How religion is playing an ever bigger role in the world of Indian politics
It has been long held that in an ideal world politics and religion do not mix. But in the real world, unfortunately, they more often than not are. In India, too, the two have always been unfortunately and inextricably intertwined. Over the past few weeks, however, this intertwining has assumed new proportions what with the further blurring of lines in the political spectrum.
Early last month, at the World Hindu Congress conference in Chicago, the same American city where Swami Vivekananda had delivered his iconic speech 125 years ago at the World Parliament of Religions, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat sought to make two points to the 2,000-plus delegates from across the globe taking part in the event.
First, he said: “We do not have any aspects of dominance. Hindus do not live to oppose anybody. We even allow the pests to live. There are people who may oppose us. You have to tackle them without harming them.”
This was an out-and-out positive perspective that shed light on one of the fundamental tenets of the Hindu religion.
Then, Bhagwat went on to say this: “Why are we suffering for 1000 years? We had everything but we forgot to practise values. We also forgot to work together. Hindu society has largest number of meritorious people in many sectors. But they never come together, stay together. Coming together of Hindus itself was a difficult task. Earlier, when our Swayamsevaks would try to organise people, they would say ‘a lion never walks in a group’, but even that lion or a Royal Bengal tiger who is the king of the jungle… if he is alone, wild dogs together can invade and destroy him.”
While these statements purportedly intended to solely call upon Hindu unity, according to many political observers, they were also laced with a sense of historical victimhood.
A few days later, Bhagwat headlined a first-of-its-kind three-day lecture series organised by the RSS in the national capital. Titled “Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective”, it was attended by prominent BJP ministers, industrialists, religious gurus, movie stars, sportspersons, and envoys from across the world. However, members from Opposition parties were conspicuous by their absence. While some parties were dismissive and derisive of the event, others revealed that their bosses had not received an invite.
The public, however, was looking for reasons behind this suddenly enhanced presence of the ideological fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the national scene.
RSS chief spokesperson Arun Kumar explained it early on: “RSS is being criticised by one and all, especially by the opposition. This event is to present our view, how we see the issues which the opposition has been using to target us and the government.
“Today, Bharat (India) is moving ahead towards regaining her special and unique position in the world. The RSS is realising that there is a growing eagerness amongst larger sections of the society including the intellectuals and the youth to know and understand the RSS perspective on various issues.”
On the opening day of the event, which was held at the Vigyan Bhavan, a venue normally reserved for state functions, Bhagwat began with an introduction to the history of the RSS and went on to dilate upon the concept of Hindutva. By the time, the event concluded on September 20, Bhagwat had said many things that were deemed contradictory if not preclusive, according to many socio-political observers.
On the one hand, they said, the RSS chief stated that there could be no “Hindu rashtra” without Muslims in India as Hindutva is all about fraternity and unity in diversity. Then, on the other hand he went on to say that all people of India are Hindus by tradition, nationalism, and ancestry.
On the one hand, some noted, Bhagwat dismissed the word ‘minority’ as it gives an impression of difference whereas all people are the same, but on the other he spoke for the continuation of reservation.
On the one hand, he sought to project an inclusive picture of the RSS by backing the Uniform Civil Code, uniform population policy, abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and Article 35A in Jammu and Kashmir. But at the same time, it was pointed out, Bhagwat pressed for construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya “at the earliest”.
Not many bought into his stated theory that the establishment of a Ram Mandir there would end the dispute between Hindus and Muslims “forever” and also stop fingers being pointed at the Muslims.
While some disagreed with his claims that there were “double standards” over violence in the name of cow as nobody was making any “noise” about cattle smugglers attacking the cow vigilantes, others reckoned that his strong push for Ram Mandir flew in the face of his assurance that the RSS had changed with the times.
Bhagwat also shocked some with what seemed to be a barely veiled criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the RSS chief said that issues such as “Shamshan, Kabristan … crop up when politics is practised for power and not for welfare of people”. During his election campaign in Uttar Pradesh last year, PM Modi had stated that there should be space for a cremating ground (for Hindus) just as there is space for a burial ground (for Muslims) in Fatehpur.
Others pointed out that Bhagwat sounded hardly convincing when he said the RSS only supported policies and whoever implemented them and it did not favour any political party.
In the meanwhile, Congress has been clearly making concerted efforts to be in the good books of Hindu voters ahead of the 2019 elections.
After his Mansarovar Yatra, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been projected as a devotee of Lord Shiva. First declared as a “Shiv Bhakt” during his recent visit to Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi was greeted by saffron-clad Kanwariyas (Shiva devotees) with chants of “Bam Bam Bhole” in his parliamentary constituency of Amethi. Even on the eve of his arrival, there were hoardings galore in the area welcoming “Shiv Bhakt Rahul Gandhi”. All this is seen as the traditionally and avowedly secular Congress’ “Soft Hindutva” policy, borne out of the fear of BJP running away with all the Hindu votes.
This policy was first evidenced a couple of years ago when Rahul began making public visits to well-known centres of Hinduism across the country, from Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarakhand to Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Somnath temple in Gujarat. Even his mother and former party president Sonia Gandhi admitted that these efforts were to counter what her party deemed to be the BJP’s success in convincing the public that Congress was a Muslim party.
The implementation of the policy is no longer just limited to the Gandhi family. The senior leadership of the party has also begun doing its bit on the front.
Most recently, senior Congress MP and prolific author Shashi Tharoor intellectualised it at the New York edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival.
“Hinduism rests on the fact that there is a heck of a lot we don’t know about,” Tharoor said during an interactive session at JLF@NewYork.
Noting the reasons Hinduism is fit for today’s world, he said: “The first is the wonderful fact that in an era of uncertainty, incertitude, you have uniquely a religion that privileges incertitude.”
He noted that a religion that could question the omniscience of God was indeed “a wonderful faith for a modern or post-modern sensibility”.
“On top of that, you have got extraordinary eclecticism” and since no one knows what God looks like one is free to imagine God as one likes in Hinduism, said Tharoor, whose latest book in fact is titled Why I am a Hindu.
He also fiercely sought to prove those wrong who condemned Hinduism as a religion built on misogyny and discrimination.
“For every misogynistic or casteist pronouncements (in Hindu texts) I can give you other equally sanctified texts that preach against casteism,” he said.
He explained that Hinduism “is not a religion of one holy book, but of multiple sacred texts. There’s an awful lot to pick from. What you pick is up to you. If you choose to pick the misogynist or casteist or offensive bits of the religion and say my religion allows me to discriminate against people or to oppress people, it is your fault not the religion’s.”
Tharoor’s expansive and deep explanation flew in the face of campaigns in the US against Hinduism with claims about caste discrimination and misogyny, including attempts to disrupt the World Hindu Congress earlier this month in Chicago.
“That kind of bigotry that we have seen whipped up in the recent years is essentially a political exercise and to my mind not in any way reflective of the spirit of most of the Indian people. You can’t really change their fundamental nature,” he said.
Tharoor went on to articulate that the Hindu nationalism seen in India was based on an inferiority complex of those felt a sense of misplaced ancestral humiliation stemming from perspectives about their religion having been “conquered and subjugated”.
“Whereas the Hinduism that I have seen, read, grown up with, practiced and being taught is a much more self-confident Hinduism,” he said, conceding that the approaches may be a sign of a north-south divide.
There can be no denying, many political experts suggest, that Tharoor’s take on Hinduism indirectly contributes in its own way to the Congress party’s policy of endearing itself to the Hindu community within and outside the nation even as projecting the BJP’s version of Hindu nationalism as undesirable.
It becomes difficult to put a finger on where the author ends and the politician begins. Similar is the case on the Indian political scene as the right-wing BJP tries to keep Muslim voters, too, on its side and the centre-left Congress puts on saffron garb to hammer home its commitment to the Hindus. At the end of the day, most political pundits conclude, it is all nothing but politics for power – but one where religion undeniably – even if undesirably – has a place.
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