HVK Archives: Distant thunder
Distant thunder - Telegraph
Arvind N Das
()
21 January 1997
Title : Distant thunder
Author : Arvind N Das
Publication : Telegraph
Date : January 21, 1997
One more national hero is sought to be appropriated by the Sangh parivar.
After the taking over of Vallabhbhai Patel, it is now the turn of Subhas
Chandra Bose. As Bose's birth centenary celebrations begin, there will be
concerted attempts to fly the bhagva dhwaj over the tri-colour. This will be
done even as the most articulate elements of the sangh parivar take time off
to denigrate M. K. Gandhi.
Just as the differences between Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel were used by the
parivar to include the latter in its pantheon, the Gandhi. Bose rift will
surely be highlighted to get one more heroic figure into the fold. The
absurdity of the attempt will be glossed over as the sincere but reformist
Hindu and economic conservative Gandhi is cast into the outer darkness and
the avowedly secular and socialist Bose is adopted as a token of globalised
Hindutva. The parivar has little to do with logic and even less interest in
history. But then these are contradictory times when symbolism has overtaken
substance.
This is the era of both globalisation and ethnicity. While one proclaims the
end of national sovereignty, the other asserts atavistic localism. Curiously,
the sangh parivar combines both. Take the response of its leaders to the
recent dip in the political fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India.
They have not only found solace in proclaiming that their version of Hindutva
has favour among nonresident Indians and others but, indeed, they have
intensified their overseas campaigns. This phenomenon has, in part, been
aided by the vagueness which surrounds the very concepts of ethnicity and
globalisation.
Globalisation has meant different things to different people. To some it has
meant the creation of a global community while to others merely the creation
of global markets. In a few odd cases, the two have overlapped and
globalisation has meant the invention of new communities determined by the
market. The response of the forces of Hindutva to the establishment of the
"unipolar world" has been to seek to imagine and reify a global Hindu
identity which is contrived by the market for unique nationalism.
This is a paradoxical process. On the one side it entails the localisation of
Hindutva within a geographical space. On the other, it also calls for its
universalisation. The mediating factor is the market.
The imagination of this "new Hindutva" is premised on emergent transnational
market practices and is dependent on transborder technologies which are now
extremely powerful in shaping the contours of popular culture. At the same
time, it is also based on primordialist "us-them" dichotomies which breed
communalism rather than communitarianism.
It is these dualities of the "new Hindutva" - evident, for instance, in the
"Hindu communities" in the United States, South Africa and Surinam in
addition, of course, to Indian - that aid the sangh parivar.
It is interesting to note in this context that neither classical Hinduism nor
even its orientalist interpretation had a specific territorial locus. While
the landmass of South Asia - Jamboo dvipey, Bharat Khandey - was the
principal theatre of the evolution of what is known as Hinduism, there is
also some significance attached to its prehistoric origin in regions outside
the subcontinent.
The dispersal of its elements to other areas beyond the seas too, even in
ancient times, is well established. In any event, there was no concept within
Hinduism similar to the Semitic "promised land". Both physical migration as
well as cultural osmosis were important aspects of the changing character of
Hinduism. However, in the relatively recent age of "pre-modernistic
medievalism", "modernity" and even "post-modernity", Hinduism started
acquiring a territorial specificity.
At some time during the former period, the taboo on transoceanic travel
gained strength within "mainstream" or at least "mainland" Hinduism. And it
required considerable fusion of the Brahminical and colonialist interests for
the taboo to be removed. Indeed, so drastically was the taboo lifted that
overseas travel and migration acquired even desirable totemic
characteristics.
Significantly, it was during the "modernist" dialogue between the orientalist
discourse of colonialism and nationalism that Hindutva and its political
variant, Hindutva, also acquired a territorial locus. The equation of
Hinduism with "Indo-Aryanism" was matched by the characterisation of the
politico-geographical entity of India as the punnyabhoomi, the sacred space
of an invented religion.
Nevertheless, in this case too, the boundaries of the sacred space remained
quite fluid. And even those who physically migrated were allowed, even
encouraged, to practice "long distance religious nationalism".
This process of the evolution of Hinduism from a philosophical universalism -
vasudhaiwa kutumbakam (the whole world is one family) - to fragmented
parochialism, which reflected in culture and religion the political economy
of feudalism, to an ingredient of territorial nationalism to a transnational
"globalised" phenomenon is deceptively cyclical.
In fact, the contest of today's globalised religious ethnicity is far removed
from that of humanism. Just as the currently dominant version of
globalisation is as different from Marxian globalism - "the workers have no
nation" - as chalk from cheese.
In the context of the politics of Hindutva, the phenomenon of localisation is
articulated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP while the
globalisation element is reflected in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Interestingly, there is complementarity between these segments of the sangh
parivar.
An aspect of this new Hindutva is reflected in the attitudes of a segment of
the NRIs. In particular, a large section of the well off, even "yuppie", NRIs
have extended support to the VHP in a curious assertion of post-nationalist
ethnic identity. Location is of little or no significance for them and, as
such, they are convinced regarding the "end of geography" if not also of
history. Yet they are most and more drawn to primordialist ties of religion.
This is not only an articulation of the search for "roots" among the uprooted
but also a response to alienation in their present life. In any event, an
element of this assertion is a reflection of the phenomenon that has been
described as "long distance nationalism".
It is important in this context, of course, to note that there are many
varieties of NRIs or "people of Indian origin". In addition to the "new",
migrants from India who constitute the abundantly visible NRIs in Europe and
America, there are also the older emigrants in Surinam, Mauritius, the
Caribbean, Fiji and South Africa for whom migration was not voluntary.
Much of the "Indian" population of these countries is descended from people
who were taken there as indentured labourers and their severance of organic
linkages with the "motherland". This was particularly marked in the case of
Surinam which was a Dutch colony and therefore cut off from even such ties as
obtained in the British commonwealth.
In the case of South Africa too, the Indian diplomatic and political response
to apartheid resulted in the cutting off of links for a substantial period of
time. However, in recent years, there has once again been a reassertion of
"Indianness" among Surinames Hindustanis and South Africans of Indian origin.
The politics of those countries as well as that of India have contributed to
that process. The articulation of such "Indianness", has in cases been
through use of the idiom of political Hinduism and is a phenomenon worthy of
study.
At the same time, "back home" in India, a curious reversal of ideological
roles is also being manifested. Just as an imagined India - and even an India
coloured in the shades of political Hinduism - provides cultural sustenance
to those who have migrated from it, it is the migrants - in particular the
NRIs - who become role models for many resident Indians. The cycle of
globalisation and ethnicity is thus completed.
The only feature lacking in such a political scheme is pride in political
ancestry. K. B. Hedgewar and M. S. Golwalkar may inspire swayamsevaks but
carry appeal outside. It is for this reason the votaries of Hindutva need to
appropriate the likes of Bose. It is easy for those who have made religious
mythology the main ingredient of political strategy to create and take
advantages of other myths too.
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