Myriad faces of Hindu nationalism in India
What is Nationalism?
Nationalism as defined by Merriam-Webster
dictionary means “loyalty and devotion to a nation. Especially: a sense of
national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary
emphasis on the promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of
other nations or supranational groups.
Encyclopaedia Britannica defines Nationalism as an ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests.
Difference between Nationalism and
Patriotism
Nationalism and patriotism are two sides of the
same coin but there is a thin line demarcating both ideologies.
Patriotism is an attachment to a homeland. The love
and adoration for the place where an individual is born and brought up, and the
nation that place belongs to. These attachments can be related to ethnic,
cultural, political, or historical. Patriotism is also being proud of a
country's virtues but with an eagerness and readiness to correct its
deficiencies to be better. Patriotism acknowledges the patriotism of citizens
of other countries and respects their virtues.
An excess of patriotism in the defense of a nation
is called chauvinism or jingoism.
The difference between patriotism and nationalism
is simple - a patriot loves his country and is proud of it for what it does
whereas a nationalist loves his country and is proud of his country NO MATTER
WHAT IT DOES.
Quite clearly, patriotism nurtures a feeling of 'responsibility' in the citizens while nationalism breeds blind arrogance or ignorance, and it often leads to conflict.
Nationalism in India (a brief historical
timeline)
Indian nationalism developed as a concept during
the Indian independence movement fought against the colonial British Raj.
In India, the growth of modern nationalism is
connected to the anti-colonial movement. Due to colonialism, many different
groups shared bonds together, which were forged by the Congress under Mahatma
Gandhi.
In January 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned to India
from South Africa and started the movement Satyagraha. Satyagraha emphasised
the power of truth and the need to search for truth. According to Mahatma
Gandhi, people can win a battle without non-violence which will unite all
Indians.
In 1919, Mahatma Gandhi launched a nationwide
satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act. The Act gives the government
enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed the detention of
political prisoners without trial for two years.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, British rule was
established in India with the cooperation of Indians, and hence if we have to
achieve complete swarajya he proposed the non-cooperation movement. It should
begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and a boycott
of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and
foreign goods.
In January 1921, the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat
Movement began. In this movement, various social groups participated, but at
that time the term meant different things to different people.
The Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the
countryside where unrest between peasants and tribals was brimming in different
parts of India. The peasant movement started against talukdars and landlords
who demanded high rents and a variety of other cesses. It demanded a reduction
of revenue, abolition of beggars, and a social boycott of oppressive landlords.
For plantation workers in Assam, freedom means the
right to move freely in and out and retaining a link with the village from
which they had come. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation
workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission.
In February 1922, the Non-Cooperation Movement was
withdrawn because Mahatma Gandhi felt that it was turning violent.
In December 1929, under the presidency of
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’
or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January 1930 would be
celebrated as Independence Day.
On 31 January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to
Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. Among the demands, the most stirring of
all was the demand to abolish the salt tax which is consumed by the rich and
the poor. The demands needed to be fulfilled by 11 March or else Congress will
start a civil disobedience campaign.
Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe
that they are all part of the same nation. History and fiction, folklore and
songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of
nationalism. Finally, in the twentieth century, the identity of India came to
be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay created the image and in the 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a
hymn to the motherland.
Rabindranath Tagore painted his famous image of
Bharat Mata portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine, and
spiritual. In late-nineteenth-century India, nationalists began recording folk
tales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends.
During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green, and
yellow) was designed which had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of
British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims. By 1921,
Gandhiji designed the Swaraj flag, a tricolour (red, green, and white), and had
a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.
In the first half of the twentieth century, various groups and classes of Indians came together in the struggle for independence. The Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi attempted to resolve differences, and ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another. In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule.
The Indian Political Transition
The biggest political change in India in the last
decades has been the demise of the once all-powerful Congress Party and the
rise of regional-based parties and the Hindu nationalists. Like all political
parties that remain in power too long, Congress fell into corruption and
cronyism. Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi - no relation to the Mahatma -
brought India as close as it has ever come to dictatorship in 1975 when she
declared "Emergency," suspending democracy, and threw many of her
opponents into prison. It is to India's credit that democracy eventually
prevailed. But Indira Gandhi saw India and the Congress Party as a family
enterprise. After her assassination her son, Rajiv, became prime minister -
only to be assassinated himself. Today, the head of the Congress Party in
opposition is Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv's widow, who is an Italian trying her hardest
to appeal to Hindus.
The Congress Party's demise has seen the rise of
the saffron nationalist BJP. It is India's most powerful political force, but
it rules through a coalition that has necessitated a softening of the party's
more militant Hindu positions.
The battle between Nehru's secular India and what the historian Burton Stein called the "distorted particularisms and intolerance" of religious-based nationalism comes just as a new, market-oriented and tech-savvy India is trying to be born from the old, socialist, and inward-looking country that was, ironically, also Nehru's legacy.