Book Review - Discovery of Hindu India

By M.V. Kamath

The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics; 1925 to 1990s; With a new Afterword; Christophe Jaffrelot; Penguin Books; Pages 596; Rs 295

The French, it would seem, understand India and Hinduism better than most westerners. Christophe Jaffrelot is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and member of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales at the Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris. Also, he teaches South Asian politics at the Institute d'Etudes politiques in Paris.That should establish his credibility. But what truly establishes his understanding of Indian politics and his objectivity towards happenings in India is his book based on his Ph.D thesis and subsequently enlarged. The book was originally published in French in 1993 and was first published in English translation in 1996. This has now been updated; but what is commendable is that Jaffrelot's conclusions still hold good.

Two aspects of this book stand out. One is the painstaking research that the author has done which is understandable, considering that the study began as a Ph.D thesis.

_____________________________ The behaviour approach and philosophy of India's psendo-intellectuals have done more damage to Indian society than one can ever imagine ________________________________

The other is the author's detachment from the subject of his study which, again, is par for the course. Starting with the genesis of Hindu nationalism, the role of the Arya Samaj, the fear endangered by "what was perceived as a quite new and threatening level of Muslim organisation, preparedness and militancy" the book leads us to the formation of the RSS, its alleged "brahminism" and "social contradictions", its strategy of ethno-religious mobilisation and its inevitable backlash in the Nehru inspired "secularism".

What is missing is larger historical perspective
But something is missing at this point in the narration. What in the first place, was the reason for what the author describes as the Hindu "inferiority complex"? Had the author taken the trouble to study the history of India from the beginning of the second millennium, say, with the invasion of India in the year AD 1000 by Mohammad of Ghazni and the subsequent forays on Hindus by Islamic rulers during the next six to 800 years, he would have understood the rise of the Hindu nationalism better.

If only the author had done that extra bit of study, his thesis would have reached more meaningful heights. Hindu nationalism was not something that came out of the blue. It was the result of objective conditions that prevailed in India as a result first of the Muslim and then of the Christian assault on the culture of the land. The saddest part of this thesis lies in the fact that it tries to understand effects without studying the causes. It has to be emphasised that no understanding of the RSS, the VHP, the Jan Sangh or the BJP is possible without an impartial dissection of Islamic - and later British - rule in India.

At one point the author tries to analyse the possible similarities and obvious differences between the RSS on the one hand and Nazism and Fascism on the other. In a way he sees more "obvious" affinities between the RSS and Nazism than between RSS and Fascism. Even as an academic exercise this is silly. The trouble is that Europeans cannot resist the temptation to co-relate their own experience with that of others. Happily, the author is not all that taken by popular perceptions. For example he notes, quite correctly, that the supreme concept in the RSS's doctrine is not race (as with Nazism) but society.

In Gowalkar's works, the promotion of an organic society is more important than the purity of the race. Then again, while Hitler valued the state as a means to promote the interests of the Aryan race, the RSS is not a "putschist" state whose object is to exterminate non - Hindus. Hitler's movement centred round politics. Golwalkar wanted to build ``life without being wedded to politics". And most importantly and India's liberal intelligentsia just refused to understand this - the RSS is above men and the movement does not rely on the authority of a supreme leader, religious or secular.

RSS compared to Nazism
Summing it up, the author concludes: ``Since a characterestic of the RSS's Hindu nationalism has been to downplay the role of the state we cannot classify it straightforwardly as a fascist movement. As distinct from Nazism, the RSS ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit". At worst, according to the author, the RSS can be described as "authoritarian".

In tracing the growth of Hindu nationalism, the author again and again fails to study the Hindu psyche in the context of the effects of Muslim rule in India. Had he done that he would have done a better job of explaining events. In this, he seems to comment on RSS or VHP or even BJP behaviour, in vacuum. It is on all fours with the writings of our Marxist historians to whom the deleterous effects of Islamic rule from AD 1000 to the fall of the Mughal Empire simply are of no consequence. It is an astounding omission.

In his epilogue the author remarks that from mid-1993 onwards the BJP seemed fully aware that the Hindutva tide which flowed so strongly in 1990-91 was receding and that the electorate's preoccupations were increasingly social and economic. But why so? The truth is that vengefulness is not part of the Hindu emotional make-up. The Babri Masjid had stood as a standing insult to Hinduism. Once it was demolished, the Hindu attitude was to forget the event and get on with the job of achieving social and economic progress.

In fact it may event be suggested that had not our pseudo-intellectuals deliberately sought to pitch Muslim revanchists against the BJP and the RSS parivar, the Babri Masjid would have been respectfully and ceremonially dismantled - and not demolished - and rebuilt else where to the greater glory of Indian oneness. The behaviour approach and philosophy of India's psendo-intellectuals have done more damage to Indian society than one can ever imagine. The author of this works has had little time to look into this aspect of Hindu nationalism.

_____________________________ In Gowalkar's works, the promotion of an organic society is more important than the purity of the race ________________________________

But technically speaking, Jaffrelot has done a competent job which is more than can be said about other, similar studies. His failure is in not delving into the substratum of Hindu thinking. Why, for example, was the ekatmata yatra such a terrific success ? What, in the end, really moved a Hindu? Perhaps in another edition, the author would care to go into these question more openly. But within the parameters he had laid down, he has succeeded enormously, like many thinkers in India he cannot resist the conclusion that the BJP is increasingly coming to look like the Congress. It is difficult to think otherwise. It is a pity if this turns out to be a correct assessment of the situation, though the author is careful to make his reservations. A BJP gone the Congress way would signal the end of progressivism. As was once said of God, were there no BJP there would have been a need to invent one.

 

Other columnists:

Other articles by the columnist Makings of a millionnaire The party is over What is so distasteful?! Now, Vasco da Gama's misdeeds In the hot seat Living in Darkness Are There Communalists Elsewhere? Inside the diplomatic corp Our Communist Barbarians Let Indian Army alone deal with Pakistan Whose language is it any way Pakistan hand in hijacking obvious