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Praveen Tagodia, the International Vice-President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), the organization in the vanguard of the Hindutva political movement, recently commented that India should support the US which is leading a war against a Muslim nation. The VHP remains the most vocal and extreme of the organizations on the Hindu right. Its 40 point Hindu agenda reads like an antediluvian manifesto of bigotry. The organization's basic premise is a historiography that talks in terms of a "Hindu race" and the mythical conception of an ancient "undivided" geographical entity called India- a myth that has been often challenged and blown apart by more reputed historians like Romila Thapar. That India as a nation is a British legacy and that throughout history, the Indian peninsula has been a motley assembly of princely states often at war with one another is a fact the VHP ideologues refuse to consider or even admit.
The ruling BJP, which shares the political ideology of the VHP without sharing its extreme methodology, has refused to condemn the war while deploring that the US chose to act against the will of the Security Council. The BJP, heading a coalition of political parties with varied vote-banks finds itself politically constrained. At the same time, a considered approach would have led to the conclusion that the war is by no means a harbinger of joy for either the secular Republic of India or the Utopian Hindu State that the saffron right seeks to establish.
On the one hand, the war is being seen by most Indians and the mainstream Indian media as an aggressive pursuit by America of the "new world order" and its concomitant cultural vision of a "global melting pot" of cultures. This is something opposed to the very foundations of revivalist Hinduism whose single most important agenda is the establishment of a "Hindu Rashtra" (Hindu State), the protection of the Hindu way of life from modernism and "cultural invasion" from the West and the restoration of the country to its primal glory. Only recently, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, went on record saying that the BJP remained committed to the establishment of a Hindu State. The Prime Minister has also come in for criticism from Church leaders because of certain remarks regarding missionary efforts. Each member of the ruling trinity of the BJP are committed organizers of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (National Organization for Self-Help)from which the BJP and the VHP both sprang and the RSS has been continuously harping on the theme of Swadeshi. Swadeshi, meaning self-reliance, is the political position that local industry should be promoted while reliance on foreign industry be minimized and steadily, eliminated. Point 32 of the VHP's Hindu agenda clearly states that the "National economic policy will be based on Swadeshi and self-reliance". Moreover, freedom of speech and expression which are essential elements of any democratic polity are not the VHP's recommended diet for the Indian population. Point 31 of the Agenda seeks to ban all religious discourse that seeks to challenge, in any way, the orthodox religion as defined by the VHP and its theocrats.
The Hindu right has also been clamoring for a ban on all religious conversions in the country and Christian missionaries have been primary targets of this campaign. The VHP's campaign has received wide coverage and caustic comments in the media.There ia also the anxiety that American involvement in the Balkans and in the Kurdish cause does not bode well for Kashmir and Gujarat. The fact that India is known to have nuclear weapons development and delivery capability and an indigenous ballistic missile development program is no comfort. Also, the latest round of nuclear weapons tests carried out by India was under the leadership of the BJP headed by the current Prime Minister.
On the other hand, Muslims, being the largest minority, continue to be the prime target of the "saffron brigade" and much of the success of its political agenda depends on sustaining anti-Muslim sentiments amongst the masses. It was no surprise , therefore, that the VHP has chosen to take the opposite stance. There is also the hope that the VHP, which has worldwide branches and relies on contributions from wealthy non-resident Indians, might thus not be able to attract the ire of the US administration. The US had already deplored the Gujarat genocide in which the VHP was the primary organizing force, something which Tagodia himself openly acknowledges and defends as rightful revenge for hundreds of years of oppression under Mughal rule. As recently as January this year, the VHP was clamoring for the arrest of the American missionary Joseph Cooper who was injured in an attack on a group of evangelists. The VHP was apparently angry with Cooper for "carrying out religious propaganda after coming to the country on a visiting visa." (The Indian Express, January 17,2003).
The BJP also fears that any critical statements on the war may antagonize the US. The US war on terror comes in handy for India with the situation in Kashmir becoming more serious by the way. The US has always deplored terrorist acts by Kashmiri militants and had warned India's arch enemy and neighbor, Pakistan, against sponsoring militant activity in Kashmir. While public proclamations on the war have been guided by political necessity, the VHP probably realizes that its ideology must be in direct conflict with the exigencies of corporate America. An organization that demands a ban on all meat-exports and imports and the shutting down of all abattoirs in the country would not curry favor with America's large meat industry. This is not to mention the ban on cow slaughter effective in some Indian states. There have also been some resistance to Western music channels and media which are perceived as antagonistic to Indian tradition and this is a big question in a patriarchal society where women are still struggling to find their voice. In the annual meeting of the RSS in Nagpur in 2000, the president of the Gayatri Sangh, one of the sister organizations of the RSS stressed on the need to fight "cultural invasion" from Western Music channels.
The left and center of the Indian political spectrum are opposed to the war which they see as an expression of a neo-imperialist agenda. The Hindu right, however, is hedging by maintaining both pro and anti war positions. Whether this is a real divergence of views or a carefully orchestrated performance as some have suggested on other issues is not yet clear. What is clear, however, is that across India's political spectrum,the USA is being viewed as, though not openly acknowledged to be, a potential threat. The saffron right, however, seems to be caught in a muddle, its ideology and agenda conflicting sharply with the "new world order" theme and the needs of corporate America while the war against Islamic militants is something India could have used to its own advantage.