The Hindu in 'Hindu Rashtra'

   

In a post puranic work, ‘Pandava Gita’ (The song of Pandavas), an anthology of devotional hymns drawn from Mahabharata, Bhagvata and Visnu Purana Duryodhana chants , 

 “Janami dharmam na cha me pravrttih,

 Janamy adharmam na cha me nivrttih;"

 I know what is dharma, yet I cannot get myself to follow it ! I know what is not dharma, but I am unable to keep away from it ! Verse 56 

 Much the same moral conundrum confronts propagandists of Hindu Rashtra. Knowing fully well its patent unconstitutionality, impracticality and its adharmic exegesis, yet to them its allure is irresistible. Hindu nationhood as such is conceptually incontestable, what is malefic is its fashioning into statehood- a double seduction. It lets minority ‘Otherness’ to be demonized to foster Hindu ‘Oneness’. In the process power and pelf become exclusive Hindu prerogatives . Besides, it numbs any guilt feel arising from stark iniquities in Hindu society. 

 A Hindu Rashtra should, ideally speaking, aim at integrating diverse Hindu streams and castes into a unity, and mould Hindu character in the cast of Hindu spiritual values. That is what Islamic states do- order communal life in accordance with sharia. For close to a century RSS has been actively, aggressively and expansively engaged in ‘character building’ for a Hindu Rashtra. And it has had little competition from other Hindu religious organizations, missions, maths, peeths, and ashrams. All of them now lurk in its shadows. So it is legitimate to ask, is RSS doing a good job of making good Hindus in preparation for a Hindu Rashtra ? 

 First and foremost, Caste. Eliminating existing social stratification of Hindu society into distinct endogamous castes is too distant a goal ,but abating caste iniquities is achievable. Reality check isn’t very edifying. A survey of 1589 Gujarat villages conducted by Kennedy Centre in 2009 found 99 forms of untouchability still being practiced in villages. For example , in 67% of the surveyed villages Dalit Panchayat members were served tea, if at all, in separate cups called Dalit cups. The unsavoury happenings involving cow vigilantes in UNA ,Gujarat, and its aftermath only confirms that not much water has flowed down the Sabarmati since then. 

 Sacchar Committee found that 90% of those designated as sweepers were Dalits. Even now, Centre admits, manual scavenging is prevalent. We are still far adrift from Rabidas’s dream of a Be-Ghum-Pura , Kabir’s Premnagar, Tukaram’s Pandharpur or Ambedkar’s Prabuddha Bharat. But 

Is RSS even making an attempt ? Its ideologue DD Upadhyay extolled the chaturvarna ordering of society in Purusha Sukta hymn as conducive to social solidarity and functional division of labour. He posited harmony (samrasta ) among castes, not its annihilation, as RSS’s goal.That explains why RSS is ambivalent, if not hypocritical ,in espousing reform of Hindu society. It may also partly explain the preponderance of Dalits and OBCs in the 1577 Hindus arrested for Gujarat 2002 riots. Is it a fortuity that RSS’s stormtroopers and defenders of injured faith, seem to be drawn mostly from the lower castes ? 

 We continue to respond differently based on caste considerations. The protest against brutal rape of Nirbhaya became a landmark civil movement but in the same year 1504 Dalit women were raped. No one coughed. While the Hyderabad rape of a Vet elicited deafening outcries to lynch the rapists, Hathras rape of a dalit caught bureaucracy and politicians blinking. Still, there is no gainsaying that there has been noteworthy improvement in loosening of caste disabilities. Almost all of it has come about from the ebbing influence of time aided by urbanization and modernization, little from the ‘character building’ missions in its daily sakhas and catechism in schools under the aegis of Vidya Bharati. RSS remains firmly status quoist. And its members hit the headlines more often for the wrong reasons- militant and often murderous vigilantism and needless violence. 

 So we are back to square one. What for the Hindu Rashtra, to prioritize building of temples at disputed sites ? Does it deserve primacy over bread and butter issues? God is ever on the mind when stomach is empty, don’t we Hindus fast for spiritual salvation? Perpetual hunger is another matter. It needs speedy address. Is a Hindu Rashtra inherently more competent than a secular one in tackling our monstrous economic ills ? The jury is out on that.

What is indisputable is that a Hindu Rashtra is a moral hazard. If it comes about it would lead to convergence of political and cultural streams into a single institution, the hydra headed Sangh Parivar with tentacles reaching deep into society, politics and economy. We yearn for the unity of a Hindu nationhood, at the same time must dread a single party ruled fascist ‘Hindu Pakistan’. That’s the moral hazard a Hindu Rashtra under the umbrella and ideological framework of RSS presents. Even Nepal, once a Hindu Rashtra, baulked at preserving it in its new republican constitution . 

 If the demand for a Hindu Rashtra is not motivated by a sectarian reforming zeal, or the mundane business of temple building, or economic considerations, and ignoring its obvious electoral appeal for the moment , what else impels it ? 

 More in the final concluding part. Till then ruminate on this shloka from Gita 

पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान्। 

वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम्।।18.21।। 

That knowledge which apprehends all beings as a multiplicity with mutual distinctions and in their separateness only, without anyl apprehension of an underlying unity -know that knowledge to be born of Rajas.