C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232 The Rise of the Hindu Religious Factor in Indian Politics and State Theory

Côme Carpentier de GOURDON Convener of the International Board of WORLD AFFAIRS – The Journal of International Issues (). Address: D-322, Defence Colony, , 110 024, India. E-mail: [email protected]

CITATION: de Gourdon C.C. (2018) The Rise of the Hindu Religious Factor in Indian Politics and State Theory. Outlines of Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, Law, vol. 11, no 4, pp. 219–232. DOI: 10.23932/2542-0240-2018-11-4-219-232

ABSTRACT. We are living in an age of re- er and they usually reject the ‘secular’ view affirmation and revival of religious/nation- that India is the home of a composite cul- al and cultural identities as a reaction to the ture forged out of many domestic and for- sweeping onslaught of socio-economic, cul- eign elements and consisting of diverse eth- tural and technological globalization. In In- nic groups which were brought together as dia the demand for a definition of national a nation by British colonization. This paper identity based on or on Hindut- succinctly retraces the and expan- va (Hinduness) predates the achievement of sion of in the politics of independence in 1947 and it was gradually the country and distinguishes between the reinforced by successive political crises, such various nuances of the ideology which is as the partition between India and Paki- now the source of inspiration for the Nation- stan, successive wars with , the con- al Democratic Alliance led by Prime Minis- tinuing separatist agitation in the Kashmir ter . It strives to answer the Valley and the rise of large-scale Islamist often asked question: Is India becoming a terrorism since the 11th of September 2001 Hindu State? if not before. Historically a distinction has been made between Hinduism, as the reli- KEY WORDS: India, Hinduism, , gion and way of life of more than a billion Secularism, , Nationalism, Indic, people in India and in other countries and Indian Constitution, Syncretism, J. Nehru, Hindutva, a cultural ideology and a socio- B.R. Ambedkar, Hindu Mashasabha, RSS political doctrine which defines a modern- (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), Bharatiya ized version of Hindu or in broader sense Janata Party, Muslim League, M A Jinnah Indic civilisation (encompassing , , Sikhism and other indigenous mi- nority ). Many do not ac- Introduction cept the premises or least the political theory of Hindutva whereas Hindutva proponents In the decades leading up to indepen- may not be ‘believers’ in the ritual and theo- dence from British rule the Hindu majori- logical aspects of Hindu Dharma and may tarian identity of India was accepted as a define themselves as sceptics, materialists or fact by both the indigenous population atheists. However they conceive of the com- and the foreign colonizers. The name Hin- mon Hindu national civilisation and mille- du, of alien (Persian) origin, had an am- nary historical heritage as the cement that biguous significance, being rooted in ge- can bind the country’s diverse people togeth- ography (after the river Sindhu/Hindu or

219 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018

Indus in Greek). All denizens of Hindu- In 1939 Jinnah, the godfather of the stan were since many centuries regarded future Pakistan called the Indian Nation- as ‘Hindoos’, as opposed to the American al Congress a ‘Hindu Raj’ (Hindu Regime) ‘Indians’ and in languages like Span- and broke ranks with its decision to oppose ish or French any inhabitant of India is still the British viceroy’s decision to declare In- commonly called a Hindu. dia at war with the Axis power without a There was also some controversy about popular consultation. Muslim separatists the definition of the hindu which systematically sided with the colonial au- encompasses multiple sectarian and cul- thorities against the Independence move- tural identities bound together by geogra- ment which they saw as the harbinger of phy and history. Yet clear distinctions were Hindu majority rule. kept between Hindus, Muslims and other It has been argued that the religious- religious communities of ‘foreign origin’, ly nationalistic discourses of some of the as shown by the cleavages between the two great 19th– 20th century Hindu reformers major confessions which became a criti- and freedom fighters such as Swami Vive- cal factor in the 1857 rebellion against the kananda, Ghose, ‘Lokaman- and its defeat [Dal- ya’ and the Maratha rymple 2006; Jain 2010], despite efforts founders of the RSS and other nationalist to bridge old divisions and suspicions be- “identitarian” outfits, V N Savarkar (1883– tween Hindus and Muslims. 1966) first president of the Hindu Mahas- abha, K.B. Hedgewar (1889–1940) and M.S. Golwalkar (1905–1973) who built The Break Up of the Indian Raj the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS (‘League of the Nation’s Servants’) deci- However paradoxically it was the free- sively influenced in reaction some Muslim dom struggle which, initiated on a com- leaders in claiming a separate identity. mon platform, gradually set apart a sec- Jinnah, though a non-practicing Mus- tion of the muslim community from the lim from a minority , inspired by the indian mainstream and eventually led to pan-Islamic discourse of the great poet the partition of the subcontinent. By the and Muhammed Iqbal , op- 1930s many members of the Muhammed- portunistically embraced the theories of an elite in the subcontinent grew wary of the hardliners in the Muslim League who the Hindu dominance of the National described ‘Muhammedans’ of the subcon- Congress and began to plan, through the tinent as representatives of a different civ- Muslim League for a state of their own ilization which could not co-exist with a in the event of British departure from hindu ‘heathen’ majority. the subcontinent. The colonial adminis- Iqbal became an outspoken advocate of trators found this rift very congenial to the Two Nation theory and of Muslim sep- their interest and demonstrably favoured aratism after his return from a four year it [Sarila 2006; Tunzelmann 2007]. De- stay in Europe, in 1908. In 1910 he penned classified correspondence between Brit- his famous poem Tarana e Milli which be- ish statesmen and colonial administra- came a founding hymn for Pakistan. The tors and Muslim leaders such as Sir Mu- beginning is: hammed Agha Khan and Muhammed Ali Muslim hain ham Chin o Arab hamara Jinnah in India reveals London’s support Hindustan hamara for Muslim separatism and the Two Na- Watan hai saara Jahan hamara tion theory propounded by the Muslim (We are Muslims. China, Arabia and In- League. dia are ours, the whole world is our nation).

220 C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232

In 1930 in his presidential address the does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the Muslim League in Allahabad he made an greatest calamity for the country. No matter eloquent plea for the two-nation theory. In what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a men- 1937 he wrote to Jinnah calling for “a sep- ace to the liberty, equality and fraternity. In arate federation of Muslim provinces”, ar- that regard it is incompatible with democ- guing that Muslims of India were a nation racy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any just as there were other nations in India. cost” [Ambedkar 1940]. Muslim separatists argued that the Is- For him the common basis for Indian lamic confession and law does not allow citizenship ought not to be religious Hin- its followers to live under the rule of non- duism but a secular form of Indianness, Muslims who in a democratic India would contrary to Iqbal with whom he corre- inevitably enjoy hegemony and they called sponded at length and who held religion for a second Hijra a flight from the lands to be the basis of nationality although in of the idolaters or unbelievers (kuffara) to Islam he saw a supra-national world-span- a new ‘pure’ state for the ummah: Pakistan ning creed. [Dhulipala 2013]. Conversely Golwalkar, one of the RSS founding leaders argued that India ought Champions of Unity to be purified of its invading foreign ele- ments so that its pristine hindu identity The separatist point of view was by no may be restored. Although in the prevalent means shared by all Indian Muslims and language of his time Golwalkar talks of the many, following eminent figures like Mau- ‘hindu race’, he actually means a socio-cul- lana Abdul Kalam Azad (1888–1958),who tural historic community, in keeping with became India’s first minister for education Savarkar’s concept, and not necessarily a and Dr Zakir Husain (1887–1969), India’s genetic stock as such. On the other side third president held on to an opposite per- of the political spectrum, the outspoken- spective. Like most of their Hindu col- ly ‘anti-Hindu’ B.R. Ambedkar, the main leagues in the Congress they saw their fu- framer of India’s national constitution and ture in India ruled by secular law inherited its first law minister believed that Muslims from the British dispensation and confin- could not coexist with the majority in in- ing religion to private life. dependent India and should move to Pak- To them their democratic freedom istan, the state being created for them. In and civic equality as Muslims as a former- that opinion he expressed the old Europe- ly dominant minority, with their personal an concept that each state is defined by a laws and customs preserved, would be en- majority culture and a main language. sured by the fact that the State would re- Ambedkar, born in an “outcaste” com- main confessionally and legally non-hin- munity, from a father who served in the du as it had been during centuries of im- British Indian army, and educated in the perial muslim rule in most of the country’s English and American academic sys- northern and eastern regions and under tems wrote many highly critical reflec- the since the early 19th century. tions about Hinduism which he regarded This compromise formula was es- as a discriminatory, oppressive, supersti- poused by the leaders of the Congress, tious and unjust religion. He converted to headed by (despite his a ‘reformed’ Buddhism and promoted con- strong personal hindu religiosity) and the version among the (outcastes) as a sceptically minded, rationalist Nehru who way to rise above their generally miserable shared some of Ambedkar’s hostility to so- condition. In 1940 he wrote: “If Hindu Raj cio-political manifestations of the Hindu

221 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018 tradition. Although not anti-religious Ne- Indian Muslims, a practice which the cur- hru was suspicious of Hindu revivalism rent has discontinued. which he saw as a throwback to the feudal, The unofficial but fundamental sec- superstitious past. Unsurprisingly Gandhi ularism of the policy was reinforced by and Nehru are not highly regarded in the Indira Gandhi when , taking advantage Hindutva ideological family which accuses of the Emergency Rule she had declared them of appeasing Muslims and inflicting on rather tenuous pretexts, she added to a step-fatherly treatment to the religion of the Constitution’s Preamble through the their birth . 42nd Amendment [ A number of critical assessments of 1978],that India was a secular and social- Nehru’s personality, ideology and politics ist republic, two qualifiers which the doc- have been written in recent years, some by ument’s architect Ambedkar had resist- supporters of the BJP and scholars from af- ed including, probably because he was a filiated organizations Singh[ 2015; Pura­nik US educated jurist who held on to rath- 2016]. Gandhi has also come under crit- er economically and socially liberal views, icism for his alleged refusal to take sides shared by a strong contingent of conserva- between Hindus and Muslims during the tive stalwarts of the Independence move- tragic days of the bloody partition and also ment such as Sardar , the for some of his impractical ideas and often first home minister, C Rajagopalachari, In- eccentric precepts pinpointed in Von Tun- dia’s first non-British governor general, zelmann’s earlier cited book. The recent re- Dr , first president of the publication of Nathuram Godse’s memoir Republic, Dr S Radhakrishnan, first vice- [Godse 2015] sums up the thesis of Gan- president and Dr Shyama Prasad Mook- ’s bitterest critics. The present govern- erji, a former vice-president of the Hin- ment’s tendency is to highlight the roles du Mahasabha and the founder of the Jan and revive the memories of other stalwarts Sangh, the ancestor of the Bharatiya Jana- of the Independence movement such as ta Party. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vallabhbhai Patel Indeed the RSS under Golwalkar’s and Subhash Chandra Bose who had fallen stewardship affirmed its opposition to into relative obscurity under the long rule and which it saw of Nehru’s descendants and their allies. as foreign anti-Hindu ideologies and it re- One of the points often made by those mains a socially and economically conser- critical or dismissive of the adoption of vative organization. Conversely Muslims secularism as a fundamental principle of in India, although socially conservative, the Indian polity is that Muslims wanted often vote for the purportedly ‘left of cen- and got it both ways. They got their own tre’ Congress Party or for left-wing parties officially Islamic state while the Hindu -ma which are seen as more favourable to the jority abstained from granting an equiva- interests of minorities. lent status to their faith and culture part- Mrs. Gandhi was influenced in her de- ly in recognition of the sensitivity of its cision to proclaim state socialism by the largest religious minority. It could be ar- then powerful communist parties, close to gued that independent India recognized to the USSR, whose support she needed at a its remaining muslims ‘a state within the time when she was politically isolated. She state’, at least from a legal, cultural and ed- decided to give those additional sops to re- ucational standpoint, evidenced by the fact ligious minorities and leftist politicians in that the Ministry of Religious and Minor- order to retain their backing. Her late fa- ity Affairs financially sponsored the Haj ther’s well known sympathy for the Sovi- pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina for poor et Union also played a role in her political

222 C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232 choices. However, by making secularism garded as secular by one definition but that an explicit tenet of state policy, she unwit- does not preclude them being devout prac- tingly opened a Pandora’s box, notably be- titioners of their faith according to one cause there has never been a consensus on definition although, according to another the meaning of secularism, a word which they should have a skeptical outlook or at is alien to and even meaningless in the In- least keep their faith private. dian cultural context as it applies to almost [Sharma 2018] is one any attitude to religion, from formal athe- of the scholars who has pointed out that ism to Nehru’s famed ‘scientific temper’ ‘religion’ is an inaccurate and mislead- and can include multi- ing translation for the word Dharma and such as many Hindus instinctively practice that the common interpretation of secu- or at least invoke but which cannot be im- larism in and most Northern In- posed either. Indeed translations of secu- dian languages as sarva-dharma-samabha- larism in the national languages are neces- va: same attitude to all or a be- sarily awkward and can only be subjective lief that all dharmas are the same also cre- interpretations. ates misgivings, firstly because followers of most religions would not agree to equate all religions as being similar or identical Hindu Dharma and Secularism and secondly because it puts Hindus as a disadvantage since they are expected to The sanskrit- word Adharma (de- agree that all other creeds are equivalent void of Dharma, the natural sacred law, to theirs, even when some of those faiths morality and dutifulness) had to be reject- (such as Christianity and Islam) deny the ed for obvious reasons as it suggested im- validity of Hinduism and urge conversion morality or cynicism. Dharmaniropeksa from ‘idolatry’ or . That concept (non-discrimination about Dharma which of secularism may be understood either as smacks of moral confusion or ethical rela- a mystical pantheistic or syncretistic real- tivism) was also pejorative and indeed sec- ization or as a politically convenient com- ularism, a concept conceived by the Ro- promise which does not rest on a com- man Church originally means ‘living in monly shared conviction. the century’ like a priest (not in a monas- If Hinduism or Dharma in its many tery but amidst ), or as a lay person forms and nuances is seen as a culture or as i.e. not a member of a religious order. Ob- a fundamental component of Indian civi- viously secular people were still supposed lization for several thousand years, it is il- to be Catholics since that was the state re- logical to proscribe it in matters of public ligion. However spiritual and moral writ- policy, education and law, just as it would ings in medieval Europe often took a dim be absurd to ban expressions of the nation- view of the ‘secular man” whom they de- al culture in the socio-political and legal scribed as superficial and concerned only system of any country. Insofar as Dharma with the outer reality of the world and the or ‘hinduness’ does not specify an oblig- mundane benefits of social life. Thus ac- atory form of worship, political ideology cording to Oscar Wilde’s witticism, a sec- and educational model but only lays out ular person is one who has ‘no invisible broad, adaptable principles , it is not an- means of support’, not a very auspicious tithetical either to a democratic system of way to define an individual attitude or a government or to changes required by the human community. passage of time and evolution of mankind. All Hindus who are not ascetics or History shows that Hindu kingdoms members of a religious order may be re- which survived under british paramount-

223 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018 cy in the subcontinent until Independence an attempt to keep India together, showing were open and hospitable to all creeds that it put national unity above religious and and gave them freedom to build differences. sanctuaries and educational facilities, cele- The and related texts are the brate their festivals and propagate their be- touchstones of Hinduness, at least conven- liefs, even absolutist exclusive ones. tionally, but most Hindus, even though ac- The traditional vedic reverence for spir- cepting the divine character of the Vedas, itual teachers and holders of knowledge in follow personal teachers, living or dead, all fields especially in the scientific and mys- traditional or reformist, and are more fa- tical domains remains alive among the In- miliar with vernacular popular texts and dians and many Muslim rulers in the sub- forms of worship than with the often ob- continent adopted that tolerant attitude as scure mythological, ritual and symbol- well. Such was the Mughal Emperor Ak- ic hymns of the plurimillennial Sruti (re- bar, perhaps the most ‘Hindu’ in his dynas- ceived or heard vedic gnosis) which does ty, who visited saintly men of all faiths (as not call for a single interpretation and a most of his successors did) and hosted de- uniform set of rules applicable to all. bates between representatives of major re- Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs abide by ligions in his palace, listening with impar- other indic creeds which do not regard the tiality and honoring them all according to Vedas as authoritative and yet are indis- the principle of Suhl e Kul, An Arabic term putably branches of the Bharatiya Dharma of Sufi inspiration which means ‘universal as all hindu nationalist movements affirm. ” and expresses an ideal of inter-reli- Indira Gandhi who did not share her gious concord. father’s agnosticism often evinced, like Supporters of an offiicially Hindu India many Indians her respect for and even her or Bharat (her ancient native name) usu- acceptance of the basic tenets of all great ally point out that, contrary to mission- faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Jain- ary, prophetic religions which command ism, Sikhism, Christianity and Zoroas- obedience to a formal hierarchy and be- trianism. She wanted India to be legally lief in edicted precepts, usually contained multi-religious but not irreligious and re- in a holy book, the Hindu or Indic civili- mained personally a Hindu. zation accepts many scriptures as sacred but places a higher emphasis on the living word and on actual human (or super-hu- The Identitarian Impulse man) spiritual teachers, putting the accent on the quest for personal spiritual happi- However, as we point out at the outset ness, liberation or bliss through mental, of this paper, worldwide there is a growing devotional, physical or social practices. trend to return to one’s roots, to reassert ‘Veer’ Savarkar called Hindus ‘people national and regional cultural identities who live as children of a common moth- and traditions, howbeit in a modernized erland, adoring a common holyland’ [Sa- form. We can notice that trend at work in varkar 1928] and he fought for the na- countries as diverse as Turkey, Poland, the tion’s territorial integrity (Akhand Bharat), United Kingdom, China, the United States fiercely resisting partition. Indeed in the and Russia. years before Pakistan’s secession, his Hin- Universalistic and ‘globalist’ ideolo- du Mahasabha formed coalition govern- gies are not necessarily rejected but they ments with Islamic parties in Muslim ma- don’t appeal to the less privileged majori- jority provinces which were soon to be- ties which see them as abstract, theoretical come parts of West and East Pakistan, in and not suitable to their needs and desires

224 C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232 to retain distinct features and prerogatives. has written extensively on the well known In India, in reaction to what has happened controversy about the destruction of the in Pakistan and in the wider Islamic region Babri mosque on the holy hindu site of but also to a lesser degree in Sri Lanka and Ayodhya in 1992. in other predominantly Buddhist nations It is important to keep in that there is a widespread yearning for more in- there are at least two major intellectual fac- digenous forms of education and admin- tions within the domestic Hindutva fami- istration which sometimes combine and ly. The first is made up of ‘traditional’ spir- yet conflict with the westernizing tropism itualists, attached to their religious and/ of reformers and modernizers still follow- or metaphysical heritage in all its facets. ing Nehru and Ambedkar, heavily inspired They highlight its diversity, tolerance and by the colonial notions and structures left lack of dogmatism and reject the material- by the British Raj and indoctrinated in for- istic objectivism implanted through west- eign schools of thought , whether liberal, ern influence in the contemporary Indian marxist or social-democratic. educational system. Many of them actual- Significantly the global hindu diaspora, ly don’t quite accept the standard Hindu- particularly from the prosperous commu- tva definition which they find too ‘collec- nities settled in North America and oth- tivist’ and restricted in contrast to the im- er Anglo-Saxon regions, plays an active mensely varied and constantly evolving role in the religious-nationalistic reasser- paradigm of Sanathana Dharma (the eter- tion. Like many “exiles”, voluntary or de- nal law) which takes a different aspect to ported migrants at various periods of his- every individual Hindu. tory, the Hindus overseas feel the nostalgia Members of the second faction can be of the mother country as they remember defined as cultural materialists, often -in or imagine it and cultivate revivalist ideals spired by the writings of Savarkar who de- which they frequently support financially scribed himself as an atheist, a pragma- and by their activism. tist and a positivist. In their desire to mod- is an American Indi- ernize and upgrade society they borrow an widely known in his native land for his the western rationalist and Cartesian ap- books and his polemics against Indian left- proach but, also like Savarkar, they see re- ists and secularists and against indological ligion as a nation-building, unifying factor scholars who take a jaundiced view, often once it is normalized as a state creed as in influenced by Freudian psycho-analytical countries where it is a pillar of the state. or Marxist interpretations of Hindu tenets Those Hindu rationalists have little and practices but there are several less fa- time for beliefs, rituals and spiritual teach- mous persons of Indian origin who cam- ings which they regards as superstitious, paign in various ways against Nehruvian impractical and quaint but they hold on secularism and Marxist versions of history to Hinduism as the principle of the civi- and culture and in support of the current lizational identity of the people although BJP-led Government. they tend to heed Nehru’s call for ‘scien- Among influential foreign scholars tific temper’ to redefine Hinduism instead who defend the hindu nationalist pro- of adopting a westernized agnostic cosmo- gramme the American sanskritist and his- politan approach as Nehru did. Like Sa- torian (Vamadeva Shastri), varkar they reject caste-based and ethnic a prolific author and practicing Hindu and distinctions, including the practices root- the Belgian agnostic Indologist Koenraad ed in the concept of untouchability. Elst , who defines himself as a secular hu- Unsurprisingly those ‘rationalist’ hin- manist, are perhaps the most eminent. Elst dutvadis take a dim view of other, foreign-

225 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018 born denominations because of their po- Indian rebellion in Kashmir. They point to tentially fissiparous and divisive influence the threats raised by leftist tribal and ‘out- on the body politic and they actually pre- caste’ rebellions in other regions which are fer atheists to the faithful of non-hindu often supported by subversive foreign po- creeds. They would probably subscribe to litical or religious forces. Napoleon’s reported quip that “if religion Therefore, in spite of their allegedly di- did not exist, it would be necessary to in- visive doctrine, they call for organic unity vent it”, and like him they wish it to serve of all patriotic Bharatiyas (Indians) where- political objectives. They may be regard- as formal secularists, following the pre- ed as intellectual heirs of the ancient and vailing theories of western Indologists, medieval lokayata, carvaka or brhaspatya are wont to put the emphasis on the ma- ‘pragmatic’ and materialistic philosophical ny communities, castes, creeds and ethnic systems which were fiercely opposed by origins of Indians to support the conclu- both the Buddhist and spiritualist Hindu sion that, as Strachey famously declared , logicians and metaphysicians in their days. India was never a nation before the Brit- However materialist doctrines inspired ish forged it into one -or rather into two the science of statecraft nitisastra( ) ex- when they left (“There is not and never was pounded in ’s Arthasastra and in an India possessing…any sort of unity, phys- other political treatises which take a cyn- ical, political, social or religious, no Indian ical view of human and behaviour Nation” [Strachey 1888]). and separate public policy from religious concerns. This ideological division does not pre- Is Hindutva a theocratic doctrine? vent the votaries and militants of ‘hindu- ness’ and many simple ‘pious Hindus’ from Hinduness is held by Hindutva propo- working together towards the goal of reaf- nents to be different from the confessional firming what they describe as the exclusiveness claimed by the upholders of of the nation’s identity in its polity and in- Islamic, Christian or even Buddhist states stitutions. They often jointly argue or at –or by the religious Jewish citizens of Is- least disagree with more “quietist” or mys- rael – who may tolerate the followers of tical co-religionaries who regard their be- other faiths without accepting the validi- liefs and customs as personal matters that ty of their doctrines, wrong or incomplete need not be reflected explicitly in matters from the standpoint of prophetic revealed of state policy and social ideology. One of creeds. the major concerns of the latter is not to Buddhists are not believers in a partic- upset the delicate balance that has usually ular concept of taught by a maintained social peace between the var- or divine figure but they are still required ious communities and still prevents ma- to ‘take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhar- jor long term conflicts, with Muslims and ma and the Sangha’ whereas Hindus or ad- Christians in particular. epts of the Sanathana Dharma as they de- In response the supporters of Hindut- fine themselves, are mainly connected by va make the case that a conscious and af- a common geo-historical ethos which en- firmed awareness of the common ances- compasses many diverse linguistic and tral identity, transcending personal or ethnic communities, beliefs (including communal creeds can only strengthen the atheism), practices and traditions. country and protect its unity by prevent- In that sense Hindutva or Hinduness ing new splits after the tragic secession of would be closer to “Britishness” or “Latin- Pakistan which still fuels the fires of anti- ity”, or even to Jewishness (which is cul-

226 C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232 turally plural and not necessarily religious with the RSS philosophy. His government or even ethnic) than to a theistic denom- is ostensibly committed to reforming and ination. That is how many Hindus point transforming the country on the lines set out that ‘real secularism’ or, more precise- by Hindutva thinkers drawing inspiration ly genuine religious freedom, respect and from the ancient native civilization of the acceptance is enshrined in their heritage land. and goes much deeper than the essential- The well known historian Romila ly sceptical or agnostic ‘laicite’ (in practice Thapar in a book edited by Ramin Jahan- atheistic) practiced by the French Repub- begloo and Niladri Bhattacharya and titled lic because it does not say that all religions Talking History [Jahanbegloo, Bhattacha- are the same in their truth or lack of it but rya 2017] has argued that equating Hin- rather professes that they are connected by dutva to Hinduism is problematic as Hin- their common transcendent source. The dutva according to her homogenizes Hin- difference is that whereaslaicité is root- duism around a uniform set of beliefs and ed in a materialistic vision of the world therefore sets Hindus apart from other In- which a priori does not accept any claim dians who don’t accept it. to a higher realm of being or is indifferent While conceding that Hindutva does to it, Sanathana Dharma is fundamental- not attempt to redefine Hinduism as a re- ly spiritual. It is not indifferent but accepts ligion per se she claims that “it redefines and even honours differences. It says that the social controls exercised by the reli- truth is one (Ekam Sat) and always prevails gion. Hindutva is trying to make Hindu- (Satyameva Jayate) but not that it belongs ism uniform by incorporating all the sects to one religion alone. Instead it points out so that it becomes a monolithic religion” that sages speak of it in many ways (vipra which she dubs as ‘syndicated Hinduism’. bahudha vadanti) as is repeated in many She notes that ‘the emphasis is on social sacred and canonical texts. organization and political mobilization’ (Scroll.in, 4 February 2018). An eminent intellectual and Congress The Current Debate politician, Shashi Tharoor in a interview [Tharoor 2018] has accused the govern- Since the BJP led Government came ment of Narendra Modi of planning a “ma- back to power in 2014, the long-stand- jor attack’ on the Constitution by stripping ing controversies between supporters and it of references to secularism and socialism opponents of the Hindutva ideology have and affirming the Hindu character of the predictably intensified now that the ruling nation, declaring it a Hindu Rashtra. He power has absolute majority in the lower calls that ‘religiously derived majoritari- member of Parliament and governs a ma- anism’ and recalls that one of the intellec- jority of the States of the Union. The Pres- tual father-figures of the nationalist Hin- ident of India Ramnath Kovind is a for- du camp, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya wanted mer BJP cadre. Prime Minister Naren- the Constitution to be ‘shredded’ because dra Modi and several members of his cab- it was built around alien, western ideas inet as well as most top members of the of state and society. Tharoor adds that a BJP belong to the RSS in which they were Committee has been formed by the Modi trained for public life. Although Modi has government under the chairmanship of Dr shown a pragmatic disposition and focus- Govindacharya in order to study possible es on growing the economy and modern- amendments to it. izing the state apparatus there is no doubt Tharoor opposes his own and Con- that his personal convictions are in tune gress’s ‘private’ practice of religion to the

227 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018

BJP’s sponsorship of Hinduism as a po- sis of flimsy or erroneous data and without litical axis for the nation but he acknowl- any solid proof. edges that his own party, beginning with Despite its pan-Indian and somewhat Congress President Rahul Gandhi is now supra-religious definition, the project to also emphasizing the Hindu allegiance formally define the country as a Hindu of most of its members by staging highly State is being opposed and will continued publicized visits to, and ritual worship in to be resisted by many, on the left of the temples. He thereby concedes the chang- political spectrum but also among nom- ing public mood which gives greater im- inal and ‘moderate’ Hindus as within the portance to the country’s fundamental re- religious and political minorities, espe- ligious legacy. cially Muslims and Christians, who usual- Although there is no consensus among ly resent, or at least are suspicious of, any supporters of the current government on formulation which seeks to bracket them the exact extent of the reform desired, it is within the majority but may leave them to be expected that the latter will reflect, if feeling that they are ‘dissenters’ from the it is carried out, the views of the RSS which common national creed, which is how the promotes a nationalist, activist, egalitarian RSS ideologues tend to describe them. In- and collective kind of Dharma, favourable deed a campaign for (home re- to free enterprise but suspicious of global- turn) or reconversion to Hinduism is be- ization and sceptical about Mahatma Gan- ing carried out in various parts of the dhi’s pacifist and arguably utopian doc- country by religious organizations affil- trine which at a certain level has permeat- iated or sympathetic to the RSS but they ed the country’s polity since before Inde- mostly address recent converts to prot- pendence, at least in theory. estant or evangelical christianity, usually An important step in the process of among disadvantaged or tribal communi- changing India’s self perception and its im- ties although there are some cases of Indi- age in the outside world is the Ministry of an Muslims rejoining the hindu faith. Education’s initiative to appoint an inter- Both Christianity and Islam gather disciplinary scientific committee for revis- and inspire supra-national faith commu- ing and rewriting the educational manuals nities which have their respective centres on history [A Committee Chosen by Modi in Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca and many Government To Rewrite India’s 2018]. in those populations, especially in the mis- The official purpose of this body headed sionary churches and fundamentalist mus- by senior Archaeologist KN Dikshit is the lim sects would not like to be regarded as “holistic study of the origin and evolution members of an officially hindu national of Indian culture since 12000 before present polity. The issue is thus a thorny one even and its interface with other cultures of the if most Indian Christians and Muslims world”. The task is to build a new narrative are indigenous and take pride in the spe- to balance the liberal and secular philoso- cifically Indian and syncretistic features phy expressed by Nehru and his successors. of their practices, called Ganga-Yamuna One of the concerns of the present dispen- Tehzeeb in the Sufi Islamic Indian context. sation is to affirm the mostly indigenous -na Dogmatists on all sides sometimes ture of indic civilisation, its continuity since make pregnant and even ominous distinc- the period of the Indus- archaeo- tions between those who see themselves logical sites while dismissing the reality or as Muslim Indians and those who would at least the cultural importance of the long- rather be treated as Muslims in India (the alleged ‘ Invasion’ promoted by Euro- latter being the term adopted by the Mus- pean scholars in the 19th century on the ba- lim League and the founders of Pakistan).

228 C.C. DE GOURDON. THE RISE OF THE HINDU RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS AND STATE THEORY PP. 219–232

Conclusion held a hierarchical superiority in the social order but had to negotiate their role with Given the real prospect that, if reelect- other communities, mainly the royal and ed to power in 2019, the current Indian aristocratic ksatriya families and the mer- Government could amend the Constitu- chant (vaisya or bania) clans from which tion to declare the country a Hindu State they usually drew their livelihood. or Republic and no longer a secular, social- If handled well and appropriately de- ist one, it is necessary to consider the pos- fined, the assumption of its Hindu heritage sible consequences of such a reform both as the foundation of its civilization should at home and abroad, even if little changes not be seen as a challenge to Bharat-India’s in reality and in practice. organic unity and social stability. A formally Hindu India would consti- As various voices, even within the mi- tute a long delayed response to Pakistan’s norities communities have noted, the es- self-proclamation as a Muslim nation and sential quality of India’s native, universal- would join smaller neighbours such as Sri istic secularism (vasudhaiva kutumbakam: Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, officially ‘the world is a family’), its openness and Buddhist States in affirming a foundation- lack of dogmatism, its respect for all spiri- al civilisational identity. Further afield, Ja- tual traditions and teachings and its gener- pan’s Imperial head embodies the nation’s ally non-violent attitude to differences and Buddhist-Shinto identity whereas Russia is contradictions lies precisely in the San- a Christian orthodox country. athana Dharma which the Hindutva doc- In the West the british monarch re- trine must faithfully preserve without tak- mains the head of the national church and ing cues from the more rigid and hierar- “protector of the faith’ as is the case nom- chical religions (whether monotheistic or inally for the other Kings of Europe. Ger- atheistic) that see it as their enemy because many and the USA among many oth- of its resistance to their projects for con- ers define themselves as Christian coun- version and expansion. tries although, like the monarchies men- tioned above they guarantee freedom of conscience and worship and enshrine in References their constitutions the separation of reli- gion from the exercise of governance. Yet A Committee Chosen by Modi Gov- it must be observed that until recently the ernment To Rewrite India’s Histo- relative tolerance of Christian and of some ry (2018). NDTV Newsdesk (with inputs Muslim states in matters of religions ex- from Reuters), March 6, 2018. Available at: tended only to monotheistic (abraham- https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/a-com- ic) faiths and to atheism (still frowned up- mittee-chosen-by-modi-government-to- on in the USA) and had no formal space rewrite--history-report-1820397, for ‘paganism’. Hindu India obviously nev- accessed 20.07.2018. er enforced such discrimination as the no- Ambedkar B.R. (1940) Pakistan or The tion of paganism is alien to the Indic reli- , Bombay: Thackers. gious universe, even if certain schools of Constitution of India, 42nd Amendment thought (such as lokayata) fell into disre- (1978), Preamble. pute and are still rejected by the majority Dalrymple W. (2006) The Last Mughal, of the population. The Fall of a Dynasty. Delhi 1857, New The various communities were entitled Delhi: Bloomsbury. to their own religious traditions and prac- Dhulipala V. (2013) Towards a New tices even though the Brahminical castes Medina: Jinnah, the Deobandi Ulema and

229 OUTLINES OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 4 • 2018 the Quest for Pakistan in late Colonial In- Puranik R. (2016) Nehru’s 97 Major dia, New Delhi. Blunders, New Delhi: Pustak Mahal. Elst K. (2000) Decolonizing the Hindu Ramaswamy K., Banerjee A. (2007) In- Mind – Ideological Development of Hindu vading The Sacred –An Analysis of Hindu- Revivalism, New Delhi: Rupa. ism Studies in America, New Delhi: Rupa. Elst K. (2001) The Saffron Swastika – Rajan R. (2009) Eclipse of the Hindu The Notion of Hindu , New Delhi: Nation – Gandhi and his Freedom Struggle, Rupa. : Publishers. Frawley D. (1998) Awaken , Sarila N.S. (2006) Shadow of the Great A Call for India’s Rebirth, New Delhi: Ad- Game – The Untold Story of India’s Parti- itya Prakashan. tion, London: Constable. Frawley D. (2010) Universal Hinduism: Savarkar V.D. (1928) Who is a Hindu? Towards a New View of Sanathana Dhar- New Delhi: Veer Savarkar Prakashan. ma, New Delhi: . Sharma A. (2018) Western Concepts Godse N. (2015) Why I Assassinated and Indian Realities, New Delhi (IIC Ad- Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi: Hindi Sah- ditional Publication 84). itya Sadan. Singh R.N.P. (2016) Nehru: A Troubled Golwalkar M.S. (1966) Bunch of Thought, Legacy, New Delhi: Wisdom Tree. New Delhi: Sahitya Sindhu Praka­ shana­ . Strachey J. (1888) India, Its Administra- Jahanbegloo R., Bhattacharya N. (2017) tion and Progress, London: MacMillan. Romila Thapar, Talking History, New Del- Tharoor S. (2018) BJP Planning ‘Ma- hi: OUP. jor Assault’ on the Constitution. NDTV Jain M. (2010) Parallel Pathways – Es- Newsdesk, February 8, 2018. Available at: says on Hindu-Muslim Relations, 1707– https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bjp- 1857, New Delhi: Konark. planning-major-assault-on-constitu- Malhotra R. (2011) , An tion-shashi-tharoor-1810236, accessed Indian Challenge to Western , 20.07.2018. New Delhi: Harper Collins. Tunzelmann A. von (2007) Indian Malhotra R. (2016) ’s Net, Defend- Summer – The Secret Story of theEnd of an ing Hinduism’s Philosophical Unity, New Empire, New York: Henry Holt and Com- Delhi: Harper Collims. pany.

230