Culture & Nationalism

The Battle to Save India Has to Be Waged By Every Single One of Us  Arundhati Roy , Sissy Farenthold lecture   https://thewire.in/rights/arundhati-roy-india-democracy-communalism 
If the RSS wins this battle, its victory will be pyrrhic. Because India will cease to exist.

India as a country, as a modern nation-state, exists only and solely as a social compact between a multitude of religions, languages, castes, ethnicities, and sub-nationalities legally bound together by a constitution. Every Indian citizen belongs, in one way or another, to a minority. Our country is a social compact between its minorities. In the process of trying to create a political majority, that social compact is being undone by an artificially constructed “aggrieved Hindu majority” that is being tutored to believe that they are the only deserving citizens, the First People, of the putative Hindu Nation, a majority that defines itself against the “anti-national other.” India is being undone.

Few of us who make up this nation of minorities can put forward a neat, unblemished history of ourselves in which we are blameless victims of aggression. Our histories intersect, interlock, and aggregate. Together they make us who we are. Other than the over-arching hierarchy of caste, class, religion, gender, and ethnicity, our society is hierarchical at a molecular level. There is micro-colonialism, micro-exploitation, micro-interdependence. Every thread of this tapestry is an epic that calls for scholarship, study, argument, debate, reflection. But to isolate a single thread from this weave and use it to call for mass rape? For genocide? Is that something to be countenanced?

To flatten a messy history, to rob it of nuance, to weaponise it, will have dire consequences.

All of us in the subcontinent have the choice of either working toward a shared notion of justice, toward exorcising the pain and hate that gnaws away at our collective memory, or enhancing it.

All dissent has been criminalised in India. Until recently, dissenters were called anti-national. Now we are openly labelled intellectual terrorists.

We are currently in that dangerous place where there is no set of facts or histories that we can agree upon, or even argue with. The narratives do not overlap or even intersect with each other. It’s myth versus history. The myth is backed by state machinery, corporate money, and countless 24/7 television news channels. Its reach and power is unmatchable. The world has been here before, and we know by now that when debate and argument end, a war of attrition begins.

there is opposition to this hatefulness from ordinary people of every caste and creed, from those who rose against the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, from the historic farmers’ movement last year, and from regional political parties in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra that have gone toe-to-toe with the BJP and defeated it. It would be fair to say that the majority of Indians do not approve of what is happening. But their disapproval is manifested for the most part by distaste, by a karmic shrug and a turning away that is entirely ineffectual before the burning ideological fervor of a well-paid fascist cadre.

‘Stick in Hand’: How RSS Chief’s Comments Encourage Mob Violence SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI 19 Apr 2022,   https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/stick-in-hand-how-rss-chiefs-comments-encourage-mob-violence 
Mohan Bhagwat must clarify: does he condone or condemn the brandishing of swords and guns at Hindu processions?

One of the stated objectives of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s powerful Hindu nationalist organisation, is charitra nirmaan (character-building). Undoubtedly, the RSS does pursue this objective with great dedication. RSS swayamsevaks are generally men of discipline and simple living...

On Ram Navami (10 April) and Hanuman Jayanti (16 April) this year, Hindu mobs were seen brandishing swords, knives and guns in religious processions in various parts of the country. They raised provocative slogans in front of mosques..

In recent weeks, riots have taken place in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Almost everywhere, the pattern is similar – Hindu extremists provoke Muslims, attack their homes and shops, and if they react, they are hit harder.

For the past several months, many saffron-clad Hindu monks, who are an insult to the sacred tradition of monkhood, have made speeches calling for the mass killing of Muslims, that too at events misnamed as “Dharam Sansads”.
Maligning the entire Muslim community as “jihadis”, these fake sadhus and swamis have been urging Hindus to take up arms to attack them.

organisations have been openly calling for the economic boycott of Muslims, and even violently enforcing their threats.

Lastly, “bulldozer” has become the new favourite word of many Hindutva politicians. In BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, governments are using bulldozers to raze Muslim properties, with the least regard for the rule of law.

If the RSS truly wants to stop such activities, it has the power to do so. But it is deliberately not exercising that power for the obvious reason that communal polarisation, which results in expansion and consolidation of the Hindu vote bank, helps the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its political wing.

Bhagwat,  addressing a gathering of saints in Haridwar on 13 April,  “We will talk about non-violence, but we will walk with a stick. And that stick will be a heavy one.”

Does the RSS expect Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others in South Asia to meekly agree to join ‘Akhand Bharat’ just because it wields a “heavy stick” and knows how to speak the language of “power”?

Some kind of coming together of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian nations in a confederal set-up – not in the form of ‘Akhand Bharat’, is desirable. It is both necessary and possible, provided such a set-up is anchored in the ideals of equality, peace, mutual respect, mutual affinity, mutual cooperation and shared prosperity for all, without any discrimination.

आखिर देश भर में क्यों हो रहे हैं दंगे, क्यों प्रशासन के हाथ से निकल रहे हैं हालात  https://youtu.be/RYfFyCwIes0?t=153

Prime Time With Ravish Kumar: यह एक भारत है या एकतरफा भारत, सबका भारत है या एकतरफा भारत? Apr 18, 2022  जब आप कुछ करने की हालत में न हों, या ऐसा मान लेने में फायदा हो तब देखते रहना ही अच्छा है. हिंदू-मुस्लिम नेशनल सिलेबस खत्म होने का नाम नहीं ले रहा. हर दिन एक नए रूप में सामने आ जाता है, जिसके कारण दिनों का फर्क मिटने लगा है. Ek Bharat ya Ek tarfa Bharat..

Moreshwar Morje. interview Jammuji Anand 

अखंड भारत माने मोहन भागवत क्या चाहते है? फायरब्रांड नेता जम्मू आनंद इनकी तोडफोड मुलाखात  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_4aMn6kbHI Apr 16, 2022

Not majoritarian rule but Hindu vad. in 6 ro 8 year maximum 15 years.. In 78 years it agenda..  It is a way of "fooling" Hindus.

Our constitution has two aspects- one is secularism, democracy and equality and the other is the federal system. So what is Bhagwat's view on this? Why is he not making these clear to the Hindus.. 

Bhagwat see that there is a new environment.. which is conducive to him allowing such statements. Also there seems to be an understanding between the RSS and the Govrnment that each one will not interfere or comment on the activities of the other..