Hatred for Gandhi is Fundamental to Hindutva’s Discourse
[Amit Shah on Gandhi:“bahut chatur baniya tha woh”]
Amit Shah is no ordinary Indian politician. He is president of the BJP which rules Centre and a majority of the Indian States. Most importantly, he is the other half of our PM, Modi, they together rule as the most powerful duo ever to rule India after Independence. Additionally, he is also a senior RSS functionary. Blessed with this bio-data Amit Shah is naturally the ideological face of today’s Hindutva ruling elite and his words carry both weight and meaning beyond others. For the vast organisational creature that he represents and it's followers.
Recently, he was in Chhattisgarh to speak to “eminent persons” with a view to strengthening the BJP in the state where assembly elections are due in 2018. While philosophising on the irrelevance of Congress, belittling its rule in the freedom struggle, he also went to discuss Gandhi. According to him Gandhi, to quote his original words of his in Hindi, “bahut chatur baniya tha woh”.[1] Its English translation would be, “he was a very clever baniya (merchant or moneylender)”.
One thing was again made clear. For Shah –and all that he represents– Gandhi is not a leader of the composite Indian nation on whose call, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and others came out in millions to oppose foreign rule; thousands of them laying down their lives for the freedom of their country from economic exploitation and servitude. On the contrary, Gandhi was a ‘baniya’, a Caste/group among Hindus.
By this shrewd categorisation, Shah, in fact, borrowed the language of MA Jinnah who always referred to Gandhi as ‘Hindu baniya’ who represented only the Hindus. So in the vocabulary of this Hindutva icon, Shah, Gandhi was reduced to the status of a Hindu leader which Muslim League always propagated and propagates even today.
Shah conveniently disregarded the fact that Gandhi was murdered by Hindutva zealots because he was not acting as a leader of the Hindus alone only but always stoodfor an all-inclusive India.
Shah’s denigration of Gandhi was not limited to his political identity. The Hindi idiom which he used for Gandhi; “bahut chatur baniya tha woh”, has a sinister hatred overflowing in the phrase which non-Hindi (or Urdu) speaking people will not be able to understand.
In Hindi, the “tha woh” (था वह) phrase is used for servants, persons of lower status, those who are considered not respectable or very intimate friends.
For elder persons, for respectable persons, we always use “the ve” (थे वे). It is shocking that Amit Shah, himself a baniya, uses such words for another baniya, a fellow Gujarati, that too an elderly person who is no more. It is in contravention of both Gujarati and baniya ethos. The baniyas are known for their cultured and refined use of words as they aim at winning hearts in order to reach to the pockets of customers. It seems Shah’s hatred for Gandhi grown out of Hindutva beliefs has made him oblivious to the more civilised behaviour practised by the baniyas.
The RSS’ hatred for Gandhi is as old as the formation of the RSS itself. Dr KB Hedgewar, founder of the RSS was a Congress leader but parted company with the latter in 1925. After meeting Hindutva icon, VD Savarkar he realised that Gandhi was the biggest hurdle in the Hindutva project of organising Hindus separately.
According to a RSS publication, since Gandhi worked for Hindu-Muslim unity, “Doctorji sensed danger in that move. In fact, he did not even relish the new-fangled slogan of ‘Hindu-Muslim unity”.[2]
Another RSS publication corroborates the fact that main reason behind Hedgewar’s parting with Congress and formation of the RSS was because “Congress believed in Hindu-Muslim unity”.[3]
RSS launched its English organ, Organizer, the July 1947 and a perusal of its issues till the murder of Gandhi on January 30, 1948 shows flood of articles and sketches inimical to Gandhi.
The RSS seemed to be competing with the Hindu Mahasabha leader, Savarkar and Muslim League organ The Dawn in denigrating Gandhi. The first home minister of India, Sardar Patel, whom RSS often praises, was forthright in holding RSS and Hindu Mahasabha responsible for creating an environment of hatred against Gandhi which resulted in latter’s murder. He underlined it in a letter (July 18, 1948) to the prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee: "As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, the case relating to Gandhiji's murder is subjudice and I should not like to say anything about the participation of the two organizations, but our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the conspiracy."[4]
Eight months after Gandhi’s assassination, Sardar Patel in a letter (September 11, 1948) to RSS chief Golwalkar, was straightforward in telling that it was due to the communal poison spread by the RSS that “the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government or of the people, no more remained with the RSS…Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death”.[5]
RSS may now display a photo of Gandhi aa tribute in some of its programmes and describe him as Mahatma but its hatred towards Gandhi is a deep constant that keeps recurring; it is shaswat, perennial.
After Modi government came to power in 2014, the RSS/BJP leaders have been demanding national recognition, as freedom fighters, for the killers of Gandhi.
Temples are coming up with the images of Godse who was the main killer of Gandhi. The Hindutva organisations have been celebrating killing of Gandhi as ‘vadh’, of a demon at the altar of Hindu rashtra. Significantly, Nathuram Godse and others who conspired to kill M.K. Gandhi, claimed to be ‘Hindu Nationalists’.
If you believe that all this is happening without the knowledge of RSS/BJP top leadership, you are grossly mistaken. A prominent Hindutva organisation, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), allied to the RSS has been regularly holding national conventions for the ‘Establishment of Hindu Nation’ in India.
In 2013 one such convention was held in Goa. It is to be noted that members of one avtar of HJS, Sanatan Sanstha have been found indulging in bomb blasts at Muslim institutions and are under investigation for the murder of renowned secular intellectuals like Govind Pansare and Narendra Dhabolkar. This convention started its proceedings with a felicitation message from the then CM of Gujarat, Narendra Bhai Modi wishing HJS all success in its project of turning India into a Hindu Nation.
Shockingly, from the same dais in this convention from where Modi’s felicitation message was read, one of the prominent speakers, K.V. Sitaramiah, declared that Gandhi was 'terrible, wicked and most sinful'.
Rejoicing at the killing of M.K. Gandhi, he went on to declare, “As Bhagwan Shri Krishna said in the Gita, Paritranaya Sadhunam Vinashaya Cha Dushkritam/ Dharamasansthapnaya Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge (For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of righteousness, I am born in every age) On…30th January 1948 evening, Shriram came in the form of Nathuram Godse and ended the life of Gandhi.”[6]
K.V. Sitaramiah has also authored a book titled ‘Gandhi was Dharma Drohi and Desa Drohi’ in which the text at the back cover, quoting from the epic Mahabharata, demands ‘Dharma Drohis must be killed’, ‘Not killing the deserved to be killed is great sin’ and ‘where the members of Parliament seeing clearly allow to kill Dharma and truth as untruth, those members will be called dead’.
With this legacy of hatred towards Gandhi, Amit Shah’s recent utterances on Gandhi, dubbing him a “chatur baniya” was or is not an aberration. It is, in fact, the second killing of Gandhi.
The RSS has always reserved an extreme hatred for Gandhi because his idea of India was diametrically opposite to the Hindutva vision of India.
Gandhi proved to be the greatest stumbling block to the following vision of the RSS about future of India: “Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future troubles can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation…the nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas and aspirations”.[7]
Interestingly, Gandhi’s opposition to the two-nation theory brought both RSS and the Muslim League, flag-bearers of Hindu and Muslim separatism respectively, together in denigrating him.
Pakistan entangled in its existential crisis may have stopped bothering about Gandhi but with the resurgence of Hindutva politics in India, Gandhi remains a potent danger. He was assassinated long ago but his idea of a democratic-secular India needs to be buried permanently for the RsS project to succeed. RSS, presently, is working overtime on this project.