Title: "Cat's Eye" and
Hindutva (letter's to the Editor)
Author: Arundhati Rajasingham
Dehiwala
Publication: Island
Newspaper
Date: March 25, 2000
I write this in response
to the "Cat's Eye" feature article titled "South Asia's Troubled
Times" that appeared in The Island newspaper of March 15, 2000. Given the
recent LTTE attack in Rajagiriya and the visible hardening of attitudes
vis a vis the ethnic question, it is perverse that "Cat's Eye" has
chosen to selectively condemn Hindu activism while barely commenting on
other forms of ethnic or religious bigotry. The recent murder of Hindu
and Sikh women and children in Kashmir goes unnoticed. The omissions are
crucial because they reveal a specific political agenda that attacks Hindu
organisations alone.
Women's rights are non-negotiable
and need to be advanced in every possible forum. This includes the protection
of widows. However, anti-Hindu activists must not be allowed to hijack
the feminist movement. Cat's Eye has been pursuing a dubious agenda of
attacking Hindutva while soft-peddling intolerance in other religions.
It now defends Deepa
Mehta, a Canadian citizen. Her film 'Water' plagiarised sections of an
award-winning Bengali novel by Sunil Gangopadhyaya. Rather than promote
the rights of widows, she manipulates their sorry situation to defame Hinduism.
This is evident in the script and choice of setting i.e. Benares. I would
suggest that Deepa Mehta produces a movie on female circumcision in Egypt
or on the "honour killings" of women in Pakistan. The consequences of doing
so would be devastating, to say the least. Or let her probe the condition
of Moslem women in Kashmir with the onslaught of Islamic fundamentalism
in recent years.
Shabani Azmi, so-called
Indian feminist has earned the ire of Moslem fundamentalists for shaving
her head and performing Hindu rites on screen along the banks of the Ganges
river. A fatwa has been issued against her, but Cat's Eye chooses to ignore
this. Shabani Azmi is married to an Indian Moslem who is already
wedded to another woman as per his rights under Islamic personal law. By
consenting to a bigamous marriage, Shabana's decision is a standing indictment
of the rights of Moslem women. She has lost the moral right to fight for
Hindu widows in such a personal context.
Cat's Eye quotes Romila
Thapar, a dubious leftist historian, whose histrionics against Hindutva
are getting shrill by the day. Her "History of India" published by Penguin
has numerous inaccuracies and outmoded theories. The concept of an Aryan
invasion is a case in point. Her more recent publications are no different.
Romila Thapar alleges that the RSS "is trying to control the empowerment
of women in Indian society". Nothing can be further than the truth.
The different RSS organisations such as the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (India's
foremost social service body that works among scheduled tribes), the Seva
Bharati (a service institution that focuses on India's impoverished untouchables),
the Vidya Bharati (which runs the largest network of private schools
for India's less privileged today), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (the
largest trade union federation in India today), and the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (the largest Indian student body), each have a large
women's contingent. The RSS has a vibrant grass roots service orientation
unlike South Asia's left wing elite. It is in the forefront in promoting
women's education and health in India today. This empowers women and changes
social attitudes. Cat's Eye, a Colombo-based group of women, largely affiliated
with the ICES and the Social Scientists Association, lacks such a grass
roots perspective.
The Cat's Eye describes
the alleged "attempts of the RSS to control academic, artistic and political
life in India". It was the Nehruvian left that did so, not the RSS. A Marxist
dominated board had hitherto used the Indian Council of Historical Research
to finance spurious publications of doubtful historical value. Some newspapers
estimate that the Indian government has spent several million dollars supporting
the research work of India's left wing historians in the last 25 years.
The well-funded and pampered Marxist school distorted history in
their publications to meet specific ideological needs. K. N. Pannikar,
for instance, exaggerated the role of the Communist Party of India in the
freedom struggle. The Communists betrayed the Congress-led independence
movement and obeyed Stalin's instructions to support the British war effort.
Toeing the Soviet line was more important to them than India's independence.
The Communists proceeded to denounce Mohandas K. Gandhi, turn in Congress
activists and disrupt the freedom movement. The Marxist school of History
attempted to later rewrite facts and white wash this sorry episode.
The Communists supported
the partition of India on the grounds of self-determination. They congratulated
China for pursuing the nuclear option in the 1960s, but condemned India
for exercising the same option. India incidentally tested its thermonuclear
device in the context of China's aggressive nuclear policy. The American
President visited India after 22 years only on account of India's
new influence. India today has the fourth largest economy in the world
in terms of purchasing power parity. The recent flurry of articles by Cat's
Eye condemning the BJP needs to be seen in this light. They are an attempt
to discredit India as a land of censorship, unruly mobs and religious intolerance
when in fact the opposite is true.
Cat's Eye mentions in
passing that fanatics had attacked Asghar Ali Engineer, an alleged
Moslem "dissenter" while in the same sentence describes the "Hindu mobs"
that violently protested against the film "Water". It intentionally omits
the fact that it was fellow Moslems who had attacked Mr. Engineer. Why
the selectivity? Mr. Engineer, furthermore, is no dissenter and is a revisionist
in his own right. Cat's Eye twists facts to advance a political agenda.
It is self-righteously condescending when it comes to Hinduism but remains
silent on other religions. Cat's Eye, your slip is showing!
