Bangalore: The monster of Hindu communalism, which has turned into the world’s worst form of Nazism, is having its dance of death before our eyes daily but India’s upper caste rulers seem to enjoy it. Being rulers, they could have easily checked it if only they had found it harmful in the interest of the country (DV edit Jan.1 1991: “India Heading Towards Fascism”). To these rulers their jati interest became more important than the interest of the country, its unity and integrity.
The rulers are merciless in crushing the nationality demands of Sikhs, Kashmiris, Gorkhas, Jharkhand’s, Bodo’s, Tamils, etc. in the name of communalism. Those fighting for identity, human rights, honour of their women are dubbed communal and violently dealt with. But when it comes to “Hindu communalism” which is nothing but the communalism of upper castes, the rulers are silent. In fact, they are indirectly encouraging it. Even the demand of SC/ST/BCs for reservations is called communal.
M.A. Jinnah, whom Sarojini Naidu once called as the “young ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity” in 1918, was dubbed by the upper castes as communal. Sant Bhindranwale was also called communal. Even Moulana Azad described as “India’s only secular Muslim” was called communal. Every religious minority demand is called communal. Even if they assert their constitutional rights to establish minority educational institutions, they are called communal. But when L.K. Advani went on his rath yatra and his Nazi hordes entered the Babri Masjid and tried to demolish it, it was not called communal.
Cow slaughter ban: The battle against “Hindu communalism” was lost not now. We can say that the “battle was lost” only if the battle had begun. To tell the truth such a battle had never begun. The very “Father of nation” MK Gandhi’s demand for ban on cow slaughter was communal. If the very Father of Nation is communal what is the surprise if his children also follow his example? Beef is not the food of Muslims and Christians alone. It is the food of all Dalits, tribals and even among Backward Castes, and the innumerable foreigners living in India. So, by this ban on cow slaughter Gandhi tried to hit the very stomach of the country’s religious minorities and also his own children of God (“Harijans”), meaning bastard. That means the very founding fathers of this country were soft towards “Hindu communalists”. This view was endorsed by a person hailed by the upper caste themselves as “a noted historian of India”, Bipin Chandra. This is his verdict: –
The basic failure of the national movement on the communal question lay precisely in the ideological arena. Gandhiji, with all his deep-seated secularism, failed to understand communalism as an ideology. He, therefore, failed to challenge it except at the Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai level. He hoped to counter communalism with humanism. Nehru of the 1930’s clearly saw that communalism was basically an ideology that was rooted in the existing class and political structure. But he too, except very briefly in 1933-34 and 1936-37, failed to organize a struggle against it, and assumed that changes in the class and political structure (anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism) would gradually erode communalism. After independence, while heroically standing in opposition to communal violence, he depended on economic development and spread of education and science to bring about this erosion. Throughout, the communists and socialists have continued to rely on class struggle and struggle for social transformation to achieve this result”. (Hindu, Dec.21, 1990).
“Hindu communalism” therefore is not known. “Hindu communalism” means brahminical social order which is today struggling to overpower the Indian social order sought to be established by Babasaheb Ambedkar through the Constitution of India.
