OPINION | India’s civilisational journey is complicated; neat demarcations are ahistorical

India’s power structures remain unequal. (Photo: Rana Safvi)

National Security Advisor of India Ajit Doval last week called upon youth to "avenge history" to be able to 'take India to the place where it can make itself a great Bharat". Doval's appeal came at a programme in New Delhi, when he was addressing an audience at 'Viksit Bharat Young Leaders' Dialogue'.

The appeal, however, was dripping with dangerous overtones of sanctity for the kind of civilisational reconstruct India's Hindu Right is rolling out through its political and social power structures.

Civilisational “injustice” is double-edged

At the same time, it also either conveniently glosses over the other story of civilisational injustice that ran parallel to the one Doval referred to, or possibly inadvertently invites a counter that potentially punctures his simplistic argument.

The argument

First, let's look at how Doval actually phrased his enunciation. "Our civilisation was decimated, our temples were destroyed and we watched it helplessly as mute spectators. History poses a challenge to us. Every youth should have this fire in him that we have to take revenge of history," he said.

Doval also punctuates in the middle of narration that revenge is not a good word but "revenge carries its own power".

He then goes on to say, "we didn't destroy anyone's temples, we didn't invade anyone. But we remained indifferent to our own security and hence history taught us a lesson. It will be biggest tragedy if we forget that lesson."

All of what Doval has said has been part of India's Hindutva narrative for long. But the "revenge" part of it had been carefully left explicitly unsaid.

The increasing harassment and victimisation of Muslims and other minorities since 2014 and right-wing sponsored vigilante violence clearly show how the Sangh Parivar and its inspired vigilante groups are going about exacting that "civilisational revenge" without uttering the 'R' word.

Layered history of Indian civilisation

But was the story of Indian civilization unidimensional? Was it only of foreign invaders conquering the throne of power and subjugating vast masses of Hindus as their subjects?

What about the internal invasion and subjugation of vast Hindu masses by Hindu social elites, who had stratified the Hindu society where they remained at the privileged top even as 90 percent of Hindus were condemned to a miserable life as second-class subjects through an inhuman stranglehold of Manusmriti-ordained social hierarchy?

Nowhere else in the world were followers of one particular religion inflicted with such torture by their own socio-religious co-habitants in the name of "scientific classification of society", called Varna system that later further degenerated into possibly the worst form of inhuman regimen the world has ever seen, like it happened in Hinduism.

The "civilisational wrongs" that Doval talks about is clearly a Hindu elite construct since they are the ones who had lost primacy due to outsiders like Mughals and British seizing power in the several Hindu kingdoms that existed then and later by bringing them under a unified central command.

Did anything change for the masses?

For the vast Hindu masses, slavery had only changed hands from the Hindu elites to the outsiders, who only completed the enslavement by pushing even the Hindu elites below.

Interestingly, even in the new socio-political structure that came up as a result of outsiders' rule, true to their well-heeled elite instincts, the privileged minority among Hindus acquiesced to their superseding by new political elites, serving as their officers and military commanders.

If at all the blame has to be fixed for this enslavement of Hindu multitudes, then it can be laid squarely at the doorsteps of the Hindu elite because they held the reins of all the power- political, economic and socio-religious.

Clearly, revenge (against invaders) is a narrative created by, and dear to, Hindu elites.

Contemporary India cannot be built on negativity

That said, revenge can't be a way to go for any civilised society. And Doval agrees, but hastens to add that revenge has its own power.

He, however, doesn't spell out how this revenge has to be taken. Do we now go to the places of origin of those "outsiders" and subjugate them?

But what case now remains against the present-day Muslims for the "wrongdoing" of their forefathers? They are no more social elites. On the contrary, Hindus are back in command and Muslims in India are among the most underprivileged citizens

In sharp contrast, while Hindus as a whole have regained their pride of place vis-a-vis Muslims, can the same be said of the vast majority of backward Hindus vis-a-vis Hindu elites? Have they come to be treated as equals after all?

The answer is an emphatic no.

India’s power structures remain unequal

The Hindu elite continues to reign disproportionately in the power structures. While this was always the case even during Congress rule, it was more due to the social inertia propelled by centuries of elite domination than by any conscious design.

Now, a well-orchestrated resurgence of Brahmanical order is once again threatening to put the clock of social justice back.

The recent case of not allowing BR Ambedkar’s statue to be erected in a Gwalior court premise is a striking example.

So, if at all, where does the case for revenge lie? Against Muslims who have long lost their ruling class status or against the Hindu elites who continue to relegate and discriminate against their own fraternity?

An Urdu Nazm goes in the following way: baat nikalegi to door talak jaayegi (the narrative will return to haunt you).

The path of revenge is disastrous.

(Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.)