Compassion as a political emotion https://www.india-seminar.com/2020/736/736_rudolf_c_heredia.htm RUDOLF C. HEREDIA
In 1941, Savarkar’s birthday wish was expressed to the Hindu Mahasabha in the slogan: ‘Hinduise all politics and militarise all Hindudom.’27 And again: ‘India must be a land reserved for the Hindus.’28 It should be evident that Hindutva as a political ideology cannot create an inclusive culture of compassion, whereas Hindu tradition and Indic culture have the resources to do so.
Gandhiji demonstrated this in the freedom movement against the colonial Raj. But those who never really participated in the movement, never learnt compassion and ahimsa, nor the meaning of satyagraha and swaraj. The traditional Hindu religious leaders could not accept Gandhi, in spite of the obfuscations of those who drew their inspiration from Mazzini and his Fascism.
act compassion is antithetical to our modern way of life, according to Karen Armstrong.29 Yet all the major religious traditions concede its importance. This she says must ‘reflect something essential to the structure of our humanity’, i.e. compassion is natural to humans, but so is cruelty. It’s how we are socialized that makes the difference for humans have a natural capacity for compassion – just as we do for cruelty.
Will India follow other South Asian nations in an ethno-religious nationalism that thrives on polarization and hate? As long as this yields returns at the polls, the violence of collective majoritarian politics will thrive. Only a critical and alert citizenry committed to the common good of all citizens can turn this tide. This is not peculiar to South Asia. Clifford points out that traditional societies, forming themselves into new states in their struggle to catch up with the developed world, readily fall back on an ethno-nationalism, which tends to be authoritarian and majoritarian.