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Revision as of 07:08, 12 June 2006
Hindu Rāshtra (Hindi : हिन्दू राष्ट्र, approx. Hindu Nation) is a socio-cultural concept and a political agenda aimed at making India a Hindu nation, culturally and politically. The concept is central to political Hindu nationalism, and is heralded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a nationalist political party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Advocates of Hindu Rashtra contend that Hinduism's strong legacy of tolerance for diverse philosophies and reform movements, and the root idea of universal human brotherhood is the reason for the country's vibrant fabric of diversity, and thus every person, community and institution is perenially Hindu. In that sense, it is contended that the term Hindu in this case is a synechdoche for all indegenous Indian religions and philosophies.
The adherents of the Hindu Rashtra philosophy claim that the English term nation is only a crude translation of the Sanskrit term rāshtra. Their term rashtra does not mean a European-type nation with one ethnicity, one common history, one language and one religion.
History
Early concept
The concept of Hindu Rashtra is based upon beliefs about the origins of human civilization, religion and culture in India. It was conceived way back in the early 20th century, that the vast majority of the population of the country is Hindu, an identity merging diverse religious communities and cultures including Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, as well as the more distinguished Muslim and Christian communities. It was argued that since the word "Hindu" literally is derived from the word "Sindhu," (the Indus river), it applies to any inhabitant of the land of and beyond the river Indus, i.e. India.
The proponents of Hindu Rashtra argued that Hinduism is the ancient system of religious philosophy and social traditions developed in Bharat by a combination of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian belief systems and philosophies. It has been continually added to by migrant races, and has spawned famous reform movements like Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, all of whom were classified as separate religions only with the advent of the British census system and the colonial policy of "divide and rule."
Partition of India
See Also: Partition of India
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the partition of India to create an Islamic nation Pakistan gave "Hindu Rashtra" a more political meaning: it became the heading of an agenda to preserve the Hindu majority in India, politically and culturally.
To some great visionary hindu leaders like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, "Hindu Rashtra" meant a nation free of the Muslim and Christian peoples; it includes the pre-islamic India, now the heavily populated by Muslims and separated as Pakistan and Bangladesh. They were known to praise Adolf Hitler's nationalism, not his genocide, they condoned Islamic genocide of Hindus and loath Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom struggle a man they blame for lack of vision by conceding a Pakistan to extremist Muslims, on the premise that Hindus and Muslims can't live together and yet allowing muslims who voted for a pakistan to stay in India. Savarkar in fact is widely considered to be behind Gandhi's (who was a stubborn dictator in his own non-voilent way ) death in 1948, and his group, the Hindu Mahasabha is without a good reason blamed with masterminding the murder of thousands of Muslims in the partition riots. When the known fact is for a 1000 yrs all over the world it is the muslims who could never integrate into an civilized society.
During the partition, over 10 million Hindus and Sikhs were forced to leave their ancestral homes in what became Pakistan and Bangladesh almost overnight; more than 1 million were killed in the violence. The advocates of Hindu Rashtra argue that while the Muslims who left India also suffered from violent attacks, they at least obtained a new state all to themselves (non-Muslims make up less than 4% of all Pakistanis; Hindus are less than 2% of that figure), while the Hindus simply lost a chunk of their ancestral motherland in the batting of an eyelid. These 10 million Hindus and Sikhs had lived only months ago in complete peace with their Muslim neighbors.
Modern times
To modern advocates and Hindu nationalists, the "Hindu Rashtra" is here to defend: Assortement of Hindus make up more than 60% of Bharat's population, and thus naturally dominate and define the country's cultural, economic and political life. But the secular Congress Party and Leftist politicians are accused of mollycoddling the sizeable Muslim minority for votes, and ignoring the coercion of poor Hindus to convert to Islam and Christianity, the influx of illegal Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, separatist movements and the waves of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir that has struck many major cities as well.
The Agenda of the Hindu Rashtra
- Banning of bovine and supine slaughter, possibly extending to ban beef and pork all together (Cows and other bovine animals are sacred in the Hindu religion).
- Establishing a uniform civil code for all citizens (Muslims and Christians enjoy a separate civil justice code based upon their religious values), abrogating Article 357 of the Constitution of India (granting Muslim-majority state of Kashmir a special status which disallows any non-Kashmiri citizen from settling in Kashmir).
- Building a Ram Janmbhoomi Temple ("the birthplace of Rama temple") at the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.
- Resurrecting of ancient Hindu temples around India (especially at the holy cities of Mathura and Kashi) which where destroyed by the Muslim invaders and super-imposed by mosques.
- Ban on religious conversions.
- An aggressive war on Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism. This call may extend to a full war with Pakistan based on the Kashmir territorial dispute and the Islamic terrorism being supported by Pakistan in Kashmir and other major parts of the country.
Difficult Questions
Based on events in History that are centuries old, the advocates of Hindu Rashtra want India's 150 million odd Muslims and Christians convert into Hinduism or be expelled from India or risk losing their lives, property, identity, as happened in Gujarat state in 2002, under the Nationalistic Hindu Governments at the state and federal level . This is akin to the Moroccans demanding that Spain be recoverted into an Islamic country or a demand by The Vatican that Istanbul be handed over to the Christians, based on past events in History. But how easy is it to form a Hindu Rashtra? The Hindus are not a homogenous group themselves and have no clear cut guidelines on religious practices . And nowhere is this more better reflected then India's politics, where caste-based parties enjoy more political clout than those espousing Hindu nationalistic sentiments . Infact many of the Muslims were once lower caste Hindus (Dalits or outcastes) who converted to escape the rigid caste based system of their former religion . And the critics of Hindu Rashtra point to the Balkans and the failed state of Yugoslavia as an example of nationalism based on exclusion of minorities.
External Links
- Hindu Nationalists Ponder Unexpected Defeat in India Elections Article in The New York Times
- Information from U.S. Library of Congress on caste-based politics of India
- Attacks on Christians Unsettle Rural India Article in The New York Times
- Meenakshipuram mass conversion Article in Dalit Voice
See also
- Hindu nationalism, Indian nationalism
- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Praveen Togadia, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi