‘On Nationalism’ is written by India’s leading public intellectuals as a response to the invented nationalism of the Hindutva. The book postulates that Hindutva have achieved this by using concocted or exaggerated versions of history. They also shed light on how Hinduism as a monolithic religion didn’t exist in history, as the Hindutva claim, but differed in beliefs and practice geographically.
The first essay is from Romila Thapar, Professor Emerita at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Thapar’s essay was the most articulate, discussing how Indian history should not be looked in strict terms of Hindu and Muslim, as Hinduism was historically present in several shades. She argues that the current version of Hinduism, militarized by the Hindutva, is inherently Brahmanic.
However she fails to understand that the reason she is called a Macaulayputra is because she does not believe the will of the people should be taken into account while formulating laws (akin to Macaulay). She simply dismisses nuanced opinion through different communities in India as ‘right-wing majoritarian rhetoric’. She also fails to understand that her critique of Macaulay does not absolve her from pursuing the very same target he had envisioned.
A. G. Noorani wrote like a lawyer, carefully demonstrating how the British and now the Hindutva are misusing the law of sedition. It is an excellent read on the evolution of the law and how it was used to silence political dissent by giving an exalted status to the government. He also argues that any functioning government should give an open unbiased year to criticism and not dismiss it as a conspiracy against the state.
Menon came off a bit unbalanced. In contrast with Thapar’s earnest writing and Noorani’s cool temperate, he was barely able to hide his deep hatred for his political enemies, writing in an emotional, highly unorganized manner. He made an important point that would run afoul of liberal nationalists like Shashi Tharoor: Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the Indian who rose up to abolish cruel Hindu practices like Sati, was actually inspired by British critique. Tharoor argues in ‘Inglorious Empire’ that Ram Mohan Roy was ‘uninspired by the British’ in working against Sati, and the British simply ‘stood and watched’.
This shows that a unified response to the Hindutva’s murder of history is still lacking. Raja Ram Mohan Roy is not a disputed character in history, yet he caused two writers on the same political spectrum to differ about him.
Ultimately, the Hindutva will be its own undoing. However, the Indian Left is still confused on how to tackle modern problems without bringing in the “Spirit of Indian Independence of 1947”. One simply cannot expect the population to reinvigorate the spirit of Independence 70 years on when it was always highly divided then and remains so even now. To portray the struggle of Congress against the British as a monolithic unified opposition is simply not true. The singing of Vande Matram by the Hindu protesters in reaction to Partition of Bengal in 1905, the actions of Tilak in Surat in 1908, the discreet ‘othering’ of Muslims by Gandhi in the 1910s and 20s, the words of Jayakar in 1928, the Brahman-Dalit divide (which has only intensified with time) and many other incidents, all gave credibility to the belief among some of the Indian Muslims of the time that they could not work with (to quote Jinnah) Hindu-dominated Congress. One might disagree with them, as many do till today, but one can not deny that the opposition was anything but united.
Today, India is seeing the full ugly face of the Hindutwadis that Muslim League had warned against repeatedly leading up to the Partition of India. That India’s liberals and left still haven’t learned the lesson and continue to fight concocted history with their own ambiguous version of the Partition (presumably to avoid conceding to Pakistani nationalist historians), only goes to show that they are still just as incapable of solving the plight of minorities as they were before the Partition.
Gandhi’s murder at the hands of Godse should have shook them awake. But it has not.
Purchase the book: https://www.amazon.com/Nationalism-Romila-Thapar/dp/9383064110
About the Author:
Meraj Hasan is a researcher of history with a focus on Partition of India. He tweets at @_merajhasan
Pakistani Bibliophiles 