Hindutva: Back on the agenda

NK SINGH

“When we say this is the Hindu nation, there are some who immediately come up with the question, ‘What about the Muslims and Christians dwelling in this land?’… But the crucial question is whether they remember that they are the children of this soil. No! Together with the change in their faith, gone is the spirit of love and devotion for the nation. They have also developed a feeling of identification with the enemies of this land. They look to some foreign lands as their holy places. It is not merely a case of change of faith, but a change even in national identity.”

 -Guru Golwalkar, former RSS chief, in his treatise, Bunch of Thoughts.

Is Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi’s grand dream of ruling India’s first “Hindu state” any different from the Hindu nation of the RSS, in which the minorities are identified with the “enemies of the nation”? Does Joshi disagree with Shiv Sena boss Bal Thackeray, who promised during an election campaign that with the Shiv Sena in power everybody will have to take diksha (initiation) into the Hindu religion?

The Supreme Court apparently thinks so. In a landmark judgement last fortnight, it absolved Joshi of the charge of garnering votes in the name of Hindutva by ruling that his promise to establish the first “Hindu state” did not amount to appealing for votes in the name of religion. It also said that Hindutva and Hinduism are a way of life and not confined to religion, and therefore, its use in a speech did not amount to corrupt electoral practices. Continue reading “When Supreme Court defined Hindutava as a way of life”