“Our leaders were therefore faced with the problem of weaning these people (Muslims) away from their hostile mood and bringing them to the patriotic ranks. There was a very rational and patriotic way of approach. That was to tell them frankly: “Dear friends, the days of old Moghul Badshahi have passed. Now both of us will have to live ultimately as brothers here, as co-sharers in this national life. After all, you also belong to the same race as ours, to the same blood as ours, but were converted to Islam at the point of sword by those Moghul, Turk and other foreign races. Now, there is no point in continuing to associate yourself mentally with those foreign aggressors and trying to follow in their footsteps. Forget all such separatist memories; merge yourself in the life of this soil. Hereafter try to respect and follow the examples of the great sons of this land who fought for the freedom and honour of our motherland and our culture. Then matters would have been very simple. Such instances have happened all over the world. For instance, the Normans entered England as aggressors. The local people stood up against them to defend their freedom. But later, both of them merged together and faced all future aggressions as one united people. And they have continued to live a unified life even to this day.”
— MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, page 142
This was the prescription given by the second Sarsanghchalak of RSS MS Golwalkar for achieving national integration. According to him, appeasement was not the way forward.
We have witnessed the consequences in Kashmir, where the call of separatists is Nishan-e-Mustafa (the Prophetic system of governance), as a considerable section of the people doesn’t want to be part of a Hindu-majority India. Scores of Hindu temples were desecrated and demolished but never were there any protests from any corner. Similarly, warning signals are emanating from Kerala, where the Muslim share of the population is over 26 per cent. A neo-Salafi cleric Mujahid Balussery, in a viral video, talks about turning Kerala into an ‘Islamic country’ in 10 years. Owing to the protest from extremist Muslim groups, a statue of Father of modern Malayalam Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan could not be installed in his birthplace in Malappuram, as, according to them, “idol worship” revolts against the spirit of Islam. But the media and the intellectual community in the state continue to remain in denial of the burgeoning problem of radicalism.
Muslim Integration
Muslim integration has become a ‘hot-button’ issue in the West. In a TV discussion, noted Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi said one of the reasons why Indians (read Hindus), unlike Pakistanis, are liked in the West is they “easily integrate with the host population”. In another TV programme, Pakistani scholar Dr Hassan Nisar also talks about how his fellow-countrymen were being looked down upon in the West because they refuse to integrate. YouTube has many testimonies of non-resident Pakistanis, saying they often try to pass off as Indians (or Hindus for that matter) to avoid embarrassing situations.
Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission of the UK, had warned that British Muslims are becoming “a nation within a nation”, because of the “the failed policy of multiculturalism”. Philips said the UK is “in danger of sacrificing a generation of young British people to values that are antithetical to the beliefs of most of us, including many Muslims”, while commenting on a survey that was conducted among British Muslims. He called for a new, tougher approach to integration.
Multiculturalism has failed in Europe. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2011, said, “Our Muslim compatriots should be able to live and practise their religion like anyone else .. but it can only be a French Islam and not just an Islam in France.”
Despite his eulogy of Indian ethos and Hinduism, Shashi Tharoor seems to be inspired by European cult of multiculturalism. By his intellectual jugglery, he attempts to graft the ideas of multiculturalism onto Hinduism. In all respects, Western multiculturalism is equal to the Nehruvian secularism. Tharoor and his leader Rahul Gandhi and his party are unabashed upholders of Nehruvian secularism.
Misplaced Secularism
The bankruptcy of Nehruvian secularism was exposed by late KM Munshi, who in a letter to Nehru, stated: “In its (secularism) name, anti-religious forces, sponsored by secular humanism or Communism, condemn religious piety, particularly in the majority community.”
Munshi further states: “How secularism sometimes becomes allergic to Hinduism will be apparent from certain episodes relating to the reconstruction of Somnath temple. These unfortunate postures have been creating a sense of frustration in the majority community. If however the misuse of this word ‘secularism’ continues…if every time there is an inter-communal conflict, the majority is blamed regardless of the merits of the questions; if our holy places of pilgrimage like Banaras, Mathura and Rishikesh continue to be converted into industrial slums…, the springs of traditional tolerance will dry up.”
Although Tharoor’s leader Rahul Gandhi has been frequenting temples during the poll season, the Hindus are intelligent enough to see through his political designs.
Dharma is at the core of Hinduism and every Hindu is duty-bound to protect his dharma (Dharmo rakshati rakshitah-Dharma protects those who uphold or protect it). According to senior RSS leader J Nandakumar, Hindutva (or Hindu-ness) is the correct word to indicate Sanatan Dharma and not Hinduism, as “ism” means a “closed book of thought or a set of dogma or a blind belief system”. Shivaji’s guru Samarth Ramdas, Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gandhiji and Guruji Golwalkar had taken upon themselves the task of protecting Hindu Dharma in their own ways. They were not like Nehru or EMS Namboothiripad who were ashamed of being called a Hindu.
Swami Vivekananda, in the founding document of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, had stated: “If India embraces a foreign religion, Indian civilization will be destroyed. For whoever goes out of the Hindu religion is not only lost to us but also we have in him one more enemy.” Gandhiji was a staunch critic of conversions and wanted a ban on it. But he was not rabid
communalists. – G Sreedathan
