At a public rally in Jaipur last week Rahul Gandhi made a distinction between HINDU and HINDUTVAVADI. The former, he explained, was the real believer in the values of Hinduism- tolerant, inclusive, peaceful and the pursuer of satya [ truth ] The latter were those who weaponised the faith to instill hatred, intolerance and violence in the pursuit of satta [ power]: the reference to the BJP/ RSS was unmistakeable. It was as if he had pulled the pin on a grenade- TV channels and social media exploded into paroxysms of outrage and/ or support, depending on where one stood on this new Radcliffe line in our sorry history. Political pundits, from the neighbourhood chai-wallah to the lofty editor, all opined that this was a suicidal mistake on Gandhi's part as it would consolidate Hindu votes behind the BJP: Uttar Pradesh, it was predicted, was now all but lost for the Congress. Even his own party, barring Salman Khurshid, maintained a discreet silence.
Most people are perhaps not aware that Rahul Gandhi is not the first to differentiate between the two ideas. Savarkar had articulated it first in 1923 in his book HINUTVA- WHO IS A HINDU ? He had stated that Hinduism is but a fraction and small part of the larger Hindutva ideology which goes beyond religion. Hindutva, according to him, comprised of rashtra (nation ), jati ( common race ), and sanskriti (common culture). It was a nationalistic, rather than a religious, concept, one that excluded rather than included. In other words, precisely what the BJP is attempting to ram through. This little slice of history validates what Rahul Gandhi has claimed.
It took courage to make such a statement in the current, religiously surcharged atmosphere. By making it publicly, Rahul Gandhi has finally crossed the Rubicon in our troubled political waters. From a purely philosophical and cultural perspective, it was time someone of note belled this cat, or, to mix metaphors, called out this elephant in the room. For the fact is, the Hinduism now preached by the BJP is unrecognizable from the religion of Kabir, Prem Chand and Vivekanand; it has become a political doctrine rather than an easy-going way of life; its places of worship being converted into frontiers of war even when there is no visible enemy to defend them against. Faux enemies are being created and history is being exhumed and rewritten to provide legitimacy to a monstrous lie. The refusal to confront it was only making this stronger by the day. Even without the politics, purely on cultural grounds, someone had to make this point. For the biggest threat to Hinduism today is Hindutva, the militarised vision of Savarkar.
Rahul Gandhi has also shown an acute sense of electoral strategy by carving out this distinction. Hindutva is the nucleus of the BJP/ RSS ideology, its core strength and battering ram in all elections. The Opposition can never defeat the BJP unless it is prepared to take it on face to face, eye ball to eye ball. One may win battles on one's own ground, but if you want to win the war you will have to take on the enemy in his own territory. Politics is not just about governance and delivery, it is also about the clash of competing ideas and ideology. The BJP's resurrected doctrine of Hindutva is a powerful driving force. The Opposition has to challenge it with a counter ideology, and Rahul Gandhi may just have found one.
Even at the best of times the BJP has never got more than 40 % of the Hindu votes. By not taking the war into the Hindutva minefield the Opposition risks losing the remaining 60% over time, as the BJP increases its stranglehold and people resign themselves to a TINA (There Is No Alternative) logic. Rahul Gandhi appears to have realised this, and that it is time to reach out to that other 60% in the name of the very idea that Modi has invoked- religion- specifically the Hindu way of life and culture. For not only is this greatest of all religions being distorted and brutalised, it is being used to subvert and destroy the very basis of our nation, its Constitution. There have been examples aplenty of this in the last seven years, but let us take just the latest one.
The Kashi- Vishwanath inauguration extravaganza last week has crossed the Laxman rekha of any secular country and Constitution. Not only was a govt. function converted into a political, Hindutva rally, but the Prime Minister himself assumed the role of a head priest. He had done this earlier also- at Ayodhya, Kedarnath, Badrinath, all paid for by the exchequer of a secular state. Mr. Modi, confident that he will not be challenged and is invincible in the " kavaz " ( carapace or armour ) of Hindutva is gradually metastasising into some kind of Inca or Maya emperor, the fount of all temporal and spiritual power. At great cost to the nation and its well being.
The bills have started coming in: the pathetic human development indices, the highest inflation in the last 30 years, unemployment and LPR (Labour Participation Rates ) at record negative levels, social disharmony. one of the worst countries in the world in the inequality index, selling off of public assets built painstakingly over decades, the closure of more than 400,000 SMEs, another 120 million pushed below the poverty line, 12000 farmers committing suicide every year. The bills will continue mounting, for the BJP's toxic obsession with the politics of Hindutva is pushing the country to the brink of destruction in every sense of the term. For the BJP's model of governance cannot be separated from its idea of Hindutva. You cannot challenge one and not the other.
It is no longer enough for the Opposition to fight Messers Modi, Shah or Yogi Adityanath; it has to fight the very idea of Hindutva, the fearful creature that has been hibernating for the last 70 years and has now found an environment conducive enough for it to emerge into the open. It can no longer be ignored, avoided or wished away- it has to be engaged. That is what Rahul Gandhi has done. It is a risk, but then one is reminded of the wise words of the philosopher, Kierkegaard:
" To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily, but not to dare is to lose oneself. "
( And, may I add, one's country )
Modi knows the significance of Rahul Gandhi and that's why he ridicules, belittles, and slights Rahul who stands for civilizational values
ReplyDeleteI am glad Avay has brought out in simple but effective terms the difference between Hindu culture, way of life, inclusiveness and the essence of Hindu religion as opposed to its dogma and optics created by Hindu priests and others in our temples and other places of worship. Since childhood, we were brought up to accept Hinduism as a way of life. Although many powerful people tried to change it to meet their personal short-term goals, Hinduism has prevailed and attracted adherents, much to the chagrin of those who want to spread negativity and change the historical truths.
ReplyDelete56" and his saffron goons are playing with fire. They ignore at their own peril the indisputable fact that when this volcano erupts, as it is wont to do with their malicious agenda, they too would be engulfed and would be as affected by it as much as the innocent bye stander.
ReplyDeleteThis is NOT the country I was born into!
The arguments by Avay Shukla to counter the BJP and thus rescue the nation from transforming into a monolithic, Hindu-Only mutation - are cogent and forceful.
ReplyDeleteTo surmise that Rahul Gandhi has intelligently, researchingly, diligently and consciously found the potion for treating the lesions of Hindutva that pockmark the polity - is debatable. To extrapolate that he has crossed the rubicon - or the Ganges for our current discourse - is perhaps out of fervent expectation of deliverance from this morbid regime.
To my mind Rahul Gandhi in his utter mediocrity, has at best stumbled upon the solution that is probably the most workable, albeit contrarian. He is the carpenter sandwiched between two close walls, driving the wrong nail into the front wall, but his arm's back-raise inadvertently makes the rear of his hammer hit the correct nail on the wall behind him. The rally at Jaipur was the correct nail.
I say this because over the last decade we have witnessed his fickle style of running the Congress Party as President. We have observed his discontinuous methods that have raised our eyebrows to the sky and not have them returned.
We have been driven to discomfort by his puerile address at the conclave of Indian Industrialists. We have felt sympathy for Rahul Gandhi as Arnab Goswami tore him apart like a feral wolf in the one interview with him. We have been left nonplussed by his days of disappearance at a stretch….bewildered by his tearing up of the then Prime Minister's ordinance,
Worse is the present predicament the Congress finds itself in, attributable more to the Gandhis than to the party loyals. The alienation of the G23, the suspension of Sanjay Jha, the crossover of Jyotiradiya Scindia, the latest imbroglio in Punjab….all convey a sense of ineptitude of the man we debate.
In the backdrop of the past, I cannot bring myself to visualise Rahul Gandhi as the great politician who has sat at the table of highest stakes and played his gambit. I concur the battle must be taken to the ruling camp with ammunition that matches. But Rahul Gandhi who has so far placed the Congress at sixes and sevens, does not seem to me as the man who will deliver.
In total agreement with Shri Patankar's assessment.
DeleteAgreed that there are many leadership attributes that Rahul Gandhi lacks, and that makes the Opposition's job tougher. But let us not grudge him the credit for having articulated an issue no other political " leader " has had the guts to raise. And the battle has to be fought, not by Rahul Gandhi alone, but by every right thinking Indian, by you and me. We should accept our culpability for the present state of the country, and not make Rahul Gandhi the scapegoat for our own failure to distinguish between right and wrong ideologies.
ReplyDeleteAccepted that Rahul Gandhi be credited with hitting the right nail on the head. Just that I do not find his theory conjoined with his method, and for that - and that reason only - I do not marvel at his insight.
ReplyDeleteAs for "summoning the guts"....the wise man fears the moment, the fool fears none. His address was fortuitous more than forethought, and I choose my words carefully.
Lastly, I don't think he is held impeachable for our follies and frustrations. The polity elected, then re-elected the current ideology. We must carry our consequences with us, at least till 2024. But I pray that he matures sufficiently by then, for me to embrace Avay Shukla's augury that he had indeed crossed the rubicon at that Jaipur rally...
Sir,
ReplyDeleteI live in hope! If all we have is a straw to clutch on to, clutch it I WILL.
The alternative scares the shit out of me, as it should to to every citizen who has not taken leave of his/her senses.
Why is Rahul Gandhi's superficial differentiation between a "Hindu" and a "Hindutvavadi" being hailed as an eye opener? I say "superficial" because if you listen to his speech at the Congress rally in Jaipur he even repeatedly says "Hindutvadi" for Hindutvavadi. One only has to read Vinayak Savarkar's ideology of Hindutva, which I wonder if Rahul Gandhi has done at all. By virtually erasing the name of Savarkar from Indian history and text books historians and authorities over the decades have deprived subsequent generations of Indians of grasping the dangerous implications of Savarkar's concept of Hindu nationalism. The BJP governments at the Centre and in the states in which the rule are faithfully implementing Savarkar's philosophy and even what he was opposed to, like religious rituals, superstitions and cow worship. Rahul Gandhi has only muddied the waters by his lazy statement that we need to "bring the rule of Hindus."
ReplyDeleteIn present day English, crossing the Rubicon represents "no going back". The Ganges is not fettered to any such belief and therefore it is not a matter of a "what's in a name" type of frivolity.
ReplyDeleteAs analogies go, the metaphor of the Rubicon has assumed, over the last two thousand years, through the English language, a very important point of fact in a person's life; even in a Nation's life. It asserts a position from which there is no turning back. It asserts courage in a time of fear.
What I find significant is that ordinary folk, some like me and some not, but many, many more people are speaking out openly than in the recent past, in disgust and outrage - for the open threat of murders; for the mowing down of protestors; for blatant criminality among the police; for the ridiculous circumstance of having neither money nor livelihood; the utter rubbish of hollow promises and un-thought through policies and bills, the brazen politicising of opportunities and the irrevocable shutting down of small businesses - Galleria is an up-market shopping destination in Gurgaon. The number of shops that had shut down last week with 'for sale' posters pasted on the shutters was, to say the least, startling.
A young Hindi speaking freelance journalist on Wednesday 22nd, made it to the final interview with the editor. The editor said you write well but why have you used so many Urdu words. The candidate said he did not know that there was any such differentiation in the use of effective language. The editor said we are against the language and all that it represents. You will have to change or forsake the job. And the boy said, since I believe in humanity and not in differences, I would rather not work in such a place. And excusing himself respectfully, left. He earns 10k a month if that. The paper is huge; the profile would have been brilliant. He is a Hindu. What made the youngster stand up?
I would like to believe that slowly, slowly, ordinary folk are crossing the Rubicon. Who others have the courage to cross with them we shall have to wait and see I guess.
Very well put in perspective, Kabir. The time for neutrality- even of the intellectual type- is over. As is the time for quibbling over whether Rahul Gandhi's statement was fortuitous or forethought, or whether it was lazy or dynamic. The point is that he has brought the beast out in the open, in all its ugliness and undeniable power. Over to the citizens of this great country now.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Shukla,
ReplyDeleteI do hope and pray with all the sincerity that I can muster, that your predilection is true. We do sorely need to develop the courage of conviction and speak out. For too long a time, we have remained silent and now the flames of utter hatred and animosity have engulfed us. We don't know for sure, what and where these vile and utterly destructive forces are going to lead our country to, but all that we can do is pray that this too shall pass. After all, history has shown us that all glory is fleeting. The present powers are puffed up with pride and arrogance. A great man once said that pride comes before fall.
While we wait for this to happen, we can only dread at the havoc that will be wrecked upon us.
To appreciate Rahul Gandhi for unmasking the monster is acceptable, even applaudable. To say that he has crossed the Rubicon in that moment - is generosity extended over and above the warranted.
ReplyDeleteI quibble because the topic is weighty, the problem is tenacious, the solution is dazzling, but the actor is weak, loose, dim…...ill suited for the metaphor.
Rahul Gandhi, who gambols like the gay lamb oblivious to everything around him, squandering his political legacy of generations, is far too unshackled of responsibilities to embark on the epochal journey as the one Kabir Mustafi illuminates, rather helpfully.
I concur it is for the people of the nation to make a citizens' arrest and stop the marauders in their intent. It is for them to cross the Rubicon - through their rejection of this regime - with the ballot.
As for Rahul Gandhi, he is best at crossing the Solang Nallah and its meadows during one of his sojourns full of gaiety.
To Mr. Kabir Mustafi ….
The legend of the Rubicon is indeed intense, when Julius Caesar crossed the river to the point of no return. Can the metaphor be applied here Sir, where the Protagonist-in-Chief is more fickle and unfastened than the gambolling lamb, I muse. Is he commensurate in his actions with the gravity appended to the legend?
As for the Ganges, it was referred to as a pun, what with the current political tumult being enacted on its banks. I am bewildered at the frivolity you detect;, I detect none, nor intend.
Caesar's dilemma was, if he crossed, it would mean war against his father in law. And if he didn't he would never be able to save Rome from collapse.
ReplyDeleteWe're only just giving grist to air.
There are others on the ground. Ankle deep in blood and hate, While you and I speak and practise our eloquence.
It may therefore be important for the ghettos to fortify now. To issue 'whips'; to put up the sand bags and borrow or buy the 50 mms and ensure like never before, the India Today type cover stories glorifying rage. Headband, with sword in one hand and something else in the other do not happen again without consequences...those were the nights, you may recall, when baby heads were smashed against pillars.
In '47-'48 we wept dry for the chowkidar across the road we'd known since childhood. Kind, firm, strict, respectful. To us children even. Didn't know his name. It didn't matter.
Till they took his turbaned head off and we didn't know his name to grieve for. And then the masjid and Godhra and I don't know how many more deaths in quiet stridency.
But that's just a little historical perspective. It's quite remarkable as to how the act has become a truth.
And so it's fine, no problem, no need to fret. It's cool. Did not mean to be pompous and ponderous.
"But in the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of (Europe) bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye....."
[extracted from Auden's poem on Yeats' death January 1939].
After such eloquence and interesting perspectives....I just want to say one simple thing...I am a proud and a very God fearing hindu...and I'm ready to stand by anyone who is willing to take on fanatics who are steering us away from the core essence of democracy and the core essence of the way of life we were told to follow since we were children by our 'hindu' elders...
ReplyDeleteAnd there was no hatred there for anyone...we grew up singing hyms and carols ...enjoying gurbani..and eating savayian on Eid...as enthusiastically as singing bhajans and celebrating Diwali..
So yes ...I definitely am not going to be a fence sitter and will stand by anyone who has the guts to atleast speak out...I definitely do not want to be told by a bunch of people how to live in my own country or how to follow my own religion..!!
I think Rahul Gandhi is going to do just fine...and being a teacher..I'm ready to back a chap who is willing to learn and grow...!!
I am truly sorry to be writing once again that which displeases most, but the good teacher's ward has yet again conflated Politics with the way Polly ticks - on her (his) own whims.
ReplyDeleteAfter dazzling Avay Shukla with a hard-hitting address at the Jaipur rally, within the fortnight the man dashes off on a travel. Despite his party having organised a rally at Mogha in Punjab, with elections just months away and an internal conflagration of power raging.
He vindicates me again, and I am left holding onto a hollow, meaningless victory of sorts. How happy I would be to bow to Mr. Shukla's prognosis and salute his percipience ... alas ...
I guess it is for the others including us who fade the keys of our laptops to gather his pearls and restore the nation to the liberal democracy it was.