Rahul Gandhi’s recent statement in Parliament that, “Hindus only talk about violence, hatred and lies” is nothing new in the Congress tradition. His calculated words often hurt the majority community living in the country, who proudly call themselves Hindus. On another occasion, he was heavily under fire for his “fighting against Shakti” remark. Shakti is a name in the Hindu religion for the female Goddess. Congress is a British creation, now in the hands of Italians; hence necessarily must be anti-Hindu.

Pt Nehru, the Anti-Hindu Ideologue Jawaharlal Nehru declared in his presidential address in the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress in December 1929, “I was born a Hindu, but I do not know how far I am justified in calling myself one.” When Sardar Patel supported by leaders like Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai, KM Munshi, NV Gadgil and others proposed restoring the Somnath Temple demolished by the Islamic invaders, Nehru opposed it. Rajendra Prasad attended the consecration ceremony of Somanath temple defying the express objection of Nehru.

When Sardar Patel supported by leaders like Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai proposed restoring the Somnath Temple demolished by the Islamic invaders, Nehru opposed it

Carrying the Nehru legacy, Congress leaders declined the invitation to attend the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir Ayodhya in 2024. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru became India’s first Prime Minister without being democratically elected for five years from 1947 to 1952. He was elected in 1952 and 1957, but within one year, he opted to resign in 1958. The main reason was his difficulty in his encounter with Hindutva. In the first term itself, he was opposed by the pro-Hindu leaders in his party. Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and others accused Nehru of failure in handling the issue of Hindus left behind in Pakistan and the objectionable Nehru-Liaquat Delhi pact of 1950. The pact in which both the countries assured protection of minorities in their domain was objected to, saying it is ridiculous to think that Pakistan, an Islamic state, would really protect Hindus. Sardar Patel, the strong face of Hindutva in the Nehru Ministry, had an unexpected demise in 1950, and Nehru was free to continue his crusade against Hindus. Dr Syam Prasad Mookerjee resigned from the Cabinet along with another Cabinet Minister, MC Neogy and founded Bharatiya Jan Sangh. His fears about Nehru’s fallacy came true, and only a few per cent of Hindus are now surviving in Pakistan. Again, Dr Ambedkar also resigned related to the Hindu Code Bill, formed his own party, and joined hands with Jan Sangh in the States. Nehru faced strong opposition over the Hindu Code Bill and JB Kripalani accused Nehru of indulging in Communalism during a debate in the Parliament. Dr Ambedkar argued for the “transfer of religious population” between the two countries as a permanent solution. His counterpart in Eastern India in Dalit politics, Shri Jogendranath Mandal rested faith in the Muslim League and went to East Pakistan to become a Hindu Minister but had to take refuge in India again within three years of bitter experience with the fanatic theocrats there. Both Ambedkar and Mookerji openly accused Nehru for his anti-Hindu stand.

In February 1958, Nehru sent his resignation to the President of India. Nehru, answering to the French writer Andre Malraux, admitted in 1958 that his greatest difficulty arose while “creating a secular state in a religious country” i.e., a Hindu-majority India. Nehruvian secularism is generally accused of being “minorityism.” Nehru’s pseudo-secularism and unjust patronage were responsible for the resurrection of communal elements in India. For example, Uttar Pradesh having a population of 14 per cent Muslims became a stronghold of the Muslim League.

Sita Ram Goel says, “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as a bloated Brown Sahib, and Nehruism as the combined embodiment of all the imperialist ideologies — Islam, Christianity, White Man’s Burden, and Communism…… The Nehruvian formula is that Hindus should stand accused in every situation, no matter who is the real culprit.”

Cong Carrying Forward Anti-Hindu Legacy

The said Nehruvian legacy was carried forward by the Congressmen throughout its regimes appeasing minorities and accusing Hindus by coining the term “majoritarianism.”

Congress created Article 30 giving special rights to minorities which are denied to Hindus. In continuation, it set up the National Commission on Minorities in 1992. Despite repeated directions by the Supreme Court, it did not bring Muslims under the purview of the Common Civil Code but brought Hindus under Hindu Codes in 1955-56. Article 370 was created by Congress for Kashmir and more than three lakh Kashmiri Hindus had to flee from Kashmir in the 1990s during the Congress and their ally regimes in the Centre and State. There are Government-funded Madrasas, the Muslim Personal Law Board and Sacchar Committee to give scholarships only to Muslim students, all privileges created by the Congress Governments. The Congress Government tried to implement Sacchar Committee report and the Ranganatha Misra report to include Muslims in the space reserved for Hindu SC/ST so that a part of the Hindu S/ST community would lose their reservation rights. Former PM Manmohan Singh created controversy when he said, “Muslims have the first right to the country’s resources.”

They captured the Hindu temples through the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) Act in 1951 and prevented the reclamation of destroyed temples by enacting the Places of Worship Act of 1992. On the contrary in 1995 and 2013, Congress Governments amended the Waqf Act giving more powers to Waqf Boards to capture even the properties belonging to the Hindu temples which cannot be challenged in any court of law. Using the new power, the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board in 2022 claimed ownership of the land of a 1,500-year-old Chandrashekhara Swami temple comprising 369 acres, almost the entire Thiruchenthurai village in the Tiruchi district. On a fine morning, villagers were shocked by the decision.

In 2007, the Government had to withdraw two affidavits filed in the Supreme Court that were against Hindutva and Shri Ram in a case related to Ram Setu in Rameshwaram. Congress stamped terrorism upon Hindus a decade ago by coining the terms ‘Hindu terrorism’ and “Hindu fundamentalism” to shield the complaints of “Muslim terrorism” and “Islamic fundamentalism.”

Congress Government’s Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2004 itself was a communal law and did not get the approval of the Parliament. It was enacted marking in all communal conflicts the “group” of religious minorities as victims and demonising the Hindus, the majority.

Embracing Hindutva

It is a tryst of destiny for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that many prominent political personalities recognised the greatness of it at the fag end of their life. They include Mahatma Gandhiji, Shri Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Ambedkar, Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhiji visited RSS shakha in Bhangi colony in Delhi on September 16, 1947, almost four months before his death, where he shared his first experience of attending RSS shakha at Wardha in 1934. Subhas Chandra Bose visited Dr Hedgewar, founder of RSS in 1940 along with Jan Sangh founder Shri Syama Prasad Mookerjee and discussed plans for attaining Independence. Lok Naik Jaiprakash Narayan, who led a mob that attacked RSS Delhi Karyalaya in 1948, realised the greatness of RSS during the period of Emergency and attended RSS camps in Patna and Kerala in 1977 almost two years before his demise. Former Indian Presidents Dr Abdul Kalam, Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Shri Ram Nath Kovind have attended RSS programmes.

Pandit Nehru invited a batch of RSS volunteers to take part in the Republic parade of 1963 which was unique in history just one year before his demise. After the bad experience in the Chinese war in 1962, in a press meeting when the correspondent of The Patriot, a Communist newspaper, asked a question accusing RSS and Jan Sangh of being anti-national, Nehru immediately stopped him and said “No, Jan Sangh is a patriotic party.” This was against his stand when he banned RSS in 1948. This shows the change of mindset of Nehru towards RSS. Many of those who oppose RSS and Hindutva today may in the future follow the same path in embracing Hindutva.

Jawaharlal Nehru, a staunch Socialist and atheist, realised his faults during the last years and embraced Hindutva like many others. In Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru (1958), Nehru remembers his idea about Hindutva when he was 13 years old. “For the first time, I began to think, consciously and deliberately of religion and other words. The Hindu religion especially went up in my estimation, not the ritual or ceremonial part, but its great books, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita……I did not understand them, of course, but they seemed very wonderful……..although I was only thirteen then.” In his book Discovery of India (1946) Nehru wrote: “I have always hesitated to read books of religion.” But in the AICC Economic Review of August 15, 1958, Nehru published an article titled ‘The Basic Approach’ which showed his change of views. He says, “Give the individual and the nation a sense of purpose, soothing to live for and if necessary to die for……..Religion gave a certain moral and spiritual discipline;……..the superstitions and social usages enmeshed and overwhelmed the real spirit of religion………….. Communism in spite of its apparent success, it fails…….we should not forget the ethical and spiritual aspects of life.”

Former President of India, Dr S. Radhakrishnan says Nehru used to meet him in his last years of life to discuss Upanishads. Nehru kept a portion of the ashes of his late wife with him till the last, to be immersed along with his own. Nehru became a devotee of Ma Anandamayi, who was the Guru of his wife Kamala and daughter Indira. Ma had given him a jap mala (rosary) to do jap. Swami Nityanand Giri, disciple of Ma Anandamayi, writes: “When he died, the rosary (mala) given by Ma and Ma’s photo were on his chest!” Rahul Gandhi and his fellowmen in Congress have to learn from this transformation also.