Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The two magic words of Hindu nationalism

Without Swadeshi and Hindutva, Indian nationalism loses its meaning
The two magic words of Hindu nationalism were dished out by men who were at loggerhead with each others.
You have guessed it right. While the word “Swadeshi” was popularized and used to a devastating effect by Gandhi, the word “Hindutva” was coined by Veer Savarkar in his seminal work “Hindutva – Who is a Hindu”.
It must be remembered that these two words form the soul of Hindu nationalism. Remember what happened when the BJP abandoned both Hindutva and swadeshi and went to the polls on the plank of development – India Shining. It received a drubbing.
The then BJP leader Pramod Mahajan – the architect of the India Shining poll campaign – had remarked that one cannot encash the same cheque twice. He had given a veiled hint that swadeshi and hindutva were outdated and out of sync with the modern Hindu voters.
How wrong he was. Swadeshi and Hindutva are not just empty words. They symbolize the culture, attitude and the economy of the Hindu nationalists.
Ironically, it was the Sangh Parivar political affiliate which had almost killed the ideology. The BJP, which came to power on the power of these two words, had abandoned Hindutva by almost resorting to appeasement policies. Remember the Haj subsidy and its refusal to pass a bill in favour of the Ram Temple. It had also abandoned Swadeshi when it went all out in its policy of aggressive globalisation without giving a thought to the concerns of the indigenous economy. In fact, the BJP was playing to the media gallery rather than working on its core competence.
By rejecting the BJP, the Congress and the Left combine came to power. However, it must be noted that the vote against the BJP was not a vote for the Congress-Left combine. It was a lesson to the BJP to mend its way and stick to its core ideologies.
Swadeshi and Hindutva are the twin-hearts of Hindu nationalism. Remove it and there is no difference between the Orient and the Occident.
To those who are ignorant about the core concepts of Hindu nationalism, Swadeshi is a by-word for self-reliance. It is symbolic for self-respect and indigenous economy while Hindutva stands for Hinduness in a geographical, cultural and spiritual sense.

1 comment:

Raghuvir said...

Its time to awaken the so called ' secular' people ... they need to understand that our culture is under attack and they have to stand by dharma by all means ..
If they dont want to take up arms, they should oppose the negativities & religious conversions by taking path of nonviolence .

jai siya ram ji ..
Raghuvir