Prime Minister Narendra Modi's is a neo-Vedantic Hindu interpretation of Indian secularism

Is Sarva Dharma Samabhava Back?

Editorial, The Economic and Political Weekly, Vol - L No. 9, February 28, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's is a neo-Vedantic Hindu interpretation of Indian secularism.
The US President Barack Obama drove home the message twice, first, on the way to winding up his three-day visit to India, in New Delhi on 27 January, and then, once more, at a high-profile National Prayer Breakfast on 5 February in Washington. At the first, his so-called “parting shot,” he referred to the Indian Constitution when he said that “Your Article 25 says all people are equally entitled to the freedom of conscience and have the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion,” going on to emphasise that “upholding freedom of religion is the utmost responsibility of the government.” Nine days later, perhaps surmising that his reference to the Constitution did not have the desired effect, he appealed to Gandhian ideals, calling attention to “acts of (religious) intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.”
In the course of Obama’s visit, Modi, in his gold monogrammed, personalised suit, kept referring to the US president by his first name, Barack, even as the president remained consistent in his plain, prim and proper response, “Mr Modi.” Maybe that was Obama’s way of hinting that he had something up his sleeve which he still had to deliver — reminding the Prime Minister of India of his failure to uphold the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to freedom of religion. Modi was embarrassed by Obama on 27 January; it took him quite a while to speak about it (i e, freedom of religion), even about the Indian version of secularism in the form of sarva dharma samabhava (equal respect for all religions).
But eventually, talk he did, 12 days after Obama evoked Gandhian ideals to drive home the message. Modi’s Indian critics, clearly unimpressed, asked him to now “walk the talk,” which he is yet to do; unlikely, we think, because that would involve the union government taking necessary action against the likes of the president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Pravin Togadia, indeed, even against the sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat. With one of his pracharaks as the Prime Minister of India, Bhagwat has been counting on being given a free hand in playing his role as Raj Guru (the prince’s counsellor) and in fulfilling the RSS mission of regenerating Indian society and restoring the nation’s vitality. What could be better than the ghar wapsi exercises? After all, the Other, the prodigal, needs to be brought back, by any and all available means, to the ghar, the Hindu religion, and the nation, which is claimed to be that of the Hindus, but only after a shuddhi (purification) ceremony, for these Others have been defiled by Christianity and Islam, and therefore they need to be cleansed before bringing them back to the ghar in the jati (caste) quarters of their origins.
Excerpts from Modi’s speech at a “national celebration” of the elevation to sainthood of a priest and a nun from Kerala on 17 February at which he proclaimed his government’s commitment to Indian secularism, namely, “equal respect and treatment for all faiths,” are intriguing. The Constitution’s principle of secularism, Modi states, has its “roots in the ancient cultural traditions in India,” and now, if the prime minister is to be believed, following what is “in the DNA of every Indian,” “the rest of the world too is evolving along the lines of ancient India.” The problem with all of this is that the kind of secularism deriving from Vedic times and “values” has no resemblance to what is understood as secularism in the post-Enlightenment world. The former, a revivalist secularism, is oozing with religiosity, even as the “secular” Indian state sets itself up as the underwriter of all faiths with its chief executive affirming the glory of Hinduism.
In this sense, as India becomes more secular, it becomes more Hindu, with neo-Vedantic Hinduism being claimed not merely as a religion but a way of life of all Indians, the latter, aka the Supreme Court’s infamous ruling on Hindutva. If the Prime Minister is to be taken at face value, Hindus, from time immemorial have been uniquely tolerant. And, when he wants the rest of the world to “evolve along the lines of Ancient India,” he sees the need for Christianity and Islam, the world’s other major religions, to be secularised along the lines of neo-Vedantic Hinduism, into a pluralistic, “rational,” open-minded, tolerant “way of life.” He also believes that other states of the world can be truly “secular” if they embrace the now uniquely Hindu way of life. Of course, the claim that neo-Vedantic Hinduism offers an open-minded, tolerant way of life does not correspond to the reality of Hindutvavadi cultural policing in the service of this Hindu orthodoxy, even attacking those who expose its self-serving myths, a recent instance of which is the assassination of the Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare, author of Shivaji Kon Hota? (Who Was Shivaji?), which tells the truth about the 17th century Maratha warrior.
Surely Modi has speech-writers who are good copycats of the likes of Sita Ram Goel and N S Rajaram. With Hindu nationalism and patriotism on a new high in the political and cultural realms, the struggle to defend science and reason is going to be a long and hard one.