Time for Stock Taking: Whither Sangh Parivar?

A study of Hindu-Muslim relations since the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 tells us that Muslims have been making demands - ideological, political, territorial - and Hindus conceding them all along. Yet the Muslim problem remains with us in as acute a form as ever. With the advent of petro-dollars and the emergence of V.P. Singh, Laloo Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Kanshi Ram On the political scene, Muslims have become as aggressive and intransigent as in the pre-Partition period. It has become a habit with Hindu leaders to take Hindus for granted and bargain with Muslims on the latter's terms. Leaders of the Indian National Congress have taken Hindus for granted from 1885 till today. Now leaders of the Sangh Parivar look like following the same path. Hindus have to decide as to how long they are going to be taken for granted. 'Contrary to certain impressions created in the media,' observes Koenraad Elst, 'the BJS-BJP and RSS leaders have a heartfelt desire to woo the Muslims. The present official position of the RSS (and a fortiori of the BJP) is, more than ever, that Islam itself is quite alright, only fundamentalism is wrong. Even the well-known secularist theory that the Hindu-Muslim conflict was merely a concoction of the wily British colonizers is often repeated in RSS publications, sometimes with the addition that Congress and other secularist parties have now assumed the divisive role which the British once played. In every case, the role of the intrinsic hostility which Islam itself preaches and practices against 'idolatry' is down-played or kept out of the picture.' 'It is hard to conceive of a situation,' he continues, 'where a society is vexed and tortured by a persistent enemy, then generates a millions-strong organization pledged to the defense of this society, and yet this organization, this boastful 'vanguard', fails to produce even the most sketchy analysis of the motives and methods of this enemy. Only Hindus could fare this badly. Fifty years after the Partition, twenty-six years after the East Bengal genocide, there are still Hindus singing mendacious refrains like Ram Rahim Ek Hai and 'equal truth of all Religions, because their supposed leaders have never bothered to inform them. A large part of the reason is to be found in specific choices made by the Sangh leadership, most of all choose to seek secular respectability by means of appeasement policies including flattery of Mohammed and Islam' (Bharatiya Janata Party vis-a-vis Hindu Resurgence). This compilation shows that in its flurry for forming a government at the Centre, the Sangh leadership has fallen back on policies pursued by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who harbored a lifelong illusion that he could move the Muslim Indians into the national mainstream by flattering Islam. The Mahatma ended by becoming the Father of Pakistan, and a shahid in the service of his mindless slogan - sarva-dharma-samabhava. We wonder where the Sangh leadership will land whatever has survived of Hindu society and culture in a shrunken and shrinking Hindu homeland. Hindu intelligentsia has to come forward and stop it from taking the Hindu masses for another ride.