Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers

266 Pages·2004·54.383 MB·English

by  Thirumaavalavan (Translated from the Tamil by Meena Kandasamy)

Also by the Author
Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation
(1" reprint Dec 2004)
UPROOT HINDUTVA
The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Paathers
THIRUMAAIA.LAVAN
Tianslated from the Tamil by
MEENAKANDASAMY
.
Foreword by
RAMPUNIYANI
Illustrations by
VEERASANTHANAM
-5-,yr*
UPROOT HINDUTVA: THE FIERY VOICE OF THE
LIBERATION PANTHERS
was first published on 6 Dec 2004 by saMYa,
an imprint of Bhatkal and Sen, 16 Southern Avenue,
Kolkata 700 025
@ 2004 Thol Thirumaavalavan and Meena Kandasamy
rsBN 81_85604_79-7
All rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced
or udlized in any form or by any means without
prior written permission from the publisher.
Design by SAMYA, layout by Meena Kandasamy,
typesetting by Krishna Gopal Das and Ranjana Dasgupta
and printed by Swapna Printing,
52 Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani, Kolkata 700 009
Published by Mandira Sen for SAMYA,
an imprint of Bhatkal and Sen
16 Southern Avenue, Kolkata 700 026
'Can personal character make the maker of
armaments a good man, that is, a man who will
sell shells that will not burst and gas that will
not poison? If ir is cannot, how can you accept
personal character to make a man loaded with
the consciousness of caste, a good man?'
,Dr.
B. R. An.rbcdkar
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface
Uproot Hinduwa Right from lts Grassroots!
Tianslatort Note
l.
Rebel!
2. BJP Does Not Rule India, But RSS Does! 21
3. Does It Take Guts ro Cut the
Throats of Sleeping Men? 34
4. Dalits-Muslims-Leftists:
An Alternative to the Dravidian Parties 64
5. Eelam Means Tigers!
Tigers Mean Eelam! 73
6. If I7e Must Not Enter the Temple,
Then You Must Not Enter thc Cheril 87
7. layalalithaa is a Hindu Fundamentalist! 96
8. Ve Vill Vorship Tamill
\7e Vill VorshipThrough Thmill tt7
viii
Contents
9. Tamilian Advancement:
Is Casteism an Obstacle?
10. Only Caste -Annihilating Tamil Nationalism
Hinduwa
Shall Uproot t4Z
11. How Many Periyarists' Homes Have
Photograph?
Ambedkar's 162
12. Bhakti Literature; Did It Unite the Tamilians?
Hindus?
Or the 177
13. Caution Is Required in the Cultural Field 187
14. Does the Police Tieat
Any \foman with Respect? 205
15. He V&o Cannot Search History,
Cannot Retrieve It 2t8
16. Encountering Casteism
and Communa.lism 231
Index
241
Foreword
We are living through times where politics masquerades in the
garb of religion, Nationally and globally this seems to be true.
Vhile nationally politics has been dominated by Hindutva,
globally politics has been laced in the language ofjihad and
crusade. So it is with pleasure that one welcomes a book thar
presents the absorbing and stimulating perception of an activist
and a mass leader who speaks of the impact of Hinduwa on our
society. Thirumaavalavan, in a true style of a committed mass
leader and analvst, probes the impact of this retrograde politics as
it affects the lives of Dalits, women and other downtrodden
sections of society.
The domination of Hinduwa on rhe political scene has been
accompanied by various cultural and social changes. It has
distracted attention from rhe issues that impingc on the lives of
the ordinary people. Starting from Lhc dcnrolition oI thc Babri
Masjid, post-Babri Mumbai riots, murder of Pasror Craham
Staines, to carnage in Gujarat, this p<-'litical strcam has
simultaneously made deep inroads into the social rnores of the
countrl'. Apart from the most obvious impacts as visiblc thr.oLrgh
the ghastly violence, ir has affected the social and political coalirions
and even the very thought processes of people advcrscly. I'he
conservative sections have rallied around this politics unrlcr onc
pretext or the other and cuitural manipulation has also influcnccd
the organizational modes of the oppressed pcoplc irr prrricrrlirr.
The National Democratic Alliance, of which thc Illrrretiya
Jurraca
Party (BJP) rvas the dominating partner, and thc lcrvcnt LLpholder
of Hinduwa, has received severe drubtring in thc gcncral clections
of 2004 and in rhe November 2004 clections in Maharashtra. Ir
seems to be undergoing a severe intcrnal clisis. Brrt to be sure thc
x Foteword
Hinduwa politics which it has represented is hale and hearry the
reason being that rhe BJP is merely a political arm of Hinduwa,
while its other expressions in different walks of life, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Bharariya Majdoor Sangh, Akhil
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Hindu Munnani and their parent
RSS, are alive and kicking. The ideology percolated by this
organization had become pan of the social common sense of large
sections of sociery and the hidden and not so hidden agendas of
these organizations are fully unfolding themselves and
manipulating the cultural processes of sociery
Hindutva politics as such musr be distinguished from the
Hindu religion, and though the Hindu religion itself has many a
stream, the dominant and all pewading one is the brahminical
one. One could say that what is perceived as Hinduism is
Brahminism, against which the likes of Ambedkar and Periyar
struggled all their lives. The tradition ofBhakti and other subaltern
Hindu traditions can be seen as different, and their roles have not
been the same in yarious parts of the country, and they should
not be equared with Brahminism. Hindutva is a political category,
while Hinduism is a religious category. Bur since the ascendance
of this politics the word 'Hinduism has been siderracked and for
all practical purposes only rhe word 'Hindutva is used. This
politics began in the wake of political and social changes during
the middle of the nineteenrh century. \X&ile the British imperialists
were here primarily to plunder the country, ro make its pursuit
more effective, they introduced modern educarion, which was
open ro the so-called low castes, those outside rhe caste sysaem
and even to women. This was the beginning oF a profound change
in Indian society.
The social and political hierarchies of casre and gender started
getting questioned and getting eroded in due course. It was the
time when Mahatma Jotiba Phule took up the cause of education
of the low castes and women. Since education of these grossly
oppressed large sections of society threatened rhe hegemony of
the upper castes and upper classes, these socially powerful people
Foreword
resorted to politics in the name of religion: Muslim communal
politics and Hindu communal politics. In due course different
political parries also started coming up to uphold this politics.
The Muslim League for Muslim communal politics and the Punjab
Hindu Sabha, later the Hindu Mahasabha came up as parallel
streams. Hindu communal politics had a broader reach and it got
manifested in the Indian National Congress and the Hindu
Mahasabha. Later the RSS came up as the major vehicle of
Hinduwa politics and conrinues to dominate the polirical scene
to day.
The persistence of the assertion of Dalits and women
manifesred in different parrs of rhe country in different forms,
and through different polirical leaders, Kisan Bhagu.ji Bansode,
Nandu Ram Achootanand and Mangoo Ram, are a few from this
list. The towering person who cane up during the 1920s was of
course Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose struggles and writing
give a glimpse of the problem in irs totality. One must mention
that E. V Ramasamy Naicker, later known as Periyar, not only
took up the cause of the downtrodden in a very serious way but
he also took very crucial aspects relared to the self-respect ofwomen
and Dalits. His conrributions to bringing up rhe question of the
Tamil Nation have no parallels. His anti-Brahminism manifesred
as Tamil nationalism.
Coming back to Ambedkar, his life gives a toral contrast ro thc
agenda of Hinduwa. \i7e should recall that he went on to initiatc
l.-4ahad ChavdarTalao (water-pond) movemenr, for acccss of [)alirs
to public utilities and drinking water in particular. This rrrol>ilizccl
the Dalits in large numbers. Aftcr this hc lircrrscrl ()n tlrc lcnrl)lc
entry movement and when thcrc w:rs en oppositiorr ro this hc
declared thar he was born e I linJrr, lhur was rlor lris choicc, brrr
he will noc die a Hindtr. Also hc btrrnr tlrc Mtrttruriti :,ts u 1.tr<ttcsr
against its aclvocacy of tltc gr-otcrscltrc illrl (xlr(ntc opprcssions
against the Dalits and worncn, uncl its pur:rllcl cxhortations of
upholding brahminical sLrprcrnlcy it xll (r)srs. l)r.. Anrbcclkar l:rtcr
became Chairman oI thc [)r.aftinr (]onrnrirtcc of rhc Indian