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HINDUTVA: REIMAGINING INDIA by Rakhi Sehgal submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in International Affairs Signatures of the Committee: Chair: j t i Q - r D Dean of the School Date 1995 The American University Hlb % Washington, D.C. 20016 TBS AMEBIC1N UNIVERSITY T.TfiTMtM Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1378947 UMI Microform 1378947 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. c COPYRIGHT by RAKHISEHGAL 1995 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of contents Introduction 1 I. "India" is bom 10 A. Imagining India 11 B. Nehru's India 14 C. Hindutva 23 i. Contemporary Resurgence of Hindutva 29 ii. RemodellingHindutva 50 iii. Creation of the Muslim "Other" 59 II. The Secularism Debate 65 A. The Secularist Argument 70 B. A Critique of Modernity 79 III. Hindutva as the Raison d'etre of New Social Groups 95 A. The Industry-Agriculture Contradiction 100 B. Shifting Roles of State and Civil Society 107 C. Seeking a 'Hindu' Identity 111 D. Hindu Identity or an Indigenized Identity? 118 Bibliography 122 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction The starting point o f critical elaboration is the consciousness o f what one really is, and is "knowing thyself as a product o f the historical process to date which has deposited in you an infinity o f traces, without leaving an inventory. Antonio Gramsci (1992, 1971), pp 324. By the 1980s, it was becoming apparent that the Nehruvian project of a secular and socialist country that had formed the core of Indian identity for the past forty years, no longer served as the cement of society. National discourse in India today reflects the introspective mood of the country, prompted by the search for a new national project. This moment in contemporary Indian history has evoked a re engagement with questions that were ignored during India's anti-colonial movement as well as in the acts(s) of framing a national identity in the period immediately following political independence. The break with India's past attempted by Nehru in an effort to fashion a modem India, has exhausted its potential. Alternative visions of India both within and without the erstwhile Indian National Congress, have re-emerged in different forms through the agency of new social groups. Concurrently, during this decade the country has been faced with severe social and economic transformations, that have Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. intensified the sense of malaise permeating the public mood. The most successful movement in the decade of the eighties that has had a profound impact on the direction and terms of the national discourse isHindutva the movement of the Hindu Right. Hindutva is the idea that Hindus constitute a nation coterminous with the boundaries of the Indian State. The idea emerged in the early part of this century along with other responses to British colonialism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organization, has long championed this idea. Along with its affiliates, the RSS was the primary force behind the re-emergenceoi Hindutva in the 1980s. In this thesis I have chosen to examine the shifting contours of Indian identity through a close examination of the rise of theHindutva movement. TheHindutva movement has been successful in challenging the declining, yet substantial hegemony of the Congress Party. A cursory look at the movement shows that it embodies many contradictory impulses. Although the movement began with primary support from the new social groups emerging in Indian society, by the end of the decade of the eighties, the logic of Hindutva resonated among a diverse polity, divided across region, caste, class, occupation, social status, gender and religion. Despite its rabid anti-Muslim rhetoric and acts of co-option and violence against both the Muslims and the Backward Classes, many among these communities support the movement. Moreover, the Hindutva movement seems to anchor its logic in (Indian) Hindu Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tradition and religion, and yet advances a sophisticated and modem vision of India. In this alternate view of India, a nation confident of its "real" identity, nurtured by the strength of its ancient heritage and wisdom is better able to meet the challenge of an increasingly competitive and interdependent world. The first phase of the discourse of Hindutva, was marked by an extensive deployment of "ideological propaganda, communal polarization and violence."1 An arsenal of religious and nationalist images and symbols was dispensed by the Hindu Right, in an effort to secure a political constituency. The newness of these claims was sought to be 'naturalized' by appealing to a (fabricated) notion of the antiquity of the Hindu community and its inherent claims on the Indian nation. In other words, the proponentsoi Hindutva claimed that a Hindu India was the authentic and natural essence of India, as opposed to a secular (Nehmvian) India that was merely an imitation of the West. The self-proclaimed goal of Hindutva was to return the country to its rightful glory by recovering and updating a pure, uncorrupted version of India from ancient history. The second phase of the discourse ofHindutva was marked by the Hindu Right's challenge to Nehmvian secularists' monopoly over defining the axial principal of Indian identity. The Hindu Right rejected the Nehmvian ideal of secularism as a western practice adopted by Indian elites who were alienated from their own society. 1 Hasan (1994): 42. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Instead, the Hindu Right expressed a desire to elucidate a "new" raison d'etre for India grounded in indigenous values, idiom, history and social practices of Hinduism. This challenge evoked a flurry of theorizing on the concept and practice of secularism and most importantly, its aptness for India. As the debate progressed, two opposing arguments, that I categorize as secularist and anti-modernist, came to dominate the discussion on secularism. I discuss these arguments via the recent defense of secularism by Ashutosh Varshney against Ashis Nandy's critique of modernity. Varshney's defense of secularism is characteristic of the dominant view that interprets the emergenceoi Hindutva as simply the consequence of corrupt practices of unscrupulous politicians in the post-NehruvianHindutva era. is interpreted as a rekindling of "old" antagonisms between the Hindu and Muslim communities, cloaked in contemporary terms of discourse. Consequently, efforts have been directed toward uncovering the 'real' (petty) motivations understood to be grounded in socio-economic rivalry, but camouflaged by the rhetoric of lofty and idealistic goals of national unity and glory. In this view, the popularity Hindutvaof is explained as blatant manipulation by self-serving politicians of a naive populace disoriented by the rapid pace of transformations sweeping across the country. Unable to bear the stresses and strains of a shifting political economy, the masses seek comfort and meaning in the stability of an established

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