Swamy’s wake-up call to Hindus – I

That ever so boisterous, ever so heroic, ever so impetuous, ever so youthful and ever so irrepressible stormy petrel of Indian politics Dr Subramanian Swamy has come out with a brilliantly slashing book titled Hindus Under Siege: The Way Out. This book, blessed by H S Swamy Dayananda Saraswathy, is going to be released by S Vedantam, International Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, at a public function in Chennai tomorrow.

In this book Dr Subramanian Swamy argues that Hindu Civilization, Hindu Religion, Hindu Society, Hindu Culture, Hindu Way of Life? in short our time-honoured traditions of Sanatana Dharma? are all under multi-dimensional siege today in India. The siege against Hinduismin in all spheres?? religious, psychological, physical and cultural? has been described in a vivid, vital, vibrant and vigorous manner by Dr Swamy. He has eloquently argued and proved that Hindus must collectively acquire a new mindset immediately on a war-footing to meet the growing challenge from the international forces of Islam, Christianity, Communism on the one hand and the domestic forces of Macaulayism, Nehruvian Secularism, Sonia’s Pan-Christendom and no less Pan-Islamic Pseudo-Secularism, wedded to the cardinal objective of destruction of Hindu religion and Hindu society. Hindu society is the only significant society in the world today which presents a continuity of cultural existence and functioning since times immemorial. Most other societies known to human history? East and West, North and South� have suffered a sudden interruption and undergone a traumatic transformation in history due to the planned dastardly invasion of latter-day ideologies? Christianity, Islam and Communism. The pre-Christian, pre-Islamic and pre-Communist cultural creations of these societies are now to be met only in libraries and museums, thanks to the labours of antiquarian scholars. According to Dr Swamy, Hindu society can meet the same frightful fate if there were no Hindu society to sustain it. This is the point which is not always remembered even by those who take pride in Hindu culture. If Hindus do not unite in India against the lethal forces? International and National? which are working round the clock for the destruction of Sanatana Dharma under the overall Generalissimo of Sonia Gandhi’s UPA Government, Hindus also run the risk of perishing like the ancient Greeks, Egyptians or Babylonians. In his Avant Garde book, Dr Swamy has come out with radical proposals, programmes and prescriptions, letting loose his well known and complete intellectual armory? the bludgeon from the platform, the rapier for a personal dispute, the entangling net and unexpected trident for the Courts of Law and a jug of clear spring water for an anxious perplexed conclave of mute and helpless Hindus.

To quote Dr Swamy’s brilliant words from his introduction: ‘Since achieving independence from colonial rule in 1947, we Indians have been unsuccessfully grappling with the following question: Who are we? Are we? This as yet unanswered question represents India’s identity crisis. The failure to date to resolve this crisis has not only confused the majority but has also confounded the minorities as well in India. Without a resolution of this crisis, (which requires an explicit, clear answer to the question), the majority will never understand how to relate to the legacy of the nation. In other words, the present dysfunctional perceptional mismatch, between who we are as a people and the legacy of the nation, is behind most of the communal tension and intercommunity distrust in the country. Even in other countries such a question arises from time to time. In the United States, following relatively liberal immigration policies since 1965, the question has again arisen. Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard has tried to answer this question in his new book: WHO WE ARE?

Dr Swamy goes on to ask further equally relevant and pointed questions. What is India? Why are we Indians? Is India an ancient nation, a continuing civilization of thousands of years or is it a relatively recent administrative construct of British imperialists and legalized by the British House of Commons legislation, viz ; the Indian Independence Act of 1947 ? What is the core of India’s ethos; Hindu, Secular, or Hindustani? And what does each mean? Citizens of India are of course not sure! That is India’s identity crisis.

Unless we answer this question clearly, finally, unambiguously and authoritatively as to who we are, Indians will flounder, flipflop and generally be devoid of healthy patriotism. This is not to suggest that any person’s identity is uni-dimensional. The nature of a person’s questioning mind in a pluralistic democracy makes identity a multi-dimensional concept. But a national identity dimension is an imperative for a nation to become vibrant and dynamic. What we are concerned with here is the lack of a national identity, not how to make such an identity the sole concern. When the nation is in danger, national identity must take precedence. That is what Chanakya meant by the concept of Chakravartin. Dr Swamy says that the core fundamentals of our national identity, through a correct perception of our history, will help to restructure and reform our society on that basis and will make it cohesive and united. To achieve such a restructure, of course, requires a complete de-falsification of Indian history (now Arjun Singh’s, Union Hindu Religion / Rights Destruction Minister (HRD), all these italics within the two brackets mine!!), rejecting that portion that has been contrived by British imperialists and their Indian comparadors ( worthies like Arjun Singh ! ), to snap the linkages to our real past.

Sir George Hamilton, Secretary of States for India, sowed the seeds of Two-Nation Theory of Jinnah on 26 March, 1888 when he wrote: ‘I think the real danger of our rule is not now but say fifty years hence. We shall therefore break Indians into two sections holding widely different views. We should so plan the educational text books that the differences between community and community are further strengthened.’ Dr B R Ambedkar, the only true nationalist after our independence, had challenged this view as far back as 1916, when as a PhD student in Columbia University, he wrote a paper for an Anthropology Department seminar as follows: ‘Ethnically, all people are heterogeneous. It is the unity of culture that is the basis of homogeneity. Taking this for granted, I venture to say that there is no country that can rival the Indian peninsula with respect to unity. It has not only geographic unity, but it has over and above all a deeper and much more fundamental unity � the indubitable cultural unity that covers the land from end to end’. Sadly and even more so badly for all truly nationalistic Indians (Hindus definitely not excluded!!), according to Dr.Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh, Sonia Gandhi and all the known political thugs from the other political parties forming part of the utterly pernicious alliance (UPA) today in New Delhi, Sir George Hamilton was a truer patriot who fully supported the erection of communal Quota Raj of UPA Government today.

A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form.

Man does not improvise. The nation, like the individual, is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifices, and devotion. Of all cults, that of the ancestors is the most legitimate, for the ancestors have made us what we are. A heroic past, great men, glory (by which I understand genuine glory), this is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. To have common glories in the past and to have a common will in the present; to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more these are the essential conditions for being a people. One loves in proportion to the sacrifices to which one has consented, and in proportion to the ills that one has suffered. One loves the house that one has built and that one has handed down. The Spartan Song- ‘We are what you were; we will be what you are’ is, in its simplicity, the abridged hymn of Hindutva today.

Swami Vivekananda said: ‘Arise, Awake and Go Forth as Proud Hindus’. This message forms the basis of Dr Swamy’s definition of the following five maxims which should constitute the fundamentals of Hindu Unity today:

Firstly, a Hindu, and those others who are proud of their Hindu past and origins, must know the correct history of India. They must learn the concept of India as Hindustan (not Soniastan or Secularistan!)

Secondly, according to Hindu belief, all religions equally lead to God, and not that all religions are equal in the richness of their theological content. Respecting all religions, Hindus must forcefully demand from others that such respect is a two-way obligation. Muslims and Christians shall be part of the Hindustani parivar or family only if they accept this truth and revere it.

Thirdy, Hindus must prefer to lose everything they possess rather than submit to tyranny or terrorism.

Fourthly, the Hindu must have a mindset to retaliate when attacked. The retaliation must be massive enough to deter future attacks. Fifthly all Hindus to qualify as true Hindus must make an earnest effort to learn Sanskrit and the Devanagiri script in addition to their own mother tongue and must pledge that one day in the future, Sanskrit will be India’s link language since all the main Indian languages have large percentages of their vocabulary in common with Sanskrit.

Dr Swamy declares with majestic aplomb: ‘These five fundamentals constitute the concept of VIRAT HINDU UNITY’.

(To be continued…)

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)