constitutional foundation of secularism by subramanian swamy
TRANSCRIPT
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It would be meaningless to have a discourse on
minorities at all, much less waste public money on
compensation in money or affirmative action, if there is no
socially imposed disability in the past which handicaps that
group from competing with other social groups or
communities. Merely being small in numbers is not enough
to merit recognition as a minority.
Numbers are not a sufficient basis for defining a
minority. The Whites of South Africa are numerically a small
number, but they cannot be treated as "minorities"
deserving of special protection or reservations, or
affirmative action.
Parsis in India despite being a microscopic minority
numerically, have themselves consistently refused to ask or
accept for any Constitutional safeguards since they have
never felt forcibly disabled in Hindu dominant society.
Parsis are therefore not a minority in the Constitutional
or statutory dispensation. What then is the definition of
minority ? Nor are Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains for the same
reason.
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Subsequent judgments of the Supreme Court, such as
delivered by a 5-judge Constitutional Bench in 2003 in the
Islamic Academy case, and the 7-judge Constitutional Bench
in 2005 in the Inamdar case, have also not defined the
concept of minority.
In 1992 India's Parliament enacted the National
Commission for Minorities Act, but did not define a minority
in it. Section 2 (c} of the Act merely states that minorities
are what the Government of India will notify in the Gazette!!
The Government has arbitrarily notified, for no reason or
explanation, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis as
religious minorities. Even the State Minorities Commissions
have not bothered to define minorities.
In other words, the nation has been discussing minority
rights for the last sixty years without even defining what or
who can be the minorities. How can we identify minorities if
we do not have a definition of the term?
Hence, I shall begin with my definition of minority and
then discuss what their rights can be in, the context of
national integrity. In this connection, it is appropriate to
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quote from the judgment of the 3-judge Supreme Court
bench in Bal Patil versus the Union of India case, delivered
by Justice Dharmadhikari in 2005:
"Such claims to minority status based on religion would
increase the fond hope of various sections of the people in
getting special protections, privileges and treatment as part
of the constitutional guarantee. Encouragement to such
fissiparous tendencies would be a serious jolt to the secular
structure of constitutional democracy. We should guard
against making our country akin to a theocratic State based
on multi-nationalism".
What we can therefore hold now is that if a group is
numerically small, and substantially below 50% of the
population, then although it has the necessary attribute of a
minority, that attribute is not sufficient for it to be declared
a minority for the purpose of constitutional or statutory
protection. Such a group must have sufficient other
attributes as well, to be identified as a minority.
Based on the circumstances arising out of the Indian
legacy, in recognition of defining events of Indian history,
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I would define a Minority in India as:
A collective of Indian citizens, constituting a numerical
minority and situated in a non-dominant position in
society, with characteristics which ethnically differs
from those of the majority, and having suffered from
imposed deprivation over a long period have acquired
disabilities, which disabilities cannot be removed
except by providing special constitutional protection
and facilities for affirmative action, are by definition a
minority.
That is, for sufficiency of attributes to qualify as a
minority under the Constitution of India, it will be required
that [1] such a group be in a non-dominant position in
society, [2] to have suffered deprivation for a long period
and thus have acquired disabilities and [3] which
disabilities cannot be removed except by special
constitutional protection such as reservations in jobs and
educational institutions.
By this definition, the scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes would constitute a minority even if they are a part of
the numerical majority Hindu community. Their disabilities
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cannot be removed except by specific affirmative action
such as reservation in jobs, education, and in legislatures.
Backward castes of the Hindu community also suffer
disabilities, but these can be removed by special
arrangements of education facilities and financial
assistance.
But due to our political folly and selfishness, these
backward castes have been given reservations in jobs and
education which cannot now be taken away except by
persuasion in the future.
When world class primary and secondary education can
be provided to all, it is possible that the youth of the
backward castes would prefer to compete rather than
advance by availing of quotas.
Since, the Indian DNA structure is the same for all
castes, hence, competing on merit, if equally empowered, is
possible for the backward castes.
But Muslims and Christians cannot be considered as
minorities in Indian society because their disabilities are not
acquired from deprivation imposed on them. In fact Muslims
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and Christians, like the Whites of South Africa, have been
ruling classes in India for a long period and had oppressed
the overwhelmingly majority Hindu community . Sequentially
in time, these two religious groups have ruled India for over
a thousand years, during which period they practiced
religious apartheid against the Hindus.
Hence, for national integrity, patriotic Indians should
resist with all their might any attempt to introduce quotas
for the benefit of Muslims and Christians in jobs and
education, or for anything else.
Those Muslims and Christians who consider themselves
as patriotic Indians should also, like the Parsis, reject any
offer by mischievous politicians to introduce quotas for
them. Instead they should ask for world class primary and
secondary education to empower them to compete on a
level playing field with the rest of the society.
Whatever has now been incorporated in the Constitution
for minority rights cannot be taken away because Articles
29 and 30 are part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution
and hence cannot be amended out.
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Hence, minorities will continue to have the right for
example, to administer their own educational institutions.
But as the Supreme Court has held in the Islamic
Academy case, the unfettered right to administer does not
include the right to mal-administer.
Hence, minority-run educational institutions, including
unaided ones, must be subject to obtaining Government
approval for curriculum standards, faculty quality, and basic
infrastructure, that should be common to all. Sooner or later,
we must require that ali students including Muslims and
Christians, learn Sanskrit.
Our long term link language has to be Sanskrit, because
it's vocabulary is in large measure in every Indian language.
Even Tamil has 40 percent of its vocabulary in common with
Sanskrit. If Hindi vocabulary be progressively Sanskritised
till the Hindi becomes indistinguishable from Sanskrit, then
we can begin learning Sanskritised Hindi and then over a
period of time shift to Sanskrit.
The goal of minority rights has to be to further social
justice. Towards this end, we must strive for equal and high
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quality educational opportunity and create a mindset for
national unity and integration.
But we cannot accept special rights for religious
minorities of Muslims and Christians, just as we cannot for
Brahmins although they as poor a community as Muslims
and Christians.
The logic is the samethose who have been ruling
classes cannot claim minority status in the constitutional
matrix.
In my opinion, Muslims and Christians should themselves
decline to accept reservations in employment and education, and
its leadership should instead look inward and analyse why after
being ruling class of India for thousand years, they need now
reservations to compete with hitherto hapless Hindus who have
suffered huge prosecution, discrimination and impoverishment at
the hands of Muslim and Christian rulers.
Economic science teaches us that only in a
transparently regulated competitive market system, the
allocation of the nations resources for alternative uses will
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be optimal and of maximum return on investment. This
means giving to primacy to merit.
However, those sections of society which have
disabilities, which could be mental, physical, gender, or
cognitive, that which have been imposed on those sections
by circumstances or by prolonged social discrimination,are
entitled to affirmative action to compensate for these
disabilities and inability, to empower them to compete but
with a handicap. This is how we can achieve inclusive
development.
By this criterion, only Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
tribes and women are entitled to by-pass the usual
competitive selection by merit. To offer reservations and
quotas to Muslims and Christians is however unjustified
because these two communities do not suffer from any
imposed disabilities because they were part of the ruling
classes of India-- for a total of 1000 years, and hence could
not be victims of any social or political oppression.
In any event it is bad economics too because
affirmative action leads to sub-optimisation. It is pure and
simple appeasement hence to recommend or advocate
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reservations or quotas for these two communities as in fact
as the Sachar and Ranganath Misra Commissions have done.
The question that I have repeatedly asked those who
are appeasing the Muslims today is: Why the Muslim
community that ruled India for over eight hundred years and
belonged to privileged ruling class even during the hundred
fifty years of British Raj while subjecting the Hindus to
untold tortures, violence, rape and suppression have
become socially handicapped compared to Hindus? Or to
Parsis who are in microscopic numbers? To date I have not
received even a semblance of an answer.
Dr.Ambedkar had warned us 60 years ago about the
terrible consequences of appeasement. Analysing the
attitude of the Congress Party in 1940 to the demands of the
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, he said the party was adopting a
policy of appeasement.
In his book Thoughts on Pakistan, which I believe must
be read by every patriot, Dr.Ambedkar had said:
Appeasement [of Jinnah] means to offer to buy off the
aggressor by conniving at or collaborating with him in
the rape, murder and arson on innocent Hindus who
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happen for the moment to be the victims of his
displeasure.
On the other hand settlement means laying down the
bounds which neither party to it can transgress.
Appeasement has no limits to the demands and
aspirations of the aggressor. Settlement does.
The second thing the Congress has failed to realize is
that the policy of concession has increased their
aggressiveness and what is worse, the Muslims
interpret these concessions as a sign of defeatism on
the part of the Hindus and the absence of will to resist.
This policy of appeasement will involve the Hindus in
the same fearful situation in which the allies found
themselves as a result of the policy of appeasement
which they adopted towards Hitler.
He therefore felt that the creation of the separate
Islamic state of Pakistan with transfer of population could
be a preferable settlement that could end the Hindu-Muslim
problem in the sub-continent.
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In such a lop-sided minorityism, Hindus as and when in
minority do not have the same rights, even as a 'last charge',
as the events in Kashmir and Northeast have proved.
DEFINITION OF HINDUTVA
I now define Hindutva [or Hinduness] as a collective
mindset, that regards India as the motherland[Bharat Mata] from
the Himalayas to the islands in Indian Ocean and its glorious
continuing unbroken Hindu civilisation as the mainstream
history.
Thus, Hindutva is Hinduness in terms of our indigenously
(swadeshi) developed value-system which is founded on an
adarsh darshanderived from our ancestral heritage.
The aim of this value-system is to avoid cognitive
dissonance that is the mental disorientation that arises from
contrasting and conflicting modes of thought. We cannot be
noble if we posture to mislead, manipulate without social
purpose, and be authoritarian.
The cognitive synchronization takes place when the
individual is in a state of steady mind, and remains committed to
redeeming society from unrighteous rule without fear or favour.
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That means giving up a life style that requires having to change
mental gears abruptly, often and completely every day. Thus the
Hindutva mindset is focused and is of single pointedness of mind.
There is therefore no equivocation but forthrightness, no
temporization but steadfastness no procrastination but
decisiveness, and no crass self-interest calculation but
enlightened personal advancement. This is Swadharma, or
creative conformism to values. This is the Hindutva mindset that
we need to today.
In this Hindutva, the non- Hindu religious minorities can be
co-opted if they acknowledge with pride the truth that they are
descendants of Hindus consistent with the modern genetic
research on the DNA of resident Indians.
Then our nation may be defined as Hindustan i.e., a land of
Hindus and those others who with pride acknowledge that their
ancestors are Hindus.
But taken together, Hindutva is a multi-facet concept of
identity, social constitutional order, modernity, our civilization
history, economic philosophy, and governance.
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Sanatana Dharma is eternal because it is based not upon the
teachings of a single preceptor of a chosen prophet but on the
collective accumulated wisdom and inspiration of great seers
and sages from the dawn of civilization.
Hindu theology and scriptures therefore are accumulated
revealed knowledge and not revelations of any prophet that was
taken down by scribes or followers. In case of the Bible, St.Paul
who compiled it had never met Jesus Christ, and therein lives an
unresolved controversy on what Jesus actually said.
In this study, we have essentially followed Sri Aurobindos
formulation of Hindutva, which though having the same goal as
Savarkars, is more broad-based. Hinduness springs from
Sanatana Dharma in Sri Aurobindos broader formulation as also
in Savarkars narrower formulation.
In the final analysis, Hindutva today conforms to Vedanta as
propounded by Swami Vivekananda, and as also as re-interpreted
by Gandhi, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya.
Hindutva is a concept that reflects the broad spiritual ethos
of India fostered by many great rishis, yogis and sanyasis, and
their diverse teachings but one spiritual vision.
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This unique feature of focusing on the message and its truth
rather than the authority of the messenger brings Sanatana
Dharma proximate to a science, and spiritually its logic akin to
the scientific inquiry.
In science also, a principle or a theory must stand or fall on
its own merit and not on the authority of anyone. If Newton and
Einstein are considered great scientists, it is because of the
validity of their scientific theories. In that sense, science is also
apaurusheya. Gravitation and Relativity are eternal laws of
nature and existed long before Newton and Einstein. These are
cosmic laws that happened to be discovered by the scientific
sages Newton and Einstein. Their greatness lies in the fact that
they discovered and revealed great scientific truths. But no one
invokes Newton or Einstein as authority to prove the truth of
laws of nature. These laws stand on their own merit.
This is the greatest difference between Sanatana Dharma
and religions like Christianity and Islam. In a document titled
Declaration of Lord Jesus, the Vatican proclaims non-
Christians to be in a gravely deficient situation and that even
non-Catholic churches have defects because they do not
acknowledge the primacy of the Pope and his infallibility. This of
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course means that the Vatican refuses to acknowledge the
spiritual right of the Hindus to their beliefs and practices!
Christianity consigns non-Christians to hell, and the only way
they can save themselves is by becoming Christians, preferably
Catholics, by submitting to the Pope.
A Hindu thus even if he lives a life of virtue, is still
consigned to hell by Christianity because he refuses to
acknowledge Jesus as the only savior and the Pope as his
representative on earth. The same is true of Islam; one must
submit to Prophet Muhammad as the last, in effect the only
prophet, in order to be saved.
Belief in God means nothing without belief in Christ as the
savior or Muhammad as the Last Prophet. Even one who
believes in God but does not accept Jesus or Muhammad as
intermediary is considered a non-believer and therefore a sinner
or a Kafir.
These two major religions simply do not tolerate pluralism.
This is what makes both Christianity and Islam exclusive, what
makes Hinduism pluralistic and tolerant, and therefore Hindutva
naturally inclusive.
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Hinduism recognizes no intermediary as the exclusive
messenger of God. In fact the Rigveda itself says: ekam sat,
vipra bahuda vadanti, meaning cosmic truth is one, but the wise
express it in many ways. The contrast between exclusivism and
pluralism becomes clear when we compare what Krishna and
Jesus Christ said:
Krishna in the Bhagavadgita says: All creatures great and
small I am equal to all. I hate none nor have I any
favoritesHe that worships other gods with devotion, worships
me. Jesus on the other is quoted as saying: He that is not with
me is against me.
Moreover, a devotee cannot directly know God, but can only
pray to God and go through the intermediarywho jealously
guards his exclusive access to God.
Those who try otherwise, even if a priest, is ex-
communicated as was done in the case of Rev.Don Mario
Muzzoleni, as he himself records in his recent book: Don Mario
Mazzoleni was a Catholic priest in Rome. He went in search of
the Ultimate Truth and reached Sathya Sai Baba. He then spent
12 years studying the miracles of Puttaparti Sathya Sai Baba and
wrote a book called A Catholic Priest Meets Sai Baba. Bishop
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Monsignor Roberto Amadei of the Vatican summoned him and
expressed disapproval [see pages 268-269 of that book]:
Bishop: They have telephoned me from Rome to tell me
about this book of yours. You uphold some ideas which
are not in line with those of the Church. For example
the Christ, for us, is Jesus Christ, and there cannot be
anyone else. You made a distinction between Jesus
and the Christ.
Mario: Yes, but I mean to say that there is a difference
between the human and the divine nature of Jesus
Christ: the first is the container, the other is the
content; the first is illusory, the second is real.
Bishop:This is precisely the point of real divergence
between what you say and the official doctrine of the
church, the Magisterium. I cannot agree with your
opinion. You end up putting Christ and Sai Baba on the
same plane!
Mario: Not exactly in those terms, but I understand that it
would be easy to interpret it that way. I know that it is
difficult to explain it, especially with centuries of
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interpretations behind us, but, Monsignor, who can deny
God permission to take whatever form He wishes
whenever He wishes?
Bishop:Mario, God cannot contradict Himself. If He has
revealed to us that He has come as savior only in Jesus
Christ, He cannot break His word.
The conversation continued. Bishop maintained that the
Truth was revealed in toto and once and for all, by Christ, etc..
Nor did Jesus disappear as man: he is as eternal as the Christ, to
the point that the two go together. I looked at him, puzzled; then
I asked him:
Mario: Are you maintaining that the body of Jesus still
exists? But where, Monsignor?
Bishop: For example, in the Eucharist.
Mario: Tell that to any child, and he will tell you that he sees
nothing but a piece of bread. I ask you please to tell me
where the true body of Jesus, in flesh and blood, could
be hidden or manifest.
Bishop:See Mario, here too you are not in agreement with
the Church
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Mario: By why, Monsignor? Has the Church never made
mistakes in its thought?
Bishop: Lets not get into that; it is beside the point.
Mario: Why do we have to come to a point where I am told
Lets not get into that? (it wasnt the first time that
phrase had come up). Monsignor, permit me to ask you
a provocative question. Our Scriptures tell us that the
Christ will come again. How will we recognize Him?
Bishop: (after a moment of hesitation and confusion) That
will happen at the end of history, when humanity will
have finished its existence.
Mario: Even the astronomers say that this Universe is
unbelievably vast and in continuous expansion; do you
really believe that only the history of our tiny human
race is marked by a single, definitive close?
Bishop: There is no other worlds. Therefore, that is how it
is.
Mario: There is no need to posit the existence of other
worlds Besides, if humanity ends for good all at once,
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what would be the purpose of Christ returning in the
flesh, in all His glory? To show Himself to whom?
The bishop touched on a number of other themes, in
the effort to convince me that I was wrong. It was not really
an interrogation; rather he was sounding me out to see if I
really thought as I wrote; and it became evident that indeed
I did. My position seemed irredeemable, and all vestige of
hope was lost when he subtly suggested that I change my
mind, and I assured him that I would never, never at any
time, betray what I felt and continue to feel in my
conscience.
On May 24, 1992 Don Mario Mazzoleni was excommunicated
from Catholic Church for his relationship with Sathya Sai Baba
and for writing the book.
Hinduism is the exact opposite of this. Anyone can know
God and no jealous intermediary can block his way. And the
Hindu tradition has methods like yoga and meditation guided if
you like, through a guru to facilitate one to reach God. Further,
this spiritual freedom extends even to atheism. One can be an
atheist (nastik) and still claim to be a Hindu. In addition, there is
nothing to stop a Hindu from revering Jesus as the Son of God or
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Muhammad as a Prophet. In contrast, a Christian or a Muslim
revering Rama or Krishna would be condemned to death as a
Kafir or burnt on the stakes as Joan of Arc was, as a pagan
possessed by the devil, or the enemy.
The main objective, in fact, of the Sanatana Dharma is to
unfold the tremendous multi-dimensional potentialities of human
intelligence, step by step, from the outer physical body level to
subtle inner mental to intellectual and ultimately to the highest
spiritual level, leading to Enlightenment and Self Realization.
The human being is constituted by soul, mind and body, parallel
in functions to a company incorporated constituted by a
proprietor, manager and workers.
The ultimate goal of human life is to experience a deep
sense of fulfillment. All else e.g., position, purse, power, prestige,
prize, profession etc., are at best, simply the means to that goal
which fulfillment be achieved only by acquiring and cultivating
the ingredients of Dharma because the human, unlike the animal,
can reason logically deductively and inductively to
conceptualise, analyse, and theorise.
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Besides the eternal and universal human values and norms
in Sanatana Dharma prescription for other aspects of human life
as well are embedded. Sanatana Dharma as expressed in
different parts of the Vedas, has prescriptions for individuals
living in different roles, e.g. as a mother (Matridharma), a father
(Pitridharma), children (Putri/Putradhrma), a king (Rajadharma), a
Guru (Gurudharma), a student (Shishyadharma), a woman
(Naridharma), a husband (Patidharma) etc.. Sanatana Dharma has
provision as well for emergencies (Apaddharma) of different
kinds. The Vedas are the basic and primary sources of Sanatana
Dharma and are regarded as the roots of Dharma {Vedokhilo
dharmamulam in Manusmriti 2/6}.
Thus scientific foundation and spirit of inquiry has once
again beginning to find favour abroad. As Lisa Miller, a senior
journalist with Newsweek, writes:
America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a
nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008
survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as
Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in
American history). Of course, we are not a Hinduor
Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccannation, either. A million-
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plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the
billion who live on earth. But recent poll data show that
conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more
like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the
ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and
eternity.
The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says
this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many
names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God.
Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice
is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal.
The most traditional, conservative Christians have not
been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday
school that their religion is true, and others are false.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the father except through me.
Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008
Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that many
religions can lead to eternal lifeincluding 37 percent
of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe
that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of
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people who seek spiritual truth outside church is
growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves
spiritual, not religious, according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK
Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero,
religion professor at Boston University, has long framed
the American propensity for the divine-deli-cafeteria
religion asvery much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're
not picking and choosing from different religions,
because they're all the same, he says. It isnt about
orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga
works, greatand if going to Catholic mass works,
great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus
the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too.
Then there's the question of what happens when you
die. Christians traditionally believe that bodies and
souls are sacred, that together they make up the self,
and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the
Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you
need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At
death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spiritwhere
identity residesescapes. In reincarnation, central to
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Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in
different bodies. So here is another way in which
Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of
Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according
to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the
ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them
like Hindusafter death. More than a third of Americans
now choose cremation, according to the Cremation As-
sociation of North America, up from 6 percent in l975.
Let us all say om.
There are, in my view, eight components of this mindset that
the nation needs today which I call as Virat Hindutva.
First, Hindus must regard and foster the concept of the
nation as formed on the ethos of the unbroken civilization of
Hindustan; their common history of endeavours, struggles,
defeats and victories.
Ancient Hindus and their descendents have always lived in
this area, from the Himalayas to the islands of Indian Ocean, an
area called Akhand Hindustan, and thus reject the British tutored
historians that Indians are ethnically diverse and came from
outside by period invasions.
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Second, Hindutva requires that national policies for
development should synchronize and harmonize the material
goals with spiritual advancement, what Deendayal Upadhyaya
had called Integral Humanist outlook.
Third, India that is Bharat, which is ancient Hindustan, is a
Spiritual State in consonance with the concept of sarva panth
sama bhaava.
Hence the declaration in the Preamble of the Constitution
that India is a Secular State be replaced by a declaration that
Hindustan that is Bharat is a Spiritual State.
Fourth, a national law is required to prohibit induced and
wholesale religious conversion especially from Hinduism to
proselytizing Semitic religions, because only the Brihad Hindu
society can maintain secularism and regard all religions lead to
God.
Such a prohibitive law will however notbar re-conversion of
any Indian to the original Hindu religion, that is the return of any
Indian to his or her ancestors faith.
Fifth, that there is no theologically sanctioned concept of
birth based social hierarchy. Varna never was conceived as
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birth-based in Hindu scriptures, but a choice that was subject to
each abiding by the prescribed disciplines of that Varna.
The present practice of birth-determined Varna is un-Hindu,
and is excess baggage that requires to be off-loaded and purged
from the body-politic of the nation is the interest of a viratHindu
unity.
Sixth, all Hindus to qualify as true Hindus must make effort
to learn Sanskrit and the Devanagari script, in addition to mother
tongue, and pledge that one day in the future, Sanskrit will
evolve to become Indias link language since all the main Indian
languages already have a large percentage of their vocabulary
derived from or in common with Sanskrit.
To re-throne Sanskrit, Hindi vocabulary should keep
Sanskritising till Hindi itself becomes indistinguishable from
Sanskrit, just as Pali became two thousand years ago.
Seventh, Hindus must prefer to lose everything they possess
rather than submit to terrorism or dictatorship. The virat Hindu
must have a mindset to retaliate when attacked by terrorists.
The retaliation must be massive enough to deter future attacks.
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Eighth, the Hindutva art of governance would be structured
on the principles of Ramrajya and drawn from the tenets
propounded in Chanakyas Arthsastra.
These eight attributes constitute a mindset that a modern
virat Hindu must have to be in a position to confront the
challenge that Hindu civilization is facing from globalization,
terrorism and from fraud foreign Christian missionaries, who
unfortunately are also aided and abetted from within the country
by confused Hindus.
Without such a virile mindset--which is virat Hindutva,
Hindus will be unable to confront the subversion and erosion that
today undermine the Hindu foundation of India. This foundation
is what makes India distinctive, and hence we must safeguard it
with all the might and moral fibre that we have.
The Constitution of India being supreme law, hence every
other law must conform to the Constitution. So the question
arises: Will Hindutva be a contradiction or violative of the
Constitution? In other words, can Hindutva be incorporated by
amending the Constitution?
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I would like to mention some Hindutva goals which meet the
test of Constitutionality and hence need to be pursued even
under the present Constitution.
Thanks to the Constitution Bench judgment in the Farooqui
case [1994], no mosque is an essential part of Islam, and hence
can be acquired for a public purpose and even demolished. Thus
for restoring the Kashi Visvanath temple or the Krishna
Janmabhoomi temple, demolishing of the existing mosques by a
government is constitutionally permitted.
The Ramjanmabhoomi temple case is currently entangled on
the unauthorized demolition by some people taking law into
their own hands, but that is IPC offence and has no constitutional
significance.
Any government can constitutionally even now take-over the
project for public good, and build a Ram Janma bhoomi temple.
Third, Article 370 is peculiar provision. It can be deleted by
a Presidential notification subject to the concurrence of the J&K
Constituent Assembly which has long ceased to exist. They have
already driven out Pandits. Hence, there is no fetter
constitutionally to abolish Article 370 by a notification. By way of
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abundant precaution the President can obtain the concurrence of
the J&K Governor.
Fourth, since the Article 44 is a Directive Principle for State
Policy to have uniform civil code and moreover since the
Muslims, on ground of violation of the Shariat, have not objected
to the IPC as a uniform criminal code, hence it is constitutional
to enforce Article 44 as not violative of Article 15public
Order/Health..
Fifth, time has arrived for us to openly declare India as an
ancient Hindu civilization, which the only way we can perform
the Fundamental Duty under Article 51-A(f), and boldly up revere
our sacred symbols.
For example, the total ban on cow slaughter in Article 48
has been held by a 1958 Constitution Bench to possess
constitutionality in the sense that it held to be a reasonable
restriction on fundamental rights of all Indians.
Sixth, at present the Government has been taking over
Hindu temples its resources and land and using it for all kinds of
non-religious purposes under the states enacted Hindu Religious
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Institutions and Charitable Endowment Acts on the pretext of
maladministration of the temple properties.
Under Article 31A(1)(b) of the Constitution such take-over
cannot be permanent. If mal/administration charge is true, then
the Government should rectify it within a reasonable period such
as three years, and then hand it back.
These six constitutionally valid pillars are what Hindutva is
based and can be achieved within the present Constitution.
The Constitution, it is my submission, was intended from the
very beginning, to represent Hindu ethos.
The illustrations selected to represent the Muslim period
also imply this intention: Only two illustrations have been
selected: i) A portrait of Akbar and (ii) portraits of Shivaji and
Guru Gobind Singh.
From the whole range of Muslim themes, only Akbar is
selected. Akbar come closest in his ideals and practices to what
can be called the Hindu spirit: his relatively liberal politics, his
reported refusal to make the Mughal state an instrument of
exclusive Muslim hegemony, his relatively less hostile attitude
towards Hindu religion, his refusal to treat Hindus as degraded
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dhimmies on account of religious belief. Akbar approximated to a
certain extent the Hindu ideal of social and political behaviour
and unsurprisingly found a place in the Constitution of India.
The other two men who represent the 'Muslim Period' are
Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh: men who fought the persecution
and bigotry of the Mughal rule under the successors of Akbar,
especially Aurangzeb.
Akbar is chosen because he was liberal: Shivaji and Gobind
Singh are chosen because they fought the oppression and cruelty
of the Mughal state which was acting as the instrument of
Islamic religious supremacy.
They refused to recognize a political dispensation that
functioned as an instrument for the fulfillment of Islamic
religious agendas. They fought for safeguarding the dignity of
their culture and religious values from the depredations of a
theocratic Muslim state.
The three represent the grand spiritual if secular, ethos of
Hindutva. The Constitution of India is cognizant of this fact.
The pictures chosen from the British period and the era of
India's freedom movement are also unique. The former era is
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The 'aroma' of Hinduness or Hindutva also permeates the
most important constitutional and administrative units of the
Indian state.
Nowhere is it more apparent than in the august premises of
the Indian Parliament - a house where matters of national
concern are discussed and the fate of the nation is decided. The
head of the Lok Sabha is the Speaker, and what we find inscribed
holdly above the Chair of the speaker is the following:
Dharmachakra Pravartanaya (for the turning of the wheel of
righteousness).
It is accepted by all that the notion of 'Dharma' is the most
significant cultural signifier of the Hindu world. The rulers of
ancient India had accepted the path of dharma as their area of
political exertion and the managers of free India's politics
accepted that notion by putting the dharamachakra on the
national flag, and the related motto in the central place of the
highest legislative body.
The Parliament of India bears prominent reminders of the
Hindu ethos at many places:
i) At door no. 1 is inscribed
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Lok Devarampatraarnu
Pashyema tvam vayam vera
(Chhandogya)
Translation: Open the door for the welfare of the people and
show them the path of noble sovereignty.
ii) At the door of the Central Hall -
Ayam nijah paroveti ganana laghuchetasam
Udarcharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam
(Panchantantra)
Translation: To think in terms of me and others in a narrow
say; for the men of liberal character the whole world is taken as
one family.
iii) On the dome near lift no. 1Na sa sabhayata na santi vriddhah
Vriddhah na to ye na vadantidharmam
Dharmah sa no yatra na satyamasti
Satyamna tadyachhalambhyupaiti
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(Mahabharat)
Translation: No assembly is a sabha which does not
comprise elders; he is not an elder who does not speak
according to dharma; no dharma survives without truthfulness;
nd every truth is necessarily devoid of cunning and deceit.
iv) On the dome near lift no. 2Sabha v na praveshtaya
Vakavyam va samanjasam
Abruvan vibruvan vapi
Naro bluvati kilvishi
(Manusmriti)
Translation: Either do not enter the sabha or speak only
according to dharma when you are inside it. Those who do not
speak or speak untruthfully and unrighteously are partakers of
sin.
These teachings - and there are many more - inscribed on
the domes and walls of the Indian Parliament signify the values
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that the fathers of Indian democracy and parliamentarianism
wanted to inculcate.
It goes without saying that all the noble virtues included in
the above mentioned aphorisms are derived from the Hindu
heritage of India. The founding fathers seem to have found a
deep consonance between India's Hindu ideals and the ideals of
a modern secular democracy.
The impact of Hindu heritage and its value systems on the
legal and administrative life of India becomes all the more
apparent when one examines the core ideals adopted by various
institutions. Some of the examples are as follows:
i) Government of India - Satyameva Jayateii) Lok Sabha - Dharmachakra Pravartanayaiii) Supreme Court - Yato Dharmastato Jayahiv) All India RadioBahujanhitayav) Doordarshan - Satyam Shivam Sundaramvi) Indian Army - Seva Asmakam Dharmahvii) Indian Navy - Shan No Varunahviii) Indian Air Force - Nabhah Sprisham Diptamix) Delhi University - Nistha Dhriti Satyamx) Life Insurance Corporation of India - Yogakshemam
Vahamyaham
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These ideals are ideals of the Hindu world. They do not convey
religious dogmas, therefore no rituals or gods are invoked in
them; they are civilisational values whose sanction comes from
deep humanism and a commitment to a righteous way of life.
They are noble virtues whose adoption was deemed to be
relevant for the future of modern India's democratic polity. The
Indian Constitution and the Indian polity pay their homage to the
ancient value systems of the Hindu way of life, and Hindutva.
Thus the interpretations of the higher judiciary of the land,
assigning the Hindu way or Hindutva to the centuries old socio-
cultural underpinnings of India are not an exercise of mere
juristic interpretation. It is more fundamentally the
acknowledgement of those social, cultural, ideational and
political norms that give the people and territory of India their
defining identity.
Inspite of the currently fashionable denial by the purveyors
of a warped secularism, the Hindu underpinning of India's milieu
have been vested with great significance by the leaders of the
freedom movement and has been subtly but insistently stated in
the structures of the democratic institutions set up by
Independent India. Our Constitution, our Parliament, our highest
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Judiciary, and other important organs of the state recognize
most clearly that the ultimate normative sources of inspiration
for shaping free India's destiny would remain the millennia old
heritage of Hindu ideals and civilisational concerns.
The founding fathers of India's political regime seem to have
had no doubt in their minds that India can remain a pluralistic
and democratic polity only to the extent that it adheres to the
fundamental values of a democratic and pluralistic Hindutva.
DEFINITION OF SECULARISM
Political parties which have been swearing by
'secularism' all these years, because of lop-sided
minorityism, have failed to persuade the masses that what
they advocate is good for country.
Secularism as defined and propagated today in India
has been reduced to minorityism or minority appeasement.
Only Hindus have to appease Muslims and Christians in
majority in pockets of India, or anywhere else in the world.
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The question today is not whether secularism is flawed
but whether we should conceptually redefine secularism to
make it acceptable to the masses in the country.
Such a re-defined concept must be harmonized with
concept of an Indian identity, which requires that India be
regarded as Hindustan, i.e., a nation of Hindus and those
other who proudly accept Hindus as their ancestors. In this
context, Indianness means 'Hindutva'. Thus, Indian identity
rests on two pillars: India as Hindustan and Indian-ness as
Hindutva.
In India, Jawaharial Nehru and his followers had given
the concept of secularism an anti-Hindu content. For
example, personal and inheritance laws would be legislated
for Hindus and subject to judicial review, but not for Muslims
and Christians.
In the name of secularism Nehru propagated that India
should ostracize Israel because otherwise the Muslims of
India would be offended. This was done at the cost of
national interest.
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Thus Manmohan Singh's "M virus' has its roots in
Nehruism. Even in public functions, cultural symbolism such
as lighting a lamp to inaugurate a conference or breaking a
coconut to launch a project was regarded as against
secularism.
A conceptual void thus will remain until we not only
reject minorityism but also develop a concept ofsecularisn
that is in harmony with the national imperative of Hindutva
and the nation as Hindustan.
To fill this void, we need to develop therefore a concept
of secularism by which an Indian citizen could comprehend
how he or she should bond "secularly" with another citizen
of a different religion, language or region and feel as a fellow
countrymen. The Indian instinctively cannot accept the idea
that India is what the British had put together, and that the
country was just a body administratively incorporated.
Instead, Bharat-Mata has a soul which Deendayal
Upadhyaya had called Chiti, which soul was not recognized
in Nehru's view. The ridiculous idea that India is a nation
fostered by British rule, propagated even today by
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Jawaharial Nehru University historians, finds just no takers
amongst the Indian people.
Only by using religious symbols can this void be filled.
India being 83 percent Hindu, and that the folklore in this
religion is pan-Indian, therefore it is easy for the masses of
all Hindustanis to understand religious bonding.
Ramayana narration traverses from the Punjab to
Srilanka. Mahabharata covers incidents from Assam to
Gujarat. Adi Shankara connected Kerala to Kashmir. This
not need alienate Muslims and Christians if they proudly
accept that their ancestors were Hindus. The problem arises
only if the Muslims and Christians identify themselves with
foreign invaders or as an international community
transcending national interests.
Minorityism has undesirable effect on national integrity.
For example, minorityism enables Muslim men to resist
family planning by making their women vulnerable to sudden
divorce, and hence not have voice in how many children
they will bear.
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Muslim men know that uniform civil code will never
come under a regime committed to minorityism. Christian
missionaries have now under minorityism got a free hand to
conduct money-induced religious conversion. They are not
bothered from where that money comes and what ethical
and moral norms they have to violate for it.
For example, Mother Theresa shocked the conscience
of all genuinely secular minded persons when she wrote
directly to Judge Lance Ito of Los Angeles Court on behalf of
a known fraud and embezzler Charles Keating who was
facing prosecution because he stole $252 million from
17,000 pensioners, retail stock holders and insurance
premiums by selling them bogus bonds of his company. He
had donated $5 million (Rs.25 crores) to Missionaries of
Charity, Kolkata headed by Mother Theresa, and that was
enough for her to write to Judge Ito directly asking him not
to convict Keating! Her words to Judge Ito were even more
astounding: "Please look into your heart as .you sentence
Charles Keating -and do what Jesus would do".
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(Extracted from Hitchens Christopher: The Missionary
Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice).
Of course, Mother Theresa felt no such moral
compulsion, ignored Turley and kept Keating's tainted and
stolen gift of $5 million.
Hence, we Hindus must learn today that in the name of
secularism and misinterpretation of 'vasudeva
kutambakkam' we do not fall prey to pious looking foreign
ladies dressed in saris and talking about a 'universal God'.
Remember, when Ravana came to abduct Sita, he came
dressed as a pious sanyasi, and not as his true self.
Likewise, minorityism is a recipe for national
disintegration and disaster. Capitulationist Hindus are
paving the way for this to happen. The only antidote is a
virat Hindutva.
The present UPA is hell bent on protecting the interests
of the Muslims and Christians by lop-sided minorityism.
In 2005 a group of Mizos were discovered by Jewish
scholars as a lost tribe. The Mizos also confirmed that their
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practices were Jewish but formally they were converted
forcibly to Christianity by British colonialists. They desired
to return to the Jewish faith. Therefore in November 2005
Israel decided to dispatch some Rabbis to Aizwal to conduct
the necessary re-conversion ceremonies.
But Dr.Manmohan Singh intervened on the direction of
Ms. Sonia Gandhi to ask the MEA to cancel the Rabbis' visa
and inform Israel that "Government of India does not
approve of such conversion activities".
In fact if Hindus have to accept reservations to Muslims
and Christians because their presumed discrimination and
deprivation, would Hindus be also justified in demanding
that Muslims and Christians atone for past atrocities
committed by their rulers on Hindus or alternatively, disown
their rulers, and declare themselves proudly as those whose
ancestors were Hindus.
Regrettably, Islamization begins when there are
sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious
privileges as Dr.Peter Hammond has observed in his many
writings.
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When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse
societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious
privileges, some of the other components tend to creep in as
well.
As long as Muslim population remains under 2%and the
non Muslim majority remains cohesive in any given country,
Muslims will be for the most part a 'peace-loving minority,
and not a threat to other citizens.This is the case in:
United States -- Muslim 0.6%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1.8%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic
minorities and disaffected groups, often with major
recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is
happening in:
Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
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ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of
Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they
tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about
their conditions. In Paris, we are already seeing car-
burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results
in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with
opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam.
Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim
sections, in:
Guyana -- Muslim10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 15%
After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger
rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the
burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues,
such as in:
Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%
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At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres,
chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as
in:
Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7% .
From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution
of non-believers of all other religions (including non-
conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide),
use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya, the tax placed on
infidels, such as in:
Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan --Muslim 70%
After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad,
some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide,
as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward
100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some
ways is on-going in:
Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
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Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of 'Dar-ul-Islam' -- the
Islamic House of Peace. Here there's supposed to be peace,
because everybody is a Muslim, Sharia is the only law, the
Madrassas are the only schools, and the Koran is the only
Holy dictum, in such nations as in:
Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
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Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 100%
Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these
100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate or kill the
less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons adduced on the
basis of the Shariat. We see this happening increasingly in
Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
It is important to understand that in some countries,
with well under 100% Muslim populations, such as France,
the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which
they are 100% Muslim, and within which they live by Sharia
Law.
The national police do not even enter these ghettos.
There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim
religious facilities. In such situations, Muslims do not
integrate into the community at large.
Some of the radical Muslim leaders especially in forums
where foreign journalists are usually present, proclaim
unabashedly that the Muslims in India are living in perpetual
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threat and are being treated as second class citizens in this
country.
If that were indeed so, these leaders need to explain
how over two crores Bangladeshi Muslims and over a lakh
Muslim immigrate into India illegally from Pakistan at the
risk of being killed by BSF or the Army at the border, and
another 80,000 Muslims who came from Pakistan on valid
visas and just vanished and got absorbed in India, gave up
their Free From Fear environment and first class
citizenship status in Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively
to court a life of perpetual fear and a status of second class
citizenship in India?
If it is the poverty of India then explain, as Konrad Elst
in his book [Indias Only Communalist] pertinently points out,
why successive UN reports on the State of the Arab
countries have documented how inspite of their God given
abundant oil wealth, they are hopelessly behind in
practically every respect of human endeavour: human rights,
gender equality, enterprises set up, original research
conducted, inventions patented, internet access per head,
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books published, sales per book foreign book translated,
etc. not to mention democracy.
Indeed therefore, religion-based quotas and reservation
is not certainly the cure for a backwardness which is not
imposed but caused by unsafeguarded and unregulated
educational system.
The lack of Hindu unity and the determined bloc voting
in elections by Muslims and Christians has however created
a significantly large leverage for these two religious
communities in economic, social and foreign policy making.
Thus, although uniform civil code is a Directive Principle of
State Policy in the Constitution, it is taboo to ask for it
because of this leverage.
It is not as if Muslims will not accept uniform laws
when it suits them, even if it is against the Shariat. For
example, Muslims accept uniform criminal code under the
IPC even though it infringes the Shariat,but resist uniform
civil code because it violates the Shariat. These
contradictions are permitted for Muslims by the Mullahs
because India is considered Darul Harab.
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Accordingly Muslim leadership deploys its leverage
where it is tactically advantageous. This leverage exists
despite the people of India who declare in the Census that
they are adherents of religions which were born on Indian
soil, that is Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains constituted
83.21% of the total Indian population (as of last Census in
2001).
In 1941, this proportion, adjusted for Partition, was
84.44%. But this figure hides the fact that Hindus resident in
undivided Pakistan have migrated to post- Partition India
which is why the share of Hindus and co-religionists have
barely reduced since 1941. In the area now called
Bangladesh, Hindus were 30% in 1941. In 2001 they are less
than 8%. In Pakistan of today, Hindus were 20% in 1941, and
less than 2% in 2001. Such religious cleansing has however
not been noticed by anybody in the world! When Hindus do
not care, why should the world take notice?
If the figures are adjusted for this migration, then in the
five decades 1951-2001, Hindus have lost more 3 percent
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points in share of Indian population, while Muslims have
increased their share by about 3%.
What is even more significant is that Hindus have lost
12% points since 1881, and the loss in share has begun to
accelerate since 1971 partly due to illegal migration of
Muslims from Bangladesh.
The current scenario of minority appeasement is that
Muslims and Christians together even though less than 16%
of the voters, vote en bloc. Hindus despite being over 83%
of the voters are hopelessly divided and amorphous. Hence
unless a Hindu bloc vote emerges, being at least 35% of the
83% minority appeasement will continue at Hindus cost.
The mother of all problems thus amongst Muslims is the
lack of secondary and higher levels of education among.
But let alone the Muslim women, even the literacy rates of
Muslim males is way below the national average. This is so
inspite of the fact that community wise, the percentage of
Muslims living in urban areas is 50% higher in comparison to
the percentage of Hindus, and the chances of obtaining
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higher education are more easily available to urban dwellers
as against the rural folks.
Thus much more than reservations as a cure, the
Muslim community in India must undergo a cultural
revolution to develop a healthy attitude to secular and
cognitive arts and sciences and to gender equality.
Reservations and quotas are not the right medicine for the
Muslim communitys current backwardness. A lioberal
outlook and a commitment to gender equality is.
More recently, Mr.Jonah Blank, an American journalist
curious about this Hindutva, took a journey in 1991-92 from
Ayodhya to Sri Lanka on the route taken by Lord Rama. He then
wrote a book about titled: Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God
Retracing the Ramayana Through India [published by the well
known Houghton Mifflin of Boston USA]. He writes:
Indias land may be ruled by aliens from time to time,
but never her mind, never her soul..... In the end, it is
always India that does the digesting" [p.217].
He concludes: But somehow a nebulous sense of
Indianness does exist, and it binds together Gujaratis,
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Orissans, to Nagas who might seem to have nothing at
all in common. Perhaps it is this elusive, undefinable
[yet very real] link that has allowed the sub-continent's
multitude of races to live in some rough semblance of
harmony for four thousand years[p.218].
Despite Blank's unthinking adherence to "facts" of Indian
history as written out by British colonialists, the reality of his
direct experiences from his travels in India makes him come to
the opposite conclusion to the British colonialists viz., India has
always existed because of the Indian-ness [read: Hindutva as
Substance}of the people.
In all the fleeting centuries of history holds
Dr.Radhakrishnan in his work on Indian Philosophy, in all the
vicissitudes, through which India has passed, a certain marked
identity is visible. It has held fast to certain psychological traits
which constitute its special heritage, and they will be the
characteristic marks of the Indian people so long as they are
privileged to have a separate existence.
If we can abstract from the variety of opinion
Dr.Radhakrishnan adds: and observe the general spirit of Indian
thought, we shall find that it has a disposition to interpret life
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and nature in the way of monistic idealism, though this tendency
is so plastic, living and manifold that it takes many forms and
expresses itself in even mutually hostile teachings.
This Hindu-ness or Hindutva has been our identifying
characteristic, by which we have been recognized world-wide.
Theterritory in which Hindus lived was known as Hindustan, i.e.,
a specific area of a collective of persons who are bonded
together by this Hindu-ness. The Salience thus was given
religious and spiritual significance by tirth yatra, kumbh mela,
common festivals, and in the celebration of events in the
Ithihasa,viz., Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Hindu Rashtra thus defined, is our nation that is a modern
Republic today, whose roots are also in the long unbroken Hindu
civilisational history. Throughout this history we were a Hindu
Republic and not a monarchy [a possible but weak exception
being Asoka's reign].
In this ancient Republican concept, the king did not make
policy or proclaim the law. The intellectually accomplished (but
not birth-based or determined) elite in the society, known as
Brahmans, framed the laws and state policy and the King (known
as Kshatriya) implemented it.
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Thus it was ordained:
I deem that country as the most virtuous land which
promotes the healthy and friendly combination of Brahma and
Kshattrapowers for an integrated upliftment of the society along
with the divine powers of the Gods of mundane power of the
material resources -Yajurveda XX-25.
Hindutva hence, is our innate nature, while Hindustan is our
territorial body, but Hindu Rashtra is our republican soul. Hindu
panth[religion] is however a theology of faith.
Even if an Indian has a different faith from a Hindu, he or she
can still be possessed of Hindutva. Since India was 100 percent
Hindu a millennium ago, the only way any significant group could
have a different faith in today's India is if they were converted
from Hindu faith, or are of those whose ancestors were Hindus.
Conversion of faith does not have to imply conversion to another
culture or nature.
Therefore, Hindutva can remain to be interred in a non-Hindu
in India. Hence, we can say that Hindustan is a country of Hindus
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and those others whose ancestors were Hindus. Acceptance
with pride this reality by non-Hindus is to accept Hindutva. Hindu
Rashtra is therefore a republican nation of Hindus and of those of
other faiths who have Hindutva in them. This formulation settles
the question of identity of the Hindustani or Indian.
We Indians have been waffling on the question of identity
now for over six decades. Time is at hand to rectify that waffle
by adopting an Agenda for Action to inculcate Hindutva as the
core of our identity. Its implementation requires political action.
This is the goal : to chart a road map for India that is Hindustan
to become a Hindu Rashtra based on inclusive Hindutva.
The greatest sage and sanyasi of the 20th century, namely
Chandashekharendra Sarasvati, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi
Kamakoti Mutt at Kanchipuram, TN, who is reverentially referred
to as the Parmacharya counseled the Indian leadership on
August 15, 1947 that: "having become free, we must translate
that freedom into independence".
Freedom is a physical attribute of a citizen's rights, such as
the right to a livelihood, the freedom of travel etc., while
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independence of a nation rests on the quality of the citizen's
thoughts such as his or her attitude to duties, morality, inter-
personal relations, social commitment, and nationalism.
This requires knowledge of the correct history of Hindustan
a common language and a healthy mindset to act for the benefit
of the nation. Hindutva embodies all these aspects.
Hindutva however has to be inculcated in our people from
values and norms that emerge out of Hindu renaissance, that is,
a Hindu theology which is shorn of the accumulated but
unacceptable baggage of the past as also by co-opting new
scientific discoveries, perceptions and by synergizing with
modernity.
This is the only way that Hindustan can become a modern
Hindu Rashtra, thus achieving independence after having
recovered our freedom [in 1947]as Parmacharya had wanted.
Hindu-ness of outlook on life had been called Hindutva by
Swami Vivekananda also and Hindutva's political perspective
was subsequently developed by Veer Savarkar. Deendayal
Upadhaya briefly dealt with the concept of Hindutva when he
wrote about chiti in his seminal work: Integral Humanism. The
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focus of all three profound thinkers is the multi-dimensional
development of the Hindus as an individuals harmonizing
material needs with spiritual advancement and which needs then
have to be aggregated and synchronized to foster a united
community on the collective concept of Hindutva.
Swami Vivekananda defined Hindutva, upon returning from
Chicago in 1896 in an address in Lahore as follows:
Mark me, then and then alone you are a Hindu when
the very name Hindu sends through you a galvanic
shock of strength. Then and then alone you are a Hindu
when every man and woman who bears the name Hindu,
from any country, speaking our language or any other
language, becomes at once the nearest and dearest to
you. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when the
distress of anyone bearing the name Hindu comes to
your heart and makes you fell as if your own son or
daughter were in distress [Collected Works,vol 3, page
379].
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Paraphrasing what Veer Savarkar had said, the following is
what he said enlightened Hindus need to tell India's minorities
and others:
If you come along with us, then with you.If you do not, then
without you. If you oppose us, then inspite of you.Hindutva shall
prevail.
And Deendayal Upadhyaya outlined how to modernize the
concepts of Hindutva as follows:
We have to discard the status quomentality and usher
in a new era. Indeed our efforts at reconstruction need
not be clouded by prejudice or disregard for all that is
inherited from our past. On the other hand, there is no
need to cling to past institutions and traditions which
have outlived their utility. This is the essence of
renaissance.
Thus, we should invite Muslims and Christians to join us
Hindus on the basis of common ancestry or even seek their
return if it is acceptable to them [Ghar vapasi] to our fold as
Hindus, in this grand endeavour as Hindustanis, on the substance
of our shared and common ancestry.
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It is worthy of notice that, recognizing this limitation, Hindu
spiritual leaders in the past have from time to time come forward
to rectify it, whenever the need arose e.g., as the Sringeri
Shankaracharya did by founding the Vijayanagaram dynasty or
Swami Ramdas did with Shivaji and the Mahratta campaign.
Such involvement of sanyasisis required even more urgently
today. Following the lead taken in 1964 by Guru Golwalkar, the
Sarsanghachalak of RSS, to bring the Sadhus and sanyasis, into a
forum for which the VHP was founded.
The VHP has since engaged in mobilization of the sants and
sadhus through the Dharma Sansad, and now in the Dharma
Raksha Manch for social action, which has become crucial for
our spiritual consolidation. In fact, this is the real substance of
India as Swami Vivekananda had aptly put it when he stated
that: "National union of India must be a gathering up of its
scattered spiritual forces. A Nation in India must be a union of
those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.... The
common ground that we have is our sacred traditions, our
religion. That is the only common ground... upon that we shall
have to build".
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Hence, the essentiality of Hinduism, or alternatively the core
quality of being a Hindu, which we may call as our Hindu-ness
[i.e., Hindutva], is that theologically there is no danger of
Hindutva, or the advocacy of the same, of ever degenerating into
fundamentalism. In fact, so liberal, sophisticated, and focused on
inward evolution is Hindu theology, that in a series of Supreme
Court judgments, various Constitutional Benches found it hard
even to define Hinduism and Hindutva as anything but a way of
life, as we discover from an useful review of these judgments by
Bal Apte MP [in Supreme Court on Hindutva: India First
Foundation, 2005].
The danger lies in not blending Hindutva individuality with
the collective determination to defend Hinduism against the
multi-faceted threats its focus today. But we Hindus must invite
Muslims and Christians to join in this grand endeavour of forging
a virile identity on the basis of our shared and common
ancestors. Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis are already with
us Hindus, and we are with them. Let us on this principle of
Hindutva form a new Brihad Virat Akhand Hindustan.
The identity of Indian is thus Hindustani; our nation a Hindu
Rashtra i.e., a republican nation of Hindus and those others [non-
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Hindus] who proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were
Hindus.
Itis this acknowledgement that remains pending today.We
can accept Muslims and Christians as part of our Hindustani
family when they proudly acknowledge this fact of common
ancestry and accept furthermore that change religion does not
require change of culture.
Thus the cultural identity of India is undeniably, immutably,
and obviously its Hindu-ness, that is Hindutva. A de-falsified
Indian history would leave no one in doubt about it.
The Hindu consciousness that is needed today therefore is
that which encompasses the willingness and determination to
collectively defend the faith from the erosion that is being
induced by the disconnect with our glorious past through history
books.
That is, by a failure to usher a renaissance after 1947 India
has lost her opportunity to cleanse the accumulated dirt and
unwanted baggage of the past. The nation missed a chance to
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Hindus are being lulled, while Muslims and Christians are
being subject to relentless propaganda that they are different,
and are citizens of India as would be a shareholder in a company
that is run for profit, and not as those who are descendents of
Hindus, and a product of conversion and force, and that they too
have a duty to perform in protecting Hindu culture.
But, if this degeneration and disconnect are not rectified
and repaired by a resolve to unite people, the Indian nation may
go into a tail spin and ultimately fade away like other
civilizations, like Greece and Egypt, have for much the same
reason.
To resist this siege, we need Hindutva. Numbers [of those
claiming to be adherents to Hinduism] do not matter in today's
information society. It is the durability and clarity of the Hindu
mindset and quality of commitment to Hinduness of those who
unite that matters in the forging of an instrument to fight this
creeping danger and bring forth a renaissance of Hindustan as
i t ti d l b l