Comment

The ABVP mob which attacked Delhi University’s History Department made one thing clear. The BJP and the larger Parivar have an intellectual inferiority complex. The idea that there are many versions of the Ramayana, as many as a thousand if not more, is not new. Paula Richman, a distinguished American Professor of Sanskrit, has brought out two books on the fascinating subject of the many Ramayana versions that exist and they show a rich tapestry of Buddhist Jataka kathas, Jain accounts, and how practically each major language has its own version.

This should be a matter of pride. The fact that there are hundreds of Ramayanas and yet Valmiki is universally acknowledged as having written the best version with Tulsidas and Kamban not far behind should be celebrated. Sita has been portrayed as a sister or daughter of Ravana and indeed also sister of Ram. There are stories of Sita telling her children to kill Ram for having abandoned her. These stories have a way of grasping our imagination in ways in which no epic in any other language could do.

But theHindutva brigade is unintelligent and also anti-intellectual. When they confront something which they don’t understand, their reaction is to resort to goondagiri. This is not the same as abusing Husain or attacking art schools such as the Baroda Kala Bhavan. That is because the Parivar hates Muslims despite the odd token Muslim in BJP. The Ramayana attacks show the poverty of the Parivar.

The BJP advanced its electoral prospects in the 1980s by attacking pseudo secularism, and in the 1990s by destroying the Babri Masjid. But it has not produced a single book or collection of essays describing positively what the Parivar or for that matter BJP stands for. Nothing that could be read by a high school student much lessa university graduate. If we ask what does the BJP stand for, all we get is Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Savarkar whose name the RSS is loath to mention. Both those authors are long gone; what has the BJP or RSS done intellectually since then?

In the 1950s, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan produced a set of volumes of Indian History from a Hindu perspective. These volumes were partisan but scholarly. But nothing since then. Meanwhile the secular Left historians have dominated the teaching of history because they have produced orthodox left or post-colonial critiques of imperialism and accounts of nationalism. These books are taught in universities because they meet a standard of excellence. If and when the BJP/NDA comes into power, are they just going to burn these books or do they dare start a serious discourse on what they think India is about? The answer to that question is a no-brainer as they say.

Such intellectual poverty means that whatever the BJP/NDA may say about coming to power, they will fail to tell a coherent story of how they can unite and enrich India. If India is to be narrowly Hindu with one book — Ramayana and one God Ram, it will exclude as many Hindus as non-Hindu minorities. The Ram Sethu dispute has already shown that for the parivar only North Indians are true Indians and Tamil speaking Indians who have other views on Ram Sethu can go to hell.

The Advani talk so far has been negative — hang Afzal Guru and fightinternal terrorism. But what is the vision of the BJP/NDA for India? Is it that gangs of ABVP and Bajrang Dal will go and beat up whosoever they don’t like or understand and the BJP will stand by silently andapprovingly or not daring to condemn. Is terrorism a label only given to violence suspected of Muslims or can the ABVP, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal also count as terrorists? Advani quite rightly condemned Raj Thackeray’s attacks on North Indians but then why did he not condemn the attacks on Christians in Orissa under a BJP regime or the attacks on Kala Bhavan staff in Baroda. The reason is that Raj Thackeray is no longer ‘one of the Parivar’ as Shiv Sena still is.

But then Indian political parties of the Right or the Left no longer care about human rights or the sanctity of culture or knowledge. They are opportunistic vote-gathering machines which sanction indiscriminate violence when it suits them — the anti-Taslima riots fomented by Congress and Trinamul Congress, or the firing on Nandigram farmers by CPM cadres.To avenge its loss of power in Punjab, Congress demonises Dera Sacha Sauda and again riots ensue and a few people die. Who cares?

The lesson to other political parties and civil society groups is clear. Agitate and attack with impunity whosoever you don’t like or just to attract attention. So it could be Jodhaa-Akbar, Mangal Pandey, Parzania or even Aamir Khan’s support of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.The forces of law and order will wait till they see which way the party in office inclines, and only then proceed to protect or persecute the victims of such senseless violence.

Whoever wins the next election, the people will fail to be served by those in power. Those who seek their votes care little about their welfare, only about their caste labels. But then it is one benefit of living in a democracy that political activism is more than just voting at elections. As Ambedkar used to exhort his followers Educate,
Organise, Struggle.

The writer is an economist.