Protest against the CAA is like the 1919 protest against the Rowlatt act

Radhakanta Barik

Politics in India has some similarity with the protest organized in the city of Bombay against the Rowlatt Bills which the city decided to oppose it. Rowlatt act was introduced by the colonial state to have a control over the press during the first world war time. The city of Bombay decided to oppose it which was the starting point of politics of Gandhi’s entry into urban politics of India.  Anti Rowlatt act which got enacted in the city of Mumbai where workers supported the Hindu Muslim unity led by Gandhi. Gandhi was on a shaky ground and got matured while handling the political protest against the act. He used the urban energies against the British rule. Today all major cities in India are experiencing the anti Rowlatt act movement against the CAA. People have come forward to attend the protest. It is an active movement. In those days there were million Gandhis who intended to practice nonviolent struggles against the Britishers. Today women Gandhis are leading the movement against the Modi Shah regime according to many scholars which is worse than the British raj. As the Britisher always negotiated with the leaders of the people at critical time, they conceded to the demands when there were pressures from people. They believed in negotiation and discussion and dialogues to reach a conclusion. Whenever Gandhi found they were adamant, Gandhi used to characterize them as the Un-British rule. Here Modi Shah does not believe in a dialogue they think that the RSS is right to dictate where people have no right to protest. They used abusive words against the Saheen Bagh which went over the heads of the protesters as they turned their deaf ears to them. They maintain extremely peaceful and nonviolent in their approach. Welcome these new Gandhis in Indian politics.

 Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief commented on Gandhi's Hinduism as orthodox. Gandhi himself claimed that he was Sanatani Hindu. This brings the question that Hindutva view of Hinduism is completely different. For them religion is a political ideology whereas Gandhi's religion as a personal belief and His view has similar to Vivekananda who says that Hinduism has strength to accommodate all other religious people who came to India. Hindutva thinks that religion can be basis of a nation which Gandhi opposed tooth and nail. He is a critical traditionalism where religious views can be orthodox but without harming any other religious group. Hindutva believes in communal riots against the other which is a dangerous game they are playing. Gandhi's view of religion is of much similar to many Hindus or Muslims who practice religion from orthodox point of view. But they are not communal and do not hate the other. Hindutva people are the merchants of hatred whereas Gandhi stood for communal harmony. Gandhi's prayers are about god not only Hindu Gods. For him a prayer gives joys and happiness and Hindutva does not have a human view of religion. It is basically communal hatred over which the RSS practices.

 Gandhi declared himself Sanatani Hindu who never visited any monk like today's the leaders of Hindutva who are surrounded by the monks cum criminals. Gandhi never visited any math and he opposed the practice of untouchability. He faced the wrath of priestly class of Banaras, Gaya and Deogarh who threw stones and attacked his car. With him Jagjivan Ram was travelling. In his autobiography Ram has discussed these events. He had moral strength in refusing to enter the Jagannath temple because of the practice of untouchability by the priests of the temple supported by the Britishers and It was written in English that people belonged to other religious groups were prohibited to have an entry into the temple. Hindutva has created fear and Gandhi's Hinduism created love in the hearts of people.

A Baba in Gujarat says, " If menstruating women cook, they be born as Kutri or Bitch in next life." in Ahmadabad Mirror. This happened to so many women students studying in college in Kutch who were forced to be naked by the Principal and others to prove that they were not menstruating. This has happened to Modi's Gujarat with the help of babas working day in day out in parks, schools, colleges and sahis of town or village to make them to have a blind belief that they were impure while menstruating. This has been worked in a systematic manner in Gujarat where women did not protest against the college authority. This is happening because of Hindutva way of socialising the women having an inferior status according to the RSS. In my book on the Saffron Regime I kept a Chapter on Gujarat communal riots where people have got divided in a systematic manner with the false propaganda. Today PM Modi is doing systematically with the help of media and teachers and babas to destroy Indian Constitution where it says the scientific temper needs to be pursued. He and his team are doing it all over India with the help of the RSS chief who says that women to remain behind the screen and should not work. All sorts of nonsense regarding the status of women has been pursued by the BJP after coming to power in Gujarat where for a period of twenty years they campaigned with the help of Asharam and company. Today they are doing this all over India with the babas from UP under the leadership of Yogi. This is a dangerous campaign is going on which will reduce women to second class citizens. This is the fascist propaganda for socializing women in Gujarat and going on in UP.

 What is going to be nature of fascism in India? Historical experiences show that when Hitler's party came to power in a province of Germany all the officials supported him but except the police commissioner of the province. He had to persuade the police commissioner to support his actions. With the support of police administration fascism in Germany started moving. Their own youth wing SS collaborated with the police in attacking the Jews and trade union leaders. Here the opposite the police are playing both the SS and police administration to attack the Muslims and students and working-class leaders. This comes out clearly in Videos on Jamia and UP where police have acted as the youth wing of the BJP and law order machinery to shot at the leaders of movement against the CAA. In Jamia the police have attacked the students while studying in library which is taken as a sacred place of a learning institution.

As Hinduism thinks that Saraswati's place is defined as a sacred place but the modern Hindutva does not have any reading of Hinduism, they are learning from Germany to attack the students in the library. The text books of Gujarat under the Modi rule gave a chapter on Hitler which explains that they are learning from Germany not from the RSS headquarter.

The RSS chief Bhagwat speaks very rarely truth as they are scared of truth. This time he spoke that it is education has brought the divorce among educated people. It is interesting to note here that it is education which brought Hindutva. As they have poor education, they do not know what is the definition of Hindutva. They sent Savarkar to the city of London to study and define the concept of Hindutva. He went studied the European history specifically Italian history and brought the concept of Hindutva. For the first time he confronted Gandhi in 1909 in London on the date of release of the book Hindi Swaraj. That Gandhi gave a communitarian structure of Indian society and nonviolence is the basic principle of integration of so many communities together. Savarkar pleaded with him that he believed in violence which got refuted by Gandhi. Gandhi was unknown person in 1909 but Savarkar was known as he had got some training in Pune by the Brahmins and sent on a scholarship to bring the definition of Hindutva. Their poor quality of education made the RSS which Bhagwat is the leader. They oppose the high-quality education that's why they want to destroy JNU, Jamia and Delhi university.  Hindutva believes in the. Religion as the basis of nationhood based on ignorance of these leaders. Their ignorance has brought the law like CAA which is getting Indian wide opposition today. Their poor education and poor understanding of economy made them to destroy the modern economy of India. They closed the Planning Commission as they do not have concept of planning. They want to spread poor quality of education which can support the RSS and no quality education will support them. They believe in ignorance and idiocy which encourages them to have an organisation like the RSS.

 In the park yesterday I met Mr. Goyal, a retired banker a BJP supporter reading the book History of Homo Sapiens, a well written book on the human history from the beginning. The person argues with me that the Hindutva does not have objection to the history. But some of their members are against the content of the book. As they feel that ancient India had airplanes and they reject the theory of evolution by Darwin but this is not the position of the party. Then he claims that their party has ten crores of members. Here I intervene that your party wins with a backward-looking ideology and doing conjectural politics without any positive contribution. Your party's support base is still mystical as your party believes in mysticism. He agrees with me. But the BJP and intellectualism do not go together this reflects the arguments of Modi and Shah do not have logic and not based on facts.

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Feb 26, 2020