Hindutva : History and beyond

1. The Hindutva: a brief introduction

In early 1966, a person decides to end his life voluntarily by giving up the food, water and medicine because he feels that his purpose of life, which was the freedom of India, has been achieved, that person was nobody else but Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a person who formulated and popularized the term ‘Hindutva’. One might agree with his ideology or not but his dedication towards the nation cannot be questioned. It is unquestionably right that Hindutva has been evolving since the 20th century. Hindutva for me is a responsive necessity to challenge the fundamental exclusive nature of Abrahamic religions. It emphasizes the cultural, ethnic & political inclusiveness of India and reminds us of our common cultural identity regardless of faith, caste or language.

2. Historical reasons behind the evolution of Hindutva

NSA Ajit Doval once said, “There is no higher court than the history itself, and history has always supported those who valued action more than thought, and power more than justice.” It is however not so that justice and thoughts are worthless, but when an existential civilizational crisis is knocking on your door, it is wise to set the preferences to action and power. If not so, despite being truthful and rightful, why were we ruled under foreign occupations for centuries, starting from Delhi Sultanate to the Mughal Empire and then British Empire?

It wrenches my heart out to feel that this many generations in India had to breathe under cruel occupations. There came times when they had to pay the Jizya tax to survive, when they felt threatened for visiting the temples on their own land, when countless temples were destructed violently, when forceful religious conversions took place with the help of greed, swords and whatnot, when Guru Teg Bahadur was killed by Aurangzeb in the middle of Delhi, this list can go on and on. This much of pain and suffering for hundreds of years and the least we can do now is to learn a lesson, a lesson of unity and necessity of a sense of belonging, a force which can deal with enemies in their own language, that is Hindutva for me.

I argue that Hindutva is a moral responsibility as well, for those who help themselves are believed to be helped by God, Hindutva is helping yourself so no Mahmud Ghazni would again dare to come to loot and destruct our Somnath Temple, no Aurangzeb would dare to kill our Gurus in our own cities, and no Timur would destroy our cities and no Tipu would again make the pyramids from the heads of Hindus.

Despite such barbaric occupations for hundreds of the years, most of our ancestors did not leave their civilizational values. Their temples were destroyed, they made temples in their homes. Their libraries were burnt, they never gave up the oral tradition to transfer the knowledge to younger generations. Their Gods were humiliated, they tolerated it with all the patience but with the hope for the time to come when there will be the resistance against those who dreamed to wipe our culture out. Occupiers tried greed, violence and every nasty trick, but couldn’t defeat the Indian determination, so humble yet so powerful. Hindutva is a respect for those who dreamed of a free future, free to worship their Gods, free to believe, free to dissent, free to go to their Temples and free to be united as a nation.

3. Practical impacts of Hindutva

There is a sense of an identity which can be defined for a person or a group of people. There are two extremes, one is having a ‘cosmic identity’, another extreme is ‘individual identity’. A society with people having cosmic identities is best to have, but highly unrealistic in the world we live in, it is an ideal state which will never be achieved. Another extreme is when a society is filled with people having individual identities, it is a selfish & weak society, with no sense of belonging or welfare for each other. But in between these two extremes, there is a highly practical, very efficient but sometimes risky identity, a national identity, derived by the nationalistic views for the society. In the case of India, Hindutva as a driving force behind Indian nationalism can be directly useful in eradication of so many discriminative practices in our society. I see Hindutva being one of few immensely powerful and practically realistic tools which have the capability to end caste-based, language-based and even state-based discriminations.

Some religions debate, accept and allow to accommodate different standpoints, while other religions arrogantly divide the world between those who subscribe to their ideas and those who do not. The first type of religions is likely to withstand the challenges of time as they are flexible and dynamic enough to value and adapt to changes, while other religions which remain rigid, treat changes with disdain and leave no space for ideological dissent, likely get vanished over time. But before vanishing, they try to achieve their dogmatic aims, even with the swords in the hands; Hindutva is a humble, moral and yet befitting response to them.

4. Nature of Hindutva

Hindutva is not an offensive force, but a defensive response. It does not talk about going out for battles and rule the world; instead, it teaches us to be ready to fight to preserve our civilizational values, fight through words, politics, even military if required.

Hindutva is not exclusive in nature; but inclusive. It does not exclude any group of people. It uses the word ‘Hindu’ in cultural context for all those whose ancestors lived on the land of Bharat. It is, in fact, inclusive because when you give a group of people a larger identity, the tendency to preserve the lower discriminatory identity reduces. Hindutva is inclusive in nature, unless misinterpreted, or when viewed with ill intentions.

In 1919, the Khilafat movement showed that a great number of Indian Muslims considered themselves as Ottoman subjects very intensively. I believe, one of the greatest sins that a person can commit is to challenge and damage the national sovereignty and integrity which happened in 1947, when a group of Indian radical Muslims broke our nation into two, solely based on Hindu-hatred. Even after partition, many of those stayed back in India who had directly or indirectly helped in the creation of Pakistan. Even today, the people of same mentality, not surprisingly, happen to be those who identify themselves with the Islamic barbarians who ruled over India, be it Aurangzeb or Tipu Sultan. It is as if being a Nazi in today’s Israel. That is the same group which finds Hindutva to be exclusive in nature because Hindutva is an obstruction in the way of what they want India to be. If they feel excluded from the notion of Hindutva, that is because of their blind, radical & dogmatic state of mind. They, one day or other, with their radicalized thinking will pose an internal security risk for the Indian state, but unlike in 1947, they will not be successful. Thankfully, the number of such radicalised individuals is limited compared to those loyal to the Indian political state. Regardless, National sovereignty should be and will be preserved with utmost priority even if it takes unimaginable sacrifices, or even if it requires to cause unacceptable damage to the enemies of Bharath as a nation.

5. Essence of Hindutva

The entire essence of Hindutva can be understood in a single line, “Dharmo Rakshiti Rakshita” which means that “Dharma protects when It is protected”.

I would conclude with, “Hindutva is a responsibility which is a symbol of heritage being reaffirmed, pride being reinstated, and glory being reclaimed by the culture, older than the ancient, after overcoming countless cruelties against it by barbarian occupiers.”