Hindutva: The ‘Nepal Option’

Nalini Taneja

THE ‘Shining India,’ if the Hindutva forces were to have their way, would soon pave way for an India that has a titular head, and that too not an Indian, but the Nepal king. To begin with, he is not a ‘foreigner’ because he is a true-blooded Hindu belonging to the right caste, and therefore in all ways preferable to a ‘foreign’ prime minister of Italian origin, even one duly elected by the Indian people. Preferable even to such ‘foreigners’ whose father, mother, grandfather or great grandmother has been foreigner. The great nationalists have been exposed once again for what they are --- to them all Hindus are Indians no matter where they reside, to what country they owe their allegiance, of whatever country they may have chosen to be citizens of. All people belonging to other religions are foreigners, no matter for how many centuries their ancestors may have inhabited this land, no matter that they have chosen to be Indians, no matter that they did not get distracted by the communal winds unleashed by the likes of them and chose to be part of a secular India.

DEIFYING THE NEPAL KING

VHP working president, Ashok Singhal says: “It is the duty of 900 million Hindus the world over to protect the Hindu samrat (king)..…God has created him to protect Hindu dharma.” Ashok Singhal said this on January 22, in Khatmandu, as Hindu leaders from across the world deified King Gyanendra as the world’s only Hindu monarch. He also proposed to organise a world Hindu meet in New York next year under the leadership of King Gyanendra (Indian Express, January 23, 2004). He added that the New York gathering would project Hindus as a global power..…with the Nepal king leading the way.

Not to be outdone in sycophancy and the enamour of monarchies, the Nepali prime minister, Surya Bahadur Thapa said the Gita and the Puranas describe the king as a form of God, after which the royal couple were seated on a throne of gold and silver, and Nepalese Hindus washed the king’s feet, applied tilak on him, garlanded him and performed an aarti. Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain priests chanted hymns amid the sounds of bells, conches and drums.

This is no description of a medieval age court. Ministers, diplomats, government officials, and Hindutva activists were present at this function, and it was organised by the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (VHM), an umbrella body of Hindu groups.

This event signifies all that the VHP and the Hindutva forces in India stand for. Historically, the concept of nation and growth of nationalism as a popular sentiment are inseparable from the ideas of democracy and popular sovereignty. But the brave Hindutva ‘nationalists’ of our times would like to go one step ‘ahead’ of Hitler, and imagine the nation as we saw it in the TV serial Ramayana. Hitler had established his dictatorship in the name of the German ‘folk,’ the petty bourgeoisie, but these new fascists are straightaway talking of leadership by monarchs of the Suryavanshi descent. The swearing in ceremonies of their new chief ministers have been reminiscent of coronations of kings and queens, and courts, where a generous sprinkling of rishis, religious leaders and soothsayers lent legitimacy and sanction of a ‘divine right’ to rule. Ministerships to ‘sanyasins’ like Uma Bharti combine this effect with a ruthless policy of liberalisation and globalisation.

L K Advani ushered in this era through the strategic use of his rath run on diesel. Like a monarch of all that he surveyed, he wreaked destruction wherever he went, even as he graciously accepted namaskars along the nationwide journey. Sadhus and saffron clad so called rishis have become a common sight on prime time news, front-page visuals in print media and on all important political events. There is an effort to show that India is naturally saffron and has not to be yet made so. The media cooperates in all this very well.

DESIGN TO SERVE IMPERIALISM

What is the purpose of all these trappings? Are sadhus actually going to rule the roost? Will a monarch, Hindu no doubt, actually be able to establish a kingship in this age when the only empire is that of imperialism? Or are all these references and reminders of old Hindu monarchies a way to hoodwink the people? What exactly are they doing?

Fascist dictatorships, as much as other forms of bourgeois states, do require an element of consent, a need for the ruling classes to reconcile their mass base created through demagogy and propaganda with their most ruthless anti-people policies. While Hitler sought to reconcile this tension through enamouring the people with his idealisation of the ‘folk,’ the simple German people of the ancient period, the Hindutva forces need to project the ideal of the ‘golden age of the monarchies of ancient India,’ where each got his due and there was no need to covet what another had because the station of each was determined according to what he deserved. This entire edifice of sadhus and royals will have behind the scenes the whole force of a bomb technology, multinationals, and the rule of Indian capital subservient to nothing but imperialism. It is a design that is hegemonistic in terms of the Indian people and hegemonistic in terms of the entire south Asian region.

When people in Nepal are actually questioning their monarchy and there are growing demands for a republican set-up, the Hindutva forces in India are actually propping up the monarchy because a democratic Nepal could very well not remain subservient to Hindutva designs.

The entire fascination with the king of Nepal and Nepal as a Hindu kingdom must be seen in this larger context. Of course, this fascination for Nepal is not new. Golwalkar and our ‘Veer’ Savarkar have also seen Nepal in the context of Hindutva hegemony and a greater Hindu rashtra that will encompass the entire subcontinent. But times have changed, and Nepal and its king must now be made to fit shoes that will partner US imperialism and Zionism even as they will trample democracy in south Asia.