Hinduphobia: A blot on secular uniform, writes Subrata Das

May 31: Recently, the coinage of the term ‘Hinduphobia’ has created huge controversy because of some malicious ploy orchestrated by a section of the populace belonging to anti-Hindu brigade inside and outside India. Does Hinduphobia really exist or it’s a game plan designed by hate-mongers and fear-mongers with a view to demean Hindus in particular and India in general? Because, the rise in voice of dismantling Hindutva and affinity for Lord Rama indicate so. Question arises, are the forces working behind dismantling Hindutva paid as a part of international political conspiracy?

Before entering into the issue, let’s see what’s the definition of hindutva given by Google dictionary of Oxford languages that’s available on the internet. It says, “an ideology or movement seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus and Hinduism in India”. Wikipedia defines Hindutva, “As a political ideology, the term Hindutva was articulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. … The Hindutva movement has been described as a variant of ‘right-wing extremism’ and ‘almost fascist in the classical sense’, adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony”. The concepts of Hindutva is being explained to the average people in this shocking way. It seems the English language is something more of skill than a medium of education. They easily forget that Hinduism is something more than a religion.

The term ‘Hindutva’ probably is used to belittle Hinduness, as the way word ‘Bhakt’ is uttered to disparage the believer of Hinduism. Bhakt means in the classical Indian languages ‘a devotee’; which is a very decent and adorable term that connotes a complete devotion of a humble and down-to-earth person to his ideal. However, nowadays it’s used in write up and debates to mock the persons speaking factual points in favour of the nation, national interest or Indian ethos. The Hindutva theory are mainly criticized by our secularists in the light of words spoken by Dr. V. D. Savarkar and Swami Vivekananda. There may be slight or subtle difference between these two about Hindutva; but, none of the exponents has been found to be religious fanatic or bigot. The essence of Hinduness explained by Swami Vivekananda leads us to a better and progressive world who was once mocked and hated along with Netaji Subhas, Rishi Bankim Chandra, Ramkrishna Paramhansha Dev, Rabindra Nath etc by so called self-proclaimed enlightened leftists. The essence of spirituality and rationality found in his discourse still makes the world feel spellbound even today.

Hindu, Hindutva or Hinduism are inseparable from one other. Hinduism is a culture and a code of behavior. This is reflected in a term Indians use to describe the Hindu religion as Sanatana Dharma, which means the eternal way of life. Unlike other organised or patronized religions, Hinduism has no historical founder. Even no one knows who had scripted the Vedas and how. The essence of Hindutva never spreads negativity. It speaks of coexistence of all diversified faith and culture. It believes in assimilation and diversification. It keeps room for atheist, agnostic and pantheist too. Had some people not amended the preamble of our constitution by adding the word ‘Secular’ in an undemocratic way, it doesn’t mean that we would not have understood the theory of secularism.

The essence of secularism is an inbuilt mechanism that attached with Hindu, Hinduism, Hindutva or Hinduness by default. The Christianity came just about 2000 years back, the Islam is more or less 1400 years old, whereas the Sanatan doctrine is being practised at least for 5000 years, if not more. And Indians have been practising secularism by default. Hence, they don’t need to be taught or preached by those who don’t believe in diversified political or cultural faith and difference in opinions. India is the world’s only cultural garden where the flower of secularism is actually bloomed. Because, Hinduism reflects the cultural, intellectual and spiritual ethos of India through its practice. Hindutva is certainly not religious bigotry. Essence of Hindutva lies in dissent, difference, diversification. Hindus can’t be engrossed in religious dogmatism. Albeit, it’s undeniable there are some discrimination and shortcomings in performing of some rituals which also vary from man to man, time to time and place to place. However, fact of the matter is there’s no hard and fast religious instruction on it, which can bind or compel one to obey the same with the threat of bounty.

The phrase ‘Political Hindutva’ has been created for politics of convenience. The concept of political Hindutva is not only imaginary, but also maliciously crafted with fake narrative by anti-Hindu lobby with a view to demean India before the world. In reality, the propaganda spoken against India or Hindus is nothing but empty rhetoric. Many urban intellectuals equate Hindutva with the philosophy of ISIS, Taliban, Boko Haram etc extremist outfits which don’t believe in democracy, diversity, individuality, women’s liberty and dissent which proclaim ‘My way or highway’ is the only way to live; and directly or indirectly tells everyone either to subscribe to them or get lost from this world. In other countries, no monument or road is named after people like Hitler; but in India, railway station, roads and monuments are named after savages like Bakhtiyar Khilji (who destroyed invaluable scriptures of ancient Indian literature on Upanishad, Indian system of medicine, Buddhist philosophy and many more amazing things from the then World’s greatest Nalanda University by putting it on arson).

There are around 58 Islamic nations and many more countries with Christianity as their religion; whereas compared to these religions, there’s not a single Hindu or Sanatan state in this world. However, Hindutva or Hinduism has been surviving for thousand of years in spite of being attacked by the invaders. Whenever religious extremism kills thousands of innocents by blasting bombs and spraying bullets, secular intellectuals say terrorism has no religion, but whenever a person belonging to different religion is killed by a Hindu, they refer it as an act of Hindu terrorism and come out of their caves with candle in hands to march in protest. When the entire world is afraid of religious extremism that’s endangering the life of people around the globe; these so-called intellectuals, paid Lutyen’s media, opportunistic politicians and brainwashed students try to legitimize it by defending. They never feel any compassion in their hearts towards the Hindu people who faced horrendous plight and persecution like ethnic cleansing during Operation Searchlight in the then East Pakistan and during late eighties and early nineties in the valley of Kashmir.

So, the mockery of Ram, Ramayana, Hindu or Hindutva is a well designed ploy to demean the emotion of India. Even, these people forget that Mahatma Gandhi used to believe in “Rama Rajya” (Rule of Lord Rama) as part of his social and political philosophy, though he never liked to call himself a “Hindu nationalist”. However, Gandhiji was probably suffering from dementia and self-contradiction because, being a great fan and worshiper of Ram, he probably couldn’t accept the fact that Ram always teaches us to stand against injustice by going to the extent of war without considering the power of his enemy. Fighting against evil was never considered as violence by Lord Rama. Nor, non-violence means unconditional surrender to wrong doer in the name of peace. To Ram, inaction against evil was treated as cowardice. He gave Ravana ample scope to surrender and negotiate peace, but the ego led the later to the path of self destruction. Once, Gandhiji said, “Hindu should not harbour anger in their heart against Muslim even if the later wanted to destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all we should face death bravely. If they establish rule their after killing Hindus, we should be ushering in a world by sacrificing our lives” (the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi; page 218/219). Probably, this is the classic example of appeasement politics in India. However, what Gandhiji couldn’t admit, Dr. Ambedkar did. He unequivocally told, “Hinduism is said to divide people and in contrast Islam is said to bind people together. This is only a half-truth…. The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only.” (Pakistan or the Partition of India by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar).

In spite of this, the way pseudo- intellectuals and secular brigade are trying to spread false narrative against Hindutva in the name of secularism is actually exposing them by putting blots on their secular attire. However, by this way they are not only conspiring against Hinduism, but they are uniting Hindus by enraging them also. They are making them aware of their unparalleled and unique glory of the past. Now, they have already started feeling they’re not a nation of losers, haters and intolerant; they are worshipers of truth, justice and love. The more these ‘Bharat ki barbadi’ brigades try to dismantle Hindutva, the stronger it becomes. Hinduism or Hindutva is so powerful from inside that after being looted, plundered, converted, tortured, persecuted for hundreds of years, it couldn’t be annihilated; it’s still standing over there like the scintillating load-star in the sky. The gang of divisive force may preach the world about humanism, but our age old Indian philosophy, popularly known as Hinduism, practices it in the light of its basic tenets by unequivocally chanting “Basudaivo Kutumbokom” which means the world is one family.