Hindutva's Goal

By P.R. Ram. This extract is from chapter 4 ('Social Base of Sangh Parivar') of the book 'Fascism of the Sangh Parivar' published by EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity), 1999.

Hindu Rashtra is not a religious state; it is a 'modern' phenomenon to impose the pre-modern social hierarchies on all sections of society. It is the goal of a section of society, which is the major beneficiary of current social priviliges, the section of society, which have gained in the process of development of last few decades. It was the goal of section of society which was threatened by the social changes in pre-independence times (zamindar-brahmins) and who were champions of status quo and were allies of British at economic and political level. The Hindu Rashtra which is threatening to engulf the society from last two decades is the battle cry of section who again are upholder of a status quo vis-a-vis social position of women, workers, dalits and adivasis. It is the offence of the section of the society, which has benefited maximum by proliferation of small industries, petty business and agriculture of the 'Green Revolution' type. Indian Nationalism as an encompassing concept based itself on secular grounds and attempts to strive for formal liberty, equality and fraternity supplemented by the liberal space to struggle to convert these formal concepts in to reality. Indian Nationalism is a positive concept, incorporating different religion's, ethnicity's and culture's and is an integral part of world economy and emerging global village.

The chronicity, i.e., slow speed of this movement has its inherent problems, Whereas on one hand it can capture the social space, on the other it can also elicit a reaction to itself. This reaction to it from dalits, workers, women, section of middle class that is secular, is a big obstacle to the march of Hindutva. Big capital, the major industrial houses have a unique relation with Sangh Parivar. Whenever faced with crisis to their own existences the socially terrorising atmosphere created by the Sangh Parivar helps the needs of capital to keep thriving in an uninterrupted way. Thus this, chronic, resilient, thriving Fascism, expressed through the vehicle of Sangh Parivar continues to throw up different shades of its existence, sometimes terrorising (the poor and the minorities) sometimes aggressive (to the neighboring 'enemy' countries), and sometimes even appearing to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. But the march, at the moment is on. The social roots of Hindutva are all for the support and continuation of the repressive capitalist regime, sustaining the bourgeoisie aspirations, while continuing to pursue its own project.

Hindutva onslaught draws some support from fundamentalist concepts also. It culls out from the past-selective values to impose them on present. It uses religious imagery, glorifies the 'golden past' of rule of Hindu kings, see women primarily under patriarchial control dictating their way of life, dress code, etc. It co-opts all the sundry religious professionals and personnel's to strengthen its political base and it uses religion in a very effective way to create the nationalist hysteria. At present the situation is fairly in balance. The onslaught has achieved mammoth proportions in the north, but south and east are comparatively unaffected by its paranoid aggression. The reaction of the Dalits, though fragmented, is definitely going to retart the march of the rath (Chariot) of Hindutva.

The apparent target of Sangh Parivar, the Muslims are in a bind. On one hand they have been battered so much by Hindutva that they cannot afford to lie quiet any more. Secondly, unlike the Dalits they lie in sub-critical zone of backwardness where they find it difficult to come out of the grip of their own 'religious leaders', 'the Muslim obscurantists' posing to be speaking on behalf of 'their community'. Thus they face a double attack from both Hindu Fascism and Muslim fundamentalism. Probably the suffering of the 'poor Muslims' is so great they will be forced to come out and resist the 'bears hug' of Sangh Parivar and by side-tracking their 'obscurantist leaders' will pose definite obstacle to the march of 'Trishuls of Hindutva'. How Sangh Parivar overcomes this 'problem', which new 'velvet gloves' it discovers to remove this obstacle remains to be seen.