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The Hindu Nationalist View of International Politics

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The Hindu Nationalist View of International Politics War and International Politics in South Asia INDIA'S GRAND STRATEGY ~.... , l•h or ~ rlnoth fta&ba...., History, Theory, Cases " fo ""• vntre for Poltcy R~arch, New Dtllu. rh .. ..,.,, .....~.. "' '""" onoouw &nd nsorow tcbolar11Up on rhe dynarmcs of "•• ''"'' tn\4 Jn.•tu•nRi tXJlatrCi in South Asio. FoUowing Clausewitz."'-'al' i.s undt·...,uod •• I•Jlh o I> •hhnl ood a oocial pb..,.,meooo "''hich mani!..U dstlf an a \"llOf I\ uf ton111 rangtn8 from total wan to anncd insurrections. lnttm.ltron.ll , .. ,l1ht\ as tlo.k'ly lnt.erC\\ined '~ith lt. for wur not 01\Jy pb~s an lffifJOI'Unl wk! •n tbr f, •.....n.t10n o( an mt.ernabOnaJ order but also a threatlo Jllcununut·tt t '-' Itnt f:. 1 he Series '~11 therefore focus on tht intem:ltional as ...u.., dom<>hC domo nuoos of..-ar and secuncy in South .-Uoa. Comparan>-e atud•t·a \\ uh othtr Atc>rraph•calareas are also of mtcrest. \ fundamt·noal prtmi~ of this Serits is that ... cannot do J""'« to the comple"Ufi ol ""' h) lllld)'ing Jt from any "nglc, J>ri'~legtd academoc >tand I"''"'• tht phenomenon is Pi'" expl"incd in a multidlocipUoary Editors rramt'"-f)f\ ,_, s,..,... .• "t'lcomes a "'de array or approac_bet.. paradigms and methodo1ogtt·w. and rs tnte1csu;~ in htstoricaJ, theoreticnJ. and po licy~ Kanti Bajpai onented schol.mhlp. In addition to ioono~ the sme. will from time to hme publ"h collections of eS>&ys. Saira Basit --·--- v. Krishnappa Also in this Series FWU"It I.W • GotmU.: 17u 141i•IPI A""111114 Cltntlm..,tfOU] Rajesh RaJagopalan ISBN 97~ 15·15684·5 COIII'PUMENTARY COPY lndUJII Fortipt PoliC) in a Unipolar Wor/1, -FOR SALE Ednor· Hanh \ Pant ~ HB LSB~ 978411,';-4!1004-8 PSISB.\' 9711.0.H584306-5 lnd14~ NtKIMr Dtbatt: Exctptiollali<m and tlu Bomb PriyanjaliMalik ISBN 978·<H 15·56312 3 l~fl& I.UrrtDJJJm41 Rtl4J-· b.IID I SlraJitiL l't~U~» _. t1u Rttum ofHMtory Jayuhree Vivek.anandan ISBN 978 0-415-59812·5 I hope to still earn some credit by explaining why it best describes Ih e Hindu naLionaHst view of international politics. 8 few subjects have occupied students of modern Indio in the way I hat Hindu nationalism bas. One consequence of this has been a 'jiSKI lATHI, U SKI BHAINS' 'eritable avalanche of publications on the subject. Yet, it is notably the case that barely a. handful of these have examined the Hindu THE HINDU N ATIONALIST VIEW 01 nationalist view of international politics. This neglect can be aurib· INTERNATIONAL POLITICS uted to two factors. The first is context. Over the past three decades, the instability nnd violence associated "ith the upsurge in Hindu Rahul Sagar nationalism hove prompted schoiHJS to focus on its implications for domestic politics. The recent spate of works on riots is a case in point.' By contrast, the statem~nts and actions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJI';, the political wing of the Hindu nationalist move­ he title of this essay is a transliteration of a rustic Hindi proverb ment, have not been seen as ha,·ing introduced significant discon­ Tthat captures one of the truths of human existence in a way that tinuities in Indian foreign policy. Hence, tbere has been relatively little incentive to investigate the Hindu nationalist view of intema· o'nly a proverb ~an. Taken litcrall'.t ~he proverb says that 'the 0 ,, "bo owns the slick owns the bull\",o . Of course, provct·bs are not tiona! politics.' The second fuctor is methodology. The bulk of the rc~earch on meant to b~ taken literally - this•1particular provet·b needs to bt• understood m the context of rural life in India where disagreement' Hindu natioMiism has been oriented toward explru1a1Jon rather are all too oficn settled by rough '"ld ready means. Seen from thi> than interpretation. T his has led to a wealth of scholur->hip on penpcctivc, the truer meaning of this proverb is that in this world the extent to which the development and contemporary appeal of ofours, 'the strong do what they have the power to do and tbe weak Hindu nationalism can be attributed to, among other things, colo­ accept what they have to accept'. 1 I have chosen this proverb as the nial history, the unsuitability of the concept of secularism in the title for this essay because it accurately describes what two intel Indian context, organisational features and politico.! tactics of Hindu lectual heavyweights of the Hindu nationalist mo v e m cn~ Vinavak nationalist groups, the policies of the Congress Party, rtnd hostility Sa.varkar and Yladhav Golwalkru·, take the nature of internati~nal toward democracy and Weste111isation.5 But, it has also resulted in politics to be. L:nfortunately, I can» t take credit for this use of the proverb. I mu•t admit to having bOrrowed it from Golwalkar, who tells the story of the eminem Indian barn..ter X C, Chaueljee declar­ • for e•ample. see Steven I. Wilkinoon, Volt:r aRd Violc~ttt: F.ltctiNtll Com­ pttilifJn and Ethnic RiOis in lnditt :New York: Cambridge t:nivct>ity Preos, mg the proverb the first principle of international law.• :\onetbeless, 200.1); Ashutosh Ya111hney. Ethnic Cmtj/ictand Civic Lift: flindur and Muslims i-n Jndla (Xew Haven: Yale University l'rcss. 200'2). 4 James C hlrlyankandath and AndnJw Wyatt, 'The NOA ond Indian * I a.. ,, g·•·otcfuI l.o Kanti Bajpa.i, SunU Khilnani, Qe'"es.h Knpur, Prasenjit foreign Policy\ in Katherine Adony nnd Lawrence Sne1., eds, Coaliti011 Du~, Srinath Raghavan, C. Raja Mohan, Dharat JSamad, Rahul .\Iukhelji, PolitiC! anti Hindu Nationalism (London: Routledge, 200.5), p. l n3. Also see and S1ddhanh .\'iallavarapu for their helpful co.nmento on prior drafts. 1 am Apurba Kundu, 'The :-IDA and Xational Security', in Adney and Sa<2, solei)' re•ponsible for the content of thJ> euay. 1 C.MiiliiNI Polllta,ll2-37. Thtoeyd1des. HI.!IDTJ a{tkt PtiDf>ORIUiian WaT, traru. by I. Fin!e>· Mooes ' For example ""'• Partba Chaue~, Nali#INllist Thofl#!t ami tht Cd.RU.I (London: Penguin, 1972), p. 402. : ' 2 Wodd: A DtTi'ealit~ DiscollTSt (.:'\ew Delhi: Oxford t:nive.,.ity l'ress, 1986;; .\-ladhav S. Golwalkar, Bunchof1houghts!J3angalore: Vikmma Prakashan, Rajeev Bhargava, cd .. Secularism a11d Its Crilia {f\ew Delhi: Q,ford t:nive"ity 1966), p. 340. PreS$, 1998:; i\mrico llMu, ':\-(a_,. MovemenLo r Elite Conspirucy:The Puzzle 236 • Rohul 5<lg<ll '}i#Jld1111, tJsl<i !!hoins' • 237 a paucity of studies on the foundational texts of Hindu nationalist whereas 'political Hinduism embraces them'.'' This leads him to the thought." conclusion that Hindu nationalisrn's 1Stanoe on intt'rn3tional rela­ I noted above that a few publications have in fact discussed the tions and the use of violence is not a particularly prudential one'.' ~ Hindu nationalist view of international politics. t.:nfortunately, they In my view, this interpretation misidentifies whu.t is tru ly distinc· have cast a very uneven light on the subject. To begin, only one of live about the H indu nationalist view. As I outline in Lhc rollowmg, these, Kanli Bajpni's pnth·breaking essay on Indian strategic thought, Savarkar and Golwulkor see confi ict and war as unde;irable but has closely examined the relevant texts.' Then there is the broader inevitable as long as the world comprises selfish individuals and problem that there publications have tended to interpret Savarkar's parochially-minded communities. Hence, they rcco~mend that and Golwalkar"s writinS' on international politics as little more India cultivate the willingness and ability to engage m war and than expressions of an irrationally assertive nationalism. Bajpai. for power politics in order tO be able tO fend o!f external aggression. example, asserts that the Hindu nationalist view of international rela· In this respect, I argue, their view of international poliucs bears a lions draws on a 'narrative about the past, present, and future of the family resemblance to realist strains of mternational relations theory, Hindu community' that has produced a 'hard-bitten' etl1ics.' This whicl\ lay equal, if not g-reater, weight on the acquUition ofall poSS>ble can be seen, for example, ill contrnsting attitudes toward nuclear 'capabilities.'" But the family resemblance runs only so for, because, weapons, \\'hich 'are seen by many \·Vestetners n:, a tragic necessity'. unlike theorists in the realist tradition, Savarkur und Golwa.lkar take the view that national power depends heavily on the cultiva· tion of an assertive and cxclusionarv nationalism. Whu.J. explains of Hindu Nationali>m', in David E. '.Ludden, ed .• CollltsJir~g the Nation this striking divergence? 1t owes, as ,;.e shall see, to their belief that (Philadelphi~: ';lniv~n;ltyof Pen~sylvahja Press, 1996): Chrutophejaffrelot, only this brand of nationalism can pro,;de the martial 17u Hmdu N<~Uonalut M~~~~m~tnlm /Ni/6 (Ne.,· York: Columbia University l~dia wi~ Press, 1998); A.shutosh Varshney, 'Come:sxed Meani"6": ln<ha'• :-lllional lden· spirit and social cohesion it needs to defend 1tsclf og:unst eXternal lity, Hindu :-lationali&m, and the Politics;of An."ety',f)(u44Ju~ 12"2,3 (1993:, aggression. pp. 227-61. Thorn Blom llansen, 17u &ffion Wau: Dtmocrary and Himiu The benefit of uncovering this relationship between mternanonal ll'alwnalismo5 in Modtm India (Princelon: Princeton Unh ersity p,..., • ,,....,.,.1;.1:1:7,. politics and nationalism in Hindu nationalist thought is that it opens R~cent excepl.ion.s are Chelan Bhatt, 1/indu. Nntionalism: Ort'ginJ, up the possibilit)' of chullcnging Savarkar and Golwalkar on tbelf ldtolog~es, and Mod<rn Mytlu (Oxford: Berg, 2001);•JyoLirmaya Shanna, own terms by showing that a.n exclusionary nationalism actually Hrndutva: Exploring the ldtil vfllindu NatiOTUllism (1\cw Delhi: Penguin.
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