If you are not from India and you are curious about this term “ Hindutva“, you will naturally use Google as your first source of information in 21st century. When you type in this word “ Hindutva “ you get to see all negative news around it like below.
So naturally you are drawn to think of Hindutva as some sort of violent ideology, correct?
That is exactly what the leftists and anti-national elements in India wants everyone to think so they keep Hindutva word in their headlines whenever any political clashes happen. Also note the names of the news agencies which comes up first in your search every time you type in “Hindutva”, if you are thinking that these are very popular news portals in India then let me tell you that barring Times Of India people normally do not trust or read the rest as they have been caught several times peddling fake news so they have lost credibility. The immediate next thought that you will have is that they have very strong SEO and I will nod a little. Now people who are familiar with SEO knows that there are 2 ways you can better your SEO, one is organic & another is paid. Now since these are not popular and rather hated across India due to their biased views and fake news (some of them also have been caught red handed in the recent Tool Kit controversy wherein they were propagating anti-India agendas with Separatists) so Organic SEO is a big question. However whether it is paid or organic, the leftists in India through these digital media portals have been successful so far in cornering Hindutva as a very controversial ideology. The moment someone says or write anything about Hindutva many eyes become volcanic red like Doomsday and which in-turn is met by laser red eyes of Supermen of India.
So as I am writing this I do not know whether I will be attacked by Doomsday or Superman however I just thought that it is time I get this off my chest. I will not waste your time telling what Hindutva is, this article is not intended to do that anyways. However as you read through this article you will discover Hindutva yourself. Being an Indian and being a Hindu this has always intrigued me and courtesy leftists and urban Naxals it has always disturbed me. Post reading Hindutva all my disturbance and anxiety went away. I also understood that a lot of people who talks, writes and even come on TV debates have not read Hindutva or even if they have read, they seem to be obligated to someone else to show Hindutva in bad light. If I ever confront those people in my life I would ask them “Leave alone the content of this book, do you know how one of the greatest freedom fighter and a bright scholar from India Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) who spent 28 years of his life in prison (Note- Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison), who got two life imprisonment sentences from the British Government, started writing this book ? “. I do not know whether they can answer this but YOU must know the answer.
Some Facts about the Book Hindutva
The first outline of this book Hindutva was scribbled on the whitewashed walls of Cellular jails in Andamans by Veer Savarkar since unlike political prisoners of congress pen and paper was not given to other freedom fighters. Veer Savarkar was able to explain something in Hindutva which many scholars and saints before him failed to do and he knew that. So he wanted the whole of India to be aware of this concept of Hindutva but HOW was the big question. He did not know whether he would be released ever and was subjected to terrible torture everyday by the British. He was witnessing many compatriots being released when his own Mercy petitions were getting rejected by the British Government. Being a genius, he quickly formed a plan and executed it. Veer Savarkar made his compatriots who were to be released from the jail memorize his writings so they can go back to India and start spreading his words to other freedom fighters to make this a movement. Thus began the journey of Hindutva. Later on when he was transferred to another jail in India where political leaders of congress used to be kept, he managed to get hold of some pen and paper undetected & finished writing the rest of his work. His work continued to get smuggled out of the prison in pieces and finally in 1923 the first edition of his book was published by advocate VV Kelkar. The sad part was, since Savarkar was in prison, the name of the author was not published. Later on when this book was published on a large scale by Shri Bhave, he said that this book is almost like a bible so although he was given money to print only thousand copies, he ended up printing it on a mass scale so Indians and the world should come to know about Hindutva. So I would also urge readers to buy this book and read once in your life.
So coming back to the original point, why does the left lobby hate Hindutva ? What is in it that scares them, that troubles them? After a lot of deliberation, I came to the below 3 Core factors,
1. It Unite Hindus
If anyone has studied the history of all autocratic leaders they will know that autocratic leaders are always scared of inner rebellion or a coup. Look at what is happening in China, North Korea, look at what is happening in Canada, think of why Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in India and now think of why in spite of CAA protest, Delhi Riots, Farmers Protest the Modi Government never felt the need to invoke emergency ? The British could not have ruled India for so long if there was unity among different religions, caste and regions in India. Divide and Rule was the strategy British adopted and it worked like magic. The strategy was so brilliant and attractive and successful that even after achieving Independence Indian National Congress along with the leftist continued following the same strategy to remain in power. Hindutva is a threat to divide & rule policy since Hindutva does not advocate for any religion or caste, it tries to unite the whole of indigenous population of India as One Nation ( Rashtra ), One Race (Jati) and One Civilization ( Sanskriti). Hindutva is not Hinduism ( Religion), Hindutva is applied to Hindus, Muslims, Christians all alike provided they are natives of Bharatvarsha ( India). It busts leftist theory of Aryan and Dravidians rifts & tries to bring them under One and the same race of people with same cultural and civilizational roots originating from the Sapta Sindhus ( Land of seven rivers ). You can be a south Indian or North Indian or East Indian or West Indian or a Brahmin or Dalit or Sudra or Vaishya or Kshatriya or a tribe but as a race you all are Hindus, your nation is the same and your civilization is the same, your forefathers are same. It does not stop there, it even tries to bind Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs under this same logic. Veer Savarkar gives sound examples from History to support his narrative. So you can be a follower of Sanatan Dharma or Buddha Dharma or Jain Dharma or Sikha Dharma but racially you are all Sindhus ( In Sanskrit language ) or Hindus ( Prakrit & Avestan Language ) whose forefathers started this civilization on the banks of river Sindhu. Leftist hate this narrative since they cannot prove it wrong as it is factual, based on historical evidences and not someone’s creation and so they try to confuse people by calling it a Hindu fascism or sometimes referring it as Hinduism as a religion. For over 65 years Congress and leftists have remained in power in India by playing vote bank politics, how can they see this crumble by one lethal strike of Hindutva in information era ? They cannot stop the spread of ideas and opinions and history via internet and social media today, people have access to all information today which was not the case a decade back. As communist are told by Karl Marx to do propaganda warfare and violent protests in societies to overthrow elected governments, so they try their level best to follow that but India being a democratic country, they fail to stop or ban the other side to roll out information rebutting their verdicts. As a result the final judge and jury on who is correct and who is not becomes the common man and common man then uses resources like books or articles or social media to decide who can be right based on logic and evidences. That is where Hindutva is proving heavy on leftists since as I said, it is backed by sound logic and historical evidences.
2. It stirs the pot –
There are 2 ways to deal with a sensitive topic, one is to avoid the core problem & brush it under the carpet since you fear that it might attract negative reactions, the 2nd way to address the core issue courageously knowing that it might create temporary turbulence, but the cancer will be permanently cured. Hindutva follows the 2nd path and that is why it easily becomes a hot topic for debates and controversy. The leftist like it since they get an opportunity to corner Hindutva supporters but at the same time they hate it since they cannot challenge the logic and history. It directly addresses the confusion in the mind of our Muslim & Christian brothers and why they do not like to be called as Hindu inspite of their forefathers being Hindu at some point in time. Veer Savarkar boldly narrates this reason in Hindutva ad he is spot on with his analysis. This is the same confusion an Indian American has residing in America, a French Canadian has residing in Canada, A Pakistani has residing in Saudi Arabia, An Englishman has residing in South Africa, a Jewish American has residing in America, a Pathan has residing in Pakistan. The confusion between fatherland and Holy land. For a Brahmin or Kshatriya or Vaishya or Sudra or Dalit or Buddhist or Jain or Sikh this confusion is not there because their fatherland is India and their Holy land also is India. But for a Muslim and Christian, their fatherland is India but their Holy land is not. So as long as someone prioritizes their fatherland the confusion will be less and you will be at peace since a man’s connection is first with the soil and then with his religion. If you cannot decide your priorities then you will always be caught in this turmoil which might make you talk or do things which others will interpret as anti-national. So as long as you admit your past and truth that you are racially and geographically same as a Hindu but follower of a different religion you will never suffer and make anyone else suffer. For decades, leftists ran away from this truth intentionally since their priority was not to build a great nation, it was to remain in power. So as long as they can keep muslims and Christians separate from the truth, they can use that feel good factor to win their votes. But feel good factor acts as an aspirin, it cannot eradicate a migraine. As on today, the pot already has been stirred by the current government as their core ideological institution is RSS and Veer Savarkar was from RSS. As expected, this has disturbed and annoyed many Muslims and Christians in India however no one has been able to debate on this topic structurally with evidences other than showering abuses and “ Why Now ? “phrases. I think this anger will slowly go down and sense will prevail someday and our Muslim and Christian brothers will make peace with their past and be proud of Bharatvarsha’ s shared History and struggle.
3. It is a myth buster –
I think India is the only country in this world who retained its culture in spite of 600 years of rule by Mughals & British combined and I would go on to add that since Chinese civilization is almost dead with communism taking over, India is the only civilization alive ( Indus Valley civilization ). Wherever the swords of Islamic invaders went or the guns of British went they enslaved those parts of the world or changed their culture. You do not have to read any texts or books or be a genius to realize that unless some fierce resistance would have happened, retaining culture and identity post 600 years of foreign rule would have been impossible. Post 1947 when India got independent the leftist Historians flooded the academic system and they tried to hide the velour and patriotism of Hindu kings and warriors so that the Hindu majority suffers from lack of inspiration, they should forget about their heroes, they should feel inferior so their morale will be low. When a person’s morale is low it is easier to change his views, change his culture, change his opinion. History books were written in such a way as if India did not exist as a nation before Mughals came, they said that it was a not one homogeneous entity, there were different empire and emperors who kept fighting with each other. Savarkar takes on this argument head on and states that & I quote,
“If fighting among each other means that Bharatvarsha was not one nation then what about the War of Roses among English, what about the internecine struggle of sect against sect, class against class, states against states each invoking foreign help to fight his own countrymen in America, France, Italy, Germany? Are they still one people, one nation possessing common history? If they do, then Hindus do as well and if Hindus are not one nation then they also are not“.
The leftist Historians dedicates 80% of Indian History to Mughals and British which amounts to roughly 600 to 700 years when Indian documented civilization goes back 5000 years and undocumented goes even beyond that to 10000 years. Hindutva is a thorn in leftist’s flesh. It gives narration to Indian History as a whole, it talks about Vikramaditya, Lalitaditya, Shivaji, Bajirao, Nanasaheb, Sikh Gurus, Mahavira, Gautama and so on. It talks about atrocities committed by Islamic invaders and the resistance of Rajput and Marathas. How can leftists not hate Hindutva. This small book of roughly 130 pages has proved stronger than 1300 pages of Das Kapital and thousand pages of leftist historians books.