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View User Profile View User Postings Chatmandude Please log in to subscribe to Chatmandude's postings. Posted on 06-01-06 9:24 AM     Reply [Subscribe]

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Defending Secularism in Nepal - By Uday Bajracharya (eKantipur.com) While the recent declaration of Nepal as a secular state has been widely welcomed by various political, ethnic and religious communities, India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its sister organisations, the ‘Sangh Parivar’ have been reported to be unhappy about it. Hindu activists, mainly under the leadership of Bharat Keshar Simha’s World Hindu Federation (WHF) have protested against the move in Birgunj and certain other parts of Nepal. The Indian chapter of WHF has staged similar protests in some parts of India. MPs in Nepal have been demanding action against the Hindu fundamentalists and the Home Minister has promised strong action against anti-secular activities. The Prime Minister has taken up the matter with the King, alleging involvement of royalists in orchestrating anarchy in various parts of the country. A four member political delegation from Nepal has met the BJP leadership in Delhi. In order to ensure peaceful transition to secularism and to defend it from regressive forces uniting under the banner of Hinduism, it is important to understand more about Hindu fundamentalist forces in Nepal and their relationship with such forces in India. WHF has close ties with BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of India. For instance, WHF has Ashok Singhal of VHP as one of its patrons and a BJP MP Yogi Adityanath leads the Indian chapter of WHF. Although WHF was formed 25 years ago and has its chapters in several countries, its main strength comes from its association with the Sangh Parivar of India, which has the largest non-communist organisation in the world. There has been a phenomenal rise of Hindu nationalism in India during the past few decades. Many Hindus in India have strong reasons to be angry about their own secularism. A quick look at the history of India shows that the Muslim invasion of India had led to widespread destruction of temples and forcible conversion of people to Islam. Those who didn’t agree to conversion had to flee their land or be punished harshly. Then came the British rule and the partition of 1947. A predominantly Muslim state of Pakistan (including what is now Bangladesh) was created on the insistence of the Muslims despite opposition from Gandhi and his secular Indian National Congress. The process involved large-scale violence resulting in the deaths of up to a million people, according to some estimates. It also involved the largest migration of population in human history. Millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Sindhis fled to India from what is now Pakistan, so did millions of Muslims the other way. Similarly millions of Hindus fled their homes in East Bengal (later East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) to West Bengal and a far lesser number of Muslims fled the other way. People went through suffering on an unprecedented scale in the form of loss of life and property, missing relatives, massive displacement and so on. The victims of partition include India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leader of the opposition L.K.Advani of BJP (both born in what is now Pakistan) and Pakistan’s President Musarraf (born in Delhi). When the dust of partition finally settled down, Hindus in India realised that while most Hindus and Sikhs had left Pakistan, a large number of Muslims had remained in India (India currently has almost as many Muslims as the whole population of Pakistan!). A democratic and secular India protected this “minority” Muslim population in various ways, while Pakistan became an Islamic republic (later Bangladesh too). Quite understandably, Hindus in India felt cheated. As a result, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu fundamentalist for “appeasing” the Muslims. India and Pakistan have fought several wars and countless Hindu-Muslim riots have occurred in India since 1947. This resulted in the rise of Hindu nationalism in India. The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist outfit, which had been operating clandestinely, founded a political wing called Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). Jana Sangh used to be active mostly in Delhi where most Hindus and Sikhs had migrated from Pakistan and they used to hold just a handful of seats in the parliament for many years. However in the following decades, the transformation of RSS and Jana Sangh was phenomenal. BJP, its name changed from BJS in 1980, not only started ruling in some states, but also succeeded in coming to power in the central government in 1996 until the present Congress government replaced them in 2004. Similarly, RSS expanded its “Sangh Parivar” to various organisations such as VHP, Bajrang Dal (Youth wing of VHP), Durga Vahini (Female arm of Bajrang Dal), etc. VHP was formed as the religious wing of RSS, specifically for handling the Ayodhya issue (Ram Janambhumi/Babri Masjid) and to spread “Hindutva” in the world. Proclamation of a Hindu Rastra, denying Kashmir special status, denying Muslims any special rights and forcing them to accept Hinduism (or sending them where they belong, i.e. Pakistan) are among the objectives of VHP. RSS/VHP were responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 and are suspected of the Gujarat riots of 2002. RSS has been banned several times in India. VHP is spread all over the world. They have a special interest in Nepal because it was the only Hindu Kingdom in the world. They look at the King of Nepal as the Hindu Samrat (Emperor). One may understand their interest in maintaining Nepal a Hindu state, but one can’t understand why they should support a monarchy in Nepal, the decision of which should be left to the people of Nepal. BJP/VHP has to remember that they are against secularism in India because of the wrongs done by Muslim invaders, the unfair deal that they got during the partition of 1947 and the “appeasement” of Muslims by secular India. They are basically rising up against past injustices done to them. However, if they oppose secularism in Nepal, they would be supporting the injustice done to the people of Nepal. It was King Prithvi Narayan Shah and his successors who forcibly converted the people that they conquered into Hinduism. These people had been following various forms of Buddhism, Animism and other local religions. Much later, when there was no more land to be conquered, the modern kings started practicing state nationalism by using one religion (Hinduism) and one language (Nepali) to rule over the people of Nepal, thus suppressing its immense ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. BJP/VHP are justifiably angry at forced conversion of Hindus by Muslims in the past, but in Nepal, it had been a case of forced conversion by the Hindus. Moreover, BJP/VHP believes in Hindutva, according to which Buddhists along with Sikhs and Jains are to be treated as Hindus. In the case of Nepal, it is mainly the Buddhists that have been asking for secularism. Buddhism and Hinduism have co-existed extremely well in Nepal for centuries. Secularism only means freedom from dominance of one religion by another. On the other hand, the secularists in Nepal have to understand that many Hindus in India are angry with Muslims, and justifiably so. The mainly Buddhist secularists in Nepal must remember that Buddhism is close to Hinduism, not Islam. Buddha is considered one of Vishnu’s incarnations. Even the Hindu fundamentalists consider Buddhism as part of Hindutva. Buddhists mustn’t join hands with Muslims against the Hindus even if they feel wronged by the Hindus. If they did, it will be like Subhas Chandra Bose joining hands with Hitler’s Germany against the British. It was however Gandhi, not Bose, who supported the British and got independence for India after the war. In conclusion, the people of Nepal have to understand that the path to secularism is not going to be easy. Certain sections of the community that had been benefiting from Nepal being a Hindu state may well resist the change. The secularists mustn’t see the recent event as a ‘victory’ over Hinduism because secularism is not anti-Hinduism. They must avoid celebrating it because this may annoy the Hindus, which may push them into the camp of the fundamentalists and the regressive forces that may try to fish in the troubled waters. Should this happen, the gains of the recent people’s movement may once again be lost. View/Share this post only

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View User Profile View User Postings Chatmandude Please log in to subscribe to Chatmandude's postings. Posted on 06-01-06 9:27 AM     Reply [Subscribe]

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Ooops!! sorry about the underlining. View/Share this post only

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