Presented at the Bharatiya Vichar Manch Seminar on“Hindutva in Present Context” held in Karnavati,Gujarat on September 16-17, 2009
A HINDUTVA AGENDAFOR POLITICAL ACTIONBYDR.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY
President of Janata Party &Fmr. Cabinet Minister for Commerce, Law & Justice,Government of IndiaEmail : swamy39@gmail.com
THE IDENTITY OF AN INDIAN
Every nation must have an identity to be regarded distinct. Even in United States of America, a relatively young nation created by an influx of immigration from diverse countries,scholars have felt the need to define the identity of an American. Harvard Professor SamuelHuntington has penned a book titled
Who Are We?
[ Penguin Books, India 2004] to define theAmerican’s identity as a “White Anglo-Saxon Christian who speaks English”. It seems contrivedsince majority of Americans are not ‘White’, but Huntington is emphatic.
2However, Huntington’s contribution is in seeing the two components of this identity thatdefine it:
Salience,
which is the importance that the citizen attributes to national identity over theother many sub-identities. Second,
Substance
, which is what the citizens think they have incommon, and which distinguishes them from others of other countries.We in India today do not have to conjure up a contrived identity as Huntington valiantlyhad to do, because for us
Salience
is imbedded in the concept of
Chakravartin
, which Chanakyahad spelt out with great clarity, while
Substance
is what Hindus have always searched for andfound unity in all our diversities in, thanks our spiritual and religious leaders. And thatinvariably is the Hindu-ness of our people, which we now call as
Hindutva.
The whole world has known our vast territory and millions of the inhabitants for centuries and called us as ‘India’ and ‘Indians’ or ‘Hind and Hindi’ or as the Chinese know useven today both as nation and people as ‘Yindu’. The root word in all these terms is ‘Hindu’,which word for the Persians, Arabs and Europeans meant a people living beyond the Sindhuriver, and for the Chinese a people living beyond the Himalayas and bounded by the Indu Sagar [Indian Ocean].The world knew us in these millenniums not as nomads but as a highly civilized peoplewho produced exotic goods the world had never seen before and who were hospitable to visitorsfrom abroad. Many travelers such as Fa Hsien, Yuan Chuang, Marco Polo, Vasco d’Gama, andMark Twain wrote glowingly about the behaviourial quality of the Hindus, which can besummarized as the Hindu-ness [i.e.,
Hindutva
] of the Indian people.More recently, Mr.Jonah Blank, an American journalist curious about this
Hindutva
, took a journey in 1991-92 from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka on the route taken by Lord Rama. He thenwrote a book about titled:
Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God—Retracing the RamayanaThrough India
[published by the well known Houghton Mifflin of Boston USA]. He writes:“India’s land may be ruled by aliens from time to time, but never her mind, never her soul…..Inthe end, it is always India that does the digesting” [p.217]. He concludes: “But somehow anebulous sense of “Indianness” does exist, and it binds together Gujaratis, Orissans, to Nagas
3who might seem to have nothing at all in common. Perhaps it is this elusive, undefinable [yetvery real] link that has allowed the sub-continent’s multitude of races to live in some roughsemblance of harmony for four thousand years”[p.218].Despite Blank’s unthinking adherence to “facts” of Indian history as written out byBritish colonialists, the reality of his direct experiences from his travels in India makes him cometo the opposite conclusion to the British colonialists viz., India has always existed because of theIndian-ness [read: Hindutva as
Substance
] of the people.This Hindu-ness or
Hindutva
has been our identifying characteristic, by which we have been recognized world-wide. The territory in which Hindus lived was known as Hindustan, i.e., aspecific area of a collective of persons who are bonded together by this Hindu-ness. The
Salience
thus was given religious and spiritual significance by
tirth yatra, kumbh mela,
common festivals,and in the celebration of events in the
Ithihasa
, viz., Ramayana and Mahabharata.Hindu Rashtra thus defined, is our nation that is a modern Republic today, whose rootsare also in the long unbroken Hindu civilisational history. Throughout this history we were aHindu Republic and not a monarchy [a possible but weak exception being Asoka’s reign]. In thisancient Republican concept, the king did not make policy or proclaim the law. The intellectuallyaccomplished elite in the society, known as Brahmans, framed the laws and state policy and theKing implemented it.Hindutva hence, is our innate nature, while Hindustan is our territorial body, but HinduRashtra is our republican soul. Hindu
panth
[religion] is however a theology of faith. Even if anIndian has a different faith from a Hindu, he or she can still be possessed of Hindutva. SinceIndia was 100 percent Hindu a millennium ago, the only way any significant group could have adifferent faith in today’s India is if they were converted from Hindu faith, or are of those whoseancestors were Hindus. Conversion of faith does not have to imply conversion to another cultureor nature. Therefore, Hindutva can remain to be interred in a non-Hindu in India.
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Hindutva -- Subramanian Swamy
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please read a book called "The Pageant of India's History Vol 1" by Gertrude Emerson Sen 1948 Published by LONGMANS GREEN AND CO NEW YORK,LONDON,TORONTO
http://iwonder.wiki.zoho.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_and... www.asitis.com
A nation's identity need not depend on its religiosity. Humanity is basic to all. We are humans. It does not whether one is a Hindu or Christian. Do not promote hatred. Think of the future of the nation. Be broad minded and leave your petty claims.