Is Sarva Dharma Samabhava Back?
Vol - L No. 9, February 28, 2015
Editorials
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's is a neo-Vedantic Hindu
interpretation of Indian secularism.
The US President Barack Obama drove home the
message twice, first, on the way to winding up his
three-day visit to India, in New Delhi on 27
January, and then, once more, at a high-profile
National Prayer Breakfast on 5 February in
Washington. At the first, his so-called "parting
shot," he referred to the Indian Constitution when
he said that "Your Article 25 says all people are
equally entitled to the freedom of conscience and
have the right to freely profess, practice and
propagate religion," going on to emphasise that
"upholding freedom of religion is the utmost
responsibility of the government." Nine days later,
perhaps surmising that his reference to the
Constitution did not have the desired effect, he
appealed to Gandhian ideals, calling attention to
"acts of (religious) intolerance that would have
shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate
that nation."
In the course of Obama's visit, Modi, in his gold
monogrammed, personalised suit, kept referring to the US
president by his first name, Barack, even as the president
remained consistent in his plain, prim and proper response,
"Mr Modi." Maybe that was Obama's way of hinting that he had
something up his sleeve which he still had to deliver --
reminding the Prime Minister of India of his failure to
uphold the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to
freedom of religion. Modi was embarrassed by Obama on 27
January; it took him quite a while to speak about it (i e,
freedom of religion), even about the Indian version of
secularism in the form of sarva dharma samabhava (equal
respect for all religions).
But eventually, talk he did, 12 days after Obama evoked
Gandhian ideals to drive home the message. Modi's Indian
critics, clearly unimpressed, asked him to now "walk the
talk," which he is yet to do; unlikely, we think, because
that would involve the union government taking necessary
action against the likes of the president of the Vishva Hindu
Parishad, Pravin Togadia, indeed, even against the
sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
Mohan Bhagwat. With one of his pracharaks as the Prime
Minister of India, Bhagwat has been counting on being given a
free hand in playing his role as Raj Guru (the prince's
counsellor) and in fulfilling the RSS mission of regenerating
Indian society and restoring the nation's vitality. What
could be better than the ghar wapsi exercises? After all, the
Other, the prodigal, needs to be brought back, by any and all
available means, to the ghar, the Hindu religion, and the
nation, which is claimed to be that of the Hindus, but only
after a shuddhi (purification) ceremony, for these Others
have been defiled by Christianity and Islam, and therefore
they need to be cleansed before bringing them back to the
ghar in the jati (caste) quarters of their origins.
Excerpts from Modi's speech at a "national
celebration" of the elevation to sainthood of a
priest and a nun from Kerala on 17 February at
which he proclaimed his government's commitment to
Indian secularism, namely, "equal respect and
treatment for all faiths," are intriguing. The
Constitution's principle of secularism, Modi
states, has its "roots in the ancient cultural
traditions in India," and now, if the prime
minister is to be believed, following what is "in
the DNA of every Indian," "the rest of the world
too is evolving along the lines of ancient India."
The problem with all of this is that the kind of
secularism deriving from Vedic times and "values"
has no resemblance to what is understood as
secularism in the post-Enlightenment world. The
former, a revivalist secularism, is oozing with
religiosity, even as the "secular" Indian state
sets itself up as the underwriter of all faiths
with its chief executive affirming the glory of
Hinduism.
In this sense, as India becomes more secular, it becomes more
Hindu, with neo-Vedantic Hinduism being claimed not merely as
a religion but a way of life of all Indians, the latter, aka
the Supreme Court's infamous ruling on Hindutva. If the Prime
Minister is to be taken at face value, Hindus, from time
immemorial have been uniquely tolerant. And, when he wants
the rest of the world to "evolve along the lines of Ancient
India," he sees the need for Christianity and Islam, the
world's other major religions, to be secularised along the
lines of neo-Vedantic Hinduism, into a pluralistic,
"rational," open-minded, tolerant "way of life." He also
believes that other states of the world can be truly
"secular" if they embrace the now uniquely Hindu way of life.
Of course, the claim that neo-Vedantic Hinduism offers an
open-minded, tolerant way of life does not correspond to the
reality of Hindutvavadi cultural policing in the service of
this Hindu orthodoxy, even attacking those who expose its
self-serving myths, a recent instance of which is the
assassination of the Communist Party of India leader Govind
Pansare, author of Shivaji Kon Hota? (Who Was Shivaji?),
which tells the truth about the 17th century Maratha warrior.
Surely Modi has speech-writers who are good copycats of the
likes of Sita Ram Goel and N S Rajaram. With Hindu
nationalism and patriotism on a new high in the political and
cultural realms, the struggle to defend science and reason is
going to be a long and hard one.
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