RELIGIOUS DIVISION AND SOCIAL CONFLICT: THE EMERGENCE OF HINDU NATIONALISM IN RURAL INDIA
Peggy Froerer
Social Science Press, 1/24, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi – 100 002
Pages: 296 + xx
Price: Rs 295
Reviewed by KHAN YASIR
In 1948, RSS stood disgraced and banned in the wake of the ignominious assassination of Gandhiji. The ban was lifted soon enough but the organisation remained socially ostracised for a long time. The RSS, however, left no stone unturned to spread its tentacles across the length and breadth of India, though with meagre success. Even its political wing Jan Sangh and later BJP failed rather miserably in gaining momentum. In 1984, BJP got two seats. But since then the communal force enjoyed an unforeseen and unpredictable legitimacy especially in urban areas and returned with the figures of 88, 120, 161, 182 and again 182, in the national elections of 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively. BJP tasted government at the centre for 13 days in 1996 and then 13 months in 1998. It realised that it cannot gain enough votes and seats to form a government on its own. It did form a stable government (later in 1999) but only with support of a dozen of allies under the banner of NDA. In this alliance BJP was the core party, yet it had to concede communal demands – like building of Ram temple at Ayodhya, making a uniform civil code and repealing of the Article 370, etc. – to the pragmatic concerns of the ruling. RSS realised, sooner than later, that depending on the upper caste votes based in urban areas will not be enough. Need for penetration in rural areas was recognised and concrete steps were planned and taken in this direction.
It is for this reason, argues Peggy Froerer in her Religious Division and Social Conflict, that “Mitigating the ‘backwardness’ of India’s adivasi communities is one of the objectives that has recently figured in the agenda of RSS” (p. 3). This was not the first diagnosis of this phenomenon which, even, earlier has been identified by scholars; for example by T.B. Hansen who referred to this as Vernacularisation of Hindutva. In the following study: How these efforts were made? How far they succeeded? What are the factors responsible for the respective successes and failures of these attempts? These questions, as most of us recognise, are of pivotal interest to understand the dynamics of politics in India.
Religious Division and Social Conflict is a research-based account of the emergence of Hindutva or what the author calls ‘Hindu nationalism’ in a tribal community in Chhattisgarh. The method implied in the research for the in-depth analysis of the field is ethnography. Ethnography is a qualitative research design. In an era of Twenty-20 kind of research with haphazard and often incongruous statistical approaches, ethnography stands out as a Test Match. It is a patient researcher’s domain and his quest for meaning, in the culture of the people amidst whom he is spending his years of study (fieldwork). It tries to observe phenomenon from the perspective of the people on whom the research is based and not from the biased point of view of the researcher. Though bias, invariably, plays a fairly important role in such a study and so ethnographic studies need to be considered with caution. In this study the ethnographic approach is applied to gain a wider understanding of the process by which Hindu nationalist ideology is successfully transmitted in rural adivasi areas. Froerer’s main aim is to examine the role of what Paul Brass refers to as ‘conversion specialists’ i.e. those RSS activists who serve as the primary facilitators in this process.
The study is based on a village in Chhattisgarh, namely Mohanpur. The fieldwork for research was conducted for 22 months between October 1997 and August 1999. Mohanpur is a typical village which is relatively cut off from urban ‘mainstream’ due to thick forests and inaccessible roads. The near most city Korba is 40 km from Mohanpur, that takes four-hour of cycle (or even bus) journey, a distance that local people think to be quite far. Hence, people here do not visit the city generally; it is a distant dream. The universe of their access and visits is spree of villages located around 10-12 km radius. Most common occupation of the villagers is rice-cultivation. Besides, people also indulge in sale of non-timber forest products and produce and sale of liquor. The area is plagued by the general problems of rural areas that exist throughout India like lack of electricity, illiteracy, etc. Presence of vehicles is not only unusual but also an amusing sight for the children and youths of the area. Caste distinctions are as acute as anywhere. Locally Ratiya Kanwar is at the highest ladder of the caste system and Oraon community (which is Christian) is at the lowest. The area, like other adivasi areas in the country, is characterised by practices that are considered ‘Backward’ in urban areas.
Mohanpur has a population of 886 people in 163 households. The history and geography of the area, nearby villages, their demography has been analysed and described in detail by the author in the introduction of the book. However the main point is the fact that Christians are largely concentrated in this village comprising 241 people (42 households). This unusually large population of Christians, though comparatively, leads to various crises and the book argues that “One of the objectives of this book is to show that it is partly due to the relatively large Christian presence that the RSS has been able to successfully employ its instrumentalist strategies in the manner that it has done in Mohanpur”. (p. 27)
Local beliefs and customs (both of Hindus and Christians) are much more altered than ‘mainstream’ Hindu and Christian practices. Local people themselves identify this difference as difference between ‘Sahari’ and ‘Jangli’ customs. The distinction applies more severely to Hindu practices which has almost nothing in common with what it ‘ought’ to have been. These ‘Dehati’ or ‘Jangli’ practices of innumerable local deities, animal sacrifices, supernatural ways of treating ailments, etc. are a pretext utilised by both RSS and church to justify their existence and civilising missions. The author tells us about RSS:
When I first began my research in October 1997, this organisation was relatively unknown in the area. The four RSS activists or organisers (pracharaks) who visited Mohanpur every few months to conduct meetings amongst few interested young men held the interest of the majority of locals more for their motor bikes and fancy clothes than for their message of Hindu unity. By the time I completed my research nearly two years later, visits by these activists had increased to a weekly frequency. (p. 3)
OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
As per the statements mentioned in the book, following objectives of the study stand out:
The emergence of ‘Hindu nationalism’ in a mixed and culturally plural village (here Hindu/Christian adivasi village) and the impact that this has had on the lives of local people are the principal concerns of this book. (p. 27)
With respect to the broader concerns of this book, [the author tries] to show how RSS emphasis on the ‘Hindu-ness’ of local adivasi Hindus, in opposition to the ‘threatening Christians’, is an attempt to include the former in a sort of ‘imagined community’ of Hindus. (p. 39)
Specific aims are twofold:
To identify the local conditions and cleavages that have contributed to the transmission of ‘Hindu nationalism’ in this community, and to explore how nationalist ideology is tailored by individual activists to correspond with local concerns.
The broader objective is to understand the manner by which, through the instrumental involvement of its activists in local level issues, groups like the RSS are able to gain a legitimacy on the ground, and to extrapolate from this analysis in relation to the complex link between the growth of ‘Hindu nationalism’ at the grassroots level and broader discourses of ‘Hindu nationalism’. (p. 3)
RATIONALE BEHIND POLITICS OF ‘INCLUSION’
Froerer indulges in fairly extensive literature review over the theme of RSS and Hindutva and their activism and argues, “Beyond the generalised descriptions of how members of the Sangh Parivar modify their message to suit the situations and histories of different communities however, the specific activities in which these activists engage at the local level remain largely undocumented and unanalysed” (p. 7). Hence this study!
The author recognises that Hindutva thrives on the “ideological bedrock”, as Hansen puts it, of Muslim-enmity. But this ‘threatening-other’ has been replaced at times with Christians and other minorities for convenience sake, by the RSS. Yet in mid-1990s, the author points out, adivasis became major focus of the RSS. Shuddhi and ghar-wapsi movements gained momentum. A plethora of factors are responsible for this but the author hastily jumps to regard this as a “shift” in RSS strategies. This is not a “shift” but “expansion” of the work area.
The root of the adivasi problem is identified by the Froerer as Indian State’s recognition of Hinduism as “default religion” of the adivasis, which is far from truth (to say the least!). It is in this regard that Froerer argues, “RSS activists’ ability to successfully endear themselves to the community as a whole is made easier by the failure of the state to guarantee entitlements to local adivasis and to prevent their economic rights from being infringed” (p. 14). To view the world from RSS’s perspective, it is clear that Hindus can remain in majority, in India, only when adivasis do not declare to be outside that majority. This strategic importance of adivasis forces RSS to pay adequate attention there and also cry foul at any attempt at conversion (obviously other than that of Hinduism). Yes, ghar wapsi itself is conversion because adivasis are not Hindus. Mass conversions of tribal people “have shown the Sangh Parivar that they cannot take the Hindu identity of marginal groups like adivasis for granted” (p. 11). Sangh has always justified its paranoiac activism in adivasi communities as a defence of Hinduism but the author argues that:
The fact that Christians number less than 2.5 per cent of India’s population suggests that the Sangh Parivar’s shift in attention toward Christian adivasi communities is less a defence of a threatened religion in the face of conversion and more a tactic aimed at breaking out of its urban and upper caste ‘cocoon’ (ibid).
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams for tribal development and Vidya-Bharati schools across India are specimen of such strategy. Youths are especially targeted with simple and gradual brain-washing. The power and effectiveness of this indoctrination lies in the simplicity of the message convened. It is based on the following points:
Hindus alone constitute real Indian nation. (original inhabitants)
Hinduism is extremely tolerant but this tolerance has been exploited by Muslims and others.
Due to such cunning, Hindu nation has been conquered by Muslims and Christians in the past, though it is needed meaningfully, despite every effort, they could not convert the whole India.
To avoid such a future conquest, from within or without, organisation of Hindus is necessary.
However, ideology does not have the final say on such matters. Ironically, it comes in the last. First the youths of rural areas are lured by the motor-bikes and fancy clothes (especially uniform of RSS). They are shown the city (bahar ki dunya) and the whole world of opportunities. The sophistication of language and the feeling of being with an ‘organisation’ which can help its workers in distress also increase RSS’s hold in rural areas.
What the Sangh has achieved through this so-called rural-shift? The author exemplifies:
The active engagement in ‘civilising’ strategies, manifested in the form of medicines and other material assistance, has enabled RSS activists to successfully legitimise their presence locally and to endear themselves to both Christians and Hindus. This seemingly constructive outcome is the product of one of the more insidious means through which Hindutva is propagated in this area and elsewhere; for, under the auspices of ‘good works’, it conceals the more aggressive communal agenda that underpins the Hindutva movement as a whole.
The second strategy through which Hindutva has been propagated locally is more directly related to this wider agenda, and that is the communalisation of local grievances and the promotion of the ‘threatening other’. Specifically, it is by involving themselves in the local land and liquor disputes, and attaching these to the ‘one-nation, one-culture’ agenda that the RSS activists have successfully facilitated the spread of ‘Hindu nationalism’.
In her analysis, Froerer used the theoretical tools employed by Tambiah (1996) like ‘focalisation’ whereby the original incident or dispute is ‘progressively denuded of its contextual particulars’, and ‘transvaluation’ where the incident is then ‘distorted and aggregated into larger collective issues of national or ethnic interest’. (p. 17)
Mohanpur soon became the arena between church and RSS. As church is active in rural areas of India, since the early age of colonialism, RSS is facing tough resistance in terms of social work and proselytising efforts of church. And so RSS knows that in rural areas its “…success is achievable only if Christianity and its associated ‘good works’ are discredited and its efforts are replaced by those of the RSS and its affiliated organisations” (p. 14). Thus in Mohanpur the problem is compounded by Church’s attempt to make Oraons proper Christians (p. 20) and RSS trying the same with respect to Hindus. RSS has skilfully exploited local tensions and launched its ideological agenda from that platform, thereby endearing itself to the local populace and joining and directing their grievances (p. 22).
How barely interested are village people, in RSS’s intricacies, is well-exhibited by the author in terms of three instances sifted out from the book:
Raj – the most active RSS activist in the area – decides that to communicate the proper cultural ethos and civilisation, Mohanpur needs a school. Word spread that a new school will be launched for every child in the village. A teacher was arranged at Rs. 300 a month. However, “The mild interest that was initially expressed quickly waned” when people realised that “the students who attend this school would not receive a free meal” unlike the pathetic government nursery ‘school’ (p. 64). Even in the absence of a ‘proper’ school, this attempt of RSS failed miserably with eventually five students signing up for the same among whom three were Raj’s nephews. The school died its natural death within a couple of months.
RSS, as is said earlier, is against local traditions and customs. It abhors local deities, animal sacrifices and other things that are practised locally. One of its main agenda is to ‘teach’ adivasis ‘proper’ and ‘mainstream’ Hinduism i.e. Hinduism as practised by the Sangh. Once, Raj along with three accomplices visited the village. All four sported a choti, three draped a scarf with Shri-Ram inscribed thereon. Greetings of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ were exchanged. They were on a mission and Mohanpur was their first destination in a planned four-village visit. Raj instructed one accomplice to gather all village women. Despite every effort only five women with several suckling children assembled. Two were close relatives of Raj. One was most outspoken and public woman – a necessity. Only two general women arrived who consistently complained of being pulled away from their important preoccupations. Five teenage girls too were called and they were happy to escape their routine work. To cut the long story short, none was interested in the speeches that were delivered, procession that followed, and the sahari deity (i.e. Shiva), sahari festival (i.e. Mahashivratri) and proper methods of puja that were introduced. Even if they could have tried to understand, they would have not for the pure Hindi that was spoken all through. Raj had to scold the five women several times to listen what was being said and stop chattering. When the ceremony came to an end, the author asked two women what all they got from it. One said, “Who knows I did not understand.” The other one said, “We have enough festivals to celebrate here in the village. Why do we have to also celebrate sahari people’s festivals?” (p. 65-69)
RSS conducted a kind of programme by collecting young people of the village. Not a single youth was interested in ideology and barely understood the message they had brought. They wanted to be sahari walla too and knew that RSS could help in realising that dream as it had realised it for Raj. But after 12 months, the participation in these meetings gradually decreased and only four semi-regular participants remained by the time the fieldwork ended.
Such are the adivasi people who are target of RSS’s civilising onslaught.
The book can be divided in three parts. The first part gives us a glimpse of the life in Mohanpur; the ‘backward’ and ‘jangli’ practices of adivasis; their beliefs, whims and customs; means of livelihood; caste discriminations and biases, etc. This part describes the relationship and biases of Hindus who are original inhabitants of the area (sons of the soil) and Christians who are developing economically, and how this complex relationship is exploited and channelled by RSS into communal hatred. Separate chapters have been devoted to describe the Hindus and Christians of the area. The earlier chapter chiefly discusses the dominant local caste Ratiya Kanwar and its hold on the village. The later chapter discusses, after giving some historical background of the missionary work in India, Oraon people’s relationship to church and its impact upon their individual and communal life. These chapters also briefly discuss how the intervention of RSS on one hand and church on another has fuelled the communal tensions in the area. The author also goes on to argue that RSS ‘emulates’ the missionary strategies, proven successful by history, albeit with a difference and more vengeance.
The second part examines what the author refers to as ‘civilising strategies’ of the RSS. Such strategies aim at providing the raison d’être and legitimise RSS’s presence in the area. While such strategies could be many, analysing and deriving conclusions from them could be problematic. Hence the author has chosen only two strategies and analysed them in separate and detailed chapters. One is of installation of a medical ‘doctor’ in the area. The other is of supporting the dissenting group in the village against a corrupt village headman. The author says, “It is argued that these methods together are part of a more implicit strategy to ‘emulate’ the successful methods that the Church has historically employed in its proselytising efforts in adivasi areas, with a view to gaining further local legitimacy”. (p. 39)
The third part examines what according to author are, ‘aggressive strategies’ of the RSS in order to directly propagate its communal and hatemongering agenda. Froerer pays special attention to RSS’s invocation of the ‘threatening other’ (here Christians) and poisoning the minds by igniting and aggravating the local biases, which in many cases are based on false assumptions. Local issues are connected to national and international ones and economic grievances are readily exploited by RSS to communalise a harmonious society. Here too, two specific issues are raised in separate chapters. One chapter examines the nature of land disputes. These disputes are between ‘original settlers’ (i.e. Ratiya Kanwar Hindus) and ‘first-clearers’ (i.e. Oraon Christians). The author argued that such ‘conflict symbols’ can be stretched totally out of context to serve the communal agenda of the RSS. Another chapter examines the liquor dispute between the two communities and how it was communalised yet again by the ‘conversion specialists’ of the RSS at the local level. The author’s “specific attention is on how these tensions have been appropriated by RSS activists who then strip such tensions of their local particulars and attach them to one of the most powerful discourses of the Hindu nationalist movement: the ‘threatening other’”. (ibid)