Hindutva Hate Mail

In the chapter titled "Hindutva Hate Mail" in his book "Patriots & Partisans", eminent historian Ramchandra Guha, has listed a number of angry mails he received, most of them from Indians settled in west. I myself am a witness to such comments on opinion pieces of many eminent writers on the news websites. While there are many abusive comments written in broken English by what are now called as "trolls", the ones that disturb me the most are the types he mentions in the book as they supposedly come from a group of educated Indians. They feel that Congress party has cheated the cause of Hindus for decades. They fear that the Muslim population in India will outnumber Hindus and the Hindus will be reduced to minority in their 'pitra bhumi' & 'punya bhumi'. They are either oblivious of the fact that there are numerous report of various independent committees which highlight that socio-economic conditions of Indian muslim are worse compared even to Dalits or choose to ignore it consciously. As I read further, I was looking forward to his analysis of why this continuous cycle of hate mails exists, but, the chapter ends without further insight. He might have saved it for some other time, but this is how I feel about it through application of my limited knowledge.  

  

I feel, these Indians who have settled in west are very emotional to an extent of being inane. These emotions stem from many factors. Even after living in west for years they are not able to adjust themselves into the new society. Rather than finding fault in themselves, they find faults in societies of the west. From this stems the belief, of their culture and society being superior to rest. Being away from India for so long they romanticize Indian culture with the Hindu ancient culture, and develop this feeling of hatred towards free thinking modern intellectuals. Apart from this there is always an inferiority complex seeing the progress of the west. I believe that when an individual identifies himself only as a part of & subordinate to a group, trying to project that group above rest, based on class, caste, religion, culture or nation, the ultimate desire is that of hiding his own failures. They cannot take pride in the achievements of contemporary India, hence this obsession with history. 

  

While all of this has continued since long, what troubles me is the funneling down of this feeling into the lives of ordinary Indians. This fear mongering against minority becomes very easy in the age of social media & fake news. Of late, I read many articles on the continuous polarization of Indian society. While there were stalwarts like Gandhi & Nehru to take on RSS during freedom struggle but I see no one in the modern times to take on this Hindutva agenda. This is what worries me the most. While this hate mail brigade remains very confident of seeing a saffronized India soon, my anxiety stems from this confidence. A social equilibrium of different ideologies is the very essence of democracy, yet I see ours leading into imbalance. Media is highly corporatized, the few intellectuals who speak are labelled as anti-nationals, pseuso-seculars and naxalites. We have lost all sense of nuance in the popular discourse. Yet, having limited knowledge of history & society, I feel I might not be able to see the light at the end of tunnel myself so I have few questions for everyone. 

  

1. Is there an actual rise in right wing chauvinism or it just comes out more in the age of social media? Many of my friends & family members who have little interest in politics vote for right wing only because of the popularity of PM Modi. Are these cow vigilantes, love jihad brigade really a fringe and will remain so in the future? Is the current political discourse something new in Indian history or have we been through this before? Will this new found Hindutva enthusiasm die down gradually or will be need a revolution similar to the lokpal revolution against the congress corruption? 

  

2. Is there an inherent guarantee in our country's institutions that it will never become a Hindu Pakistan or a Hindu Saudi Arabia? Has the Sangh parivar with it grass roots volunteers, pan India presence & schools successfully infused Hindutva ideology into a generation of Indians? What gives us the confidence that a society that has seen many hegemonic empires in the past, has allowed tyrants to rule with their consent will not let it happen again in future.  

  

3. Why is the idea of Hindutva and nationalism appeals to a majority but the idea of rationality, modernity & humanism appeals to a minority. Is this because inherently selfish nature of humans? Why is it so that the liberal idea enshrined in our constitution appeal so strongly to me, but not to many, especially to the educated ones. Ignorance of an uninformed can be understood but what about others? 

  

4. Even if I give this Hindutva brigade any benefit of doubt and consider that they really want to do something good for the nation, why is their agenda always negative? Rather than engaging & commenting on the articles of right wing ideologues, why do they choose to target the liberals and the left all the time? What good can come out of this hate, even if all they want is to profess "Hindutva"?