Presenting the Past: Anxious History and Ancient Future in Hindutva India / S
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"Presenting" the Past This page intentionally left blank "Presenting" the Past Anxious History and Ancient Future in Hindutva India S.P. UDAYAKUMAR Wespor, connecticut PRAEGER London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Udayakumar, S. P. Presenting the past: anxious history and ancient future in Hindutva India / S. P. Udayakumar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-97209-7 (alk. paper) 1. India—Historiography. 2. Nationalism—India—History. 3. Hinduism and politics—India. I. Title. DS435.U33 2005 954'.0072'054—dc22 2005000450 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2005 by S. P. Udayakumar All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005000450 ISBN: 0-275-97209-7 First published in 2005 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 987654321 The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of the following material: Reprinted from FUTURES, Vol. 28, No. 10, S. P. Udayakumar: "Betraying a Futurist," pp. 971-85, Copyright 1996, with permission from Elsevier. To the memory of Harry J. Friedman This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Rambhakts: Defining "Us" and Depicting "Our Story" 17 2 Ramayana: Historicizing Myth and Mythologizing History 45 3 Ramarajya: Envisioning the Future and Entrenching the Past 75 4 Ramjanmabhumi: Hinduizing Politics and Militarizing Hindudom 109 5 Ramraksha: Ram-ifying the Society and Modi-fying the State 147 Conclusions 173 Glossary 185 Selected Bibliography 189 Index 207 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book project emerged from my graduate-school days in Hawaii, grew with my activist work in Minnesota, and matured with my freelance journalistic and teaching assignments in India and around the world. Inevitably, it has gained much from many of my teachers, friends, fellow activists, students, and readers. Since it is simply impossible to acknowl edge the contributions of each one of them individually, I will recognize the most crucial ones. I am deeply grateful to my teachers Jim Dator, Johan Galtung, Jim Harpstrite, Manfred Henningsen, Robert C. Johansen, Ben Kerkvliet, Sankaran Krishna, Gil Loescher, George Lopez, Glenn Paige, Ebenezar Paulraj, Michael Shapiro, Carolyn Stephenson, and Phyllis Turn- bull, who have been so generous to me with their time, energy, insights, experiences, and resources. Special thanks are due to Professor Harry Friedman, who took great interest in my research and writing without limiting my intellectual freedom, advised me without imposing his opin ions on me, and made himself available anytime for any kind of help, which ranged from bureaucratic paperwork to brilliant conversations about South Asian politics. I acknowledge his kindness by dedicating this book to his memory. Some of my wonderful friends offered critical helps at some crucial junc tures of this project: Sadayappan Chidambaram, Dietrich Fischer, Monica Ghosh, Andi Giri, Shabnam Hashmi, Joseph Patten, N. Ram, Joe Schwartz- berg, Murugesan Vijayanand, Lynette Wageman, and Peter Yeronimuse. The following institutions in the United States have been instrumental in the research, writing, and manuscript preparation of this book project: the x Acknowledgments Department of Political Science and Center for South Asian Studies of the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the J. Watu- mull Fund, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, the East-West Center, and Monmouth University. I thank them all. Special thanks are due to my editors Brien McDonald and Michael O'Connor of Praeger Publishers, Jim Duncan, and the team at Apex Pub lishing, LLC, for the excellent job they have done with this project. Just as my parents, S. Paramarthalingom and S. Ponmony, provided a solid foundation for me to accomplish many a task in life, it is my life- partner, Meera, and our boys, Surya and Satya, who have nourished me with their unswerving love, ceaseless companionship, constant inspira tion, and countless sacrifices. I thank them for everything. Abbreviations ABVP Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ADM additional district magistrate AIBMAC All India Babri Masjid Action Committee AICC All India Congress Committee AIMPLB All India Muslim Personal Law Board ASI Archaeological Survey of India BJP Bharatiya Janata Party BJS Bharatiya Jana Sangh BKS Bharatiya Kisan Sangh BMAC Babri Masjid Action Committee BMS Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh BSP Bahujan Samaj Party CBI Central Bureau of Investigation CRPF Central Reserve Police Force DRI Deendayal Research Institute HP Himachal Pradesh HRD Human Resource Development (Ministry) 1CHR Indian Council of Historical Research ISI (Pakistani) Inter-Services Intelligence ISS Islamic Sevak Sangh MLA member of the legislative assembly MP Madhya Pradesh; member of Parliament NAG National Agenda of Governance NAM Non-Aligned Movement NCERT National Council of Educational Research and Training NDA National Democratic Alliance XII Abbreviations NDF National Democratic Front PAC Provincial Armed Constabulary PMO Prime Minister's Office POTA Prevention of Terrorism Act RRP Ram Rajya Parishad RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh SAHMAT Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust SKJT Shri Krishna Janmasthan Trust SP Samajwadi Party UP Uttar Pradesh VHP Vishwa Hindu Parishad Introduction If you are a Brahman, born from a Brahman woman Then why did you not arrive by another orifice? If you are a Muslim, born from a Muslim woman Then why were you not circumcised in the womb? Kabir As the 1998 parliamentary election results were trickling in in early March of that year, it was clear that the next government would be led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I, for one, feared that the Indian state and society were braced for serious policy reversals and felt strongly that con cerned Indians had to keep a watchful eye by establishing the BJP Gov ernment Watch, a loose intellectual collective to monitor the commissions and the omissions of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Though the initiative attracted a lot of media attention both in India and in the United States, only a few intellectuals, such as N. Ram, then the editor of Frontline, welcomed and supported it. Thus Minneapolis, where I was based, emerged as the hub of hosting a resourceful Web site (http://www.bjpgovernmentwatch.com) and dis tributing daily e-mail digests with analytical articles, activist news, and the like. Our fledgling group's forebodings became true in just a few weeks' time, when the jingoistic BJP-led government tested nuclear bombs and embarked upon a course of dangerous nuclear adventurism. Following the expected compulsive response from Pakistan, the BJP-led govern ment in New Delhi and the Muslim League-led government in Islamabad 2 "Presenting" the Past rendered South Asia the most dangerous place in the world. India and Pakistan were suddenly pushed back to the perverse politics of the 1930s and 1940s, marked by the two-nation theory, communal fervor, and a high level of anxiety, compounded this time by the added dangers of nuclear annihilation. Back at square one, many Indians were afraid that the 1940s nightmare would start all over again. After all, the BJP-led government was talking about a uniform civil code for the Hindus and the minorities, abolition of the special status for Kashmir in the Indian constitution, building the Ram temple at Ayodhya, and so on. The BJP-led government began to imple ment its programs slowly but steadily, while denying vehemently that it had any hidden agenda. Quite thankfully, the BJP did not have an absolute majority in Parlia ment and was forced to work with its coalition partners. And the onerous responsibility of being the ruling party and maintaining the law and order in the society did force the party to proceed cautiously. While this nonab- solute power weighed the BJP down, the fact of being in power stimulated the other Hindutva outfits to go faster on their fascist program. The BJP itself was caught between the reality rock and the Hindutva hard place. Accordingly, the party would switch its stand on issues abruptly, and the BJP-led government would shift position on policy matters constantly. What appeared to be an internal tug-of-war was, in fact, an in-house strategy for misleading the opponents and persisting with the hidden agenda. THE "HINDU" HISTORIOGRAPHY AND HINDUTVA FASCISM One of George Orwell's famous lines in 1984 holds a peculiar relevance for the Hindutva political program in India: "Who controls the past con trols the future; who controls the present controls the past." The Hindutva forces had political power at the Center briefly in 1977 as part of the Janata Party government and then in two coalition governments between 1998 and 2004. But they have always had a shadow government running par allel to the Indian state with a clear ideology, program, and well-charted strategy to switch tracks at an opportune moment and reinscribe a whole new "Hindu-sthan." They have been dauntlessly manipulating the social machinery with an eye to control the past, the present, and the future of Indians. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in September 1925 by Maharashtrian Brahmin Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and long sus pected of complicity in Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, is the leader of the pack, known these days as the Sangh Parivar (Sangh family). The RSS has 48,329 shakhas (branches) in 33,758 places (as reported in its Pra- Introduction 3 tinidhi Sabha [representative committee] meeting on March 12, 2004, at Jamdoli, Rajasthan) and 2,500 pracharaks (propagandists) and can mobi lize around three million volunteers. It has an educational organization, Vidya Bharathi, that provides education for some 1.2 million students and employs 40,000 teachers around the country.