The spirit of cultural nationalism, universal brotherhood and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam are ingrained in Hinduism which is essentially pluralistic
The conspiracy to malign Hinduism and Hindutva has been going on for years. For about a thousand years, the Mughals and the British attacked the Sanatana culture and then, after Independence, the Nehru family of the Congress and the leftists who ruled India and enjoyed power for 60 years, carried it forward.
Now, in the last eight years, with the nationalist government cracking down on those who attacked the Sanatana culture of India, some parties practicing appeasement politics have started a campaign to spread propaganda against most of the population in India under their patronage. The Opposition parties have gone as far as to put India’s democracy and secularism in jeopardy, but in reality all minorities, including the Muslims, feel secure in India, mainly because of the tolerant and liberal nature of the majority (Hindu) population. India’s democracy and secularism will continue as long as the country’s majority is Hindu.
The atrocities and mistreatment of minorities, particularly of Hindus, in Islamic countries is well known. There are 57 Muslim-majority countries in the world but none of them is secular. Some Islamic countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia have a democratic system, but there too democracy is in danger because of Islamic fundamentalism.
History also serves as a living example, telling us that wherever Hindutva and Sanatana culture were under attack, democracy came to an end. Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are a few examples. Statistics also make this quite evident. Hindus made up 13 per cent of Pakistan’s overall population in 1951; by 2017, that number had dropped to 2 percent.
There have been numerous different civilisations throughout history, including the Chinese, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Roman, and Greek, as well as the Inca and Mayan civilisations in South America. All of this is now documented in historical records. But the civilisation of India is such that it has remained the same since the earliest days.
Islam is practiced by 25 per cent of the world’s population, compared to Christianity, which is practiced by 31 per cent. Hinduism is practiced by roughly 15 per cent of the population, Buddhism by about 7 per cent, and other religions by another 7 per cent of the population. The remaining 15 per cent of people do not practice any religion. Among all religions, Hinduism is the only one where there is freedom of debate on religious subjects with an open mind. In other religions, one cannot question their religion; they must believe what is said to them.
India is a Hindu nation since time immemorial with secularism at its core. Indian civilisation has been such that its culture is nationalism. Except India and Nepal, there is no other country in the world where Hindus are in majority. India has never tended to rule over others; this is India’s uniqueness. It has always been told about winning oneself in spirituality here. To illustrate this, the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wrote a poem.
In 1995, the Supreme Court also commented on Hinduism and Hindutva, saying, “Hinduism and Hindutva is a way of life and to compare it with bigotry would be a falsehood or a flaw.” Mohan Bhagwat, the Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, also said, “Hindu and India cannot be separated, because without Hindu there is no India and without India there can be no Hindu. It is a Hindu who practices solitude on the basis of spirituality, benevolence in the world, to be safe everywhere on the basis of power, to harm no one and to elevate everyone, live by this conviction.”
This is the reason that till date there has never been an incident in India where the religious and cultural sentiments may have been hurt by the majority—or a mosque, gurdwara, church has been destroyed. Rather, in India, minorities are protected by the Hindu majority.
Not only this, when there was an attempt by Islamic invaders and clergy to destroy the Sanatana culture, it was saved by the Hindus by fighting constitutional and judicial battles for years.
It is unfortunate that the Hindu religion, which paves the path for the rest of the world, has continued to suffer in India for political reasons. Even today, the Congress and the Left continue to glorify the invaders who destroyed India. The Congress has always been promoting appeasement by propagating Hindu religion. Salman Khurshid, a Congress leader and a former defense minister, compared Hindutva to the Islamic terrorist groups Boko Haram and ISIS in his book Sunrise over Ayodhya P Chidambaram used the offensive term “saffron terrorism” while serving as the home minister.
India is still suffering from the consequences of such a narrow mentality. In the land of Maharishi Kashyap, as soon as the population of a section grew unbalanced, there was a massacre against the Hindus and the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Recently, it was reported that schools are being pushed to close on Fridays rather than Sundays in the Muslim-dominated parts of various states, including Jharkhand and Bihar. In 2016, as soon as the population of Hindus decreased in Kairana, Muslims started creating a ruckus. As a result, Hindu families migrated.
Celebrating Durga Puja is prohibited in some Muslim-majority areas of Bengal. Hundreds of Hindu families have migrated from Malpura in Tonk district of Rajasthan. The Mewati region of Haryana is known as Mini Pakistan for these reasons. In July, a conspiracy by PFI to make India an Islamic nation was exposed from Phulwarisharif in Bihar. In the documents recovered, the target of making India an Islamic country has been set on the completion of 100 years of Independence in 2047.
Today the country is celebrating the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address on Independence Day, named the period of next 25 years as ‘Amrit Kaal.’ He asked everyone to work on their goals in that direction. At the same time, some organizations within the country have been working to dissolve poison in this nectar period. In such a situation, if there is no nationalist organization and nationalist government in India, then after 25 years how will India be 2047? If the conspiracy of divisive and separatist organizations continues and the politics of appeasement keeps getting promoted, then imagine what will happen to the Kashmir Valley? What will happen to the North-Eastern states and the parts of Bengal and Bihar which are adjacent to Bangladesh? How dire the situation in Kerala can become?
India cannot be imagined without Hindutva. Today, if democracy is alive in India and secularism intact, then its root-cause is India’s Sanatana culture and tradition. The people here have tolerance. India is a secular nation, so we need to respect each other’s culture and religion but not forget our own civilization which has Hinduism at its core. If the spirit of cultural nationalism, universal brotherhood and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is to be kept alive in India, we all must keep on cultivating Hinduism and Hindutva with readiness.
(The author is the Vice-President of BJP in Bihar and a Member of Bihar Legislative Council)
