"If “debate” with the Hindu side is what you want, it is they who are the ones to talk to." -- K. Elst http://t.co/qLIQBpOVDs
A serious drawback of this book is that it narrows its focus to the Sangh Parivar, all while announcing a treatment of the “Hindu Right”. Perhaps this was still passable in 2005, but anyone moderately informed about the ideological scene should know that it is not in 2015. At the mass level, scholars ought to have noticed that the Hindu self-defence network in West Bengal, Hindu Samhati, has been set up by a dissatisfied ex-Swayamsevak because the RSS was just not living up to its promises. The Sangh’s enemies, such as the editors of this book, portray it as a formidable Hindu force, but insiders know better. It might have number, and today it might even hold office, but its commitment to Hindu victory is wobbly and lackadaisical. More and more, Hindus are locally organising outside the Sangh. They even continue to do so now that “their” side is in power in Delhi and proving to be no more than time-servers. Mostly they are happy that Modi is at the helm, but for an actual Hindu dimension to politics, more will be needed.
While this trend is still marginal, it is already very visible on the media front, where Internet papers have become the arteries of new communities shedding the Sangh baggage and trying to serve the Hindu cause through new analyses: VijayVaani, India Facts, Hindu Human Rights, Swaraj, Bharat-Bharati, the India Inspires Foundation. These people have no power yet, but they do have ideas. More up-to-date and more aware of international trends in political thinking than the gerontocratic Sangh, their thought is far more interesting. It also is more rooted, more Hindu than the Hindutva current, which is stuck in the 1920s’ borrowed nationalist paradigm. If “debate” with the Hindu side is what you want, it is they who are the ones to talk to.
(The writer is a Belgian Indologist well-known for his contributions to the debates on Ayodhya and on the Aryan Homeland)
The Hindu - Is Hindu nationalism a viable project? This is not an idle question, for the Prime Minister calls himself a Hindu ...
Mukul transforms his historical chronicle of a single religious press into a magisterial account of the socio-cultural, economic and human forces at play in the politics of Hindutva.
What stands out in this account is the caste aspect of this religious publishing enterprise. Gita Press and Kalyan were both funded by Marwari capital. Its longest-serving editor, Poddar, worked mostly with Brahmin writers, editors and artists. The narrative of Gita Press’s history is overrun by Dalmias and Dwivedis, Goenkas and Guptas, Birlas and Jains, Chaturvedis and Mukerjees. This combination of baniya and brahmin was not an accident. It had everything to do with why a Hindu nation was felt to be a necessary project.
Marwaris had begun to dominate Indian capitalism from the late 19th-early 20th century onward. As Mukul explains, this led to “two contradictory things”. One, the community became an object of jealousy; two, the Marwaris underwent an identity crisis: even though they had become economically the most powerful, being Vaishyas, they did not enjoy a “commensurate social standing”. The poorer brahmins and kshatriyas stood higher. But the decline of the landed gentry in North India in this period saw the Marwaris take centre stage in a process that the Indologist Philip Lutgendorf, cited by Mukul, terms “semi-involuntary upward mobility”. Baniyas became the new kshatriyas, “owning villages and getting kshatriya titles like Raja”. Most such estates were acquired via forced sales for tax defaults. At the same time, Marwari trade practices continued to evoke anger and distrust — of which they were not unaware.
Marwaris sought to resolve this identity crisis with moves aimed at gaining social standing, such as building temples, schools and hospitals, sponsoring recitations ofRamcharitmanas, and funding cow protection associations.
Another strategy was to set up printing presses and journals with the aim, initially, of reforming the Marwari community, and subsequently, of promoting Hindu dharma.
The Sunday Guardian Congress’ Brahmin leaders against caste quota
The Congress is divided over the issue of reservation. As Hardik Patel's anti-reservation movement gains momentum, the Brahmin leaders of the party are supporting it in private. Congress' Brahminical mindset is well known. It's because of this mindset that B.R. Ambedkar parted ways with the Congress and Jagjivan Ram could not become Prime Minister. Even Rajiv Gandhi surrounded himself with upper caste leaders such as Arun Nehru and others. It was only after Sonia Gandhi took charge of the party that the Congress started fielding backward candidates in Uttar Pradesh. At present, Brahmin leaders such as Janardan Dwivedi, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari are opposed to caste-based reservation. Anand Sharma has been heard openly supporting Hardik Patel. However, it was only Dwivedi who got snubbed by Sonia Gandhi for favouring economic reservation over caste.
By Debashri Banerjee in Education and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo's theory regarding education is truly fascinating. In this paper I want to show the ...
Sri Aurobindo's Savitri 13: The three entities any true education system must take account of | Bhawani Bharati.
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