8    Hindu Rashtra – The Final Step

 (Continued from the last post – Hindu Rashtra, the redundancy)

            Now we come to the most important part of our series. Here I would request you to recapitulate one of my last posts titled, ‘HINDU RASHTRA – the meaning’. Unless we are clear about the meaning, we may go astray in its implementation. At the cost of repetition, I shall reproduce the hallmark of the meaning of a Hindu Rashtra, as I understand it in the context of Indian panorama.

                  “Therefore, by Hindu Rashtra I mean the assimilation of all people living in geographic   boundaries of Hindustan in Hindutva, with complete freedom to profess their religions and co-exist peacefully under a unified civil and political code. It is not possible to wish away a vast section of population, which constitutes about 20% of total population of India. The ideal Hindu Rashtra would mean that all people living in this part of the world believe in Hindutva. The concept is akin to Balraj Madhok’s concept of ‘Indianization’”.

                                                                           (For details please refer to Episode 5 of this series)

            For making things a little more palatable to the skeptic, let us replace the word ‘Hindutva’ with ‘Hindustani Culture’. We will still not be far off the target. Now read the above meaning of Hindu Rashtra once again with the suggested replacement. The natural question that may come to your mind is as to what is Hindustani Culture? We are used to terms such as Hindu Culture, Islamic culture and Bodh culture etc., but these are misnomers. The way of life of a Muslim in UP is entirely different than that of a muslin in Iraq or Iran. Therefore, there is no Islamic culture. We tend to confuse religion with culture. In fact, religion is a small element of culture which manifests itself in the form of rites and rituals.

            So let us try to define the Hindustani Culture. It is a way of life professed within the length and breadth of Hindustan with its typical similarities in eating habits, dress code, beliefs, fairs and festivals, mores, traditions, rites and rituals. The geographical and environmental factors may have modified it slightly at different places, but its soul maintains its identity. Similarly religion has also altered rites and rituals to a great extent. Still the Hindustani Culture retains its identity which all inhabitants and foreigners feel distinctly. Therefore, Hindu Rashtra; with Hindustani Culture and freedom of faith and worship; with a unified civil and criminal code and with the name ‘Hindustan’, should not be a distant reality.

Road-blocks

            I know it will not be easy to sell the idea. Most of us might not hesitate to place this idea in the domain of the impossible. Before they consolidate their position, they must give a serious thought to the next section captioned ‘The Urgency’. In the mean-time let us enumerate the possible road-blocks and bottle-necks in our quest to the Hindu Rashtra.

1.         The biggest challenge is to sell the idea to our apprehensive vast Muslim population who will lose no time in branding the move as a threat to Islam. Some political parties will also join in, who has been using Muslims as political fodder. As a first step, a right mixture of persuasion and coercion must be applied to bring them around to accept the Unified Civil Code.

2.         While talking about Hindu Rashtra, we are used to saying that 80% of population subscribe to the idea. But is it really so? I fear we are wrong! We have not been able to unite this cluster of populace of about 80% Indians, we call Hindu.

            It was an eye opener, to know the views of a very senior IPS officer who belonged to ‘Dalit’ community. His thought process was heavily impacted by that of Shri Ambedkar, though not knowing that he adopted Buddhism and was not converted to Buddhism. I felt that the officer was not wrong. Even after 70 years of independence, if we have not been able to eradicate the scourge of untouchability, we have no right to call ourselves ‘We Hindus’. This is a blot on us. The protagonists of Hindutva should first take positive steps to cure this cancer of Hinduism.

3.         Other minorities may not offer much resistance because historically they are akin to Hinduism and they do not suffer with suspicion against Hindus. Nevertheless tangible safeguards will have to assured to all religious minorities.

4.         Another big problem is that when you talk of religion, particularly Hinduism, you are immediately branded politically as a BJP or RSSS man as if other political parties have nothing to do with religion. Hindutva has been branded as the exclusive property of these outfits forgetting that these organizations are just a recent phenomenon.  The survival of Hinduism must be seen by rising above the party lines.

The Urgency

            This idea of Hindu Rashtra needs to be spread at a fast pace. We, the Hindus are a vanishing tribe and we are not left with much time. The scare is intended. The process of shrinking of Hindu Dominion, which started two thousand years back has gathered unprecedented speed in this modern era. The partition has given it a mortal blow and we are now confined to less than half of area, which once used to be Bharat-Varsh.

            The apathy of Hindus for self sustenance is appalling, going by the modern indicators. One wonders how we are still surviving as a third largest religion in the world, though geographically we have shrunk exclusively to India only. May be the present day indicators have their genesis in the so called ‘secular’ thinking propagated and nurtured by the long Congress Rule, which has blurred the vision of Hindus, who see Hindu homeland as an stark impossibility.

            The numbers are fast dwindling for Hindus. If you can’t do it today, you’ll never do it. The population of Hindus came down to 79.8% (2011 census) from 84.1% in 1951 (Census) while Muslim registered a 69.6 % increase from 9.9 to 14.23 percent in the same period (60 years). Correspondingly Hindus diminished to 2% today from about 15% in 1947. Here I am not going into the causes, but it should be enough to ring the alarm-bells. Take note that increase or decrease in population comes about in geometric progression.

The Final Steps

            Just drop the word ‘Secular’ from the Preamble of the Constitution. Nothing else is required to be changed. Rename India or Bharat as ‘Hindustan’ and shun the English translation of the name. Keep the word ‘Bharat-Varsh’ to denote the whole of South-east Asia sub-continent. Introduce a mutually agreed to Unified Civil Code through legislation. Take these steps in the reverse order. Our dream will be achieved to a phenomenal extent.

            And mind you, TODAY if Hindus unite, all this can be done in a democratic and constitutional way, because TOMORROW you will no longer be a majority!

(Concluded)