
campaigns of the Saffron Brigade today. (Note the fact that. while professing to offer 'incorruptible' governments, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh 'donated' property worth more than Rs. 15 crores to various organisations of the RSS parivar (India Today, October 30, 1992). Note also the recent exposure in The Times of India of the haste in which the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh sought to transfer land worth nearly Rs. 5 crores to Sadhvi Ritambara gratis ! Utilising the discontent arising out of the bourgeois-landlord class policies, they are attempting to divert this, not into channels that will reverse the conditions of impoverishment that continue to grow but into religious communal channels to advance their objectives. By placing before the people the construction of the Ram janmabhoomi temple as the only agenda, the Saffron Brigade, in fact, is strengthening the very edifice of exploitation that's heaping miseries on our people. In conjunction with the open attempt to seek imperialist patronage for its purpose, this spells doom for the Indian people. The Saffron Brigade today has clearly revealed that the actual conditions of the people and the alleviation of their miseries are not its concern. That more Indians than the entire population of the United States live below an abysmally low poverty line is of no concern to it. That children in our country, outstripping in millions the entire population of many a country, are forced to earn a livelihood is of noconcern to it. That more Indians die every year from malnutrition than the entire population of Australia is of no concern to it. Can such a diversion of the people's discontent for its political ambitions be allowed? In the name of Ram, the Saffron Brigade today seeks to consign crores of Indians to conditions of growing impoverishment. Not only this, but the Saffron Brigade's agenda has inflicted a colossal damage on our economy. Following December 6,1992, thousands of crores of rupees worth of property was destroyed, apart from the incalculable damage caused by the Bombay riots to the economy and to India's standing internationally. Now, Advani threatens to place the destruction of mosques in Mathura and Varanasi on the agenda - the surest guarantee to plunge India into a continuous conflict at the expense of the lives of thousands of Indians. Golwalkar and the Saffron Brigade would, however, say, "...it is not these that are our bane, but the dormancy of National feeling..." (Golwalkar,1939, p.62). The agenda that the Saffron Brigade is posing before the country and the methods that it uses to achieve its objective are nothing but
an expression of an Indian variant of fascistic rule. Both in terms of the form of state and in terms of its economic and social policies, the BJP has exposed itself as the most reactionary section of the ruling classes. The present attempt by the Saffron Brigade is not merely one of establishing a medieval, theocratic "Hindu Rashtra", but one of negating the very basis of democracy and secularism. Such a fascistic threat, it must be noted, is not about a mere change in the ruling party of the country. It is not about the normal succession
of one party replacing another at the Center. It means that parliamentary democracy based on secularism is replaced by an open terroristic dictatorship based on an intolerant theocratic ideology. It is a change not merely in form but in content - a most vicious change at that. The Saffron Brigade's agenda has to be defeated today in order to safeguard modern India. Unless India is saved, it cannot be changed for the better.All patriots who have not sold their conscience to the enemies of the nation have to rise as one man to meet this fascistic challenge.
by
Sitaram Yechuri
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