Rahul is a Gandhian Hindu, Not a Takfiri Hindu

Targeting Rahul Gandhi for visiting the Somnath Temple reflects BJP’s insecurities with respect to hindu vote bank.

(Photo: Lijumol Joseph/ The Quint)

Sudheendra Kulkarni praises the soon-to-be Congress president’s visits to Somnath and other temples in Gujarat, and decries the BJP’s dangerous dalliance with takfirism that’s making extremist Muslims attack their own co-religionists as non-Muslim.

Takfirism is not a word that has become widely known in the public discourse in India. But it surely will. As Hindu fanaticism becomes shriller in India, imitating the ways and views of Muslim fanaticism all around the world, the discourse on secularism, communal harmony and national integration will have to study both local and global trends more seriously and with a keener eye on the sources of bigotry.

Takfirism: Sub-Branch of Salafism

Takfirism derives from Arabic language and Islamic history in which some Muslims began declaring a fellow Muslim of being a non-Muslim, impure, hypocrite and a kafir (unbeliever), if, in their judgment, the latter was seen to be violating the basic tenets of Islam.

Forming a sub-branch of Salafism, which itself preaches a very strict and narrow interpretation of Islam, Takfiris denounce anything and everything that they think is a form of worship besides that of Allah.

Hence, they denounce the common Muslim practice in many countries of offering prayers at the shrines of Sufi saints which is regarded as un-Islamic.

Not content with declaring fellow Muslims to be non-Muslim, Takfiris try to violently suppress the latter’s right to follow their beliefs and modes of worship. They also target governments in Muslim countries that do not rule according to their version of the Sharia law.

Examples in history abound, but let’s look at the ones in our own times. Egyptian authorities have accused Takfiris of perpetrating the horrific terrorist attack on a Sufi mosque in Sinai last month, which killed 305 people. ISIS attacks on the syncretic (Sunni-Shia, Muslim-Christian) heritage of Iraq and Syria are guided by the Takfiri mindset.

In Tunisia, Takfirs have regularly issued fatwas against their opponents and even carried out assassinations of prominent politicians and public figures. In 2014, Tunisia’s new Constitution criminalised the practice of Takfir, the first country in the Arab world to do so.

Takfirisation of Pakistan

What should particularly worry us are the violent manifestations of Takfiri violence in India’s own neighbourhood. In February this year, a suicide bomber attacked the famous Sufi shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan in Sindh, killing over 100 devotees.

In his article ‘Takfirisation of Pakistan’, Liaquat Ali Khan, a US-based scholar, writes:

Small-minded versions of Islam have fanaticised Pakistan – an antediluvian land with deep interfaith roots leavened with the teachings of Hindu Swamis, Buddhist Monks, Sikh Gurus, and Muslim Sufis – into a ghastly country. Stories are frightening. Few days ago, a native Christian couple, accused of desecrating the Qur’an, was thrown into a brick kiln and <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1142612">burned alive</a> while a crowd of over a thousand villagers participated in the rite.

In 2010, two <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/857837/ahmadis-claim-95-killed-in-lahore-attack">Ahmadi mosques in Lahore</a> were attacked with guns and grenades, killing 94 people. Around 5000 <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/700550/pakistani-hindus-seek-safety-in-india">Hindus leave</a> the Sindh province of Pakistan every year as their holy books and temples are burnt. <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/5000-Hindus-flee-Pak-every-year-due-to-persecution/articleshow/35084313.cms">Hindu women are abducted</a>, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to the kidnappers. Non-Muslims are not the only victims of hateful fanaticism. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-16047709">Muslim on Muslim violence</a> is also escalating as Shias kill Sunnis and Sunnis kill Shias. Behind religious violence in Pakistan is the rise of Takfiri mindset, which sees Islam through a narrow keyhole of self-righteousness and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25449796">accuses the world of apostasy</a>.

Liaquat Ali Khan, US-based scholar

(Infographic: The Quint)

Khan further says:

Gradually, Pakistan has been metamorphosed into Takfiri hatred. First, they have turned anti-India to gain legitimacy with the patriotic armed forces. Second, they have opened hundreds of primary schools to teach their ‘true Islam’ to children, including Afghan refugees. Third, they promote the ideology that Pakistan was carved out of India for the sole divine purpose of advancing ‘true Islam’ in the Subcontinent and beyond.

For Takfiri Hindus, Secularism has become ‘Sickularism’

Takfirism has so far not raised its ugly head in India, primarily because of the strong and widespread roots of pluralism, syncretism and tolerance in matters of faith and worship in our civilization.

But are we now seeing the rise of Hindu ‘Takfirs’? Are we witnessing the beginning of a trend in which majoritarian fanatics will decide who is a Hindu and who is not a Hindu?

It is obvious, and also unsurprising, that they are all supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Since May 2014, they have become particularly vocal. As cow vigilantes they have violently targeted Muslims. They have adjudged ‘secularism’, which is a preambular principle and commitment in the Indian Constitution, to be anti-Hindu, and maligned it as ‘sickularism’.

Emboldened by the absence of strong and consistent condemnation of their acts by top BJP-RSS leaders, they brazenly resort to abusive and hateful language on social media to troll fellow Hindus ─ not to speak of showing their bigotry towards non-Hindus. They do not hesitate to declare those Hindus as “enemies of Hindus” if the latter do not agree to support ‘Hindutva’, which, like Islamism in Muslim countries, is a political ideology to impose majoritarian rule in India.

What Right Does BJP Have to Ask Rahul Gandhi to Prove He's a Hindu?

When religion is thus used ─ rather, misused ─ to gain advantage in political rivalry and power games, the rise of Hindu ‘Takfirism’ becomes inevitable. We saw this a few days ago in Gujarat when Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice-president and soon-to-be its president, was campaigning for his party in the upcoming state assembly elections.

When he visited the historic Dwarkadhish Temple and the Somnath Temple, ‘Takfiri’ BJP spokesmen ludicrously asked him to declare that he is not a “non-Hindu”. All kinds of irrelevant issues, such as his mother’s faith and his grandfather’s faith, have been raised. What right do they have to question his Hindu belief when he offers prayers in Hindu temples as all Hindus do? Who are they to ask him to declare himself as a Hindu?

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi pays obeisance at Somnath Temple in Gujarat on 29 November, 2017.(Photo: IANS)

Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not lent his voice to this needless controversy, he has, quite unfortunately, brought the history of the post-Independence reconstruction of Somnath Temple into the Gujarat election campaign. Taking a dig at Rahul’s visit to the temple, Modi, without taking any name, said:

If Sardar Patel was not there, the temple in Somnath would never have been possible. Today some people are remembering Somnath. I have to ask them: Have they forgotten their history? Our first prime minister was not happy with the idea of a temple being built there.

It is not necessary here to go into the history of how the Somnath Temple was repeatedly attacked and pillaged by Mahmood Ghazni in the 11th century, how this fanatic Muslim invader broke Hindu idols, how devout Hindus tried to rebuild it again and again, how it was once again reconstructed in its present shape after India gained freedom, and how India’s first President Rajendra Prasad inaugurated it and ceremonially installed the jyotirlingam.

Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel’s role in the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple was undoubtedly pivotal. Jawaharlal Nehru had his reservations, not because he was anti-Hindu but he did not want the Indian government to be associated with rebuilding the temple. Even Mahatma Gandhi said at the time that the temple should be rebuilt with people’s contributions and not out of government’s funds.

What is pertinent to our present discussion is only this: Even if Nehru was not entirely right in the Somnath Temple matter, and even if Patel deserves credit for its reconstruction, why object to Rahul offering prayers there? If Modi thinks Nehru was wrong, shouldn’t he actually welcome the fact that Rahul’s visit to Somnath marks the closure of a certain chapter in its history?

BJP Is Worried That Its 'Hindu Votebank' May Shrink

The real reasons behind the BJP raking up this controversy are different, and they stem from a sense of fear at the changing political situation in Gujarat and across the country. Unlike his mother Sonia Gandhi, but much like his grandmother Indira Gandhi, Rahul has been regularly visiting Hindu temples in different parts of India, both during election and non-election times.

(Infographic: The Quint)

This has obviously alarmed the BJP leadership. Creation and consolidation of the ‘Hindu votebank’ has become the cornerstone of the BJP’s electoral strategy in the post-2014 era, even though the party has historically decried its opponents’ strategy to use Muslims as a “votebank”. The party’s top leaders and foot-soldiers routinely paint the Congress as an “anti-Hindu” party.

Rahul Gandhi has introduced a much-needed course correction by conveying to India’s majority community that he is not anti-Hindu. His regular visits to Hindu temples is a part of this strategy, but it is also more than a political strategy. I know for certain that he has been making an effort to seriously study Hinduism and other faith traditions.

In matters of religion ─ its true meaning and purpose ─ and also in many other matters, Rahul is genuinely influenced by the life and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi invokes Gandhiji only in the context of the Swachh Bharat Mission, Rahul’s respect for, and interest in, the Father of the Nation is far more comprehensive.

As a matter of fact, no Indian in modern times embodied and practiced the true spirit of Hinduism by showing genuine and equal respect for all faiths as the Mahatma. It is pertinent here to remember that a ‘Takfiri’ Hindu assassinated the Mahatma because Godse regarded Gandhiji as anti-Hindu.

The Danger Takfirism Poses to Hinduism and India

Of course, we must acknowledge that Hindu ‘Takfirs’ have not become as extremist and violent as Muslim ‘Takfirs’, and this is because of the robust tradition of tolerance and diversity in Hinduism. Even atheists, who are the true unbelievers, have freedom in Hinduism and are accepted as Hindus. For example, Charvaka, an avowed atheist, is honoured as a Rishi in the Hindu tradition.

It is necessary to safeguard this fine and precious tradition, not only for the sake of multi-religious India but also for today’s globalised world, in which all the faiths and cultures on the planet are coming closer than ever before and, hence, are required to live in harmonious co-existence.

What is the danger to India if we fail to defend and safeguard secularism? I ask myself this question as a proud and patriotic Indian. What is the danger to Hinduism if Hindus fail to protect and further strengthen their age-old tradition of religious tolerance, freedom, mutual respect and peaceful co-existence? I ask myself this question as a devout and proud, but also a deeply concerned, Hindu.

To understand the real and present danger to both India and Hinduism, I again turn to the cautionary description of what is happening in Pakistan, as expressed in the words of Liaquat Ali Khan:

Since its establishment in 1947, Pakistan has been moving away from its time-tested traditions of universal love toward the troubling creed of targeted hatred. Tolerance, compassion, pluralism, diversity, forgiveness, kindness, and sweetness are no longer the supreme values of Islam – a great world religion. The Takfiri mindset of exclusion, persecution, and hard-heartedness is poisoning the cultures and communities of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The Takfiri mindset will further drive Pakistan into poverty, violence, sectarian warfare, and international isolation. The people of Pakistan, its intellectuals, teachers, political leaders, lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and the media houses need to wake up and begin to encounter the Takfiri mindset.

What is currently happening in Pakistan is a warning that India, and Hindus, can ignore at their own peril.

Also Read: BJP’s Critique of Secularism & Socialism in Constitution is Hollow

(The writer, who was an aide to India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. He can be reached @SudheenKulkarni . This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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