The humiliating defeat of BJP in the
parliamentary elections followed by Maharashtra Assembly elections
has created a crisis in the party. One of the measures taken to
offset this demoralization and despondency has been to appoint,
once again, Mr. L.K. Advani as the president of the party.
Since so far the party has been operating on
the plank of Hindutva and it seems this slogan has lost its
sheen along with the issues which have been identified with it
Ram Temple, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code. This Hindutva
has got politically and socially manifested in a rabid anti-minoritism
as seen in the burning of Pastor Graham Staines and the
state-sponsored carnage in
Gujarat. The party which catapulted itself to
power by using these issues is at the receiving end. These
emotive issues have failed to get them sufficient number of
votes to come to power. Along with the organizational
modifications, the political agenda is being recast under new
slogans. The new words, which the new President Advani has put
forward are Bharatiyata or Nationalism, and Integral Humanism
from the ideology of Deendayal Upadhayay, who has been a
hindutva ideologue.
What is new about Bharatiyata or Nationalism?
Essentially it is an attempt to bring back a notion of Hindu
Nationalism with a new label, old wine in a new bottle. BJPs
Hindutva was an alternative to Indian Nationalism, the one based
on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (Community), the founding
principles of India's freedom movement and the basic premise of
Independent India. BJP necessarily has to bypass the values that
have made the modern India.
In a way the Nationalism in the name of
religion began in the nineteenth century, in opposition to the
evolving concept of India as a Nation in the making, meaning
that the new nation is coming into being through a mass movement
and this nation opposes the caste and gender hierarchies, then
prevalent.
The Hindu Nationalism threw up Punjab Hindu
Sabha, Hindu Mahsabha, and RSS at different points of time. What
was common among these formations was the concept of Hindu
Rashtra, opposition to changes of caste and gender equations and
hostility to Muslims. These were matching exactly with the
principles of Muslim League. What they shared in common was
their opposition to freedom movement, and the accompanying
social changes. The other word was cultural nationalism, which
again is apparently appealing but essentially derives itself
from Brahminical values of Ram, Gita and authority of Hindu
clergy. So with the failure of Hindutva in the popular
perceptions, the opposition to the principles of Indian Nation
has to be expressed in some other form. The closest word which
can give the hidden message is being searched and it seems the
waters are being tested by using the word Bharatiyata. The basic
point is to avoid the word Indian Nationalism. As that word
gives the potential of the values which got identified with
freedom struggle. So this exercise is for the search of a new
bottle, which can contain the Hindutva agenda, and also appeal
to the people at large. The aim is to avoid using the
discredited word Hindutva but at the same time to give the
political message of RSS politics.
Since it is likely that Bhartiyata may not
convey the message and RSS agenda fully, the dust from the books
of Deendayal Upadhayay is being removed to bring forward a new
supplementary word,
which sounds appealing enough while giving the message of RSS
Hindu Rashtra. Another word which has been put forward by
Mr. Advani as the agenda of BJP is Integral Humanism. Sounds
appealing! What does it really mean? Mr.Upadhyay is essentially
talking against the process of social change, the social
transformation of caste and gender. According to him the
communities are self-born organic entities, having an
equilibrium which should not be disturbed to preserve the
culture and values of those societies as they are. In this case
it means that changes in caste and gender equations will be
against the Hindu culture as being promoted, imposed by RSS.
This is also the hidden message of cultural nationalism.
Upadhayay also rejects Social contract theory, the basis of
modern democracies, the basis of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity. He writes, "In our concept of four castes [varna],
they are thought of as analogous to different limbs of Virat
Purush (Primeval man). These limbs are not only complimentary to
one another but even further there is individuality, unity.
There is complete identity of interest, identity of belonging
[...] if this idea is not kept alive, the castes instead of
being complimentary, can produce conflict." (D.Upadhyaya,
Integral Humanism, New Delhi Bharatiya Jan Sangh 1965, p. 4)
The real intent of this humanism is more than
clear the way Mr. Upadhayay defines it. It is the ideology of
RSS to preserve the status quo, to give sops and crumbs to the
downtrodden while preserving the caste hierarchy. It stands for
agreeing to cosmetic reforms while preserving the core
inequality. This should not be surprising. One can see the whole
RSS onslaught as a response to the deeper societal changes, the
changes which eroded the caste-gender hierarchy, and the changes
which threatened status quo. The rise of RSS can definitely be
traced to the societal changes where the Shudras and women
started asserting, where the privileged position of the
entrenched caste elite felt threatened, where the authority of
male over the female got questioned.
RSS did begin as a response to non-Brahman
movement, which was aiming to challenge the authority of
Brahminical system and thereby the hierarchies inherent in those
values.
The Gujarat riots of earlier decades were
targeted against dalits around reservations for admissions to engineering colleges, around their promotions in
jobs. After the riots of 80s, the RSS did change its strategy,
instead of targeting dalits it aimed its guns more against
minorities. At the same time, it undertook the process of social
engineering to co-opt dalits and adivasis through Samajik
Samrasta Manch and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, respectively. The RSS
changed the line of attack, unleashed a section of dalits and
adivisis to beat up the outer enemy, the Muslims, the
Christians. Instead of directly suppressing the upcoming
dalit-adivasi assertion, the section of this group is made to
focus on the non-issues around Hindu identity. The trick worked
for some time. Mandal and post-Mandal changes showed the
ascendancy of BJP and it
also came to fill a social space which was left by the dwindling
Congress.
As for these deprived sections, how far they
can go with the engineered status is yet to be seen. One is not
sure whether the same old Hindutva agenda repacked in the new
bottle of Bharatiyata and Integral Humanism will work. One must
realize that despite the apparent debacle the vote share of BJP
is quiet substantial. The RSS cadres, committed to its agenda
are scattered all around, working under different guises and
different banners and spreading the hate ideology in a ceaseless
manner. The myths and biases against minorities will not vanish
just because BJP has lost power. You scratch a liberal-looking
person, the anti-minority biases will
be exposed. The global situation is not making the matters any
better. The U.S. crusade against the jehadis, against Islam,
particularly in the Middle East, is worsening the matters.
The hate mines laid all around by RSS and its
progeny, the social common sense which has been drilled through
different mechanism is creating ghettoes in city after city. It
is also the fertile ground for the violence as and when it
erupts to assume a communal colour. One has to wait and watch
the strategy to be adopted by BJP. It has to be something based
on raw emotions. Whether Ram temple will work or whether Godhra
will be re-enacted only
time will tell. But one must compliment Mr. Advani's ingenuity in
locating new bottles from Hindutva store.
