What
Is This Hindu Rashtra ?
By
Sitaram Yechuri
Golwalkar acclaims Manu as the "first
and greatest lawgiver of the world" who "lays down in his
code, directing all the peoples of the world
to go to Hindusthan to learn their duties at the holy feet of 'eldest
born' Brahmins of this land." (Golwalkar, 1939, pp.55-56). Now
what does the Manusmriti say? Having firmly established the hereditary
division of
society into the caste system, the Manusmriti says:
"Serving Brahmins
alone is recommended as the best innate activity of a Shudra; for whatever
he does other than this bears no fruit for him" (123, Chapter X).
"They should give him (Shudra) the leftovers of their food, their
old clothes, the spoiled parts of their grain, and their wom-out household
utensils" (125, Chapter X).
"A servant
(Shudra) should not amass wealth, even if he has the ability, for a
servant (Shudra) who has amassed wealth annoys priests" (129, Chapter
X).
(All these quotations are from Doniger and Smith, 1991).
The Manusmriti then
proceeds to define the outcasts and untouchables who have no place in
society at all and defines their menial activities. The intolerant caste
structure finds echo in Golwalkar and the Saffron Brigade today because
the Manusmriti is also based on an exclusively 'Aryan' social organisation.
'Un-Aryan coarseness, cruelty, and habitual failure to perform
the rituals are the maninfestations in this world indicating that a
man is born of a defiled womb" (58, Chapter X). Among those who
do not fall into this four caste category, are the tribals, Dravidians,
and especially the Andhras: `From an outlaw who is a ruler are born
the (castes) 'Pugilist' (Jhalla), 'Wrestler' (Malla), and 'Licchavian'
(Lichavi), 'Dancer' (Nata), 'Scribe' (Karana), 'Scab' (Khasa), and'Southerner'
(Dravida)" (22, Chapter X), "From a 'Hunter' (nisada)
is born an 'Inferior Worker' (Karavara), who works with leather, and
froma 'Videhan' (the name comes from the ancient kingdom of Videha,
on the banks of the river Ganga) come an 'Andhran' (Andhra) and a 'Fatty'(meda),
who live outside the village" (36, Chapter X).
Specific inhuman
treatment is meted out to women:
"In childhood
a woman should be under her father's control, in youth under her husband's,
and when her husband is dead, under her sons'. She should not have independence"
(148, ChapterV).
Further:
"Good looks
do not matter to them, nor do they care about youth; 'A man!' they say,
and enjoy sex with him, whether he is good-looking or ugly" (14).
"By running after men like whores. by their fickle minds, and by
their natural lack of affection these women are unfaithful to their
husbands even when they are zealously guarded here"(15).
"Knowing that
their very own nature is like this, as it was born at the creation by
the Lord of Creatures, a man should. make the utmost effort to guard
them" (16).
"The bed and
the seat, jewellery, lust,anger, crookedness, -a malicious nature, and
bad conduct are what Manu assigned to women" (18).
And
"There is no
ritual with Vedic verses for women; this is a firmly established point
of law. For women, who have no virile strength and no Vedic verses,
are false-hood; this is well established" (19, Chapter IX).
While there is a lengthy description of the code that should government's
relations with women, for the woman the Manusmriti has the following:
"But a woman
who is unfaithful to her husband is an object of reproach in this world;
(then) she is reborn in the womb of a jackal and is tormented by the
diseases (born) of (her) evil' (30, Chapter IX).
Not to mention,
however, the various other provisions like banning widow marriages (64;
65, Chapter IX). It is not as though such love for the Manusmriti was
confined only to this book by Golwalkar. Much later in his Bunch of
Thoughts he said:
"Brahmin is
the head, King the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet. This
means that the people who have thus, four-fold arrangement, i.e., the
Hindu people,is our God". (Golwalkar,1966, p. 25 ).
It is this understanding
that prompted the RSS to oppose the amendments to the Hindu Code Bill
after Independence, and it is this understanding that today
propels the Saffron Brigade affiliates to reassert the Manusmriti. Witness
the aggression at the `Dharam Sansad' held in December 1992 and the
castigating of the present Indian Constitution as "non-Hindu".
Note
the following report that appeared in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser (May
10, 1992):
`The 2nd state
Hindu Advocates Conference Organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at
Madurai onApril 18 and 19, 1992, has demanded the review and redrafting
of the Constitution. Shri V.K.S. Chaudhary, Advocate General of U.P.
in his key-note address asserted that the Manusmriti rendered `justice
for all'. Manu took the entire mankind and its needs for ages and evolved
his code. Manusmriti was for all times and ages and for all mankind".
In this context, the significance of upper caste Maharashtra Brahmins
being the leaders of the RSS till date must be noted.
"The centrality of Maharashtra in the formation of the ideology
and organisation of Hindutva in the mid-1920s might appear rather surprising,
as Muslims here were a small minority and hardly a threat, and there
had been
no major riots in this region during the early 1920s. But Maharashtra
had witnessed a powerful anti-Brahmin movement of backward castes from
the1870s onwards, when Jyotiba Phule had founded his Satyashodhak Samaj.
By the 1920s, the Dalits, too, had started organising themselves under
Ambedkar, Hindutva in 1925 as in 1990-91, was an upper caste bid to
restore a slipping hegemony..." (Basu, Dutta, Sarkar, Sarkar and
Sen,
1993, pp. 10-11).
The vision of a
social order under the Hindu Rashtra is thus one which legitimizes both
the inhuman caste oppression and the denial of elementary rights to
women. Under such a dispensation, criminal practices such as Sati may
not only be legitimised but may well be glorified. This vision outlined
by Golwalkar continues to form the basis for the Saffron Brigade to
establish its vision of a Hindu Rashtra. If it today claims not to have
republished this book in the 1950s, it has little to do with repudiating
this vision. If this was so at all, then it was due more to the defeat
of fascism in
the Second World War and the liberation of millions from its oppressive
yoke. With the Golwalkar-formulated ideal having been smashed, the Saffron
Brigade could not propagate it in India. Domestically, following the
assassination of Gandhiji, its offensive remarks about the Congress
could not have been much of a comfort.
But the essential
understanding outlined in the book,as noted earlier, continues to be
the inspiration for the Saffron Brigade today. The dual objective is:
attempt to straitjacket the internal diversity amongst the 'Hindus'
under a single domination, and generate hate against a community outside
of the Hindus - the Muslims. (For an exposure of the falsehood on the
basis of
which the Saffron Brigade spreads this hatred, see Pseudo Hinduism Exposed:
Saffron Brigade's Myths and Reality: a CPI(M) publication, January 1993).
As a digression,
it would be interesting to note that even the symbol around which they
seek the internal unification of the Hindu people - Ram and Ramayana
- has avery rich diversity. I recollect from my childhood the
untenable characters in the Ramayana, the kings south of the Vindhyas
like Vali, Sugreeva and Jambavanta who are depicted as animals and not
humans. Was this not a reflection of the attempt of Aryan domination
over the Dravidians? Or take the legend around the festival of Onam
celebrated in Kerala: The people of Kerala celebrate the annual return
of their favourite King Maha Bali, who is described in the Aryan version
as the king of Asuras (demons) who had to be killed by Vishnu in the
form of Vamanaavatara. A hero for one set of Hindus is the villain for
the other ! (The Saffron Brigade, however, may say that these kings
were different. Like the 'sants' who, when man landed on the moon, screamed
that this moon was different from the one referred to in the scriptures.)
Or, for that matter,
take the entire interpretation of Ravanayana which describes the epic
as the story of Ravana, who having earned the ultimate boon of not being
killed by any living creature, gets fed
up with mortal life and engineers that God comes down in the form of
Rama, to be killed by his hands to achieve moksha. Vijaya Dashmiday,
instead of marking the triumph of good over evil, could well mark the
moksha of Ravana! (For a greater variety of the story of Ramayana see
Paula Richman, 1992.) In fact, the Kamba Ramayana in Tamil is found
as aversion authored by one Kamban in Thailand adorning the galleries
of the royal palace in Bangkok. A rich story of epic proportions, which
as Kamban says "it spreads, ceaselessly various, one and many at
once", is today being straijacketed for the political purposes
of establishing a fascistic Hindu Rashtra. To return to Golwalkar. In
the epilogue to his book he says,
`All past civilisations
'had their day, abode a day or two
and passed away', because they had nothing to fulfill.
We, however, live on, despite far greater calamities, and
ever emerge triumphant masters of the world. We have
no reason to loose hope. Act first... a stage sogloamed
with woe, We all but sicken at the shifting scenes. And
yet be patient, our Play Wright 'will' show, in some fifth
Act what this wild drama means. Let us be patient"
(Golwalkar (sic), 1939, p' 65).
The "wild drama'
is unfolding its fascistic proportions. Georgi Dimitrov says that 'It
is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie
that fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois
parties. But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks
on the bourgeois governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the
old bourgeois parties' (Dimitrov, 1972, p. 12 ). Note today the vehemence
with which the Saffron Brigade has mounted its attack on the very fundamental
pillars of secularism and democracy that define the polity of independent
India. Note also the vehemence with which it today places the entire
blame for the wanton destruction of the Babri Masjid on the present
government policies and not as
an act committed by the Saffron Brigade in flagrant violation of the
Constitution and the law of the land.
Further' Dimitrov
notes:
'Fascism puts the
people at the mercy of the most
corrupt and venal elements but comes before them with the
demand for 'an honest and incorruptible government'
speculating on the profound disillusionment of the
masses... fascism adapts its demagogy to the peculiarities of
each country. And the mass of petty bourgeois and even
a section of the workers, reduced to despair by want,
unemployment and insecurity of their existence fall victim
to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism,'
(Dimitrov, 1972, p. 12).
By placing before
the people the construction of the Ram janmabhoomi temple as the only
agenda, the Saffron Brigade, in fact, is strengthening the very edifice
of exploitation that's heaping miseries on our people. In conjunction
with the open attempt to seek imperialist patronage for its purpose,
this spells doom for the Indian people. The Saffron Brigade today has
clearly revealed that the actual conditions of the people and the alleviation
of their miseries are not its concern. That more Indians than the entire
population of the United States live below an abysmally low poverty
line is of no concern to it. That children in our country, outstripping
in millions the entire population of many a country, are forced to earn
a livelihood is of noconcern to it.
That more Indians
die every year from malnutrition than the entire population of Australia
is of no concern to it. Can such a diversion of the people's discontent
for its political ambitions be allowed? In the name of Ram, the Saffron
Brigade today seeks to consign crores of Indians to conditions of growing
impoverishment. Not only this, but the Saffron Brigade's agenda has
inflicted a colossal damage on our economy. Following December 6,1992,
thousands of crores of rupees worth of property was destroyed, apart
from the
incalculable damage caused by the Bombay riots to the economy and to
India's standing internationally.
Now, Advani threatens
to place the destruction of mosques in Mathura and Varanasi on the agenda
- the surest guarantee to plunge India into a continuous conflict at
the expense of the lives of thousands of Indians. Golwalkar and the
Saffron Brigade would, however, say, "...it is not these that are
our bane, but the dormancy of National feeling..." (Golwalkar,
1939, p.62). The agenda that the Saffron Brigade is posing before the
country and the methods that it uses to achieve its objective are nothing
but an expression of an Indian variant of fascistic rule. Both in terms
of the form of state and in terms of its economic and social policies,
the BJP has exposed itself as the most reactionary section of the ruling
classes. The present attempt by the Saffron Brigade is not merely one
of establishing a medieval, theocratic "Hindu Rashtra", but
one of negating the very basis of
democracy and secularism.
Such a fascistic
threat, it must be noted, is not about a mere change in the
ruling party of the country. It is not about the normal succession of
one party replacing another at the Center. It means that parliamentary
democracy based on secularism is replaced by an open terroristic dictatorship
based on an intolerant theocratic ideology. It is a change not merely
in form but in content - a most vicious change at that. The Saffron
Brigade's agenda has to be defeated today in order to safeguard modern
India. Unless India is saved, it cannot be changed for the better.