By Roshni / Madras Courier

Markandeya Katju, the retired Supreme Court judge, time and again opposes the BJP. He frequently writes opinion editorials chastising the party. In one article, written in The Wire, he criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for not observing law and order. In another, he mourned the vilification of Muslims as a whole–and Tablighi Jamat members in particular–by the “communalists” during the firstwave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Katju even admitted that he observes  Ramzan. Yet, the man subscribes to the idea of ‘Akhand Bharat’ propagated by the BJP.

The concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’ was brought forth by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a rightwing ideologue, in the 1920s. Savarkar, a proponent of Hindutva, promoted the idea in jail before he was released in 1924. By 1937, he was actively propagating the idea of Akhand Bharat in public gatherings. Addressing the Hindu Mahasabha, he said: We must declare, as an ideal at any rate, that Hindusthan of tomorrow must be one and indivisible not only a united but a unitarian nation, from Kashmir to Rameshwar, from Sindh to Assam.

Savarkar said he wanted Indians to gain freedom from the British. However, after he was arrested for possessing arms, he begged the British to have mercy on him. In jail, he had no interest in supporting the freedom movement. Instead, in his letters, the Hindutva ideologue heaped praises upon the British government. He even agreed to not participate in politics until the government deems it right for him to do so. One would give him the benefit of doubt and say that the flowery words saved for the British were just to get out of
prison. Once he was out, he would have the same vigour for freedom as he did earlier. Yet this was not the case. Savarkar continued to pander to the British colonialists while spreading the idea of Akhand Bharat.

It was his strong belief that Kashmir was in the wrong for demanding a separate state. The President of Jammu and Kashmir Conference asked Savarkar to support the Muslims in
their region through the Hindu Mahasabha. However, Savarkar did not agree to support the Conference, as it went against his idea of ‘Akhand Bharat.’ In one statement he questioned how organisations “in Kashmir or outside who contribute to the Pakistani creed, declare that they want to secede from the Indian state and can therefore owe no loyalty to the Central Indian Government,” demanded favours from the Government.

Akhand Bharat does not only involve India. It involves all of the countries present in
the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). This would include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan along with India.

It also includes Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. The ideology does ask for an India based on geo-political boundaries, but for one that connects Hindu ritualistic places. Accordingly, Hindutva groups would want all places with significance in Hindu mythology to come together and create one land. Since this cannot, by and large, be achieved, their focus is narrowed down to unifying Pakistan and Bangladesh with India. This is the idea Marakandey Katju supports.

Katju’s ideas of ‘Akhand Bharat’ is different from that of the Hindutva ideologues. The former judge believes that if India, Pakistan and Bangladesh come together under one secular regime, like in the days of Akbar, there will only be peace and progress. The Hindutva ideologues believed in the assimilation of Muslims and Christians into
Hinduism. For instance, M.S Golwalkar, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue, popularly known as the “guru of hate,” said:

The ultimate vision of our work is a perfectly organized ‘State of Society’ wherein each
individual has to be moulded into a model of ideal Hindu manhood and made it into a living
limb of the corporate personality of the society.

This is flawed logic. Pakistan and Bangladesh were created because the Muslim League supported the Two-Nation Theory. According to this theory, the Hindus and the Muslims wouldnot be able to live together. After the arrival of the British,Hinduism wasbeing
promoted and Muslims were being pushed to be second-class citizens. Asthe British author William Hunter noted in his book IndianMusalman.

Now all sorts of employment, high or low,great or small are being gradually snatchedaway from the Mohammedans [Muslims], andgiven to other races, particularly Hindus. 
The Muslims, who were discriminated upon, weren’t ready toassimilate then. Much less now when Indian Muslims fear genocide.

During the time of Akbar, secularism came about because ofsyncretism. People celebrated Holi and Diwali just like theycelebrated Eid-ul-Fitr and Bakri-Id. However, Katju blamesthe British for the divide. But people like Golwalkar andSavarkar who envisioned a Hindu India withoutacknowledging the Muslims and the Christians, assumingthem to readily accept the Hindu state, are just as complicit.These people sowed the seeds of hate and communalism thatmanifested into the bringing down of Babri Masjid, theMalegaon blasts, the Gujarat riots, the Muzzafarnagar riots,and the Delhi progrom. None of these can be blamed on theBritish. Savarkar supported the British, but his hatred forMuslims existed when he was as young as 12.

‘Akhand Bharat’, thus, is an idea that came from a man whowas evidently a supporter of the British. However, the flawedidea is impossible to achieve in today’s India. Yet the BJPcontinues to use it for its propaganda. The Uttar Pradesh CMYogi Adityanath recently said that when people from India,Pakistan and Bangladesh go to Hajj, the people
there count them as Hindu. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP), a Hindutva outfit that supports the BJP, believes thatPakistan’s Independence Day should be celebrated as ‘Akhand Bharat Diwas.’

Most people know that ‘Akhand Bharat’ is a flawed idea. Giventhat India and Pakistan are two nuclear states, it is practicallyimpossible to attain an “Akhand Bharat.” It is an idea thatposes significant threats to India’s national security, adiplomatic headache. But it is certainly a tool to alienateIndia’s Muslims, a weapon to box them as second classcitizens. The idea of Akhand Bharat, there fore, is merely a toolfor propagdanda. Nothing more.

This article first appeared on madrascourier.com