The ultimate metaphor to describe India is her national bird – a dancing peacock with myriad hues on his plumage. India is a country of different languages, religions and cultures. The captivating expression “Unity in Diversity” still remains only in the text books of sixth grade civics. The pledge “All Indians are my brothers and sisters” is still promised only in our schools. The challenges that we face to fulfill our constitutional obligations to Secular India are beyond comprehension.

The Indian secularism is an affirmative action to protect the citizens of India from discrimination and exploitation in the name of religion, caste, gender, language, color and wealth. Secularism is one of the basic traits of this country as described in the preamble of the Indian Constitution. People, who belong to this land, bind to this written document of the constitution based on some promises. One such guarantee vowed by this country to her people is Secularism.

Today, the Indian Secularism faces numerous threats and attacks from vested interests ideologically, politically and intellectually. The sectarian groups try to destroy the practices of social tolerance by igniting the flames of communal hysteria. I have made a humble attempt to analyze these threats and emphasize the needs to preserve our secular principles.

Political Ideologies

On the axis of politics, the basic forms of ideologies are the left, the center and the right. In any heterogeneous society, all these three forms continue to exist forever, either active or dormant. One form can never eliminate the other.  In a democratic society, all the three forms co-exist together. If one form tries to eliminate another, the democracy is distorted which paves the way for tyranny. The pluralistic nature of the society makes ideocracy impracticable. The proper forms of the right, the center and the left can function efficiently and perform their ideological obligations only in a participatory democratic society.

Quite often, the opposite forms – the right and the left – resort to their ideological extremes, thus giving rise to political chaos. The deviation of the opposite forms could range from the dogmatic to dreadful. Most political struggles happening in this world would find their root causes in the above two reasons. Thus the basic principles of democracy, freedom and social tolerance are absolute necessities for any society to function peacefully.

Indian Political Scenario 

In the Indian context, the perverse form of the rightist ideology is Hindutva whereas its leftist counterpart is Naxalism. The Congress (I) and the communist parties find their places on Indian political axis as the center and the left. With the diminished clout of Mr. Vajpayee in the BJP, there forms a lacuna for the proper right in the political axis of India. While the Indian Left has categorically condemned and disinherited the violent form of Naxalism (Karat’s interview), the BJP still finds the roots of its umbilical cord in the Sangh Parivar (Ram Madhav's interview). This relationship between the Hindu nationalist BJP and its Parivar head is frightening. The magnitude of control that the RSS exercises on the BJP clearly supports my argument that the BJP has moved away from the position of Vajpayee’s democratic right towards the extreme right.

The Hinduness that the RSS espouses does not restrict itself to the rhetoric of religious superiority. Rather, the ideology of Hindutva targets religious minorities (mainly the Indian Christians and the Indian Muslims), lower castes of the social order and the economically weaker sections. The political philosophy behind the origin of this vicious ideology is widely documented.

The main accusations of the Sangh Parivar over the Secular Alliance, which consists of Congress party, the Indian Left and like minded parties, are minority appeasement, anti-majority policies and vote-bank politics. These accusations were coined in one word called “pseudo-secularism”, as if the Sangh Parivar preaches the true version of secularism. I would like to discuss the stand of the Hindutva parivar on various issues and accusations to reinforce your thoughts on social tolerance.

Minority Appeasement

The Nagastra (serpent missile) often used by the Hindutva family is the minority appeasement of Rajiv Gandhi’s government in the controversial “Shah Bano case”. Shah Bano, a Muslim woman from Madhya Pradesh, approached the court asking for the maintenance from her divorced husband. The Supreme Court passed a judgment that Shah Bano is entitled to alimony under the 1973 Criminal Procedure Code - Section 125. This order seemed to be in conflict with the Muslim Personal Law, which led to protests and wide-spread condemnation by the orthodox Islamic bodies. In 1986, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s government passed a law “Muslim Women Act 1986” to exempt Muslim women from the application of CPC Sec. 125. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s act was perceived as a lethal assault on the secular character of India. The Shah Bano case eventually wrote the prologue for the Congress Party’s decline in the late 80s and 90s.

Unfortunately, the Hindutva groups used this compromise as an excuse for all its anti-minority activities even in the post-Godhra debates. The losers in the 1986 Muslim Women Act are Muslim women and Indian Secularism. The only beneficiary in the tug-of-war between the Muslim women and Islamic Orthodoxy is the Sangh Parivar which capitalized political gains to pursue its divisive agenda. Neither did the Sangh Parivar fight for the rights of Muslim women nor amended the Muslim Women Act in 6 years of BJP rule. What did the Sangh Parivar do to “undo” these mistakes?

Meanwhile the Congress Party has apologized for compromising its secular values (Read Digvijay Singh’s interview in 1999) and assured that the party would never yield to short-term temptations in future. The Congress Party has held its promise to secular values in the Imrana vs the Deoband fatwa case of 2005. Again, the Sangh Parivar has only tried to politicize this issue for its political gains without helping to earn the rights for innocent Muslim women.

On the other hand, All India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA), a secular organization, is consistently fighting for the rights of Muslim women. This organization has fought against the discrimination of Muslim women in the name of religion. It has emphasized the need for reforms to ensure equal legal rights for Muslim women. The members of AIDWA are also working towards the abolition of “triple talaq” system and an outright ban on polygamy.

What does the controversial “the Muslim Women Act of 1986” say? The CPC Section 125 provides provisions for a mandatory monthly payment of alimony for the maintenance of divorced women and their children. Under the 1986 law, the divorced Muslim women are exempted from this monthly payment in accordance to Section 125 but a one-time lump sum amount be settled within the maintenance period. Interestingly the Supreme Court has held the validity of this controversial law on a land-mark judgment delivered in Danial Latifi vs Union of India case on September 28, 2001.

Atleast women rights ? Let us see !

Rights of Women

One of the objectives of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to promote gender equality and empower women. The objective is ranked third (out of 8 goals) after poverty eradication and universal education. A report released by UNIFEM states that real democracy can never be achieved without proper representation of women. Economists including Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen have strongly advocated for this cause not only for uplifting women from gender inequality but also for the progress of the whole society.

The present Indian Parliament consists of only 45 women members out of its 542 members (8.3%). India ranks 106^th place. Even Pakistan ranks 41^st place with 21.3% of women in its parliament. Look at the entire listing .   

The constitutional bill that ensures the empowerment of women in the parliament is the Women’s reservation bill. This bill is pending in our parliament for years and has not been yet passed. This bill provides 33% reservation of parliament seats for women. As an alternative, the Election Commission proposed a formula which would mandate political parties to issue 33% of tickets to women.

Our political parties are still not able to find consensus among them, which is not surprising. The Congress (I), the Left parties and few regional parties have expressed their staunch support and desire to pass this bill. When the BJP was in power, it expressed its support to pass this bill in the present form. Some parties have rejected this bill out rightly and some parties demand a caste-based quota system within this gender quota system. These are the hurdles faced by our political parties to reach consensus.

When the BJP was in power, Former Prime Minister Vajpayee assured that if a consensus could not be reached, the government would pass this bill by majority. Though this bill has absolute majority then, the NDA regime never passed this bill. Now, the BJP has performed a volte-face stating that the BJP would support only the Election Commission version of the bill. This decision has led to wide-spread condemnation by other political parties and women’s organizations. The EC formula, which provides only 33% of party tickets to candidates, will only lead to tokenism. The political parties are likely to provide tickets to women candidates in constituents where the chances of winning are very slim. This tokenism will undermine the fundamental concept of women’s empowerment.

The BJP did not show commitment to passing this bill when it was in power. The party’s reversed stand has complicated the process of reaching consensus. Now the present government would find it difficult to pass this bill with two-third majority. The BJP’s lack to seriousness and subsequent reversal is predictable as the party’s parental organization, the RSS, has not offered its voice and support to this bill. Stiff opposition to this bill is widely prevalent among the Hindutva sympathizers as well. The Tribune’s editorial (April 3, 2002) has quoted Rajju Bhaiya (the former pramukh of the RSS) that he had opposed the women's reservation Bill on the ground that it would disturb domestic harmony. I am not sure how this bill would disturb domestic harmony. The Sangh Parivar’s stand on women’s empowerment is not surprising as it still believes in patriarchal social system of antique Vedic texts.

Rights of Socially Oppressed Castes

The caste system is a bane of the Indian social order. The Sangh Parivar has never supported the cause of social elevation of socially oppressed castes. The Parivar has always attempted to thwart the reservation system and has responded with seething anger towards the dalits and other socially backward castes. The anti-reservation riots against the Dalits in both pre-Mandal and post-Mandal era are the best examples.

However, the Parivar changed its tunes in the mid-eighties to include Dalits in their agenda to drive a wedge between Dalits and Muslims. The Parivar felt the need for “foot-soldiers” in its infantry divisions of VHP and Bajrang Dal. It started with an attractive concept of monolithic Hindu society with no caste system. It was a very calculative move with the intention of attracting young Dalit men. But the Sangh offered no socio-economic measures to elevate these young men from the long history of social oppression. In fact, the Sangh Parivar advocated that these socially oppressed castes do not need any reservation anymore as the caste system stands abolished. If the privileges of reservation system are stripped from the Dalits, they would still be at the bottom-most strata of the Hindu society. What other intentions does the RSS have in this regard? The RSS with its Hindu clout did not do anything to reform the Hindu religion to eradicate the caste system.

The Outlook India magazine reported an interesting event on its October 31, 2005 issue. Mr. Suraj Bhan, the Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, decided to recommend the President to amend Article 17 of the Constitution which deals with untouchability. He argued that the caste system along with the reservation should go. Mr. Bhan was appointed to the NCSC by the erstwhile BJP government. He served as the state president of BJP’s Haryana unit.

Mr. Bhan further argues “The religious heads of virtually all Hindu organizations are with me. I have the endorsement of VHP's Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal." His argument to abolish caste system and reservations is analogous to the argument of banning hospitals so that nobody would fall sick anymore. Mr. Bhan’s statement opens up new questions:  Why should the Chairman of NCSC get endorsement from Hindu militant leaders ? What kind of authority these persons, Togadia and Singhal, possess ? Why is the Chairman so particular about getting done with the reservation system so hastily ?

Religious Conversions

No need to emphasize that the issue of religious conversions is on the top list of the Hindutva forces. Why does conversions take place from the Hindu religion to other religions ? Do the conversions happen only between the Hindu religion and Christianity ? The Hindutva forces have targeted the Christians time and again in the issue of religious conversions. We should have a hard look why and how conversions take place.

The wide-spread conversion of socially oppressed castes from Hinduism does not restrict itself to one particular religion, say Christianity. The conversions have happened from Hinduism to Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. The fact that this phenomenon has happened from Hinduism to all other major religions (one to many) nullifies the possibility of evangelical conspiracy. Why does this phenomenon from one to many occur ?

Since the last decade of the18^th century, mass conversions from the Hindu religion to other religions happen. People convert from the Hindu religion to other religions to escape from the clutches of casteism and slavery. The Meenakshipuram incident is the best example where the whole village of Hindu Dalits converted to Islam. The VHP accused the converts for talking money instead of solving their issues.

I have presented the views of one convert and non-convert from the documentation of an eminent journalist, P. Sainath . Says a non-convert, “Nonsense! Money played no role. I did not convert, so I can say so easily. Two sisters of mine converted. What money? I would know. Even my grandparents had once thought of conversion. Oppression alone was the reason”. Says a convert, “Did we take money to convert? We could have. And we could have made a lot more money by reconverting because the other side came down here trying to entice us. I used to say if money was the motivation, go ahead and offer people Rs. 1 lakh. After all, you say they changed for Rs. 500. Then you'll know if they converted for money. Of course, nothing like that happened. As the Arumugam inquiry showed, money was not the reason.”

The religious conversion of a person is strictly personal. The Constitution provides its citizens the right to freedom of religion. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution says “Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”. What legal or moral right does the Hindu organization has to comment on one’s religion conversion ?

Some argue that the social discrimination is not a reason for conversion. They continue to argue that such conversion did not happen in racially discriminated societies. Their arguments are flawed. The Nation of Islam and their Million Man March are live examples where the Blacks converted from Christianity to Islam protesting racial discrimination and White supremacy. Similar conversions happen from Islam to Christianity.

The Hindu organizations have taken no concrete steps to find the root cause of religious conversions. These organizations do not have any true “Hindu ness” to analyze the root causes of such conversions and fix them. They try to hide the dirt of casteism in Hinduism without cleaning it.

Economic Policy

An ideological analysis of the Sangh Parivar’s economic policies would be really interesting. While the BJP pursued an ultra-capitalistic form of economic policies mindlessly, the Sangh Parivar was opposing foreign investments in India. The RSS was emphasizing its opposition through Gurumurthy’s Swadeshi Jagran Morcha. Gurumurthy has repeatedly said that India is making another mistake by globalizing its economy. He called for building up Indian private enterprises. I would like to devote an entire blog discussing the economic policies of erstwhile BJP government. At this juncture, I would like to point out the contrasting policies of the BJP and the RSS. When the RSS could exercise its power and control on BJP over petty issues, I wonder why the RSS could not change the economic pursuits of the BJP government. I wonder why these issues were not prominent in Chintan Baithaks. After all, the BJP came to power on “Swadeshi” economic plank.

Education

Needless to say that India is growing as an intellectual power house of the world. In Thomas Friedman’s words, “MNCs are here in India for an IQ suck”. These encouraging words can never be an excuse to complacency. Amidst all these, we still suffer from an antique, poor quality and commercialized educational system. Today, a person’s financial eligibility has become a more decisive factor than his academic eligibility. As we still boast about our IITs and IIMs, we forgot to take care of our primary education. Should I say that Indian education system ranks first in the nation’s rehabilitation list ?

In spite of all these draw backs, the Sangh Parivar showed interest only in introducing Saraswati Vandana and rewriting history books? When a big list of reforms ought to be done in our educational system, how does revised history book matter to us ?

You might retort back “Then why all these hullabaloo?” Abraham Lincoln has the answer. “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” This is exactly why the Sangh Parivar showed great interest in rewriting history books. Amidst all these, I should appreciate our former HRD minister Dr. Joshi frankly for having time to look at our IIMs and IITs.

I should mention about our pro-Hindutva pseudo-scholars who work tirelessly to impregnate young minds with Hindutva doctrines hidden in their new –Isms. In an attempt to revive Vedic traditions, these scholars give new or old interpretations to justify the age-old vicious Varna system. In my opinion, these studies do not possess any value or importance in the life of a common man. Unearthing the rich treasures (if any) of Vedic knowledge would have some meaning only if they are of any use. I wonder whether the Vedic texts have got anything to say about agriculture, medicine, health, energy etc. I am not against the existence of these Vedic studies per se, but so far some pro-Hindutva scholars have demonstrated their worth only in emphasizing the racial superiority of a Vedic Hindu and undermining the social fabric of this country. First let these scholars exhibit clearly, how their research findings could be applied to improve the socio-economic and cultural aspects of a society.

The Hindutva with its anti-minority, anti-women, anti-dalit and anti- developmental policies certainly find its prominence in the “Hall of Fame” of extreme right wing ideologies. However, it is important to mention some special traits that make the Sangh Parivar unique from other similar ideologies. Though the Sangh Parivar shares similar views with other extreme right wing ideologies, one can easily observe that there is a lot of space left out for ambiguity in their policies. For instance - BJP’s secular leadership vs anti-secular activities, ultra-capitalism vs Swadeshi vs Bharathiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS – RSS’s trade union wing), No caste vs No reservation, RSS’s educated elites vs Macaulay education and so on. 

Is RSS confused or confusing us ? Are the policies of Sangh Parivar chameleonic ? Let us discuss in Part II. The next part also covers why Secularism is very important to India.

PS.