Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Founder Trustee, Bharatamata Gurukula
Ashram & Yogi Ramsuratkumar
Indological Research Centre,
Sister Nivedita Academy, "Sri Bharati
Mandir", Srinivasanagar,
Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore 560
036
(Phone: 091-80-5610935, 5613716;
e-mail: sadhurangarajan@vsnl.com )
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the renowned
Cambridge philosopher and exponent of Logical Positivism, has said that
language is a game with words as tools like the pieces of chess and there
are not any fixed, atomic and simple elements of reality corresponding
to words. Perhaps this great European philosopher who lived in the first
half of the last century had a deep foresight that in the twenty first
century, the politicians in India will play their political games with
words like 'Hindu Rashtra' and therefore there will be need for linguistic
analysis to find the meaning. Recently, when the Deputy Prime Minister
of India, Sri L.K. Advani, made a statement that India can never be a Hindu
Rashtra, it shook all those who, in their youth, used to play the game
of Kabadi with him in the RSS Shaka where through the songs, lectures and
prayer they all nourished and nurtured in their hearts the ideal of Hindu
Rashtra, calling themselves 'Hindu raashtraanga bhootaa'-the limbs of the
great Hindu Nation. Ashok Singhal, the International Working President
of VHP rightly remarked that Advani's statement smacked of pseudo-secularism
and minority appeasement.
Immediately after the spectacular
victory of the Hindutwa forces in the recent Gujarat elections, when Sri
Pravin Togadia, the Secretary General of VHP, has expressed his hope that
India could turn into a Hindu Rashtra in the next two years, the spokesperson
of the BJP, Sri V.K. Malhotra, who has also been in his youth a Swayamsevak
of RSS wearing khaki shorts and white shirt and singing the prayer addressed
to Hindu Rashtra, has remarked that "We are not for a theocratic state
and are not for any state religion".
It is time now for honest, sincere
and devout Swayamsevaks of the Sangh Parivar either to throw out of the
BJP, the party that they have built up with their sweat and blood, the
pseudo-secularists who blacken the term 'Hindu Rashtra' attributing a distorted
meaning to it like the Congressmen and other so called secularists in order
to appease the so called minorities, or dump the very party into dustbin
and build a new Hindurashtravadi political party like the erstwhile Jan
Sangh to fulfil the rising aspirations of the awakened people of this nation.
The victory of Narendra Modi and
his followers in the Gujarat elections is neither due to the secular credentials
of the BJP and its leadership nor due to any significant achievements of
the BJP Government in power. The inhuman atrocities committed against the
innocent Hindus in the Godhra and Akshardham, the rising trend of Islamic
fundamentalism in Kashmir and other parts of India, the challenge posed
by Christian conversion activities in different states and the appeasement
of minorities by the so called secular politicians and parties at the cost
of the poor and downtrodden Hindu population who form the majority in the
country have awakened not only the ordinary masses in Gujarat, but also
the whole nation. The bastard English newspapers of India who have inherited
the genes of the pre-Independence European colonialist newspapers tried
to present a completely negative and distorted image of the Hindutwa forces
in Gujarat and in other parts of the country, but the people of Gujarat
have spat at their faces and given them a fitting reply by voting to power
the Hindutwa forces.
While the common man in this country
has understood what is Hindutwa and what is Hindu Rashtra, the Cambridge
or Oxford returned elite journalists wielding whisky bottle in one hand
and pen in the other and the so called secularist and minority appeasing
politicians are still to understand what is meant by these terms. Some
effort is to be made to make them understand, though their brains are made
of hard shells to let in wisdom and truth.
First and foremost proposition that
we make is that Hinduism or Hindutwa is not a religion like Christianity,
Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Vaishravism, Shaivism and Shaktism.
It is a dharma or way of life evolved by the great sages and seers of this
glorious nation that is known as Hindustan or Bharatavarsha for the entire
mankind for all times and it embraces politics, economics, culture, religion
and every aspect of life. The Sanskrit word, Rashtra, is not a cultural
term, but a political one meaning 'nation' or 'state'. The Barhaspatya
Samhita says, "Himalayaad aarabhya yaavad indu sarovaraparyantam tam deva
nirmitam desham hindusthaanam prachakshate"-that land created by God and
stretching from the Himalayas up to the Indian Ocean is. It is also known
as Bharatavarsha. The Vishnupurana says, "Uttaram yat samudrascha himaadreschaiva
dakshinam, varsham tad bhaaratam naama bhaaratee yatra santatih"-that land
which is to the north of the ocean and south of the Himalayas is Bharata
and the people of the land are Bharatiyas. Chanakya, who was instrumental
in the building up of the mighty Maurya Empire by Chandragupta Maurya,
declared:"Prithivyaa samudra paryanataayaa eka raat"-the entire land
stretching up to the seas is one nation. The above statements do not refer
to any cultural empire, but to one homogenous political entity called the
Hindu Rashtra which has seen in ancient period emperors as the central
figure of the nation and many kings and queens ruling various states or
rajyas under the suzerainty of one emperor or other. So Bharatavarsha or
which is also now known as India has been one nation or political entity
right from the remote past when most of the people outside this land had
not known what civilization was. Though, because of external aggressions
by the Muslims and later by Europeans, the political unity of this country
was disturbed in the mediaeval period, the Hindu Rashtra never became extinct.
It does not require the recognition of Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah type of polticians,
not even that of the constitution of India or parliament of the modern
times. This is Hindu Rashtra whether they accept it or not and the people
of India want it to be so. The religions that have sprung up in this Hindu
nation have come to be collectively known as Hindu religion, because they
sprang up in this land and reflect the ethos of this glorious nation.
We need no fool to sermonize to
us that India or Hinduthan or Hindu Rashtra can never be a 'theocratic
state' like a 'Christian State' or an 'Islamic State'. We know well that
India can never become a 'Bauddha State' or 'Vaishnava State' or 'Shaiva
State', but it will remain Hindu Rashtra-the nation of the Hindus, the
term Hindu meaning-"Aasindhu sindhu paryeta yasya bhaarata bhoomikaa, pitru
bhoo punya bhooschaiva sa vai hinduriti smritah"-All those who adore and
revere this Bharat as their holy land, as the land of their forefathers.
When Pravin Todgadia remarked that 'Jehadis' in this land who are undermining
the sovereignty and integrity of this nation should be sentenced
to death, the secularist politicians and newspapers distorted that statement
and accused him of saying that 'those who do not accept Hindutwa must be
sentenced to death'. Well, we would like to ask, for arguments sake, what
is wrong even if he had spoken like that if what is meant by the word Hindutwa
is loyalty to Motherland, unsullied patriotism and love towards this land
as ones holy land and land of the forefathers. Should those who are not
prepared to accept this and look to Pakistan, Arabastan, Italy and Rome
as their holy land and land of adoration be given a permanent lease to
occupy this country because once the Muslims and Europeans ruled over this
nation? Those who cannot accept the truth that the blood that flows in
their veins is that of their Hindu forefathers and that they are all Hindus
whose first and foremost loyalty should be to this nation and not to the
alien religions that they have embraced by force of circumstances, must
leave this nation and go and stay in those lands where eternal life is
assured to them. No one ever questions their right to believe in any god
they like and to worship Him in any name and form because Hinduism allows
it, but if they do not see divinity in this Motherland of ours and are
not loyal to this nation, they have no right to stay on here and betray
this nation to aliens. He is a Hindu for whom Mother and Motherland are
sacred than Heaven-"Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi". Those
who enjoy the citizenship of this land and betray it to the enemies of
this nation must be sentenced to death.
Now, to those who decry day in and
day out that the ideal of Hindu Rashtra as a 'theocratic state', we want
to point out what it means in the very words of those great leaders of
the modern period who stood for the Hindu Nation. About Indian Nationalism,
Sister Nivedita, the illustrious disciple of Swami Vivekananda and one
who came from the distant land of Ireland and dedicated her all to Mother
India, says: "I believe that the strength which spoke in the Vedas and
Upanishads, in the making of religion and empires, in the learning of scholars
and meditation of saints is born once more amongst us and its name today
is Nationality". Swami Vivekananda himself proclaimed: "Each nation has
its own part to play, and naturally, each nation has its own peculiarity
and individuality with which it is born. Each represents, as it were, one
peculiar note in the harmony of nations, and this is its very life, its
vitality. In it is the backbone, the foundation, and the bedrock of the
national life, and here in this blessed land (India) the foundation, the
backbone, the life-centre is religion and religion alone." Sri Viswanath
Prasad Verma, in his Modern Indian Political Thought says: "It will be
a gross exaggeration to interpret Indian Nationalism and freedom movement
as entirely being moulded and fashioned after western models and techniques.
It will be unhistorical to minimize the role of the fire of patriotic sentiments
released by Ramdas, Shivaji, Mahadaji Sindihia, Ranjit Singh and the leaders
of the movement of 1857." Eulogizing Bankim Chandra as "one among the Rishis
of the later age"-the seer of the mantra, 'Vande Mataram', which is creating
a new India, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo says: "It is not till the Motherland
reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a stretch
of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes shape as a
great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can dominate the
mind and seize the heart that these petty fears and hopes vanish in the
all-embracing passion for the Mother and her service, and the patriotism
that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born. To some men it is
given to have that vision and reveal it to others." Sri Aurobindo emphatically
proclaimed the message that he received from Krishna Vasudeva when he was
incarcerated in the Alipore Jail: "When you go forth, speak to your nation
always this word, that it is for the Sanatan Dharma that they arise, it
is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them
freedom for the service of the world. When therefore it is said that India
shall rise, it is Sanatan Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that
India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When
it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan
Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the
Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists." And unambiguously Sri Aurobindo
states what he means by Sanatan: "It is Hindu religion only because the
Hindu nation has kept it, because in this Peninsula it grew up in the seclusion
of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it
was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve through ages."
Annie Besant, who came from the
West and identified herself with Mother India, accepted the identity of
Indian nationalism with the Sanatana Dharma. She says, "During the early
life of a Nation, religion is an essential for the binding together of
the individuals who make the nation. India was born, as it were, in the
womb of Hinduism, and her body was for long shaped by that religion. Religion
is a binding force, and India has had a longer binding together by religion
than any other Nation in the world, as she is the oldest of the living
Nations." The great poet-patriot of Tamilnadu, Mahakavi C.Subramania Bharati,
presented a clear picture of Indian Nationalism: "is the land of the Hindus.
This is the name of our homeland and her people. This vast concourse of
people is also known as the 'Bharata Race'."
The most powerful proponent of the
Hindutwa ideal in the modern period was undoubtedly Veer Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar who also headed the Hindu Mahasabha which was considered as a
staunch opponent not only by the Muslim League that caused the vivisection
of the land, but also by the secular Congress which went out of the way
to appease the minorities for political gains. In his presidential address
given to the Hindu Mahasabha session at Ahmedabad in 1937, Savarkar declared:
"To the Hindus independence of can only be worth having if that ensures
their Hindutva-their religious, racial and cultural identity. We are not
out to fight and die for a 'swarajya' which could only be had at the cost
of our 'swatva' our Hindutva itself!" In the same address, Savarkar made
it very clear that he did not mean by Swarajya a Hindu nation where only
those who belong to the Hindu religion will be in power and those Indians
who have faith in non-Hindu religions will have no rights. He said, "In
spite of their overwhelming majority in India, in spite of the consciousness
that it is they who have borne the brunt of the fight, struggled single-handed
down to this day while the other non-Hindu sections and especially the
Mohammedans who are nowhere to be found while the national struggle goes
on and are everywhere to be found in the forefront at the time of reaping
the fruits of the struggle-in spite of all this the Hindus are willing
to form a common united Indian Nation and do not advance any special claims,
privileges or rights reserved only for themselves over and above the non-Hindu
section of ." He further stated emphatically: "Let the Indian state be
purely Indian. Let it not recognize any invidious distinction whatsoever
as regards franchise, public services, offices, taxation on the grounds
of religion and race. Let no cognizance be taken whatsoever of man's being
Hindu or Mohammedan, Christian or Jew. Let all citizens of that Indian
state be treated according to their individual worth irrespective of their
religious or racial percentage in general population." This exposition
of Hindutwa by the great visionary of Hindu Rashtra is not anything like
the hypocritical 'secularism' preached by the power-hungry politicians
to appease the minorities and swallow their vote banks in elections.
Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the
Seer of the Hindu Nation and founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
deliberately avoided naming his organization Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh because
in Bharatavarsha, Hinduism is not merely a religious concept, but is also
the backbone of Bharatiya Nationalism. Therefore he wanted to emphasize
that organizing the Hindus meant organizing the nation. Dr. Hedgewar was
in the forefront of Indian Revolutionary Movement for the Motherland's
emancipation. However, when he realized that a nation could not be built
by a violent armed struggle in which a few precious patriotic men and women
will sacrifice their precious lives while the majority of the people remain
steeped in self-forgetfulness which cost them their freedom, he decided
to organize and awaken the masses and with that end in view joined the
Congress Movement. As the General Secretary of the Congress Movement in
the Central Province, when he took a leading role in the national movement,
he had a shocking experience-the Hindus joined the freedom struggle to
liberate the Motherland from the British rule, whereas the Muslims joined
the Congress to fight against the British because the latter were against
the Caliph of Turkey who was considered to be the Head of Muslims all over
the world. While the Hindus in the Congress wore the white Khadi cap as
symbol of Indian nationalism, the Muslims wore only the Turkey cap manifesting
their loyalty to the deposed Caliph. Dr. Hedgewar, with his deep foresight,
realized that this lack of spirit of patriotism among the Muslims and their
extra-territorial loyalty will definitely manifest in the form of a demand
for the vivisection of the Motherland when the country attains independence.
It was precisely for this reason that he decided to organize the Hindus
who alone had their loyalty and intense love to the Motherland and for
that purpose founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to rouse the spirit
of patriotism and national ideals among the Hindus.
That the RSS movement never wanted
to crush the religious beliefs of the non-Hindus or deprive them of their
due share in the nation building is crystal clear from the words of Sri
Guruji Golwalkar, who succeeded Dr. Hedgewar as the Sarsanghchalak of RSS.
He says, "We must revive once again the parakrama-vad. For that we should
make it clear that the non-Hindu who lives here has a rashtra dharma (national
responsibility), a samaja dharma (duty to society), a kula dharma (duty
to ancestors), and only in his vyakti dharma (personal faith), he can choose
any path which satisfies his spiritual urge. If, even after fulfilling
all those various duties in social life, anybody says that he has studied
Quran Sherif or the Bible and that the way of worship strikes a sympathetic
chord in his heart, that he can pray better through that path of devotion,
we have absolutely no objection. Thus he has his choice in a portion of
his individual life. For the rest, he must be one with the national current.
That is real assimilation."
The bandh organized by the Muslims
in the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir condemning the death
sentence awarded to the dreaded terrorists who, as agents of the ISI of
Pakistan, attacked the Indian Parliament and tried to assassinate the top
leaders of this nation is a clear indication as to how far the Muslims
in our country have assimilated into our national mainstream and where
their loyalty is. There are exceptions. Even in the BJP there are Muslim
leaders who are loyal to the Motherland. However, exceptions do not make
the rule. Unless the non-Hindu minorities see the writing on the wall and
change their ways, their survival in this land is well neigh impossible.
However, we do find some silver lining in the post-Godhra thinking of some
of the enlightened Muslims like the renowned Muslim scholar, Dr. Rafiq
Zakaria. He gives in his latest book, Communal Rage in Secular India, in
the last chapter titled 'What should Muslims do?', some gems of well-meaning
advice to the Muslim masses in India:
'Muslims must try and become an
integral part of the mainstream... they must whole-heartedly co-operate
in enriching composite nationalism which continues to be our pride... they
must get out of their ghetto mentality, break the barriers of alienation
and generate a harmonious environment.'
'Muslims continue to live in a make-believe
world of their own. Their leaders waste their energies in playing games,
whipping up emotions, and bringing more trouble to the ordinary Muslims.'
'Their self-serving leaders, with
utter disregard to the aftermath of Partition, remained oblivious to their
miserable decline and continued to behave with incredible arrogance, exhibiting
a sense of false bravado by their loud utterances; they take out protest
marches at the slightest pretext, hold demonstrations, shout slogans, demand
justice and fair play but all this never gives any relief to the community...
They fail to understand that by voicing meaningless grievances, asking
for unrealistic rights, wailing, fretting and fuming, the leaders may gain
some publicity but the community loses a great deal.'
'Instead of coming out openly against
Pakistan and taking a strong stand against the jihadis, these so-called
guardians of Indian Muslims spend most of their time in running their own
political shops to buttress their communal leadership.'
'Indian Muslims must now see the
light of day and move in a different direction which will take them forward
and not backward. They must discard their worn-out prejudices and outmoded
habits and adjust themselves to the requirements of the changing times.'
'There must be a real awareness
among Indian Muslims that they have to gird up their loins and prepare
for reconciliation with Hindus on the basis that each respects the religious
and cultural conventions, traditions and sentiments of the other.'
Let the so called minorities in
the country hearken to the call given by this wise Muslim thinker and sincerely
endeavour to merge in the mainstream of Indian Nationalism.
Vande Mataram! Bharat Mata ki Jai!
(Most of the quotations used in
this article have been reproduced from a dissertation on Hindu Rashtra
titled "Ideals of the Vedic Nation in the Modern Indian Awakening" by the
author, submitted by him to the Madras University in 1979 in part fulfillment
of M.A. Degree Examination in Philosophy in which he got a University First
Rank. The dissertation is under print in the form of a book, "Hindu Rashtra-Vedic
Ideals in Modern Awakening".)
