Hindutva, the Gujarat Style
Rathin Das, November
9, 2013
Jay Hindu Rashra caps distributed
in rath yatra at Ahmedabad
Opinions will obviously remain
divided over how far away the six-decade-old Indian republic is from a
proclaimed, or at least, perceived ‘Hindu Rashtra’. What would be the form and
content of that ‘Hindu Rashtra’ ? Such questions, and many more, will dominate
the minds of the panelists discussing the changed scenario of civic life
whenever the much talked about ‘Hindu Rashtra’ is ushered in.
But, then, before beginning to talk about the prospects
and problems of a hitherto non-existent ‘Hindu Rashtra’, it is necessary to
know the shape of things to come if and when such a nation-state emerges,
whether by consensus or by the brutal force of those too enthusiastic about it.
Though many states in the country have had their long and short stints of being
ruled by the BJP, whose parent organisation had originally mooted the idea of
‘Hindu Rashtra’, it is the state of Gujarat which has actually shown the nation
some glimpses of events that can happen in such an eventuality.
March 31, 2013: In
Ahmedabad, Mohan Bhagwat and Pravin Togadia at the launch of ‘Hindu Ahead’
Movement
It is not just about the occasional skirmishes around
places of worships which lead to communal clashes, a pattern experienced all
over the country. These situations can be taken as necessary evils of a
multi-cultural, multi-religious society, which fade out from public memory as
normalcy is restored. But the glimpses of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ seen in Gujarat
during the last 15 years or so were different in nature, not just the untoward
incidents which instantaneously sparked off communal strife. The ‘Hindu
Rashtra’ idea, which has taken roots in Gujarat in the last few years, goes
beyond the planned or unplanned incidents which cause tension between
communities. In Gujarat, the manifestation of the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ concept can
be seen in almost every sphere of life.
The trend actually started long before the right wing
party was elected to power first time in 1995. The highly indoctrinated saffron
foot soldiers had infiltrated many sections of public life in Gujarat even
before the BJP came to power. The party being in power for so long has only
tightened the saffron activists’ stranglehold in all spheres of public life.
While the secondary classes’ social science text books described minorities as
‘foreigners’ in India, the saffron activists told the animist tribal that their
‘Vanardev’ is actually Hanuman and liberal flow of black money from cities
ensured that simple vermilion smeared stones with monkey motifs were
transformed into impressive Hanuman temples in the Dangs. In villages, saffron
activists kept watch on youngsters’ love affairs and physically prevented Hindu
girls’ elopement with Muslim boys.
On the eve of Eid every year, Hindu activists intercept
legally transported cattle and goats on the pretext that they were being taken
to slaughter houses. Human lives have actually been lost during such
interventions meant to rescue bovines from slaughter. In several such cases,
the ‘rescued’ cattle taken to some ‘shelter’ have died en-masse for want of
water and fodder. But the
same saffron activists with so much love for bovines have turned a blind eye
towards deaths of as many as 40 cows which grazed outside a pharmaceutical factory
that used the open plot as the dumping yard for its toxic effluents. Quizzed on such double standards on
bovine deaths, the refrain was “industrial growth would suffer if pollution
control measures are followed very strictly”. This quote from a right wing
activist explains why and how the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ concept had taken deep roots
only in Gujarat while the BJP had come to power off and on in many states of
India.
What makes the Hindutva ascent unique in Gujarat is the
tripartite nexus between the rulers, the mercantile community and the various
religious sects which are privy to many secrets and handle large quantum of
corporate money. Thus, the religious sects which opened their doors and coffers
to host the 2001 earthquake survivors for months in a row, do not show any such
gesture for the thousands of minorities driven out of their homes burnt by mobs
out to avenge the killing of 58 passengers in the Sabarmati Express fire at
Godhra on 27 February 2002.
Ahmedabad’s famous ART
gallery Hussain Ni Gufa vandalized by Bajrang Dal Activists
These are just some of the instances over and above the
much publicized event like saffron activists’ attacks on fashions shows,
burning of churches in the tribal areas, vandalizing of art galleries for
depicting some deities in bad taste or the unofficial “ban” on some films for
their content or protagonist’s “misdeed”. Attacks on films and art shows are
generally well known as they attract the attention of the electronic media, but
some subtle manoeuvre of the saffron brigade go unnoticed though they are
capable of doing much serious damage to the social fabric of the country. The
subtle moves include not allowing people from certain communities to rent or
buy a flat in the upmarket colonies, thus accelerating the process of
‘ghetto-isation’ of the society, which started way back in 1969 after the riots
in Ahmedabad city. Much before the BJP came to power in Gujarat, the Circuit
Houses and guest houses of major corporations went ‘fully vegetarian’, simply
because of the influence of a religious sect popular in the state.
Thus, it is not easy to pinpoint the start of the
‘Hindu-isation’ process in Gujarat though it is in the forefront of the saffron
brigade’s wish list of march towards “Hindu Rashtra”.No wonder, VHP
leader Dr Pravin Togadia has recently declared that Gujarat would be a fully
“Hindu state” by 2015. He
did not explain how. Probably he has pinned his hopes on the outcome of the
2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The writer is The Statesman’s Ahmedabad-based Special
Representative. Article courtesy Statesman.
