Rise of Hindu Fundamentalism

¶ … rise of Hindu Fundamentalism

At the turn of the century, religious fundamentalism has emerged as a well-known trend; a custom of mind found within religious communities and paradigmatically incarnated in certain typical individuals and activities. The harassed supporters try to protect their distinctive group identity by its expressions as a strategy. The supporters strengthen it by selective recovery of doctrines, viewpoint and practices from a sacred past, feeling that this identity will be at danger in the contemporary era. This assortment is cautiously done so that it is not only attractive to the spectators but also satisfactory. Actually, fundamentalist movements selects and chooses cautiously among inherited doctrines and practices, as well as cloaking innovations in the attire of ancient times, it maintains that selective retrieval is only reinstating the ancient ways. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

In a spirit of practicality these recovered fundamentals are polished, tailored and authorized: they are to serve as a barricade against the infringement of outsiders who intimidate to pull the supporters into a syncretistic religious or irreligious cultural setting. Fundamentalists seek out to reconstruct the world in the service of a twofold dedication to the unfolding eschatological drama, by returning all things in proposal to the divine and to self-protection, by choosing the elements of custom and modernity. In the chase for a complete rebuilding of society, the margins are set, the enemy recognized, converts sought and institutions are shaped and maintained. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond) fundamentalist is a person who opt for careful recovery choosing out from his religious tradition certain rudiments of high symbolic importance with a view to organize his co-religionists for action, as per modern political discourse in India, the land where the majority of the Hindus in the world live. As against those of likewise defined other communities, the objectives of these actions are usually a combination of religious objectives and the politico-economic interests of one's own community. The trend by which the religious fundamentalism spreads and mixes with nationalism in recognizing Indian nationality with the Hindu religion is becoming more and more violent and perturbing and is a serious danger to the minority communities in the country. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

The Sangh Parivar (Hindu fundamentalist family of organizations) which is a collection of Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and other Hindu extremist organizations are exploiting religion to stimulate communal violence toward organizing ultra right, non-secular and undemocratic nationalism in India.(For Dissent Against Hindu Extremism) The Indian civilization is historically comprised of many cultural streams and the unity of India has been attained by the combination of diverse and multiple cultural belief systems, which is a strong belief of the socio-political and socio-cultural forces and groups against the powerful politico-offensive which was launched by the Sangh Parivar.(Hindutva and Multi-Culturalism)

In India the Hindu fundamentalist groups are trying to curtail the activities of other religious groups and control the expressions of those not meeting the requirements to their world view. The plan of the conventional, extremist, fundamentalist, radical right wing conservative Hindus in the Indian Government is to racially clean India from all the minorities. In the modern Indian circumstances, Communalism is a deep, almost intuitive form of enmity and opposition between communities of different cultural, linguistic and religious identities. Communalism often gives rise to clash and aggression between communities, based in part on terror and unawareness on the other. As that of Hindus and Muslims, no other kind of communalist clash has cost so many lives. Within this system, fundamentalism flourishes as an idiosyncratically extreme reaction to intimidations to communal identity. It is an activist form of religious separatism. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

The members should have a common language, the religion is held common by them and the members are in harmony and share a common source are the three most vital elements for the development of the Hindu Jati (in this sense, community, although usually the term connotes caste) is the strong opinion of the Hindu Nationalists. To stimulate the Nationalist feelings, "Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan" were formed and thus became a motto. The development and renaissance of Hindu Nationalism at the state level is not very old. Since the 12th century A.D., there was no major rebellion in any part of the subcontinent against any of the foreign rulers, even though the Hindus were the mainstream community ruled by minority rulers. Shivaji, the Maratha warlord, and the Sikhs were the only armed forces that rose or stood up against the cruel actions like the powerful change to Islam and other deprivations imposed on the Hindus during the reign of Aurangazeb in particular and Mughals in general. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

The catalysts that really shaped Hindu Nationalism into solid shape were the proceedings that led to the separation of the subcontinent as a result of independence, the Hindu-Muslim riots and trans-border movement that followed, and the assassination of Gandhi by a Hindu fundamentalist. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond) Since the partition of India in 1947, the Hindu politics has been based on three different subjects. First, the Muslims were anti-national and were to be blamed for the vivisection of Mother India. In addition to this their historical complaints against Muslims made the situation really pitiful. Secondly, Nehru and the Congress acknowledged the Muslims request of Partition, and later brought in secularism in India to pacify the minorities, which is why Hindus have every entitlement to fight against the Congress for their rights. Third, is the dream of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State), which will please the demands and rights of the Hindu majority. To accomplish the dream of Ram Rajya (Ram's rule) is the eventual desire of the Hindu majority. (Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism)

The development and rising fame of the Hindu Nationalist organizations has been closely associated to the rise and increased activities of Islamic fundamentalists and vice versa, though they were active in some parts of India ever since independence. Though Hindu-Muslim riots took place rarely at a few places at uneven intervals, these were as an outcome of localized frictions and often committed by small-minded individuals to gain some mean dividends. A sequence of proceedings connected to the liberation of Bangladesh gave track and reason to this movement. The arrival of Muslim refugees from this newly formed state beginning in 1971 was the first among these. This led to alterations in the demography of some eastern states of the nation mainly in the state of Assam. Suddenly the majority community became the minority and this changed position made them sense danger. The Hindu Nationalists were affected deeply by the violence performed and by the racial purification of Hindus in Kashmir.. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

India has been ruled by the foreign authority for the past eight centuries, first by the various Mughal rulers and then by Western colonial masters, in particular Britain. In this circumstance, one has to appreciate the rise of Hindu cultural nationalism. There were already organizations such as the Hindu Maha Sabha, the Rashtrya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) of the National Service Society at the time of the British rule, whose main intention was to conserve the Hindu religion and culture. The organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the Universal Hindu Fellowship started to disagree with the conversions to Islam and Christianity after the Independence in 1947. The Hindu fundamentalists are holding the country captivated by their actions and do not have a trust on religious bigotry in India. (Hindu Fundamentalism in Contemporary India)

The Indians overseas finance the Hindu fundamentalism. However, the Hindu fundamentalism gets more support from the influential and the middle classes rather than from the lower level. Some of the causes for this are given by Prof. Amaladoss. The pessimistic experience of the partition of India by the British has made the upper class Hindus in Northern India as anti-Muslims and has not recuperated from it. The association attracts the interests of expatriated Hindus (i.e., non-residential Indians who are presently living in the west), this comes from the attitude of marginalization in their present Western communities, and thus the requirement to affirm their own cultural identities by sustaining the cause of Hindu nationalism in India through funds and technical proficiency. (Hindu Fundamentalism in Contemporary India)

Hindus in the United States and in different places give considerable aids to the several Hindu organizations. An editorial by A.K. Sen titled "Deflections to the Right" was published in Outlook Magazine in its July 22, 2002 issue that highlighted the element of the chain of financial support that maintains Hindu extremism. One of the most prominent charity organizations that are fundraised in the United States to sustain RSS battalions in India is the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), which are declared in this article. Sewa International has been given as its accompaniment in India. Over two-third of the IDRF funding is obtained from the Sewa International and from other organizations. (For Dissent against Hindu Extremism)

Sewa International, in its website in a section on "Experiments and Results" with "Social Harmony" utters that social consolidation can be attained through social unity, in its task to change India. The eventual purpose of all these undertakings is Hindu Sangathan the consolidation and intensification of the Hindu society as cited by Manya H.V Seshadarji, Sarkaryawah of the RSS in the website. The task of the Hindu extremism is like all other chauvinistic movements and is done by cautiously shaping exclusionary principles whereby all non-Hindus and unorthodox Hindus found as Hindu traitors become second-class citizens. Subordination of Dalits who are the lower caste communities, validation of caste discrimination, adivasis, women and other minorities and the consolidation of a unified middle class base are important to its force. (For Dissent against Hindu Extremism)

Hindutva exposes its true colors in defining enemy against Indian for at base is the declaration that the only true Indians are Hindus while all others especially Muslims and Christians are not. As per the Hindutva theory, the latter religions termed semitic are unfamiliar belief enforced from the outside on Hindu India by foreign attackers. Hindutva is made supremacist and not just nationalistic at its philosophical core by these exclusionism. This philosophy is not anything less than fascist, which explains nationhood with the related rights and enfranchisement that this means by membership in an advantaged group, culture or religion which is well prepared, prevalent and acting in the name of the majority religion in India. (The Danger of Hindutva to Secular India)

The public speaking of Hindu supremacy and the placing of minority groups as corrupt enemies, who must be penalized, are placed by the Hindu extremism to stop variety by power and fear. The difference that must be done to respect human rights in India is deflated by the Hindu extremism against Muslims and other minorities in India. Hindutva ludicrously declares the idea of India as a Hindu nation by the speech of history posits Hindus and Hinduism as under siege. The communalization of education is beleaguered by the VHP and other Parivar outfits through the "Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram" and "Ekal Vidyalas" which are the religious schools. One plan is to utilize partitions among the marginalized, and indoctrinate the youth, and to Hinduise adivasi communities in order to turn them against one another and use them as foot soldiers in the better source of religious nationalism. This revisionist history deliberately and dreadfully poses that a revengeful justice can be found for the crimes of history done under non-Hindu rulers. By assaulting modern Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others vengeance is sought after. (For Dissent against Hindu Extremism)

The pressure of the Hindu extremist program on Indian society serves a specific political intention. Till the mid-1980s, the political parties in authority moderated the influence of Hinduism on the political scenery of India, where more than 80% of the people are supporters of this faith. But, there has been rising popular patronage for Hindu nationalist parties among the people of India since the late 1980s. In India, stress and mistrust between Hindus and Muslims has long been a normal aspect of life. The Hindu-Muslim stress has been strengthened by the events like the demolition of the disputed Muslim shrine in Ayodhya in 1992 and the consequent anti-Muslim riots in Bombay. (Religious Fundamentalism in India and Beyond)

In the state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India, Mughal emperor Babur constructed a mosque in the 16th century in a location which was traditionally related with an ancient Hindu temple marking the birthplace of god Rama in Ayodhya. In 1990, the Hindus attacked the mosque in the midst of religious tensions, which was ensued by revolts, and the resulting disaster brought down the government. More than 1,000 people all over India were killed in the revolt that followed the destruction of the mosque by the Hindu fundamentalists in 1992. (Ayodhya) K.N. Pannikar, Indian historian says that Ayodhya may well be the starting of a main disaster for the country's secular democracy. (India: Mosque, Temple, and State)

The presently pursued politics of Hindutva is being corrected and perfected over the past couple of decades. The three elements in pursuing this ideal are the ideological supporters, the political followers and the violent elements. The ideological aims are supported and pursued by the RSS and VHP while the different groups like Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, the Hindu Munnani and Hindu Makal Katchi provide the militant support. The latter groups appeal to the youth and indulge the violent attacks on the lives and properties of the minorities. BJP is their political party and subsists on the entire propaganda of hate. The existing different castes among the Hindus are also involved differently in this entire effort. (Minority baiting)

The leaders from the upper castes are the main providers of the ideology in the effort, but the strong arm techniques are provided by the middle and lower castes, and sometimes even the backward castes. They provide a large part of the numbers in the movements of the saffron-robed Hinduism politicians, and also lead in the violent movements. The political party of BJP on the other hand provides the leadership and their funds are mostly provided by the upper-middle castes and who are mostly merchants and traders. The main support, in terms of funds, comes from the Gujarati and Marwari traders in the states in the south of India. (Minority baiting)

The political leaders of this movement, BJP and its associates have been highlighting the slogan of "one nation, one culture." Through this slogan the political parties are trying to highlight that the Hindus have a special and privileged position, and the other groups of minorities in India have to accept the Hindu way of life. These groups believe in a superiority of the majority Hindu culture, and to demonstrate this they have launched a number of socio-cultural and political movements in the twentieth century. In the nineties of the century, they propagated that they want to establish a Hindu Raj in this country. (Hindutva and Multi-Culturalism)

This is a form of religious revivalism and has been given the name of Hindutva. This has taken the form of a continuous movement with an objective of conducting political and cultural reform. This movement often speaks ill of the other religions, and tries to show them up as threats to the national ideals. They speak of the superiority of Hindus and this is liked by many from the conservatives among the upper and middle classes. There is a support at the lowest levels, and the movement has picked up courage from this support and they are now trying to put it in place in the political offices they have gained, from local governments to the national parliament. (The Danger of Hindutva to Secular India)

The BJP or the Bhartiya Janata Party has also gained support from the other parties of the regions and is now ruling the country with their support. This indicates that the party and its philosophies have begun to find acceptance among the general people, as also their agendas. Apart from the political implications that these political changes are having, there are also some changes being seen in the overall peace and order situation. There is a close relationship between the BJP and RSS, and the objective of the RSS has been to change India into a Hindu state. Among the BJP there are moderates like Vajpayee and extremists like Advani, but they all have come into politics through the RSS. The RSS have a group of civilians with disciplined militia training and has a total of over 1 million active members in India's population of over a billion. The avowed objective of RSS is to create ideal Hindu citizens, yet their concept of citizens gives some amount of military training with the members wearing khaki shorts and white shirts. (Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism)

The organization of RSS is distinctly the most popular among Hindu nationalist organizations and they seem to support a sort of theocracy in India. The full expansion of RSS is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which when translated into English means the national self-help organization. Many politicians are worried whether the Sangh will remain the cultural religious organization it is, or whether it will begin to enter politics. If it becomes a political organization, then it will be violating the Indian principle of being a secular state with no connection between religion and politics. As of now, the members of the state and national bureaucracies are not permitted to become the members of the Sangh to keep this secularism intact. From the outside, the appearance of the Sangh is like an adult boy's brigade with early morning exercises, learning how to use the baton and wearing khaki shorts - somewhat like the boy scouts. (Hamstrung by Hinduism: India / Pakistan)

It is not clearly understood by most Indians. Its critics highlight that The Nazi party started in much the same way. In India, the Sangh has already been outlawed three times. The first time was when it was found that the assassin of Gandhi claimed to be a member of the organization. The assassin also claimed that Gandhi was murdered for betraying the country through allowing the creation of Pakistan, which was more due to the desire of Nehru to become the Prime Minister. (Hamstrung by Hinduism: India / Pakistan) The head of the Sangh was then Madhav Golwalkar and he had praised Hitler for demonstrating to the world that it was impossible for different races with different cultures to combine into a nation. The differences go to the root and the world of today is also full of nations which have been formed by the splitting up of other larger nations.

Golwalkar had gone on to praise the killing and removal of the Semitic races in Germany by Hitler, and viewed that to be a good example for India, or Hindustan to learn from and improve. These statements are not often talked about, but Golwalkar is still respected by the propagandists of Hindutva. The existing pro-Hindutva literature still reflects such statements. On the face of it, the Sangh de-emphasizes the importance of creed and race and says that nationalism is the only religion of Hindutva. In private, they however voice the feeling that in a free and prosperous India, the Muslims and Christians would return to the ancient faith and traditions. (The Danger of Hindutva to Secular India)

It is clear that they would like India to be rid of the constitutional appeasement of religious minorities, and also be vigilant of the polluting influences of the foreign missionaries. If this happens, then they feel that the people who have been converted to foreign faiths will become Hindus again after recognizing the superiority of Hinduism. At that stage, if some individuals do not realize the superiority of Hinduism, then they would be suspected of being stooges of foreign powers and be only second class citizens in India. (The Danger of Hindutva to Secular India) These organizations feel the Muslims and Christians to be part of their definition of political 'others'. They identify the separatist movements in North East of India as being instigated by Christians, and the Kashmir movement as being connected with Muslim Pakistan. The Sangh opposes Islam and Christianity not so much as being religions different to Hinduism, but take offence from their being foreign intrusions in the national culture. (Hindu Fundamentalism in Contemporary India)

Luckily, the BJP has completed its five-year term without any major riots between the Hindus and Muslims. On the other side, the attacks on the institutions of the Christians have increased along with harassment, humiliation and even murder of Christian missionaries. The Pope visited India in November 1999 and called for preaching and conversion to Christianity, and this led the Sangh to feel that the works of charity in various forms by the missionaries to be only inducements for conversion to Christianity. (Hindu Fundamentalism in Contemporary India) This has led to many violent reactions under the slightest pretexts - four nuns were raped in Jhabua of Madhya Pradesh; a priest and teacher in Bihar was forcibly stripped naked, paraded and made to walk for 16 kilo-meters while being beaten all the time and Bihar is not ruled by the Sangh. (Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism)

The second incident took place in the presence of the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police. There have been incidences of burning of the Bible, ransacking of churches, desecration of cemeteries and exhuming of coffins in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. In certain cases, it was determined that certain Christian missionaries were "anti-national forces" and working against Hindu interests. They were then asked to leave the country. (Minority baiting) In this context, there is a writing of C.P. Bhambri, a Hindu journalist in The Hindustan Times of 31st July, 1997 where he accused the BJP, RSS, VHP and other organizations of using the culture and history of India to bring up the concept of a Hindu nation. He did not have any doubts and said that the Hindu nation was a victim of Muslim rulers. (Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism)

These parties are trying to build up a new form of Hinduism around the concepts given by their leaders. He has also stated that BJP has built up a hate list of historical Muslim figures based on the history of India. He claimed that they would like to rewrite the Indian Constitution to Make India a strong Hindu state. The Muslims fear that under a BJP government, their separate laws on marriage, divorce and inheritance would be removed. There is also a feeling that the slaughter of cows will be banned, as cows are sacred to Hindus. K.S. Sudarshan, joint general secretary of the RSS has commented that there are enough other meats for the Muslims to eat. He has also voiced his opinion that Muslims have been appeased for a very long time. India was divided into two different countries due to the demands of the Muslims for a separate state, and now the Muslims demand job reservations in India. Whenever the Muslims start trouble, the Hindus are blamed. This is the sort of divisive politics that has permitted BJP to grow. (Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism)