Arvind Kala: What is Hindutva?
Please look at the
headline again. What is Hindutva? Indeed, what on earth is it? I'm a Hindu Brahmin, I
come from the cradle of Hinduism, Uttarakhand, where the Holy Ganga is born, we
spoke Hindi in my parents' family, I've lived in a Hindu North India all my
life, and 90 % of my friends are Hindus. Yet I have no idea
what Hindutva is. Nor does anybody else. Including the shrill Hindutva shouters
who've come out of the woodwork.
see also
Couple Set on Fire for Inter-Caste Marriage in Maharashtra, Woman Dies
Converting Hindus to Hindutva - Interview with D.R. Goyal (1929-2013) writer and historian
Minister Who Got The Loudest Cheers Has A Murky Past
How come we never
heard this word Hindutva before Narendra Modi came to power? Now vast Hindu swathes
numbering in tens of millions are congratulating themselves that they are
Hindu. As if it's an
achievement - being a Hindu. What I say is: You are a Hindu because your
parents were Hindu
Your name would be
Burunga Gomo if your parents were Ugandan. So what's the big deal?
For my foolish Hindu
brothers luxuriating in their new-found Hinduness, here's a bit of sobering
reality. If you ask an average
American what a Hindu is, he'll say it's some herb you put in a salad.
This is how
inconsequential we are. We don't exist for the developed world. Even though we are
HUGE in number. We are 1.1 billion in this world of seven billion humans. Meaning every seventh
person on this earth is a Hindu. So we should ask
ourselves why we are such nobodys.
Instead of doing this,
we Hindus are seized by an inexplicable Hindu resurgence which keeps saying
Shabash to itself. It's a swelling self-pride with nowhere to go. Like a young couple
dressed up for a fancy cocktail party except that nobody's invited them. I'm puzzled by this
Hindu self-congratulation that has swept India. And I feel like saying: For
Heaven's sake, stop it!
Instead of gazing
wide-eyed at a mirror, just pause and compare ourselves with the world's most
brilliant people, the Jews. Their number is
miniscule. Jews comprise only 0.2 % of the world's population. They number 16
million, we Hindus number a billion plus. Meaning our world has 70 Hindus for
one Jew. Yet Jews have won 15
times more Nobel prizes than us: some 180 Nobels to our 12. Yet they don't crow
about their outstanding brilliance. But we Hindus boast how marvellous we are
though malnutrition stunts nearly 40 % of India's under-5 kids.
Leaving this aside,
let's move to Hindutva, which is an annoying word for our good old Hinduism.
Races and religions
have defining characteristics. Britain is defined by class. The US is defined
by race. Japan is defined by self-honour. Our Hindu India is
defined by caste. Which comes with a notion of pollution that is embedded in
our Hindu DNA.
Three P's dominate our
ancient Vedic texts: Purity, Power, and Pollution. The Brahmins symbolise
purity, Kshatriyas represent power, and Dalits symbolise pollution. Not just that, clubbed
with the three castes are three animals. Brahmins are clubbed with the cow, the
Kshatriya's clubbed with the horse, and the Dalit is clubbed with the dog. All this aside, how
does caste play out in India today? I'll give two-three glimpses of what I've
been eye-witness to.
I go to my ancestral
Sumari village in Pauri district of Uttarakhand some 400 kilometres north of
Delhi. My village contains some 200 people, all Brahmins. Our village has some
Dalit families too, but they live below at the edge of the village. Unless a Dalit is
called, he never enters the Brahmin part of the village. And a Brahmin doesn't
step into the Dalit side.
Our village is fed by
a fresh-water spring that never dries up. The village receives this spring
water in a shallow stone-and-cement pond ten feet by six feet. A Dalit cannot come to
this pond to fill up water. When I say he cannot, what I mean is he does not,
he will not, that's how it's always been, that's how it continues to be. By the way, our
village Dalits get that very same spring-water. But they get it some 200 feet
below from a separate water-channel flowing out of the spring.
The Dalit has no
problem with this arrangement. That's how it's always been. Steeped in Hindu
tradition, our village stages the Ramlila every Dussehra. Two years ago
two-three Dalit boys came to see the Ramlila and they were gently told to go
away. “Please go and stage
your own Ramlila,” the Brahmins told them. They went away.
Now let's leap
westwards to another Himalayan village in Himachal Pradesh. I'm talking of
Manali some 6,000 feet above sea-level where I spend a few months every year. Manali village nestles
close to a mountain torrent called the Manalsu which flows into the river Beas. Manali is like my
Uttarakhand village in one respect. Its also a one-caste village. With the difference
that while my village has only Brahmins, Manali village has only Thakurs. Or
Kshatriyas. With Dalits living separately at a village edge.
Some 40 years ago a
Manali Thakur boy fell in love with a Dalit girl and married her. And he became a
Harijan overnight for all practical purposes. He moved into the
Dalit settlement because he couldn't bring a Dalit wife to the Thakur part of
the village where he was born and grew up. Forget the village
Thakurs, his own family disowned him straightaway, his father, mother, brother,
sister, they stopped acknowledging his existence. He was erased from
their mind.
I have seen 3–4 exact
same stories repeated in Manali village over the decades. Thakur boy marrying a
Dalit girl or Thakur girl marrying Dalit boy. Every time the same
thing happens. The Dalit bride or bridegroom marrying a Thakur doesn't become a
Thakur. But the Thakur bride
or bridegroom marrying a Dalit becomes a Dalit. Meaning the higher
caste person moves into the lower caste. The lower-caste person doesn't move up
into the higher caste.
In short, a Thakur
cannot bring home a Dalit spouse. But a Dalit can bring a Thakur spouse. This is a tribute the
lesser caste still pays to the higher caste. They accept the higher caste. The
higher caste doesn't accept the lower caste. All this happens with
zero fuss. It's not that the Thakurs fume against the renegade Thakur marrying
a Dalit.
All that happens is
that the renegade Thakur ceases to exist for his Thakur parents, his Thakur
siblings, Thakur cousins, and the entire Thakur village clan. He's never invited to
a Thakur wedding, Thakur funeral, or a Thakur village feast. He stops entering a
Thakur home, a Thakur doesn't step into his home. Even if he's willing to come
alone without his Dalit spouse.
Look at the irony of
this Thakur's changed caste status. He was a full-blooded Thakur. Then he
meta-morphosed into a Dalit the moment he married. There's a lesson for
our Hindutva shouters here. Stop screaming that Christians are converting
innocent Hindus to Christianity. Or that Muslim boys
marrying Hindu girls are conducting a love jihad. In Manali I witness a
caste jihad that is woven into the very fabric of Hinduism.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-Hindutva-3/answer/Arvind-Kala-2?ch=99&share=7157ca45&srid=ArCLsee also
Couple Set on Fire for Inter-Caste Marriage in Maharashtra, Woman Dies
Converting Hindus to Hindutva - Interview with D.R. Goyal (1929-2013) writer and historian
Minister Who Got The Loudest Cheers Has A Murky Past