Daily News and Analysis, November 09, 2008
by Ranjona Banerji
RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi
Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan
Sage Publications, Paperback, 112 pages. Rs 195
A potted history of Hindutva sectarianism that reminds people of the pitfalls of an ideology based on hatred and violence
In the beginning, the problems: This is a book written to and for the converted. That is, someone who already knows about the doings of the Hindutva organisations. It is also written by "the usual suspects", that is, names and institutions that are associated with the anti-Hindutva movement. The second is a problem to the extent that the battle lines are so strongly drawn in this debate that any mention of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the other side tends to go up in flames. However the writers do have the scholarship and credentials to take on such a subject and do justice to it.
The first problem is the larger one. This is a thin book which appears to have been put together in a hurry. While it could not have come at a more opportune moment, as everyday brings headlines of a "Hindu" terror network spreading across the country, a littler more heft would not have hurt. It makes sense then to examine how this communal thinking is engendered and the effects it has had on Independent India.
The first part of the book looks at the history textbooks used in the schools run by the RSS and its affiliate organisations, which are full of invectives and distortion of facts. It examines how the BJP government, when it was in power at the Centre, attempted to change NCERT textbooks to suit their Hindu supremacist agenda. One 10th standard textbook on contemporary India did not even mention Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. After objections were made, a bald statement of the fact of his death — with no mention that it was the Hindu rightwing which had killed him — was introduced.
However, while the absurd assertions made by RSS textbooks are mentioned - India brought civilisation to China and so on - no attempts are made to counter these claims. Instead, it is assumed that everyone would know that they are absurd. But if one contention of this book is that the communal virus has spread enormously over the past 20 years through this network of schools, it would greatly help the lay reader if the statements made are effectively proved to be false.
This book should serve as a real eye-opener when it comes to the assassination of Gandhi, especially for those who are unaware or have forgotten that it was the efforts of all the Hindu rightwing organisations which inspired Nathuram Godse to kill Gandhi. Over the years, VD Savarkar's role in the conspiracy has been ignored or glossed over.
As it happens, Nathuram Godse expressed his deep hurt at the way Savarkar ignored him during the trial.
The assassination of Gandhi is India's most shocking event as a nation. Yet today, as this book reiterates, after years of Gandhi being vilified by a sustained campaign carried out by the Hindutva lobby, a portrait of Savarkar hangs in Parliament, opposite his own. This is not irony: this is the theatre of the absurd where a man who played a key role in the plot to assassinate him is portrayed as a hero.
But the plot to kill Gandhi once and then kill his reputation again has been at work since 1948, which this book clearly puts down. Contrary to claims by the rightwing that Sardar Patel was somehow one of them, his disapproval at the communal agenda of the RSS was complete and clearly stated and is shown here. The role of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee has also been outlined.
The RSS agenda — and to this can be added the Hindu Mahasabha — was always to inculcate a sort of "Hindu" nationalism and to put down religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Gandhi had to be killed because he did not believe in either and his influence over India and the world was great. While the admiration of the RSS for Hitler and his assault on the Jews is well-known, sometimes it is worthwhile to repeat it so that the extent of the organisation's hate philosophy is understood. As this book makes clear, as long as India was under the influence of a "Nehruvian view" for want of a better expression, the RSS had limited underground appeal. The last 20 years has seen a substantial change in that view, perhaps to our detriment as a nation.
This book, part of The Hindu Communal Project with a foreword by renowned historian Bipan Chandra, is a worthwhile read as a sort of potted history of Hindutva-inspired hatred and to remind those who may want a refresher course in the context of recent happenings.
b_ranjona@dnaindia.net
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