[sacw] SACW #2 | 9 Nov. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - Dispatch #2 | 9 November 2002

INTERRUPTION NOTICE: Please note SACW posts will be interrupted 
from the 10th - 17th November 2002

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#1. India: Hindutva-Politics in the garb of Religion!
Deliberate Confusion between Hinduism and Hindutva (Ram Puniyani)
#2. Distorting History [in India] 1 (Basharat Peer)

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#1.

Hindutva-Politics in the garb of Religion!

Deliberate Confusion between Hinduism and Hindutva

Ram Puniyani

While the supreme court judgement, Hindutva: A Way of life, is awaiting
being reviewed by a larger bench, interpretation of hindutva as a
religion, as a synonym for Hinduism is playing havoc in the society. On
one hand the practitioners of communal agenda are using it for communal
mobilization and on the other the foot soldiers Hindu Rashtra are stifling
the democratic ethos at every available opportunity.

Recently (Oct.25, 2002) a Principal of a Vashi school, near Mumbai, was
charged for the crime of understanding Hindutva as it is, a politics, a
variant of Fascism, Religious Fascism to be more precise. The question set
in his school was apt, Hindutva philosophy and its disastrous effect on
secular India. But for the clear understanding of the school about this
term, the local Shiv Sena volunteers complained and Principal was made to
run for cover. As such this word has hogged the limelight for wrong
reasons in recent past. Most of the communal actions have been deriving
their legitimacy from this word and its supplement, Hindu Rashtra. The
former denotes politics, while latter, its goal. And both words having
Hindu as an integral part of the construction give the impression as if
both these have something to do with Hindu Religion. And it is this
misconception, which helps in the mass mobilization for this politics.

Even the Supreme Court judgement, which came in handy to Sangh Parivar to
have legitimacy for its politics is mercifully slated for a review. Even
if Hidnutva is a religion, which it is not, can any religion be called as
a way of life? There are followers of same religion whose life has
multiple inputs from non-religious aspects. Than there are followers of
same religion whose way of life has nothing in common with each other.
There can be umpteen examples for this in practically every religion and
society. Then, can Hindutva be seen only as a substitute word for Hindu
religion, which is asserted by the followers of this politics?

Just before having a look at Hindutva we can have a brief understanding of
the word Hindu and Hinduism. Word Hindu began as a geographical
description of people living in this area. Arabs who could not pronounce
S, started using the word Hindu, for those living on this side of Sindhu
(Indus). Over a period of time the religious traditions developing in this
region started getting this name. These traditions were/are as varied as
possible. From the most dominant Brahmanism to the humblest of this,
Bhakti, all came in the gambit of Hinduism. Somewhere in the middle of the
spectrum Charvak, Tantra, Shaiva, Siddhanta occupied the available ground.
Brahmanism took its base from Vedas, Shrutis, and Smritis. The hallmark of
this was the belief in caste system. It was exclusionary in its basic
principal. While non-Brahminic Hindu traditions were open to all,
universal. Here many religions based on the teachings of Prophets do have
similar Universal content in their teaching.

The word Hidnutva came in to being much later and its clearest
articulation came in 'Who is a Hindu' by Savarkar. Savarkar articulated
the goal of Hindu Rashra and formulated the politics of Hindutva, "the
Aryans who settled in India at the dawn of history already formed a
nation, now embodied in the Hindus... Hindus are bound together not only
by the tie of the love they bear to a common fatherland and by the common
blood that courses through their veins and keeps our hearts throbbing and
our affection warm but also by the tie of the common homage we pay to our
great civilization, our Hindu culture."(Savarkar; Who is Hindu,1923)
Hindutva according to him rests on three pillars: geographical unity,
racial features and common culture. This development of the concept of
Hindutva came in succession to the construction of Brahminism as Hinduism
and this Brahminical Hinduism then formed the base for Hindutva politics.
Savarkar began to articulate the ideology of Hindu elite (zamindars,
Brahmins, kings) by integrating Brahminical Hinduism with nationalism,
calling it Hindutva, which showed the way for building the Hindu Rashtra.

This was the time when National movement was articulating Indian-ness as
the core identity and the base of the movement. This was the time when
most of the Indians rejected the Religion based nationalism, of Jinnah
(Islamism, Pakistan) and Savarkar, Golwalkar (Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra).
Interestingly most of the Muslims and Hindus did not support either the
notion of Pakistan and Hindu Rashtra. These streams were marginal streams,
supported mainly by elite. By the use of religion-based identity as the
core of their political projects, these tendencies were able to mobilize
middle sections of society, but that was insignificant.

The best way to perceive the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva is
to see the contrasting profiles of Gandhi and most Indians on one side and
Savarkar-Godse on the other. Gandhi expressed the sentiments of most of
the Hindu Indians when he said, "in India for whose fashioning I have
worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status whatever his
religion is. ", "religion is not the test of nationality but is a personal
matter between man and God", "religion is a personal affair of each
individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national affairs","I
do not believe in `state religion "even though the whole community has one
religion. And finally, "Religion and state would be separate. I swear by
my religion, I will die for it. But it is my personal affair; the state
has nothing to do with it. The state will look after your secular welfare,
health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on but not your
and my religion. That is everybodys personal concern (Gandhi and Communal
Harmony, CSSS 1994,Mumbai).

While Jinnah harped on Islam based nation, Pakistan, Savarkar, Golwalkar
and company harped on this being a Hindu Rashtra and so there being no
question of Pakistan or secular India in this land. The overall support of
Indian people to the Gandhi's project of Secular composite nationalism
ensured the partial success of the goals of national movement, of driving
away the British rule. Hindutva stream did get marginalized due to
industrialization and secularization, which accompanied it, though not to
the full measure. The reaction to this "slow revolution" has been a
revival of the politics of Hindutva. And this aggressive politics has
subdued the basic agenda of Indian democracy, the basic goals of India's
freedom struggle, the goals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, which
are being denigrated as being western values by the proponents of Hindutva
politics.

The confusion about Hindutva and Hinduism is a deliberate one. It helps
immensely to win over the gullible sections to the hysterical cry of Save
Hindutva. It ensures that mass of the people does not care to look at the
foundations of India, which is the Indian-ness and not Hindutva. This
confusion gets expressed in various forms. When Mr. Vajpayee said that
Vivekanand's Hindutva was different than the one being practiced by his
fellow swayamsvak, Modi, in Gujarat he exhibited the same confusion, as
Swami Viviekanand was unaware of the politics of Hindutva. Today the same
confusion is deliberately put to use by most of the members of Sangh
parivar, in their effort to consolidate their political base. Hindutva is
no religion by any stretch of imagination. What Modi, Singhal and
Thackeray practice is no religion, it is the Hindutva, a politics. The
saints of VHP are a blot to Hindu saint tradition. The saints of the
spiritual stature of Kabir, Tukaram and Gyaneshwar acted as bridges
between different communities. They spread the message of love. Today the
mobile wielding saints, traveling in air-conditioned Marutis, are the
one's who spread hatred, something a saint cannot do by the basic
definition of the word saint. But of course politics is not played by
definitions. It operates on the principle of using all the mechanisms to
grab power and thats what Hindutva is all about. The Vashi schoolteachers
do need to be complimented for understanding it in a clear form. But of
course they have to pay a price for being politically correct in times
when Wrong is Right and vice versa. They have to pay a price for
understanding the threats of rising religious fascism in the name of
Hindutva since the same movement has 'succeeded' in selling the political
word as a new word for a religion.

(Writer works for EKTA, Committee for Communal Harmony, Mumbai)

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#2.

Rediff.com
November 8, 2002
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/08spec.htm

The Rediff Special/Basharat Peer

DISTORTING HISTORY 1

Who killed Mahatma Gandhi?

Five years from now, few students of class 9 might know the answer -- 
because the new textbooks released by the National Council of 
Educational Research and Training mentions neither Gandhi's 
assassination nor the assassin, Nathuram Godse.

The standard 9 textbook, titled Contemporary India, is about India in 
the 20th Century and covers the Freedom Struggle, developments in the 
world, and aspects of the Indian Constitution up to 1950.

The omissions and uncalled for statements in the book have shocked 
academics. For instance, while dealing with the party system in 
India, page 99 of the book reads: "In the 1996 general elections, BJP 
emerged as the single largest party at the centre and formed the 
government. Unfortunately, BJP could not prove its majority in the 
house within the given time, and it had to withdraw."

The new textbook is smaller in size, printed on good quality paper, 
and looks better than the previous textbook. History and geography 
are combined in the new book -- tp lighten the burden of school-going 
children, according to the NCERT.

But what stands out are the factual errors. For instance, the section 
'World: Some Developments', contains a sentence that reads: "In 1600 
AD, English East India Company was established in India".

The East India Company was established in London.

A few paragraphs later is a reference to Madagascar island as the 
transit point between India and France for ships of the French East 
India Company. Quote: "Madagascar, an island in the Arabian Sea..."

Madagascar is in fact in the Indian Ocean.

Besides the factual errors, there are mistakes that give the 
impression of political prejudice. The book states for instance that 
the Munich Pact was "the first pact signed between Hitler and 
Stalin". Page 9 reads: "It is interesting to note that Stalin was the 
first European leader to enter into a peace-agreement with Hitler, 
maybe to buy peace for some time."

The Munich Pact was signed between Hitler and Britain and France in 
1938, a whole year ahead of the Hitler-Stalin pact.

Sins of ommission are equally numerous. Thus, one of the most 
important events of world history, the Holocaust, is completely 
missing. Further, Page 10 states: "Nazism and Fascism were a sort of 
counterpart of the dictatorship of the proletariat imposed upon the 
Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin."

The bias is more pronounced when it comes to the famous Quit India 
Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942, which led to India's 
Independence.

The NCERT textbook for standard 9 blandly states: "The Indian 
Communists and followers of Jinnah [Muslim League] were perhaps the 
only political groups who did not support such a strong and 
widespread movement."

Historical records however show that besides the Communists and the 
Muslim League, the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh and the Hindu 
Mahasabha also did not participate in the movement.

The omission of the RSS [which is closely affiliated with the 
Bharatiya Janata Party, the largest party in the National Democratic 
Alliance coalition government at the Centre] and the Hindu Mahasabha 
[whose political views are close to that of the RSS] is being seen as 
a deliberate attempt to hide the role of the RSS in the Quit India 
Movement while seeking to show the communists in poor light.

Fumes eminent historian Professor Mridula Mukherjee, "Why have they 
forgotten the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha? It is not an omission but 
a deliberate attempt to hide the role of the RSS and the Hindu 
Mahasabha."

Mukherjee reasons that the book's authors have omitted Gandhi's 
assassination in order to avoid mentioning Nathuram Godse's links to 
the RSS and the Hindu Mahsabha, and the subsequent banning of the RSS 
after Gandhi's murder.

Mukherjee is also angry that the textbook dismisses the first phase 
of the Indian National Congress history. "These books refer to the 
leaders of this 40 year phase starting 1860 as mere petitioners. It 
is an attempt to subvert the history of Indian National Movement," 
she states.

Adds historian Arjun Dev, who had authored one of the NCERT's earlier 
textbooks, "Reading this kind of stuff can be good fun but not when 
you know that this book is meant to be compulsory reading for school 
students."

Differing with most authorities on ancient history, the NCERT 
textbook describes the Harappan civilization as "Harappan", "Indus", 
or "Indus-Saraswati" Civilization. "Apart from a few known pro-RSS 
historians, nobody accepts the theory of the Indus-Saraswati 
civilization," remarks Professor Mukherjee.

Moreover, the textbook describes the area of the Harappan 
civilization as 12 times that of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian 
civilizations combined. However, renowned historian Professor Irfan 
Habib says that as per internationally accepted history, "It was less 
than double the area of Mesopotamia."

In dealing with the economic life of the Vedic civilization, the 
reference to the cow being the most important animal is in bold 
letters. Also in bold letters is the punishment for injuring or 
killing a cow: by expulsion from the kingdom or the death penalty.

An apex body of historians, Aligarh Historians Society, has accused 
the books of being casteist in approach. "The textbooks black out the 
whole question of Dravidian participation in the Indus Civilization 
and of Dravidian influences on both Vedic life and later, on 
Sanskrit. Then, a neutral stance has been taken in the books over the 
caste system. It would appear as if Dalits were never a part of our 
society, and that the shudras never received any ill-treatment," 
states Professor Habib, who heads the society.

In his foreword to the Class 9 book, NCERT director J S Rajput says, 
"I hope this book will help the learners to become well informed, 
rational, and responsible citizens who will participate effectively 
in the process of development and nation-building."

But Rajput has outraged rational historians and, according to them, 
earned Indian history a comparison with the distorted versions of 
history put out in Nazi Germany and, more recently, in Pakistan.

"The new NCERT textbooks are not about rewriting or updating history 
but communalising history. The authors are not using new 
methodologies but going by 19th century interpretations of history, 
where religion played a very important role," comments Professor 
Bipin Chandra, one of India's best-known historians.

During the 1977 Janata Party government, the Jan Sangh -- the 
predecessor of the BJP -- had demanded the removal of the NCERT 
history textbooks. The demand was rebuffed.

When the BJP assumed the reins of power in 1998, Murli Manohar Joshi, 
known for his right-wing views, took charge of the Human Resource 
Development Ministry, which oversees education. It was decided to 
revamp the entire curricula for schools and Rajput, who earned his 
doctorate in physics under the supervision of Joshi, was placed in 
charge.

Many see the claim or revamping as an excuse to remove the present 
history textbooks, which were mostly written by left-leaning 
historians.

The changes are not confined to history. In December 2000, the 
BJP-led government brought in a raft of proposals for changing the 
curricula. The proposals called for the teaching of Vedic mathematics 
(an ancient form of math with few modern applications), and herbal 
and ayurvedic medicine, as they are "examples of India's contribution 
to world thought".

Joshi also emphasised on inculcating "Indian values" as a vital part 
of teaching history.

Incidentally, many private schools and the West Bengal, Delhi, and 
Bihar governments have refused to introduce the new textbooks.

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