Curiously, its dire straits prevail in an India where loud Hindu aggression has been rising for several decades topped by a regime whose members had, until very recently, stopped bothering to disguise their open hatred for Muslims and Christians.
Image: (Debayan Dutta, Namita Chauhan, The Quint)

By RAHUL DEV / The Quint

From firing pistol shots at Gandhi’s picture in a room to showing Goddess Durga slaying Gandhi–the demon in a public Pujo pandal by the Kolkata Hindu Mahasabha, it’s a natural progression. There is hardly anything new about what the Mahasabha stands for. Such attention-grabbing events provide it with a bit of oxygen for survival in public consciousness. Otherwise, the outfit is a pale shadow of its past having lost all relevance, leadership, cadre or a structure.

It survives only as a small, scattered bunch of empty hotheads with no toehold in any territory but a few occasional minutes on TV debates and a few centimeters in newspapers, and now in online news portals. It has nothing to offer to India or to Hindus by way of a coherent, clear vision, ideology, organisation, blueprint or a roadmap for the future.

Controversies like the Kolkata pandal are desperate acts of garnering some public and media notice. How much they deserve to be taken seriously is a moot point.

What is interesting though is that the Hindu Mahasabha of Savarkar and Madan Mohan Malaviya of yore should find itself in such socio-political penury. Nearly a century ago, it was a force of the Hindu right with some stalwarts leading it in various parts of the country.

Curiously, its dire straits prevail in an India where loud Hindu aggression has been on the ascendance for several decades topped by a regime whose powerful members had, until very recently, even stopped bothering to disguise their open hatred for Muslims and Christians.

Hindu Sabha’s Polarising Rituals

It’s only claim to fame or notoriety is Nathuram Godse and to a very limited sense, Savarkar. Now that Godse has emerged as a social media trending character around every Gandhi Jayanti, the Mahasabha awakes from stupor and feels the pressure to do such idiotic things to tell people that it exists.

This pantomime is an annual ritual as meaningless and ephemeral as a bubble. It suits empty headed, hate-filled semi-literate Hindu youth as it gives them a sense of worth and significance however vacuous these may be.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) never took it seriously and never allowed the Mahasabha to share either the stage or the sole claim on the Hindu consciousness. Whatever little relevance and recall the Mahasabha was left with for a few decades after Independence or until Savarkar was alive, was lost as the RSS juggernaut continued its unstoppable growth trajectory irrespective of what party was in government in Delhi or the states.

This story was originally published in thequint.com . Read the full story here