The Idea of a Hindu State (Rashtra): Cultural Aspects in the Revivalist Movement in

Contemporary India
Author(s): Santosh C. Saha
Source: Indian Journal of Asian Affairs , JUNE & DECEMBER 2001, Vol. 14, No. 1/2
(JUNE & DECEMBER 2001), pp. 45-61
Published by: Manju Jain
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The Idea of a Hindu State (Rashtra): Cultural
Aspects in the Revivalist Movement in
Contemporary India
Santosh C. Saha

There is a debate as to whether Hindu revivalist movements

in recent decades were essentially cultural, political, class,
or social movements. What appears to be clear is that
cultural identity was of paramount concern in the nation
building process as designed by revivalist parties such as
Hindu Mahasabha, the Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), and the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and others. The interest in
such phenomena as the swadeshi national economic self
sufficiency, the sanskritization process by the use of
Sanskrit, Sanskritized Hindi, and Brahmanic practices in
cultural life, was derived from the concern about restoring
and reasserting a Hindu identity in direct contradistinction
to any other identity in the face of real or perceived threats to
the integrity of the Hindu community.
Many revivalist parties and some religious groups employed
the term "Bharat Varsha" (Hindu name for India) as a way of
evoking not only the Vedic and Aryan background of the
nation but also with the idea that the nation was based on
religion- dominated cultural values. Of course, the revivalist
idea of the cultural Hindu state appeared to be conflicting
and vague. The founder of the concept of Hindu state
Vinayak Damodhar Savarkar (1883-1966) saw the Hindu
groups, including lower castes, as an imagined community
having a common language, a common history, and the
subjection to common sovereign Hindu laws on a defined but
expansive territory. However, he covered as many aspects,
shifting from territorial to religious to cultural aspects, as he
wished to cover an idea of a Hindu state, and thereby
creating uncertainty in the state building image. Madhav
Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second chief of the RSS, shifted the
concept from nation to Hindu community based on ancient

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46 The Idea of a Hindu State

social ethics. His model gave "precedence to duty towards

the community over individualism and materialism." .
Historical interpretations of the projected state remained
also varied. Paul Brass characterised the Hindu state ,as
conceived by the BJP as secular state, "to transform India
into a modern, industrial, military power with a united
nation and a disciplined work force.... Its second rank of
leaders comes from the most modern sectors of society and
the economy." By contrast, other observers commented that
Indian liberal democracy with its secularism and free market
principles faced a menace from the forces of militant
revivalism. Radhey Mohan, an Indian academic, submits
"secularism never faced a greater danger than at present".
Rabindra Ray of the Delhi School of Economics argues that
the disavowal of communitarian sentiments "becomes the
necessary personal form of even the most partisan of
political goals." Perhaps Benedict Anderson is on the right
track when he suggests that recent nationalisms had several
tools with which to forge the imagined community. The
revivalists took to these various methods but essentially
depended on cultural dimension in nation building.
Some Hindu historical examinations helped the thinking of
cultural community building. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar,
a noted historian of India, argues that the scale of values in
India was not the rise and fall of empires or the development
of ideas and institutions, but rather "the development of
social and moral values." He replicated, to the satisfaction of
Hindu tva forces, a cardinal feature of the orientalists'
epistemology, namely the distinction between a materialist
West and the spiritualist East. Ashutosh Varshney (1993)
argues that there had been a religious nationalist ideology
under which Hindus perceived India to be a Hindu nation-
state. Although these ideas reinforced the Hindutva forces,
BJP and other moderate parties faced a dilemma. ( Note:
Here we have delted note no. 7 and adjust it to endnotes).
The present study analyses underlying reasons for accepting
certain cultural tools as the foundational pillars in the Hindu
state. In this study, I would examine selected aspects such
as (i) the cultural concept of the Hindu community-nation;
(ii) the role of "pure" Hindi as a unifying factor; and (iii) the

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 47 Santosh C. Saha

role of holy science i

Cultural Concept of
Revivalists developed an idea that modern nationalism
originated in the West where the state was always a legal and
political entity. In India, they argued, nation had been a
cultural fact and used to be bound together by communities'
enduring religious and cultural values that stood the test of
time. There were several dimensions in this thinking
process.

First, the search for a new national identity became a process

of social communication with particular emphasis on group
organisation. Most revivalists believed that modernisation did
not promote group organisation through intensified social
communication among the Hindus. Seeking inspiration
largely from ancient roots, and sticking to the rich epic
heritage, they called for a Hindu state to replace secular liberal
modern state. By organising cultural celebrations, such as the
ratha jatras (chariot processions), dharnas (worship
prostrations), andolans (movements), and the padayatras
(walking processions) in which less known groups such as the
Bajrag Dal (BD) and the Virat Hindu Sammelan also
participated to attract sympathy and support from the
unlikeliest of people lower and middle classes, farmers, and
business communities the contemporary revivalist parties
and groups projected cultural aspects. The RSS general
secretary, Rajendra Singh, spelt out the goal of the Hindu
state. He declared that a 'Hindu nation' that "accepts all
diverse religions as sects, but which does not give any special
treatment to any sect, is our goal. We want a consolidated
Hindu society, based on national heroes, and it should be
homogenous." K. C. Kulish, the founder of the Rajasthan
Patrika, a pro-Hindutva newspaper, succinctly wrote, "There
has been a spurt of religious activity in all areas... It is the
response of a people who are not at peace." Desiring to form a
Hindu state, the VHP secretary Ashok Singad pronounced in
1987 that "Hindu consciousness" would keep the "Hindu
interest in the forefront." This sort of keying to tradition was
especially important in India, a "context sensitive society," in
which people perceived much of their behavior against the
background of social, religious, and historical-legendary

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48 The Idea of a Hindu State

context. Whereas intensely rel

aspects of Hinduism to envision
and yet stressed pluralistic aspects of religion, the
contemporary revivalists sought a state mostly based on Hindu
cultural values. "Gandhism both legitimised this thrust (Hindu
religious thrust) and ensured that it would not take the extreme
form of a political demand foraHindu state."
Second, culturally, steps were undertaken to bring various
Hindu communities under one faith." The VHP resorted to
strategic syncretism for Hindu unity. The group had strong ties
with the RSS funded schools, hospitals, charities, social uplift
projects, and disaster relief. More importantly, it promoted a
social homecoming by asking some groups who had adopted
certain Muslim practices such as the burial of the dead. They
were urged to give up "wrong traditions" and take up "pure
Hindu practices." This was required for social integration, it was
maintained. But in supporting Hindu social unity through
charity and homecoming, other parties such as the BJP actually
gave powerful positions to upper and middle caste members. In
199 1 , 63 percent of the BJP dominated Gujrati state and district
level leaders were from upper and middle castes such as the
Brahmins, Vania, Patidar, and Rajputs. At the staté level,
scheduled tribes and scheduled castes had only 6 percent
representation.
Third, most revivalists invoked the Aiyan spirit as a source for
social integration. Balraj Madhok claimed that the spirit of
Aiyan race that had assimilated Dravidian elements
constituting the essence of nationhood .assured the unity of the
nation. In the image of Aryan conquest of the north of India, the
notion of masculinity was added as a strengthening pillar. A mass
mobilisation called the Hindu Sanghathan or Hindu social
organisation and unity was planned. The image of tolerant,
peace practicing, and ascetic Hindu ideals was dropped in
favour of self-relying and militant warrior norms of the
Kshatriya class. This cultural assimilation and subordination
paradigm was echoed by the VHP when it declared that
Hinduism was a sub-national, national or cross national
identifier of population contesting non-religious interests. In
this respect, Hinduism was equated with moral purity.
Fourth, cultural nationalists demolished the claims of

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 49 Santosh C. Saha

national parity made

edge of demands made by backward classes. Bhai
Parmananda (1876-1947), a prominent Hindu Mahasabha
leader, saw the Muslim community as enemies within. His
"Hindu Sanghatan" or Hindu social order abandoned the
search for Hindu-Muslim unity because the Montagu-
Chelsford Reforms of 1919 extended franchise to affluent
sections of the rural areas threatening the hegemony of
dominant urban Hindus. His order would remove caste
differences and prejudices in order to attain Hindu unity.
After the 1940s, the Muslim element was seen as blocking
the full realization of modernity due to cultural
backwardness and excessive population growth. Moreover,
Muslim bloc votes prevented the full realization of
democracy because it stunted the development of tolerant
secularism due to Muslim intransigence. Thus an argument
was built to conclude that Muslims dislocated the
democratic process by their backward cultural norms.
Bajrang Dal became concerned with the "abduction of Hi
mothers and sisters," and the large-scale conversion to
Islam. Others such as K.R. Malkani, a BJP executive
member, argued that since Bangladesh and Pakistan were
Islamic nations, "Hinduisation" of India was inevitable. In
this cultural state, however, the "national religion," as
imagined by the VHP, would include Buddhism, Jainism,
Sikhism, although followers of these religions did not
consider Hinduism as their own. To the dismay of the VHP,
even sects such as the "Veerashaivas" in Karnataka showed
a constant and perhaps increasing tendency to define
themselves as non-Hjndus. Although the source of cultural
unity was supposed to reside in Hinduism, in reality many
opposed this brand of cultural uniformity.
Fifth, in the revivalist organicist view, the nation was
ordered as an organic whole. The vision was consistent with
traditional views of caste hierarchy, where different castes
served complementary functions. The RSS's ideal of caste
was revised to emphasize all functions as equal in the sense
of being necessary for social organicism. The party, in tune
to modernity, preached against caste pride but did not
actively try to abolish caste institutions. Golwalkar, the
second head of the RSS, defended the caste division by

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50 The Idea of a Hindu State

writing that "work is assigned" by religious practices.

Govindacharya, the RSS ideologue, claimed that "voluntary
surrender of rights and acceptance of duties will promote
cooperation and take away the sting of disparity" .
Sixth, revivalists used Rama as a unifier, partly for political
reasons. Rama became the founder of a new political leader,
the world conqueror, who, after his diplomatic and martial
successes in the south, came to Ayodyaya to create a Hindu
state based on Hindu religion. The 1993 controversial
exhibition , Hum Sab Ayodhya (We are all Ayodhya) at
Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh was consciously designed to
project a holistic vision of Ayodhya city (birth place of Rama)
through the ages. The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust
(SAHMAT), a secular group linked with communists, who
preferred to demonstrate secularism in art, organized the
exhibition. Since diverse visions and perceptions of Indian
history were projected, the BJP instigated a campaign
against an authentic picture of Rama and his wife Sita as
siblings. Members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal disrupted the
exhibition on August 12, 1993. Against the intention of the
SAHMAT, Hindutva editorials became critical of the
exhibition. An excerpt from an editorial in The Tribune was
revealing in this connection. The editorial wrote: "Culture is a
common heritage. Cultural and artistic movements are
national regional. That is why "Hum Sab Ayodhya" is an
eloquent expression. Ram is in all; all are in Rama. Ayodhya
is in all of us and we are in Ayodhya." In this' statement a
disturbing equation was declared: culture, nation, and
Rama all were one. In a communalised context, the Bajrang
Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) sacrificed secularism.
The exhibition became a platform for Hindu politics.
Election victories in U.P. were direct gains for the revivalists.
Several pro-Hinduness newspaper editorials veered toward a
BJP endorsement of "Sri Rama." The historian Geeta Kapur
argues that the exhibition was so "transparently secular"
that the revivalist' attacks proved to be simply political, and
that the Rama devotion was used for election purposes in
Uttar Pradesh. Here Rama was a cultural ("national") and
not simply religious hero. "They alone are Indians who
recognize the greatness of Rama". The message of
nationalism and of religion assumed a particular importance

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 5 1 Santosh C. Saha

during the propaganda generated in Ayodhya in the late

1980's. It seems improbable that a heroic tale of love (king
and queen), loss (loss of Sita), and recovery (recovery of Sita
after the defeat of the demon King Ravana) from the classical
past should be invoked to empower and give substance to the
politics of the present. It proved to be Utopian impulses of
social harmony "resonating in the symbol" of Rama, and as
such led to homicidal ends in the 1990's (Ayodhya's religio-
political crisis).
It appears that the Ayodhya temple movement was an
expression of religious nationalism, not intense
fundamentalism. Unlike Islamic fundamentalists for whom
sovereignty in an Islamic state would reside in Allah, the
Ayodhya movement was neither a call for Rama's kingdom,
nor a plea for the return to traditional Hindu law. It was to
create a political unity among the Hindu voters, otherwise
divided by various castes, languages and doctrinal
diversities. Perhaps, L. K. Advani, the BJP leader, was candid
in declaring that he was not very religious. The movement
used religious/ cultural symbols to reclaim temples at
Benaras and Mathura, but the real issues were political to
polarize the electorate, and gain political power. Revivalists
derided democracy as a vote bank exercise precisely because
it divided Hindus according to their real interests, showing
fractures and fissures in its idealized Hindu community.
Last, Golwalkarism was based on the argument that a
community/ nation state could be built on the basis of Aryan
principle of caste system. In this concept, territorial
nationalism looked upon all people, Parsis and Muslims,
who came from outside, as people outside the pale of
nationhood. Even if we accept Golwalkar's idea that the basic
difference between the state and society, and between the
Hindu state and Hindu nation, would eventually wither
away, the question remains: Would Hindu spirituality
collapse in the plurastic nation state. The fusion of social
conservatism with religious exclusiveness created a genuine
fear among many in India. Cultural unity was at stake.
Assessment.

First, the mobilization of collective identities did not depe

on Hindutva forces alone. David Ludden (1999) argues that

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52 The Idea of a Hindu State

from the perspective of agrar

merely one type of identity.
tribal peoples, mountain dwellers, and lower castes
traditionally forged various cultural relations with
nationality in the vogue of ethnicity, caste, gender, sect, and
religious communities. These movements confronted landed
power in villages by various means such as elections.
Outside electoral politics, the new social movements such as
the Neo-Buddhist movement begun by B.R. Ambedkar laid
foundations of new identities among so-called lower castes.
Likewise, a "new peasant movement" in Maharashtra, the
Shetkari Sanghatana, took ancient Bali Raja, not Ram Raja,
as a central cultural symbol for community unity. This new
Hindu movement interpreted King Shivaji (Hindu tva forces'
king) as a peasant king and not a leader of Hindus against
Muslims. Here Shivaji was a social leader. On one occasion,
the Shetkari Sanghatana, was attended by 2,000,000
peasants and the assembly took vows to gain political power,
and thus targeted the fight against communalism as a
central task. The concept of unity, therefore, appeared to be
complex and varied.
Second, sociological accounts of inter-caste relations and
historical narratives of caste as synonymous with
communities have so far missed the lower castes' pride and
prejudices vis-à-vis higher castes. Only recently this aspect
had been noted by sociologists in some details. The
revivalists also conveniently or ignorantly forgot
evolutionary character of society. As the needs and strategic
positions of lineages changed, so did the concept of rights.
Representatives of lineages reassessed and renegotiated for
more social and legal rights. Several low caste communities
did not adhere to the idea of Hindu group solidarity, and thus
launched religious and social movements for upward
mobility causing a socio-political stir. The Swami Narayan
movement in Gujrat, the Narayan Guru movement in Kerala,
and the silent and powerful Vaishnavite movements in
Orissa and Bengal changed the community structure of
village and regional hierarchies for long. Moreover, in cities,
castes functioned more as separate collectivities providing a
degree of cultural identity. Interacting in horizontal spaces,
the castes formed themselves into new social strata thereby

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 53 Santosh C. Saha

breaking the rule of

Third, the content
state was vague. Spiritualism remained purely ideological
representation. By spiritual values, the BJP meant a
common set of moral values distilled from Aryan civilization.
In this mould, the Indian nation was neither linguistic, nor
political, nor biological, but spiritual unities. It resembled
German nationalism that was detrimental to peaceful
coexistence of communities. In short, Hindu cultural
nationalism proved to be against cohesion that was
supposed to be the goal of the Hindu tva movement.
Last, by concentrating on mostly cultural dimensions, the
revivalists failed to analyze social issues. Thus, Balraj
Madhok, a Jana Sangh party ideologue, complained in 1987
that Left parties and trade unions won popular support by
campaigning on immediate problems such as drought,
floods, and high prices. He admitted that Hindu nationalism
failed to consider economic factors in life.

Sanskrit and "Pure Hindi" as an Unifying Factor

The use of language by elites as an instrument of social and
cultural exclusion and thus as the means of their
predominance in society, was not a new phenomenon in
Indian history. In classical times both the royals and
Brahmins used Sanskrit, the language of deities and
celestial beings, to maintain social control. Contemporary
revivalists defended the common use of Sanskrit on a
doubtful claim that it was the mother of all Indian
languages. The Hindu Mahasabha historian, Indra
Prakasha wrote: "As long as there is a single line of Sanskrit
existing in the world, so long will be said that it was and it is
the language of the Hindus. All other spoken languages of
India meet in their common ancestor, the Sanskrit." Others
offered a vigorous defence of Sanskrit in the wake of regional
conflicts in the 1950s when the language -based state was
being reviewed by the central government. The Jana Sangh
party was concerned with the rise of sub- nationalism over
the issue of "state reorganization" based on vernacular
languages. The party's solution was "the adoption of Dev-

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 54 The Idea of a Hindu State

Nagri (Sanskrit) script and a

derived from Sanskrit by all Indian languages to create an
atmosphere of harmony, cultural unity, and national
solidarity in the country." This claim was based on the fact
that Sanskrit had been the unbroken autonomous source of
ancient knowledge about the rituals, prayer, and ethics.
"Sacrilised Sanskrit" was certainly hierarchically the most
elevated. Arguing for linguistic national unity and defending
the use of Sanskrit or Sankritized Hindi, Golwalkar argued
that the adoption of a uniform script for all languages would
"bring various languages closer so that a linguistic national
unity" could be achieved. In this sense the Sanskrit script
became a vehicle for cultural transmission as well as
cultural unity. Benedict Anderson's analysis partly ap
to the Indian situation. He emphasized the role played by
print and language in developing the "imagined
community," and argued that in the last wave of
nationalism, the print language became an effective tool in
nation making. But Anderson's thesis faces some difficulty
because the effort to develop an identity takes place within a
broad federal polity in which competition for resources,
patronage, and control over government occurs on a more
complicated playing field than described by Anderson. Such
a situation actually may facilitate the process in building a
stable nation.

It is admitted that Sanskrit remains a great language for

prayer and rituals; it has a superb literature. But it goes
against the current of national unity if the language is forced
upon for daily communication. As critics argued, in the past
the use of Sanskrit for rituals forced the "diverse castes and
tribes into orthodox fold," and the lower castes were induced
to have the way of upper castes. Indeed, the "Backward
Classes Movement" downgraded the importance of
sanskritization for upward mobility of the lower caste.
Sanskrit was not much used for non-religious purposes,
and as such the contemporary revivalists advanced the
cause of so-called "pure Hindi" for political and religious
purposes. Hindi is now a supra-language, overriding several
languages such as Avadi, Bhojpuri, Braj, Marwari,
Haryanvi, Maithili, and Urdu across many Indian states.

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 55 Santosh C. Saha

Hindi today seems t

Consequently, Hindi came to be looked upon as the
language for political issues, with potential for mass
mobilization, in the north. Several revivalist perceptions
may be examined at this stage.
First, revivalists urged for more daily use of Sanskrit. The
Jana Sangh party promised a five-year plan for the
development of Hindi under which technical and scientific
terms based on Sanskrit and other Indian languages would
be prepared by a committee of linguists. The party
recommended that schools should have a compulsory
course of Sanskrit studies so that eventually Sanskrit would
be the national language for many purposes.
Second, in the wake of the emergence of the politically
charged Muslim cultural nationalism in the north and in
Hyderabad, languages such as Persian and Urdu made
claims to acceptance. In reaction, the Hindutva forces called
for more use of Hindi as the national language. At times the
language debate turned to be anti-Muslim in focus.
Puroshottamdas Tandon was a noted leader in the Congress
party and a challenger to Nehru's leadership. He was a close
associate of Shy ma Prasad Mookherje of the Hindu
Mahasabha. Tandon asked the Indian parliament to
vigorously support Hindi. He claimed that he was a "lover" of
Urdu and Persian, but "to be fond of Persian is one thing,
and what language the countiy should have is another. In
our country there can be only one culture, the Indian
culture, Bharatiya sanskriti." Golwalkar also argued that a
knowledge of Hindi "by all Indians will help to foster a sense
of integration and feeling of brotherliness."
Assessment

First, there was no "pure Hindi" as claimed by the revival

Even most popular Hindi films were largely in Hindus
a mixed Bazaar language, not pure Hindi as the revival
claimed. Thousands of Persian and Arabic words had
passed into the vocabulary of Indian languages including
Hindi. Moreover, Hindi was never a clear identification of
indigenous national culture.
Second, the cultural unifiers were oblivious of the fact that

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56 The Idea of a Hindu State

the non- Aryan languages such as Tamil and many other

Austrie speeches of tribal people were and are used in Bihar
and other eastern states.

Third, Hindi was opposed by some on material reasons. The

Shiv Sena group in Madhya Pradesh denounced the primacy
of Hindi in education because, the party argued, Hindi was
unable to open the door to employment. They claimed that
Hindi was not sufficient for the entrepreneurships that
required English for business, commerce, and inter-state
activity.
Last, the real challenge in India was, as appropriately stated
by the Bengali sub-altern historian, Partha Chatteijee, how
to launch a powerful, creative, and historically significant
project to fashion a modern national socio-political culture
that was nevertheless non-Western.

Holy Science
There had been a debate about the role of cultural
conservatives in material progress. To Prime Minister
Nehru, science was a raison d'etat, and his "atom for peace"
programme in 1950s was believed to be a final solution to all
energy problems. The secular elite also argued that scientific
progress was not only desirable but also inevitable and
irreversible in India. By some estimates, conservatives were
romantics with an incurable nostalgia for the past and as
such wanted to repeal the science-led modern age. On the
other hand, many revivalists contended that educated
Indians had been carried away by scientists' ability to
manipulate the human and natural world, and obsessed
with efficient technologies that led to capitalist-intensive
production, increasing centralized economic centralized
regimes and dehumanising individuals. In following the
path of ancient holy science, many revivalists, in effect ,
accepted Mahatma Gandhi's analysis. In his seminal work,
Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule (1909), a quasi-Socratic
tract and a quasi-Upanishadic exploration of the
epistemological evils of the modern scientific age, Gandhi
called on the nationalists to work for reconstruction of
society on the basis of ancient science. He predicted :"This
civilization (scientific culture) is such that one only has to be

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 57 Santosh C. Saha

patient, and it will be self-destroyed." M. S. Golwalkar,

Deendayal Upadhyaya, Balraj Madhok, and P. N. Oke,
leaders in the revivalist movements, argued that science-led
development would bring "man-made catastrophe."
It is argued here that science and more specifically science-
led industrialisation could legitimately be criticised for its
unevenness and incompleteness but the revivalists as
populists went beyond that by questioning the superiority of
technology over more traditional, handicraft -based rural
technologies. This anti-science assumption was based on
several misplaced ideas.
First, revivalists claimed that the Indian knowledge system
was adequate in explaining the nature of things in the
physical world. The "Samkhya System" of knowledge
explained, as revivalists argued, the evolution of things in
terms of differentiation and integration within formless
"prakriti" (nature). The West's abstract scientific method
has ignored the invisible unity of nature. Life in the ancient
Indian culture, it was submitted, was an integrated whole.
The West saw life in section and then attempted to put them
together by patchwork. "We do not admit that there is
diversity and plurality in life, but we have always attempted
to discover the unity behind them." In his "integral
humanism," Deendayal Upadhyaya explained that there
was a dynamic relationship between a part and the whole;
each part in some ways contained the whole. Rational
science was believed to be destructive of the harmonious
relationship between man and the ecosystem. To Swami
Yukteswar Giri, the western scientific observation itself
was deficient. He claimed that modern science did not
understand the qualities of electricity and magnetism. He
based his knowledge on some ¿elected Hindu literature to
claim that ancien! Hindu scientists had correctly noted a
theory of five electr cities that were based on five human
senses. Modern science, he added, incorrectly discovered
only one form of electricity, whereas ancient holy science
had known five clear forms.

The revivalist contended that the basic flaw in the western

science was that it interpreted things in terms of constant
friction and struggle resulting in evolutionary progress.

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 58 The Idea of a Hindu State

Hegel's idea of thesis, anti-th

dialectics demonstrating con
and Darwin's evolutionary conflicts in nature were
erroneous. In Indian science and philosophy there was the
"basic unity of all life." In other words, progress was not
dependent on conflicts. To extend it further, it was argued
that since there was no conflict the social order could be
maintained, as it was done without a king, or a state durin
the "Kritayuga," by practicing "dharma" (virtue). In this
frame of things, scientific rationality had no role. Nitya
Narayan Banerjee, a prominent Hindu Mahasabha Party
leader in Bengal, observed "inadequacies" in modern science
and suggested that mind had its own laws and itcould relate
to matter without recourse to the western mechanical
repetition. In his perception, mind itself could relate to
matter and science was not very relevant to the material
world.

Second, some revivalists argued that the western scientific

knowledge could best be explained in Sanskrit words. Indra
Prakasha, official historian of the Hindu Mahasabha,
claimed that the Sanskrit (Dev Nagri) was the most scientific
script and it "will take place 25 percent less space in the
computer." Echoing the same idea Subramanian Swamy, a
revivalist ideologue, declared, "Sanskrit is the best language
to store knowledge in a computer."
Third, many revivalists made bold claims to glorify ancient
Hindu medicine. Farah Baria, an overseas Indian defender of
revivalism, argued that the Vedas had already explained that
all human beings had three bodies- physical, astral, and
emotional. Whereas the physical body was merely a
projection of the mind, the astral (also the emotional) body
was merely a projection of the spirit. Any disturbance in
energies at spiritual or emotional levels could lead to a
physical imbalance known as the "disease." In this
interpretation, diseases had two causes: spiritual (karmic)
and physical (biological). Here "karmic" (action oriented
deed) diseases arose out of one's wrong action that was not in
tune with virtuous universal laws. Baria concluded that the
"gentle science of Ayurveda," India's 5000-year-old healing
science, kept well the body- mind mechanism. The western

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 59 Santosh C. Saha

medicine dealt with

really addressing the cause. In preference to the use of
modern scientific medicine, the RSS administered children
school system (shishu mandirs) in Delhi, teachers gave
lessons about modern medicinal plants and substances that
were successfully used in alchemical preparations. Teachers
in the Delhi Hindu schools invariably used modern
textbooks, made by the western science. Thus there was a
contradiction in the revivalist teaching.
Fourth, revivalists, therefore, attempted to return to the
mystic, life-denying, or ascetic life of pre-modern India and
science was marginalized. To them, the battle between
ancient mode of production and modern science was a battle
between the holy and spiritual East and corrupting
predatory West. As an Indian social scientist in Britain
argues, the revivalists saw materialism based as evil and
particularitsts, whereas nature was virtually universally
constructed as good, benevolent, amiable and infinite. They
used modern cosmology anything from early relativity and
quantum physics to current theories of super symmetry and
super strings to prove the essential truths of the Vedas,
Upanishads or the Gita while at the same time condemning
materialism and modern science.

Many revivalists criticised development programmes

undertaken by the government. Deendayal Upadhyaya
argued that the western type irrigation dams "had created
water-logged soil and unemployment" through displacement
of vast numbers of peasants in rural north India. In a
different context he argued that the indigenous technology
based small-scale industry could revitalize the Hindu
economic order. He complained that small-scale industries
in rural areas "are dying under the weight of this monopoly
structure" of western industries. Vaguely believing that
western processes and technologies would greatly damage
"our national spirit of science and research," Upadhyaya
argued that western-style "comprehensive industrialisation"
with its "internal economies" would never promote locally
available resources. Some revivalist parties argued that the
western style heavy industries in which machines were
factors of production did not suit the Indian environment.

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6 O The Idea of a Hindu State

The BJP argued that indigenous industries could generate

more employment through small-scale industries. Its leader
L. K. Advani added that the western technology-based
science "is generally associated with capital intensive
production and therefore does not provide sufficient
employment. Implicit in this idea was the assumption that
small factories were more appropriate and certainly in line
with ideals of ancient Hindu society, for in them labor-
intensive work was generally peaceful and happy.
Interestingly, in presenting itself as the champion of small
and decentralized industries, both the Jana Sangh and later
on the BJP adopted the language of state planning, as
originally employed by the Congress Party.
Some organized cultural /political parties argued that cities
also were adversely affected by the western type industrial
developments. The Shiv Sena Party, which dislodged the
Congress party in the Maharashtra State in the mid-1990s,
spoke ills of the Congress party's industrialization in
Bombay as "brutal" because industrial-building complexes
in the city had created huge slums. The party complained
that ecological regeneration had set in metropolitan cities.
Of course, there was no uniform revivalist approach to
science because some revivalist leaders sought science for
higher and faster growth. V.S. Savarkar, for instance,
discarded scripture born thinking and denounced ideologies
that described the scientific machine as evil. He declared:
"What actually matters is scientific accuracy and not
astrological superstition." On several occasions, he urged
the Hindus to test the knowledge in the Vedas and Smritis
(ancient religious texts) on the touchstone of science and to
follow fearlessly what contributed to the material needs of
the people. He never agreed with Gandhi that science was
"un-Indian." Savarkar believed that the Indian defeat at the
hands of England was due to the technological superiority of
the West.

There were some flaws in the revivalist thinking process in

respect of science. They seemed unable to submit religion to
the same questioning that they applied to science-led
development. Science and religion operate in different but
equally vital spheres, and there seemed to be no need of

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 6 1 Santosh C. Saha

prioritising one over

the two exists only in the revivalist minds and social
practices.
Conclusion

Several observations may be made while critiquing the

projection of the Hindu cultural state. First, the remaking of
a state is not easy because ,even in economic terms, social
movements are directed against the state rather than against
the society. Revivalists directed their ideals more toward the
state and less against the society. The anti-state thrust
ended in political debate instead of cultural reawakening.
Their anti-establishment thrust was to redefine political
action in order to find ways to reconstruct contemporary
politics.
Second, a common thread in the declared pronouncements
was the slogan of Hindutva, a vaguely described religion
based national ethos that the revivalists would energise and
reconstruct India. It remained debatable whether the
presumed decline in moral and social values was due to
presence of threatening others.
Third, the Brahmanical concept of Hindu cultural norms
with Sanskrit and Sankritized Hindi as main languages, or
with the rejection of science and technology , introduced new
barriers to cohesion and social mobility. Amartya Sen
correctly argues that Hindu cultures contained considerably
internal variations, and different attitudes might be
entertained within the same vaguely defined culture. Indian
(Hindu) traditions were often taken to be intimately
associated with religion, and indeed in many ways they are,
and yet Sanskrit and Pali have larger literatures on
systematic atheism and agnostcism than perhaps in any
other classical language.

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