RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM: HINDUS AND MUSLIMS IN INDIA
Peter van der Veer
University of California Press
Pages: 247+xvi
$40.00 (cloth); $14.00 (paper)
Reviewed by PROF. M. RAFAT
Peter van der Veer is a professor of comparative religion in the University of Amsterdam. His book Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India deals with the Hindu-Muslim relations in India. The book was published by University of California Press in the year 1994 (just two years after the demolition of Babri Masjid). Naturally that watershed event is an important element in the galaxy of facts examined by the author. The main thesis of the book is the phenomenon called ‘religious nationalism’ which actually exists in today’s world (at least in the Indian subcontinent).
The growth of this phenomenon is linked with consciously constructed religious identities. Such ‘construction’ is undertaken by vigorous movement, using the religious idiom; often with a prescription of specific rituals. While this phenomenon cannot be understood simply as a continuity of the religious ‘tradition’, it can be argued that colonialism had a great deal to do with the emergence of religious nationalism in the subcontinent.
The book under review consists of six chapters followed by an epilogue. Extensive notes on the chapter appear in the end. A detailed bibliography has been provided by the author. It reflects the large span of the literature survey, done by him.
The book presents a thesis on the inadequacy of the ‘modernity’ theory to explain the emergence of religious nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. The author concedes that ‘modernity’ (through the agency of colonisation) has played some role in the crystallisation of religious nationalism in India; indeed the role should be acknowledged and examined. But he argues that the phenomenon of religious nationalism cannot be simply reduced to an offshoot of modernisation. Instead one must recognise the religious institutions and rituals as they already exist when India came in contact with colonisation.
This contact had its influence but there were simultaneously two other factors at work. One of them was historical continuity with the past. This implies that religious communities had a way of developing their culture, which was dictated by the internal logic of their tradition and not by external influences. This may be characterised as a growth of a tree, which is due to its internal mechanism, though the environment plays a role. The second factor is political in which the political agenda of various groups and segments motivated them to appropriate the available religious symbols, rituals and practices, to seek their objectives (which were essentially political).
According to the author, the phenomenon of religious nationalism is real; hence it demands our attention and analysis. It cannot be reduced (for instance) to a mere clash of economic interests. The author has paid attention mostly to Hindu nationalism; next in his priority is Muslim Nationalism which has been subjected to scrutiny. He has mentioned briefly Sikh and Tamil nationalism. We will now look at the arguments presented by the author followed by an analysis.
Chapter 1: Religious Nationalism
This chapter describes the mosque-temple issue created by VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and its allied organisations. Several important observations have been made by the author.
a) The political success of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) was largely due to the support given by VHP and (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) since they use ritual action and religious discourse in political affairs.
b) The timing of temple movement may be attributed to two events: (i) The Kashmir issue became visibly alive in 1990, and (ii) The implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations was seen as a threat to the socio-political supremacy of the so-called ‘upper castes’.
c) Before VHP’s campaign, Ayodhya was already being developed as a tourist centre by the government agencies.
d) The temple-mosque issue in Ayodhya was transformed into the confrontation of Hindu-Muslim identities in India.
e) While modernisation theory suggests secularism as a universal ideal, it is necessary in actual historical study to liberate our analysis from this monopoly of ‘modernisation theory’.
f) It is an analytic fallacy to regard the secular nation state as an inevitable sign of modernity.
g) Indian dream of the nation usually regarded religion as one of the main aspects of national identity.
h) The temple-mosque controversy was an attempt by VHP to appropriate the religious symbols (which were already present in traditions).
Analysis:
a) The author’s observation that the political success of BJP was due to the support provided to it by VHP and RSS is correct. The author has described the temple movement launched by VHP, in some detail (probably because the book was published just two years after VHP’s attack on Babri Masjid and its destruction). It should however be recognised that mainly RSS was responsible for the remarkable rise of BJP. The role of VHP in this transformation is minor; in spite of its shrill rhetoric. RSS had been working steadily and mostly quietly and it influenced not only the BJP but also the Congress and many other parties.
b) To the observers of the Indian political scene, it is intuitively obvious that the temple movement was at least partly motivated by a desire to save the existing cast hierarchy from the threat posed by the proposals of the Mandal Commission. It is however unlikely that revival of popular agitation in Kashmir also served as a catalyst for the temple movement. The simultaneous appearance of Kashmir agitation and temple movement was probably a coincidence.
c) That the temple movement was negative in character appears to be obvious in retrospect. Negativity implies that the real target was destruction of the masjid, rather than construction of a temple.
d) That religious revival may take the form of religious nationalism has been demonstrated by the author. However, the phenomenon has local factors working as causes in addition to the impact of colonisation. The author is therefore right that dogmatic allegiance to ‘modernity theoretical framework’ is not justified in order to understand religious nationalism.
e) Religion determines the cultural practices and forms in India and therefore it is not surprising that the Indian National Congress had also consistently used religious idiom in its attempt at nation building.
Chapter 2: Religious Formations
Formation of religious communities is seen by the author as a historical process; in which reform movements have played a crucial role. A number of interesting aspects emerge, as one studies the development of such formations.
a) Conversion to Islam in India was visible and widespread; though its intensity had varied over space and time.
b) Characterisation of Muslims as a ‘minority’ is comparatively a recent phenomenon; viz. that of the colonial period.
c) It is a fallacy to assume that Hindu-Muslim conflict is merely a 19th century development and has no earlier roots.
d) Muslim nationalism is the only religious nationalism, which has been able to capture a ‘state’ for itself.
e) Expansion of Sufi brotherhoods was a crucial aspect of the Islamisation of South Asia.
f) Groups of saints have periodically appeared in the Hindu society. Their expanding influence had led to conversion of enormous groups of Indian population to some form of Hindu identity. Listening to devotional songs and to stories told or performed in theatre plays (lilas) is essential in the construction of a Hindu devotional identity. ‘Untouchables’ are usually excluded from this activity.
g) In the context of ‘reform movements’ in the Indian Muslim society, one may examine the present situation in Pakistan. There is a strong anti-Sufi political trend here. The most visible manifestation of this trend is Jamaat-e-Islami.
h) There is no doubt that reform movements have had major impact on religious discourse, but they have not replaced ‘traditional’ religion by a ‘modern’ middle class form of religion.
Analysis:
In his famous book Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar (the ideologue of RSS) maintains that the reform movements in the Hindu society represent a continuity, rather than a break with the past. The historical fact that the reform movement could not weaken the cast system seems to support Golwalkar’s view. Surprisingly Peter van der Veer has not referred to Golwalkar, in his analysis.
a) Description of a group as ‘minority’ is a nomenclature which makes sense only in the democratic polity of a modern nation state. Hence it is not surprising that the Muslim self-image of being a ‘minority’ is a recent one (i.e. this image took shape in the Muslim mind in the post-Independence era).
b) In the Indian subcontinent, it is true that Muslim nationalism is the only one which has been able to capture a state. But on the global scene, one may note that Israel is a representative of Jewish nationalism.
c) The folklore and cultural traditions carrying the label ‘Hindu’ have indeed been a very powerful tool in assimilating the various diverse groups in the Hindu traditions. The role of so-called godmen has been crucial in popularising the mythology.
d) The impact of reform movements on the Hindu society has been marginal. However, the character of a reform movement in the Muslim society is fundamentally different from the reform activities undertaken by activists in the Hindu society. In the Muslim society, reforms’ reference point has theoretically always been a revival of faith in the Qur’ān and Sunnah. As seen by an orientalist, this is ‘going back to the past’. By contrast, a reform movement in the Hindu society has often questioned the past, with varying degrees of vehemence.
Chapter 3: Ritual Communication
An important historical break is the transformation of pre-colonial modes of the communication, in the colonial and post-colonial period. Systems of communication, such as language, pilgrimage and ritual action provided the basis for community formation traditionally. In this context, it is useful to examine the role (in building of national identities) of such innovations as printing press, radio, television and film. The author has elaborated upon a number of interesting points, in this regard.
a) Spread of Hindu civilisation in India has been aptly described, by some scholars, as ‘Sanskritisation’; because that civilisation is founded on a textual tradition in the Sanskrit language. Interestingly, the term used for civilisation is Sanskriti. While Sanskritisation is a long drawn historical process, its space is much accelerated by improved communications.
b) Religious nationalism equates the religious community with the nation and thus builds on a previously constructed religious identity.
c) Improvements in roads and railways in India (during the last century) have made pilgrimage a more readily available mode of religious communication. Sheer growth in numbers has dramatically changed the whole organisation of this type of ritual action.
d) Usually the traditional rituals tend to remain constant in form. But their message may acquire political overtones. One example (in growth of Hindu nationalism) is the ‘cow protection movement’, resurrected from time to time.
e) Nations are ‘imagined’ communities. Ritual is an important means of communicating the idea of religious nation, among the would-be adherents.
f) In 1881, Dayanand Saraswati, founder of Arya Samaj, published a book Go Karuna Nidhi. In it, he strongly opposed the slaughter of cows. The Arya Samaj established ‘cow protection societies’ in different parts of British India.
g) Emergence of Gandhiji on the Indian national scene (in early 20th century) was an important step in the construction of a moderate, pluralist version of Hindu nationalism.
Analysis:
As far as Islam is concerned, the role of factors such as language, pilgrimage and ritual action in the formation of the Muslim community is marginal. The determinant role is that of explicitly stated faith in God and His Messenger. So the author’s analysis, as far as Islam is concerned, is irrelevant. However, in the Hindu society’s historical evolution, the tools and texture of communication may play a significant role.
a) ‘Sanskritisation’ has often provided the doctrinal basis for maintenance of the caste system. The sophisticated philosophical notions are successfully transformed into folklore and mythology, for mass-consumption.
b) Similar to the temple movement, the import of ‘cow protection movement’ is also negative; since the cow movement has often targeted Muslims and condemned them for real or imagined cow slaughter.
c) That nationalism is an ‘artificial’ construct is a bitter truth, which the committed nationalists deplore. To overcome the artificiality, nationalists try to infuse the formal structure of nationalism with a ‘cultural spirit’.
Chapter 4: Peregrinations
The author argues in this chapter that the concept of ‘territory’ is crucial in nationalism and in the nation state. He maintains that by definition, the ‘nation state’ is a spatial unity, lying between borders that it must defend. He develops the argument through a series of observations on the link between nation and territory.
a) Territorial frameworks of reference (needed for the ‘nation’ idea) were already available to people, before colonialism brought nationalism to India. Nationalism built on these earlier conceptions and transformed them.
b) The physical movements (to be taken into account) are migration and pilgrimage. Their analysis is important for understanding the transnational religious movements. One instance is the movement of Tablighi Jamaat. Here narrow nationalism is practically rejected by Islamic universalism.
c) It is a myth to assert that ‘traditional’ Indian society consisted of ‘autarkic’ villages. Essentially the myth says that Indians lived in independent, self governing ‘village republics’. However, there is strong evidence of considerable migration from one part of India to another. This state of affairs is a strong refutation of the ‘village republics’ theory.
d) Persian Gulf has been an area of South Asian migration for centuries; but it has become important since the 1960s. Although, the number of migrants is small, as compared to South Asia’s enormous population; it is significant in comparison with native population of the Gulf.
e) Tribal communities in India are not part of the mainstream community in the traditional view. But the mere fact that they live on “Hindu” territory means (in the logic of nationalism) that they should be part of the Hindu nation.
Analysis:
Basically the link of territory with the development of religious nationalism idea has been explored by the author. The author has discussed Hindu nationalism mostly; he perhaps realises that even Muslim nationalists, in their articulation, are bound to be influenced by universal Islamic perception of the world. Territory cannot therefore occupy any important place in a theoretical formulation presented even by the Muslim nationalists.
a) It is worth nothing that Tablighi Jamaat has not played any role in the Pakistan movement, which was the visible manifestation of Muslim nationalism in the subcontinent.
b) Migration of villages (within India), by itself, does not falsify the ‘village republic’ theory (of which Gandhiji was a staunch admirer). To reject the theory, more evidence is needed, which the author has not provided.
c) A very important character of popular conceptualisation of Hindu religion is its inevitable link with the territory of India. This feature is perhaps unique among world religions. That the segment of Aryan race, which decided to settle down in India, chose to develop a philosophy of religion, which gave ‘territory of India’ a crucial place in its doctrine, is an interesting fact. What are its implications and how does it relate to the caste system developed in India, remain open questions which need to be explored.
Chapter 5: Conceptions of Time
The author notes that nationalism (in order to appear rational) needs to demonstrate empirically its (ideological) claim that the nation it wishes to create has historically always existed. Accordingly, it demands (for example) that archaeology and history deliver the ‘facts’ which allegedly prove that the imagined nation exists both in and beyond history. The author’s observations, relevant to this theme, are the following:
a) The search for and glorification of the past of the nation, is (inevitably) an integral element of all nationalist discourse.
b) In the Hindu nationalist view, Hindus prospered before the Muslim invasion. Their golden age is epitomised by the period of Gupta Empire (300-500CE). Since then, Hindus have lived through increasingly dark ages. Even independence (in 1947) has not brought them total victory; since ‘secularists’ with their westernised minds, continued to colonise the nation.
c) Religious shrines are, for believers, beyond time and history. These shrines (as a matter of fact) were often the sites of violent contest between power brokers; long before the advent of colonialism and nationalism. What nationalism does, though, is to reinterpret the nature of the contest in the past, to serve its purpose in the present.
d) The case of Somnath temple rebuilding shows the extent to which the Indian state and the Congress party have been involved in the elaborate construction of the history of the Hindu nation; although, in this case, no confrontation with Muslims was involved.
e) In Ayodhya controversy, it is Hindu nationalist opposition to the ‘secularism’ of the state, which was the cause of agitation. A confrontation with Muslims was also involved. Here the politically contested nature of history is perfectly demonstrated.
Analysis:
Nationalism in order to sustain its appeal has to create imagined history. This is a highly suggestive fact and by itself should be a sufficient ground for rejection of the nationalist idea, by any sane person, interested in rational philosophy.
a) Glorification of the past naturally leads to national arrogance; which has historically been an important factor in the emergence of imperialism.
b) The artificial history created by nationalists also creates ‘enemy groups’, who are seen to be responsible for the reverses suffered by the nation. These ‘enemy groups’ can therefore be justifiably targeted and made to pay for their past mistakes.
c) Muslims did not raise any objection to the rebuilding of Somnath temple for the simple reason that no mosque was being threatened. On the other hand, they were perturbed over the Ayodhya temple movement because the movement aimed to destroy the Babri Masjid. This distinction between the Muslim responses to the two situations clearly demonstrates the reasonableness of the Muslim mind and their maturity.
Chapter 6: Words and Gestures
The author points out that in the nationalist view, language is commonly seen as the basis of collective identification. The construction of a national language is considered (by nationalists) as an absolutely crucial step on the road to modernity. As a result of strife (in India) between south and north on the Hindi issue, English has remained the language for elite communication. Gradually events led to the development of Hindi as the language of Hindus and Urdu almost exclusively as the language of Muslims.
Language as the expression of national culture, has played an important role in Sikh and Tamil nationalism as well. The role played by other elements of media is similar. There is no doubt that (for instance) the TV Serials of Ramayana helped to build the image of a Hindu nation in the minds of the viewers.
Analysis:
In Pakistan, the idea of nation was perhaps responsible (at least partly) for imposition of Urdu on unwilling linguistic groups. The imposition was unwise; this was demonstrated by the partition of Pakistan, in the wake of the Bangladesh movement.
The leadership in Pakistan failed to emphasise the fact that Pakistan was (by its very logic) an Islamic state. The stance would have ensured the stability and security of the country. Instead, the leadership in the country often portrayed Pakistan as a ‘nation-state’ (essentially similar in character to other nation-states across the world). This false image of Pakistan proved detrimental to it. Muslim psyche did not internalise the nationalist idea since the Muslim mentality is universal in character.
Epilogue
The author brings his discussion to conclusion by asserting that nationalism (as it develops) transforms the existing forms of culture. The transformation creates the so-called ‘national culture’ as an end product. However, the production of culture does not start with nationalism as such. Actually the cultural elements already exist (as produced by specific historical processes). The nationalist discourse builds on them and transforms them, according to the nationalist logic.
Indeed, nationalism reinterprets religious discourse to convey a sense of (almost devotional) belonging to the nation. Nationalism also grafts its notion of history onto religious notions of sacred space. It develops a package of rituals, based on earlier rituals of pilgrimage, to sanctify the continuity of territory. Emergency of religious nationalism cannot be understood, with reference to western modernity.
Analysis:
The idea of a ‘national culture’ is not acceptable in the Islamic view. According to Islam, existing social practices in a region, which be collected under the heading of ’culture’ need to be scrutinised. They are acceptable as long as they do not contradict the Islamic beliefs and regulations. If they fall within the permitted range, they may of course evolve in time and at a given time, may vary over spatial regions. This spatio-temporal diversity is perfectly compatible with Islam.
Fundamentally, the nationalist idea in itself, is foreign to Islam. Instead, Islam believes in universal human brotherhood. The religious boundary recognised by Islam is defined by faith and not by ethnicity or race. Even if people are to be distinguished on religious basis; their human status must be respected at all times. Their human rights cannot be violated. Similarly, Islam insists truth and therefore creation of ‘false’ history is not permissible (whatever may be the motives for such an activity).
In India, segments of Hindu society which have been attracted by the idea of nationalism are of two kinds. One segment believes in the usual modernity doctrine and sees ‘nation-building’ as an inevitable step towards progress of a country (similar to development of steam engine and television). Most of the Congress leadership (notably Nehru) belonged to this category. To infuse a culture spirit in their idea of a nation, such intellectuals turned towards the Hindu traditions for inspiration; there was little else they could do. (Because for all its claim of universality, the European enlightenment provided only philosophical ideas and formal ideologies; it did not suggest cultural practices which could be described, characterised and portrayed as universal and which had the potential for inspiring national reconstruction.
The other segment attracted to nationalism simply used the concept as a tool to perpetuate the existing caste based social order. For sustaining the psychological roots of this order, myth-making is essential. So ‘nation’ was quietly added to the old list of gods. This transformation was used to enslave the masses and perpetuate unjust social order.