From: jakhan@IASTATE.EDU (Javed A Khan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: RSS ( MP Government's Silent revolution in Education)
Date: 4 Sep 92 22:31:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: IASTATE.1992Sep4.173157
Reply-To: jakhan@IASTATE.EDU (Javed A Khan)
Organization: Iowa State University

In article <1992Sep4.190255.19027@ucunix.san.uc.edu>, bhatnagr@ucunix.san.uc.edu
(Raj Bhatnagar) writes:
> In article <92248.121423DXS23@psuvm.psu.edu> 
> Deepak Srivastava <DXS23@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
> 
> 
> >As far as contributions of militant freedom fighters towards our
> >freedom struggle is concerned I think it was complementary to
> >the overall movement (of ordinary people) led by Gandhi. Can I
> >also put this other way round, i.e., mass movements led by Gandhi
> >were complimentary to what militant freedom fighters did ? I
> >do not think so. And this is precisely what RSS, through Vidya
> >Bharati schools and changes in history books, is trying achieve
> >in BJP ruled MP and UP state schools.
> >
> >
> >regards..        Deepak
> 
> 
> The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in
> `The Tribune' newspaper of Lahore on May 14th, 1934. It was
> written by Prof. Gulshan Rai, a regulat political columnist 
> of the paper. It provides a peep into the difference of perspective
> between Gandhi+Nehru's vision of independence and the vision
> of Independence being pursued by the RSS-parivar today, and since
> their inception.
> 
> 
>    "Our present day political leaders have developed a peculiar 
>    mentality. Many of them think that if in order to win political
>    independence it becomes necessary to sacrifice the Hindu culture
>    and civilization, we should not hesitate to do it. To these
>    amiable gentlemen the winning of political independence alone
>    is the end in view. They are quite willing to throw into the 
>    Arabian sea the very basis and the definitional charactersistic
>    of the Indian unity and identity - namely, the civilization and
>    culture which our rishis and saints took thousands of years to
>    build up.  To me the winning of political independence is only
>    a means - a necessary and effective means - to attain the 
>    objective of reviving, and re-establishing the evolutionary 
>    civilizational process of Hindu culture in its home and birth 
>    place - India. If I cannot attain this objective then Swaraj 
>    is of little use to me."
> 
> 
> So, keeping in view the above feelings, it is not difficult to 
> see the difference between Gandhi+Nehru's vision of political
> independence and RSS's vision of cultural renaissance.  RSS, 
> therefore, wants to put into limelight those people whose vision 
> of Hindutva being the basis of Indian identity is yet to be 
> achieved. Gandhi's very effective and commendable leadership role 
> in winning the political independence is not to be denied
> or negated, but the objective now is to focus attention towards the
> cultural renaissance, the political independence having already been
> won.
> 
> The emphasis on more militant freedom fighters, in my view, is to
> present as role-models those individuals who had given up everything
> towards the national cause. You will notice that what is highlighted
> is only their intentions to free India and not other philosophies
> etc. that they may have propounded. For example, Bhagat Singh is 
> projected as a role-model who gave his life to bring an awakening to
> the masses. His personal beliefs, some of which may be termed as
> left-leaning in today's lingo, are not of any consequence to the
> "role-model" that is being presented to the students. Of course,
> Gandhi is also one such role-model and nobody is denying it, not
> even RSS. I haven't seen any RSS literature denigrating Gandhi on
> this count.
> 
> ---raj
> 
> 
> 



The point is whether the Indian culture being projected,which the RSS equates
with Hindu 'culture',includes only the non-religious part of Hindu culture or
also includes the religious symbolism. To a non-Hindu (at least to me) the
underlying message from the 'cultural renaissance' being propagated by the 
votaries of Hindutva (the BJP-VHP-RSS) seems to encompass the Hindu religious
rituals as well which is being thrust upon an unwilling and suspicious
non-Hindu
population. I've got no problem if they mean the cultural aspects of Indian
civilization but that is not the sense which is being projected. In any case
I don't see what is so un-Indian, so culturally "un-Hindu" about today's
Indian society. If their vision encompases the muslim culture, the sikh
culture,
the parsee culture, the buddhist culture ... then where's the need for a
renaissance? What we have today is the Indian 'Hindu" culture they seem to
be so desperately seeking.
If their vision is not encompassing (which at least a large number of muslims
appear to believe) then what is different from the 'cultural renaissance' that
the Muslim League or the Jamaait-e-Islami seeking for the muslim community?


-Javed.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian