01-03-2021 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-03-2021 to 15-03-2021
17
My piece in Madras Courier- Golwalkar
being honoured by Culture Minstry
Golwalkar and the
Present Ruling
Dispensation
During the struggle for India’s independence
while the majority of Hindus,
Muslims and people of all religions followed
the path of Mahatma Gandhi,
secular democratic nationalism, there
were few whose origins were in the ideology
of the declining sections of
‘Landlord-clergy’ alliance.
They not only opposed the freedom
movement but also played a supporting
role to British policy of ‘Divide and
Rule’, which led to partition of the
country. They believed nationalism
based on religion’s identity. While one
such stream Muslim nationalism’s dominant
elements went to Pakistan, the
Hindu nationalist stream gradually
became more powerful in India and
today it rules the roost. Not only its
progeny BJP is the ruling dispensation,
other organizations floated by it are
effectively propagating its sectarian
nationalism.
As the matters stand the ruling party,
though it swears by the Constitution
which is secular, plural and wants a federal
structure, its politics is leading the
country in a direction as outlined by the
agenda of RSS. This dichotomy
between a secular plural constitution
and RSS agenda of Hindu nationalism
does come to one’s notice times and
over again. On 19th February this year
(2021) a tweet from Ministry of culture
paid respect to the major ideologue of
RSS, M.S. Golwalkar, “Remembering a
great thinker, scholar, and remarkable
leader #MSGolwalkar on his birth
anniversary. His thoughts will remain a
source of inspiration & continue to
guide generations. @prahladspatel
@secycultureGOI @PMOIndia
@PIBCulture @pspoffice,” The leaders
of ruling party did not oppose it as most
of them have been trained in the ideological
contributions of Golwalkar.
He was at the helm of affairs of RSS
from 1940 to 1973 and outlined its ideology
in two books, ‘We or Our
Nationhood defined’ (We) (1940) and
‘Bunch of thoughts’ (1966). His ideology
is totally opposite to the values of
freedom movement. Freedom movement
and the parallel process of India in
the making of India were based on
diversity of religions. Muslims were
equal contributors to the anti British
struggle. In contrast Golwalkar puts forward
the ideal of Nazi Germany and its
treatment of Jews as something to be
emulated. In ‘We’ he went on to write
“… Germany shocked the world by her
purging the country of the Semitic
races, the Jews. National pride at its
highest has been manifested here…a
good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn
and profit by." (We…, 1938, p.37) and
further "… non-Hindu people in
Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to
respect and revere Hindu religion, must
entertain no idea but the glorification of
Hindu nation i.e. they must not only
give up their attitude of intolerance and
ingratitude towards this land and its age
long traditions, but must also cultivate
the positive attitude of love and devotion
instead; in one word, they must
cease to be foreigners or may stay in the
country wholly subordinated to the
Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving
no privileges, for less any preferential
treatment, not even the citizen's
rights." (Ibid p.52).
Same thing was worded in cleverer
form in ‘Bunch…’ “It would be suicidal
to delude ourselves into believing that
Maruti Suzuki exports
20L vehicles since 1986-87
New Delhi : Automobile Maruti
Suzuki India on Saturday said it has
accomplished two million (20 lakh)
vehicle exports.
Accordingly, Maruti Suzuki commenced
export of vehicles in FY1986-
87. The company's first large consignment
of 500 cars was shipped to
Hungary in September 1987.
In FY2012-13, the Company
achieved the milestone of one-million
exports. "In the first million, more
than 50 per cent of exports were
undertaken to developed markets in
Europe," the company said in a statement.
According to the statement, Maruti
Suzuki achieved the subsequent million
in over eight years with special
focus on emerging markets in Latin
America, Africa and Asia regions.
"With concerted efforts, the
Company has been able to gain sizeable
share in markets like Chile,
Indonesia, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
Models such as Alto, Baleno, Dzire
and Swift have emerged as popular
choices in these markets."
Currently, we export 14 models,
nearly 150 variants, to over 100 countries.
In January this year,
the Company started production
and export of
Suzuki's celebrated compact
off-roader Jimny
from India.
"With India as a production
base for Jimny,
Suzuki aims to leverage
Maruti Suzuki's global
production stature."
Ram Puniyani
they have turned patriot overnight after
the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary,
Muslim menace has increased a
hundredfold by the creation of Pakistan,
which has become a springboard for all
their future aggressive designs on our
country." (Bunch of Thoughts,
Bangalore, 1996, p. 177-78)
While freedom movement was anti
British, RSS totally kept aloof from
freedom movement, its justification was
that “"The theories of territorial nationalism
and of common danger, which
formed the basis of our concept of
nation, had deprived us of the positive
and inspiring content of our real Hindu
Nationhood and made many of the 'freedom
movements' virtually anti-British
movements. Anti Britishism was equated
with patriotism and nationalism. This
reactionary view has had disastrous
effects upon the entire course of freedom
movement…" (Bunch of thoughts,
1996, p.138). In tune with this he dissuaded
those who wanted to join the
Quit India movement and instructed the
organization to continue its regular
work and not to do anything which will
put British into discomfort.
2 arrested for plotting to
assassinate activist Sushil Pandit
New Delhi : In a major development, the Delhi Police on
Saturday arrested two
persons for allegedly
conspiring to assassinate
Kashmiri activist
Sushil Pandit.
According to the
Delhi Police,
Sukhwinder (25) and
Lakhan (21) were
caught by the RK
Puram Police after they received intelligence inputs that the
two were planning the assassination.
The staff of RK Puram police station arrested
Sukhwinder, 25 and Lakhan, 21, both acquaintances from
Punjab who were sent to Delhi on the instructions of one
Prince alias Tuti.
"During interrogation, it came out that Prince is facing a
murder trial in Faridkot Punjab and is a childhood friend of
Lakhan. The duo was offered Rs 10 lakh to assassinate
human rights activist and CEO of Hive Communication
India Sushil Pandit. They were provided with 4 pistols and
4 cartridges and a mobile phone containing a photo of Sushil
Pandit," said DCP South West, Ingit Pratap Singh.
A case has been registered under sections of Arms Act,
120 B, 115 at RK Puram police station.
"Considering the seriousness of the case and the possibility
of foreign involvement, the case is now transferred to the
special Cell," the officer added.
Indian as a nation in the making was
a process in which abolition of birth
based hierarchy of caste and gender was
integral to the process. Golwalkar was
totally supporting the caste, Varna system
stating that it has worked so well
for our community. In Bunch of
thoughts he says, ““Castes there were in
those ancient times too, continuing for
thousands of years of our glorious
national life. There is nowhere any
instance of its having hampered the
progress or disrupted the unity of society.
It, in fact, served as a great bond of
social cohesion.” On similar lines he
praised Lord Manu as the greatest ever
Law giver of society, contrary to this it
was Ambedkar who burnt Manu Smriti
to posit his ideology of ‘Annihilation of
caste’.
Another social transformation which
came up during freedom movement was
the participation of women in the anticolonial
movement, in taking up modern
education as the baby steps towards
gender equality. Golwalkar, as the ideologue
trying to bring forth the social
relationships of bygone era, the subjugation
of women, upholds the same in
‘Bunch of thoughts’ in the context of
affirmative action for women. States he
“There is now a clamour for ‘equality
for women’ and their ‘emancipation
from man’s domination’! Reservation of
seats in various positions of power is
being claimed on the basis of their separate
sex, thus adding one more ‘ism’—
‘sexism!’ — to the array of casteism,
communalism, linguism, etc.”
His ideology led him to the opposition
to federal structure of the country,
which took in to consideration the deepening
of democratic process and also
respecting the local diversities. In contrast
to the federal structure outlined in
our Constitution he advocated single
state of a unitary type. What we are witnessing
currently, the concentration of
power in the hands of center and emergences
of a supreme leader indicates to
the actualization of what he advocated.
There is an attempt to disown his
book ‘We…” as its formulations are
very blunt and go against the electoral
interests of ruling party. One can just
say that one of the earlier
Sarsanghchalak of RSS, Rajendra
Singh, in an affidavit indicted that it is
this book which outlines the ideology of
RSS, “"With a view to give a scientific
base to propagate the idea-India being
historically from time immemorial a
Hindu nation-the late Shri M.S.
Golwalkar had written a book entitled
'We or Our Nationhood defined', which
was published in 1938." (Quoted in
Islam, Undoing India: The RSS way)
What a sorry plight for our secular
democracy that the prophet of sectarian
nationalism; one supporting caste system;
upholding secondary position of
women; regarding Muslims and
Christians as foreigners is being upheld
by the ruling dispensation. The best
reply to this tweet was again from a
tweet by the previous Secretary of same
ministry. Former culture Secretary
Jawhar Sircar responded: “As former
culture secretary, I hang my head in
shame to see RSS chief Golwalkar
being falsely praised by
@MinOfCultureGoI. Golwalkar & RSS
opposed Gandhi’s Freedom Struggle. In
his Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar
opposed India’s tricolour too. Sardar
Patel jailed him, banned the RSS.”
We need to strive to uphold the values
of Indian Constitution if we want
progress in the direction envisaged by
those who strove and contributed to the
process of “India as the Nation in the
making”.
'One District One Focus
Product' list finalized
New Delhi : The Ministry of Agriculture and
Farmers' Welfare along with the Ministry of Food
Processing Industries has finalized products from agricultural,
horticultural, animal, poultry, milk, fisheries,
aquaculture and marine sectors for the 'One District One
Focus Product' (ODOFP) covering 728 districts across
the country. After taking a thorough feedback from the
states, Union Territories and Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) the list of products was
finalized. Products would be promoted in convergence
with the central government's schemes and its aim
would be to increase the income of farmers.
The products would be supported under the Ministry
of Food Processing's PM-FME scheme which provides
incentives to promoters and micro-enterprises. The
Ministry of Agriculture would support ODOFP through
schemes like Mission for Integrated Development of
Horticulture (MIDH), National Food Security Mission
(NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).