GenNext of militant Hindutva

By Newscop

Around the time last week when the full and deadly ramifications of the ‘Hindu’ terror plot were unfolding, a congregation of over 5,000 Muslim clergy of the Deobandi group issued a fatwa against terror, declaring it un-Islamic. It was a historic moment; even if sceptics will raise many ifs and buts about it — why did they wait so long, do they really represent the mass of Muslim opinion and so on.

But here was something Hindutva brigades and their supporters were always asking for — why don’t the more sensible and moderate elements of the community condemn their co-religionists who indulge in terror activity. This resolution went a step forward — it was outright in its rejection of terrorism. What is more, these were not the usual “moderates” that can be found in television studios holding forth in impeccable English; these were straight from the mosques, from where, we are told, messages of hate spew and where fiery future terrorists are spawned.

None of this means that there are no malcontents among Muslims or that there is no such thing as jihadi terrorism. But it does suggest that such elements have no religious sanction and as far as that amorphous entity “the Muslim community” is concerned, all it wants is to live peacefully and equitably like everybody else. This should have been obvious all along, but such was the environment that had been created that even those who should know better were falling for the “all Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim” line that had become axiomatic.

Using the same yardstick, should we now talk of Hindu terrorism? Does the arrest of several Hindus, who all were allegedly acting on behalf of other Hindus, imply that there is a new kind of angry awakening among the majority community which is provoking at least some of them to take matters in their own hands? Is this going to be followed by more such cases, with armies of vigilante Hindu groups out to take revenge for slights, real and imagined?

About the future one cannot comment, but it is important to point out that this is not ‘Hindu terrorism.’ Not by a long chalk. The perpetrators may claim to be doing it on behalf of Hindus, but no Hindu ever nominated them to do so. Hindus may be angry about a lot of things, including ‘minority appeasement’, but if ever they wanted to express their anger, reposing their trust in an unsmiling Sadhvi, a group of ochre-robed swamis and an army officer would be the least likely way to go about it. I have yet to hear anyone talk about how they would like to plant a bomb near a mosque because that would vindicate all those innocent lives lost in terror attacks and I dare say that would be the majority view. It is possible that incessant media coverage may have given a slight sheen to the Sadhvi or the army officer, but they have not been embraced as the finest examples of how good Hindus should behave.

By stoutly defending Pragya, Lt Col Purohit and others, the BJP and the RSS, upholders of Hindutva so far, have therefore misread the general sentiment among Hindus. In the initial stages, when just the Sadhvi and a couple of others had been arrested, the Parivar’s reaction was one of immediate denial even if she was once a member of the party’s student wing. Then, perhaps because the RSS sensed that there was a bit of sympathy, the “no Hindu can be a terrorist” line was trotted out. But now there is direct support, not merely because she and the others are somehow connected with the Parivar but because they are Hindus and were fighting for the Hindu cause. The motive is clear — this will work in the elections because it could consolidate the Hindu vote, or so the BJP thinks.

But while they may think they have hit upon a clever electoral plan, both the BJP and the RSS are being disingenuous. Supporting terror or alleged terrorists is a dangerous game. Whatever one might say about the Congress’s apparent softness on terror, it has never blatantly supported anyone accused of it. Nor has it justified terror itself. The BJP and its parent the RSS are in danger of doing just that. Their patent hypocrisy apart — they are now proclaiming that no one is guilty unless proved otherwise, a position they conveniently ignored earlier — they are terming wanton killing of innocents as a Hindu cause.

The bigger problem for the RSS is that it may have failed to recognise that these new entrants in the Hindutva game are not the normal Sangh Parivar types. The Sadhvi and her cohorts may well have thought of both the RSS and the BJP as outdated, out of touch and weak. The RSS is now mainly composed of old gents and the BJP is in danger of going beyond its sell-by date, with no young leadership in sight. The younger element is impatient and wants less theorising and more direct action. In time, rabid Hindutva types may follow the Sadhvi rather than the RSS. Such groups, which want to ‘defend’ Hinduism, will do it their own way and that should really scare all of us. The future face of militant Hindutva may already be here.