Promoting Love Versus Instilling Hate and Fear

India’s anti-colonial struggle was accompanied by various diverse social phenomena. One of these was ‘Hindu-Muslim’ Unity, and the emergence of the overall identity of Indians among people of all religions. The national, anti-colonial stream promoted this and the best embodiment of this was Mahatma Gandhi, who took three bullets on his bare chest for striving for this.

Gandhi wrote, “The union that we want is not a patched-up thing but a union of hearts based upon a definite recognition of the indubitable proposition that Swaraj (self-rule) for India must be an impossible dream without an indissoluble union between the Hindus and Muslims of India. It must not be a mere truce. It cannot be based upon mutual fear. It must be a partnership between equals, each respecting the religion of the other.”

In contrast, some streams, basing their nationalism under the mask of religion, not only kept aloof from the anti-colonial struggle but also sowed the seeds and nurtured the plants of hate and divisiveness. M. S Golwalkar, the second sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), wrote, “German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races—the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.” - We, or Our Nationhood Defined (Bharat Publications, Nagpur, 1939). This set the tone for RSS to propagate hate against Muslims and Christians in India.

This hate was a marginal tendency for decades, but has now emerged as the dominating ‘social common sense’ leading to a series of anti-Muslim violence, their intimidation, lynching and what not, leading to the phenomenon of ghettoisation, and relegating them to a secondary position in society.

This process is still on and different RSS-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leaders have used all their ‘innovation’ to create more hatred, they have kept adding on to catchy slogans to demonise Muslims. “They can be identified by their clothes”, “Shamshan-Kabristhan”, a series of jihads -- ‘vote jihad’ being probably the latest. There is a long list. To cap it all, two of BJP’s top leaders have peaked this phenomenon in recent times.

One of them is Giriraj Singh (a Union minister) who is among those leading the pack of hate promoters. Recently, he stated, "If a Muslim/ghuspetiya (infiltrator) slaps you once, everyone should come together and slap him 100 times....Keep a sword, spear and trident in the house, worship it and if someone comes, protect yourself from him..."

One is incidentally reminded of the Father of the Nation, who went on to say that if someone slaps you on one cheek put forward the other cheek. The two ideologies of Gandhi’s Indian nationalism, amity and love are being totally countered by the ideology of Hindu nationalism by provoking violence and hate. The downslide of amity and rise of hate have run parallel with the divisive politics of sectarian nationalism, particularly after the demolition of Babri mosque, followed by a series of divisive campaigns. With BJP coming to power at the Centre, the various RSS wings and the foot soldiers of divisive nationalism felt that now they can enjoy impunity to the fullest extent.

Around this time, another divisive leader, Yogi Adityanath (the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister), the introducer of bulldozer (in)justice has also thrown up a phrase ‘Batenge to Katenge’, i.e. Hindus should remain united else they will be slaughtered. This slogan has various dimensions, and the peak organisation of Hindu nationalism has approved it.

“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Saturday (October 26, 2024) backed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s controversial remark — ‘*batenge to katenge*’, claiming that Hindus ‘will be slaughtered if divided’ — with RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale saying that the slogan, calling for unity among Hindus, is the lifetime pledge of the Sangh,” says a report.

This has multiple dimensions. One is that the RSS strategists feel that the decline of BJP’s fortunes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was due to shift of Dalit votes to the opposition INDIA bloc, which stood solidly with the concept of social justice and demanded a caste-based census. The threat being generated is that if Dalit-OBCs (Other Backward Classes) go to the INDIA bloc, Hindus will be slaughtered. By whom? As per this slogan, it will be by the Muslims. On the contrary, Muslims have been left in the lurch during the past 75 years. The RSS combine may even prop up the non-applicable example of the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh after the uprising (2024) in the neighbouring country. Also, Pakistan is always an evergreen (pun intended) example of the worsening plight of Hindus there.

‘We must unite as Indians’ was the central plank of the freedom movement. ‘Indian’ was the core theme of our unity during the anti-colonial struggle, which is reflected in our Constitution. Gandhi, the greatest Hindu of the 20th Century, never called for unity as Hindus. Neither did the likes of Maulana Azad, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan call for unity as Muslims.

For BJP, which is not concerned about the welfare of the ‘person standing last in line’, all its ideology, actions and utterances are contrary to what had united India. It ridicules Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s (RG) call for ‘Mohabbat ki Dukaan’ (shop of love) and questions as to why Rahul Gandhi does not meet RSS. A counter question is, why does RSS want to meet RG? RSS knows its politics is based on hate (of Muslims, Christians and those opposed to Hindu nationalism), while RG is trying to put life back into the Indian nationalism and the ethos of love and amity, as underlined in our Constitution. Why should RG be interested in ideologues against whose ideology he is trying to raise his voice?

If RSS wants to RG to meet them, it has to drastically change its ideology of division and adopt the values of the Indian Constitution, the core of which is unity as Indians, and fraternity between people irrespective of their religion. It is precisely for this reason that Nehru, Gandhi’s disciple, never gave importance to RSS, it is for this reason that Indira Gandhi refused to concede RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras' request to meet her. RSS, as per its character, wants to derive its legitimacy even from those who oppose its politics.

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.