‘Why should Hindu terrorism be a surprise’

Tanika Sarkar is professor of history the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She first wrote about the role of women in right-wing Hindu organisations in 1990. She has co-edited with Urvashi Butalia, Women And The Hindu Right in 1995. In an interview with Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr, Sarkar says she is not surprised either by the alleged involvement of Pragnya Thakur in the Malegaon blast or by the existence of Hindu terror groups.

Are you surprised that a woman is linked to a Hindu right-wing group accused of terror acts?
Not at all. There is a well-established precedent. Sadhvi Ritambhara’s — who has no known links with terror — audio-cassettes of the early 1990s led to a huge wave of terror. At that time the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) were trying to instigate riots in Uttar Pradesh during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. As there was no tradition of communalism in those UP towns, there were no riots. Ritambhara’s cassettes were played in temples then, which resulted in pogroms. When we think of terror, we need to take into account pogroms as well as bomb blasts.

Did anyone suspect this type of organisational ability among the Hindu groups? We should have. First of all, there is no reason why terrorism should be identified with Muslim organisations. Every single community is guilty of using terror tactics. And there is some glorification of it in all religious traditions. And even Buddhists have engaged in great violence in Sri Lanka. I don’t see any reason why any particular Hindu act of terror should come as a surprise. Secondly, the amount of training is nothing new. The hurling of gas cylinders into homes of Gujarat’s Muslims — that needed training. The ‘trishul diksha’ in different parts of Gujarat happened six months before the carnage began. Going back to the late 1980s Bhagalpur riots, the Ramjanmabhoomi-related movement, Babri masjid demolition — they all had who knows how many years of planning.

Have our investigative agencies failed so far?
When I speak of terror, I mean pogroms also. I do not see why Gujarat pogroms are not terror, and why bomb blasts alone are terror. Hindu terror — pre-planned, conspired for — has been going on in our country for at least a decade. When a bomb blast is linked with some particular Hindu organisation, we are startled. Why should that be?  Hindu religious organisations — if you call VHP a religious organisation — had been steadfastly planning pogroms, which are also terror tactics.

You have been one of the first to write about this issue of women being drawn into the Hindu right-wing groups. What characterises the women in right-wing groups?
 Women were generally excluded from public and political activities of any sort. Things have changed. Women have been participated in the nationalist movements, they have been part of the violent and non-violent movements. It is not a surprise they should be part of Hindu right-wing movements. Women have also been part of Muslim terrorist movements. The RSS has floated the Rashtra Sevika Samiti in the 1930s, which is a very old organisation, and has now fallen into the shadows. It also used to train women leaders for the VHP, which has its Matri Mandal, Mahila Vibhag, and the Bajrang Dal has its counterpart, the Durga Vahini and so on. So they have done their bit for rightwing movements. In the 1990s, for whatever reason, they thought it expedient to float certain remarkable women figures — Vijaya Raje Scindia, Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Ritambhara backing Advani’s rath yatra. It is not quite clear why the women’s voices were that important. Ritambhara’s voice was absolutely crucial for a lot of bloodbath that followed Babri Masjid demolition.

Has Thakur, arrested for actively planning and taking part in the Malegaon blast, made a logical progress from inciting speeches?
 She seems to be actively involved. I do not know, from incendiary speeches to action is a matter of degree. Pragya Thakur follows the Ritambhara trajectory.  She reminds me very much of Ritambhara. She is supposed to have given incendiary speeches earlier. Like Uma Bharati and Ritambhara, she is celibate, she is ascetic. And she is supposed to be greatly learned in sacred scripture. Men from the sangh parivar do not have a reputation for that. It is quite curious that the women are entrusted with sacred knowledge now.  I do not think that  Thakur did it on her own initiative. The RSS is the apex body. It does all the planning. It is still the all-male organisation. So, at some stage, the RSS decided to use women in certain capacities, and the women were only too willing.