Author: Sheela Bhatt
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: December 5, 2002
URL: http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/dec/05spec.htm
Rajeev Vora, 54, was born in Anjaar,
Kutch, into a family of staunch Gandhians. After studying in Gujarat he
joined Jayaprakash Narayan's movement in Bihar and became convener of the
Bihar Satyagraha Sanchalan Samiti. During the Emergency he went to jail
along with other Gandhian leaders.
In 1977, he joined the Gandhi Peace
Foundation in New Delhi to "create Gandhi consciousness in society." Currently
he edits Gandhi Marg, a publication of the foundation.
Vohra blames Nehruvian secularists
who do not believe in god for the communal polarisation in Gujarat:
Why are Gandhians not heard in Gujarat,
land of the Mahatma?
It's a complex question. Once, the
same people accepted Gandhi. But times change. Stimulants change.
There are several reasons for it.
Why blame Gujaratis? Elsewhere in India too Gandhi is not heard anymore.
After Gandhi's death Gandhians took up his physical and bodily discipline,
but not his discipline of mind, his discipline of thoughts.
Gandhi was basically a Vedantic
person. But most Gandhians after Independence didn't like to be identified
with anything called dharma, Hindu dharma, sanatan dharma or Vedantic dharma.
They started talking about manav dharma [humanity]. But how can you reject
the perception of the masses? These followers of Gandhi rejected the demands
of a religious society and refused to counter the decadence in society.
Secularism has no name. Secularism
is something I don't understand. Secularism is a body without soul. Secularism
can't deliver anything. Secularism is sterile. Most Gandhians are sterile,
they have identified themselves only with the material side of the life
of the Indian people. Gandhiji looked at the material side of life also
because he wanted, at a later stage, our spiritual life to be supreme.
He wanted us to be spiritual after getting the basic things of life in
place. Mahatma Gandhi said, 'Bhooke ko to chand main bhi roti dikhegi,
uski sunderta nahin dikhegi [to a hungry man, even the moon will look like
bread].'
Another important thing he said
was that God lives in a hungry man. Gandhians twisted this understanding.
Roti is not God personified. It's important to feed the belly as long as
you are hungry. You have to keep body and soul together. But once you do
that, there are higher goals in life.
Gandhians and secularists have even
forgotten the dharma of satya, which is synonymous with Indian civilization,
Indian culture, and Indian dharma. And this dharma epitomizes Swaraj. People
identify with these words and concepts. People know swaraj means Ram rajya,
our own god Ram's ideal administration. Ram rajya doesn't mean BJP's rajya.
The recent violence in Gujarat was
because of three types of fundamentalist, violent ideas. One, Hindu fundamentalism,
which stems from a decadent Hinduism. The process of building a Ram temple
in Ayodhya should create Ram in people's hearts, not Ravana in their minds.
Gujarat has done something Indians have never done before. Those who committed
these horrendous crimes and killed people have not just insulted Ram, they
have collectively cheated Ram. We had never heard, even in the time of
Ravana, of anyone killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child. The amount
of violence we harbour today is much more than we had even during Partition.
Gandhiji told Mohammed Ali Jinnah
he did not believe in the two-nation theory because we are from the same
stock. Hindus and Muslims belong to the same forefathers. Our blood is
the same.
Diversity amongst Indians has been
converted to animosity by politicians. They tell us we, the Hindus and
Muslims, have incompatible interests. Then, they consolidate their powers
amongst us.
How can you demolish a mosque and
put up a Hanuman statue and name that place 'Hulladia Hanuman'? I call
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Hindutva hulladia (riotous) Hindutva. Do we
really want hulladia Hindutva?
Secondly, Islamic fundamentalism
is also responsible for this kind of violence. They are playing the same
game as the VHP. For both, truth is secondary to their own interpretation
of religion. Both are in the same league.
Third, the secularists of India
are responsible for the violence in Gujarat, particularly those secularists
who have no respect for their religion, much less somebody else's. These
non-religious ideas of self and the universe which came from the West,
Marxists and liberals, are responsible for the violence.
Secularists, however, are the most
responsible for violence in India because they never allowed people to
know what is going on in the minds of normal Hindus and normal Muslims.
Because they have changed the very language of discourse of development
and discourse of nation-building, discourse of communal relationship, everything.
Secularist language is unknown to
the Indian people. So genuine Hindu demands were always rejected in the
name of secularism. Otherwise, having carved Pakistan and Bangladesh out
of the body of India, it was the duty of Muslims to release the three religious
places [of Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi]. It would have been an act of goodwill.
I am sure they were ready to release the masjid in 1947. But these secularists
never allowed Muslims to gift Hindus their shrines.
I repeat, the soul of Gandhi was
killed by Jawaharlal Nehru who rejected his body of karma. They took him
to be a freedom fighter, not a man who was in search of dharma.
In 1945, Nehru had told Gandhiji
he had read his small booklet Hind Swaraj long back. He disagreed with
Gandhiji in his vision for reconstructing India. Nehru had rejected Gandhi
completely much before Independence. Nehru represented the anglicized Indian
class.
Nehru was the first person to reject
Gandhiji. After the betrayal of Nehru and his class of people, Gandhi started
saying 'my voice is a voice in the wilderness.'
The second betrayal came from fundamentalist
Muslims represented by Jinnah, who clinched the deal to get Pakistan by
the horrible massacre of Hindus in Bengal sparked by his call for 'direct
action.'
Third, Bapu was killed again by
decadent and fundamentalist Hindus represented by Nathuram Godse. He was
the bullet triggered by Jinnah.
