[Reader-list] Fwd:Understanding Hindutva
Fatima
sadiafwahidi at yahoo.co.in
Wed Oct 15 13:13:35 IST 2008
Dear Lalit
If, according to you "Hindus have welcome all persecuted communities from world over", why are Hindu-persecuted communities taking refuge today in the forests and relief camps in Orissa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra?
SF
--- On Tue, 14/10/08, Rohan DSouza <virtuallyme at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Rohan DSouza <virtuallyme at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd:Understanding Hindutva
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Date: Tuesday, 14 October, 2008, 9:42 AM
> Dear All,
>
> Am forwarding an interesting article which explores the
> concept of Hindutva
> and tries to point out the differences between it and
> Hinduism. The author
> puts forward the theory that Hindutva is a political
> project, grounded in
> the principles and practices of Fascism, aimed at creating
> and maintaining
> an authoritarian state, with suppressive control over human
> beings.
>
> He also brings out the difference between the inclusive,
> open approach of
> Hinduism and the exclusive, suppressive ideas of Hindutva.
>
> Thought Ill forward this piece to this list as there have
> been many
> discussions around similar issues.
>
> Regards,
> Rohan
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
> UNDERSTANDING HINDUTVA - by Averthanus L.
> D'Souza.
> Posted by: "SJPRASHANT, Ahmedabad"
> sjprashant at gmail.com
> Date: Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:40 pm ((PDT))
>
> UNDERSTANDING HINDUTVA
> - Averthanus L. D'Souza.
>
> Ramesh Rajaram Vispute, a former Secretary of the Vishwa
> Hindu Parishad
> (VHP) once remarked: "The enemies of the Hindus are
> the Muslims, the
> Christians, the Hindu intellectuals and the media."
> It is very significant
> as well as intriguing that Vispute included the Hindu
> intellectuals and the
> media in his category of the "enemies" of Hindus.
> It does not take great
> intellectual acumen to interpret the meaning of this
> statement by a very
> prominent Hindutva promoter. It is quite obvious that
> Hindu intellectuals
> (nor any other reasonably educated person for that matter)
> will refuse to
> swallow the confused gibberish which is churned out by
> the Hindutva
> propagandists to arouse anger and hatred against Muslims
> and Christians,
> for which the VHP is so notorious. Any thinking person
> (including Hindu
> "intellectuals") will see through the falsity of
> the arguments which the VHP
> advances in its hate campaigns. It is precisely because
> the position of the
> Hindutva campaign is irrational and untenable that the
> propagandists prefer
> to recruit uneducated and unthinking followers who can
> easily be manipulated
> to believe anything that is fed to them. The Bajrang
> Dal, which is
> considered to be the front-rank of the storm-troopers of
> the VHP is a good
> example of uneducated youth, with more passion than reason,
> who are willing
> to blindly follow orders without thinking, and who are
> conditioned to
> believe that heroism consists in slaughtering helpless
> women and children,
> and burning innocent people alive. In this respect the
> Bajrang Dal is no
> different from the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany or the
> youth brigades of the
> other fascist movements in Europe who were used to
> terrorize the population
> into submission. With their saffron head-bands and
> wielding 'trishuls',
> and screaming full-throated war-cries, these rampaging
> gangs can cause
> terror anywhere - which is precisely what they are trained
> to do. They are
> 'programmed' to follow orders, irrespective of the
> morality of the orders or
> the consequences which follow. B.S. Moonje, a prominent
> RSS leader,
> personally met the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini
> in Rome on 19
> March, 1931, visited some important military schools and
> educational
> institutions and became acquainted with the Balilla and the
> Avanguardisti
> organizations. Moonje wrote in his diary that the
> keystone of the fascist
> system is the 'indoctrination' of youths, rather
> than education. This is
> the foundation on which the Bajrang Dal is built.
>
> While cultivated ignorance of the youth is one facet which
> is promoted by
> the Hindutva ideologues, deliberate falsification of
> current facts as well
> as of History is another method of indoctrination used.
> Lal .Krishna.
> Advani closely studied the system of propaganda developed
> by Nazi Germany.
> He says: "In Nazi Germany, fascism in action
> developed two other
> distinctive characteristics: firstly, adoption of
> propaganda as a key
> instrument of State policy; and secondly, the systematic
> development of a
> demonology to keep the masses in a mood of perpetual
> tension and hysteria."
> (L.K.Advani- "A Prisoner's Scrap Book" )
> Advani and his colleagues have
> tried hard to refine and improve upon the
> propaganda-cum-terror machinery
> which was developed by Nazi Germany, specially by
> Hitler's most trusted
> lieutenant Paul Joseph Goebbels, whose name has now become
> synonymous with
> high-voltage mendacious propaganda.
>
> One of the more prominent falsifications which the Hindutva
> protagonists are
> propagating is that Hindutva is an integral part of
> Hinduism. No sensible
> person, (including thinking Hindus) accepts this claim.
> In fact, the vast
> majority of Hindus are aghast at this identification of
> Hinduism with
> Hindutva. Hinduism is a highly respected religion of
> long standing. It
> is recognized (even by non-Hindus) as being, perhaps, one
> of the oldest
> religions in human history. It outlived the ancient
> religions of the
> Sumerians, the Etruscans, the Mesopotamians the Greeks and
> the Egyptians.
> Hinduism has always been associated with
> 'sanatana' which denotes
> timelessness or ancientness. Hinduism has never been
> associated with any
> particular political system; nor has it ever shown a
> preference for any
> particular cultural context. In the broadest sense of the
> word, Hinduism
> is "heterodox" and embraces a vast variety of
> rituals, beliefs, popular
> practices and dietary preferences. In the Bhagavad Gita,
> Lord Krishna
> tells Arjuna: "Through whatever path men come to me, I
> accept them through
> that very path."
>
> In sharp contrast to Hinduism as a religion, Hindutva is
> a clearly
> distinguishable "political" ideology which is
> straining to concoct a
> "national" identity based on the Hindu religion.
> Hindutva is a clearly
> fascist political movement, which has drawn much of its
> inspiration from
> European fascism and German Nazism. The most prominent
> protagonists of
> Hindutva, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1902 - 1966), Madhav
> Sadashiv
> Golwalkar (1906 - 1973) and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1901 -
> 1953) among
> others, have derived their ideologies from European fascism
> and modified it
> to suit Indian conditions. In fact, Pravin Togadia the
> "International
> General Secretary" of the VHP explicitly says that
> India is a Hindu Rashtra
> since millennia, and that Hindutva is not a religion but a
> synonym for Hindu
> nationalism. It should be quite clear, therefore, that
> the rejection of
> the claims of Hindutva cannot be construed as being
> anti-Hinduism. In
> fact, it is precisely because of the distortion of
> Hinduism by the Hindutva
> brigade that the Hindu intellectuals have rejected it.
> The Hindutva
> fanatics thrive on spreading this confusion between
> Hindutva and Hinduism.
> They have been able to increase their popularity because
> they repeat the
> (false) propaganda that the promotion of Hindutva is the
> promotion of
> Hinduism
>
> There are many distortions which the Hindutva fascists have
> wrought on
> Hinduism. Suffice it to indicate only a few blatant
> contradictions in
> their propaganda.
>
> One: Hindutva is supposedly a movement to create a Hindu
> "Rashtra". The
> secularism enshrined in the Indian Constitution is
> violently rejected by the
> Hindutva protagonists. At the same time they have made a
> conscious and
> vigorous effort to create an "international"
> Hindu community. The
> formation of the "World Hindu Council" and the
> creation of the post of an
> "International General Secretary" of the VHP is a
> clear contradiction of the
> claim that Hindutva is limited to the objective of creating
> a Hindu
> "nation." This contradiction is obvious to
> every sane person, except, of
> course, the rabid Hindutva ideologues.
>
> The claim made by Pravin Togadia that Hindutva as a
> "Rashtra" has existed
> since millennia is patently false. By all historical
> accounts, whether in
> ancient or mediaeval India, there were several
> "kingdoms" or "empires."
> Among the more well-known ancient empires were the Mauryan
> empire of
> Chandragupta Maurya ( approx. 326 B.C. to 184 B.C.) and
> the Asokan empire
> (approx. 269 B.C. to 232 B.C.) There were also other
> lesser kingdoms like
> those of Kushana. In the south there were the numerous
> kingdoms of
> Adilshah, the Pandyan and Chola kingdoms, the Chalukyan
> dynasty and the
> Vijayanagaran kingdom (1336 to 1567 A.D.) and the better
> known Maratha
> Kingdom whose best known figure is Shivaji. In the
> course of history, all
> these kingdoms were in conflict with one or another with a
> view to expand
> their fiefdom or to retrieve lands which had been taken
> away by force.
> There was never a "nation" called India. Even
> after the gaining of
> political independence from Britain in 1947, it was left
> to Sardar
> Vallabhbhai Patel to consolidate the various major and
> minor kingdoms into a
> unified Nation. It is indisputable that it was under
> Pandit Jawaharlal
> Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel that the so-called
> "Princely States" were
> abolished and integrated into the State of India, which,
> for the first time
> in its entire history adopted a Constitution which was to
> govern the
> "Nation." The falsity of the VHP's claim
> that India was always a Hindu
> "rashtra" is proven by the very fact that it is
> still seeking to "create"
> the Hindu Rashtra of its dream.
>
> Two: the VHP claims that people who profess and practice
> other religions
> cannot be part of the Hindu Rashtra. This is in stark
> contradiction to the
> repeated statements made by the Hindutva leaders that
> Hindutva is a
> "secular" concept. In fact, they claim that they
> are secular precisely
> because they are Hindu. They accuse non-Hindus of being
> "pseudo-secular."
> They continue to trumpet this obvious contradiction that
> only Hindus are
> secular and the followers of all other religions are not
> secular. Yet,
> they also claim that Hindutva is a "composite"
> culture which embraces a
> variety of religions, cults, languages and ethnic cultures.
> The Hindutva
> ideologues have never been able to reconcile this glaring
> contradiction in
> their position. If Hindutva "embraces" other
> ethnic cultures, why is it
> that they are systematically forcing tribals (who are not,
> and never have
> been, Hindu) to "convert" to Hinduism? On the
> one hand they have
> sponsored so-called "Freedom of Religion"
> legislation in many States;
> because they are ostensibly opposed to conversions by
> force, fraud or
> inducements; yet on the other hand, they themselves are
> forcibly
> "converting" tribals, members of scheduled castes
> and followers of other
> religions. They offer the lame and unconvincing argument
> that they are only
> bringing back these people to the Hindu fold. They have
> called this
> movement a "ghar vapasi." The fact is that the
> tribals have never been
> Hindu. They have their own culture, religion and social
> practices. "Ghar
> vapasi" in their case simply does not make any sense.
> Former Indian Prime
> Minister, V.P. Singh has rightly pointed out that
> "ultimately what they are
> aiming at is authoritarian rule. Then not only will the
> minorities be
> targeted, but also those who do not agree with them. You
> will be declared an
> anti-national and treated thus."
>
> One of the more prominent characteristics of any
> dictatorial political
> movement is the systematic creation of confusion in the
> minds of the
> citizens so that they can never be sure of what the truth
> is. This is done
> in two ways. One is to spread rumours through the cadres
> of grassroots
> level workers, and another is to simultaneously issue
> "official" statements
> "clarifying" the official position on any
> particular issue. This is a very
> subtle psychological game which is being played by the top
> leadership of the
> Hindutva brigade. Citizens need to be aware of this and
> not fall into the
> trap which is deliberately created by the Hindutva
> ideologues. A glaringly
> example of this "double-speak" is the fact that
> the Bajrang Dal leaders in
> Karnataka have openly stated on TV channels that they are
> responsible for
> the attacks against Christian churches, institutions and
> personnel. At the
> same time, the BJP government in Karnataka and the VHP
> leadership insist
> that the Bajrang Dal had nothing to do with the attacks.
>
> There are too many contradictions in the propaganda arsenal
> of the Sangh
> Parivar to be treated at length in a brief essay, but this
> short analysis
> will, perhaps, help to pinpoint the contradictions:
>
> Hindu Nationalism v/s International Hindu Solidarity.
>
> The entire Hindutva movement is grounded on the principle
> that India is a
> Hindu nation, and that only Hindus can enjoy rights of
> citizenship in India.
> In this view, Muslims and Christians, in particular, but
> also Jews,
> Parsis, Buddhists and Jains, are viewed as non-Indian.
> Each time a violent
> attack is carried out against Muslims or Christians, the
> Bajrang Dal
> terrorists shout that the Muslims and Christians should
> either become Hindus
> or leave the country. Islam and Christianity are
> considered to be
> "impositions" by foreign Muslim conquerors or by
> Western Christian
> missionaries. The teachings of V.D. Savarkar and M.S.
> Golwalkar are very
> explicit about this. According to them, non-Hindus cannot
> enjoy rights of
> citizenship. The Muslims are constantly warned that their
> continued
> presence in India is entirely dependent on the
> "goodwill" of the Hindus and
> the Christians are "advised" to form an Indian
> Church under the complete
> control of the Indian Government, similar to the National
> Church in China.
> The so-called principle is constantly repeated that only
> those who sever
> their links with any international community and become
> entirely Hindu will
> be tolerated in (an Hindutva ruled) India.
>
> The stark contradiction in this position is the fact that
> Hindutva is Not
> confined to the geographical territory of India; it is
> sought to be made an
> international religion. Ever since the famous Parliament
> of Religions was
> addressed by Swami Vivekananda, in Chicago the
> "missionary" dimension of
> Hinduism was begun with the formation of the Vedanta
> Society in 1893 in New
> York. Today there are Hindu "missions" all
> over the world, in the U.S.A.,
> in Europe, in the Pacific Islands, in the West Indies, and
> in South Africa.
> The claim that Hindutva is a movement to establish a
> Hindu "Rashtra," is,
> therefore, patently false. The comparison with the
> expansionist movement
> of Nazi Germany is too striking to be missed. First it
> started with the
> unification of German speaking countries; then it was
> extended to include
> all people of Aryan ethnic stock. Since racial
> characteristics could not be
> "assimilated" the Nazis began a systematic
> extermination, first of the
> Jewish people and then of other "tainted" races.
> The Hindutva claim to
> form a Hindu Rashtra, is, on the face of it, a huge fraud
> perpetrated by the
> Hindutva ideologues. From a close examination of the
> literature available,
> it is clear that the Hindutva brigade wants to establish a
> theocratic Hindu
> State in India, not dissimilar to the Islamic State of
> neighbouring
> Pakistan.
>
> Tolerance v/s xenophobia.
>
> Another myth which has been created by the Hindutva
> protagonists is the
> claim that Hindutva is a tolerant ideology and is based on
> secular values.
> This is far from the truth. Hindutva is a blatantly
> intolerant movement
> which thrives on spreading hatred and fear among people.
> In fact it is so
> intolerant that it seeks to re-write history, which,
> according to it, has
> been written by "pseudo-secularists." Its
> distortion of history is so
> blatant that it has even created the myth that Asoka and
> Chandragupta
> Maurya were Hindu kings. This is a blatant falsification
> of History. All
> reliable sources tell us that Asoka ruled over a Buddhist
> kingdom, and that
> Chandragupta Maurya was strongly associated with the Jaina
> tradition. The
> Hindutva view of history is not based on scientific
> research, but on an
> imagination running wild. The Hindutva
> "historians" are worthy disciples
> of Goebbels who taught that if you repeat a lie over and
> over again, people
> will soon begin to accept it as the truth.
>
> If Hindutva is a tolerant political ideology which respects
> secular values,
> why is it that in all the States which are ruled by the BJP
> there is a
> systematic attack against Christians and Muslims? Why is
> it that tribals,
> who are not, and never have been, Hindu are being
> terrorized into converting
> to Hinduism?
>
> The Hindutva fanatics claim that they are against
> conversion by force, fraud
> or by material inducements. In fact they accuse the
> Christians of having
> converted Hindus by offering such material inducements.
> Yet, the duplicity
> of their claims is starkly evident in the fact that
> wherever they have
> attacked the Christians, independent Commissions of
> Enquiry have not been
> able to confirm a single case of conversion by the use of
> fraud, force or
> material inducement. The Laws in India are very clear
> about such
> conversions. If the Hindutva terrorists have any evidence
> of such
> conversions, they should have recourse to the Law.
> Instead, they resort to
> violence and terror against helpless, innocent and weak
> communities. They
> themselves use force to (re)convert people.
>
> The Hindutva movement is built on the foundations of
> falsehood, force and
> terror. In times of natural calamities, like the
> earthquake in Gujarat,
> they prevented anyone else from assisting the affected
> people. They sought
> exclusive rights to dispense aid, but they distributed this
> aid in a highly
> reprehensible manner. Muslim victims were carefully and
> deliberately
> excluded. Others were given aid only on condition that
> they swore to
> remain or to become Hindu. There is voluminous evidence
> of such
> discrimination even in times of dire affliction. And
> these very people
> claim that Hindutva is a humanitarian and generous
> movement.
>
> Citizens need to be aware of the duplicity of the Hindutva
> movement. They
> should examine all their claims critically; and most of
> all, citizens
> should not be beguiled into believing that the Hindutva
> movement has any
> redeeming features. It is an unmitigated evil.
>
> The battle lines are very clear. We Indians, of all
> faiths, varieties of
> cultures and languages, are facing a grave threat to the
> secular,
> democratic and pluri-cultural fabric of our society. We
> need to join
> forces to defeat the evil forces of fascism and
> authoritarianism. The
> fight is not between Hinduism and other religions. The
> fight is really
> between secularism and democracy, on the one hand, and
> fascism on the other.
>
> Averthanus L. D'Souza,
> D-13, La Marvel Colony,
> Dona Paula, Goa 403 004.
> Tel: 2453628
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