“Hindu society is at war.” This is how Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), defends the hate speech and bigotry by the votaries and foot soldiers of Hindutva against Muslims and Christians. The fact that hate speech and violence have now become torrential and are getting more brazen with each passing day is explained by the fact that the war is not small. It is a 1000-year-long war, which has not ended. It is a continuous war, like the permanent revolution of Mao.
If we are to believe Bhagwat, Hindus are in a protracted war against several enemies: foreigners, foreign influences and worst of all, internal enemies. Can you expect politeness and civility from those who who have to fight a multi-pronged war with just ten hands, he asks.
Bhagwat is neither the first nor the only one to suggest that there is valid a reason for the hate speech directed against Muslims and Christians. Many have called for Hindus to take up arms, to keep them ready to chop off the heads of ‘enemies’. In fact, Bhagwat’s claim was preceded even by the Delhi police, which told a court in Delhi that the call to Hindus to arm themselves in a mass meeting in Delhi was actually an exercise to protect ‘community ethics’.
Bhagwat is a magnanimous man. Ideally, he would not prefer this aggression in Hindus. But he can appreciate their situation. They are at war.
Two days after Bhagwat legitimised hate speech, the Supreme Court asked the Delhi police about the reason for its inaction against Suresh Chavhanke, who is accused of hate speech. Bhagwat has supplied an argument to the state’s counsel. The police can now quote the respected Mohan Bhagwat to tell the court that aggressive language is inevitable as the Hindus are in the midst of a 1000-year-long war.
Remember, Bhagwat is defending those who have been calling for the mass slaughter of Muslims, rape of Muslim women, the boycott of Muslim businesses, those who put Muslim women on auction online or those who exhort Hindus not to sell houses or land to Muslims or those who campaign attack Christians for alleged illegal conversions. He explains away all the fear-mongering against Muslims by saying that in a war, it is natural for people to get suspicious. Hindus have to be alert as enemies come with many faces. There are good people in Muslims, he admits, but how do you differentiate good from bad in a war situation? So it is only natural for all Muslims to become suspects in the eyes of the Hindus.
Bhagwat’s not-so-oblique legitimisation of hate speech reminded me of the statement made by K.K. Shastri, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) patriarch, after the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. He admitted that said that the VHP had prepared the list of Muslim properties to be attacked. He added, “The youngsters have done even those things which we don’t like. We don’t support it. But we can’t condemn it because they are our boys. If my daughter does something, will I condemn it?” Shastri told Sheela Bhatt that all this “had to be done” (karvun j pade, karvun j pade). It was war, after all. And excesses happen in wars, one must understand.
This story was originally published in thewire.in . Read the full story here
