Hindutva is Hinduism in the New India

Looking backward to resurrect yet another imagined long-dead “utopia”

BY ASLAM ABDULLAH

On January 12, 1948, just 151 days after India won its independence from the British, a very emotional Gandhi wrote: “I see the Muslims of Delhi killed before my very eyes. At the same time, my own Vallabhbhai is the Home Minister of the Government of India and is responsible for maintaining law and order in the Capital. Unfortunately, Vallabhbhai has not only failed to give protection to the Muslims; he light-heartedly dismisses any complaint made on this count. Therefore, I have no option but to use my last weapon, namely, to fast until the situation changes” (cited by Harish Khare, “Why Was Mahatma Gandhi Killed?” January 30, 2019, https://thewire.in/communalism/ mahatma-gandhi-assassination).

Eighteen days later, Hindu nationalist Nathu Ram Godse, a member of the militant Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), assassinated the leader known in India as the father of the nation.

Since then, the “children” of Godse have killed close to 3 million Muslim Indians in over 50,000 pogroms called “communal riots.” During the 72 years of violence, the RSS has destroyed over 30,000 mosques and shrines, removed scattered Muslim residents from villages and localities with a heavy Hindu population and destroyed countless handicrafts and small businesses of India’s most significant religious minority.

Even though the country’s political leaders, including those who supported Godse, showed their loyalty to Gandhi, few stood for the rights guaranteed to Muslims in the constitution. Except for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (chairperson of the draft constitution) and Sir Syed Muhammad Saadullah ON JANUARY 30, 2022, IN A RELIGIOUS CONCLAVE HELD IN PRAYAGRAJ (RENAMED BY THE MODI REGIME FROM ITS ORIGINAL ALLAHABAD), THE CITY WHERE THE GANGES AND YAMUNA, TWO OF INDIA’S MOST PROMINENT RIVERS MERGE, HINDU SAINTS CALLED FOR ELIMINATING MUSLIMS AND ISLAM FROM THE COUNTRY.

(chief minister of Assam in British India), none of the remaining members, including K. M. Munshi (an Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educator), Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer (advocate general of Madras state, 192944), Sir Gopala Swami Ayyangar (prime minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and later a minister in the first cabinet of independent India) and Sir Nyapathi Madhava Rau (an Indian civil servant and administrator who served as the Diwan of Mysore from 1941-45) raised their voices for the rights of religious minorities. Ambedkar favored a comprehensive program for the social and religious minorities’ political representation based on the principle of balanced representation.

On January 30, 2022, in a religious conclave held in Prayagraj (renamed by the Modi regime from its original Allahabad), the city where the Ganges and Yamuna, two of India’s most prominent rivers merge, Hindu saints called for eliminating Muslims and Islam from the country. Forty-five days earlier, a similar gathering had passed resolutions calling for India to become a Hindu Rashtra and to organize the genocide of Muslims.

Why does India or, more specifically, the RSS want to eliminate over 200 million Muslims scattered in 29 states and nine union territories? Why do Hindu nationalists perceive 15% of Muslims as a threat, knowing that the community is India’s least educated and employed primarily in government and public sector jobs? According to a study conducted by the Economic Times Intelligence Group in 2015, Muslims constituted approximately 2.7% of mid- to seniorlevel executives in the private sector and only 1.33% of officers in the central government. In 2019, a study by Tata Trusts, the philanthropist arm of Tata Group, found that their representation in the national police force is 3-4 percent.

Godse’s followers assert that Hindutva is Hinduism and that the RSS and its subsidiaries represent the ancient faith. They give five reasons for their anti-Islam and Muslim statements and actions: 1. Islam is a non-indigenous religion that negates inclusion and uses force to impose its exclusivism. 2. Muslim rulers forcibly converted millions of Hindus to Islam and destroyed Hindu institutions. They killed the glory of the Hindus. Unless India becomes Muslimfree, Hinduism will never flourish. 3. The Muslim population has grown faster than the Hindu population. If not restrained, Hindus will become a minority in their own country.