INDPRIDE

To this category of names which have been to mankind a subtle source of life and inspiration belongs the word Hindutva, the essential nature and significance of which we have to investigate into. The ideas and ideals, the systems and societies, the thoughts and sentiments which have centered round this name are so varied and rich, so powerful and so subtle, so elusive and yet so vivid that the term Hindutva defies all attempts at analysis. Forty centuries, if not more, had been at work to mould it as it is. Prophets and poets, lawyers and law-givers, heroes and historians, have thought, lived, fought and died just to have it spelled thus. For indeed, is it not the resultant of countless actions - now conflicting, now commingling, now co-operating- of our whole race? Hindutva is not a word but a history. Not only the spiritual or religious history of our people as at times it is mistaken to be by being confounded with the other cognate term Hinduism but a history in full. Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva, unless it is made clear what is meant by the latter the first remains unintelligible and vague. Failure to distinguish between these two terms has given rise to much misunderstanding and mutual suspicion between some of those sister communities that have inherited this inestimable and common treasure of our Hindu civilization. Hindutva is not identical with what is vaguely indicated by the term Hinduism. By an 'ism' it is generally meant a theory or a code more or les based on spiritual or religious dogma or system. But when we attempt to investigate into the essential significance of Hindutva we do not primarily - and certainly not mainly - concern ourselves with any particular theoratic or religious dogma or creed. Had not linguistic usage stood in our way then 'Hinduness' would have certainly been a betterword than Hinduism as a near parallel to Hindutva. Hindutva embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole Being of our Hindu race. (page no.2-3)

Who is a Hindu?

The words Hindutva and Hinduism both of them being derived from the word Hindu, mus necessarily be understood to refer to the whole of the Hindu people. Any definition of Hinduism that leaves out any important section of our people and forces them either to play false to their convictions or to go outside the pale of Hindutva stands self-condemned. Hinduism means the system of religious beliefs found common amongst the Hindu people. And the only way to find out what those religious beliefs of the Hindus are, i.e. what constitutes Hinduism, you must first define a Hindu. But forgetting this chief implication of the word, Hinduism which clearly presupposes an independent conception of a Hindu many people go about to determine the essentials of Hinduism and finding none so satisfactory as to include, without overlapping all our Hindu communities, come to the desperate conclusion - which does not satisfy them either - that therefore those communities are not Hindus at all; not because the definition they had framed is open to the fault of exclusion but because those communities do not subject themselves to the required tenets which these gentlemen have thought it fit to lable as 'Hinduism'. This way of answering the question 'who is a Hindu' is really preposterous and has given rise to so much of bitterness amongst some of our brethren of Avaidik school of thought, the Sikh, the Jain, the Devsamaji and even our patriotic and progressive Aryasamajis.

'Who is a Hindu?' - he who is subject to the tenets of Hinduism. Very well. What is Hinduism? - those tenets to which the Hindus are subjected. This is very nearly arguing in a circle and can never lead to a satisfactory solution. Many of our friends who have been on this wrong track have come back to tell us 'there are no such people as Hindus at all!' If some Indian, as gifted as that Englishman who first coined the word Hinduism, coins a parallel word 'Englishism' and proceeds to find out the underlying unity of beliefs amongst the English people, gets disgusted with thousands of sects and societies from Jews to the Jacobins, from Trinity to Utility, and comes out to announce that 'there are no such people as the English at all, ' he would not make himself more ridiculous than those who declare in cold print 'there is nothing as a Hindu people.' Any one who wants to see what a confusion of thought prevails on the point and how the failure to analyse separately the two terms Hindutva and Hinduism renders that confusion worst confounded may do well to go through the booklet 'Essentials of Hinduism' published by the enterprising 'Natesan and Co.'

Hinduism means the 'ism' of the Hindu; and as the word Hindu has been derived from the word Sindhu, the Indus, meaning primarily all the people who reside in the land that extends from Sindhu to Sindhu, Hinduism must necessarily mean the religion or the religions that are peculiar and native to this land and these people. If we are unable to reduce the different tenets and belefs to a single system of religion then the only way would be to cease to maintain that Hinduism is a system and to say that it is a set of systems consistent with, or if you like, contradictory or even conflicting with each other. But in no case can you advance this your failure to determine the meaning of Hinduism as a ground to doubt the existence of the Hindu nation itself or worse still to commit sacrilege in hurting the feelings of our Avaidik brethren and Vaidik Hindu brethren alike, by relegating any of them to the non-Hindu pale. (page 64-65)

That is why in the case of some of our Mohammedan or Christian countrymen who had originally been forcibly converted to a non-Hindu religion and who consequently have inherited along with Hindus, a common Fatherland and a greater part of the wealth of a common culture - language, law, customs, folklore and history - are not and cannot be recognized as Hindus. For though Hindusthan to them is Fatherland as to any other Hindu yet it is not to them a Holyland too. Their holyland is far off in Arabia or Palestine. Their mythology and Godmen, ideas and heroes are not the children of this soil. Consequently their names and their outlook smack of a foreign origin. Their love is divided. Nay, if some of them be really believing what they profess to do, then there can be no choice - they must, to a man, set their Holyland above their Fatherland in their love and allegiance. That is but natural. We are not condemning nor are we lamenting. We are simply telling facts as they stand. We have tried to determine the essentials of Hindutva and in doing so we have discovered that the Bohras and such other Mohammedan or Christian communities possess all the essential qualifications of Hindutva but one and that is that they do not look upon India as their Holyland.

It is not a question of embracing any doctrine propounding any new theory of the interpretation of God, Soul and Man, for we honestly believe that the Hindu Thought - we are not speaking of any religion which is dogma - has exhausted the very possibilities of human speculation as to the nature of the Unknown - if not the Unknowable, or the nature of the relation between that and thou. Are you a monist - a monotheist-a pantheist- an atheist - an agnostic ? Here is ample room, O soul! whatever thou art , to love and grow to thy fullest height and satisfaction in this Temple of Temples, that stands on no personal foundation but on the broad and deep and strong foundation of Truth. Why goes then to fill thy little pitcher to wells far off, when thou standest on the banks of the crystal-streamed Ganges herself? does not the blood in your veins, O brother of our common forefathers cry aloud with the recollections of the dear old scenes and ties from which they were so cruelly snatched away at the point of the sword? Then come ye, back to the fold of your brothers and sisters who with arms extended are standing at the open gate to welcome you-their long lost kith and kin. Where can you find more freedom of worship than in this land where a Charvak could preach atheism from the steps of the temple of Mahakal - more freedom of social organisation than in the Hindu Society where from the Patnas of Orissa to the Pandits of Benares, from the Santhalas to the Sadhus, each can develop a distinct social type of polity or organize a new one? Verily, whatever could be found in the world is found here too. And if anything is not found here, it could be found nowhere. ye, who by race, by blood, by culture, by nationality possess almost all the essentials of Hindutva and had been forcibly snatched out of our ancestral home by the hand of violence-ye, have only to render wholehearted love to our common Mother and recognize her not only as Fatherland (Pitribhu) but even as a Holyland (Punyabhu); and ye would be most welcome to the Hindu fold.

This a choice which our countrymen and our old kith and kin, the Bohras, Khojas, Memons and other Mohammedan and Christian communities are free to make - a choice again which must be a choice of love. But as long as they are not minded thus, so long they cannot be recognized as Hindus. We are, it must be remembered, trying to analyse and determine the essentials of Hinutva as that word is actually understood to signify and would not be justified in straining it in its application to suit any pre-conceived notions or party convenience.

A Hindu, therefore, to sum up the conclusions arrived at, is he who looks upon the land that extends from Sindhu to Sindhu - from the Indus to the Seas - as the land of his forefathers - his Fatherland (Pitribhu), who inherits the blood of that race whose first discernible source could be traced to the Vedic Saptasindhus and which on its onward march, assimilating much that was incorporated and ennobling much that was assimilated, has come to be known as the Hindu people, who has inherited and claims as his own the culture of that race as expressed chiefly in their common classical language Sanskrit and represented by a common history, a common literature, art and architecture, law and jurisprudence, rites and rituals, ceremonies and sacraments, fairs and festivals; and who above all, addresses this land, this Sindhusthan as his Holyland (Punyabhu), as the land of his prophets and seers, of his godmen and gurus, the land of piety and pilgrimage. These are the essentials of Hindutva - a common nation (Rashtra), a common race (Jati) and a common civilization (Sanskriti). All these essentials could best be summed up by stating in brief that he is a Hindu to whom Sindhusthan is not only a Pitribhu but also a Punyabhu. For the first two essentials of Hindutva - nation and Jati - are clearly denoted and connoted by the word Pitribhu while the third essential of Sanskriti is pre-eminently implied by the word Punyabhu, as it is precisely Sanskriti including sanskaras i.e. rites and rituals, ceremonies and sacraments, that makes a land a Holyland. To make the definition more handy, we may be allowed to compress it in a couplet -

Asindhu Sindhu paryanta, Yasya Bharatbhumika

Pitribhuh Punyabhushchaiva sa vai Hinduriti smritah

(A Hindu means a person who regards this land of Bharatvarsha, from the Indus to the Seas as his Father-Land as well as his Holy-Land that is the cradle land of his religion.) (page no.70-71-72)

Here is a statement issued by Swatantryaveer Savarkar as the President of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Message on the eve of 59th birthday

25th May, 1941

From several Hindu Sanghatanist quarters a pressing request is being made to me to send some public message on the occasion of this my 59th birthday. Instead of writing to them severally, I think it will serve the purpose better and will spare me my time more if I send a common message to the Hindu public in general.

My message to Hindudom on the eve of this 59th birthday of mine is to the effect that :-

Hinduise All Politics & Militarize Hindudom !!

The Hindus should henceforth test all national and international politics and policies through the Hindu point of view alone. Whatever policy or political event contributes to safeguard and promote Hindu interests must be backed up by the Hindus and whatever is likely to prove detrimental to Hindu interests must be condemned and opposed by the Hindus. In as much as the Hindus do not ask anything more than what is legitimately due to them on principles of equity and equality, Hindu interests must of necessity be consistent with the demands and contents of genuine nationalism and even humanism.

Let the Hindus therefore as an immediate step to give effect to this Hinduised political progress, elect only those Hindus to represent them in the Legislatures and all other political bodies as Hindu representatives who pledge themselves openly and uncompromisingly to safeguard, to defend, and to promote uncompromisingly the interests of Hindudom as a whole. Thus firstly Hinduise all politics.

And secondly, as the first immediate step to militarize Hindudom, let every Hindu youth who is capable to stand the test, try his best to enter the army, the navy and the air force or get the training and secure employment in the ammunition factories and in all other branches connected with war crafts.

Unforeseen facilities are being thrown open to you. Unexpected opportunities have presented themselves before you. You help no one else more than you help yourselves if you utilise these facilities and opportunities to militarize Hindudom ! This done, everything else shall follow : if you miss this, nothing else shall avail !

This sums up the whole programme and the supreme duty of the hour.

Hinduise all politics and militarise Hindudom ! ! and the resurrection of our Hindu Nation is bound to follow it as certainly as the Dawn follows the darkest hour of Night !