Congress Plays the Hindutva Card to Counter Agressive RSS! Oppn may seek debate on price rise under rule allowing voting!Wastage of foodgrain a 'crime', says SC!
Bhotmange to move SC in Khairlanji murders case
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - Four Hundred THIRTY SIX
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
Bhotmange to move SC in Khairlanji murders case!
Wastage of foodgrain a 'crime', says SC!
Congress Plays the Hindutva Card to Counter Agressive RSS!Congress cites Ramayana to ask BJP to shun Modi, Shah! While Oppn may seek debate on price rise under rule allowing voting!The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday termed as 'unfortunate' Speaker Meira Kumar's decision against allowing an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the price rise, saying the verdict will cause disappointment to the common man.Chaos, protests, slogan-shouting, disruptions and finally adjournment - the scenes in parliament Wednesday were no different from what it was like the day before, and at the centre of the monsoon storm were the spiralling prices of essential commodities.
Just Remeber the Eighties, while Rajiv gandhi Opened the closed doors of Ayodhya Temple Mosque controversy to consolidate the Hindutva Base gained with Operation Blue Star, Assasination of Indira Gandhi and RSS Unconditional support in 1984 elections. In fact, Congress NEVER did deviate from Hindutva after Gandhi Nehru plotted Successfuly the Partition of India, Readjustment of Demography to ensure INFINITE Brahamin Bania Raj, Sustenance of Manusmriti Rule and Survival of Zionsit Dynasty Ruling India since the demise of the Raj! Exclusive Economy and Exclusion of SC, ST, OBC and Minority Communities and persecution of majority NON Brahaminical Castes and Communities in absence of Fiscal Policy created the US Peripherry of the Shining Risilient Economy of sustained Economic Ethnic Cleansing.
RSS dream of Hindu Rashtra and unprecedented resurgence of Hindutva as Brahaminical Supremacy and Complete Mind Control with the Emergence of Global Hindutva strategically aligned with Zionist US Imperialism, Israel and the Fascist Developed world within and outside rather Consolidated the Nehru Legacy of Hindutva in the veins of the most Saffron Party in the Divided Subcontinent which is Responsible to continue the great Indian Holocaust. In essence, RSS and Left Parties play the Game of Diversion in the Free market Democracy to ensure Mass Destruction of Majority Excluded Masses and make India reduced in Corporate MNC India Incs LPG Mafia Ruled FREE MARKET only!
On the other hand,Anguished over "delay" by Maharashtra government and CBI in moving the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court''s verdict in the Khairlanji Dalit killing case, the only survivor of the incident today said he would move the apex court. "I will appoint a well-known lawyer and move the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court verdict which was totally unexpected and unfortunate," Bhaiyalal Bhotmange told reporters.
Despite its strategy for the Adjournment Motion falling flat in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition has not given up raking the price rise issue and could now seek a debate under a rule which entails voting. The apprehension in the government circles is that the Opposition may utilise Rule 184 to again press for discussion with voting in the Lower House.
A Union Minister, who declined to be identified said the ruling of the Speaker, disallowing the Adjournment Motion, could not be applicable if fresh notices are served under Rule 184 and a separate ruling would be required for it. Asked why was the government against voting on the crucial issue, the minister said the government has to run for four years and it cannot set a precedent where voting takes place on every issue.
"After all, we have to mobilise members every time. Some of them could be indisposed.
Everyone knows that government has a majority. This is just to destabilise the government," he said.
Political consensus needed for industry in Singur: WB minister
West Bengal Industry minister Nirupam Sen today said political consensus was needed for setting up industry on the land from where the Tatas had pulled out the Nano car project in Singur. "We are prepared for a discussion if there is a good proposal.Industry can be set up there if there is consensus," Sen told the Assembly. The minister was replying to a question by CLP leader Manas Bhunia.
Stating that withdrawal of Nano project had given a bad message, he said "If there is good intention of all political parties then we can still move ahead and set up industry there which can undo the damage." When BHEL went to inspect the land at Singur (for a power project) the Tatas had stated verbally that if the West Bengal government received any good proposal for industry and informed them, it would not have any objection in principle to return the land, Sen said.
Responding to a volley of supplementaries by Bhunia, Sen said that land once acquired could not be legally returned to its original owner. He said the Tatas had almost finished building its factory, where it had leased the land for three years, when in October 2008 the group decided to abandon its project.
In an apparent reference to the Trinamool Congress, Sen said "all know what we have done to keep the project here. It is our misfortune that we were not able to make all to agree to it.
Even as the Opposition rocked Parliament over price rise, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said wastage of even a single foodgrain in a poverty-ridden country is a "crime".
"In a country where people are starving, wastage of a single grain is a crime. It has come out in official record that food stock is lying wasted," a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma observed on how food stock is lying "rotten" at government godowns without reaching the "poor and needy".
A SC -appointed committee, set up to do a reality check on the Public Distribution System (PDS) mechanism, had described it as "inefficient and corrupt", plagued by black marketing and unofficially run by a "vicious cartel of bureaucrats, fair price shop owners and middlemen".
The committee headed by former SC judge Justice D P Wadhwa had in its report to the apex court said the Rs 28,000-crore subsidy annually spent by the government was pocketed by vested interests and suggested drastic action to stem the rot.
The court on Tuesday directed the Union Food Secretary to respond in an affidavit to the committee's recommendation for "expansion" of PDS quota for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. The panel said this could be done by "restricting" public distribution only to those Above Poverty Line (APL) consumers earning below Rs 1 lakh.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for NGO PUCL in a 2001 PIL on PDS hiccups, submitted that government records show that 62 million tonnes of foodgrains is at present stored at government depots in "the open, with every risk of it being destroyed".
"Wheat is rotting. Why not come out with a proposal to immediately distribute food commodities, lying in godowns riddled with lack of storage space, to the BPL families," the court asked.
The court wanted the Food Secretary, who has to file an affidavit in six weeks, to consider distribution of ration through co-operative societies instead of "private licensees".
The fact that the Opposition has not given up the price rise issue could be gauged from the fact that the BJP would be approaching President Pratibha Patil on the issue tomorrow. Ridiculing the decision of the main opposition to approach the President tomorrow on the issue, the minister said if they seriously think the government can be brought down and they have the figure of 274, they should stake their claim to form an alternative government and not take recourse to such desperate acts.
Meanwhile, the Left parties have decided to stage a sit-in inside Parliament House tomorrow to protest the government''s "failure" to contain rising prices of essential commodities. CPI National Secretary D Raja and CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said they will hold the sit-in inside Parliament precincts as "we do not want to hold up the proceedings of the House.
" Raja said, "We don''t agree with the Speaker''s ruling. The government should accept its lapses and failures (in checking the rising prices) and come forward with adequate steps to control prices".
Meanwhile, the government is concerned over the impasse over conducting business in the House as Parliament has some urgent business to conduct. The President''s rule in Jharkhand has to be ratified by both Houses by July 30.
"This could create Constitutional problems if the ratification is not done within two months of the proclamation of the President''s rule," said a source.
In Amedabad,Citing Ramayana, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil wants the BJP to shun leaders like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and jailed ex-minister Amit Shah as a fallout of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Gohil, who is the Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly, also slammed BJP President Nitin Gadkari saying he "lacks elementary knowledge about facts" in the case.
He said this in an open letter to Gadkari yesterday responding to his statement that CBI was not arresting any police officer from Andhra Pradesh in connection with the case. Gadkari had said the AP government when the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister was equally involved in the arrest of Sohrabuddin and responsible for his encounter death.
"Gadkari must be aware of law of natural justice and cultural history of the country. Whenever there is atrocity on woman then the tormentor loses power," he said citing the example of Sita and Ravana from Ramayana.
"In the same way, people who victimised Kauserbi are facing the nature''s punishment now. So BJP or its members should not support such people.
Vibhishan parted ways with Ravana because he was on evil path. Gadkari or his party also should not support Gujarat police or Gujarat BJP leaders," the Congress leader said.
Kauserbi was murdered a few days after Sohrabuddin''s encounter death in November 2005. When senior Congress leader Natwar Singh''s name cropped up in oil for food scam, Congress instead of protecting him immediately parted ways with him and there are numerous such examples in public life, Gohil said.
"It is not proper to shield the BJP leader of the state who is accused of criminal conspiracy," he added. Gohil said if CBI is doing something wrong or something wrong is being done on someone''s insistence then a complaint should be made before the Supreme Court.
Shah, who resigned as minister of state for home, was on Sunday arrested by CBI in connection with the killing of Sohrabuddin, an alleged gangster and his wife Kauserbi. "He (Gadkari) is holding position of the president of the second largest political party.
However, Gadkari''s statement on CBI inquiry showed that the BJP president did not have even elementary knowledge about facts," Gohil said.
Bhotmange, whose wife, two sons and a daughter were killed in the incident, said he wanted all the 11 accused, including three who were acquitted in the case by the sessions court, to be awarded death penalty. Although the sessions court had punished eight accused in the case, they were acquitted under Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST Act.
Bhotmange said "I will challenge this aspect also. I will also press molestation charges, which were not included so far, against the culprits," he said.
"I met Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today to know the government''s stand on moving the SC in the case. However, I was just told that CBI which probed the case will move the court.
The government is not paying heed to my plea," Bhotmange alleged. "I do not know when CBI will move the court but I have decided to go to the apex court independently seeking justice," he said.
Four members of the Bhotmange family -- Surekha Bhaiyalal, her daughter Priyanka, sons Sudhir and Roshan -- were brutally killed by a mob at Khairlanji village on September 29, 2006, over a land dispute with upper castes, provoking violent protests across the state. Six people, accused of killing children, were given death sentence by a sessions court in September, 2008.
Another two were sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Bhotmange''s wife while three others were acquitted. The Bombay High Court later commuted the death sentence of six convicts to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar period for two others serving life term.
Both houses of parliament were adjourned for the day for the second consecutive day without conducting any business due to protests by opposition members who adamantly demanded an adjournment motion that entails voting to 'censure' the government over the rising prices.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rejected the demands, as did her Rajya Sabha counterpart Hamid Ansari, inviting an angry reaction and loud protests from a united opposition.
'The adjournment is always admitted on the failure of the government to perform its duty enjoined by the constitution and the law...that is the not the case here,' Meira Kumar told the house after a nearly one-and-a-half hour debate on whether the matter could not be discussed under an adjournment motion.
'I appreciate the concerns of honorable members. It is a matter of concern to the chair also...the house certainly needs to debate it but adjournment motion is not permissible,' Meira Kumar said, prompting noisy protests.
Amid a ruckus, the speaker adjourned the house for the day, less than 10 minutes after it resumed at 2 p.m. following the lunch break.
The Left parties threatened to hold a sit-in at Parliament House Thursday. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Das Gupta criticised Meira Kumar for her 'invalid assessment' of the situation and disallowing the adjournment motion.
'We will continue our agitation both inside and outside parliament. We will hold a sit-in,' Das Gupta said, a sentiment echoed by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Basudeb Acharia.
The speaker permitted a debate on admitting the motion after a brief commotion and protests as the house assembled in the morning.
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was the first to justify her notice, saying 'it was cent percent according to the house rules'.
'The adjournment motion that entails voting means stopping all other businesses and discussing an issue of urgent importance that has occurred recently. I have raised two points... recent hikes in (the prices of) kerosene and the cooking gas,' Swaraj said.
The June 26 fuel price hike had put the poor of the country into 'grave hardships', she said, adding the opposition wanted to 'censure' the government over its wrong pricing policies 'because they are troubling the common man'.
Intervening, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee welcomed a discussion on the rising prices which, he said, was not a government failure.
Unless the central government 'fails to discharge its duties enjoined by the constitution and the law', the matter could not be discussed under the adjournment motion, Mukherjee, who is the leader of the house, maintained.
Other MPs who spoke on the notices included Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U)Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Das Gupta and Acharia.
The heat over spiralling food prices also forced two adjournments of the Rajya Sabha with angry opposition MPs putting forth the same demands.
The house saw vociferous protests from the entire opposition as soon as it assembled at 11 a.m., with some members of the ruling party countering that question hour should proceed on schedule. In the midst of the din, Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the house till 12 noon.
As soon as the house reassembled, chants of '168' - the rule under which the opposition wants to move an adjournment motion - were heard.
Though the entire opposition was demanding a discussion on the price rise, the divide between the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Left and other non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties was visible as their slogans were at variance, with each trying to outshout the other.
CPI-M member Brinda Karat animatedly suggested slogans to her party colleges, asking them to raise their pitch to be more audible. The Left was also joined by RJD members.
Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman K. Rahaman Khan called for papers to be laid on the table before adjourning the house for the day.
Amit Shah quizzed by CBI, feigns memory lapse | |||
| 2010-07-28 21:00:00 Last Updated: 2010-07-28 21:07:16 | |||
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All About: Amit Shah, CBI, Sohrabuddin, Encounter, Topnews |
Mulayam and I not afraid of CBI: Lalu
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Wednesday said he and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav are not afraid of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.Lalu Prasad, while participating in the discussion on the admissibility of the adjournment motion on price rise in the Lok Sabha, reminded both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership not to threaten him and Mulayam Singh Yadav in the name of CBI investigations.
'Which CBI are we afraid of? I'm not afraid of the CBI. Mulayam Singh is not afraid of CBI,' the RJD chief said, referring to the allegations they faced after their MPs abstained from voting during the cut motion moved by the opposition in the budget session of parliament demanding a rollback in fuel prices.
During the budget session, the Samajwadi Party and the RJD had assured that they would support the cut motion. But they staged a walkout instead, stating that they would not vote along with the BJP, indirectly helping the government.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, in a rally in Chandigarh, had stated that Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh had betrayed the opposition on the cut motions because they faced CBI cases against them.
Without naming Gadkari, Lalu Prasad said: 'A leader of a political party holding the top post had made derogatory remarks against me and Mulayam Singh. He, however, apologised later.'
He said such statements were aimed at demoralising them.
'Nobody can dictate to us,' the RJD leader said, adding that they were leaders who had risen from suppressed sections of the society.
Lalu Prasad said he could withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on other burning issues like the government's failure to implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission and Sachar committee reports, both aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions of the Muslim community.
Land Grab For POSCO Project Begins
http://orissaconcerns.net/2010/07/land-grab-for-posco-project-begins/
Today the Orissa government initiated "acquisition" of land in the
proposed POSCO project area of Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa. The
project is in complete violation of the law and this "acquisition" is
part of an illegal land grab. We reiterate the following:
1. 3000 of 4000 acres in the POSCO area are forest land.
2. The people of the three affected gram panchayats have rights over
this forest land under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. They are
eligible; they have written proof of their presence in the area for a
century.
3. As per the requirements of the Act the forest land cannot be taken
for any other purpose without 1) fully recording and recognising all
individual and community rights; 2) the communities ofthe area
granting their consent in the form of a resolution.
4. Out of the four palli sabhas (gram sabhas) of the area, three have
rejected consent.
5. No implementation of the Act has been done.
6. The forest clearance granted for the project is therefore illegal.
Moreover the Orissa government was also sent a "clarification" by the
Environment Ministry that stated that the "project cannot go ahead"
unless the legal requirements of the Forest Rights Act are met.
As such the attempt to remove people is in direct violation of the
law. The illegal collusion of the Orissa government and the
Environment Ministry with POSCO has already been exposed. Please see
here for a full set of documents proving these facts and for more
details:
http://www.forestrightsact.com/corporate-projects/item/12-the-posco-project
The ongoing take over of the land is evidence of the utter contempt in
which both governments and corporates hold the law, and of how the
government always uses force not to defend the "rule of law" but to
defend the rule of money and resource grabbers.
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
9873657844, www.forestrightsact.com
--
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth
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Seminar-Workshop
Understanding the World Bank in India
August 16, 17, 18, 2010
YUVA Center, Kharghar, Mumbai
Dear friends,
We are writing to invite you to a seminar-workshop on 'Understanding the World Bank in India' from August 16-18 in Mumbai.
The World Bank (WB) and its affiliate organisations today invest in almost every significant sector in the Indian economy; this includes Infrastructure, energy, climate change, forestry, water management, education, health and agriculture. Reports from the Bank indicate that lending for the fiscal year ending June 2010 touched a record $ 9.3 billion. With a clever innovation from project to development policy lending the Bank has largely escaped political and civil society scrutiny in recent years, as it is has become more complicated to track the Banks footprints and demand accountability.
We feel that it is imperative that groups and individuals concerned about WB funding come together and share current information and analysis about the Bank, unravel its complexities, structure and mechanisms and understand the nuances so that we are better equipped to understand and campaign.
Keeping this objective in mind we have invited civil society organizations, people's movements and researchers to share information and bring together their knowledge for the benefit of other activists who are hitherto less engaged with Bank/IFI issues. The agenda is flexible and we hope that apart from formal presentations, informal exchanges among participants will result in a meaningful sharing of experiences and strategies.
For more information please find attached a background note and agenda.
This meeting is organised by Bank Information Centre (South Asia), Focus on the Global South and Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA).
Please feel free to share this information with other relevant organisations and people. Do copy us when you do so.
Kindly confirm your participation by us the following details:
Name:
Organisation:
Area/sector of work:
Address:
Tel:
Mobile:
Email:
Would you require travel assistance (train sleeper tickets / bus)? Yes / No
For queries and confirmation, please write to: 'Anuradha Munshi – amunshi@bicusa.org
Once we hear from you, we will share more information and background reading materials.
Looking forward to hearing from you at the earliest.
Best regards,
Raju Bhise, Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA)
Benny Kuruvilla, Focus on Global South
Anuradha Munshi and Joe Athialy, Bank Information Center
~~
Joe Athialy
South Asia Coordinator | Bank Information Center
Post Box No. 4659 | New Delhi - 110016
+91.9871153775 | jathialy [at] bicusa.org | www.bicusa.org
Bank Information Center (BIC) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that partners with civil society in developing and transition countries to influence the World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs) to promote social and economic justice and ecological sustainability.
India says to sign $775 mln jet deal with BAE Systems
British defence group BAE Systems will supply 57 Hawk training jets to India's air force and navy, a senior defence ministry official said on Wednesday, a contract which is potentially worth $775 million.
BAE will supply 40 trainer jets to the air force and the remainder to the navy, a senior air force official said.
The contract between BAE Systems and state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will be signed in the southern city of Bangalore on Wednesday, where British Prime Minister David Cameron is currently visiting, the official said in New Delhi.
Cameron, who is on his first visit to India since taking office in May, leads a delegation including six ministers and more than 30 senior executives from top UK firms, to show that Britain is serious about boosting economic exchanges with the Asian giant.
80 districts countrywide hit by floods
The government Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that 80 districts in the country have been adversely affected by floods.The government also told the house that flood management was a state subject and it is the state governments that are responsible for executing schemes for prevention of floods.
Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that 80 districts across the country had been 'adversely affected' by recent floods.
The affected districts comprise 14 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 each in Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala, 15 in Assam, five in Bihar, one each in Goa, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Puducherry, five in Haryana, and eight each in Mizoram and Punjab.
He said the state governments were primarily responsible for undertaking relief measures at the ground level and the central government supplements their efforts by providing logistic and financial support.
Too much Mani continues to be wasted on the Games
His diatribe against the Commonwealth Games going largely unheard, senior Congress leader and MP Mani Shankar Aiyar today struck a more provocative note saying he would be "unhappy" if the Games are a success and that those organising it are "evil.""I am delighted in a way because rains are causing difficulties for the Commonwealth Games. Basically, I will be very unhappy if the Games are successful because then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games," he said. And added: "Those who are patronising the Games can only be evil. They cannot be God."
This drew a sharp reaction from IOA chief and Commonwealth Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi who said that it was good that Aiyar wasn't the Sports Minister.
Within hours at the inauguration of Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Kalmadi hit back. "Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, nobody can stop the Commonwealth games. Moreover, if Aiyar was Sports Minister, these stadia wouldn't have been in place," Kalmadi said.
Incidentally, the Indian Olympic Association has already sent a proposal to the Sports Ministry seeking permission to bid for Asian Games.
For a change, Sports Minister M S Gill, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were united with Kalmadi. "A puddle here or a leakage there does not mean that the Games will not happen. We are aware of all these things and nothing will be left for chance," Dikshit said. She added that until a few months ago, the condition of the stadiums was such that authorities were worried. "What has happened is next to a miracle," she said.
"Thousands of crores are being spent on circuses like these while the common children are being deprived of basic facilities to play," said Aiyar.
As Sports Minister, a portfolio he was divested of in 2008, Aiyar had questioned the rationale of spending on Commonwealth Games.
There was unease in the Congress over Aiyar's comments. "It's barely two months away. It is now the prestige of the nation. There is a difference between an opinion for which there are forums and an outburst," said a senior Congress leader disapproving of Aiyar's remarks.
The party was guarded. "He is a nominated Member of Parliament and the party invariably refrains from addressing itself to personal opinion," said AICC spokesman Manish Tewari. Reacting to Aiyar's comment, Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit said, "I don't take him seriously."
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Community farming turns a lucrative option in Orissa
Bolangir (Orissa), July 28 (ANI): The Community farming involving farmers, landowners and landless labourers has turned out to be a lucrative option in Orissa, as the stakeholders reap equal shares of the profits.At least 16 farmers of Bolangir District formed a Community named Budharaja Bhagidar Chasi Gosthi with the help of Watershed Department of the Government of Orissa, and have been practicing community farming.
The farming community includes landowners to landless farmers. The landowners have given 60 acres of their property on lease to the community.
The lands have been divided into three parts and accordingly, the prices have been fixed per acre.
"Different farmers have different amount of land; some have five acres, some have seven acres. We first listed them all then we put them in different categories. High lands - 2,500 rupees, middle land - 1,500 rupees, and low land - 2,000 rupees," said Debarchan Majhi, Secretary of the Community.
"The high lands are used for cultivating cash crops so it is costly, and mostly cotton is grown on it. The middle land is not as fertile and has fewer yields while the lower lands have better irrigation facilities," he added.
Sarbe Chandan, a landless farmer said the newly formed Community helped him to get work, and revived him of his poverty.
"Earlier, I was living very poorly as I could earn Rs 2,000 to 3,000. I couldn't get work. Now, as I joined this group I got works and I earn more than earlier. I get Rs 6,000 to 7,000," he added.
The Community farming has come as a blessing for the landless farmers, who besides doing crop farming, get the time and support for dairy farming, fishing, and mushroom cultivation.
"We convinced them to go far farm activities. To take some farm activities like poultry, dairy and mushroom (farming). Now they are interested also," said Bipin Bihari Sahu, Junior Soil Conservation Officer.
"The department has also supplied two pump-sets in 50 percent subsidies to the farmers, and two farm ponds have also been given to them," he added. (ANI)
State Human Rights Commissions set up in 19 States: Govt.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken on Wednesday informed in the Rajya Sabha that State Human Rights Commission have been set up in 19 States of the country.The Government of India and National Human Rights Commission re keen that every State sets up a State Human Rights Commission (SHRC).
Maken stated in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha that the Government and NHRC have been requesting to all those States which have not yet constituted their State Commission to do so at the earliest.
The 19 States where the State Human Rights Commission have been constituted are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim.
He also mentioned that the State Human Rights Commission have not been constituted in the following States:
1. Arunachal Pradesh 2. Haryana 3. Goa 4. Jharkhand 5. Meghalaya 6. Mizoram 7. Nagaland 8. Tripura 9. Uttrakhand.
Punjab traders want better India-Pakistan relations
Traders in Punjab are keen that relations between India and Pakistan improve which would give a spurt to the import and export of goods.They want bilateral trade should be encouraged and one of the possible ways could be opening of visa centres by the two countries in the Amritsar city.
Some of these businessmen say that Pakistani businessmen should be able to visit the city frequently.
Vipin Kumar, a trader in Amritsar who is importing the cement and rockalt hopes that the dialogue process with Pakistan would continue immensely.
"Such talks strengthen the relations which further help the trade to flourish'', he said.ccording to V.K. Mahajan, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, there has been 11 per cent increase in the revenue of the Customs from the import-export business between India and Pakistan in comparison to the last year.
"The environment is becoming friendly which is good for the trade andusiness between the two countries'', said Mahajan. By Sawinder Singh (ANI)
Naxals want to rule Delhi: Raman Singh
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Naxals have ambitions to capture power at the Centre through violent means.Replying to an adjournment motion on Naxals issue in the state Assembly, Singh said the Naxals did not want to be bracketed in Chhattisgarh or some other states but want to capture Delhi.
He said the Naxal menace is a national issue and not a concern of ruling, opposition or a particular party.
"Naxals did not spare leader or activist of any party.
They (Naxals) do not hesitate to kill anybody who goes against them. So if a party considers itself close to Naxals then it is its biggest mistake," Singh said.
Replying to claims that Naxal activities gained momentum in Chhattisgarh during BJP's rule, Chief Minister, without naming Congress, said Naxalism began spreading its tentacles from 70s and everyone knows who ruled the country from 70s to 2003.
The solution to Naxalism is not submitting resignation but to confront it with honesty, he said.
Singh said around 25,000 policemen were recruited in the state in last seven years and a 'jungle warfare' college has been established in Kanker to train policemen in fighting against Naxals.
The Chief Minster said state government has the will power to fight against Naxalism.
He termed allegations that he bought votes in Naxal infested areas, as baseless saying people in Bastar voted to BJP viewing its developmental work.
Singh, refuting the allegations of handing over mines in Bastar region to private players, said no companies except NMDC,CMDC and SALE were working in the region.
Slamming Human Rights activists, Singh said they raise hue and cry if a person in jailed but keep mum when hundreds are killed in Bastar by Naxals.
He said an action plan has been implemented in Naxal infested regions in the state including Bastar for development works.
The Chief Minister said due to development works in Naxal infested regions the youths will not astray from the right path.
Congress slams Chhattisgarh's BJP Govt over Naxal menance
Main Opposition Congress today disrupted the Question Hour in Chhattisgarh Assembly and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Raman Singh for "failing" to curb the Naxal activities in the state.
The issue of Naxalism was raised forcefully by the Congress. Amidst noisy scenes, Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik adjourned the House twice and the Question Hour could not be completed.
When the Chair allowed discussion on an adjournment motion on the Maoist menace in the state, Congress members slammed the BJP Government.
Leader of Opposition Ravindra Chaubey said increased attacks by the extremists in the last few months had resulted in loss of lives of a large number of security personnel and villagers. Despite this, the Raman Singh Government had been doing nothing except issuing statements, he alleged.
The Centre had provided adequate resources to Chhattisgarh to deal with Naxals, but the state has failed to use them effectively, Chaubey said.
Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi (Congress) said the BJP Government lacks will to stamp out the Maoist menace. Naxalism should not be treated as a law and order problem. Social and economic development should be kept in mind while dealing with this issue.
Massive opportunities seen in India-Latin America ties
Stressing the great integration potential between India and Latin America, a new study calls for closer economic ties between the two distant partners to tap into 'massive' trade and investment opportunities.The study 'India: Latin America's Next Big Thing?' released Tuesday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) looks into recent development and economic trends in India and their possible impact for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The study argues that India has the potential to mirror the recent economic performance of China, which has become a major market for Latin American and Caribbean exports but also poses a challenge for the region's manufacturing sector.
'Potential exchange of goods and services between Latin America is nothing short of extraordinary,'' said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.
With 1.1 billion people and a scarcity of natural resources, relative to other continent-size nations, India has the potential to be a large buyer of agricultural and mineral goods, Latin America's main exports, according to the study.
Currently, India represents just 0.8 percent of this region's overall trade, compared with China's 7.7 percent share.
Recent economic and political changes in both India and Latin America are creating greater opportunities for more integration, Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar said.
In the case of India, the country's growing liberalisation and strong domestic demand has helped fuel economic growth in recent years and she expects that tariffs and other trade barriers, particularly in the agricultural sector, could gradually be reduced, she said.
'India's trade profile is going to change and that will provide great trade opportunities for Latin America,'' she said. India's gross domestic product is expected to grow 8.5 percent this year, up from 6.9 percent during the global financial crisis, Shankar added.
For Arvind Panagarya, professor of economics at Columbia University and one of the panelists of the seminar, India's trade potential with Latin America depends on how fast it will grow in coming years.
The country, which is now the world's 11th biggest economy, could become the world's third or fourth largest if its GDP grows 10 percent in real dollar terms over the next 15 years.
Wal-Mart India growth faces supply chain hurdle
Retail giant Wal-Mart , still limited by rules barring multi-brand foreign retailers in India, expects supply chain woes to make fast expansion in the country difficult, the chief of its Indian joint venture said.India's $450 billion retail sector is largely closed to overseas firms, with those carrying multiple brands restricted to cash-and-carry, or wholesale, outlets like the ones Wal-Mart operates in India.
Earlier this month, the government took a tentative step towards opening the organised retail sector to foreign companies by circulating a discussion paper on the issue, and Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, has said it could open hundreds of stores in India if rules are relaxed.
But in a country where at least 40 percent of produce is wasted because of inadequate storage and transportation, large investments in warehouses, refrigerated trucks and other amenities are needed.
"The larger issue in our country is supply chain," Raj Jain, managing director and chief executive of the three-year-old Bharti Wal-Mart venture, told Reuters Insider television.
India's retail sector is dominated by mom and pop shops, with organised retail accounting for just 6 percent of the total.
"Supplier base including the farmers, the local suppliers, even the big companies are not ready to supply to large format of organised retail in an efficient way," he said.
Asked how that would affect Wal-Mart's pace of expansion, Jain said: "I think significantly, and my own view is for the first five years it's going to be very, very difficult to rapidly expand in the country."
Foreign retailers have said they are willing to invest whatever it takes to build up the country's supply chain, but argue that it is only a viable proposition for them if they also have access to India's increasingly prosperous customers.
Wal-Mart's India joint venture expects to open as many as 15 wholesale stores over the next three years.
"We are working on it with our two stores, which we currently have on the cash-and-carry side. We will continue to work on it," Jain said referring to the company's wholesale stores, for which it sources about 90 percent of the goods locally, directly from farmers and manufacturers.
"I see this as at least a decade before a supply chain of any international quality and standard will be set up in India," he said.
Jain said the process to open up the country's retail sector had already started and that there is now a "more serious debate" about opening it further, especially food and grocery, where traditional small shops predominate.
"It's a question of 'how long will it take to get food and grocery open and how much?'," Jain said.
Global retail chains like Wal-Mart and Carrefour have long been frustrated in their efforts to operate in the world's second-fastest growing major economy because of ownership restrictions.
(Editing by Tony Munroe)
(For more news on Reuters India click http://in.reuters.com)
Amin's 'approver' plea unnerves accused cops, 8 object
Eight police officers including D G Vanzara, who are accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, on Tuesday objected to an application filed by co-accused and suspended DySP Dr Narendra Amin who had sought permission to turn an approver in the case.The eight moved their application through their lawyer contending they should be heard before any decision is taken on Amin's prayer.
Advocate Preyas Limbachiya, who is representing the eight accused, said the objection application has been filed on behalf of D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan, M L Parmar, N V Chauhan, Himanshu Singh, Shyam Singh, B R Chaube and Dinesh M N.
A day earlier, Amin had moved the application under the provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure
Amin's 'approver' plea unnerves accused cops, 8 object saying he wanted to unravel a number of facts related to the case. Amin's application was scheduled for hearing on Tuesday. However, due to the death of a close relative of his lawyer, it has now been adjourned for hearing on August 3.
While filing the objection application, Limachiya told the court that the accused would file a detailed affidavit listing their objections to Amin turning an approver during the next hearing of the case.
Amin had also sought the court's direction to transfer him from the Sabarmati jail to some other prison, saying he faced threat to his life there. However, the CBI Magisterial Court turned down the plea while asking the Sabarmati jail authorities to step up Amin's security inside the jail.
UK's Cameron secures jet, nuclear deals with India
Prime Minister David Cameron trumpeted a $1.1 billion defence deal with India on Wednesday, a product of Britain's drive to court Indian business and tap new sources of economic growth.In comments likely to please Delhi but that could upset Islamabad, Cameron also said India's arch rival Pakistan should not "promote the export of terror", days after a huge leak of U.S. documents raised questions about Pakistan's role in Afghanistan and its support for the Taliban.
On his first visit to India since taking office in May, Cameron leads a delegation including six ministers and more than 30 senior executives from top UK firms to show Britain is serious about boosting economic exchanges with the Asian giant.
BAE Systems, Europe's biggest defence contractor, and Rolls-Royce signed about $1.1 billion worth deal with a state-run Indian firm to supply 57 Hawk trainer jets to India, one of the world's biggest defence markets.
Following in Washington's foosteps, London will start granting licences to its civil nuclear firms to export to India, opening up business prospects potentially worth billions of pounds, according to British government sources.
Finance Minister George Osborne was in Mumbai to persuade Asia's third-largest economy to free up its financial services market and hasten the signing of a free trade deal between India and the European Union.
"I want this to be a relationship which drives economic growth upwards and drives our unemployment figures downwards," Cameron said in a speech to young Indian business leaders at the high-tech Infosys campus in Bangalore.
"This is a trade mission, yes, but I prefer to see it as my job's mission," he said.
India, a former British colony, belongs to the "BRIC" group of rapidly growing emerging economies along with China, Brazil and Russia, the likes of which Britain is hoping to tap especially in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Cameron has often lamented that Britain trades more with Ireland than it does with all the BRICs combined and he has vowed to remedy that with vigorous pro-trade diplomacy.
PAKISTAN WARNING
Cameron said on Wednesday that Pakistan must not become a base for militants and "promote the export of terror" across the globe, saying their bilateral ties depended on that. The remarks are likely to cheer officials in Delhi, which has long accused its neighbour of backing strikes on Indian targets including the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
"We should be very, very clear with Pakistan that we want to see a strong, stable and democratic Pakistan," he told reporters.
"We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world," he added.
Cameron leads the biggest trade delegation in modern times to India as a statement of intent amid talk of Britain wanting to forge a "special relationship" with India -- a phrase more closely associated with Britain's ties with Washington.
Cameron's Conservative-led government, and some Indian commentors, think its Labour predecessor did too little to maintain ties with India, the world's second most populous nation with 1.2 billion potential customers.
"In Britain, we're waking up to a new reality," he wrote in a column in Wednesday's edition of the Indian newspaper the Hindu.
"Economic power is shifting -- particularly to Asia -- so Britain has to work harder than ever before to earn its living in the world. I'm not ashamed to say that's one of the reasons why I'm here in India."
The Indian response to talk of the special relationship was guarded.
"We have seen reports and are aware of the intention of the government of UK to have a new special relationship with India," T.P. Sitaraman, the joint secretary at India's foreign ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday. "The discussions will naturally throw light on what those terms mean."
(Additional reporting by C.J. Kuncheria and Matthias Williams in NEW DELHI and Sumeet Desai in MUMBAI; editing by Paul de Bendern/Keith Weir)
India to be asked for views on immigration cap
Amid reports here that Britain may consult India on the proposed permanent immigration cap on non-EU workers, Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz says he will be writing to New Delhi in his capacity as chairman of British parliament's home affairs select committee, inviting its views on the cap.'We will welcome the views of the Indian Government and I will be writing to Indian ministers asking them to share their views with Parliament on this issue,' Vaz said in a statement Wednesday.
His statement coincides with a report in The Guardian which quotes a spokesperson of 10, Downing Street as saying: 'We want to work with India and other countries to ensure that high-skilled people can still come to Britain. We are going to talk to these countries about how to implement the cap.'
Such a consultation with India will be a 'novel' approach to immigration policy, Vaz said, adding: 'It is an interesting departure that one country is being able to shape the immigration policy of another in this way.'
At the same time, consulting India on a policy which adversely affects the workers of that country could be 'insulting' to India, he cautioned.
He said: 'The prime minister needs to take care not to make immigration policy on the hoof. It is a bit insulting to ask the Indian government to shape a policy that will result in reducing the number of Indian entrepreneurs and possibly students coming to this country -- the cap will reduce, not increase, the number of Indians coming to Britain.'
However, Vaz criticised the Cameron government for not making such an announcement - about possible consultations - in parliament. He said he would be writing to home secretary Theresa May asking her 'why she did not announce this before parliament rose yesterday (Tuesday), or in her and the immigration minister's evidence on the cap to the home affairs select committee'.
He said Cameron, May and business secretary Vince Cable 'seem to have different views on this crucial issue', adding that 'what immigration policy needs is clarity (and) at the moment the government's view is as clear as mud'.
Before his departure to India, Cable had said that he favoured a more 'liberal' immigration policy. This was seen as quite in contrast to the Conservative view for a tougher policy.
Responding to Cable's view, Cameron said in an interview to BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it was 'perfectly legitimate' for Cable to argue his case. He, however, added that 'we decide these things in the cabinet in a reasonable and sensible way'.
Govt modifies telecoms rules on security concerns
The government on Wednesday modified rules for telecoms operators and equipment vendors to address security-related concerns, it said in a statement.The Department of Telecommunications said on its website telecoms operators must take over equipment maintenance locally in a phased manner and equipment vendors must allow inspection of gear.
Earlier this year, India had barred Indian mobile phone operators from placing orders with China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp because of security concerns, Indian telecom industry officials have said.
For details of the revised guidelines, click http://dot.gov.in
Aiyar-Kalmadi spat ''free-style wrestling'', tweets Cong leader
With former Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and IOA President Suresh Kalmadi at loggerheads over the Commonwealth Games, Congress leader Anil Shastri has deplored the "free-style wrestling" between the two. On the microblogging site ''twitter'', Shastri, a special invitee of the Congress Working Committee and editor of party mouthpiece ''Congress Sandesh'' said, "It has become a free-for- all-affair at CG (Commonwealth Games).Free style wrestling is being witnessed at the preparations level itself. This is deplorable".
Later, he said an intervention was needed in the matter as India''s image as a sporting nation was at stake. Shastri had earlier tweeted and dubbed the hike in prices of kerosene and cooking gas as "disastrous for the common man".
He had also trained his guns on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia for his remarks that inflation will ease by December-end. "Deputy Chairman Planning Commission has said inflation will ease into a comfortable zone by December, which he said verbatim last November also," Shastri remarked in his last post on his twitter account.
The posts by Shastri comes months after former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor got into trouble for tweeting on diverse issues, including the government''s foreign policy. Congress today disapproved of the sparring between Aiyar and Kalmadi, saying senior leaders of the party should speak responsibly when they reply to any issue in public.
British delegation briefed on CWG''10 preparation
A high level British delegation led by Jeremy Hunt, England''s Secretary of State for Sports, was today briefed by the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee on India''s preparation for the quadrennial sporting extravaganza starting from October 3-14. Besides Hunt, legendary British athlete Sebastian Coe and double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes also attended the meet, presided over by the OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi at its headquarters.Coe, visually impressed with Delhi''s preparation for the Games, said it was nice to find the organisers so relaxed when the Games is just 64 days away. "It is nice to see the Organising Committee so calm with just 64 days left while we are on our toes with two years to go for the London Olympics," said Coe, chief of the 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee.
Kalmadi gave an audio-visual presentation during the meeting and also explained in details the preparation for the Games to the team, who are part of the delegation visiting with British Prime Minister David Cameron. "We wish Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games every success.
We are going back with a strong message and we will encourage the British athletes to come to the Games in Delhi," Hunt said. "The 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games were a big stepping stone for us for the 2012 Olympics.
We hope that the 2010 Games will be a similar step for you. It is a big gap that India has not hosted the Olympic Games.
I hope it will also happen in India in future," he added. Hunt also hoped that the multi-discipline event will leave behind a lasting legacy for the country.
"We''re heavily involved in the London 2012 Olympics and looking to leave a lasting sporting legacy. We hope that the 2010 Commonwealth Games also leaves something to inspire the younger generation in India," Hunt said.
Kalmadi, also President of Indian Olympic Association, reiterated his resolve to present a world class Games. "We assure you all of a fantastic Games.
We also promise you great opening and closing ceremonies. The Games will be a fantastic cultural extravaganza," Kalmadi said.
"Our infrastructure will be world class. The Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium is the best in the world.
All the other stadia are also fantastic and we have a best Games Village ever," Kalmadi added. Kalmadi also requested Hunt during the meeting to send their best athletes to the Delhi Games.
"I request you to send the top athletes to the event," he said. "We understand that two or three of the top athletes may not come although that is still to be confirmed, but the numbers of those coming for the Games are phenomenal.
"Australia will be sending a contingent of 700, while Britain and Canada will also be sending their largest contingents ever for the Commonwealth Games," Kalmadi added.
Railways seek CBI probe into Sainthia train mishap
Railways have written to the Home Ministry seeking a CBI probe into the Sainthia rail accident on July 19 which claimed 66 lives. According to highly placed sources in the Railway Ministry, a letter seeking CBI probe has been sent by Railway Board Chairman Vivek Sahai to the Home Ministry.Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had hinted about the possibility of a conspiracy behind the deadly collision while Sahai had described the loco pilots'' action as "very unusual". Besides the CBI probe, Railways have also sought viscera report of the loco drivers killed in the accident.
Sources said the sequence of events which led to the accident was highly suspicious as loco pilots of Uttarbanga Express did not respond to any warnings while the train overshot the signal and hit Vananchal express from behind. The train was entering the Sainthia station at 63 km per hour despite it being a scheduled stoppage.
Currently the Commissioner Railway Safety is conducting the inquiry into the cause of the accident. Besides CRS, West Bengal CID is also probing the train tragedy involving incident.
The CBI is also probing the Jnaneshwari train accident which claimed 148 lives. Meanwhile, Banerjee today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during which she is understood to have discussed safety related issues and the steps that the Railways are taking in this regard.
Violence will not solve problems, Abdullah tells people
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday said violence had not provided an answer to problems in the past nor would it do so in future and stressed that shutdowns the state has seen in the last month would only cause public inconvenience and hamper children's education.'When effective democratic means are available to register protests and put one's viewpoint across, there is no reason for perpetrating violence and putting general public to hardships and difficulties,' Abdullah said while addressing people in north Kashmir's Handwara town.
'My government is committed to facilitate dialogue between all shades of opinion in the state and the central government. We are positively working in this direction. We also favour sustained dialogue between India and Pakistan,' he said.
Abdullah sought public support for the success of his efforts in this direction.
The chief minister said shutdowns only led to public discomfort and badly affected children's education.
'These tactics are in no way in anybody's interest. These only mar the livelihood opportunities of poor and hamper the process of economic growth.'
'When the platform of talks is available to all shades of opinion, what is the need of disturbing peaceful life of the people?' he asked.
Abdullah took a dig at those instigating adolescent children to take to stone-pelting and said: 'This is the most unfortunate behaviour of those politicians who mar the future of the young generation while protecting the interests of their own children'.
Representatives of the Handwara bar association, traders' federation, fruit growers union, youth organisations and many prominent citizens spoke at the meeting and explained various aspects of development and the difficulties faced by the people in the area.
Wednesday's interaction is part of the chief minister's efforts to reach out to the people of the Kashmir Valley in order to end the cycle of violence that started June 11.
The valley has been virtually paralysed due to violent protests against civilians being killed in firing by security forces. At least 15 people have been killed in firing by security personnel across the Kashmir Valley since June 11.
The army had been called in to help maintain law and order as the violence spiralled.
India ? Nope Hindusthan... Future of Indian Politics
Mr. Narendra Modi CM of Gujarat proven that Hindutva is the key factor in forthcoming elections. Every Nation has its own Identity. India is secular but it need face and Hindutva is ideal face for the nation. It will be true identity of the India. Don't get surprised if in coming 4-5 years, India will be known as Hindusthan...
Congress is of 120 years old party in India. But if seen developments of last few months it seems that Congress is counting his days.
Mr. Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat defeated congress one handed... Modi against entire Congress party including PM of the nation, near about all Cabinet ministers as well as CM of congress party's from all over the nation. This election was Modi vs Rest including Media. Modi won, rest is history.
Before Gujarat Elections Congress lost in Uttar Pradesh too, has great importance in an Indian Politics. This state decides PM of the Nation. After Gujarat elections Congress lost Himachal Pradesh too.
In coming year India is going to face elections for 5 states. And Modi factor is the key issue. BJP is finally decided to elect all these elections on Gujarat pattern, i.e. Modi pattern.
Modi pattern is nothing but purely Hindutva.
Aacharya Dharmendraji, Sr. leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad told in 2003 that Modi will be BJP's topmost leader in coming few years. His prediction is coming true.
What Aacharyji expected from Modi at that time?
He simply asked Modi to remain on his Hindutva Dharma.
Modi did same.
Though Congress is of 120 years old, Hindutva is India's identity for last thousands of years.
Just to secure vote banks of Minorities, (10-20 %) all parties insults Hindu Society. Because of Gujarat Elections, whole Nation seen that how Secular leaders, Media attacked on Modi. i.e. Hindutva. Media's role is must be of observer but they functioned like NGO.
But now "Gujarathano Sher" (Tiger of Gujarat) has proven that simply ignore minorities vote bank. Concentrate on Hindus which are more in percentage. And Fight for "Aatma-Sanmaan" (Self respect).
In coming year when India will again witness for 5 state assembly election polls, picture will be more clearer and message will pass to entire nation, Hindutva, or so called Secular Congress, which use this secular word, as per own convenience. Karnataka is already in BJP's pocket though results are not declared. Karnataka results will make BJP easy to win in Rajashthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Meanwhile midterm polls are expected. That is Moral boost for BJP but heavy loss for Congress.
Modi is true RSS follower.
And RSS will love to call India as HIndusthan.
Why Identity is of so much Importance?
Religion is of far much importance. Roots of our Culture must deeply penetrate into soul of every Citizen of the Nation. That's why Indians witnessed attack on Parliament House and then also just wrote complaint to Pakistan. When there is enough evidence present that Pakistan was behind this. If Hindusthan was on Power at that time, at this point name of Pakistan from World map were eliminated by Hindusthan.
Indians are already proven in all fields. All over the world, India is shining and that is not because of any particular political party. It proves that Indians are capable of taking any challenge.
Hindutva is nothing but say proudly that "I'm Hindu". For last thousand years India got attacked by Muslim Sultans. India got looted by them again and again. They destroyed Hindu's temples, literature which was full of knowledge. Now tolerance of Indians is near about zero. Right now to lead India, they need Strong Leader like Mr. Modi. He is very dynamic at the same time down to earth person. His basic funda is "Naa Khaataa hun aur naa khaane detaa hun" (I don't accept bribe and not allowed any one to do it). He personally looks after all the development project works. Keep track for the same one.
In India regional parties are increasing. This is not good symbol for democracy. For last 10 years India is having coalition Government in the Center. There are two main parties Congress and BJP. But because of regional parties it is difficult for them to gain clear majority in Parliament. Coalition parties keep on demanding for their personal interests. Nation's development becomes secondary and party's interest comes on high priority. Too avoid this any one major party either BJP or Congress must get clear majority. But if we look at the current political scenario Congress is having no future in Indian politics. And BJP which looks like there is no powerful or strong leader at this stage will get clear majority because of only Mr. Modi. All Sr. BJP leaders don't agree with this in public, but in private meeting they accept that only Mr. Modi has ability to bring back BJP on power back.
Once Mr. Modi became CM then it will be Hindusthan, not India.
India is having threat from China as well as Pakistan. Right now China has raised hands for friendship but Indians still remember what has happened in 1962. In Pakistan there are still camps are running who trains Militants to send to India.
So to show what India can do, Mr. Modi is of very much importance. He is National asset. Time will tell, how much important he is. By that time, prepare yourself to call India as Hindusthan.
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Hindutva Offensive Social Roots: Characterisation
R.R. Puniyani
| Formation of Hinduism as a Religion Social Base of Hindutva Movement |
Introduction
Last decade has seen the Hindutva onslaught going from strength to strength to the detriment of poor and oppressed sections of society. Though Sangh Parivar (SP), RSS and the paraphernalia of its affiliates, is at the core of Hindutva movement some other forces have also broadly contributed to the social and political agenda of Hindutva, the main such associate is Shiv Sena, prior to consolidation of SP, Hindu Mahasabha propogated Hindutva, while variable expression of Hindutva has also taken place through congress as well. The turmoil created by its offensive has disturbed the very fabric of our society, and this has threatened to change the very rules of social politics.This movement is based on the premise that Hindus alone constitute the Indian nation as they are the original inhabitants of this land and have created this society and its culture. Hinduism, as per their assertion, is a very tolerant and catholic, which makes it superior to all other faiths, but its tolerance has often been mistaken for weakness...... The Hindu nation has been repeatedly conquered by aliens, particularly the Muslims and then the Christian British and must acquire strength through RSS Sangathan to counter all present and future threats. The subsequent entry and takeover by foreigners created the illusion that India was land of many different and equal cultures -- `Pseudo Secular' nationalists like Nehru, who preferred bondage to an alien system of thought, perpetuated it by integrating this notion within the `pseudo secular' constitution. This must be changed and only a `truely secular' Hindu Rashtra will afford protection to non-Hindus. The threats remain because the present state is ruled by traitors to the Hindu nation; `pseudo secularists' who `appeased' Muslims in their pursuit of a politics of `vote banks' (1). Its own perception of itself is thus of a movement meant to build a Hindu rashtra (nation) for the Hindus.
Formation of Hinduism as a Religion
Today's social common sense believes Hinduism to be the religion of all the people in India except those who are specifically Muslims, Christians or Buddhists. It will be interesting to note that contrary to the popular belief the truth is that "Hindus" and "Hinduism" are orientalist constructions originating with late eighteenth century British administrators who believed "the essence of India existed in a number of key Hindu classical scriptures such as Vedas, the codes of Manu and the shastras that often prescribe hierarchical ideas" -- a conclusion eagerly "supported and elaborated by Brahmins". (2) Britishers not only absorbed this understanding, they put an official seal on it "by applying a legal system based on Brahminic norms to all non-Muslim castes and outcastes, the British created an entirely new Brahmin legitimacy. They further validated Brahmin authority by employing, almost exclusively, Brahmins as their clerks and assistants. "(3) " -- this fabrication through repetition of India as unitary Hindu society has -- obscured the reality of a segmented society, with Brahmins and other upper castes exercising a monopoly of power, fabricated Hinduism is found everywhere." (4)
The historical process whereby Brahminism gained ascendancy has variously been formulated by different sociologists. To give one example, Arun Bose (5) paraphrases Mill's beliefs, "The ideological and a fortiori social, political and economic development of Indian society was arrested at a primitive nomadic stage by the sterilizing despotic power of ruthless caste of Brahmin priests who fabricated more successfully than any other priestly caste ever known, myths and legends to deceive, oppress and exploit the remaining castes, particularly the Sudra caste. By draconian punishments, reinforced by legends about creation and the cycle of rebirths through which strict conformity with caste taboos was rewarded and infringements penalized, they were able to enforce total and resigned submission to their omnipotent power."
Initially the term Hindu began with regional tones. The term was coined by Arabs and others, who pronounced `S' as `H', and to denote the people living on this side of Sindhu (Indus) they called them Hindu. Its only much later that this term was bestowed with a religious meaning. Nehru (6) pointed out that "Hinduism as a faith is vague, amorphous, many sided, all things to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed to say definitely whether it is a religion or not, in the usual sense of the word, in its present form, and even in the past, it embraces many beliefs and practices, from the highest to the lowest, often opposed to or contradicting each other."
Formulating it more sharply to bring to focus the caste factor, Hinnells and Sharp (7) concede that "A Hindu is a Hindu not because he accepts doctrines and philosophies, but because he is a member of caste', thus implying that Hinduism is a social order and not a religion.
Romila Thapar (8) in her analysis posits that "The new Hinduism which is being currently propogated by the Sanghs, Parishads and Samajs is an attempt to restructure the indigenous religions as a monolithic uniform religion, rather paralleling some of the features of semitic religions. This seems to be a fundamental departure from the essentials of what may be called the indigenous `Hindu' religions. Its form is not only in many ways alien to the earlier culture of India but equally disturbing is the uniformity which it seeks to impose on the variety of `Hindu' religions."
Hindu sects are multiple and diverse with many founders, and these sects have survived over a period of centuries. At times scholars used the word for a group of different indigenous religions which could vary in their belief system from animism to atheism, which are looked at with suspicion by todays votaries of Hinduism. Thapar goes on to say (8) "Hinduism as defined in contemporary parlance is a collation of beliefs, rites and practices consciously selected from those of the past, interpreted in contemporary idiom in last couple of centuries and the selection conditioned by historical circumstances." -- in a strict sense, a reference to `Hinduism' would require a more precise definition of the particular variety referred to Brahminism, Brahmo-Samaj, Arya Samaj, Shaiva Siddhanta, Bhakti, Tantricism or whatever."
The two major religious categories which existed were Brahminism and Shramanism. Shramans were those who were often in opposition to Brahminism, these are the groups which had belief structures away from Vedas and Dharmashastras. Their teachings transcended castes and communities, and in contrast to Brahminism which categorised religious practice by caste, shramanic religions opposed this in order to universalise their religious teachings. Bhakti tradition emphasised selfless action projected as the need to act in accordance with ones' moral duties. This shift of emphasis, away from Brahminical rites and sacrificial rituals provided the root, in later time, for a number of cults like, Shaiva, Vaishnava and many others, it also provided the rough outline to much that is viewed as traditional `Hinduism'. Lot of variationsoccurred in this tradition. Much later Kabir and Nanak brought in sufi ideas in their teachings. Shakta sect and Tantric rituals also gained wide popularity. These are now played down as being anathema to the current version of Hinduism, i.e. Brahmical Hinduism.
The religious practices of untouchables and tribals have a lot of rituals which involve offerings and libations of meat and alcohol. Also these groups could not afford the costly donations required for Brahmical yagnas. Gradually dharma (religious duty) became central to religion, regarded as sacred and which had to be performed in accordance with one's varna, jati and sect and which differed according to each of these. Thapar (8) goes on to add "`Hindu' missionary organisations, taking their cue from Christian missionaries are active among the adivasis, untouchables and economically backward communities, converting them to `Hinduism' as defined by upper caste movements of the last two centuries. That this `conversion' does little or nothing to change their status as adivasis, untouchables and so on and that they continue to be looked down upon by upper caste `Hindus' is of course of little consequence."
Jainism and Buddhism were the major amongst Shramanic tradition. These religions were persecuted in many parts of the country. The premodern Hinduism was not a monolithic religion, as being projected by the SP, but was a juxtaposition of multiple religious sects.
Thapar calls the Hinduism, currently being propogatead as `Syndicated Hinduism'. This projection is made by the social base of the SP, a powerful urban middle class with a reach to rural rich who find it useful to bring into politics, a uniform, monolithic, Hinduism created to serve its new requirement. The Hinduism which more or less has won the social space and draws mainly from Brahminical texts, and also draws from Dharmashastras. The attempt of this exercise is to present a modern reformed religion. The net result is a repackaged Brahminism. The Hindu communities settled abroad, look for a parallel to Christianity, as their religion. This is to overcome the sense of inferiority and cultural insecurity which they experience in their life. Thapar goes on to say " Syndicated Hinduism claims to be re-establishing the Hinduism of pre-modern times; in fact it is only establishing itself and in the process distorting the historical and cultural dimensions of indigenous religions and divesting them of the nuances and variety which was a major source of their enrichment." To put the understanding in a linear way: "The Hindu religion as it is described today is said to have its roots in the Vedas, -- In any case, whatever we call the religion of these nomadic clans, it was not the religion that is today known as Hinduism. This (Hinduism in its current version) began to be formulated only in the period of Maghadha-Mauryan state, in the period ranging from Upanishads and the formation of Vedantic thought to the consolidation of the social order represented by Manusmriti. Buddhism and Jainism (as well as the materialist Carvak tradition) were equally old - Hinduism as we know it, was in other words, only one of the many consolidations within a diverse sub-continental cultural tradition, and attained social and political hegemony only during the sixth to tenth century A.D., often after violent confrontations with Buddhism and Jainism (9).
As per Gail Omvedt (9) this Brahmanic Hinduism adopted and identified with the authority of the Vedas and Brahmans. Material base of this system was the caste structure of the society. Its cooptive power was qualified to the extent that dissidents had to accept their place in the caste herarchy. The masses of people did not have the identity of `Hindu'. Multiple local gods and traditions existed side by side forming the base of popular culture. Later only during colonial period this identity of Hindu was constructed for all the inhabitants of this land except those who were followers of Islam or Christianity.
This construction was thrown up by English scholarship and by Indian elites. Gail posits that "In the nineteenth century, people like Lokmanya Tilak adopted the "Aryan theory of Race", claimed a white racial stock for upper caste Indians and accepted Vedas as their core literature. Tilak was also the first to try and unite a large section of the masses around brahmanical leadership with celebration of Ganesh festival - also by the end of 19th century, Hindu conservatives were mounting a full scale attack on their upper caste reformist rivals with the charges that latter were "anti-national." One gets a clear idea that SP has succeeded in perpetuating a perception amongst Hindus to forge a communalsolidarity through elective projections of the past, and this does involve a deliberate reformulation of history. Emergence of nation state does bring in its wake and imposes a homogenisation. In case of India this evolution of "national religion and Hinduism has mainly been defined in opposition to the Muslim "other".
Construction of Hindutva
The construction of Hindutva is to be seen in the backdrop of emergence of Hinduism as a homogenous religion. The concept of Brahminical Hinduism, projected as Hinduism was at the root of multiple religious revivalist movements. Its political translation began mainly with Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who initiated the Ganapati Festival to wean away the popular participation of lower castes people in Muharram festival. Some sociologists (10) have called such ideological maneouvers as "manipulative reinterpretation of cultural material" and "invention of tradition." Later Tilak went on to organize a festival in honor of Shivaji, who broke the Moghul hold on western India and opened the way for rampage of Maratha armies through much of India. A strong anti-muslim slant was brought into the function.This nationalism was based on hate of Muslims. At the same time Ram, was popularised as a symbol of moral power, along with Hanuman symbolising the masculine strength. Shivaji's guru Ramdas had the image of anti-Muslim crusader and this was highlighted by Tilakites. Guru Ramdas's vision was limited to ending the Moghul rule and establishing Brahminical hegemony. Guru Ramdas was also given prominence in the initial phases of RSS activities. Shivaji tradition was and is an important means for Brahminism to assure themselves of the essential similarities of their interests and those of current society.
Anti-Muslim sentiments were consistently used by Tilak to project a political methodology of consolidating the Hindus. Starting from Bankimchandra Chatterji, various other Hindu national ideologoues had whipped the fear psychosis with Muslims as the ones' threatening the survival of Hindus. All these fabrications were manufactured and propogated by the ascendant, nascent, amorphorphous Hindu nationalist forces. The combination of `syndicated Hinduism' with nationalism was brewed by Vinayak Savarkar who can be called the first exponent of the doctrine of Hindutva. The mix of Brahminical Hinduism with nationalism reflecting the interests of upper castes and part of upper class was defined and later refined on the exclusionist principles, which are so basic to the Brahminism. Savarkars initial anti British struggles were very impressive. After his assuming the role of the proponent of Hindutva his major energies were channelised in strengthening the politics of hate, the formation of communal Hindu Mahasabha and helping RSS from distance.
Savarkars politics was a rival to Gandhian politics. Gandhi the representative of Indian Nationalism was branded as conciliator and appeaser of Muslims. Savarkar propounded that struggle for supremacy would begin after British left and that the Christians and Muslims were the real enemies who could be defeated only by "Hindutva". His key sentence was "Hinduize all politics and militarize Hindudom". His definition of a Hindu was the one who regarded this land from Indus to the Seas as Pitrabhumi (Father land) and Punyabhumi (Holy land). This land belonged to Hindus and so by implications Muslims with Holy land in Mecca and Christians with Holy land in Jerusalem, can not have equal status to `Hindus'. This was later to be made more explicit by Guru Golwalkar, who despite adoring Hitler, was 'generous' and 'kind' enough to these 'aliens' by granting them the status of second class citizens. Also began the concept of "Hindu Raj" the precurser of present SP goal the `Hindu Rashtra'.
The final crystallisation occurred with foundation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which became the `Father' organization for plethora of organisations which were to take birth after a period of consolidation of the core swayamsevaks (volunteers).
Birth and Growth of RSS
With the transition of leadership of Congress from the Brahminical Tilakites to Nationalist Gandhi, transition in the anticolonial struggle took a major leap. Gandhi's Nationalism, though used religious idioms was not a religious nationalism and unlike the religious nationalism of Tilak, was able to inspire the large section of Indian masses into anticolonial struggle. With the leadership of Congress slipping away from the Chittapavan Brahmins, with the dissatisfaction with Gandhi's conciliatory methods and in the backdrop of the slipping hegemony of Brahmins over the lower castes, the idea of an organisation representing the aspirations of these high castes took roots and this is what gave birth to RSS (in 1925), an explicitly Hindu organisation, working for the achievement of Hindu Rashtra and calling it a `Nation'. Thus the synthesis of religious construct, Hinduism and Nationalism got crystallisation through this organisation, which in due course, was to take the central place in the political battles of upper castes, displacing the Hindu Maha Sabha.
RSS decided to model itself on `Hindu Joint Family' and on analogy with the patriarch of Hindu joint family created the post of Sar Sangh Chalak (supreme dictator). Its emphasis was, one, physical fitness of volunteers and their training in methods ofstreet battles (Not battles against the British Raj), and two, it started discussion groups, the Bouddhiks, where the glorified Hindu history was (and is) shoved down the throats of trainees. This non-dialogic, authoritarian mode of teaching emphasised the core of RSS doctrine as per which, during the glorious Hindu past of vedic times, the glorious Hindu Kings ruled this Bharatvarsha in the most Hindu way. The Hindu society is the most tolerant society, the chosen race, the society which gave wisdom to the world. However, this tolerance of Hindus was misconstrued by the Muslims who invaded this holy land and converted the people on the force of the sword. This rule of Muslims has created big problem for the Hindu Nation. Later the rulers of this country, under leadership of Gandhi, have appeased the Muslims and pampered them. After independence Nehru took over Congress whose pseudosecularism pampered the Muslims and the Hindus are suffering in their own country. Now the time has come to rise in the defense of holy Fatherland, to consolidate the Hindu Nation, Hindu Rashtra through the organisation of the Hindus, the RSS."
After its formation RSS got lot of support from Brahmins/Banias, landed aristocracy and a small section of petty bourgeisie. It concentrated on so called `cultural' work of spreading the Hindutva doctrine by molecular permeation, keeping aloof from the anti British struggles which were being led by Gandhian Congress. It went to the extent of ridiculing the 1942 Quit India Movement and supported the British war effort. It also encouraged its followers to infiltrate in army, bureaucracy, and the police. After independence it helped in the formation of first, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and later Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a plethora of organisations have sprung up in last few decades. Its social presence had been inconspicuous till mid eighties. The first time it got broad notice was when one of the trained cadres of RSS, Nathuram Godse, killed the Father of Indian Nationalism, Mahatma Gandhi. Later it got noticed for its `anti communist' noises during India China War in 1962. Despite low social visibility it strengthened itself by continuing to `train' the cadres who occupied crucial positions in army, bureaucracy, police and media. The second major social recognition of this organisation came with JP movement in early seventies, when riding on the wave of middle class movement, JP launched a mass struggle and permitted the `committed' RSS to be a part of it. This recognition of RSS by a figure like JP, helped to wash a bit of the `sin' of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.
Following the emergency and elections, Janata Party of which Jan Sangh became one of the constituents came to power. After the split in Janata Party, the old Jan Sanghis unwilling to break their RSS connection, split from Janata Party to form Bharatiya Janata Party on the agenda of Gandhian socialism. This probably was due to the calculation that socialism was a popular cliche and can be encashed upon. Despite its prolonged sustained work, RSS did not get its social visibility till quite late and its political arm did remain a marginal force. What transformed this marginal force into a major political power?
Indira Gandhi, loosing her popular appeal, did subtly try to win over the `religious nationalist' social base of upper castes by communalising the Kashmir and Punjab problems. With Rajiv Gandhis' blunder on Shah Bano, it was necessary to appease the Hindu communalists by opening the locks of Babri Masjid. This gave a lot of fillip to the Hindu communalists. Later VP Singh's regime implemented Mandal Commission recommendations. And this was 'The' point which transformed the Indian politics. The reaction to Mandal Commission was a wide spread backlash of the upper castes, especially in Hindi belt. BJP cleverly encashed upon it by giving an emotive touch to the political events. SP by a masterstroke projected Hindutva, Mandir issue as the core of social problems. It was not possible for BJP to directly oppose Mandal Commission, also it had to express the aspirations of its social constituency, those opposed to the social justice, those for status quo, those for privileges of upper castes. Advani's Rath Yatra campaign came at a time, by which the industrialisation process had thrown up a new layer of petty industrialists, also in north the construction of Hindu identity was strongest amongst this new layer and the earlier Brahmin/Bania/Rich peasant, upwardly mobile middle classes (an unavoidable mix of caste/class categories).
The movement, Hindutva, which existed only as an ideology so far, got the real flesh and blood with the consolidation of anti-Mandal sentiments. The social sector which was supporter of Religious nationalism, which was living in the category `us' in contrast to the category of the `other' the Muslims swung into a social action to aggressively guard its privileges and status. The cultural onslaught of VHP (Ramshilapujan and the like) came in to supplement the political campaign of BJP and the heady mix of religious emotive symbol and political agenda of protecting the interests of the upper castes, watered the so far dormant, poisonous seeds of SP movement, culminating in the demolition of Babri Masjid and accompanying nationwide anti-Muslim progroms, reaching their crescendo in the Shiv Sena controlled anti-Muslim riots in Bombay and the ghastly rape of Muslim women in Surat.
The political force which had a semi-notional existence till mid 80's, and was mainly surviving on the ideological fodder of `ban cow slaughter', `Indianise Muslims', `abolish article 370' and the like as an ineffective social distraction, found its moorings and strength in late 80's to create a `social monster' which after a `acute' beginning of early nineties has crystallised itself as a social political and ideological force asserting its political agenda at every opportune moment in the society.
Social Base of Hindutva Movement
One will like to add a comment about the relations of Hindutva with Congress and Shiv Sena. Congress came up mainly as a 'national', anticolonial movement but Hindutva was constantly associated with it, at times dominant, at times hidden and at times a marginal accompaniment. Under the leadership of Tilak Congress was the vehicle of Hindutva in a major way. With Gandhi assuming the leadership of Congress, Hindutva was subjugated to the main 'anti-British' project and was side tracked. But it existed within Congress all the came. Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Sardar Patel and later Purshottamdas Tandon were the main 'Hindutva' votaries. Also there was a uniform scatter of these 'strong saffron' to mild saffron leaders at all the rungs of leadership. With Nehru assuming strong 'socialist, secular' principles as the state policy, the Hindutva elements kept themselves maintaining their roots. After Nehru's demise and with change in social dynamics, Indira Gandhi veered to upper castes as the main support base, the upper caste vote bank, in 84 electrions.
Rajiv's Congress lost out the battle for the 'upper caste' vote bank, to the blatant puritan and unadulterated upper caste agenda of BJP, which since then has not looked back and has by now become 'The' vehicle of Hindutva politics, marginalising the Congress from the upper caste arena. All in all though Hindutva has played a 'hide and seek' expression in some periods, through Congress. But it is the BJP which has been the major and preferred vehicle for Hindutva agenda. Shiv Sena, which thrived on the 'sons of the soil' garbage, watered from the backyard by some elements of Congress, came up strongly in Bombay. Supported by the big capital, it unleashed a'physical annhilation' of communist labor leaders in Bombay.
After exhausting this agenda, it temporarily campaigned against the 'lungiwallahs' (South Indians), and Gujarathis before latching on to the upswinging Hindutva movement. In the process it boosted and supplemented the SP, playing the combine role of a mini Maharashtraian BJP and the storm tropper Bajrang Dal (the lumpen 'son' of R.S.S., specialising in anti-muslim onslaught/pogroms). In early simmerings of its emergence this movement to begin with was spearheaded mostly by Brahmins. Its support came from the landed aristocracy and some layers of middle classes. Most amorphous sections identified with the Gandhian Nationalism, while the subulterns identified more with the movement of Ambedkar or the communist parties.
Despite the training of cadres, dedicated, committed, ascetic on so on, the reach of religious nationalism was confined to Brahmin/Bania/Rich peasant and petty bourgeoisie in the Hindi belt in Northern India. And the failure of its campaigns on cow slaughter ban, Indianise the Muslims, was well indicative of that. Even the communal riots which began from 60s began with a slow pace and picked up more and more dangerous proportions with passage of time. The ideological propagation of Hindutva and the rise of its support base went hand in hand, and by late seventies and early eighties the anti-Muslim riots began to assume horrendous proportions.
Though BJP and its predecessor the Jan Sangh began with small electoral support, this support was well designed. It was the urban middle classes, sections of twice-born castes, and the Banias. Let us have a brief look at the changes in social composition which have occurred during last 50 years of the republic. The proportion of urban population has gone up by 20-25 per cent. They also constitute the ones' having derived maximum benefit of modern education and the facilities thrown up by the industrialization process. They do have a sort of dominant presence in the society. The cultural, social and political aspirations of this sector is the ground on which has risen the edifice of SP.
To understand the social base of the SP we will like to go into the regrouping of social groups in Gujarat. Nandy et al (11) have described this process in detail. Along with urbanisation there has been a parallel process in which the rich peasants of Gujarat have achieved an enhanced social status. These Patidars', (cash crop farmers) caste has been upgraded by a process of religious manoeuvering. The polarisation of middle class (Brahmin, Bania) and Patidar occurred around 1980, around the issue of reservations for the lower castes. In 1981, Gujarat witnessed an extreme form of caste violence directed against the lower castes. These antireservation agitations played a key role in consolidating the base of upper castes and upwardly mobile middle classes. SP directly or indirectly stood by to support this upper caste onslaught.
By using clever strategies SP was also able to give an upwardly mobile channel to a section of Dalits, aspiring a better place within Hindu society. In Gujarat, one can clearly see the social functionality of creating the `other'. Here earlier the ultimate object of hate was the dalit, by a clever manoeuver, the Muslim is substituted for that, the dalit is unleashed upon the "other", a atmosphere of terror is created, which helps to maintain a `status quo' of social hierarchy. The core of this social base was given a cohesion by various Yatras and campaigns by VHP.
Basu, Datta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen in their enlightening work `Khakhi Shorts Saffron Flags' (1), have tried to trace the roots of SP movement. They correlate it with the rise of new religiosity around worship `Jai Mata Di', `Jai Santoshi Ma', around functions like `Jagrata' and pilgrimages like `Vaishno Devi'. All these which emerged in northern states in late 60's and early 70 got co-opted and colored by the VHP campaigns. Basu et.al. identify a significant social base of SP in new urban middle class, spreading in small towns as well, which has come up due to the rapid growth of relatively small enterprises and the accompanying trade boom. "These small scale units flourish without the concomitant growth of organized working class, since individual work-places are far too small to consolidate the labor force and enable effective unionization." This type of industrial development, based on screw driver technology has mushroomed all through in 70's and 80's. This newer middle class tends to be fragmented into smaller more individual units. "They are marked by intense internal competition and steady pressure of new opportunity structures, ever expanding horizons for upward mobility and a compulsive consumerism that keeps transcending its own limits. The very pressure of growth is disturbingly destabilizing; the brave new world of global opportunities creates anomie and existential uncertainties." (1) The Green Revolution in parts of UP has increased rural purchasing power feeding into the boom in urban enterprises, consumerism and trade.
Characterisation of the Movement
Most of the social scientist have characterised this movement as a communal one. The broad perception amongst the segment of liberal, progressive intellectuals is that this is a communal movement, spearheaded by the SP, to strengthen the social and political power of Hindu elites. It's most commonly perceived activity is to train the cadres in its core doctrine to float the different organisations (BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, etc.) which overtly spread the communal venom against minorities in general and Muslims in particular. By now the success of SP (Sangh Parivar) in communalising the social space, infiltrating police, army and bureaucracy is well recognised. And it is, and is broadly perceived as a communal movement.
`Religious nationalism' is a characterisation by many a sociologists who pick up the assertions of these movements and give them a decent looking veneer (13). In Juergansmeyers' understanding the religious nationalists see the failure of democracy and socialism, both western models, leading them to conclude that secular nationalism has failed. And so they view religion as a hopeful alternative, which can provide a basis for criticism and change. As per him the differences amongst various religious leaders are immense, but they all share one thing in common - seeing Western secular nationalism as their enemy and their hope to revive religion in public sphere. Juergansmeyer hesitates to call these movements fundamentalist as this word tends to suggest "an intolerant, self-righteous, and narrowly dogmatic religious literalism." The term is less descriptive and more accusatory. Also it is an imprecise term for makingcomparisons across cultures. The better term for this phenomenon is offered by Bruce Lawrence (14) which suggests a global revoltagainst secular ideology that often accompanies modern society.
The 'modern' according to this are those who are `modern' while opposing the values of modernism. Also fundamentalism does not carry any political meaning and conveys the idea of solely being motivated by religious beliefs rather than broad concerns about the nature of society and the world. The term religious nationalist conveys the main meaning of religious and political interests and also holds that there is no clear distinction between religion and politics, as this distinction is a mask of western thinking.
But this characterisation is not able to totally understand different broad and deepfacets of its offensives. Also it isnot able to explain the intensity and sustained nature of this movement. To fill this gap some social scientists and activists like Ram Bapat, characterise this as being a fundamentalist movement, akin to the one in countries like Iran (12). As per this formulation Indian fundamentalism, like the global one which exists everywhere in post industrial societies, has been generated by the system of advanced capitalism or late capitalism.
In third world countries it is in a manifest form in contrast to the latent form in advanced countries. Bapat feels that due to lack of power of public opinion of the progressive world at the turn of century, the first world is making every attempt to put fundamentalism on top of the agenda for the world politics and even for military purposes. After the decades of 60s and 70s, which constituted the years of triumph of socialism and also of emancipatory nationalism, the next two decades marked the beginning of revivalism and fundamentalism. Originally fundamentalism developed in America where capitalism faced a lot of turmoil from 1870 to 1930. Similarly other countries when faced with severe economic crisis, came up with the fundamentalist response from some sectors of society. In America this fundamentalist response came in the form of a movement which asserted the revivalist trend to identify essential absolute to enable American citizens to take on the force of darkness. Bapat makes a pertinent point that since 1818, Maharashtra, amongst all Indian states has served as a kind of hot house plant for sustaining all kinds of orthodoxy, revivalism, fundamentalism and communalism, particularly of Hindutva variety. To begin with Fundamentalist Hindutva is not the Hinduism practised by millions of people. It (the Hindutva) is an imaginary Hinduism which is essentially extra-historical, extra-religious and is a political credo for those who want to make much of the ideology for their political ends. The fundamentalism is neither based on traditional modes of thought nor traditions as they existed. They win over people by propogating of `manufactured traditions.'
They adopt the gains of modernity, science, technology, weaponary and industrial production. It wants a modern apparatus of life without the necessary relations between human beings which would give them space to struggle for their rights. In nutshell, it wants to achieve a certain modern culture i.e. the modern production process sans the accompanying space for improvement of human relationships. It is a post feudal phenomenon aimed at inventing a new identity for the ruling classes.
It uses the language of religious discourse. Fundamentalism is possible only in semitic religions. The semitisation process of Hinduism is going on from last many decades. This semitic Hinduism which in fact is the Brahminical Hinduism has discovered the Book in `Gita', the holy deity in `Ram' from amongst hundreds of contenders for this status. The attempt of this fundamentalist movement is to read their interests and programmes of the present into the past. Bapat feels that Sangh Parivar is not fascist as, fascism does not lean upon religion to give it the cohesive aggressive slant. In contrast Aijaz Ahmed, K.N. Panikar, Sumeet Sarkar and many other sociologist characterise the SP as being Fascist. As per Sarkar (15) the SP movement may not look exactly parallel to the German Fascism, but a closer look at the pattern of affinities and differences helps to highlight the crucial features, notably as the implications of the offensive of SP go far beyond the events of 92-93. The drive for Hindu Rashtra has put into jeopardy the entire secular and democratic foundations of our republic. It is onlyHindu communalism, and not the Muslim communalism which has the potential of imposing fascism in India. Sarkar points out that Fascism was introduced in Italy and Germany through a combination of carefully orchestrated street violence (with a mass support) and deep infiltration into the police bureaucracy and the army, with the connivance of 'centrist' political leaders. Hitler, for example, had repeatedly asserted his party's respect for legality even after coming to power, but meanwhile his colleague Goering, Nazified the German police, organised street encounters in which more than 50 anti-Nazis were murdered and set the scence for Reichstag fire; after which first the communists and then all opposition political parties and trade unions were quickly destroyed. The methodology adopted in destruction of mosque is so much reminiscent of the same method. The mosque is demolished in 51/2 hours in total violation of supreme court order and repeated assurances given by leading opposition party, and the central government does not even lift a finger till the mosque is totally razed to the ground. Countrywide riots follow, police partiality is painfully obvious, the land grabbing vandals build a temporary 'temple', illegally, and this structure is protected, while the political force behind this, the BJP alternates between occasional apology and more frequent aggressive justification, while their brother organisation, the VHP adds Delhi's Jumma Masjid in the list of Hindu monuments and denounces the Indian constitution as being anti Hindu. The beating up of journalists on Dec. 6, is no surprise as the fascists forces, who carefully cultivate the press usually, like to combine persuasion with an occasional big stick.
Unlike the Fascism in Italy and Germany which came into power within a decade or less of its emergence as a political movement, Hindutva had a long gestation period, which has given added strength and stability to the movement and it has been a long enough time for their ideas to become part of the social common sense. Sarkar correctly points out that the real base of Sangh Parivar remains the predominantly upper caste trader professional petit bourgeoisie of cities and small town mainly in Hindi heartland; with developing connections perhaps with upwardly mobile landholding groups in countryside. He quotes Daniel Gurien's definition of fascism as "not only an instrument at the service of big buisness, but at the same time a mystical upheaval of the petite bourgeoisie. Specific linkages of big business with fascism remain controversial. By a sustained propaganda work SP has succeeded in creating a communalised common sense in which Muslim has become a near equivalent of the Jew - or the Black in contemporary white racism. As per SP the Muslim in India is unduly privileged a charge much more absurd than it was in Germany where Jews had been fairly prominent and well to do. In India Muslims are grossly underrepresented in business, bureaucracy, army, police, private enterprise etc. Here the alleged privileges are the appeasement of Muslims by pseudosecularists.
Like Hitler in Germany, the SP arrogates to itself to be representative of Hindus, who are in majority, and thereby its democratic credentials are above board. Similarly since SP is 'The' representative of Hindus, any body deviating from its line is anti Hindu at worst and pseudosecular at best. Unlike Jews who had to face the gas chambers, Hindutva line is 'kind and generous' and offers a second class citizenship to the Muslims.
The constant anti Muslim violence, euphemistically called 'communal' riots has succeeded in ghettoising large chunks of the Muslim population. Also unlike Nazis, SP grounds the identity on religion.
Aijaz Ahmed (16) calls it Hindutva Fascism and points out that it differs from the Italian and German ones' on the ground that it speaks relatively rarely of economic instance and fashions its ideological discourse along categories of 'nation' and community seeking to obtain the identity between these two categories nation and community - through methodical use of violence as a political instrumentality. Hindutva has nationalised the violence as a means for capturing state power. As per Ahmed the whole series of mass spectacles, mobilizationsand blood baths that began with rath yatra and culminated in the demolition of masjid on one hand, and terrorization of Bombay on the other has introduced into Indian politics a qualitatively different dynamics, pushing the urban culture of diverse regions across the country in a distinctly fascist direction,and giving to the new phase of Indian communalism a form at once hysterical and methodical which is similar to that of European anti-semitism.
The true object of SP's desire is not submission of the muslims alone but of state power as a whole, and remaking of India in its own image. This, it is achieving by imposing a homogenisation on the lines of Brahminical ethos on the society. Concieved and executed as at present, the SP fascist project has some limitation since it does not 'pose' to be radical enough to win over the masses and India is too diverse a country to buy SP's homogenisation at a quick pace.
The Hindu Right (SP) has been equated with Nazi Germany by Jan Breman (17), who points out that popular support for Hindutva primarily stems from social sections which enjoy better life than earlier generations were used to. " - both (German Fascism and Hindutva) originate within and also appeal to the petty bourgeoisie, a composite class which is growing in size and political weight". Despite minor differences Breman posits that there are deeper similarities. Nazi ideology worked into a pseudo religious dogma, while Hindutva has packed its gospel in purely religious terms. This religiosity of Hindutva is a mere facade for a more comprehensive societal reconstruction which is very materialistic in nature. Breman, who was born and bred during Hitlers reign and has also seen the Hindutva onslaught from close quarters, gets a distinct feeling of de ja vu. This is partly because of the fact that similar to the Hitler regime here also one community is singled out as arch enemy of the people (the nation), the Hindu majority. The persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was planned and controlled by the party machinary. Though in the maze of propaganda which gives advanced legitimization to the pogroms which are to follow, the Hindutva offensive tries to cleverly masquerade its role in the pogroms on Muslims. This is possible because of a clever division of labor between 'father' (RSS) and different 'sons' and 'daughter' of this 'parivar'. RSS trains the cadre in ideology, BJP plays this game on political chessboard, VHP gives an emotive touch to the communal project by roping in the Sants, Mahants and the NRI's, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti backs up the RSS ideology by taking it in the sphere of home, and the Bajrang Dal translates it in to the street violence, which can take off only because of the ground work done by other members of the 'parivar'. This was painfully obvious on Bombay and Surat in 1993. In addition the Hindutva forces encouraged hunt against the deviant forces, with those upholding the secular ethos, being next on the firing line.
But unlike the Jews in Germany, Muslims are no capitalist sharks, so their 'privileged' 'appeasement' is projected and they are shown to be a pampered lot. Also part of this aggression is justified by their political domination and harassment of Hindus in the medieval times. Bremen sharply perceives the project of Hindu right-"marginalised as Mohammadi Hindus they may be allowed to hide in their own ghettos, cordoned off like the judenvierter"were in the Nazified Europe. In their defiled habitat they will live beyond the pale, as new untouchables in a modern India which is thoroughly Hinduised".
Trying to take a broad and critical look at the Fascist analogy of Sangh Parivar Achin Vanaik (8) theorises the phenomenon of fascism and uses it for analysing Hindu Nationalism. Vanaik feels that fascist paradigm is inappropriate and of very limited value for situating not just Hindu nationalism but a whole host of political phenomena, particularly in the third world. There are important similarities and dissimilarities between Hindutva and Fascism. To take up dissimilarities first: lack of charismatic leader in SP, absence of an explicitly anti-liberal/anti-democratic and anti working class themes, absence of any verbal anticapitalist demagogy, absence of any orientation to the theme of a 'generalisational revolt' etc. Vanaik states that though Fascist formations can draw their support from all classes, they are not multiclass political formations or movements. They are not a form of authoritarian populism. "Fascist formations win ideological and political hegemony because their decisive victories are achieved on non-ideological terrain. Their momentum is convulsive. They grow rapidly but they also fade out fast if they do not achieve power. In postcolonial societies the political vehicles of religious fundamentalism or religion based nationalism are not so much the fascist formations as, at most, potential fascist formations, where that potential may or may not be realised. While fascist state in India would necessarily be Hindu nationalist, the Hindu nationalist state would not ecessarily be fascist."
Vanaik in his presentation is totally silent on the class base of fascism. This forces him to turn to ideological realms to characterise the nature of Hindu nationalism. In a subtle shift from class analysis, to analysing 'nation' Vanaik dumps the materialist understanding in the bin and walks on the crutches of idealism "In last 15 years ..... there has been the dramatic rise of politics of cultural exclusivisms and xenophobia.... we are witness to four forms of which the politics of exclusivity have taken .... rise of religious fundamentalism.... HIndu nationalism .... spreading and swelling of carbuncles of racist and anti immigrant xenophobia in the first world. Vanaik does relate all these phenomenon to global changes in correlation and feels that politics of identity has by and large overshadowed the politics of class. He sees this movement, the political vehicle of religious fundamentalism not as fascist but only potentially so, it is an Indian variant of a generic phenomenon but does not belong to the genus of fascism.
Discussion
Different scattered views, not necessarily mutually exclusive are prevelant in the sociological domain. The communal nature of SP is very obvious at the very first level of approximation. Its fundamentalist character is easily discernible from its clinging to religious expressions. The proper characterisation can come by constantly relating the social roots with the political manifestations of the SP.
To begin with since Fascism has been a very major category which came into being and has serious implications, it is necessary to understand the 'core' of Fascism. Narratives and analysis on Fascism can go on and on at different levels. Martin Kitchen (19) has tried to give a succint summary of this phenomenon. It is a ultraconservative movement rejecting liberal values, projects soverignty of nation as absolute supreme, glorifies martial spirit, dictatorship of supreme dictator, calls for subordination of rights of individuals to the 'states' soverignty'. It tends to identify the 'enemy' 'the culprit' for social ills, terrorising the social psyche and suspending the human rights.
The social backdrop of this ideology and social movement is 'fright' of the properties classes by the unrest of the poor. Extreme poverty, inflation, malnutrition, unemployment are the ground on which unrest of the poor is founded. Along with section of the propertied classed it is the response of middle classes to the unrest of poor, unemployed and different social movement (organized working class in case of classical fascism). The major thrust of attack of fascist movement is on 'human rights' movements (trade union movement in case of German Fascism).
The core of Fascist movement is a threatened middle class, threatened by the struggles of the oppressed in the backdrop of general scarcity of resources. The European Fascism came up as a cataclysm which gripped the society in a brief span of time for a brief span of time. SP movements theoretical underpinnings began decades ago. The ideological exercises and consolidation has been going on since then. Despite a vast network of Shakha's and their followers in the state apparatus they were not a social force till 80's. 80's saw the turmoil of lower castes, asserting itself. The response was anti-dalit riots spread all over the country. The Gujarat anti dalit riots of 1980 are a clear example of this. The twin processes: formation of cash crop rich peasants, the small industrialists and urbanised middle class acquired a substantial presence by 80's. The precipitation of this amorphous mass into SP movement was brought in by many factors: the main of these was the 'Mandalisation', which brought together the 'core supporters of fascism (Rich peasants, small industrialists and sections of middle classes), threatened by assertion of the low castes, poor etc., immediately rallied around the SP.
It was not possible for SP to keep openly attacking the lower castes and other oppressed sections of society. A clever manoeuver has taken place here. The real project of this 'core fascist supporters' is to keep the dalits, poor workers and women in their place. (Also this can not be done openly due to the seeping in of liberal values in society). The upper castes have a morbid fear of protecting their privileges and social status. Last few decades have seen a systematic, subtle campaign to degrade 'reservations' and to look down upon those who avail of these reservations. Also they hate the movements supporting the rights of poor peasants and workers. The latter especially are the 'hate objects' for the upcoming 'petty industrialists'. One is not sure about what the extent of impact the 'women's rights' movement has been on the upper caste Hindu males in particular, but one can broadly say that the upcoming movement of self assertion of rights of women added up to the insecurity which this group faced in the society. Thus broadly in the complex class/caste/gender scenario the petty bourgeoisie, in this context, the upper caste Hindu male was looking for an ideology, support system and a political movement which can suppress the aspirations of these groups, as they were threatening his social and political power.
With the development of liberal ethos worldwide it is not possible, not to pay lip service to casteless society, gender equality and human rights in general. One (upper class/caste) hates these human rights but one has to either (a) distract attention from the situations which gives space for struggle to these or (b) propogates alternative set of value system which without directly opposing these 'threats' to their status, obfuscates these sharp formulations to propogate the ideology which neutralises the sharpness of these assertions.
'Hindutva' fits in the bill excellently. One one hand it creates an external enemy image in the hapless 'muslim' on whose head are dumped all the historical ignomities, the causation of present evils, and in this direction creates an 'enemy' who is to be hated, fought against, repeatedly subjected to street violence to 'ghettoise' him and this process is done with 'hysterical intensity, the pitch of which subsumes all the other genuine voices of struggling oppressed groups. The enemy's projection through 'manufacturing history', 'doctoring mass consciousness' is taken to a level whereby the 'anti-enemy' pogrom can be initiated at will, while the communalised social consciousness and communalised state appraratus aids and abetts it. The 'enemy' in this case is an extension of the low caste shudra, all attempts are made to engineer the hatred between the two, with the purpose that the latter can be used against the former. This whole process is so much full of 'social passion' that a terrorising atmosphere is created which is the best way to suppress the liberalism and the accompanying social space for the struggles of the oppressed groups.
'Hindutva' also has the 'merit' at another level. After 'excluding the other', all the remaining ones are Hindus. They are projected to be a homogenous Hindu mass, in which each has and 'assigned' 'dharma' to which each has to stick for the harmonious society to flower. The concept of homogenous and harmonious is propogated by the upholders of the status quo, by those who are beneficiaries in the present power equations. It is proclaimed, ours is a casteless society, the caste politics is divisive, we should (the lower castes) overcome the caste psychology, even at a time when caste exploitation is going on at full speed. The women is given the 'respectable' place of 'mother' and a 'sister' 'wife' and 'daughter' these relations which the patriarchs exploit to the hilt. The workers are supposed to be doing the productive activity for the 'nation' and so should conform to the present exploitative, unjust laws, lest the 'nation' will suffer. In this 'national' project the unrestricted right of employer to exploit is conspicious by its silent presence.
Thus nothing can fit into the political project of 'upper caste male', than the political construct of Hindutva. Unlike the fascisms of Europe whose occurrence was cataclysmic, Indian Fascism, is chronic and sub-acute. It comes in paroxysms and every occurrence of its exacerbation leaves a broader consolidation for itself. Every occurrence of its offense, leaves the 'other' more helpless and ghettoised. This ghettoisation is a necessary accompaniment of Brahminical domination, hegemony of Hindutva. Brahminical exclusivity needs a ghetto, be it of a untouchable centuries ago, or of a muslim in 20th century (nay probably even in 21st century for that matter).
Hindutva in essence is fascism, as to use Vanaik's 'Fascist minimum' criterion, its the 'core' and class character which should determine the nature of a movement, either in opposition or in power. Fascism's core, the minimum, is the middle class base. Hindutva's core, the social base is the cash crop farmer, the petty industrialist and multiple segments of middle classes (bureaucracy, professionals, traders etc) latched on to the big capital. The peripheral manifestations apart, which can change in place and time, Fascism and Hindutva share the commonality, the same social base. Hindutva is a sub-acute, chronic Fascism of a caste-ridden, post colonial society.
Where does Hindutva differ from the Fascisms of European variety. To begin with the ideological base and cadre of Hindutva were prepared for decades by the brahminism, before the change in social dynamics resulted in threat to the power of its social constituency fell back and on a ready-made formation. In between period there were many individuals, from these segments who had veered around to its politics. Secondly Hindutva, as a fascist variant, has invaded the social image in a much more consistent and planned way. Unlike cataclysmic Fascisms, its dedicated soldiers infiltrated army, bureaucracy, police, media and education for decades to prepare a conducive ground for smooth walk-in of the Hindutva in the social space.
Thirdly probably because of the above, Hindutva does not need a 'radical' rhetoric of 'socialism' or some such, which was used by European Fascisms. The absence of radical rhetoric is a strength of Hindutva as it eliminates the need to undertake radical social reforms whenever it succeeds in capturing the power in small sectors, states, of the country. In a way Hindutva is a organically stronger variety of Fascism as it does not need the radical rhetoric to propel its engine. Their is another subtle problem in native Fascism. The unspoken north-south divide. The imageries of Hindutva are mainly around north Indian upper caste male. This hegemony is yet to succeed in its goal in subjugating the non-Hindi speaking regions. With the rise of cash crop farmers and other social bases of Hindutva, in non-Hindi speaking regions also, there is a marginal possibility of this movement getting some foothold in these regions as well. But probably the extent of this will be too small.
The chronicity, i.e. slow speed of this movement has its inherent problems. Where as on one hand it can capture the social space, on the other it can also elicit a reaction to itself. This reaction to it from dalits, workers, women, section of middle class which is secular, is a big obstacle to the march of Hindutva. Big capital, the major industrial houses have a unique relation with SP. Whenever faced with crisis to their own existences the socially terrorising atmosphere created by SP helps the bourgeiosic to wriggle out of the compulsions of liberalism. The conservative movement of SP helps the needs of capital to keep thriving in an uninterrupted way. The noises of 'swadeshi' and the multispeak' adopted by different 'sons' of the RSS are an indication enough that overall the Hindutva project does not go against the global nature, 'computer chips', 'potato chips', 'Dump Enron in the Arabian Sea' (and bring it back through the roads of Konkan)', while the Indian capital continues its logical trajectory of more and more firmly becoming the part of global capital with uneven playing field, on which it has to play while the unfair immigration laws and hegemony of richer countries increasing the miseries of the poor people of the poor countries.
Thus this, chronic, resilient, thriving fascism, expressed through the idomitable vehicle of SP continues to throw up different shades of its existence, sometimes terrorising (to the poor and minorities) sometimes aggressive (to the neighboring 'enemy' countries), sometimes appearing to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. But the march, at the moment is on. The social roots of Hindutva are all for the support and continuation of the repressive capitalist regime; sustaining the bourgeisic aspirations, while continuing to pursue its own project.
At present the situation is fairly in balance. The onslaught has achieved mammoth proportions in the north, but south and east is comparatively unaffected by its paranoid aggression. The reaction of dalits, though fragmented is definitely going to retard the march of the 'Rath' of Hindutva.
The target of SP, the muslims are in a bind. On one hand they have been battered so much by Hindutva, that they cannot afford to lie quiet about it. Secondly unlike the dalits they lie in a subcritical zone of backwardness where they find it difficult to come out of the grip of their own 'religious leaders', 'the muslim obscurantists' posing to be speaking on behalf of 'their community. Thus they face a double attack from both Hindu Fascism and Muslim fundamentalism. Probably the suffering of the 'poor muslims' is so great they will be forced to come out and resist the 'bears hug' of SP and sidetracking their 'leaders' will pose definite obstacle to the march of Trishuls of Hindutva. How SP overcomes this problem, which new 'velvet gloves' it discovers to remove this obstacle remains to be seen.
Conclusion: Combating Fascism
The core of fascist movement is to suppress and suspend the rights of the oppressed. It is a social agenda of shaken, threatened middle class in the service of big bourgeisic. It is a mass movement, Hindutva is the political agenda of petty industrialists, sections of middle classes and rich peasantry blessed by capital. Hindutva aims to create the new ghettoised untouchables, the poor muslims, a la the shudra of the olden times and keeping this goal in mind it wants to suppress/sidetrack the social andpolitical aspirations of dalits, workers and women.
With growth of autonomous movements each struggling sector is asserting itself through small attempts to work for, to wrest its rights. This is a non-hegemonic way of struggle of the oppressed. Unfortunately this has a potential of advancement in liberal atmosphere only, where these fragmented, isolated struggles and movements can stand on their own feet to march towards their goals.
Hindutva is succeeding in creating a social atmosphere, where it will be difficult for these struggles to be carried on properly. Already lot of hurdles are cropping up in the march of these movements. These movements share an anti-authoritarianism which can be the basis of there coming together, to combat Hindutva, despite their seemingly diverse social agendas. The common platform which coordinates, without suppressing the aspirations of individual constitutents, can aim against the Fascistic Hindutva and strengthen the secular, democratic rights of large sections of society. That alone can form the basis of secular, democratic ethos, which can stand upto the onslaught of Hindutva and in the long term show it, its place in the history, the dustbin.
Acknowledgement
(I am thankful to Irfan Engineer, Jairus Banaji and Vrijendra for the discussions which helped me formulate my ideas. However responsibility and weaknesses of these formulations are entirely mine.)
REFERENCES
1. Tapan Basu, P. Datta, S. Sarkar, T. Sarkar & S. Sen 'Khakhi Shorts Saffron Flags', (Tracts for the Times - 1), Orient Longman, 1993, p.37.
2. Haynes Douglas and Gyan Prakash eds. 1991, Contesting power: Resistance and Everyday Facial Relations in South Asia: Delhi, OUP, p.6.
3. Arthur Bonner, 'Democracy in India: a hollow shell', The American University Press, Washington, 1994, p.40.4. ibid, p.41.
5. Arun Bose, 'India's Social Crisis', Delhi: OUP, p.56.
6. Jawaharlal Nehru, 'The Discovery of India', John Day, 1946, p.66.
7. Hinndls, John and Eric Sharpe, eds. Hinduism, New Caste upon Tyne, Oriel Press, 1972, p.128.
8. Romila Thapar, 'Syneticated Moksha?' Seminar, 1987, pp.14-22.
9. Gail Omvedt, 'Dalit Visions' (Tract for the times - 8), Orient Longman, 1995, pp.7-12.
10. Jafferlot Christopher, 1993, Hindu Nationalism: Strategic syneretic in ideology building, EPW, March 20, 93, 517-24.
11. Nandy, Trivedy, Mayaram & Yagnik 'Creating a Nationality Chapter VII, Hindutva as Savarna Purana: OUP, Delhi, 1995.
12. Ram Bapat 'Religious Fundamentalism as a factor in Today's National and International Politics', Paper presented at the Seminar "The Nation, State and Indian Identity: A PostAyodhya Perspective", MAJLIS, Bombay, Feb. 7-10, 1994.
13. Mark Juergensmeyer 'Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State', OUP, Delhi, 1994.14. Bruce Lawrence, 'Defenders of God', quoted in 3, p.5.
15. Sumeet Sarkar 'The Fascism of Sangh Parivar', Economic and Political Weekly, pp.163-168, Jan. 30, 1993.
16. Aijaz Ahmad: Radicalism of the Right and Logics of Secularism, in Religion, Religiosity and Communalism (Eds. Bidwai, Mukhia & Vanaik), Manohar: 96, pp.36-55.
17. Jan Breman 'The Hindu Right', Times of India, March 15, 1993.
18. Achin Vanaik 'Situating Threat of Hindu Nationalism', EPW, July 9, 1994, 1729-1748.
19. Martin Kitchen 'Fascism', The Macmillan Press Ltd. London,1976.
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Hindu nationalism
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Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India. Some scholars have argued that the term 'Hindu nationalism' which refers to the concept of 'Hindu Rashtra' is a simplistic translation and is better described by the term 'Hindu polity'[1].
The native thought streams became highly relevant in the Indian history when they helped form a distinctive identity to the Indian polity[2] and provided a basis for questioning colonialism[3]. They inspired the freedom movements against the British rule based on armed struggle[4], coercive politics[5] and non-violent protests[6]. They also influenced social reform movements and economic thinking in India [5].
In India, the term 'nationalism' doesn't have the negative connotations which it has in Western intellectual circles of post-Marxist orientation. On the contrary, the term is hallowed by its association with the freedom movement against British colonialism and the establishment of democracy[7].
Contents[hide] |
[edit] History
The term Hinduism derives from a Persian word that refers to the Sindhu (or Indus) river in northwest India; "Hindu" was first used in the 14th century by Arabs, Persians, and Afghans to describe the peoples of the Indian region and the religion of the native peoples of India came to be known as Hinduism[1]. The usage of the word 'Hindu' to describe the native polity of India have been found in the historical accounts of medieval India. These usages show that the word Hindu, until the early nineteenth century was emphasized by nativity rather than by religion[8].
Prominent among the South Indian rulers of the fourteenth century were the Sangama rulers of Vijayanagara empire who were hailed as 'Hinduraya suratana', the best among the Hindu rulers.[9] The Sangama rulers were in constant conflict with the Sultanate of Bijapur, and this usage of the word 'Hindu' in the title, was obviously to distinguish them as native rulers as against the Sultans who were "perceived to be foreign in origin". It has been noted by Historians that "Hindus" did not conceive themselves as a religious unity in any sense except in opposition to foreign rule. For example, the early seventeenth-century Telugu work, 'Rayavachakamu', condemns the Muslim rulers for being foreign and barbarian and only rarely for specifically religious traits.[10]
The other references include the glorification of the Chauhana heroes of Jalor as 'Hindu' by Padmanabha in his epic poem, Kanhadade-prabandha, which he composed in AD 1455. The Rajput ruler, Maha Rana Pratap became renowned with the title of 'Hindu-kula-kamala-divakara' for his relentless fight against the Moghuls[11]. 'Hindavi Swarajya' (self rule of the natives) was how the rule of Shivaji, the most notable of the rulers of the seventeenth century was described. The usage of 'Hindavi' (translated as 'of Hindus' in Marathi) in 'Hindavi Swarajya' is considered to mean Indian Independence rather than the rule by a religious sect or a community[8].
[edit] Hindu Renaissance in the late 19th century
Many Hindu reform movements originated in the late nineteenth century. These movements led to the fresh interpretations of the ancient scriptures of Upanishads and Vedanta and also emphasized on social reform[5]. The marked feature of these movements was that they countered the notion of western superiority and white supremacy propounded by the colonizers as a justification for British colonialism in India. This led to the upsurge of patriotic ideas that formed the cultural and an ideological basis for the freedom struggle in India[3].
[edit] Brahmo Samaj
The Brahmo Samaj was one of the earliest Hindu renaissance movements in India under the British rule. It was started by a Bengali scholar, Ram Mohan Roy in 1828. Ram Mohan Roy endeavored to create from the ancient Upanishadic texts, a vision of rationalist 'modern' India. Religiously he criticized idolatry and believed in a monotheistic religion devoid of any idolatry and religious customs. His major emphasis was social reform. He fought against caste discrimination and advocated equal rights for women[12]. Although the Brahmos found favorable response from the British Government and the Westernized Indians, they were largely isolated from the larger Hindu society due to their intellectual Vedantic and Unitarian views. But their efforts to systematize Hindu spirituality based on rational and logical interpretation of the ancient Indian texts would be carried forward by other movements in Bengal and across India[3].
[edit] Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is considered one of the overarching Hindu renaissance movements of the late nineteenth century. Swami Dayananda, the founder of Arya Samaj, rejected idolatry, caste restriction and untouchability, child marriage and advocated equal status and opportunities for women. He opposed "Brahmanism" (which he believed had led to the corruption of the knowledge of Vedas) as much as he opposed Christianity and Islam but his ideas even though they were appreciated by the British yet his ideas did not find favour with the masses who rejected them.[5]. Although Arya Samaj was a social movement, many revolutionaries and political leaders of the Indian Independence movement like Ramprasad Bismil,[13] Shyamji Krishnavarma, Bhai Paramanand and Lala Lajpat Rai were to be inspired by it.[14]
[edit] Swami Vivekananda
Another 19th century Hindu reformer was Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda as a student was educated in contemporary Western thought[3]. He joined Brahmo Samaj briefly before meeting Ramakrishna, who was a priest in the temple of the mother goddess Kali in Calcutta and who was to become his Guru[3]. Vivekananda's major achievement was to ground Hindu spirituality in a systematic interpretation of Vedanta. This project started with Ram Mohan Roy of Brahmo Samaj and which had produced rational Hinduism was now combined with disciplines such as yoga and the concept of social service to attain perfection from the ascetic traditions in what Vivekananda called the "practical Vedanta". The practical side essentially included participation in social reform[3].
He made Hindu spirituality and Hindu religious principles, intellectually available to the Westernized audience. His famous speech at the Parliament of World religions at Chicago on September 11, 1893, followed huge reception of his thought in the West and made him a celebrity in the West and subsequently in India too[3].
A major element of Vivekananda's message was nationalist. He saw his effort very much in terms of a revitalization of the Hindu nation, which carried Hindu spirituality and which could counter Western materialism. The notions of White supremacy and Western superiority, strongly believed by the colonizers, were to be questioned based on Hindu spirituality. This kind of spiritual Hinduism was later carried forward by Mahatma Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. It also became a main inspiration for the current brand of Hindu nationalism today[3]. Historians have observed that this helped the nascent Independence movement with a distinct national identity and kept it from being the simple derivative function of European nationalisms[2].
[edit] Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo was a nationalist and one of the first to embrace the idea of complete political independence for India. He was inspired by the writings of Swami Vivekananda and the novels of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.[15]. He "based his claim for freedom for India on the inherent right to freedom, not on any charge of misgovernment or oppression". He believed that the primary requisite for national progress, national reform, is the free habit of free and healthy national thought and action and that it was impossible in a state of servitude[16]. He was part of the revolutionary group Anushilan Samiti and was involved in armed struggle against the British[17] In his brief political career spanning only four years, he led a delegation from Bengal to the Indian National Congress session of 1907 [16] and contributed to the revolutionary newspaper Bande Mataram.
In 1910, he withdrew from political life and spent his remaining life doing spiritual exercises and writing[15]. But his works kept inspiring revolutionaries and struggles for freedom, including the famous Chittagong Uprising[18]. Both Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo are credited with having found the basis for a vision of freedom and glory for India in the spiritual richness and heritage of Hinduism.
[edit] Independence movement
The influence of the Hindu renaissance movements was such that by the turn of the century, there was a confluence of ideas of the Hindu cultural nationalism with the ideas of Indian nationalism[5]. Both could be spoken synonymous even by tendencies that were seemingly opposed to sectarian communalism and Hindu majoritism[5].The Hindu renaissance movements held considerable influence over the revolutionary movements against the British rule and formed the philosophical basis for the struggles and political movements that originated in the first decade of the twentieth century.
[edit] Revolutionary Movements
[edit] Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar
Anushilan Samiti was one of the prominent revolutionary movements in India in the early part of twentieth century. It was started as a cultural society in 1902, by Aurobindo and the followers of Bankim Chandra to propagate the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. But soon the Samiti had its goal to overthrow the British rule in India[4]. Various branches of the Samiti sprung across India in the guise of suburban fitness clubs but secretly imparted arms training to its members with the implicit aim of using them against the British administration[19] On April 30, 1908 at Muzaffarpur, two revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw bombs at a British convoy aimed at British officer Kingsford. Both were arrested trying to flee. Aurobindo was also arrested on 2 May, 1908 and sent to Alipore jail. The report sent from Andrew Fraser, the then Lt Governor of Bengal to Lord Minto in England declared that although Sri Aurobindo came to Calcutta in 1906 as a Professor at the National College, "he has ever since been the principal advisor of the revolutionary party. It is of utmost importance to arrest his potential for mischief, for he is the prime mover and can easily set tools, one to replace another." But charges against Aurobindo were never proved and he was acquitted. Many members of the group faced charges and were transported and imprisoned for life. Others went into hiding.[20]
In 1910, when, Aurobindo withdrew from political life and decided to live a life of renounciate[15], the Anushilan Samiti declined. One of the revolutionaries, Jatindra Das Mukherjee, who managed to escape the trial started a group which would be called Jugantar. Jugantar continued with its armed struggle with the British, but the arrests of its key members and subsequent trials weakened its influence. Many of its members were imprisoned for life in the notorious Andaman Cellular jail [20].
[edit] India House
A revolutionary movement was started by Shyamji Krishnavarma, a Sanskritist and an Arya Samajist, in London, under the name of India House in 1905. The brain behind this movement was said to be V D Savarkar. Krishnaverma also published a monthly "Indian Sociologist", where the idea of an armed struggle against the British was openly espoused.[21]. The movement had become well known for its activities in the Indian expatriates in London. When Gandhi visited London in 1909, he shared a platform with the revolutionaries where both the parties politely agreed to disagree, on the question of violent struggle against British and whether Ramayana justified such violence. Gandhi, while admiring the "patriotism" of the young revolutionaries, had dissented vociferously from their violent blueprints for social change. In turn the revolutionaries disliked his adherence to constitutionalism and his close contacts with moderate leaders of Indian National Congress. Moreover they considered his method of "passive resistance" effeminate and humiliating.[22].
The India House had soon to face a closure following the assassination of Sir Curzon-Wyllie by the revolutionary Madan lal Dhingra, who was close to India House. Savarkar also faced charges and was transported. Shyamji Krishnaverma fled to Paris[21]. India House gave formative support to ideas that were later formulated by Savarkar in his book named 'Hindutva'. Hindutva was to gain relevance in the run up to the Indian Independence and would also form the core to the political party named Hindu Mahasabha started by Savarkar[5].
[edit] Indian National Congress
[edit] "Lal-Bal-Pal"
"Lal-Bal-Pal" is the phrase that is used to refer to the three nationalist leaders Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal who held the sway over the Indian Nationalist movement and the freedom struggle in the early parts of twentieth century.
Lala Lajpat Rai belonged to the northern province of Punjab. He was influenced greatly by the Arya Samaj and was part of the Hindu reform movement [5]. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1888 and became a prominent figure in the Indian Independence Movement.[23]. He started numerous educational institutions. The National College at Lahore started by him became the centre for revolutionary ideas and was the college where revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh studied [24]. While leading a procession against the Simon Commission, he was fatally injured in the lathi charge by the British police. His death led the revolutionaries like Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh to kill the British officer J.P. Saunders, who they believed was responsible for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.[23]
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a nationalist leader from the Central Indian province of Maharashtra. He has been widely acclaimed the "Father of Indian unrest" who used the press and Hindu occasions like Ganesh Chaturthi and symbols like the Cow to create unrest against the British administration in India [25]. Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890. Under the influence of such leaders, the political discourse of the Congress moved from polite accusation that imperial rule was "un-British" to the forthright claim of Tilak that "Swaraj is my birthright and I will have it"[26].
Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal was another prominent figure of the Indian nationalist movement, who is considered a modern Hindu reformer, who stood for Hindu cultural nationalism and was opposed to sectarian communalism and Hindu majoritism [5]. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1886 and was also one of the key members of revolutionary India House.[27]
[edit] Gandhi and Ramarajya
Though Gandhi never called himself a "Hindu nationalist", he believed in and propagated concepts like Dharma and "Rama Rajya" (Rule of Lord Rama) as part of his social and political philosophy. Gandhiji said "By political independence I do not mean an imitation to the British House of commons, or the soviet rule of Russia or the Fascist rule of Italy or the Nazi rule of Germany. They have systems suited to their genius. We must have ours suited to ours. What that can be is more than I can tell. I have described it as Ramarajya i.e., sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority.[28]. He emphasized that "Rama Rajya" to him meant peace and justice. "Whether Rama of my imagination ever lived or not on this earth, the ancient ideal of Ramarajya is undoubtedly one of true democracy in which the meanest citizen could be sure of swift justice without an elaborate and costly procedure." [29]. He also emphasized that it meant respect for all religions " My Hinduism teaches me to respect all religions. In this lies the secret of Ramarajya." [30]
Madan Mohan Malviya, an educationist and a politician with the Indian National Congress was also a vociferous proponent of the philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita. He was the president of the Indian National Congress in the year 1909 and 1918[6]. He was seen as a 'moderate' in the Congress and was also considered very close to Gandhi. He popularized the Sanskrit phrase "Satyameva Jayate" (Truth alone wins), which today is the national emblem of the Republic of India[31]. He founded the Benaras Hindu University in 1919 and became its first Vice-Chancellor[32].
[edit] Subhas Bose
Apart from Gandhi, revolutionary leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose referred to Vedanta and the Bhagavad-Gita as sources of inspiration for the struggle against the British [33].
Swami Vivekananda's teachings on universalism, his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired Subhas Chandra Bose from his very young days. The fresh interpretation of the India's ancient scriptures appealed immensely to Subhas[34]. Hindu spirituality formed the essential part of his political and social thought through his adult life, although there was no sense of bigotry or orthodoxy in it[35].Subhas who called himself a socialist, believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda[36]. As historian Leonard Gordan explains "Inner religious explorations continued to be a part of his adult life. This set him apart from the slowly growing number of atheistic socialists and communists who dotted the Indian landscape." "Hinduism was an essential part of his Indianess"[37]. His strategy against the British also included the use of Hindu symbols and festivals. In 1925, while in Mandalay jail, he went on a hunger strike when Durga puja was not supported by prison authorities[38].
Another leader of prime importance in the ascent of Hindu nationalism was Dr K. B. Hedgewar of Nagpur. Hedgewar as a medical student in Calcutta had been part of the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar[39]. He was charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and served a year in prison. He was briefly a member of Indian National Congress[39]. In 1925, he left the Congress to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which would become the focal point of Hindu movements in Independent India. After the formation of the RSS too, Hedgewar was to take part in the Indian National Congress led movements against the British rule. He joined the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a second term in prison[39]. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started by him became one of the most prominent Hindu organization with its influence ranging in the social and political spheres of India.
[edit] Partition of India
The Partition of India outraged many majority Hindu nationalist politicians and social groups.[40] Savarkar and members of the Hindu Mahasabha were extremely critical of Gandhi's leadership[41]. They accused him of appeasing the Muslims to preserve a unity that in their opinion, did not exist,they felt that Muslims and Hindus could never be united because Islam considers Idol Worship the biggest sin and according to Islamic texts people who worship idols deserve to die.Savarkar endorsed the concept of the Two-nation theory while disagreeing with it in practice[42]. Some Hindu nationalists also blamed Gandhi for conceding Pakistan to the Muslim League via appeasement[43]. And they were further inflamed when Gandhi conducted a fast-unto-death for the Indian government to give Rs. 55 crores which were due to the Pakistan government, but were being held back due to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947[44].
After the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, the Sangh Parivar was plunged into distress when the RSS was accused of involvement in his murder. Along with the conspirators and the assassin, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was also arrested. The Court acquitted Savarkar, and the RSS was found be to completely unlinked with the conspirators[45]. The Hindu Mahasabha, of which Godse was a member, lost membership and popularity. The effects of public outrage had a permanent effect on the Hindu Mahasabha, which is now a defunct Hindutva party.
[edit] Evolution of ideological terminology
The word 'Hindu', throughout the history, had been used as an inclusive description which lacked a definition and was used to refer to the native traditions and people of India. It was only in late eighteenth century that the word 'Hindu' came to be used extensively with religious connotation, while still being used as a synecdoche describing the indigenuous traditions[8].
[edit] Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra
[edit] Savarkar
Savarkar was one of the first in the twentieth century to attempt a definitive description of the term 'Hindu' in terms of what he called Hindutva meaning Hinduness[46]. The coinage of the term 'Hindutva' was an attempt by Savarkar who was an atheist and a rationalist, to delink it from any religious connotations that had become attached to it. He defined the word Hindu as "He who considers India as both his Fatherland and Holyland". He thus defined Hindutva ("Hindu-ness") or Hindu as different from Hinduism[46]. This definition kept the Abrahamic religions (Christianity and Islam) outside its ambit and considered only native religious denominations as Hindu.[47].
This distinction was emphasized on the basis of territorial loyalty rather than on the religious practices. In this book that was written in the backdrop of the Khilafat Movement and the subsequent Moplah riots, Savarkar wrote "Their (Muslims' and Christians') holy land is far off in Arabia or Palestine. Their mythology and Godmen, ideas and heroes are not the children of this soil. Consequently their names and their outlook smack of foreign origin. Their love is divided"[46].
Savarkar, also defined the concept of Hindu Rashtra (translated as "Hindu polity")[1]. The concept of Hindu Polity called for the protection of Hindu people and their culture and emphasized that political and economic systems should be based on native thought rather than on the concepts borrowed from the West.
[edit] Golwalkar
M S Golwalkar, the second head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was to further this non-religious, territorial loyalty based definition of 'Hindu' in his book 'Bunch of thoughts'. 'Hindutva' and 'Hindu Rashtra' would form the basis of Golwalkar's ideology and that of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. While emphasizing on religious pluralism, Golwalkar believed that Semitic monotheism and exclusivism were incompatible with and against the native Hindu culture. He wrote "Those creeds (Islam and Christianity) have but one prophet, one scripture and one God, other than whom there is no path of salvation for the human soul. It requires no great intelligence to see the absurdity of such a proposition". He added "As far as the national tradition of this land is concerned, it never considers that with a change in the method of worship, an individual ceases to be the son of the soil and should be treated as an alien. Here, in this land, there can be no objection to God being called by any name whatever. Ingrained in this soil is love and respect for all faiths and religious beliefs. He cannot be a son of this soil at all who is intolerant of other faiths." [48]
He further would echo the views of Savarkar on territorial loyalty, but with a degree of inclusiveness, when he wrote "So, all that is expected of our Muslim and Christen co-citizens is the shedding of the notions of their being 'religious minorities' as also their foreign mental complexion and merging themselves in the common national stream of this soil."[48]
[edit] Contemporary descriptions
Later thinkers of the RSS, like H V Sheshadri and K S Rao, were to emphasize on the non theocratic nature of the word "Hindu Rashtra", which they believed was often inadequately translated, ill interpreted and wrongly stereotyped as a theocratic state. In a book by H.V. Sheshadri, the senior leader of the RSS writes "As Hindu Rashtra is not a religious concept, it is also not a political concept. It is generally misinterpreted as a theocratic state or a religious Hindu state. Nation (Rashtra) and State (Rajya) are entirely different and should never be mixed up. State is purely a political concept. ... The State changes as the political authority shifts from person to person or party to party. But the people in the Nation remain the same.[49]. They would maintain that the concept of Hindu Rashtra is in complete agreement with the principles of secularism and democracy.[50]
The concept of 'Hindutva' is continued to be espoused by the organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party. But the definition, does not have the same rigidity with respect to the concept of 'holy land' laid down by Savarkar, and stresses on inclusivism and patriotism. BJP leader and the then leader of opposition, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in 1998, articulated the concept of 'holy land' in Hindutva as follows "Mecca can continue to be holy for the Muslims but India should be holier than the holy for them. You can go to a mosque and offer namaz, you can keep the roza. We have no problem. But if you have to choose between Mecca or Islam and India you must choose India. All the Muslims should have this feeling: we will live and die only for this country."[51].
In 1995, in a landmark judgment the Supreme Court of India observed that "Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as a way of life or a state of mind and is not to be equated with or understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu and since the Hindu is disposed to think synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange gods and divergent doctrines as inadequate rather than wrong or objectionable, he tends to believe that the highest divine powers complement each other for the well-being of the world and mankind."[52]
[edit] Post Independence Movements
[edit] Somnath temple movement
The Somnath temple is an ancient temple at Prabhas Patan in the coastal Indian province of Gujarat, which had been destroyed several times by the Muslim foreign invaders, starting with Mahmood Ghaznavi in 1025 AD. The last of such destructions took place in 1706 AD when Prince Mohammad Azam carried out the orders of Moghul ruler Aurangzeb to destroy the temple of Somnath beyond possible repair. A small mosque was put in its place[53].
Before Independence, Prabhas Pattan where Somnath is located was part of the Junagarh State, ruled by the Nawab of Junagarh. On the eve of Independence the Nawab announced the accession of Junagarh, which had over 80% Hindu population, to Pakistan. The people of Junagarh rose in revolt and set up a parallel government under Gandhian leader and freedom fighter, Shri Samaldas Gandhi. The Nawab, unable to resist the popular pressure, bowed out and escaped to Pakistan. The provincial government under Samaldas Gandhi formally asked Government of India to take over.[54]. The Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Patel came to Junagadh on November 12, 1947 to direct the occupation of the state by the Indian army and at the same time ordered the reconstruction of the Somanath temple[55]
When Sardar Patel, K M Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Gandhiji with the proposal of reconstructing the Somnath temple, Gandhiji blessed the move, but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public and the temple should not be funded by the state. He expressed that he was proud to associate himself to the project of renovation of the temple[56] But soon both Gandhiji and Sardar Patel died and the task of reconstruction of the temple was now continued under the leadership of K M Munshi, who was the Minister for Food and Civil, supplies in the Nehru Government[56].
The ruins were pulled down in October 1950 and the mosque was moved to a different location. In May 1951, Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India, invited by K M Munshi, performed the installation ceremony for the temple[57] Rajendra Prasad said in his address "It is my view that the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple will be complete on that day when not only a magnificent edifice will arise on this foundation, but the mansion of India's prosperity will be really that prosperity of which the ancient temple of Somnath was a symbol.".[58]. He added "The Somnath temple signifies that the power of reconstruction is always greater than the power of destruction"[58]
This episode created a serious rift between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw in movement for reconstruction of the temple an attempt at Hindu revivalism and the President Rajendra Prasad and Union Minister K M Munshi, saw in its reconstruction, the fruits of freedom and the reversal of injustice done to Hindus[58].
[edit] The Emergence of the Sangh Parivar
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was started in 1925, had grown as a huge organisation by the end of British rule in India. But the assassination of Gandhi and a subsequent ban on the organisation plunged it into distress. The ban was revoked when it was absolved of the charges and it led to the resumtion of its activities[45].
The 1960s saw the volunteers of the RSS join the different social and political movements. Movements that saw a large presence of volunteers included the Bhoodan, a land reform movement led by prominent Gandhian Vinoba Bhave[59] and the Sarvoday led by another Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan[60]. RSS supported trade union, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh also grew into considerable prominence by the end of the decade.
Another prominent development was the formation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organisation of Hindu religious leaders, supported by the RSS, with the aim of uniting the various Hindu religious denominations and to usher social reform. The first VHP meet at Mumbai was attended among others by all the Shankaracharyas, Jain leaders, Sikh leader Master Tara Singh, the Dalai Lama and contemporary Hindu leaders like Swami Chinmayananda. From its initial years, the VHP led a concerted attack on the social evil of untouchability and casteism while launching social welfare programmes in the areas of education and health care, especially for the Scheduled Castes, backward classes and the tribals[61].
The organisations started and supported by the RSS volunteers came to be known collectively as the Sangh Parivar. Next few decades saw a steady growth of the influence of the Sangh Parivar in the social and political space of India[61].
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b The Hindu Phenomenon by Girilal Jain, ISBN no. 81-86112-32-4
- ^ a b Chatterjee Partha (1986)
- ^ a b c d e f g h Peter van der Veer, Hartmut Lehmann, Nation and religion: perspectives on Europe and Asia, Princeton University Press, 1999
- ^ a b Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Published by Routledge, 2003
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chetan Bhatt (2001)
- ^ a b Vidya Dhar Mahajan, Constitutional history of India, including the nationalist movement, Published by S. Chand, 1971
- ^ page 21, Elst Koenraad, Decolonizing the Hindu mind, Rupa Co 2001
- ^ a b c On Understanding Islam: Selected Studies, By Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Published by Walter de Gruyter, 1981, ISBN 9027934487, 9789027934482
- ^ Carla M. Sinopoli, The political economy of craft production: crafting empire in South India, c. 1350-1650, Published by Cambridge University Press, 2003
- ^ Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Hinduism Modern, Encyclopedia of religion and war
- ^ M. G. Chitkara, Hindutva, Published by APH Publishing, 1997, ISBN 8170247985, 9788170247982
- ^ Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India, Cambridge University Press, 2002
- ^ Bhagat Singh, Why I am an atheist, Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh by Bhagat Singh, Shiv Verma, National Book Centre, 1986
- ^ Michael Francis O'Dwyer, India as I knew it, 1885-1925, Published by Constable, 1926
- ^ a b c William Theodore De Bary, Stephen N Hay, Sources of Indian Tradition, Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1988, ISBN 8120804678
- ^ a b Peter Heehs, Religious nationalism and beyond, August 2004
- ^ Elleke Boehmer, Empire, the National, and the Postcolonial, 1890-1920: Resistance in Interaction Published by Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 019818445X, 9780198184454
- ^ Manini Chatterjee, Do and Die: The Chittagong Uprising, 1930-34, Published by Penguin Books, 1999
- ^ By J. C. Johari, Voices of Indian Freedom Movement, Published by Akashdeep Pub. House
- ^ a b Arun Chandra Guha Aurobindo and Jugantar, Published by Sahitya Sansad, 1970
- ^ a b Anthony Parel, Hind Swaraj and other writings By Gandhi, Published by Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0521574315, 9780521574310
- ^ Manfred B. Steger, Gandhi's dilemma: nonviolent principles and nationalist power, Published by Macmillan, 2000, ISBN 0312221770, 9780312221775
- ^ a b Lajpat Rai, Bal Ram Nanda, The collected works of Lala Lajpat Rai, Published by Manohar, 2005, ISBN 8173046603, 9788173046605
- ^ Haṃsarāja Rahabara, Bhagat Singh and His Thought. Published by Manak Publications, 1990, ISBN 8185445079, 9788185445076
- ^ Donald Mackenzie Brown, The Nationalist movement: Indian political thought from Ranade to Bhave, Published by University of California Press, 1965
- ^ Gail Omvedt, Reinventing revolution: new social movements and the socialist tradition in India, Published by M.E. Sharpe, 1993
- ^ Saral Kumar Chatterji , Bipin Chandra Pal, Published by Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1984
- ^ Harijan, 2-1-1937
- ^ Young India, 19-9-1929
- ^ Harijan 19-10-1947
- ^ Ranganathan Magadi, India Rises in the West, Published by Lulu.com, 2006 ISBN 1430301058, 9781430301059
- ^ Aparna Basu, The Growth of Education and Political Development in India, 1898-1920, Published by Oxford University Press, 1974
- ^ Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb, Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Published by Routledge, 2003
- ^ Sisir Kumar Bose, Aleander Werth, Narayan Gopal Jog, Subbier Appadurai Ayer, Beacon Across Asia: A Biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, Published by Orient Blackswan, 1996
- ^ Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Thy Hand, Great Anarch!: India, 1921-1952, Published by Chatto & Windus, 1987
- ^ P. R. Bhuyan, Swami Vivekananda, Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2003
- ^ Leonard A. Gordon, Brothers Against The Raj:A Biography of Indian Nationalist Leaders Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose, Published by Columbia University Press, 1990
- ^ S.K. Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose, Eds. Sisir Kumar Bose And Sugata Bose, The Alternative Leadership: Speeches, Articles, Statements and Letters June 1939–1941, Published by Orient Blackswan, 2004
- ^ a b c Chitkara M G, Hindutva, Published by APH Publishing, 1997 ISBN 8170247985, 9788170247982
- ^ http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html
- ^ http://www.boloji.com/opinion/0022.htm
- ^ http://www.sacw.net/partition/IshtiaqAhmed2002.html
- ^ http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/itihas/partition.htm
- ^ http://san.beck.org/20-5-GandhiandIndia1919-33.html
- ^ a b Report of Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, By India (Republic). Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, Jeevan Lal Kapur, Published by Ministry of Home affairs, 1970,page 165
- ^ a b c Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar: Hindutva, Bharati Sahitya Sadan, Delhi 1989 (1923)
- ^ Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. pp. 21. ISBN 81-7167-519-0.
- ^ a b MS Golwalkar, Bunch of thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu Prakashan, 19262
- ^ K.S. Rao in H. V. Seshadri, ed.:Why Hindu Rashtra?, p.24
- ^ Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. pp. 480–486. ISBN 81-7167-519-0.
- ^ The Nation, January 24, 1998
- ^ Supreme Court on Hindu Hindutva and Hinduism
- ^ Ram Gopal, Hindu culture during and after Muslim rule: survival and subsequent challenges, Published by M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1994, ISBN 8185880263, 9788185880266
- ^ Vapal Pangunni Menon, The Story of the Integration of the Indian States, Published by Macmillan, 1956
- ^ Hindustan Times, 15 Nov, 1947
- ^ a b Marie Cruz Gabriel, Rediscovery of India, A silence in the city and other stories, Published by Orient Blackswan, 1996, ISBN 8125008284, 9788125008286
- ^ Peter Van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath, eternal shrines, contested histories, 1992
- ^ a b c Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, Indian constitutional documents,Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1967
- ^ Suresh Ramabhai, Vinoba and his mission, Published by Akhil Bharat Sarv Seva Sangh, 1954
- ^ Martha Craven Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future, Published by Harvard University Press, 2007 ISBN 0674024826, 9780674024823
- ^ a b Smith, David James, Hinduism and Modernity P189, Blackwell Publishing ISBN 0-631-20862-3
[edit] References
- Walter K. Andersen. 'Bharatiya Janata Party: Searching for the Hindu Nationalist Face', In The New Politics of the Right: Neo–Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies, ed. Hans–Georg Betz and Stefan Immerfall (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 219–232. (ISBN 0-312-21134-1 or ISBN 0-312-21338-7)
- Partha Banerjee, In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India (Delhi: Ajanta, 1998). OCLC 43318775
- Bhatt, Chetan, Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths, Berg Publishers (2001), ISBN 9781859733486.
- Blank, Jonah. Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God.
- Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. ISBN 81-7167-519-0.
- Ainslie T. Embree, 'The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation', in Accounting for Fundamentalisms, The Fundamentalism Project 4, ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 617–652. (ISBN 0-226-50885-4)
- Gandhi, Rajmohan. Patel: A Life.
- Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar (1923). Hindutva. Delhi, India: Bharati Sahitya Sadan.
- Balbir K, Punj, "Hindu Rashtra" South Asian Journal
[edit] External links
- The Hindu phenomenon- Girilal Jain
- Why Hindu Rashtra
- Video documentary showcasing the social service works of the RSS
- Voice of Dharma
- WHY DO PEOPLE CONDEMN HINDU NATIONALISM? THE ANSWER MAY BE CONNECTED TO A DISDAIN FOR ZIONISM - by Seth J. Frantzman
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COVER STORY
The Hindutva experiment
DIONNE BUNSHA
DURING the last two months and more of mayhem, questions regarding the extent to which the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindutva ideology has permeated the public mind have sprung up. In order to understand how the BJP has been able to mobilise different sections of society from the Patidars (or Patels) to Dalits and other backward classes (OBCs), it is necessary to look at Gujarat's history of communal violence.
The earliest recorded riot here dates back to 1714 during Mughal rule - it occurred in Ahmedabad. It was sparked by a minor incident - the accidental sprinkling of 'ghulal' during the Holi festival, according to the V.S. Dave Commission report on the 1985 riots. Several riots took place during the Maratha rule, which lasted until 1817. During the British Raj, riots broke out in 1941, following which the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended. It also marked the time when Ahmedabad's Muslims started supporting the Muslim League. In 1946, trouble broke out in the city again. In post-Independence India, there were riots in Ahmedabad in 1958, 1965 and 1969. The 1969 riots were also sparked by a minor event but led to one of the bloodiest riots in Gujarat.
In a chapter in the book Creating a Nationality, social activist Achyut Yagnik attributes the rise of Hindutva in the State to the rise of the rapidly growing urban middle class in search of a new identity. Tracing the rise of the BJP from the 1980s, he illustrates how it has managed to mobilise Patels, Banias, the OBCs and Dalits under a common Hindutva banner in a span of 20 years. Yagnik points out that the Congress split in 1969 changed caste equations in the State. When the Congress (I) swept to power in 1980 using the electoral combine of KHAM (Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims), the political clout of the upper castes and Patidars was eroded. "Between 1976 and 1980, the Congress(I) leadership in Gujarat virtually eliminated Brahmins, Banias and Patidars from core positions in the party. For the first time in history, not a single Patidar Minister was of Cabinet rank." (The last 10 years have seen a Patidar resurgence in State politics.)
The backlash from Brahmins, Banias and Patidars took the form of an anti-reservation agitation in 1981. They objected to the reservation system that gave Dalits access to medical and engineering colleges. It led to riots in which Dalits were targeted in 18 of Gujarat's 19 districts. During these riots, Muslims sheltered Dalits, in some instances. The second anti-reservation riots were in 1985. "Although the agitation was against the hike in job quotas for the OBCs in government and educational institutions, the victims were all Dalits," says Yagnik.
However, by the mid-1980s, the BJP changed its stand towards Dalits in a bid to co-opt them. Realising the largeness of the number of Dalits and Scheduled Tribe and OBC persons in the State, who together account for 75 per cent of the population, the BJP started attempts to unite all castes under the Hindutva plank. It corrected its anti-reservation stand and was able to reap the gains of this move. When riots broke out in 1986 during Ahmedabad's annual Jagannath rath yatra, the BJP managed to garner the support of the OBCs and Dalits. This marked a shift in its support base.
When riots broke out all over Gujarat in 1990 during L.K. Advani's rath yatra, Dalits and middle class Hindus were set against Muslims. The 1990 riots showed that the communal divide had deepened considerably, says Yagnik. Incidentally, the man who spearheaded the rath yatra campaign in Gujarat was none other than the present Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who was then the general secretary of the State BJP. Also, it was after 1990 that the process of ghettoisation got under way in all three areas of Ahmedabad - the old walled city, the industrial mill areas and the new middle class and elite town. The 1992 riots after the demolition of the Babri Masjid ghettoised the city further. The current round of violence is likely to cause even further spatial segregation of the two communities.
Another explanation for Hindutva's growing base in Gujarat is offered by labour researcher Jan Bremen, who attributes it to globalisation and the manner in which capitalism has grown in the State. The informalisation of Ahmedabad's workforce following the closure of its textile mills resulted in the pauperisation of the workers. Sections among these marginalised workers, mainly Dalits, are part of the Sangh Parivar's lumpen elements. Bremen says in a recent essay: "Gujarat could be understood as an experiment for trying out what will happen to state and society under a policy regime which does not attempt to harness the most brutal consequences of a market-led mode of capitalist production. The total eclipse of Gandhian values... has also led to the shrinking of social space. The disappearance of a climate leaning towards social democracy and tolerance has been accompanied by an increase in communal hate politics." Tracing the roots of ghettoisation, Bremen says it accelerated after the decline of the Mazdoor Mahajan Sangh founded by Mahatma Gandhi. Terming the State's economic growth pattern as one of "lumpen capitalism", he says that this kind of development is based on an ideology of "social-Darwinism", which shows little concern for the urgent need to raise labour standards or the dignity of the working poor. He likens the economic boycott and targeting of Muslims to the initial phase of the Nazi regime.
While the recent communal violence has often been portrayed as a Dalit vs. Muslim one, Martin Macwan, director of the Navsarjan Dalit network, points out that this is not necessarily true. People from all castes and classes participated in the rioting, including the elite, who looted shopping centres. He adds that since Dalits and Muslims (who comprise the poorest sections of the working class) are often neighbours, situations of insecurity and tension are perceived as those in which the two communities are pitted against each other. "The image of Dalits and Muslims as warring factions is well calculated to benefit Hindu dominance," he says. Since the Dalit movement is now in a political vacuum, the Sangh Parivar has exploited the frustration of the Dalit youth to mobilise for its Hindutva campaigns, Macwan adds.
In the Adivasi areas of Panchmahal, Dahod and Sabarkantha, the Bajrang Dal and the VHP introduced their communal politics with the Ram temple campaign in 1990. Just before the violence broke out, they had organised mass "Trishul campaigns" and "Adivasi reconversions" in these areas. It comes as no surprise, then, that in many places Bhil Adivasi mobs were instigated to attack.
The latest violence is unique in terms of the manner and scale of planning involved as well as the subversion of state machinery to shield the culprits. Only history will tell what results the fascist Hindutva experiment will throw up.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1910/19100160.htm
Tag - Hindutva
Hindutva politics in disarray and decline
THE Bharatiya Janata Party, once cohesive and disciplined, is now so faction-ridden that it often ends up damaging itself by pandering to particular leaders.
After The Karnataka Quake: The BJP as political franchise
The Bharatiya Janata Party's national leadership could not have cut a sorrier figure than it did with its abysmally inept handling of the latest political crisis in Karnataka, which very nearly brought down the only government the party heads in all of South India.
The great capitulation
Indians and Pakistanis have to develop a common, rational understanding of the partition story that is free of nationalist prejudice.
Religion-India: Secular Fabric Under Threat
Inter Press Service, November 5, 2008
by Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Nov 5 (IPS) - Police in India have unearthed a well-organised terrorist network inspired by intensely Hindu-chauvinist ideas, which they suspect, has been involved in a series of bombings since 2003, primarily targeting mosques and intended to kill Muslims.
The discovery follows investigations into two bomb blasts on Sep. 29 at Malegaon, an industrial town in central Maharashtra, notorious for strained Hindu-Muslim relations and periodic communal (or inter-community) violence. Seven people were killed in the latest explosions.
At the network's centre are various organisations and individuals affiliated to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). They are tied together by adherence to the ideology of Hindutva (Hinduness or Hindu-supremacism), and are collectively called the Sangh Parivar (RSS family or cabal).
Also implicated are three retired officers of the Indian army, and a serving colonel, belonging to the intelligence corps. At least two of them are connected with the Bhonsala Military School, a Hindutva-inspired institution established in 1937 at Nashik in Maharashtra.
The most prominent of the suspects arrested by the police for the bombings is Pragya Singh Thakur, a 38 year-old saffron-clad woman who calls herself a Sadhvi (the feminine for sadhu).
One of the bombs that exploded in Malegaon was planted on a motorcycle owned by Thakur and loaned by her to prime accused Ramji. She has reportedly confessed to this. The police also claim Thakur was unhappy at the relatively low number of fatalities in the blast and wanted to know from Ramji the reason for this.
Thakur has a strong RSS background and was an office-bearer of the BJP-sponsored students' union, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad for nine years, and more important, of the militant women's outfit, Durga Vahini.
The BJP has been badly embarrassed by the disclosures, which have shocked the secular public. But after initial hesitation, the party has decided to brazen things out and take the stand that Parivar activists are being framed.
The police have gathered evidence exposing the myriad connections between the RSS, the BJP, and their front organisations, estimated at more than 100 in number, which are active in fields as diverse as labour unions, indoctrination and education, lawyers' organisations, semi-religious groups, relief and service delivery, and specific targeting of India's religious minorities, which make up 18 percent of its population of a billion plus people.
Among the better known of the Sangh Parivar organisations are the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council) and Bajrang Dal (violent vigilantes named after the monkey warrior-god Hanuman), Vidya Bharati (which runs thousands of Hindutva-oriented schools) and Adivasi Kalyan Ashram (which actively proselytises among indigenous people).
Groups like Durga Vahini, Rashtriya Jagaran Manch, Sanatana Sanstha and Abhinav Bharat are less well-known but often more active in militant ways.
These groups have been involved in a spate of attacks on Indian Christians across seven states, after first erupting in eastern Orissa last Christmas. Affected states include southern Karnataka and Kerala, central Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and western Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF), an influential non-government organisation (NGO) has demanded, in an open petition to the government that the Bajrang Dal- which it holds mainly responsible - be banned for attacks that are ''unconstitutional and threaten the secular fabric of the country''.
According to published CSF estimates, over 50 Christians have been killed, 4,000 houses destroyed and dozens of nuns raped.
''The State of India has abdicated its responsibility and duty to protect Indian Christians, by not taking the concerned state governments ruled by the BJP to task and failing to protect the life and personal liberty of Indian citizens,'' the CSF petition charged.
In the Malegaon bombing case, police say they have irrefutable evidence that three key individuals, Thakur, Abhinav Bharat, Sameer Kulkarni and former army major Ramesh Upadhye, were conspirators. They were also probably responsible, along with other RSS-Bajrang Dal activists, for recent bombings outside mosques in four other towns in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The police are also looking for evidence of their possible involvement in recent mosque bombings, as in Hyderabad in May 2007, in Ajmer in October 2007, and possibly on the Samjhauta Express train to Pakistan in February last year.
Police believe that Hindutva activists have been training themselves in bomb-making and other violent skills for many years with help from former military officers and institutions like the Bhonsala Military School.
In April 2006, two RSS-Bajrang Dal activists were killed during a bomb manufacturing operation at Nanded, also in Maharashtra.
According to the Maharashtra police's Anti-Terrorism Squad, the Nanded operation was part of a larger criminal conspiracy to create the impression that Muslim extremists would not hesitate to kill other Muslims. The motive was to sow disaffection, widen the communal divide and help Hindutva forces blame Muslims for acts of terrorism.
Similar cases of parivar activists' involvement in other bomb-fabrication operations has recently come to light through accidental explosions in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and again in Nanded, Maharashtra (in February 2007).
"This is not the first time that Hindu fundamentalists have been implicated in acts of violence," says Tanika Sarkar, a professor of modern Indian history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and author of several books and scholarly papers on the Sangh Parivar and the Hindutva movement.
"But this is probably the first time that an underground network operating on a large scale across different states, which has actually planted bombs targeted at Muslims, has been unearthed,'' Sarkar told IPS.
Sarkar added: "These Hindutva-inspired terrorists are no less dangerous and indefensible than terrorists inspired by jehadi Islam. But the difference is that the first kind of terrorism has a wider base because the Hindus are a majority in India. It also enjoys official sanction and state patronage, unlike jihadi militancy."
Sarkar argues that majoritarian extremism tries to pass itself off as inspired by nationalism, and that this is a major fallacy. It is as pernicious as minority extremism. The BJP stands isolated on the issues of its links with Sadhvi Thakur. It first denied that she has had anything to do with the BJP, the RSS or ABVP in recent years.
However, Thakur campaigned for the BJP in the last two legislative assembly elections in Gujarat, in 2002 and 2007. She also has close links with high BJP functionaries, including Madhya Pradesh state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
The BJP's prime ministerial nominee LK Advani tried to distance the party from Thakur, and said the law should be allowed to take its own course.
But last week, the RSS intervened and demanded that the BJP staunchly defend Thakur and other suspects. Party president Rajnath Singh now says that there can be no such thing as a "Hindu terrorist" and those who believe in Hindutva can never be attracted to extremism because Hinduism is inherently tolerant.
"This is hogwash," holds Sarkar, "because Hindutva is nothing if not a concentrated expression of intolerance, which believes in forcibly asserting and imposing Hindu primacy or supremacy on a society that is deeply plural, multicultural and multireligious."
The BJP claims to be uniquely concerned about and determined to fight terrorism, and makes security a central plank of its politics. Its hypocrisy and double standards on terrorism have shocked secular liberals in India. They are anxiously watching the United Progressive Alliance government's moves.
"The discovery of this network throws up a major challenge to the Indian state," says Zoya Hasan, an eminent political scientist, who is currently a member of the National Commission on Minorities. "The state has been tainted in the past by its perceived softness towards majoritarian and Hindu-communal groups. For instance, a Congress government allowed the Babri mosque to be demolished by the Hindutva forces in 1992.
"If the ruling United Progressive Alliance government rises to the challenge and pursues the investigation and prosecution in the present case through to the end, it will have made a major contribution to the reaffirmation of secularism in India,'' Hasan said.
(END/2008)
Why Gujarat?
Frontline, January 05-18, 2008
by Praful Bidwai
__The Congress could not have defeated Narendra Modi without grasping why Hindutva is so uniquely powerful in Gujarat and without confronting it at its roots. __
AS the Congress licks its wounds after its mauling in Gujarat, all manner of explanations are being trotted out for its poor electoral showing: divisions in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vote in a dozen northern Gujarat constituencies because of Congress "rebels", the Bahujan Samaj Party's spoiler role in Kutch and Saurashtra, over-reliance on discredited BJP dissidents, and poor campaigning tactics.
There is doubtless some validity in these explanations. It is also true that the Congress lost about 20 seats by margins as narrow as 2,000 votes. Focussed campaigning and aggressive debunking of Narendra Modi's extravagant claims about "development" and "good governance", along with a projection of equitable pro-poor alternatives, would probably have yielded improved results.
However, the sad truth is that these factors could not have countered fully the powerful pull of aggressive Hindutva in Gujarat, strengthened under Gujarat's ultra-conservative upper-class savarna (upper-caste)-dominated ruling social coalition.
The Congress deluded itself that the election would be a "normal" contest in which the arithmetic of caste, class, ethnicity and region would prevail. It would have to do nothing special to counter the challenges posed by Narendra Modi through his virulent Hindu communalism, appeal to Gujarati hubris via a chauvinistic sub-nationalism masquerading as Gujarati asmita (self-respect), and an authoritarian personality cult.
The Congress refused to counter Modi's core-agendas and instead caved in by adopting a "soft Hindutva" posture and ducking all issues pertaining to the pogrom of 2002 and after, including the State's continuing victimisation and exclusion of Muslims. It did not question Modi's Gujarati-chauvinist orientation. Even on "development" and "governance", it failed to mount a convincing campaign offering alternatives favourable to working people.
Consider development. Despite high GDP growth, Gujarat's rank in areas such as health, literacy, education, and hence human development and gender empowerment, has been slipping, according to the official Human Development Report (2004). Nothing bears more eloquent testimony to Gujarat's unbalanced and warped development than the fact that 74.3 per cent of its women and 46.3 per cent of its children are anaemic.
Gujarat's indices of patriarchy are frightening. The sex-ratio is an abysmal 487:1000 in the 0-4 age-group and 571 in the 5-9 age-group (national averages, 515 and 632 respectively). Gujarat's health indices are barely higher than Orissa's. The proportion of children under age 2 who receive complete vaccination fell from 53 to 45 per cent between 1998-99 and 2005-06. In social sector spending as a proportion of public expenditure, Gujarat ranks a lowly 19 among 21 major States.
Gujarat boasts good-quality highways, including the gleaming Ahmedabad-Baroda expressway. But so high is the toll for using the expressway that the bottom half of the population is forced to use camel- or bullock-carts. The road has cut off villages from one another and caused flooding by blocking natural drainage.
Gujarat is rapidly industrialising. But the industries that have flourished the most are all highly hazardous or polluting: poisonous chemicals (Vapi is among the world's 10 worst toxic hubs); textile dyeing; ship-breaking; and diamond polishing, which turns people blind in their thirties. Gujarat has not still recovered from the de-industrialisation of the 1980s when its textile mills closed down. Its performance on labour rights is appalling. On minimum wages, it ranks eighth among all States, much below its per capita income rank (fourth).
The Congress did not criticise adequately this deplorable record or demand inclusive, people-centred development. It went along with Modi's dualistic growth model. Its failure to counter Modi's core appeal was even more damaging to itself – and to Indian society. It refused to understand or acknowledge the strength of Hindutva in Gujarat, which goes far beyond the BJP's 17 years in power, including 12 years on its own.
The BJP has won close to, or more than, 50 per cent of the vote in two Assembly elections in Gujarat – unlike in any other State. Its associates are also well entrenched. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has a presence in each village with a population exceeding 500. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) claims to have a branch in every town and village.
Communalism runs deep in Gujarat's veins. It was the site of modern India's first recorded communal riot, in 1713. Another landmark was the Hindu-Muslim violence of 1893 at Somnath, whose effects were felt nationally, leading to the famous Hunter Commission. This partially involved the politics of revenge for perceived past "injustices". (For the complex story, see Romila Thapar, Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History, Viking, 2004). Under the impact of competitive politics, Hindu-Muslim differences over religious identities grew even more sharply.
The ground for this was prepared by the invention of an "Aryan" identity, which attracted the emerging Brahmin-Bania middle class like a magnet. Its principal author was the writer-historian-scholar Narmad, long a social reformer, who turned against reform to embrace indigenism. He defined "Arya" as high-born, noble upper castes "who came first and settled in India".
Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, was a Gujarati and toured the region in the late 19th century glorifying the Vedic Age and Aryadharma, and opposing it to Paradharma (alien religions). His legacy was carried on by Shraddhanand with his shuddhi (re-conversion of Muslims) campaign.
Even the freedom movement's mobilisation strategies used religious metaphors: the Non-cooperation Movement was dharmayuddh; and British rule, "Ravan raj". Hindutva was aggressively propagated through cow protection societies and Ganesh festivals.
Communal violence had become endemic and recurrent in Gujarat by the early 20th century. Major freedom movement events such as the Bardoli Satyagraha and the Dandi March happened to the accompaniment of Hindu-Muslim clashes. The riots of 1969 were remarkable for their ferocity and led to Muslim ghettoisation and disenfranchisement.
Hindutva's strength is also related to the influence of Right-wing ideas in Gujarat's business-oriented society, which places a premium on commercialising all human relationships. Politically, the Right's influence goes back to Gandhi's withdrawal in 1930 from Gujarat, and the inflated importance of Vallabhbhai Patel. Divisive factors
Three major factors have further shaped Gujarat against this backdrop. The most important is the early consolidation of a powerful alliance between patidar farmers and Brahmins and Banias in the cities. This divided the State between "Bhadra Gujarat" and "Aam Gujarat", say social scientists Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth, and authors of The Shaping of Modern Gujarat (Penguin, 2005). "The expanding and modernising middle class of Gujarat has been looking for a new identity to validate its present and protect its future."
Hindutva furnished this identity and helped the dominant castes thwart demands for power-sharing with the underprivileged majority. Gujarat's social conservatism is thus an amalgam of Hindutva and upper-caste domination.
It is noteworthy that Gujarat is India's only major State where there has been no successful Dalit or OBC self-assertion. An attempt was made at this when the Congress put together the KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) social coalition in 1980 and won a record 140 Assembly seats.
The upper-caste elite reacted violently to this and launched a powerful street agitation against reservations for Dalits. "The myth of Gandhi's Gujarat – peaceful, tolerant and non-violent – exploded," say Yagnik and Sheth.
The OBCs faced a similar violent savarna agitation in 1985-86 for demanding affirmative action. Remarkably, one of the agitation's main leaders was Narendra Modi. The personnel who participated in it were mobilised yet again in 2002 in the post-Godhra pogrom.
"While the ideology of Hindutva was gaining ground," say Yagnik and Sheth, "moderate voices were getting weaker…. By the early 1990s, community leaders… no longer wielded any authority over their youth…. These youngsters… have grown up on a diet of anti-minority invective and the voices of moderation, of liberal thought and tolerance have been missing from their environment."
A second factor is the influence of conservative ideas through the non-resident Indian (NRI) community. Gujarat has the highest representation of any Indian State among professional NRIs living in North America. Their reactionary "long-distance" nationalism feeds Hindutva. They are more orthodox and backward-looking than their resident Indian counterparts, but provide the role model for young Gujaratis.
The third factor is Gujarat's weak liberal culture. Gujarat has certainly had a tradition of tolerance, and peaceful co-existence of Hindus, Muslims and Parsis. But tolerance is not the same thing as modernist liberal respect for pluralism. One reason for a lack of this is the weakness of Gujarat's labour movement. Once militant, this was compromised by the imposition of the pro-employer mazoor-mahajan union based on the romantic notion of "trusteeship": industrialists as the "trustees" of labour, not its exploiters.
The labour movement's disarming at an early stage meant that Gujarat's elite was under little pressure to make human rights and other concessions, or to respect liberal values. As historian E.P. Thompson often said, a liberal culture does not come out of thin air; it arises from the people's struggles, from fights at the barricades. This did not happen in Gujarat.
Since the early 1990s, the bhadralok's aggressiveness has increasingly taken the form of xenophobia and crude Hindu chauvinism. It is in Gujarat that textbooks were first severely rewritten to distort history by glorifying everything Hindu and maligning everything non-Hindu. The effects have been aggravated by changes in the social geography of cities like Ahmedabad and the creation of Hindu and Muslim ghettos, resulting in declining social interaction between communities.
Gujarat's Muslims, probably the most culturally integrated minority in India, have been turned into the bhadralok's villains. Ironically, this happened although the penetration of Islam in Gujarat was remarkably peaceful. Traditionally, Gujarat's Muslims were divided into 130 different communities disparate in descent, occupation, lifestyle and customs. For instance, the Bohras and the Khojas were severely persecuted by Sunni Muslims, not Hindus. Hindutva has been as blind to differences among Muslims as to divisions among Hindus. Virulent sub-nationalism
Finally, what explains the virulence of Gujarati sub-nationalism and the Modi personality cult? Gujarat's middle class has long nurtured a grievance over the "loss" of Mumbai caused by the reorganisation of the old Bombay State in 1960. It also convinced itself that the whole nation was prejudiced against Gujarat because it did not quickly sanction the Narmada dam projects. Parties across the spectrum built a mystique around the dams as the key to limitless progress and prosperity, despite their high economic, human and ecological costs.
When the Narmada Bachao Andolan launched an agitation against the Sardar Sarovar dam for displacing vulnerable people without rehabilitating them, Medha Patkar was vilified as Gujarat's "enemy"; defence of the underprivileged was demonised; and militant sloganeering about "Gujarat's glory" took over the public discourse.
Modi cynically constructed the "Gujarat Gaurav" plank from these negative and xenophobic sentiments. During the election campaign, he depicted all those who demanded justice for the victims of 2002 as violators of Gujarat's self-respect: for his followers, the 2002 anti-Muslim carnage never happened; only Godhra and Akshardham did.
Ultimately, Modi won because he projected, like a true demagogue, an appeal based on militant Hindutva, Gujarati hubris, and a despotic personality that respects no democratic values or norms of decency but is admired for its strong will, determination and decisiveness – although these may be directed to achieve elite objectives and in undemocratic ways, such as coercive land acquisition for special economic zones (SEZs) and gross violations of human rights.
The admiration this ruthless decisiveness evokes among the middle classes testifies to a horrible cult of personality, and of a quasi-fascist personality at that. So, thousands of Modi supporters chose to suppress their own identities by wearing masks imitating his face. The bulk of the middle class does not feel even an iota of remorse for what happened in 2002.
All this speaks of a deep social pathology in a State that has graduated from a Hindutva laboratory into a large-scale Hindutva factory. At any rate, Modi will now seek a larger, national-level role for himself. The Sangh Parivar, always a worshipper of power, will find it hard to contain him.
That task has fallen to all those who believe in secularism, freedom and inclusive growth. We must not fail these ideals.
Back to Hindutva and hatred
(The Daily Star, January 04, 2007)
by Praful Bidwai writes from New Delhi
If there's one organisation in India, which can pretend that it always lays down the agenda, it's the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). At its national council meeting in Lucknow, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee exhorted it to win the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections as a prelude to returning to power nationally.
BJP leaders themselves manufactured this pretence and highlighted the issue of who would lead the party in the next general election.
Mr LK Advani set the ball rolling when he told a TV interviewer that he should be the BJP's next prime minister; yet he doesn't expect Mr Vajpayee to nominate him. Soon, Messrs MM Joshi and Rajnath Singh, anointed BJP president for three years, also threw their hats into the ring.
Mr Singh used colorful, semi-rustic imagery, of baratis (the bridegroom's party) only waiting to carry the bride, satta ki sundari (deity of power) to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Mr Narendra Modi strutted around as if he were Mr Vajpayee's successor, being the only senior second-generation leader to wield state power.
However, it's preposterous to regard the issue of BJP leadership in 2009 as relevant. One must be irrationally exuberant to be convinced that the BJP will probably come to power in the next election.
At Lucknow, the BJP returned to hard-line Hindutva, focusing on "Muslim appeasement" via the Sachar Committee report. There were raucous warnings about India's "second partition," appeals for a Ram temple at Ayodhya, and a berating reference to India's Hindus as "second-class citizens." Leaders spewed venom on Muslims and hysterically opposed a Kashmir "sell-out."
The BJP is desperate for an electoral "magic wand." It has been in steep decline since its 2004 defeat. Its performance in several by-elections, loss of power in Jharkhand, and demoralization of state units all point to this -- not to speak of Pramod Mahajan's fratricide, and backward-caste (OBC) leader Uma Bharati's defection. It is only in urban Uttar Pradesh that the BJP has registered (modest) gains. During the recent municipal elections, it won eight of 12 mayoral positions. (It had won six in 2001.) In smaller towns it was defeated by the Samajwadi Party.
This was no triumph. The elections weren't representative because the Bahujan Samaj Party, UP's number two, didn't contest them. It backed select candidates, including many from the BJP, to defeat the SP.
The BJP benefited both from the anti-incumbency against Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the communal polarization triggered by recent events. (For instance, Minister Haji Yakub offered Rs 50 crores to kill the Danish cartoonist who ridiculed Prophet Mohammed).
There's a strange confluence of interests between the BJP and SP. The harder Mr Yadav tries to woo Muslims (who are suspicious of him), the more the upper-caste Hindu shifts towards the BJP. Mr Yadav offered 5-star hospitality in Lucknow to the BJP brass; they accepted it.
Yet, the BJP's moderate gains can, at best, only partially offset its long downslide. Its assembly strength has plummeted from the 1991 peak of 221 (of 419 seats) to just 88 (of 403).
The BJP should know that Sachar isn't Shah Bano (a 1984 Congress attempt to please Muslim religious hardliners.) The Sachar Report is a serious, solidly documented analysis of anti-Muslim discrimination. It pleads for pluralism -not sectarianism.
It's unlikely that the "appeasement" card will work given the present national mood, which favors integration, inclusion and equity. There's widespread support for peace with Pakistan and a border settlement and cooperation with China.
The Ayodhya plank won't sell. As the Sangh Parivar's own countless futile attempts to organize yatras on the issue show, the public isn't interested in it.
The BJP's return to hard-line Hindutva represents a terrible retrogression. It's not in the interest of democracy and pluralism that India's largest opposition party should embrace such a narrow, divisive, communal agenda.
In line with this ideological-political shift, the BJP has also executed an organisational shift. It has amended its constitution so all its secretaries at the national and state levels are pracharaks (full-time RSS propagandists).
Mr Rajnath Singh has further strengthened RSS influence - not least because he lacks a strong independent base. The RSS, in turn, is only too happy that it can revive the three contentious issues -Ram Temple, Uniform Civil Code, and Article 370 - which were put on hold for dishonourable reasons of "expediency."
The Lucknow conclave leaves the BJP's structural crisis unresolved. Ideologically, the party is trapped between orthodox, Islamophobic, Hindutva typical of small-town traders on the one hand, and pro-globalisation Big Business on the other.
Politically, it's divided between Hindutva, and opportunistic electoral alliances. Organisationally, it remains completely dependent on the parivar.
As this column has argued, the BJP's ascendancy from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s was founded on three mutually reinforcing factors. First, the Congress's long-term decline owing to its compromises with communalism and market fundamentalism. This, coupled with the Left's stagnation after the Soviet Union's collapse, shifted India's political spectrum Rightwards.
Second, the Ayodhya mobilisation in the late 1980s allowed Hindutva to percolate, and the BJP to break out of its narrow upper-caste Hindu-Hindi belt confines. And third, the party's "social engineering," of combining "Mandal" with "Kamandal" (Hindutva), won it OBC support.
None of these factors operates today. The Congress has revived itself. The Left has expanded. Regional parties with subaltern agendas have grown. And the centre of gravity of Indian politics has shifted leftwards. Social justice has displaced Ayodhya.
The BJP is disoriented by all this. Until recently, it was in outright denial of its 2004 defeat. It still lacks a political strategy -and leadership.
Its president is a narrow-minded provincial politician, who isn't even remotely acquainted with the India that's outside the Hindi belt.
Lurking behind him is Mr Narendra Milosevic Modi, who, sadly, enjoys a high level of acceptance within the BJP as its de facto number two leader.
The BJP is caught between such appalling aspiring leaders, and geriatrics out-of-sync with reality. This is an unenviable state.
Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.
The BJP's Dual Agenda: The non-'hidden' one is bad too
As these lines appear in print, India will have begun evaluating its 600 million electors' verdict in hard numbers.
http://www.prafulbidwai.org/index.php?tag/Hindutva
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Dalit Voice - The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities Denied ...
Meaning of Hindutva: The BJP is controlled by its hard-core Hindu nazi heart, RSS. ... his support to the Hindu nazis and indulging in cheap politics. ...
www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/dec2004/editorial.htm - CachedARTICLES - Dalit Voice - The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities ...
Dalit Voice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dalit Voice is a political magazine published in Bangalore, ... Dalit Voice; ^ K. Jamanadas, "Is it possible to destroy Hindutva without harming Hinduism? ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Voice - Cached - Similar'Dalit Voice' Speaks Out By V.T Rajshekar & Yoginder Sikand
14 Feb 2005 ... And in order for Dalit-Bahujan political assertion to be .... That is the same argument used by Hindutva-walas, who accuse us of dividing ...
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Uproot Hindutva - The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers, Thirumaavalavan, ... Perhaps the most radical is the Dalit Panthers, a Tamil Nadu resistance ... hard-hitting, this collection reveals new currents in Dalit politics, ...
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In Tamil Nadu, the relationship between the Hindutva BJP and the Dravidian parties ... media continue to posit Periyar as an important anti-Hindutva voice. .... Having used the dalits to serve his political ends, he asked them: 'Of what ...
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Militant route to Hindu Rashtra
Frontline - Venkitesh Ramakrishnan - 1 day ago
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Need to control Hindu terror groups: Yechury
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Easy target
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The Gadkari barbs
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Opposition plea for adjournment motion rejected
The Hindu - 52 minutes agoA united Opposition, which persisted in its demand for an adjournment motion on the issue of price rise on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha, failed to pin down the government as Speaker Meira Kumar rejected it saying that it did not involve failure of the ...Oppn may seek debate on price rise under rule allowing voting
Business Standard - 1 hour agoPTI / New Delhi July 28, 2010, 21:08 IST Despite its strategy for the Adjournment Motion falling flat in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition has not given up raking the price rise issue and could now seek a debate under a rule which entails voting. ...Rising prices not a sign of govt failure: Pranab
NDTV.com - - 1 hour agoThe burning issue of price rise returned to haunt the government on Wednesday as Parliament had to be adjourned again without much business being conducted in the house. Parliament was rocked by more disruptions on Wednesday, as a united Opposition ...BJP to raise price issue more aggressively in Lok Sabha
Daily News & Analysis - 2 hours agoPTI New Delhi: BJP will try to rope in all like-minded parties to demand an Adjournment Motion in the Lok Sabha "more aggressively" tomorrow on the issue of price rise. The decision to prepare a common strategy came after speaker Meira Kumar rejected ...Oppn adamant on its demand
Central Chronicle - 5 minutes agoDouble digit inflation stalking the country continued to stall business in Parliament for the second successive day today. A cacophony of protests erupted as Speaker Meira Kumar rejected the notices for adjournment motion over price rise submitted by ...Adjournment motion on price rise rejected
Hindustan Times - 3 hours agoPTI Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today rejected opposition's demand for an adjournment motion on the issue of rise in prices, dismissing charges that the matter involved government's failure to discharge its constitutional duties. ...UPA behaving in arrogant manner: Samajwadi Party
Daily News & Analysis - 4 hours agoPTI New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party, which supports the UPA from outside, today charged the government with behaving in an arrogant manner by not agreeing to accept an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the prise rise issue. ...Ready to discuss price rise issue if Opposition allows: Pawar
Times of India - 5 hours agoNEW DELHI: Drawing flak from various quarters for the stiff rise in commodity prices, food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said that he is ready for a discussion in Parliament, if only the Opposition allows it. "I waited yesterday and I am ready ...Speaker's decision unfortunate: BJP
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Outlook - 3 hours agoA united opposition today remained adamant in the Lok Sabha on discussion on price rise under a motion that entails voting, but the government opposed it even though it admitted that increase in fuel prices was a "difficult" decision that would cause ...
Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this story
Oppn may seek debate on price rise under rule allowing voting1 hour ago - Business Standard
Opposition unites to paralyse Parliament over price rise19 hours ago - Times of India
Opposition rocks Parliament over price issueJul 27, 2010 - Indian Express
NDA may stall Parliament over price rise issueJul 26, 2010 - Times of India
CBI not Congress Bureau of Investigation: PMJul 26, 2010 - Times of India
United Opposition pushes for adjournment motionJul 25, 2010 - Economic Times
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