Opinion - Editorials   

PLAY WITH SEMANTICS

AMONG INDIA'S POLITICAL parties, there is arguably none to match the quick reflexes of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Witness for instance the way the BJP, in 1998, shed its single status in favour of coalitional co-existence. But it can also be seen in its wizardry with semantics. From integral humanism to Gandhian Socialism to Hindutva to `Bijli-Paani-Sadak' to now Bharatiyata, the BJP — like its forerunner, the Jan Sangh — has been ever ready to reinvent itself so as better to meet the challenges of changing circumstances. This explains the probable reasons why Lal Krishna Advani postulated a subtle shift in emphasis from Hindutva to Bharatiyata in a recent interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Speaking to Karan Thapar, Mr. Advani said: "At our last meeting in Goa, the word Hindutva was not stressed, Indianness was stressed, nationalism was stressed. And it was emphasised that when we talk of Hindutva we do not mean anything other than Bharatiyata or Indianness." To be fair to the former Deputy Prime Minister, this is not the first time Hindutva has been posited in terms of Indianness rather than only as an ideology of and for Hindus. Ideologues of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have long held both to be the same. The devil, however, lies in the definition of the term "Hindu", which is seen to contain within it the seeds of every other religion. In his 1990 essay, "Why Hindu Rashtra?" RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan thus explained the Sangh's position: "Anyone who is the national of this country, irrespective of being a Shaiva, Shakta, Vaishnava, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, Buddhist or Jew by way of his creed or mode of worship, is a Hindu." Around the same time, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi expanded on the theme and described Muslims and Christians as Mohammadiya Hindus and Christi Hindus respectively.

However, it is not as if the BJP lexicon allowed one to be substituted by the other without reference to the context. Whenever the occasion demanded a sharp and clear identification with the BJP's Hindu cause, Hindutva was seen as the preferred term, as for instance during Mr. Advani's infamous Ram Rath Yatra and later when the Babri Masjid met its horrendous end in the destructive hands of the Sangh Parivar. More recently, Bharatiyata took a backseat to Hindutva when Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders grotesquely and repeatedly invoked the latter in the horrific aftermath of the Godhra incident. Mr. Advani himself was to exhort his party cadres not to be ashamed of their ideology.

This logic suggests a sound reason for the BJP's current flirtation with Bharatiyata as opposed to Hindutva. At the recently concluded conclave of party Chief Ministers, Mr. Advani conspicuously avoided mentioning Hindutva, advising the gathering instead to take pride in "cultural nationalism." Add to this the fact that in the course of the BBC interview, Mr. Advani offered apologies for his party's disruptive and undemocratic behaviour in Parliament, and one begins to get a sense of the BJP's future strategy: an agitational plank that will not offend the middle classes but will in fact resonate with their sensibilities. If so, what better issues to serve the purpose than the national flag and a resounding call to nationalism? Given the public disenchantment with recent BJP behaviour, there was no guarantee that a return to hard Hindutva would not backfire. The party evidently understood this and hence the deft change in tactic as evident in the aggressive manner of Uma Bharti's appropriation of the tricolour. It is a different matter though that in doing so, the party is assuming that the people will not see its quick-change artistry for what it is.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

• PLAY WITH SEMANTICS
• ART OF THE DEAL
• Remembering Anna
• North Korea: in from the cold
• India, U.S. close to deal on high-technology transfers
• Lurking fear about larger neighbour
• Manmohan's caution
• Congress-TRS row
• `Tainted' Ministers
• Census follies
• He is right
• Suitable candidate
• Uncharitable
• Unwarranted
• A great soul

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu