Parameswarji Revisited: Their Villains are Vivekananda and Aurobindo, Not just Savarkar or 'Sangh Parivar'





After Savarkar and Sangh Parivar, it is Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo who are going to come under attack. At the moment they are softening the field and preparing the ground.

P Parameswaran

Though the gun is apparently pointed at the Sangh Parivar, the real enemies targeted are totally different. They are the people whom you would not suspect even in your dream.

On the other hand, they are such whom you would hold in the highest respect, whom you would actually adore, whom you consider as the ones but for whom we would not have been what we are today. They are the actual builders of our nation, architects of our freedom. It is such venerables who are ultimately sought to be gunned down as villains. But the vilifiers that it would be premature now.

The ground has to be prepared. Necessary smoke-screens have to be created. The present hue and cry against Hindutva in general, and the Sangh Parivar, and Savarkar in particular, is a preparatory step to achieve the final goal which is not yet fully revealed or spelt out. The Sangh Parivar had been damned for quite a while ever since Gandhiji was murdered by Godse, even though there is no justification or a shred of evidence; on the other hand, there are plenty to the contrary. The judicial verdict is unambiguous; still, venomous propaganda never ceases. But the votaries of truth and non-violence, and also undiluted secularism carry on the campaign of hatred and falsehood religiously, because the objective is politics of power, and for that, no holds are barred. After the Sangh Parivar, it is Savarkar now. Upstart politicians, born with silver spoons in their mouth, vilify Savarkar for betraying the freedom struggle as a time-server and British stooge, as the advocate of two-nation theory. They equate him with Jinnah. The heroic struggle and the lifelong idealism of Veer Savarkar are absolutely non-existent in their reckoning. He has to be condemned without trial and vilified to no end because that would them votes of those who have never considered India as their motherland, who have demanded vivisection of Mother India and got it at gun-point and for those who had sided with the British against our freedom fighters only to strengthen Soviet Union, their only fatherland, the vivification of Savarkar has become a handy tool to bring together all the anti-Indian and anti-national forces. So why about truth, when falsehood can bring you a few seeds and a couple of ministerial berths? So let Savarkar be damned, along with the Sangh Parivar. But, if that was all that these mean-minded, power-hungry politicians aimed at, we could afford to pitifully loathe them. But no. Their game is deeper. They are our to denigrate and destroy the very best among our national heroes and the fundamental values and principles they stood for, and suffered and sacrificed all; even their lives.

Every time the mildness of the Hindus has given way. The best solution would be to allow the Hindus to organise themselves and the Hindu-Muslim unity would take care of itself; it will automatically solve the problem.

The onslaught on Savarkar and Sangh Parivar is only the thin end of the wedge. Their ultimate objective is to bring to ridicule the hallowed memories of Swami Vivekananda, Dayananda Saraswati and Mahayogi Aurobindo! Sounds incredible? Please listen to the latest crusader of secularism, the sworn enemy of Hindutva and dearest darling of progressive journalism, Jyotirmaya Sharma, whose new and startling discoveries are a daily source of nourishment to the anti-Hindu brigade all over. In the recently published book Hindutva, Sharma writes: "The only way to confront Hindutva and its demonic agenda is to question the legitimacy and call the bluff of a set of self-appointed arbiters of faith. Who are these self-appointed arbiters? Dayananda, Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Savarkar." The book Hindutva was written by Sharma with the sole objective of exposing these four personalities and to prove that it is from the terrible and tortured vision of these four that the Hindutva in its present demonic form emerged. He writes that if Savarkar"s exposition of Hindutva is the most radical, the most extreme, and certainly the most militant, it is only because his universe of ideas and its milieu was nourished by predecessors like Dayananda, Vivekananda and Aurobindo. So the original sin of all the later calamities is to be trusted on the shoulders of these three exponents of Indian culture who are almost universally acknowledged as the inspirers and harbingers of India"s freedom. Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo have come in for the most vitriolic attack. He accuses Swami Vivekananda of giving legitimacy for the "eye for an eye", "tooth for a tooth" principle and of going beyond the conventionally prescribed dose of retaliation because Swamiji preached: If one gets a blow, one must return it with redoubled fury. Then only one is a man. The coward is an object to be pitied. The charge is against Swamiji"s Herculean efforts to awaken an enslaved, down-trodden and docile people into a proud and self-respecting nation. It was Swamiji"s clarion call that awakened the nation and aroused its youth to fight for the country"s freedom. He taught them the elementary lessons of patriotism. But for him, as Shri C Rajagopalachari says, Hinduism would have perished and India would not have become free. This is widely acknowledged in India and abroad. It is this hero of India"s youth that Sharma targets to attack. He lays the guilt squarely at the doors of Swamiji saying, "Vivekananda"s formulation would pre-date Savarkar"s by several decades.

Regarding Sri Aurobindo, his charges are no less venomous. The rationale behind his argument is the statement of Sri Aurobindo: "The Muslims ought not to be flattered nor should they be approached with weakness and cowardice." Hindu-Muslim unity should not mean the subjection of the Hindu.

Every time the mildness of the Hindus has given way. The best solution would be to allow the Hindus to organise themselves and the Hindu-Muslim unity would take care of itself, it will automatically solve the problem. It is the emphasis on the role of Hinduism in the Indian concept of nationality that arouses the wrath of secularists like Sharma. They cannot tolerate the basic fact, evidently stated by Sri Aurobindo: "In the Indian conception of nationality, the Hindu view would naturally be there. If it cannot find a place there, the Hindu may as well be asked to give up their culture." These secular intellectuals of the type of Jyotirmaya Sharma are so infuriated at the proud appropriation and bold assertion of Hindu and culture by Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo that they counterpoise leaders like Tilak, Tagore and Gandhiji as the opposite poles whose Hinduism was totally opposed to the extremist and fundamentalist Hinduism was totally opposed to the extremist and fundamentalist Hinduism of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. They little understand that of Swami Vivekananda.

The judicial verdict is unambiguous, but the venomous propaganda never ceases. Gandhiji had said after reading Vivekananda"s work, "My love for the country become a thousand-fold," and Tagore said, "If you want to study India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative". Gandhiji and Tagore were equally great admirers of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. In judging these great souls, whom are we to believe? Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi or Jyotirmaya Sharma and his pseudo-secular cohorts? Whether it was Mani Shankar Aiyer who is out to tarnish the image of Veer Savarkar, or Kancha Iliah who want to bury the Vedas and Sanskrit language hundred fathoms deep, or Jyotirmaya Sharma who would not hesitate to call Vivekananda and Aurobindo as Hindu Jihadis, the conspiracy they have hatched is one and the same--to demolish and destroy whatever is known as Hindu. They are all dead set against Hindu unity. Look at what Sharma writes: "Every Hindu decides what is Hinduism. That space ought to remain inviolable. It is a space worth living for and dying for." What tremendous courage! What admirable idealism! But will they apply the same standard of religious freedom to individual Christians and Muslims also? One would like to have an answer.

Savarkar is accused of propagating the two-nation theory, which he actually did not. Savarkar was an advocate of undivided Hinduism in which Muslims as a minority would have rights proportionate to their numbers. But I wonder why Dr Ambedkar who wrote a whole volume, finally concluded with the remarks: "I hold that if the Mussalmans will not yield on the issue of Pakistan, then Pakistan must come." Dr Ambedkar not only favoured Pakistan, but with cold logic argued for the transfer of all Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus to India. Our secular intellectuals are adept in hushing up inconvenient facts and raking up half-truths or untruths which they can exploit cleverly. We must be really thankful to these intellectual terrorists for unwittingly letting the cat out of the bag! After Savarkar and Sangh Parivar, it is Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo who are going to come under attack. At the moment they are softening the field and preparing the ground. Let us wait and see.

(The writer is director of Bharatiya Vichara Kendra and the president of Vivekananda Kendra)

(2005) (Heart Beats of Hindu Nation Vol-2, published by Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan Trust)