Cousin, friend, Hindutva

In March when I was campaigning for the BJP, I went to my aunt’s place in Delhi for dinner. In the course of our conversation, my cousin, a bright economics student, suddenly said, “Anna, why do you campaign for the BJP, of all parties? They are stuck with the Mandir and don’t allow the country to move forward”. I responded with the age old refutes of any pro-BJP person and the conversation meandered towards more ‘useful’ topics.

In April, I was still with Advani when I met an old friend from my UNDP days. He was downright churlish and called BJP a bunch of ‘right wing loonies’ and the country would be better of without it.

Recently, my cousin liked the link I posted on facebook titled, ‘Bharatanatyam in the time of the Taliban’, a wonderful article from ‘The Hindu’ about a Hindu dance teacher in Islamabad who has been teaching Bharatanatyam to kids there from the days to Zia to the present Talibanic days.

My friend took the arduous trek to Amarnath.

The appreciation of these anti-BJP types on two manifestations of ‘Hindutva’ left me wondering. Is Hindutva something that is can be tapped for the sake of electoral contests? Should be tapped in the first place? If it is ‘tappable’ and should be tapped, why hasn’t it been done well?

There is a prevalent feeling in large sections of the Indian society that divisive politics of minority appeasement, which is un-Inidian, is practiced by the Congress. So there is a tappable bunch of Hindutva believers. Though Hindutva is in more in the socio-cultural space representing the ‘civilization ethos of our country’, the presence of threat to the ‘way of life’ through a political entity, necessitates tapping of Hindutva for political purposes. There is a need for an entity in the political arena to stand for the ‘Indian way’ and the BJP fills that space.

Answer to the last question quite ironically can be found in the expostulation of ‘Hindutva’ itself. While the need it to stand against the divisive politics of the Congress, some sections of the BJP took sides in the communal confrontation and deepened the divide. This was done for crass votes-power reasons. This was unacceptable to the moderate populace that believed in ‘Hindutva’ as unifying force.

So the party which espouses Hindutva, in the real sense of the word, has legitimate role in the Indian politics and society. With honest actions and clear explanation of the elegant theory of ‘Integral Humanism’ which was the mother of ‘Hindutva’, folks like my cousin and friend can be put in a position where they can make more educated choices.