Hindutva & terror

The use of terror by Hindutva ideologists has a long history.

THIS book by three academics of high credentials could not have made a more timely appearance. The president of one of the largest parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajnath Singh, and its desperately impatient prime ministerial aspirant, L.K. Advani, began running around like headless chickens once Hindutva adherents were cited by the police as suspected culprits in terrorist attacks in several parts of the country over time.

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sanghs (RSS) guru, M.S. Golwalkar, said on June 11, 1970, that Muslims can be taught to identify themselves with Indias culture by beating them. We have not done any beating. But if, as and when we do teach by beating, it will be like the mothers beating of her child. for the childs welfare.

The denial was a lie. Rajeshwar Dayal was Chief Secretary in the United Provinces at the time of Partition. His memoirs, A Life of Our Times, expose Golwalkar and his RSS completely.

B.B.L. Jaitley, Deputy Inspector General of Police, brought to his house two large steel trunks. They revealed incontrovertible evidence of a dastardly conspiracy to create a communal holocaust throughout the western districts of the province. The trunks were cramped with blue-prints of great accuracy and professionalism of every town and village in that vast area, prominently marking out the Muslim localities and habitations. There were also detailed instructions regarding areas to the various locations, and other matters which amply revealed their sinister purport.

Timely raids on the premises of the RSS had brought the massive conspiracy to light. The whole plot had been concerted under the direction and supervision of the supremo of the organisation himself. Both Jaitley and I pressed for the immediate arrest of the prime accused, Shri Golwalkar, who was still in the area. Golwalkar however had been tipped off.

The political heirs of this wicked man want to rule over India and recast its polity after their own hideous designs. Why should Godhra, the Orissa outrages or the demolition of the Babri Masjid surprise us? The authors expose both their vicious doctrine and its practice with careful documentation.

Aditya Mukherjee is Professor of Contemporary Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Mridula Mukherjee is Professor of Modern Indian History at that Centre and is Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

Sucheta Mahajan, Professor at the Centre, heads the P.C. Joshi Archives on Contemporary History. All three have authored able studies.

The book is in three parts. One concerns the RSS and School Education; another, The Long Shadow of Gandhijis Assassination; and the last, the Ideological Underpinnings of the Hindu Communal Project. A comprehensive bibliography and a helpful index serve to make the book a work of reference.

The portion entitled No Regret for Gandhis Murder is particularly noteworthy for documentation not easy to come by and for its relevance today. A Nationalist veil is drawn over Savarkars communalism by remembering him as Krantiveer, the Andamans revolutionary, rather than as one of the men who had the blood of Mahatma Gandhi on his hands. That Savarkar shamed the revolutionaries by repeatedly asking for pardon in the Andamans and that he never took part in any nationalist activity after his release is forgotten. What we have before us then is that aspects of the national past get resurrected, reconstructed and distorted which are in keeping with the communal ideology and practice.

The authors establish Savarkars support to the British. Neither the RSS nor the Hindu Mahasabha had any role in the freedom movement.