JUNKING postage stamps depicting former prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi is part of the larger plan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar to change the national discourse by overturning the six plus decades of the essentially Nehruvian policies that have guided the country. The belligerence with which Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister concerned, defended the stamps decision is part of the no-holds-barred campaign.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is quite clear in following the script of his mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in unveiling the new concept of what the nation stands for. In this perspective, the history of the Mughal and other Muslim rulers of India is a black hole and the British colonial rule an aberration. The golden period of Hindu kingdoms is lauded, apart from the days of miraculous ancient India with its high-tech prowess.
The new rulers of Delhi have appropriated two Congress and national leaders, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the former home minister who brought the princely domains into the country. The other Congress leaders, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern democratic India, do not exist for the RSS, except in derogatory terms. And the new heroes being trotted out are the fathers of the Hindutva philosophy representing what was once an extreme view.
Obviously, a nation fed for the better part of independent India’s existence on an inclusive secular philosophy, despite its many warts, will take time to be weaned away from what became the national consensus. And to begin the process, the RSS’ plan is to start with the young. The kind of scholarly diet sought to be fed to primary and higher school children is apparent from the Gujarat model, with books of Dinanath Batra on the virtues of Hindu mythology made compulsory reading in schools.
Unlike the BJP, the RSS does not think in electoral cycles and its objective in changing the national outlook is a long-term plan. The great and the good of the Sangh Parivar are to be honoured in various ways, including, it is suggested, by the award of the Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar who first blew the Hindutva bugle. And other notables, we are now informed, are to be commemorated by appearing on postage stamps. Most Congress and Independence leaders, except for those appropriated, are to be confined to the dust heap of history.
Neither the Modi government nor the Sangh Parivar is coy about broadcasting its ambition. They proclaim from the housetops that it is a new era in which the history of the country is being rewritten. Among the signposts are the number of states scrambling for declaring meatless days, the change in the name of a prominent New Delhi road from Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, to Kalam, the former President, and the frequent railings against “western” ideas and practices.
It would appear that the Sangh Parivar is impatient in exorcising generations of Congress rule and building of a secular India, a truly stupendous venture in its audacity. For Mr Modi and his team, modern technology comes in saffron colours and there is no question of disputing the veracity of the fount of wisdom enshrined in the Hindu creed.
Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad and his colleagues in the government are mere foot soldiers in the accepted quest of the golden age, in their belief that the evil that is the Congress is gasping for breath and the dynasty that has ruled India for many decades should be forgotten. Why, asks the minister, should a family be extolled? And he reeled off the names of the new Hindutva heroes who will be commemorated in postage stamps and in many other ways.
Two aspects stand out in the new Parivar offensive against Congress and national heroes of the past: impatience and the bitterness with which the Parivar views 60-odd years of adversity for its vision, much of that time defined as an extreme organisation. In fact, the RSS had at one time been in the doghouse after the assassination of the Mahatma, but forgetfulness of that horrific event is contributing to the new respectability for the Parivar.
In the new scheme of things, the message to minorities is clear. They must adjust to the new vision of India or otherwise suffer. Inevitably, many have accommodated themselves to the new order for survival or for seeking prosperity, but there are many others who will not bend because the authority has issued a new firman. Here lies the danger. Steam is building up among the minorities, in particular Muslims who are 172 million strong. The result is the greater frequency of major communal riots. Christians are angry too and have found an eloquent spokesman in the former distinguished police officer, Mr Julio Ribeiro.
Prime Minister Modi has thus far contented himself with giving homilies on the equality of all citizens of the country without calling to order the hate speeches of his party’s MP and even junior ministers. Thereby, he is expressing his own limitations in disciplining his Hindutva flock in the face of the benign support they enjoy from the RSS.
Indeed, the present attempt at transforming Indian society has led to the ascendancy of thugs in the larger political structure. There have always been such elements in states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who have enjoyed indirect state support in achieving nefarious political objectives. But there is a new trend in the larger Parivar of deliberately flouting the law to enforce what are deemed to be anti-Hindu acts as interpreted by them. Thus the new guardians of Hinduism and enforcers of its moral code have been greatly encouraged with the advent of the BJP rule at the Centre.
From the Sangh Parivar’s point of view, these are teething troubles that will not impede its resolve to take the country into a new era of bliss, as defined by it. The future, as the RSS would have it, lies in the lap of gods.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is quite clear in following the script of his mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in unveiling the new concept of what the nation stands for. In this perspective, the history of the Mughal and other Muslim rulers of India is a black hole and the British colonial rule an aberration. The golden period of Hindu kingdoms is lauded, apart from the days of miraculous ancient India with its high-tech prowess.
The new rulers of Delhi have appropriated two Congress and national leaders, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the former home minister who brought the princely domains into the country. The other Congress leaders, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern democratic India, do not exist for the RSS, except in derogatory terms. And the new heroes being trotted out are the fathers of the Hindutva philosophy representing what was once an extreme view.
Obviously, a nation fed for the better part of independent India’s existence on an inclusive secular philosophy, despite its many warts, will take time to be weaned away from what became the national consensus. And to begin the process, the RSS’ plan is to start with the young. The kind of scholarly diet sought to be fed to primary and higher school children is apparent from the Gujarat model, with books of Dinanath Batra on the virtues of Hindu mythology made compulsory reading in schools.
Unlike the BJP, the RSS does not think in electoral cycles and its objective in changing the national outlook is a long-term plan. The great and the good of the Sangh Parivar are to be honoured in various ways, including, it is suggested, by the award of the Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar who first blew the Hindutva bugle. And other notables, we are now informed, are to be commemorated by appearing on postage stamps. Most Congress and Independence leaders, except for those appropriated, are to be confined to the dust heap of history.
Neither the Modi government nor the Sangh Parivar is coy about broadcasting its ambition. They proclaim from the housetops that it is a new era in which the history of the country is being rewritten. Among the signposts are the number of states scrambling for declaring meatless days, the change in the name of a prominent New Delhi road from Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, to Kalam, the former President, and the frequent railings against “western” ideas and practices.
It would appear that the Sangh Parivar is impatient in exorcising generations of Congress rule and building of a secular India, a truly stupendous venture in its audacity. For Mr Modi and his team, modern technology comes in saffron colours and there is no question of disputing the veracity of the fount of wisdom enshrined in the Hindu creed.
Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad and his colleagues in the government are mere foot soldiers in the accepted quest of the golden age, in their belief that the evil that is the Congress is gasping for breath and the dynasty that has ruled India for many decades should be forgotten. Why, asks the minister, should a family be extolled? And he reeled off the names of the new Hindutva heroes who will be commemorated in postage stamps and in many other ways.
Two aspects stand out in the new Parivar offensive against Congress and national heroes of the past: impatience and the bitterness with which the Parivar views 60-odd years of adversity for its vision, much of that time defined as an extreme organisation. In fact, the RSS had at one time been in the doghouse after the assassination of the Mahatma, but forgetfulness of that horrific event is contributing to the new respectability for the Parivar.
In the new scheme of things, the message to minorities is clear. They must adjust to the new vision of India or otherwise suffer. Inevitably, many have accommodated themselves to the new order for survival or for seeking prosperity, but there are many others who will not bend because the authority has issued a new firman. Here lies the danger. Steam is building up among the minorities, in particular Muslims who are 172 million strong. The result is the greater frequency of major communal riots. Christians are angry too and have found an eloquent spokesman in the former distinguished police officer, Mr Julio Ribeiro.
Prime Minister Modi has thus far contented himself with giving homilies on the equality of all citizens of the country without calling to order the hate speeches of his party’s MP and even junior ministers. Thereby, he is expressing his own limitations in disciplining his Hindutva flock in the face of the benign support they enjoy from the RSS.
Indeed, the present attempt at transforming Indian society has led to the ascendancy of thugs in the larger political structure. There have always been such elements in states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who have enjoyed indirect state support in achieving nefarious political objectives. But there is a new trend in the larger Parivar of deliberately flouting the law to enforce what are deemed to be anti-Hindu acts as interpreted by them. Thus the new guardians of Hinduism and enforcers of its moral code have been greatly encouraged with the advent of the BJP rule at the Centre.
From the Sangh Parivar’s point of view, these are teething troubles that will not impede its resolve to take the country into a new era of bliss, as defined by it. The future, as the RSS would have it, lies in the lap of gods.
