There is no Hindu in Hindutva

 What if the world’s largest democracy with 1.4 bn people spirals into a brutal Hindu-Muslim civil war? That was the direction India’s Hindu supremacist government was taking us before the pandemic froze things. From a model multi religious country, where Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains have existed together for centuries, where 200mn muslims have lived peacefully despite the violence in Islamic countries in our neighbourhood, we could become a battleground for extremist Islamist organisations to operate in and recruit from.

Why? Let us examine the validity of the Hindu supremacist argument.

Hinduism is alone amongst the four major religions with a well-defined metaphysics. Hinduism was spawned by the Rig Ved around 1500BC. The Upanishads, composed later starting 900BC, are pure metaphysics, no dogma no ritual no superstition.  Termed Vedanta or ‘End of the Veda’ the Upanishads have a distinct identity of their own.

There are ten principal Upanishads. These are a truly soaring set of metaphysical meditations. Their essence can be condensed into a single word, the focus of all the Upanishads: Brahman. Brahman is described as the Self, dwelling in all, the consciousness of the universe. Brahman is the first cause uncaused, the prime mover unmoved, that which existed before existence, that which will be there after all existence ends. God, formless, dimensionless, timeless, all pervasive.

The concept of Brahman is secular. Its spiritual not religious, abstract not revelatory. Anyone can seek Brahman. You do not have to be Hindu; you do not have to come to Christ to be saved; you don’t have to accept Allah as the only God with Mohammed as his only messenger. Brahman is common for all mankind.

Brahman is the defining Hindu metaphysical belief.

The second tenet of Hinduism which runs right through every branch and form of the vast religion is: Karma. Your actions are your karma. The Bhagvad Gita, the holy book of the Hindu religion defines moral life as the pursuit of karma: do good for everyone, and if you can’t do good, do no harm. Karma is carried forward from birth to birth.  Each birth is determined by your cumulative karma. Buddhism, though atheistic, shares this belief.

And now on to Hindutva.  Hindutva is not a religion at all. It’s a modern political belief, that started in 1923. A belief that India should be a Hindu country. It has particular animus towards Muslims for their invasions, plunders and massacres centuries ago. These injustices, these hurts are nurtured carefully as grievances by the body politic of Hindutva. Christians are also disliked for the conversions they have encouraged. The fact that the converts were mostly downtrodden lower castes who willingly fled is considered irrelevant.

The subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan (West and East) based on the geographic concentration of the two major religions. Hindutva zealots believe it follows that there should be no Muslims left in India, though that was never the intention and India’s constitution is secular. That most Muslims in India were born post 1947 is also considered irrelevant.

Hindutva motivated the recent atrocities against Muslims in India. From discrimination and hatred to lynchings and even recent pogroms.  Hindutva is a cherished goal of the ruling party which has been seeking to disenfranchise Muslims with new controversial laws applied selectively with blatant discrimination. This has led to protests, demonstrations, demonization of Muslims, violence against them and extreme polarization. The situation is ripe for a civil war which could well end in a militant theocracy. The pandemic has provided a stasis – but not without Muslims being accused of deliberately spreading Covid (Covid Jihad!).  The beast of bigotry must be fed.

A single step towards Hindutva is a violation of both cardinal tenets of Hinduism.  First, distinguishing between different religions, a complete disavowment of Brahman. Second, hatred, even violence towards Muslims and also Christians, a complete negation of karma.  Hindutva believers are no longer fit to be called Hindus.

There are no Hindus in Hindutva. Hindutva isn’t Hinduism. Being reactionary and thin skinned in essence, Hindutva is a bristling compendium of negatives like bigotry, intolerance, misogyny, obscurantism, ant-intellectualism and militancy.

A civil war in India leading to radical Hindutva rule looms. Such a retrogressive future for the largest democracy in the world, the bulwark of democracy in Asia, should be cause for global concern.