DEMOCRACY AND THE FAILURE OF LIBERALISM? GLOBALIZATION AND THE REEMERGENCE OF ORIENTALIST ESSENTIALISM IN HINDUTVA'S CONSTRUCTION OF FUNDAMENTALIST HINDU IDENTITY _______________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________ by KAVITA PILLAI Dr. Karen Piper, Dissertation Advisor MAY 2018 © Copyright by Kavita Pillai 2018 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Karen Piper for all the encouragement and support she has given me in the last 6 years. I cannot imagine having a better mentor and advisor than Dr. Piper. I also want to thank the rest of my committee members for your help and feedback throughout my graduate career at the University of Missouri. Dr. Christopher Okonkwo, Dr. Anand Prahlad, and Dr. Paul Wallace; thank you so much! Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues, peers, and friends for giving me your support and reading my material and believing in me even when I did not. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ ii List Of Figures ................................................................................................................ v Glossary Of Terms And Abbreviations ........................................................................... vi Chronology Of Events ................................................................................................. viii Abstract ....................................................................................................................... xiii Prologue ....................................................................................................................... xiv 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Right Wing Fundamentalism And Globalization .................................................... 1 1.2 Huntington: Criticism And Importance ................................................................... 2 1.3 Huntington’s Politics Of Fear Of The Other ........................................................... 5 2. Origin Of The Aryan Civilization Theory And The Hindu Question .......................... 16 2.1 “The Hindu” In European Consciousness ............................................................. 16 2.2 The Hindu Indian Consciousness .......................................................................... 30 2.3 Dialectic Of Self And Other ................................................................................. 40 3. From Gandhi, Nehru, And Tagore—The Critical Nationalists To Hitler, Modi, And Tagore—The Hindu Nationalist:.................................................................................... 50 Rise Of The Hindu Right In India .................................................................................. 50 3.1 Gandhi: The Mahatma .......................................................................................... 53 3.2 Tagore: The Thinker And The Humanist .............................................................. 58 3.3 Nehru: The Pragmatist.......................................................................................... 64 3.4 The Hindu Right .................................................................................................. 69 3.5 The RSS And The Hindu Mahasabha ................................................................... 74 4. Misogynistic Conservatism Of Indian Nationalism: Gandhi, Tagore, Rushdie, Seth And The Politics Of Emancipatory Feminist Discourse In 20th Century India ............... 88 4.1 The Poet, The Hunter, And The Crane .................................................................. 88 4.2 Ram, Sita, And Ravana ........................................................................................ 89 4.3 Women In The Ramayana .................................................................................... 91 4.4 The Loss Of Sita .................................................................................................. 91 4.5 Sita Enters Fire ..................................................................................................... 92 4.6 Sita Enters The Earth............................................................................................ 96 iii 4.7 The Goddess Sita ................................................................................................. 98 4.8 Mother India—The Nation And Women ............................................................ 100 5. Modi’s Ram Rajya: The Answer To Huntington’s Hindu Question .......................... 130 5.1 The Holy Cow .................................................................................................... 131 5.2 Ram Rajya Or The Rule Of Rama ...................................................................... 132 5.3 Anti-Muslim Riots ............................................................................................ 148 5.4 Globalization: Economy First, Nation First? ....................................................... 149 6. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 151 7. Bibilography ............................................................................................................ 157 8. Vita ......................................................................................................................... 169 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map of India v GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS Bajrang Dal “Strong Group,” militant youth wing of the VHP, started in 1984, responsible for a good deal of violence against Muslims and Christians; its website, HinduUnity.org, gives a good picture of its anti-minority attitudes. BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) “Indian People’s Party” or “Mother-India People’s Party,” the political party founded out of, and still profoundly linked to, the RSS; it held power (in a coalition with smaller parties) from 1998 to 2004. The term bharat is a Hindu term for India, in the specific sense of a geographic entity; but the original term is now commonly modified by the addition of the epithet mata, “mother,” to form Bharatmata or Bharat Mata, “Mother India.” So Bharatiya means “Indian” in a sense that is freighted with emotional/patriotic overtones, whereas rashtriya means “national” in a more neutral sense; Hindustani would be “Indian” in an inclusive way that would be congenial to minorities; the BJP conspicuously did not select the name Hindustani Janata Party. Hindutva “Hinduness,” “the essence of being a Hindu,” a term made prominent by Hindu-right writer V. D. Savarkar; it has come to denote the entire ideology of ethnic homogeneity and purity, often including the subordinate status of non-Hindu groups. HSS (Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh) “Hindu Corps of Volunteers,” the American branch of the Indian RSS, founded in the 1980s. Kar sevak “Hand-server-for-a-cause,” a volunteer working for the restoration of a Rama temple at Ayodhya. Panchayats Elected rural village councils whose role was envisaged by Gandhi and which were finally established by the Seventy-third and Seventy- fourth Amendments to the Constitution in 1992; one-third of the seats are reserved for women. Ram Rajya The “Rule of Rama,” an ideal imagined time of peace and unity under the rule of the Hindu god Rama, an idea invoked in very different ways by Gandhi and the Hindu right. Rath yatra “Chariot journey,” a term used in eastern India for the annual ritual journal of the Lord Jagannath, an incarnation of Krishna, in an enormous chariot drawn by ropes. In other parts of India, the term would not have these specific religious associations, but it would allude to a victorious chariot journey, such as Rama may have embarked on after defeating Ravana. The BJP uses this term prominently to designate campaign-related pilgrimages undertaken by several BJP politicians at various times, most famously by L.K. Advani in connection with Ayodhya, with heavy symbolic/religious/militant overtones, and in a motor vehicle with painted chariot-like trappings. RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) “National Corps of Volunteers,” the militant social organization that is the heart of the Hindu right, founded in 1925. vi Sangh Parivar “Family of Groups,” the set of organizations comprising the Hindu right, including the RSS, VHP, BJP, and Bajrang Dal. Satyagraha “Truth-force,” Gandhi’s theory and practice of nonviolent resistance. Shakha “Branch,” the name given to the boys’ groups established all over India by the RSS. Swaraj “Self-rule,” a term for political independence, also used by Gandhi to refer to inner psychological self-rule. VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) “All-Hindu Council” or “World Hindu Council,” a social organization closely allied to the RSS and BJP, founded in 1964. A U.S. wing with the name VHPA was founded in 1970. vii CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 1861 Birth of Rabindranath Tagore (May 7) 1869 Birth of Mohandas K. Gandhi (October 2) 1872 Birth of Kasturba, later Gandhi’s wife 1876 Birth of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, father of Pakistan (December 25) 1878 Tagore visits England for the first time 1883 Gandhi marries Kasturba; birth of V. D. Savarkar, future