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Religious Dimensions of Indian
Nationalism: A Study of the RSS
The Father of Indian nationalism was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim but a Parsi, Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India. Communal forces reduced that secular nationalism into a degenerate marriage of religion and politics that has given birth to fascism. Nehru remarked: ‘The wave of fascism which is gripping India now is the directed outcome of the hatred for the non-Muslims which the Muslim league preached for many years..... We have a great deal of evidence to show that the RSS is an organisation which is in nature of a private army and which is definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the technique of organisation.’ In the same vein, Dr. Shamsul Islam, who teaches political science in Satyawati College, University of Delhi, with a content-neutral exposition of events has highlighted the threat to the unity of India posed by the RSS after Partition. Hitler’s use of themes evoking the deepest unconscious emotions’ and that of ‘propaganda to arouse basest instincts of men and cloak them with nobility’, inspire the RSS. From Manu to R.C. Majumadar, the author has quoted every thinker on nationalism. About a century back Tagore wrote: ‘The word nation does not occur in our language, nor does it exist in the country’. But the ‘revivalists’ believe in ‘primordialism’ or ‘organic’ nationalism in India. The Mahabharata recounts the establishment of unifying Dharma and Ramyana is ‘an idealised description of such a rule.’ The author has certain limitations. The fact of the matter is that RSS adopted Aurobindo Ghosh as its icon of Hindu culture whom L.K. Advani dumped somewhere on the way during his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya as Aurobindo does not accept Rama a ‘historical figure’, but only a ‘figment of Valmiki’s imagination.’ Fascists do not have their own self-created heroes or symbols. Hitler appropriated Teutonic Knights and Sawastika. RSS adopted Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Veer Savarkar alongwith Swastika and Bhagwa Dhawaj, ‘which is ideal and all-absorbing’. Rama and Krishna are not national ideals to Golwalkar ! (Page 395 Bunch of Thoughts). The author has done painstaking research to highlight the role of both in the evolution of secular nationalism metamorphosing into Hindu nationalism. Bankim, before he became the ‘creator’ of Hindu nationalism, wrote: ‘History tells us that a principal consequence of subjection is that the intellectual creativity of a subject Jati is extinguished. Yet the intellect of the Bengali shone more brightly during the reign of Pathanas..... Never before and never after the face of Bengal lit up more brightly then in these two hundred years’. Bande Mataram (Hail to the Mother) appears in his novel, Anandmath (Abbey of Bliss) which was serialised in Bangadarshan. In the first edition, Clive and Hastings were held responsible for the ruination of India. Bankim was Deputy Collector in the British administration. When hints were given as to the adverse effect of such a construct, he, to save his job, substituted Muslims as the villains of piece. Savarkar wrote History of First War of India’s Independence when he was studying in London. The war was fought by Hindus and Muslims against the British. In that book he had quoted Bahadur Shah Zafar’s couplet given below in English version: As long as there remains the least trace of love of faith in the heart of our heroes, so long, the sword of Hindustan shall flash even at the throne of London. As quid pro quo for release from jail, he propounded the Two-Nation Theory which became a handy tool in the hands of Muslim League’s ideologist, Jinnah (1940) and divided the country. Golwalkar’s We or Our Nationhood Defined (1939) still determines Hindu nationalism. Part of Hindutva is like Hitler’s anti-Semitism, Muslim and Christian bashing and part is double think, consolidation of Hindu society making it as ‘sharp and strong as steel’ and describing Manusmriti as the most sacred book after the Vedas. Idolising Hitler and idealising Germany Nazism, and Aryan race by Golwalkar betrays his false sense of racial superiority and purging Germany of Semitic people, Jews, is to endorse Hitler’s Final Solution and allow an ‘intrepid and brute’ Himmler (Modi) to experiment with genocide in the ‘Hindutva laboratory’ that was Gujarat. In India every invading Aryan was considered a god. In Rig Veda there are three thousand and three hundred gods. From the vedic age to the present, the Indian population has increased about fifty times. Those who claim their descent from Aryans look suspicious of their black hair and blank mind where myths like Purush Shukta and Churning of Ocean (supernatural scandals) get easily imprinted. Dr. Islam, because of his limitation, avoids such things. The author squarely blames the secularists who did not oppose the communal fascist forces in the absence of freedom fighters who were behind the bars after the launch of the Quit India Movement. Culture is an expression of experiences and aspirations of the people as a whole. If a small segment of population manipulates the symbols of that culture for its narrow political ends, the outcome of such a culture is dangerous and destructive. Culture to the RSS is acquisitive politics. Golwalkar villified Gandhiji for his non-violence to "cover up his imbecility" when Hitler ridiculed Gandhiji indirectly: ‘Nobody but a man entirely ignorant of war could imagine that an army of occupation might be frightened and driven out by such ridiculous means’. Gandhiji wanted to cleanse society by penitence, love and non-violence like Jesus. Preface of the book is by Richard Bonney, Professor of Modern History at the University of Leicester, U.K. He has quoted from secret circular of the RSS which is spine-chilling like Hitler’s 25-Point Programme. The RSS wants to eliminate Scheduled Casts/Tribes, Backward Classes and Minorities to establish a Hindu Rashtra that is the unfinished agenda of Partition. ISI also wants Hindu Rashtra as it can not break secular India. The RSS is on the same wave-length with the ISI as it was with the Muslim League. Both wanted the division of India. In undivided India neither a Jinnah nor a Vajpayee could aspire to be the Prime Minister. Islam is a theatre personality devoted to the cause of women and Dalits. His book is a masterpiece of history of contemporary India which every secularist would long for and wait for long to have a glimpse of such a rare secular construct. In one word, irresistible.
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THE book is a thoroughly
researched and rewarding history of Indian nationalism.