A Strange Kind Of Hindu

Just when Indians had managed to convince themselves that the bjp had accepted the logic of India’s pluralism and was no longer pushing its Hindutva agenda, a series of events within a week of each other have rocked this belief and reawakened fears of Hindu domination among the large non-Hindu segment of the Indian people. There was Atal Behari Vajpayee’s sudden lurch towards a revision of the Constitution.

Then there was his assertion that the rss was only a social organisation. Then came the destruction of the film sets of Deepa Mehta’s third film, Water, at Varanasi, followed by the ban on its filming ‘in the interest of peace and for the protection of the film-makers’.

The review of the Constitution and even the permission given by the Gujarat government to its civil servants to join the rss would not by themselves have raised the hackles of the minorities. Most people know that no matter what the bjp may want, changing the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both houses that the bjp simply can’t get. As for the Gujarat government’s decision, while it is deplorable to say the least, technically the rss is a social organisation - for it certainly is not a political party. Thus, no matter what Vajpayee’s private reservations might have been, when the rss itself is not banned, he had no legal grounds for opposing the state government’s action.

What’s made all of these developments disturbing is that they have followed in the wake of even more ugly happenings in 1998 and 1999, like the year-long campaign against Christians that culminated in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children and the repeated attacks on the paintings and person of painter M.F. Husain for daring to paint Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude. This culminated in the burning of an entire museum of his works.

All of these episodes mesh together to form an ugly picture. It is one of stormtroopers in brown shirts rampaging through the streets of German towns destroying the shops of Jews 66 years ago. Granted that the Sangh parivar has not come close to the bestialities committed during that infamous Kristallnacht, the similarities are nonetheless disturbing. For what is common to fascism and Hindutva in this ugly form is the regimentation of thought and the brutal repression of culture.

The vhp and Bajrang Dal, the main perpetrators of these crimes, have sought to justify each of them. Husain had painted Indian goddesses in the nude - an offense both to Hinduism and to Indian womanhood. The arrival of a new Protestant missionary had lent an aggressive new edge to the campaign to convert tribals to Christianity and sharpened social cleavages between Christian and non-Christian tribals. And Mehta’s film would have dared portray a widows’ home in holy Kashi as a brothel. But none of these provide even a shred of justification for their suppression by brute force of individuals’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

To see Hindu goddesses in the nude or almost-nude, one has only to go to Khajuraho, Konarak, Halebid or any other ancient temple in the country. Proselytisation is not forbidden by the law - only the conversion of minors without their parents’ permission. As for stopping the shooting of Mehta’s film, it is a craven surrender by the government to the lumpen proletariat mob that is capitalism’s ugliest gift to early industrial society. This is the stratum from which the Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal draw most of their recruits. If there was a threat to peace, authorities had a duty to apprehend those from whom it was emanating and not those at whom it was directed. If a Shiv Sainik insisted on setting himself alight, the duty of the police was to stop him and not make those whom he opposed pay the price for his suffering. What various bjp governments are condoning is a public display of contempt for the law.

They did it during the attack on Husain. They did it again during the anti-Christian agitation. And they are doing it now in Varanasi. The response of the nda government to this challenge to the rule of law has been supine to say the least. In the anti-Christian agitation, the bjp got off the fence and came down against the agitators only after the Staines murders. When they did, the attacks ceased almost as if by magic. That ambivalence was as evident in the lack of enthusiasm with which the Gujarat government pursued the attack on Husain’s paintings and the church burners in the Dangs area. The Varanasi authorities are demonstrating it today. This failure to uphold the law can only encourage more such attacks on the fundamental rights of Indians who incur the wrath of the Sangh parivar’s goons.

In fairness to Vajpayee and other central leaders of the bjp, the choice they face is not an easy one. Their moderation while in office has not only alienated the lunatic fringe of the Sangh but also a large segment of the rss. Vajpayee in particular is charged with being a Congressman in saffron robes. Cadres of the rss, vhp and Bajrang Dal feel they haven’t received their due share of the spoils of office. The attack on Christians in 1998 was at least in part to remind the bjp of their nuisance value. The rss too has reminded the bjp, albeit more privately, that the latter depends on its cadres to fight elections. The fact that the nda has returned to power more united than ever and with a comfortable majority has made the far right feel even more dispensable. Thus, its increased aggressiveness in the past two months.

Sooner or later, Vajpayee will have to face the fact that appeasement will only embolden the crypto-fascists in the Sangh parivar. Sooner or later, therefore, he will have to face the anger of his coalition partners. He will then have to decide whether he really needs the rss. It is better to face this choice with his moral credentials intact than to do so with them in tatters.