It has not been long since the last elections when BJP swept the whole nation, accomplishing its set target of forming the government at the centre with a clean win and clear majority. Where many people give credit to Bhartiya Janta Party for its achievements in various sectors and the work it has done, others call it the party’s marketing strategy and how it presented itself(remember the speeches given by Narendra Modi in all his rallies?) as a political party equal to everyone’s need. The party also had to face major issues on the account of targeting the vote bank using Hindutva politics. Where in India, a democratic nation, everyone has the right of Freedom of Expression, the slogan which set the whole political battle on fire was BJP’S, “Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar”. Only those who have ‘once’ experienced power will understand what the party is actually trying to do (power at both the centre the state) and for those who are still far away from that zone, the grapes are too sour to eat!
Bhartiya Janta Party which has its root in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has never openly supported the Hindus but is often criticised for its silent schemes which give agency to Hindutva ideology and the Dalits in order to target the vote bank (which is divided between the BJP and INC equally). Many are also of the view that the middle class is one of the main supporters of the Bhartiya Janta Party whereas Congress and other parties target the working class for votes. In the past the party has been majorly supported by the elites and the business class of India but 2014 saw a change in trend where the party was able to draw support and votes even from the lower, lower-middle and middle classes. We must not forget how the Hindutva agenda even not being a part of the poll agenda still existed on its own and created a huge impact on everyone. You may be trying to paint a picture of the whole political link ups by now, tying all the loose ends together. Making it simpler for you, here’s a study of the Hindutva politics, how it came into being and the other major controversies related to it.
The Hindutva ideology was framed by Veer Savarkar, for whom, “Hindutva is not a word but a history. Not only the spiritual or religious history of our people as at times it is mistaken to be…but a history in full. Hindutva embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole being of our Hindu race.” The major groups(political or not) who advocate the Hindutva ideology under the name of the Sangh parivar are, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bhartiya Janta Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal(also famous for its militant practices). The Hindutva ideology came into full swing in the late 1980s in the political setup and has progressed over the years. The people supporting Hindutva “claim” to have a “positive” outlook towards the Dalits and hope to raise them to power. A need for a Uniform Civil Code has also been demanded since people belonging to the Hindutva group believe in the violation of religion because of the different laws in the country, based on religion. People also questioned the different religious laws (Muslim) which allow polygamy and a divorce upto three times since they sideline women and their status in the society gets reduced to nothing. The major concerns are the protection of native Hindu traditions, holy structures, religious texts, rivers and animals where most of the times, superstitions dominate the way they think.
Other major events which gave a new definition to the Hindutva ideology: The demolition of the Babri Mosque: Does that ring a bell? *Ting *ting*!
The mosque was demolished by a group Hindu Karsevaks (volunteers) on 6th December, 1992 in an attempt to reclaim the land known as Rama Janmabhoomi (the birthplace of Lord Rama). The demolition took a violent turn when the riots between the Hindus and the Muslims reached another level of barbarity where at least 2000 lost their lives. The brutality with which people were murdered became a shocking site where streets became rivers of blood.
Gujarat violence (2002) or the Godhra riots: Doesn’t that sound familiar? The riots began after a train was burnt in Godhra on 27 February 2002, causing the death of 58 Hindu pilgrims and religious workers returning from Ayodhya. If speculations are to be believed then it was a pre- planned attack to instigate the two communities against each other.
Also known as the Gujarat violence, it was a three day period of communal violence which further led to mass killings and a period of unrest in Ahmedabad for three weeks. If official figures are to be believed, then around 1100 people were reported dead, 2500 injured and 223 reported missing. However, in other reports 2000 (lost count?) Muslims and many Hindus (lost count?) were reported dead. No one remembers the number of rape, child slaughter, looting and the destruction of property cases reported. This period also reminded the people of the 1947 partition which further added to the misery of all the Indians. Narendra Modi earlier in the case was blamed for instigating the Hindus against the Muslims. However, he was later cleared of all the conspiracy in 2012 when the Special Investigation Team presented its report in favour of Mr. Narendra Modi. The controversies still continued but the Supreme Court considered the Special Investigation Team’s report as the final report. There have been controversies related to the imposition of Hindi and Sanskrit on people where the opposition talks how the government is imposing its ideas in a democratic nation like India. The Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 crossed all the extremities of violence in 2014 since it led to high death tolls and left around 50,000 people displaced. It has by far been declared as the “worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent history”.
The basic thing which needs to be understood is how all the political parties in power lay their hands on the education system in order to target the masses and directly affect the way children think. Be it the rolling back of the Four Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP) in the University of Delhi or the change in textbooks at the school level. In June 2014, the Gujarat government declared that six text books written by Dinanath Batra would be included in the state education curriculum. Dinanath Batra is the founder of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti and sees himself as a “saviour” (Knight in the shining armour, eh?) of the Hindu religion and culture, also an RSS activist. Where his books have been reported as “factually incorrect”, “fantasy”, and “scary”, and further slammed by the historians, then why has nothing been done till now? Not to forget, he is the same man on whose advice sex education was replaced by yoga education in Madhya Pradesh. He has always been held up in some controversy or the other.
The most recent incident was BJP’S mindset to rename Teacher’s Day as ‘Guru Utsav’, for which it had to face others who blamed it for imposing Sanskrit on the nation. The whole idea of romanticising the guru as the ‘divine’ in order control what people think is certainly not acceptable. To add up to the whole situation, what hit the entire system and the media as a bomb was Smriti Irani, HRD Minister, making Narendra Modi’s speech on Teacher’s Day compulsory for all the school children to watch, when it would be telecasted between 3-5p.m. which would have definitely been an issue since the schools usually close by 2 p.m. However, later she stated (after a statement from the opposition was released) that it was a voluntary task and not a compulsory one. Was this a justified stand or did she do it on facing pressure from the other political parties?
BJP’s star campaigner, Yogi Adityanath, plans to take up issues linked to the Hindutva ideology in the upcoming UP bypolls. “Cow slaughter, illegal infiltration by Bangladeshi immigrants and forced conversion”, will be the major issues to be covered by him. Religion being dragged in election campaigns even if through indirect measures can cause a great amount of trouble and unrest for the others even if they are not a part of it. The whole concept of ‘Love jihad’ is not something new in India.
It has been used as a ‘brahmastra’ (divine weapon) during political campaigns and even otherwise in order to blame and target the other. We all know who the ‘other’ is in this context. The idea of Hindu (non Muslim included) women being trapped and fooled by the Muslim men on accounts of false promises of love and marriage is what needs to be questioned. How can men think that women are incapable of thinking for themselves and cannot even take their own decisions? What comes as a shock to me is the Akhil Bhartiya Vaishya Parishad’s decision to impose a ban on mobile phones for girls’ upto Standard 12 in order to “protect” their women from being trapped? What kind of a civilised and educated society are we talking about? Why are girls always the easier target for the ‘protectors of religion’, who are actually the ones exploiting women and their rights at every single point of their lives.
There are times when my will to fight gives up on me as a result of what all I see and observe around me. Till when will we be ridden by religion and not humanity? Have you ever taken a second to think about it? There have been promises made by different governments at power over the years. The hopes have been set high. Let us hope that someone actually turns the vision of a better India into reality. Ever thought that may be you can bring about a change? If not, think now! Act now. One must never stop dreaming!
Let us keep our hopes alive. Hope for a better and a brighter India.
