Mr L K Advani has struck again.  Of course, he will strike again and again in the coming days keeping the imminent elections in view.

He launched his latest missile in his recent interview to the Hindu newspaper, published on 11 and 12 of July.  Quoting Deendayal Upadhyaya (alleged by Advani to be “the greatest influence” on him) he said, “Hindutva should be equated to Bharatiyata.  Bharatiya is a Hindu.  Indianness and Hindutva are synonymous.  Don’t make a distinction between the two.  It should mean nationalism essentially.”

At least on the score of Hindutva Advani has displayed commendable consistency.  He said the same thing verbatim in the Organiser of 7 April 1991.  His adversaries may say that he has not grown up much in the last 17 years.  He’s too old to grow any more, you see.

There are some serious problems with Advani’s view of Hindutva, however. 

Advani brazenly equates Hindutva with Indianness.  Does it mean that Hindutva has nothing to do with Hinduism?  Does it mean that Hindutva is merely a nationalist concept?  If so, why is Advani so much opposed to other religious communities?  More than that, if Hindutva is merely a nationalist concept, why not give it a name that does not bear the imposing and ominous burden of a particular religion?  Or does Advani mean to say that Hinduism is not a religion at all, as many scholars have argued earlier?

The word ‘Hindutva’ was coined by V D Savarkar, who was nothing if not a fanatic.  (Advani is an acolyte of Savarkar and Golwalkar rather than of Deendayal Upadhyaya as he is now keen to project himself.)  In Savarkar’s words, “We Hindus are not only a Rashtra, a Jati, but as a consequence of being both, own a common Sanskriti, expressed, preserved chiefly and originally through Sanskrit, the real mother tongue of our race.” 

In a speech to the Hindu Mahasabha in Nagpur in 1938, Savarkar said, “We are Indians because we are Hindus and vice versa.... India must be a Hindu land, reserved for the Hindus.”

Savarkar’s is a highly circumscribing definition of Hindus and consequently of Hindutva.  Does Advani subscribe to this definition?  If yes, are the people of the North-Eastern states and Sikkim, whose languages have nothing to do with Sanskrit, eligible to be Indians?  What about the millions of other Indians, say the Muslims, whose language has little to do with Sanskrit? 

If Advani means only ‘a nationalist sense’ by the word Hindutva, then the problem of language will not arise.  But will Advani distance himself so much from his precious gurus like Savarkar and Golwalkar?  Another problem will still arise.  No culture can be alienated from its language.  What is the language of the culture of “Indianness” as defined by Advani?  Is it Hindi?  Is it Sanskrit?  Sanskrit is a dying language as far as its practical uses and usage are concerned.  If Hindi is taken as the language of Indianness, more millions than mentioned above will be alienated from Advani’s Indianness. 

It is pertinent to quote here what Swami Vivekananda said in a famous speech in Madras on his return from the more famous Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1897: “Now this word ‘Hindu’ – whatever might have been its meaning in ancient times – has lost all its force in modern times; for all the people that live on this side of the Indus no longer belong to one religion.  There are the Hindus proper, the Mohammedans, the Parsees, the Christians, the Buddhists, and Jains.  The word ‘Hindu’ in its literal sense ought to include all these; but, as signifying the religion, it would not be proper to call all these Hindus.”  Advani in the year 2008 is a far cry from the clarity of Swami Vivekananda in the year 1938!

Why bother with something as hazy and as misleading as Hindutva at all?  In fact, will this Advani, who asks all Indians to consider themselves Hindus, ask his relatives in Canada to call themselves Christians?  Will he ask the Hindus in Pakistan to consider themselves Muslims?  Will he ask the Hindus in Sri Lanka to consider themselves Buddhists?

Gandhi and Nehru gave us the concept of Unity in Diversity, which is what India really is and ought to be.  Advani is trying to eradicate the diversity in the country with his ill-conceived concept of Hindutva which is clinging to him like a slimy barnacle on an ancient rock.