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In the run upto the general
elections, the campaign issues of the two major national parties
are becoming clearer and sharper, as also acrimonious statements.
The BJP’s campaign always has been – India is an ancient
nation-civilization; that its vitality was lost due to invasions;
that Congress is unable to restore the nation to its past glory as
it emulates the west and continues with the institutional
structures of British era; that the “civilizational consciousness”
which makes India one country, one people and one nation, which
the Congress cannot restore and the civilizational consciousness
is well defined by the sages and philosophers and which has its
roots in Hindu world view (read upper caste); that the Congress
appeases the minority for vote bank politics; that it is soft on
Pakistan for the same reason; that Congress does not sabre rattle
and bully its South Asian neighbours enough and plays ball with
Pakistan; that large numbers of Bangladeshis are allowed to
“infiltrate” into India from its eastern borders and even carryout
terrorist acts; that Congress’ weakness had compromised the
internal security; that Congress is unable to tackle separatism
and terrorism, including Maoist terrorism, with firmness; and
finally, the Congress will be unable to pull out the country from
the slow economic growth, and therefore poverty, inflation, etc.
In its manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP states
“What was required after independence was to reorient India’s
polity to bring it in consonance with the seekings and
sensibilities of the Indian people” (read upper caste Hindus).
“Failure to do so has resulted in a fractured society, vast
economic disparities, terrorism and communal conflict, insecurity,
moral, psychological and spiritual degradation, and a state
apparatus unable to handle any of these problems.” Corruption will
be an additional issue exploited by the BJP in the general
elections.
Hindu Rashtra, Integral Humanism
and Hindu Civilizational
Consciousness
Though the diagnosis of BJP seems to identify Congress as centre
of all ills facing the nation, Congress is blamed only for limited
purpose of election. If one reads BJP’s election manifestoes
carefully, Congress is blamed for a limited purpose - being
vehicle for the ills that afflict the nation. Congress in the
conception of the BJP is not the cause of the ills that afflict
Hindu Rashtra. Establishment of Hindu Rashtra – the ideological
goal of the BJP – is not checked or obstructed by Congress, and
Congress therefore may be a competitor in elections and therefore
needs to be targeted during elections, however, it is not an enemy
of Hindu Rashtra. Hindu Rashtra has three declared enemies –
Muslims, Christians, Communists and the western notion of
citizenship and human rights, particularly, the notion of
equality. Citizenship, human rights and equality are against the
“Hindu” civilizational consciousness as defined by the sages.
The Hindu civilizational consciousness is that of caste based
hierarchy which considers the dalits as untouchables less than
even animals as animals can be touched and some are even
worshiped. Similarly, “Hindu” civilizational consciousness of
ancient sages deprived women of their rights and human dignity and
treated them to be chattels to be owned by their father in the
first instance and after marriage by their husbands. Congress is
the tool for the Muslims and Christians to claim citizenship
rights. “From time to time, Congressmen have declared welfare
state, socialism, liberalism etc. as their aims” laments Deendayal
Upadhyay, former President of Bharatiya Jan Sangh – the earlier
version of BJP – in one of his lectures.
BJP subscribes to Hindu Rashtra and Deendayal Upadhyay’s thesis of
Integral Humanism. Integral Humanism terms the “social contract
theory” as fundamentally incorrect. The theory views the norms and
laws of collective society as implied agreement between the
individuals. “It is true that the society is composed of a number
of individuals. Yet it is not made by people, nor does it come
into being by mere coming together of a number of individuals. In
our view society is self-born.” Integral Humanism compares society
to the Virat-purusha: “In our concept of four castes, they are
thought of as analogous to the different limbs of Virat-purusha.
It was suggested that from the head of the Virat-Purusha Bhrahmins
were created, Kshatriyas from hands, Vaishyas from his abdomen and
Shudras from legs. If we analyze this concept we are faced with
the question whether there can arise any conflict among the head,
arms. [S]tomach and legs of the same Virat Purusha. If conflict is
fundamental, the body cannot be maintained. There cannot be any
conflict in the different parts of the same body. On the contrary
"one man" prevails. These limbs are not only complementary to one
another, but even further, there is individual unity. There is a
complete identity of interest identity of belonging. The origin of
the caste system was on the above basis.” What appears to
Deendayal Upadhyay as self-born society (and therefore natural) is
a harmonious caste-based hierarchy with birth-based division of
occupations – some enjoying the privileges while others confined
to performing duties and menial work. This apportioning of
privileges and duties among different section of society is based
on coercion and force and is not self-born or natural. The use of
force and coercion reflects even in the Epics of Ramayana and
Mahabharata which Deendayal fails to take note of before declaring
it to be self-born – cutting off the thumb of Eklavya; killing of
Shambhuk for reciting Vedas, Sita’s trial by fire etc. But the
purpose behind decrying liberty and dignity of individuals and the
“social contract theory”, is to approve absolute subjugation of
individuals to the “self-born” society in which all the sections
of the society – viz. castes – live harmoniously without producing
any conflict or without challenging natural and self-born but
oppressive collective. Everybody needs to accept order, howsoever
hierarchical and howsoever oppressive only for the sake of harmony
because individuals have no agency – are only supposed to be
subservient for the sake of society and in fact, exist only for
the sake of the “nation”.
The State, for the BJP, is subservient to the nation, brought into
existence to protect the nation, i.e. produce and maintain
conditions in which the ideals of the nation can be translated
into reality. Integral humanism terms the ideals of the nation as
"Chiti", which is analogous to the soul of an individual.
According to Deendayal, the laws that help manifest and maintain
Chiti of a Nation are termed Dharma of that nation and it is this
"Dharma" that is supreme. Anyone who abandons Dharma betrays the
nation. The Chiti, or Hindu civilizational consciousness or Dharma
that has survived over centuries – in spite of foreign aggression
is caste hierarchies and caste structured society. It is through
khap panchayats that the Dharma or chiti or civilizational
consciousness of the nation survived over centuries and therefore
it is eternal. BJP’s integral humanism propounds, that it is not
the majority of people who decide what is good for them it is
Dharma that decides what is good for people and therefore not
democracy, not “Jana Rajya” but Dharma Rajya that is desired and
the State has to sub-serve the nation by upholding Dharma (caste
based) Rajya. So fundamental is the caste system to the BJP’s
doctrine of Integral Humanism and the “civilizational
consciousness” that neither the nation-state nor the majority of
people can be trusted with it, indeed not the democratic state
with liberalism or socialism or individual dignity or human
rights. The “chiti” vests in a small coterie that will need the
help of a militarized and authoritarian state to enforce it and
all that the majority of the people need to do is to submit to
this coterie else suffer oppressive and violent consequence. This
is why Muslims, Christians and Communism are perceived as enemies
of Hindu Rashtra they would not accept their religious
consciousness would not accept the “Dharma” that integral humanism
propounds, as the concept of equality is at the core of their
religious consciousness, even though not a social reality.
The Congress Party
The Congress party perseveres to build the charisma of Rahul
Gandhi, carefully and selectively fielding him for public events.
Rahul Gandhi himself pretends to be a reluctant candidate who is
more interested in bringing about change with the help of team
Congress as against, ‘a man charging on a horse solving nation’s
problems’. The Congress party is using or rather misusing the
slogan of secularism to isolate the BJP from at least some of the
NDA allies and scare away potential allies. The slogan of
secularism is also handy to mobilize the minorities to electoral
booths. To the industrialist, the Congress is promising reforms,
albeit at a slow pace. To the marginalized sections like the
adivasis and the dalits, whose votes it endeavours to mobilize, a
few sops and poorly funded schemes that are even more poorly
implemented to benefit the targeted group. Rahul Gandhi used the
metaphor of beehive. The metaphor is apt as ordinary Indians work
hard to help the country reach high growth rates only so that the
honey of their labour and the natural resources of the country is
slurped and polished off by the crony capitalist class. The
Congress is more of a status-quoist party ushering pro-capital
economic reforms in calibrated measures facilitating more and more
influx and more or less free movement of foreign capital in order
to maximize returns.
We should not mistake the contest between the BJP led NDA and
Congress led UPA as that between two equally bad or corrupt
political alliances or more those having more or less same
economic programmes. The contest between UPA and NDA is not
between a corrupt and an honest party, nor between a minority
appeaser and pseudo secular vs. truly secular party nor between
development with human face and development on horseback – it is
between two world views – hierarchically structured social system
of Dharma enforced by totalitarian state or liberal values of
liberty, equality and fraternity, for human dignity of all!
Survival of democracy is at stake.
There are three issues that are creating conducive environment for
the totalitarian forces to take over – 1) the economy of the
country has slowed down due to its excessive dependence on exports
after liberalization and on account of the economic crisis in
Europe and US; 2) the media has been focusing almost exclusively
on the issues of corruption since about last two years, if not
more creating an impression of chaos and non-functional democracy
and 3) perceived existence of an external enemy due to constant
belligerence and sabre rattling on the borders with Pakistan is
stoking feelings of worst form of jingoism and chauvinistic
nationalism among the urban middle-class which has benefitted from
globalization. The opposition is trying its best to obstruct the
functioning of Parliament on one pretext or the other to escalate
the chaos and demonstrate impotency of democracy and democratic
institutions. This situation is leading the common man,
particularly the urban middle-class, and to feel helpless and
demand a strong authoritarian state. The communal forces have an
authoritarian ideology just for the situation where people lose
faith in democracy! The situation needs only one more factor for
imposing a totalitarian regime on the basis of “Dharma” a
theocratic state – a mass leader with charismatic qualities. That
mass leader is being built up by the media and the
industrial-capitalist class in the form of Narendra Modi.
It is upto the electorate to make their choice
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