Was Savarkar aiming for social cohesion in India?

Indian media is claiming that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the founder of Hindutva, whose death anniversary was on February 26, was reportedly aiming to establish social cohesion in India. This could not be further than the truth.

Hindutva (“Hinduness”) is a nationalist ideology, based on a modern-day version of centralized intolerant Hinduism. It has nothing to do with the historical tradition of spiritual practices in Hinduism. This centralized and chauvinistic Hinduism—Hindutva—has been brought to the fore front today by a group of political organizations called the Sangh Parivar—comprising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association—the mother organization after which the label Sangh Parivar is coined), the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian Peoples Party—Hindutva’s constitutional front that fights elections etc.), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP—World Hindu Council – the formation’s activist front), the Shiv Sena (the fascist front), the VHP of America (Hindutva’s overseas arm) and the Hindu Students Councils (VHP of America’s student wing).

To examine Hindutva, it is important to first define Hinduism. According to P.D. Mathew’s book ‘Hinduism Hindutva & Secularism’, p.13, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it, because unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one founder. It does not worship any one God; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances. In fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may be broadly described as a way of life and nothing more.

“Hindutva has nothing to do with Hinduism as a faith or a religion, but rather as a badge of cultural identity and an instrument of political mobilization,” says author and Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor. “Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals – no founder or prophet, no organized Church, no compulsory beliefs or rites of worship, no single sacred book…What we see today as Hindutva is part of an attempt to ‘semitise’ the faith – to make Hinduism more like the ‘better-organized’ religions like Christianity and Islam, the better to resist their encroachments.”

To examine “Hindutva”, we must first go to the originator of the word. Savarkar coined the term Hindutva (Hinduness) to create a collective “Hindu” identity as an essence of Bharat (India). His political philosophy had the elements of utilitarianism, rationalism and positivism, humanism and realism. Savarkar was also an atheist who disapproved of orthodox beliefs in all religions.

Savarkar’s revolutionary activities began while studying in India and England, where he was associated with the India House and founded student societies including Abhinav Bharat Society and the Free India Society, as well as publications espousing the cause of complete Indian independence by revolutionary means. Savarkar published The Indian War of Independence about the Indian rebellion of 1857 that was banned by British authorities. He was arrested in 1910 for his connections with the revolutionary group India House.

While in jail, Savarkar wrote the work describing Hindutva, espousing what it means to be a Hindu, and Hindu pride, in which he defined all the people descended of Hindu culture as being part of Hindutva, including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.

In a 1995 judgment, the Supreme Court of India ruled, “Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as a way of life or a state of mind and is not to be equated with or understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism … it is a fallacy and an error of law to proceed on the assumption … that the use of words Hindutva or Hinduism per se depicts an attitude hostile to all persons practicing any religion other than the Hindu religion … It may well be that these words are used in a speech to promote secularism or to emphasize the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian culture or ethos, or to criticize the policy of any political party as discriminatory or intolerant.”

Savarkar’s Hindutva ideology has been constructed primarily in opposition to the Muslim communities of modern India. Ironically, Savarkar developed this divisive ideology when Hindu-Muslim unity was at its peak during the Khilafat period. The purpose of Savarkar was to create an artificial divide by positioning a monolithic Muslim community in perpetual opposition to a monolithic Hindu community. To achieve this objective, Savarkar interpreted history in his own way and glossed over the contradictions among the Hindu communities and projected a militarized Hindu community. He accomplished this by appropriating the peripheral aspects of these non-Brahminical ideologies and suppressing their essence.

Virendra Prakash, in his book ‘Hindutva Demystified’, states: “Hindutva, as articulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and adopted by Hedgewar as the bedrock of the ideology of the RSS has little to do with the real, noble faith of the Hindus. It is a totally artificial construct, based on a motivated and unsustainable definition of ‘Hindu’. Coining a new definition of ‘Hindu’ to suit his objectives, Savarkar developed a powerful instrument to exploit the emotions and passions of the Hindus against the rest.”

Savarkar’s biographer Dhananjay Keer, in the book Hindu Revivalism and Indian Nationalism states: “Savarkar gave to the Mahasabha a Hindu Manifesto—a Platform, a Slogan, a Bible and a Banner.” Savarkar’s concepts of Holy Land, Fatherland, and Hindudom as the defining features of his Hindutva and the construct of Hindu Rashtra (Nation) were seriously flawed. Since Savarkar claimed that “in Hindustan, those who failed the test of having a common Fatherland or Holy Land or Hindudom are but ‘communities’, ‘numerical minorities’, who do not deserve any privileges.”

Savarkar’s strategic construct of Hindutva was adopted by the founder of the RSS. Dr. Partha Banerjee, in his book ‘In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India – An Insider’s Story’, gives an insightful account into the enigmatic RSS and its various offshoots—collectively known as the Sangh Parivar—their daily activities, camps, training courses, celebrations, fundraising, prayers, songs, and Sanskrit sacraments. Dr. Partha Banerjee is very familiar with the Sangh‘s system of recruitment and indoctrination of its “volunteers”, and their allocation in its various wings. Through a very watchful, laborious, and devoted state of mind, he followed the organization and was admired by peers and leaders alike during his days with the Sangh. His portrayal of the organization is thus unique—reverence for personalities coupled with disillusionment with the ideology—a very different approach not matched by outside observers.

India’s current ruler, Narendra Modi, a self-acclaimed RSS activist, is a keen follower of Savarkar and his divisive policies of subjugating Indian minorities, especially the Muslims. His draconian laws of Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens to give citizenship to people who want to be the citizen of India if and only if they fulfill the minimum criteria to be declared so. Definitely it is meant to marginalize Indian Muslims. Declaring the massacre of Muslims to be justified, boycotting their business and lynching them under the pretext that they were partaking cow meat, are all extremist moves meant to genetically exterminate Muslims in India. Thus, Savarkar did not profess social cohesion but dissension, which is being followed in letter and spirit by Modi and his ilk.

The writer is a former Group Captain PAF and an author