The Renaissance Man

(Will Narendra Modi Be the Architect of 21st Century Hindu Renaissance?)

A day after he led his party BJP to a spectacular victory in general elections, Narendra Modi visited his constituency – Varanasi to thank his voters for electing him with a huge margin. Soon after he landed at Varanasi, Modi’s first stop was a visit to the holiest of the holy Hindu shrines of Kashi Vishwanath temple to pay obeisance to the presiding deity – Lord Shiva. An hour later, as he re-emerged from the temple, the image carried across the nation via dozens of TV cameras, of Narendra Modi, adorning a bright saffron coloured Angavastram, his forehead smeared with Sandalwood paste, must have left an indelible mark on the minds of millions of devout Hindus. Later that evening, Modi performed the world famous Ganga Aarti on the banks of India’s holy river, in the presence of thousands of his supporters. Watching the proceedings on television sets in their homes and overwhelmed with emotion, most Indians must have paid silent tribute to a man, about to become India’s Prime Minister, who is proud of his Hindu heritage and not ashamed of performing elaborate Hindu rituals..

During the last 20 years or so, as the public discourse came to be dominated by ‘Secularism’, and ‘Liberalism’, Hinduism became a much abused term. Alienated from their heritage, these secularists (Congress, Left parties, several regional parties, academicians, intellectuals, social activists and media) denigrated all Hindu tradition and rituals. Lately, even public expression of a popular festival like Diwali (unarguably the biggest Hindu festival) was being undermined by political correctness and many even demanded a blanket ban on firecrackers. Indeed, for the purveyors of Secularism tradition bound Hindus had become anathema to modern India. With the arrival of Modi on the national political scene, secularists of different hues got together and pontificated over the fate of Secularism. As soon as Modi was declared the Prime Ministerial candidate by BJP, secularists’ lunacy reached a state of fever pitch and they started shouting in unison against the rise of communalism and fascism. But, Modi never spoke of religious divide, always speaking for 1.25 billion Indians. How could Modi abandon the divisive identity rhetoric and make development his election Mantra, wondered our ‘esteemed’ secularists!

So, how do we look at the mandate in the just concluded general elections? There is no denying that the voter was given only one choice in this election – For or Against Modi. And, voters overwhelmingly chose in favour of Modi (notwithstanding the counter claims made by Congress, secular parties and media that BJP won a decisive mandate with just over 31% of the total votes polled). Was this a mandate about development & good governance or Hinduism & asserting Hindu identity? I would say it was for both. This election was unprecedented in many ways. For one, there were 100 million new voters & over 200 million young aspirational voters in the age group of 18-30. Many of them, including those growing up in smaller cities & towns, with access to computers & internet are aware of their rapidly changing environment and accustomed to multi-religious coexistence in our country. Today’s Hindu youth sees no contradiction in being technology savvy and at the same time being part of a great civilization and bound by age old Hindu traditions. Most of them have a strong sense on their Indian origin and want to be known as both Indians as well as Hindus. Modi’s development platform hit a ‘Home run’ and, his image of a Hindu Hardliner, unwittingly created by Secularists and media, managed to strike an emotional chord with young men & women. Another myth decisively shattered in this election was that besides religious divide, caste politics would hold sway in general elections and regional parties would garner enough seats to hold the trump cards. Modi’s nationalistic pitch consolidated the votes for BJP completely disregarding caste & regional differences, as amply proved in UP and Bihar where castiest parties like Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati’s Bahujan samajwadi Party (BSP) and Laloo Yadav’s Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) were all but wiped out in their home turf, and burying (hopefully forever) V P Singh’s diabolical and divisive Mandal politics. Undoubtedly, Modi’s victory in Varanasi symbolises consolidation of pro-Hindu votes and his campaign strategy particularly in UP, excellently executed by his trusted aide Amit Shah, cut across caste lines to provide BJP unassailable lead in the numbers game.

As Modi relocates from Gandhinagar to Delhi, what can be expected of him besides tackling head-on the grave economic issues? Secular parties, media & activists’ unabashed abuse of majority community and appeasement of minorities during the last several decades has left the Hindu psyche badly scarred. Subsidy to pilgrims belonging to a minority community, but no such benefits to Hindus; state interference in Hindu temples, but a hands-off policy towards places of worship of minorities; one state government even proposed financial assistance to girl students belonging to only one minority, are some of the examples of how Hindu community has been discriminated against in the last 50+ years. Hindus were clearly angry, not only because some powerful political leaders shed tears on the death of suspected terrorists at Batla House, while a Hindu suspect was unfairly incarcerated in jail for over 5 years without so much as a Charge Sheet! Hindus were also angry at the pusillanimity of their community leaders for choosing to remain silent while mass conversions engineered by proselytizing faiths were taking place and Indian history books were altered at the behest of Left-Liberals. Some radio stations in The Netherland play Gayatri Mantra every morning for its positive vibes on the human mind, while in India, many were aghast to notice that state owned Doordarshan decided to delete Satyam,Shivam,Sundaram from its logo! Hindus, who form over 83% of India’s population, needed some succor to their tormented souls. And, that is what a large number of them expected from Narendra Modi. Having won a decisive mandate, will Modi restrict himself to development agenda or cross the proverbial Rubicon and firmly resolve some of the cherished demands of Hindu community: Ram Janmabhoomi, declaring Ram Setu a national heritage, redrafting the draconian Communal Violence Bill, enforce Anti-Conversion law all over the country and free Hindu temples from government interference?

Hindus have always been tolerant towards other religions and accepted outsiders with open arms. Indeed, the principle of Sarva Dharma Sambhava has been practiced by Hindus since time immemorial. It is only in the last 67 years that Secularism has been redefined by successive governments for electoral gains leaving a beleaguered Hindu community to a status of second class citizens. Arun Shourie sums up this malaise very succinctly, when he says “Indian secularism consists of branding others communal”. There is no doubt that enhanced economic prosperity cutting across different communities will be a great equalizer and Modi will strive hard to achieve this in shortest possible time. It is also equally true that in order to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit in hard working Indians, a social environment where no community feels deprived or discriminated against, must prevail.

Will Modi ameliorate the status of Hindus to its rightful place so as to reignite the Hindu spirit and motivate them to work for a better India for all?

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