On the destruction of Hindutva (Political Hinduism)….

Of all the Right Wing ideologies that the world has put forth to date from Hitlerite Fascism, Italian Fascism, Libertarianism, Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Nationalisms in its various flavours, Islamism, none perhaps is more Tragically Comical, and yet extremely resurgent, as Hindutva. From a dialectical perspective, Hindutva is in a constant state of the negation of the negation.

Hindutva’s roots go back to an age of colonialism and the end of the age of Imperialism, ironically which was trigged by the Russian Revolution and Socialism’s spread in the world. Hindutva then tried to carve out a Hindustan but failed due to its own Internal contradictions, not to mention its inability to reconcile primary and secondary contradictions and thus join the bigger anti-Imperialist movement for Independence. One could opine that the ideological l’air de temps meant that the World was done with Right Wing ideology as well post WW2. However, the military dictatorships and the rise of theocratic states, render this argument redundant. The elimination of reactionary potential requires a prolonged period of Socialism and inculcating Social Consciousness.

Skip to the close of the 20^th century and we observe the first political rise of Hindutva into the seat of power via the NDA Govt of Vajpayee. This was a Govt that is barely remembered for anything beyond its corruption, policy gaffes, the comical nature of Vajpayee himself, economic suicide and a brief war. The Hindutva of this Govt was a more liberalised form of the parent fascism. NDA 1 was a “Hindutva Lite” of sorts…. A center-rightist formation. It is worth noting however that from a sociological perspective, this was the first Political expression of the Hindus. This is not to say that Hindus weren’t in power before but rather that another class of Hindus found their political expression finally. The lower castes and classes of Hindus – the more illiterate, backward, village mentality, newly enriched with liberalisation North Indian Hindus found their leader in power. Thus giving credibility to the position that “being a backward villager was a good thing and not a stigma anymore.” It is worth noting that in contrast to most civilised societies in the world, India is the only country in the world that did not destroy its backward, vile, paganism; it rather institutionalised it and promoted it further. It in fact fought back any attempts to improve itself and society more strongly. Hindutva must thus be understood ideologically with the similarity to Islamism – As a Movement against progressiveness, equality, modernism, Western Civilisation, and Modern-People’s Democracy.

Cut to the present day where we see Hindutva having negated its old Center-Right image for a more fluid Rightward stand. Fluid because it has no moorings within an Economic Rightist program and Hindutva is still not Political Economy in the ideological sense – a weakness and an internal contradiction. However, this phase of Hindutva has learned more from Islamism in that it is even more insular, conservative, and even harks back to a medieval period of south Asia. However, it is important to understand some edifices that it is built upon: Hinduism as a monocultural hegemony, North Indianism, Brahminism, Economically to the Right, Anti-intellectualism, Classism and Stateism. Thus, what are antithetical constructs that can destroy this phase of Hindutva?

DravidaNadu and National Liberationism

Dravidanadu is a Liberationist paradigm for the 5 states of South India and those who hail from Dravidian racial identity. Hindu Nationalism is the imposition of a cultural hegemony upon the people. Liberationism is the antithesis to this construct. Dravidanadu as a construct was first envisioned by Periyar as a separate Tamil Nation. The basis of Periyar’s philosophy lies in being Anti-Hindi, Anti-Hindu, and Anti-Brahmin. Dravidanadu thus is one of the most mature ideologies that is a threat and danger to Hindutva. When contrasted with Periyar’s philosophy, Hindutva is just imposing Colonialism again upon the Dravidian races of the South. It calls for the South States to be subservient Economically, Culturally, Linguistically, and Politically to the rule of Delhi. This blatant expression finds a natural revulsion in the South of India, that never integrated into the post-independent monoculture that India was envisioned as. Hindutva thus crumbles horribly in the face of the DravidaNadu Liberation movement. The only response becomes a call for violence, racism, and invoking fake Hindu mythology to bolster arguments. The strength of Dravidanadu is however the very same Liberation and Anti-colonialism that set India free of the British imperial yoke – A people calling for political independence from a foreign power – in this case India.

Caste

Caste is a primary contradiction that Hindutva’s second phase has not been able to resolve. Ideally, as with other Right Wing philosophies, there should only be two ways of resolving this contradiction i.e to integrate the lower castes in the monocultural hegemony or to treat them as the other to be eliminated. The former solution of integration cannot happen because of the vile, individual Hindu’s mindset that has been raised on a cocktail of exclusionism from birth. The latter cannot be done because of the numbers stacked against the upper castes and to a certain extent, the relevance and economic arguments against it. One the other hand, there are the lower castes and the Dalits. The lower castes in Hinduism are like guard dogs of its feudal system – Always guarding it despite being considered nothing more than guard dogs and getting the occasional kick from the masters – the inbred Brahmins. Dalits, in almost similar way, have been taught to be the lowest subhumans of the village paganism called Hinduism. The large mass of Dalits accept that they are nothing more than animals in the Hindu fold and stick to it not knowing why. However, this has constantly been changing since independence and over generations, indoctrination among Dalits to not revolt has died out. Dalits now have nascent Revolutionary potential but the material conditions don’t exist for full scale revolt. This of course is a gift of Liberal politics where a few concessions and freedoms are given to the Dalits to appease them and diffuse the pressure of Revolt.

However, Dalit politics dogmatically and ideologically is a direct attack on the very core of Hinduism itself. It is akin to the Enlightenment and end of the hegemonic power of the Catholic church upon the flock. Additionally, Hinduism requires the ritual torture, rape, mutilation of the weakest Dalit to assuage the blood lust of the middle warrior servant castes of the Brahmins. To thus destroy Hindutva, it is imperative that Dalit, Ambedkarite politics, Dalit Revolutionary zeal, and Dalit Vigilantism must be fostered. The last point holds special significance as history has shown that the servant castes of Brahmins only understand the language of brute force to come to a civilised dialog or to come under the heels of Dalits.

But this is not to assume that all is well among the servant castes either. The pursuit of a Neoliberal economic program has also ensured that Class also cuts into the Caste equations. Thus relegating members of the upper castes to economic misery. This is where it is important to understand the next point – economics.

Economics

Economically, Hindutva has no moorings and will flit and float between any economic paradigm that will keep them afloat for an election. The Hindutva Fountainhead fundamentally believes in a Capitalist paradigm and that the means of production should be in the hands of the few. And the few being decided by the feudal hierarchy. However, where circumstances mandate them to follow a populist paradigm the will veer in that direction as well. All that this proves is that Hindutva hasn’t spent any intellectual capital on economics. This is evident whenever there is a BJP govt in power. Fundamentally, both phases of Hindutva carried on the Neoliberal program of the erstwhile govt without realising the material conditions prevalent – that Neoliberalism is and will always tend to fail.

When the economics thus inevitably fail, the Social program is all that comes to the forefront and this sinks Hindutva into a hole even further because the social program is one that doesn’t not sit well with the business community. There can after all be no business in the middle of a riot – nor a salary for that matter.

One can actually opine that a Keynesian or a Marxist economic approach and polemic is more than enough to present a working model against Hindutva’s economic models.

In terms of soundbytes, the paradigm is simple… “Hindutva cannot survive on an empty stomach”

Feminism and Women’s issues

Hindutva is feudal conservatism towards women. Logically, thus it relies a lot on economic and physical oppression of women. However, in a post-ideological prism and perspective, to not see the role of women in facilitating their own oppression would be remiss. Women have always been fed the narrative under Hindutva, as in all right wing ideologies, that “the other will come to violate you, that is raison d’etre of the other”. Thus you must be protected by a Hindu man and these feminists are part of the conspiracy of the other to violate you. The thread presents itself as its own slippery slope fallacy.

Here we are faced with another problem of the solution itself, which is Liberal Feminism. The current Feminist paradigm today is not the erstwhile Female Liberation movements that sprung forth from Socialist revolutions. Thus the feminism of today is highly susceptible to Reform instead of Revolution. It is therefore important to Radicalise women – to understand that it is time for them to seize power itself and not just to fight for a few allowances and piecemeal reforms.

This strategy then equips the woman to battle her foe from Hindutva. This battle also call upon men to be androgenous and be led by the women destroying the stables and cowsheds of Hindutva.