Introduction
India has a great history of democratic stability after its independence in 1947 as the result of rule of secular political parties. Political scenario in India slighted changed after 1970 when various new regional political parties emerged. These regional political parties tried to represent constituency on the basis of religion, caste, ethnic and regional interests. This opened the way for Hindu nationalism. Representatives of Hindu nationalism, BJP have begun their winning story form 1980 when they became one of the major political parties in India. BJP came into power during 2000 as part of coalition government. BJP is lead by the religious ideology denoted as “hindutuva” (Bhatt, 2001).
The rule of BJP in India caused the popularity of this term”Islamophobia”. The government of BJP became closer with USA and Israel. As BJP represented Hindutuva, it affected in their foreign policy as well. It is clearly seen in their continuing dispute with the Muslim Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir and their support to the civil war in Sri Lanka. They supported both Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils. Thus their foreign policies are directly influenced by the Hindutuva. Most of the decisions and policies of BJP are guided by VHP. Let us analyse how it affects the international policies of India along with its international relationships with other countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka in this essay. We need to realise the ideologies and cultural aspects of Hinduism before analysing the foreign policy of India during the time of BJP led coalition at centre.
Hinduism: An Analysis
‘Hindu’ is a term used to denote particular belief which was specially followed religiously by many people almost around five thousand years ago in the present India location. Thus we can see the fact that it is one of the oldest religious cultures existing in the world. According to Lewis and Slater, Hinduism is “a great Ganges River of religious beliefs and practices fed by many streams” (1969, 31). However Chiriyankandath says that we cannot consider it as single religion or faith as it has plural religious cultures (Chiriyankandath (1996b 45).
The tradition of Hinduism is mostly related with the practises of Indian soil. Some of the features of Hindu tradition are that it does not have central church and no historical basis as other religious traditions. It consists of yugas which consists of four ages and epochs which are dealing with the maintenance and destruction process of nature. Most of its beliefs are purely based on polytheistic and monotheistic principles. It promoted caste system and the dominance of Brahmanism (Venugopal, 1990). The concept of Karma in Hinduism is directly related with Buddhism. According to their beliefs, a man would be judged by his or her past lives and they would be given the emancipation of salvation on the basis of their karma. In order to get moksha, one should change himself from avidya which is ignorance to vidya which is knowledge.
Hinduism categorises people and the lowest people in their religious hierarchy are forced to follow both animistic and polytheistic beliefs. The gods of Hinduism are pervasive and gods incarnate in the form of animals to save mankind from the hands of darkness. Hinduism support caste system and it divides the people into different varnas. They are Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. There are many sub castes as well and they are known as Jatis (Venugopal, 1990). The major religious scriptures of Hinduism are Four Vedas which are the greatest collections of hymns, Upanishads which are philosophical in nature, Bhagavad Gita which is the advice of Krishna, Mahabharata and Ramayana. Now let us look at the ways VHP is influenced and guided by the philosophies of Hinduism.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
Vishwa Hindu Parishad generally known as VHP and it is emerged as the international Hindu organisation as there was no such international organisation for Hindus. Their slogan is that “Dharma protects when protected”. This international Hindu organisation was founded in the year 1964 by Chinmayanada and Apte along with Tara Singh who were the eminent Hindu Priests. There was a conference conducted by RSS on 29th of August 1964 and this conferece was attended by important representatives of Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu and Jains. That conference discussed the importance of being united by all faiths of Indian origins (Golwalker, 1964). The conference asked them to unite to fight against three evils such as Christian, Islam and Communist. As per as the decision of this conference, they had conducted a World convention of Hindus at Allahabad in the year 1966. In this convention, they had decided that this organisation should a non political organisation and officer bearers should not be the office bearers of any political parties. They developed their objective and aims for this international Hindu Organisation and important aims of them are:
Support and strengthen Hindu Community: VHP is trying their best to strengthen Hindu Community by uniting Hindu all over the world. That is why VHP is conducting world conferences and seminars by creating opportunities for all Hindus to share their ideas.
Propagate the great ethical and spiritual values of Hindu religion: VHP is propagating the cultural and spiritual values of Hinduism through books and journals. They are conducting awareness programs among Hindu Community.
Organise and get in touch with Hindus all over the world: VHP is now having their presence in all parts of the world. They are working as socio cultural organisation in the intention to unite Hindus.
The policies of BJP are directly influenced by the Hindutuva stand of VHP as the leaders of BJP are guided by the ethical and cultural philosophies of Hindutuva. BJP’s main aim is to attract the major vote bank of Hindus. Thus they support and obey the religious propaganda of VHP.
Latter Developments in VHP
The movement against the killing of cow paved the way to form VHP. They worked among the lower caste people by promoting their live by building new hospitals, schools and colleges for them. They fought to build a temple in the disputed place of Ayodhaya through peaceful campaigns and demonstrations. They had formed a youth wing called “Bajrang Dal” in the year 1980 to attract more youths in its side to fight for their causes and this youth wing is militant in nature. Even though they were working in the pretend nature to help the poor, their main aim was to work against the great efforts of Christians and Muslims.
BJP raised this temple issue in the national politics in order to support the ideologies of VHP from 1980. Both of them started conducting larger meetings and protests against government policies on Ayodhya. Because the secular parties ruled government of India did not allow them to build temple in Ayodhya. VHP has strong presence in the country of Nepal and it was declared as the Hindu Kingdom as a result of VHP’s presence in Nepal.
It is quite evident that most of the decisions and policies of BJP are developed and implemented by the spiritual guidance of VHP. VHP always stands against the teachings and policies of Islam and Christianity. Thus they force BJP to mould their foreign policies accordingly. BJP tries to obey the guidelines of VHP in order to attract more and more Hindu votes.
Ayodhya: Centre Stage of Dispute
6th of December 1992 was the dark day in the history of India as the symbol of religious secularism “Babri Mosque” had attacked and demolished by VHP. It caused a riot in the states of UP and MP. Muslims were largely attacked and Muslims attacked Hindus as a result of that. It had resulted communal violence all over India (Liberhan Commission). Almost nine hundred people were brutally murdered on the following days. Government appointed Liberhan Commission to investing the case. Liberhan Commission questioned many VHP workers and they agreed their role in the riots. They told the commission that it was their reaction against alienation of Hindu Community from the political favours.
According to VHP, the word “Hindu” applies to all who believes and follows the Indian or Dharmic culture and faiths. Thus they are using this word in a very broader sense. VHP forces it political ally BJP to propagate for Single Civil code for all. BJP had got immense pressure from VHP to have legislation in the parliament to build a temple in disputed place “Ayodhya”. According to VHP, India is a Hindu nation and thus all the legislations and policies should follow the spirits of Hindutuva. They have their arguments to prove those facts. The native Indians were all Hindu. This land was invaded by Muslim rulers and they destroyed temples and built mosques instead of that. Muslim rulers forced mass conversions. Later Christian missionaries came to India to propagate Christianity in India. They widely spread the messages of Christianity all throughout India.
According to VHP, Hindu religion was denigrated and demonized by missionaries. They had also done massive conversions. Thus VHP states that all people of India are basically belonging to Hinduism. Some of demands of VHP are; beautiful temple should be constructed at Ayodhya as soon as possible, ban and Punish forceful conversions those are performed especially by Christian missionaries, build legislation to ban cow slaughter, declare India as a Hindu Nation, implement tight legislations and laws for terrorist actions and terrorists, introduce a single Uniformed Civil Code for all Indians, promote the ethical and cultural values of Hinduism.
They have also taken initiatives to promote education and medical facilities to all marginalised people in India. They are educating the people not to be discriminated on the basis of sex, caste, religion and colour. Their main intention is to propagate the ideologies of Hinduism all over the world. They are getting funds for these activities by selling religious books, boarding and lodging charges from the respective organisations. These are not intended to make any profit.
Influence of VHP on Indian Foreign Policy
VHP always stands stern against the Islamic fundamentalism and they have raised my issues against the recently happened terrorists’ attacks which were done by Muslim extremists. Now they are conducting awareness programs against the effects of Islamic terrorism in Indian soil. In order to empower their campaigns against Muslim fundamentalism, they used to conduct business shutdowns in India.
As VHP is subsidiary of BJP, BJP adapt the ideology and the philosophies of VHP in their foreign policy. They also think that Hinduism is not getting much attention in the international arena. They liked to project India as Hindu Nation. They tried to build nationalism among people. This staunch nationalism is very keenly seen in the foreign policies as well. They did not even try to have conversation with Pakistan on Kashmir issue. They believed that Pakistan was the prime cause behind the terrorist’s attacks in India. India tested nuclear weapons successfully. These are all can be seen as the result due to the influence of VHP’s stands against Islam.
Organisational Setup of VHP
Vishwa Hindu Parishad has its branches known as Shakhas in all parts of the country. VHP has a democratic organisational set up. It has its international general secretary and President. Both of them are elected in a democratic way in the organisation. Most of the key posts and the central council in the organisations are controlled by the senior members of the organisation.
VHP has a powerful and active youth wing and they are Bajrang Dal. It conducts training sections in almost all Shakhas regularly. Youth people are given training to have both mental and physical health. VHP has its female cadres as well and it was started in the year 1991. The female wing of VHP is known as Durga Vahini and main objective of this wing is to “dedicate ourselves to spiritual, physical, mental and knowledge development” (PTI, 1991). VHP has its high philosophical and religious parliament to explore its new fileds of actions and get motivational theories from Holy Scriptures and that is Dharma Sansad. It consists of only religious scholars and high priests.
VHP has its presence in overseas as well. They are working as the socio cultural organisation in North America, East Africa and South East Asia. It is intended to revive the religious thoughts and philosophy of Hinduism. They tried to propagate their agendas through social and cultural activities in these regions.
Linked Groups of VHP
VHP always stands as the symbol of Hindu Supremacy. We can see that VHP is guided by the so called “Hindu spirit” and it is their central theme. One of the linked groups of VHP is BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its earlier name was Bharatiya Jana Sangh. This party was formed in the early 1951 as political subsidiary of RSS. In the initial stages, it could not make any impressions in the Indian politics as there was little room for communal politics. The leaders of BJP especially AB Vajpayee and LK Advani became popular figures after they were sent to jail during the emergency in the year 1975. When Dalits were mass conversed to Islam, VHP thought it as question to their own integrity and they joined with BJP to protect the ethical and cultural principles of Hinduism. Other linked Groups of VHP are RSS, Shiva Sena and so on.
Hindutuva and Kashmir
The powerful emergence of Hindutuva during 1980s and 1990s reflected in the foreign policies of Indian government as well. During these periods, it was the applied in all domestic concerns and issues of India. Thus it is directly influenced in the conflict over Pakistan owned Kashmir. As we know during 1990s India was ruled by the Hindutuva influenced BJP led coalition Government. Their religious policy of Hindutuva was reflected in their relationship with Pakistan and it tries to keep away from Muslim countries as they feared Muslim extremism as well.
It was not in the case of fast. No government policies or foreign policies were guided by the religious factors as Ram Prasad says “religious ideology in itself has played virtually no direct role in major political and economic decisions”. Thus we can see that traditional secular nationalist policies were ignored when BJP came into power in the Centre. Thus the soft powers o Hindutuva influenced the hard power in politics. It is very important to know that the foreign policies of a country are influenced by its domestic features such as “geo strategic location, economic health, military strength and domestic stability” (Kapila, 2005). Thus it is evident that the policies of a nation would be guided by the soft power of religion.
Traditional Indian Foreign Policy
It is quite interesting to know that Indian foreign policies are always guided by the sprit of religious secularism. However it was not the case when BJP led coalition came into power in India during 1990 and 2004. According to Katalya, Indian Foreign policy from independence was guided by moderation and pragmatism. Some of the traditional foreign policies of India are:
Indian traditional foreign policy forces India to have regular dialogue with Pakistan on Kashmir issue and resolve the issues between. Therefore no mediatory is needed to solve these problems. India empowers its trading relationship with China. India had a strong business and trade relations with Russia, Japan and European Countries. India had taken initiatives to maintain peace in the South Asian Countries.
Hindu Muslim Relationship Vs BJP
India is now witnessing a religious militancy of Hindu nationalism. It is emerging as the threat to nation’s secular nature. India is very well known for its religious secularism and the constitution of India ensures religious secularism (center conversation, 2003:1). Now Hindu Muslim conflicts are the prime concerns of the political parties of India. This concern is growing higher due to the political ideology of Hindutuva which was supported by the opposition party BJP. This ideology gained more power when BJP led coalition ruled India during 1996 and 2004.
One of the subsidiaries of BJP, Sangh Parivar is trying their best to make their Hindu influence in all spheres of life particularly in the socio, political and cultural arena. They adopt violence and terror to establish their agenda in the Indian society (Human rights Watch, 2001). Sangh Parivar tries to implement their Hindutuva agenda by suppressing Christian and Muslim. According to them, Christians and Muslims are aliens in faith to them as they are the faiths of the conquerors of India. As we know, Islam was largely introduced and popularised by Mughals and the Christianity was popularised in India by British. When India became independence, the prime minister of that time Jawaharlal Nehru hesitated to adopt Hindutuva in our constitution.
India witnessed regular tension between Muslims and Hindu as BJP who are the supporting Hindutuva, came into the main political scenario of India. It was great threat to the traditional Indian understanding of religious secularism in the country (Chiriyankandath, 1996). BJP tried to invite more foreign investments to India. India’s economy has seen a great growth in their ruling time. But they did not change their religious perspectives. They formed a strong alliance with its subsidiaries RSS and Sangh Parivar. The Prime Minister of that time, AB Vajpayee praised the activities of these religious organisations in public. Thus it was a motivation for them to implement their strategies in the Indian society. BJP with the support of its allies tried to hindu-it-ze- Indian politics and culture. They had withdrawn the grants given to cultural institutions, reduced the rights of the minorities and indirectly supported the violence done by Hindu extremists (Marshall, 2004).
BJP considered Christianity and Islam as the threat to national integrity and they were often noted as foreign religions. They had passed laws restricting the building of places of worship by the minorities. During their ruling time, some states of India particularly in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat passed law to prohibit and ban religious conversions. Pope John Paul 11 reacted against this as “unjust” and he further said it as the “prohibition of free exercise of the natural right to religious freedom” (Marshall, 2004).
As we know, two bitter incidents made the relationships of Hindus and Muslims worse. First incident happened in 1992 when Hindu Extremists demolished Muslim Mosque in Ayodhya. Hundreds of people were killed on the riots caused by that. The second incident happened in 2001 when Muslims were attacked and killed in Gujarat during the chief minister ship of Narendra Modi. Properties of both parties were looted during this riot (Brass, 2005). On the occasion of this incident, Bal Thackery, a leader of Shiv Sena addressed Muslims as “Cancer to this Country”. Leaders like him poured oil in the flames of riot by their statements like these (MacFarquhar, 2003). It is quite shocking to know that the International Working President of Vishwa Hind Parishad, Singhal appraised the massacre at Gujarat as “successful experiment”. When BJP led coalition came into power in the Indian state of Gujarat, one of the VHP leaders said that “All Hindutuva opponents will get the death sentence”.
We can see tremendous changes in Indian foreign policies during the rule of BJP led coalition in the center. We can see a great shift in the foreign policy. Indian foreign policies shifted from the non alignment towards to restrict the Islamic terrorism. Thus it had worsened the relationship with Pakistan and it had taken the abrasive stance against Pakistan. Indian government accused Pakistan as the main sponsors of terrorism in Indian soil. BJP led coalition then turned against the non alignment with China and Pakistan. They supported the acquisition of Nuclear weapons (Federal Research Division, 1995).
According to Ganguly, Indian foreign policies changed not due to Hindutuva. He finds out the reasons for that. He sees that as the result of changes in the international scenario. The effects of cold war and the impact of globalisation can be seen in the shift of the foreign policies of India. The previous foreign policies were mainly centred on the super powers Russia and USA. India is also emerged as the power to advocate for the poor and powerless. As a result of this India has asked the world financial institutions to restructure its order to adopt India’s role in International arena (Ganguly, 2003).
Thirumalai is also supporting these views. He says that the foreign policies are not changed due to the influence of Hindutuva (Thirumalai, 2001). According to him, Hindu religion is the most tolerant religion in the world. As the main religion of the nation, it might have influenced our nation’s foreign policies during the rule of BJP led coalition in the years 1990 and 2002. However these are not major in its nature. Some of the ideologies raised by BJP led government are appraised and accepted by Jewish government of Israel. Thus Indians and Jews became the strategic allies against the Islam Sponsored terrorism. Some of the reasons for these strategic allies discussed by Bidwai are mentioned below.
Indian Government is trying to build a good relationship with USA and thus indirectly making strategic alliance with Israel. Thus India is indirectly trying to avoid Pakistan. India is now more conscious of the terrorist’s acts and therefore it is trying to cope up Islamophobia and Anti Arabism in its foreign policy. The current foreign policies are intended to promote nationalism.
India Pakistan Dispute Vs Religion
India Pakistan conflicts makes the south Asia are placeless. Both of them have nuclear and it causes lots of problems in the region. Main reason for indo Pak dispute is on Kashmir. Parliament attack in December 2001 and attacks on Christian churches in Islamabad are causing main problems in the region (Center Conversations, 2003). As we know the problem over Kashmir lasts for more than six decades. During the British rule, Kashmir was a Muslim dominated society and it was ruled Hindu prices. It became a problem when Indian got freedom. When this issue came in front of United Nations, they tried to settle the issue by taking referendum among the people. It was not continuous problem and there was great calm in the 1970s and 1980s. It still continues to be the issue forever.
Sri Lankan issue and Hindutuva
Another issue related with Indian foreign policies is with the Sri Lankan Civil War. This Civil war is caused by the conflict between Buddhist Singhalese and Hindu Tamils. Indian Governments used to put their attention on these issues as it is the threat to the stability of the region and the origin of Tamil really belongs to India as they are really gone from India (Allen, 1992). Recently the civil war was over as the LTTE had failed in the encounter with Sri Lankan Soldiers. BJP led coalition had turned their attention on Sri Lankan issues when they were in the rule and they tried to protect Tamils as they were Hindus. It was evident in their foreign policies with Sri Lankan.
Conclusion
It is quite evident that most of the decisions taken by BJP led coalition Government were influenced by Hindutuva. Even though it had created instability in the national arena of India, They had brought new changes in the Indian foreign Policy which was proved to be effective. It raised India’s name among the nations. As Indian economy is growing day by day, Indian foreign policies are vital in order to Indian’s presence in the main spectrum of Global arena.
References
· Jeffrey Haynes (1999) Religion, globalization, and political culture in the Third World (1st edition) London MacMillan
· Christophe Jaffrelot(1996)The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s (1st edition) New Delhi Thomson Press
· Allan D (1992) Religion and Political Conflict in South Asia (1st edition) London Greenwood Press
· Bhatt C (2001) Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths (1st edition) India Oxford Press
· Bose S (1994) States, Nations, Sovereignty, Sri Lanka, India and the Tamil Eelam Movement (1st edition) New Delhi Sage Publications
· Brass P (2005) The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India (2nd edition) Seattle University of Washington Press
· Chiriyankandath J (1996) The 1996 Indian General Election (2nd edition) London Oxford University Press
· Cohen S (2004) The Idea of Pakistan (1st edition) Washington The Brookings Institution
No comments:
Post a Comment