Columns: The Fifth Column

Columns

India Today, January 25, 1999
Jan 25, 1999

THE FIFTH COLUMN
Crack the Whip Mr Advani

Or else hardline Hindutva will hijack national identiy.

By Tavleen Singh

In the places where I have been travelling this past week I have seen the influences of Indian civilisation so strong that it made me proud. They are carved into the stone of ancient temples, in the names of gods and kings, in the words of the different languages, in the daily habits of ordinary people, in the local cuisine and in the namaskar with which people greet each other. Which is why it disturbed me that the only news of modern India that came through to my part of south-east Asia was that Christians were being humiliated and brutalised in Gujarat. The stories that appeared in local newspapers were, inevitably, sympathetic to the poor, tormented Christians and, interestingly, to Sonia Gandhi. A report from the Associated Press said that the real target of the Hindu fundamentalists was Sonia, "a lapsed Roman Catholic". The fact that she had toured the affected districts made bigger headlines and bigger pictures (broken crosses, burnt churches) than the fact that the prime minister followed in her wake.

Why should it not since all the stories I read made it clear that the Hindu fundamentalist groups that were responsible for the broken crosses and the burnt churches had the protection of the Hindu fundamentalist Government in Delhi. Is L.K. Advani asleep? Or perhaps like me he has been on vacation. In fact, it's beginning to seem as if he has been vacationing ever since he became India's home minister. Otherwise it is hard to explain how the "new Sardar Patel" could have been lost in languid inactivity and the deepest silences while all this was going on. He knows the thugs responsible for these attacks. He knows them well since they come from the same Sangh parivar of whom he has been known to utter many words of praise. Why is he unable to do anything to stop them?

When I ask this question in Delhi's corridors of power I am usually told that the Centre does not wish to interfere in the affairs of a state government. Really? If Hindu temples were being destroyed in Kashmir would we take the same approach? The prime minister has condemned the attacks on more than one occasion but again seems incapable of doing more than expressing regret and sympathy. This is quite simply not good enough any more. The attacks must be stopped even if it is true, as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad claims, that Christian missionaries are luring innocent tribals into the Christian fold. There is no law in India that forbids conversion and, frankly, if you were lower-caste Hindu and had been treated for centuries the way the upper castes treat those of lesser birth, you might be tempted to convert too.

If it is also true, as some senior members of the Government claim, that Christian missionaries are using the vast funds that come to them from abroad for subversive activity in our north-eastern states, then let the home minister give us the facts. How much money is coming in, where is it coming from and what specific evidence is there that it is directly related to subversive activity? These questions should be relatively easy to answer unless our intelligence agencies, like the home minister, have also been asleep.

A thought that has occurred to me constantly as I have wandered this past week amid the influences of ancient India and compared them with the news from modern India is that the biggest achievement of our "secular forces" is that they denigrated the word Hindu by ensuring that it should be associated only with religion. If there were a few people who could actually think in the Sangh Parivar, they would realise that what they need to do to counter this is to emphasise culture not religion.

There is much that we still have from India's ancient civilisation that is worth cherishing and handing down to future generations of Indians but it cannot be done by thugs. It cannot be done by people who believe that smashing crosses and digging up Christian graves is the way to promote the cause of Hinduism.

Unfortunately, when it comes to culture the RSS uses the same bunch of thugs who are currently out for Christian blood. It is they who are unleashed to defend the honour of Saraswati and Sita, so they do it by burning paintings. It is the only way they can do it because thugs are not usually skilled in the use of words. As for debate, discourse, dialogue -- these are alien concepts.

It is discourse that is required. It is appalling, for instance, that Sanskrit teachers are no longer easy to find in India. Equally appalling that our children are given no opportunity, at the school or university level, to study our ancient texts, poetry, music or literature. If the RSS is seriously interested in promoting India's cause these are the things it should be talking about and by talking I mean talking, not ramming it down the throats of people.

By emphasising only religion it is going down the same road that secular Congress governments led us on all these years. It was the wrong road and must be abandoned. There has always been more to Indian civilisation than religion and if our self-appointed guardians of Hindutva don't know it, then they have no right whatsoever to be allowed to rampage around the countryside, resorting to activities that too are subversive. Meanwhile, at a more mundane governmental level we really do need to see some action from the home minister. It's time he returned from vacation or whatever other trip he has been on.

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