HINDUS IN HINDU RASTRA - Eighth-class citizens and Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid by Anand Ranganathan (Book Review by R. Chandra Prakash)

After 75 years of independence the Hindus are getting divided on caste and sub-caste lines seeking greater share in politics and economy. Consequently, despite being a big majority religion Hinduism is at a cross roads in the country’s politics. At the same time, the Post 1975 International Oil-Crisis has changed the international political dynamics. The Islamic block has emerged as a powerful political and economic player. And this has had its own adverse influence on the Indian political scenario. The Muslims in India have politically consolidated into a powerful vote bank and have acquired a phenomenal political clout. The time lapse plus the new world order have overshadowed the pain and sacrifices of partition of the country on religious lines. 

The Indian National Congress party [INC], which ruled the country for the first 60 plus years after independence, has been accused of being inimical to Hinduism and favoring the Muslims as a minority. So much so, it is accused of being an instrument of Islamisation! And no surprise that INC has been losing its Hindu vote share, and as also the power at the Centre.

Therefore, for the first time when Bharatiya Janatha Party [BJP] was voted to power at the centre and several states with a thumping majority of its own in 2014, it was assumed that people have preferred this party because it will protect Hinduism. And its return at the centre in 2019 with a bigger majority only redoubled such expectations. 

State-sponsored Apartheid

Anand Ranganatha’s book Hindus in Hindu Rastra – Eighth-Class Citizens and Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid tries to explain how Hindus were short-changed by Mahatma Gandhi. After independence how the INC practiced minority appeasement at the blatant cost of the Hindus, who constitute a majority in the country. Author does not spare even the BJP government whose policies he finds no different from that of INC, even though it is considered to be or accused of being a Hindu party. Ranganathan is of the opinion that the policies are not appeasement of minority, but it is an issue of Apartheid. A State-sponsored, State-sanctioned discrimination against a particular community, that is the Hindus. 

Fake Secularism

Ranganathan is very clear that Secularism is total separation of religion and State. And he is of the opinion that there are half a dozen Articles and Amendments and directive principles in our constitution that make it plural, not secular nation. It was during the Emergency that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who inserted the word Secular in our preamble, whereas it was absent from Ambedkar’s Constitution! 

It is ironical that all legal efforts are made to declare Bharat as a secular state, and at the same time the governments of 10 states control more than 110,000 Hindu temples. Tamil Nadu government controls 36,425 temples and 56 mutts, and its Temple Trust owns 478,000 acres of temple land!  The situation is no different in communist ruled Kerala state. It has five Devaswom Boards – Travancore, Guruvayur, Cochin, Malabar and Koodalmanikyam- with 3,058 temples under their control!  And the states pride in appointing non-Hindus to the Boards of the temples. And most of the times governments do not respect Hindu religious norms in appointing the priests and in the performance of various temple-centric worship rituals. Rather, they take pride under the socialist/liberal/secular garb to intentionally appoint people from non-Hindu religions. 

Interestingly, none of these governments will dare follow similar ‘liberal’ practices when it comes to Islamic and Christian religious places. What sort of distorted secularism is this? Ranganathan questions when the BJP has been in power at the centre since 2014, why is that it has not taken any step to either remove such a ‘secular policy’ or even try to liberate the Hindu temples from the wrongful control of the state, which constitutionally claims to be secular?

Ranganathan very elaborately examines the provisions of The Waqf Act, The RTE Act, The Places of Worship Act, and several other legislations which have adversely affected the religious interests of the majority Hindu population of Bharat. 

A Case of Kashmiri Hindus

Kashmir was originally inhabited by the Hindus, as is evident from the existence of Sharada Peeth and several other religious institutions of great importance to the Hindus. However, over a period this land got inhabited by the followers of Islam. They claimed to be far different in their cultural ethos from the other Muslims, a soft Islamic hilly culture. But soon after independence Kashmir became a political and a communal hotbed.  The cause was the insertion of provision of Article 370 and 35A providing Special Status to this state. Consequently, a simmering anti-Hindu communal apartheid turned in 1989-90 into a savage butchering of Kashmiri Hindus in thousands, and many more thousands fled. Shockingly, there was no murmur from the secularists, socialists, or even the liberals. 

In keeping with its promise BJP removed the infamous Articles 370 and 35A and took very tough steps to stem the religious and political terrorism. And the newly formed Union Territory of Kashmir recorded highest ever tourist footfall of 16 million in the past year! Author quotes Sushil Pandit, a Kashmiri Hindu, and himself a victim of ethnic cleansing, who says – ‘Tourism in Kashmir funds Jihad. The Hindus are funding their own demise.’ The author narrates several heinous crimes against the Hindus in Kashmir and states ‘Kashmir Hindus are Jews, but unfortunately, India is not Israel. They call Kashmir the Switzerland of the East. Wrong. It is the Srebrenica of the East. And it will remain so till such time every Kashmiri Hindu is returned home.’ The Truth cannot be hidden any more.

An Open Sky Awaits Hinduism

Author is of the opinion that judiciary almost exclusively is trying to reform Hinduism. Despite the fact that Nupur Sharma had simply quoted what was from the revered Islamic scriptures, Supreme court found it unnecessary to club multiple FIRs against her. He further feels that the court could have left it at that and dismissed the case, but they did not. Author extensively quotes from the judgment and leaves it to the reader to decide ‘whether their remarks against a helpless, victimised, shunned, discarded, hunted young Hindu woman were not bolstered by decades of institutional vilification, ridicule and discrimination against Hindus.’ Then there are cases like Shabarimala, where the court vetoed the discrimination, even though similar discrimination is found even in other religion. 

Ranganathan feels that ‘A progressive, secular State that, correctly, removes discriminatory practices from the Hindu religion but cowers behind a lam-post like a wet cat when it comes to removing discriminatory practices from other religions, is not a progressive, secular State – it is a scared State.’ There are plenty of cases leading to state sanctioned discriminatory religious practices. But he laments ‘what is to be done when the judiciary singles out the Hindus? What is the course then? And describing how the image of the Blind Lady with a Scale has been sullied he concludes – ‘There is none.’ 

He is afraid that selectivism against only Hindu festivals and religious practices will soon result in a scenario where the Hindus begin to dislike their own traditions. From there, the road to self-loathing is but a few yards away, and we know where that road leads to- forsaking Hinduism itself and accepting another religion. “The camel has sneaked into the tent. An open sky awaits.” 

Author and the Book

Anand Ranganathan is well-known figure on primetime television debates. So are his frank and forthright views which are supported by a cannonade of facts. He is very well read and a descent debater. Even though, he is a Professor of Molecular Medicine, his knowledge of Literature, Religion, Sociology and Political is astounding. In nutshell Ranganathan is a rare scientist-academician and a nationalist to the core.

The book under review is of only 135 pages. But contains a lot of explosive narratives in eight chapters. A foreword by Sai Deepak; opinions of Meenakshi Jain the Historian and Vishnu Jain, the Lawyer and a Hindu Right Activist; and three pages Afterword by Dr. Vikram Sampath, a Historian, and a Fellow of Royal Historical Society make this book a credible starting point to understand the predicament of Hindus in Hindu Rashtra today. 

A very thought-provoking book. A must read.