Rahul Gandhi’s first speech in the Lok Sabha as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) on motion of thanks has led to a full blown public debate causing divisions between two different ideological spectrums. Rahul made political assertions regarding Bharatiya Janata Party’s violent Hindu practices and non-violent Hinduism, as espoused by the Opposition, by invoking Hindu deity Shiva and Congress’s ideological fountainhead Gandhi. The BJP viewed this as an insult to the Hindus. Rahul Gandhi’s address began to look odd when he started waving a printed picture of Hindu deity Shiva to counter the religious narrative of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). For many this felt like an ideological departure from the social justice politics that he nurtured during the campaign trails of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Rahul Gandhi was seen waving the Indian Constitution even during the oath-taking ceremony but consequently borrowed the rhetoric of Shiva and his Trishul to drive the point of the ‘non-violent’ nature of Hindu religion and Hindus. He also repeatedly said ‘Daro mat, darao mat’ (do not fear, do not spread fear) and waved the picture of the Hindu deity Shiva. Interestingly, when he was countered and objections were raised by senior BJP leaders including the Prime Minister, he went on backfoot to say, "hindu darr nahi faila sakta, hindu himsa nahi faila sakta, hindu nafrat nahi faila sakta". (A Hindu cannot spread fear, violence or hatred). Now this is a sweeping proposition of Hindu, Hinduism and Hindu civilisation, especially if one takes cognizance of the massive philosophical scholarship of Dr BR Ambedkar on Hinduism.
A closer look at Rahul’s conjectures shows he, as the LoP, attempted to rescue Gandhian Hinduism from Savarkarite hindutva. Interestingly, what LoP seemed to have missed was that both Gandhi and Savarkar’s imaginations of Hinduism did not have an ethical and social mechanism to annihilate caste. It was offered by Dr Ambedkar.
Dr Ambedkar’s deeply researched work, ‘Riddles in Hinduism: an exposition to enlighten the masses’ had identified 24 riddles, in which the first one is contextual to the ongoing debate: Why is a Hindu a Hindu? Dr Ambedkar categorically responds to that: ‘such questions would be answered without any difficulties by the Muslims and Christians, both would say they are believers of Islam and Jesus Christ but for a Hindu, ‘he would not know what to say’. If he says that he is a Hindu because he worships the same God as the Hindu community does his answer cannot be true. All Hindus do not worship one God. Some Hindus are monotheists, some are polytheists and some are pantheists. Even those Hindus who are monotheists are not worshippers of the same Gods. Some worship the God Vishnu, some Shiva, some Rama, some Krishna. Some do not worship the male gods. They worship a goddess. Even then they do not worship the same goddesses. They worship different goddesses. Some worship Kali, some worship Parvati, some worship Laxmi’.
So for Rahul Gandhi to rescue the idea of ‘who is a real Hindu’ from BJP’s notion of Hindu and Hindutva is an action which will yield no substantive result as the complexity of the question of who is a Hindu is a perpetual riddle in Hinduism itself. In fact, in the philosophical debates of Dr Ambedkar on Hinduism, the question that rather he dwelt on was, ‘is it not time that a Hindu should ask himself, What are the causes that has brought about this religious chaos?’ Dr Ambedkar found that the Hindu social order does not recognise the individual as a centre of social purpose’. Dr Ambedkar says it is built on graded Varna-based social hierarchy, recognised by Hindu social order as four classes: (1) Brahmins, (2) Kshatriyas (3) Vaishyas and (4) Shudras. Today It consists of five classes, the fifth being called the Panchamas or Untouchables’. In other words it means that the caste system is an essential feature of Hinduism and a man who does not belong to a recognised Hindu caste cannot be a Hindu’. Hence it does not matter what M K Gandhi has espoused about Sanatana Hinduism or the idea of Hindu, however non-violent, Rahul Gandhi preaches by invoking Lord Shiva. It’s textually sanctioned and ordered by the Hindu shastras. In fact, Riddles in Hinduism can be based with the cases of caste-based violence on Dalits perpetrated often by Caste Hindus.
Rahul Gandhi has visited Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur, a city where the RSS is headquartered. The place got global significance due to Dr Ambedkar. It’s where he renounced Hinduism and converted to Buddhism. Therefore, Rahul should recall Dr Ambedkar’s historic speech in Nagpur on October 15, 1956, a day after he had embraced Buddhism. Ambedkar had said, ‘’We started the movement of renouncing the Hindu religion through a resolution at Yeola in 1935. Long back I had vowed, ‘Though I am born as a Hindu I will not die as a Hindu” and I proved it yesterday. I am overjoyed, I am exalted. I feel I have been liberated from the hell’’. In fact, Dr Ambedkar wrote ‘’Hinduism believes in Chaturvarnya and the caste system. Buddhism has no place for the caste system and Chaturvarnya.” When prominent leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya, president of Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj, and Udhayanidhi Stalin, a minister in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led government in Tamil Nadu made critical comments against the Hindu religion, they also addressed the caste structure inherent in it.
It is therefore important for Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition INDIA Bloc to reminisce Ambedkarite critique of Hindu religion, which due to the inherent caste-based unequal structure denies morality, fraternity, liberty and equality. The mandate of the 2024 general election, as reflected in the results, especially from the state of Uttar Pradesh and Faizabad, where Ayodhya Ram Mandir is located, was to revive constitutional morality and principles. It was not to resuscitate Hinduism by saving it from the RSS and BJP. Reducing the mandate by categorising Hindus and Hinduism as violent and non-violent would be a disregard to the millions of oppressed Dalit voters who are victims of caste based atrocities perpetrated by Caste Hindus. Dalits voted against BJP in large numbers to find a respite from caste-based atrocities and discriminations.
Subhajit Naskar is an Assistant Professor with the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. Views expressed are the author's own.