21 April 2009

A Brief History of Hindutva - 3

A Brief History of Hindutva

The trigger came in the form of a temple, in one of the holiest cities of the land. The temple had been destroyed almost 500 years ago to make way for a mosque. Now the people of the country wanted their temple back. The temple was important in itself, yes. But it was even more important as a symbol. A symbol of our great religion, civilisation and history. A symbol of the thousand years of barbarism inflicted upon us. A symbol of the need to end the nonsense called secularism and once again stand up as who we are.

What followed was a national movement of epic proportions – the greatest since the freedom struggle. The campaign for the temple created a new awakening. Indians started calling themselves by their true name: Hindus. No more apologising. No more feeling guilty or defensive for being the "majority community". We are Hindus. This is our country and our culture. And we will fight to take it back.

The movement created a tidal wave of nationalist fervour. The wave swept the nationalist political party, which had only 2 seats in a 545-strong Parliament, to power within just 15 years. The party may have lost later, and may be struggling today: with its own weaknesses and failings, and also with the division of Hindus by caste and language. But Hindu nationalism had taken a giant step, from which there was no going back.

A new threshold had been created, best illustrated by the temple/mosque question itself. The pulling down of the mosque was a violation of the rule of law, no doubt. But even the incident's most vehement critics were not proposing that the mosque be rebuilt. The debate had been taken to a new level.

A new spirit had dawned. Indians were now proud to be Hindus. An ancient truth was embraced: India is a Hindu nation, a Hindu rashtra. For a long time, this had been the chant of lonely voices in the wilderness. Now a sizeable section of the population accepted it. The people were finally beginning to call a spade a spade.

True, the journey has only just begun. There is still a long way to go. Hindutva is not yet the dominant ideology. But it is no longer a fringe ideology either. It is now one of the competing ideologies. Meanwhile the nationalist organisation continues its work – slowly, silently, but surely. It may take 10 years, 50 years or 100 years. But succeed we will. Victory shall be ours. Mother India shall once again sit on the throne she once adorned. Our Mother India – smiling, beautiful, radiant and glorious – giving light to the world and hope to mankind. It is only a matter of time.

(Concluded)

6 comments:

CodeNameV said...

Yes we will succeed. After Mohan Bhargav ji became Sar Sangh Chalak, it looks as if Doctor ji himself is back to resurrect the hindu faith to its truest glory. RSS today is a necessity in India. No one can deny it.

guyfromblore said...

Wow Dheeraj,
--
A symbol of the thousand years of barbarism inflicted upon us.
--
I agree, but do you believe it's ok to use barbarism to counter an act of barbarism that occured 500 years back? I see that you subsequently dismiss the mosque demolition, rather casually, as a 'violation of the rule of law' and proceed to glorify it's outcomes (interestingly you chose to ignore the subsequent riots, of course!)

come to think of it, I wonder if you'd allow the guys behind the Bombay attacks to sweep their crimes under the carpet and use a similar line - "yes, the crime was a 'violation of the rule of law' but it was towards a higher purpose" (I'm sure those militants believe they have a higher purpose as well). And would you allow the rioters that go around destroying public property to use a similar excuse?

Bottomline is that I believe that we Hindus could have definitely dealt with the issue without resorting to barbarism ourselves. The fact that we couldn't do it despite being the majority in the country is shameful.

Indian said...

"proceed to glorify its outcomes"

I was talking about the outcomes of the movement, not of the demolition.

This whole post is about the movement, which took place in the late 1980s. It is important to draw a distinction between the movement and the demolition of 6th December 1992.

Unknown said...

We need to get rid of the infection.
- Netaji Fan

Unknown said...

By the way, Yahoo is closing GeoCities later this year. You may want to move your profile page to some other site, like Google Sites ( sites.google.com )
- Netaji Fan

BreathOfTheMorning said...

India or Bhaarat belongs to all. And please let it stay like that. It's not a Hindu nation, it is a secular nation. Bhaarat will be the country which will unite and lead the world after WWar3.