“Hindutva is not Hinduism; it is a political doctrine, not a religious one,” Shashi Tharoor in his new book. Read more

The Hindutva movement is the “mirror image” of the Muslim communalism of 1947 and its triumph would mark the end of the Indian idea, says senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, asserting that Hindutva is a political doctrine, not a religious one. A ‘Hindu India’ would not be Hindu at all, but a “Sanghi Hindutva state”, which is a different country altogether, says Tharoor in his new book ‘The Battle of Belonging’ that was released on Saturday.

“People like me want to preserve the India we love, and not turn our beloved nation into the kind of religious state we were brought up to detest,” he said. Tharoor also asserted that the Hindutva movement rhetoric echoes the bigotry that India was constructed to reject. In the book published by Aleph Book Company, Tharoor makes a stinging critique of the Hindutva doctrine and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which he says is a challenge to, arguably, the most fundamental aspect of Indianness. Devoting a chapter to the ‘Hindu Pakistan’ controversy in the book, the former Union minister writes: “I had inveighed against the ruling party’s attempts to create a Hindutva version of Pakistan since that was not what our freedom movement fought for, nor was it the idea of India enshrined in our Constitution.” “This is not just about the minorities, as the BJP would have us believe. Many proud Hindus like myself cherish the inclusive nature of our faith and have no desire to live, as our Pakistani neighbors are forced to, in an intolerant mono-religious state,” he writes.

Tharoor’s reported comment last year that the BJP will pave the way for the creation of a “Hindu Pakistan” had sparked a controversy with the party demanding his apology over the remarks. Hinduism, as Swami Vivekananda asserted, teaches the acceptance of difference as a basic credo, Tharoor said in the book. “Hindutva is not Hinduism; it is a political doctrine, not a religious one,” he said. “What is bizarre about the media drama over my remarks is that no one who was giving airtime to multiple BJP voices, frothing at the mouth about my words, actually asked them one simple question: ‘Is the BJP giving up its dream of a Hindu rashtra?'” Tharoor said. “The religious bigotry that partitioned the country with the founding of Pakistan has now been mirrored in pluralist India. As I told my fellow parliamentarians, that was a partition in the Indian soil; this is now a partition in the Indian soul,” he said. The Hindutva movement is the mirror image of the Muslim communalism of 1947; its rhetoric echoes the bigotry that India was constructed to reject, Tharoor said. Its triumph would mark the end of the Indian idea, the Congress leader added. In the book, Tharoor also delves into the issue of the slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ allegedly becoming an “acid test of Indian nationalism” and reiterated his stance that no Indian should be compelled to mouth a phrase that is nationalistic in the eyes of some, but not in his own.