Nationalism today

Today, I saw two very interesting videos. The first one was by Makarand Paranjape to JNU students on nationalism (Makarand Paranjape at JNU). The second was Bharka Dutt’s response to Anupam Kher on the Telegraph National Debate.(Bharka Dutt at the Telegraph National Debate) It was such a delightful experience listening to two sane voices. Importantly, both of them have tried to provide a meaningful context for the nationalism debate.

Here I have attempted to provide my own interpretation of the ongoing debate.

We have on the saffron corner, the right wing RSS and Hindu outfits, who’s advocacy of Hindu nationalism borders on authoritarianism. Nationalism to this group has very narrow definition and has a bias towards Hindu nationalism. Their friends BJP, sitting very close to them, have a more economic agenda. Unfortunately , elements in their team subscribe to the Hindu nationalist agenda. The BJP economic agenda is openly free market and at times in conflict with the economic agenda of the Hindu nationalist.

On the opposite Red corner, sit an insignificant left minority, that has lost all democratic sanction. They are historically, opposed to the Hindu nationalist and refuse to accept a popular mandate of the government. They oppose not nationalism, but Hindu nationalism and see Hindutva agenda behind every thing done by RSS/BJP. They are also completely opposed to the economic policies of the government, despite the fact that their own economic policies have brought ruin to the only 2 significant states ruled by them.

Beside them sit a motely group, who’s only shared interest is opposition to BJP. The erstwhile Congress rulers can take unchallenged credit for all the success the country has had and all the mess this nation is. The economic policies are so much closer to BJP, that you will see continuity of policies (though the mother and son duo leading them have no economic understanding and subscribe to socialist agenda). The other partner in this corner is the socialist grouping characterized by open casteist formations. The economic agenda is stated as socialist, but is more self serving than social serving. This entire grouping has a social agenda broadly called secularism and with a strong tilt towards social justice for their individual caste groups. The secular agenda states that you can seek votes in the name of caste and community as long as the word Hindu community is not used.

And then there are neutral and not so neutral observers. A small fraction of the press is controlled by the RSS and does its bidding (including transmitting doctored video’s). The vast majority of the press is congress controlled and promotes any agenda that will discredit BJP and has been at the forefront of the intolerance debate. Then there is a well-entrenched intelligentsia in Delhi, who would like us to believe that they are neutral. The communist have successfully denounced anyone not subscribing to their philosophy as pseudo intellects and have dominated campuses such as JNU.

In all these noise, the true challenge of this nation is lost. The true challenge of this nation is how do we remove social inequities, a very hindu religious mismanagement that goes back many centuries. It includes Hindu muslim divisions that trace their origin to pre British era. To believe that both these issues can be solved without bringing religious leaders into play is plainly stupid. I firmly believe that politics and politicians will only complicate this issue and will never solve this. Meanwhile, let the politics be truly secular; which truly means, no influence of religion on governance. Meaning that the constitution is above religion and has no religious influences. Meaning there are no stupidity such as cow slaughter or pork bans. Meaning that government doesn’t involve in religious matters, such as administering temples. Let government focus on creating economic opportunity and upliftment. Let the government mandate religious leaders to come up with a solution for addressing social justice issues within say 6 months, basically a roadmap to dismantle manuvad.