Of Melas And Politics | Opinion News, The Indian Express

Of Melas And Politics | Opinion News, The Indian Express

Written by Badri Narayan |Updated: December 18, 2018 1:56:52 pm

The writer is professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad

Of Melas And Politics

These efforts may lead to the formation of “samagra Hindutva” — the BJP’s recently-framed strategy for the 2019 election

For the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the Kumbh is also an opportunity to showcase its skill at good governance by organising such a large festival. It is a golden opportunity for Hindutva cultural and political groups to weave and strengthen Hindu identity.

Some days Ago, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh organised a “Samrasta Kumbh” in Ayodhya, whose main purpose was to include Dalits and other marginalised communities within the Hindutva fold. While inaugurating the Kumbh, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath opined that most of the Vedic richas were composed by Dalit rishis, so stopping Dalits from reading the Vedas is unjust.

These efforts may lead to the formation of “samagra Hindutva” — the BJP’s recently-framed strategy for the 2019 election. At a recent Samanvay (coordination) meeting of the BJP and RSS in Lucknow, BJP President Amit Shah said that “samagra Hindutva” is an important instrument to counter the mahagathbandhan in 2019. It seems that Shah coined a whole new concept. Some RSS activists too said that it seems like a novel notion. One of them said: “In the RSS, we talk about samagra gram vikas, samagra samaj but not samagra Hindutva. We use ekatm manavvad as propounded by the late Deen Dayal Upadhyay to denote the oneness of entire humanity. The RSS and Sangh Parivar also talks about uniting the Hindu samaj. Now, they also claim Muslims are those Hindus who converted during the medieval period under the compulsion of Muslim rulers. While explaining ‘samagra hindutva’, Shah suggested that we integrate OBC and Dalits in the Hindutva fold. He also emphasised that the government is working to integrate OBCs and SCs and that we need to continue dialogues with these communities to integrate them into the Hindutva fold. So, he proposed the formation of a social alliance of SCs, OBCs and castes of the general category under the influence of the BJP.” Here, the BJP government is trying to use a symbol of the Kumbha for its samrasta campaign, to create “samagra Hindutva”.

The UP government is going to celebrate the Kumbh at Prayagraj in January 2019. Before that, the government’s organising of five Kumbhs at various places in the state — such as the Sanskriti Kumbh, Vichar Kumbh and Samrasta Kumbh — are essentially attempting to disseminate Hindutva ideology.

The UP government is making varied efforts to showcase the Kumbh, both within and outside the country. There are three major reasons: One, to bring a lot of people to the Kumbh Mela. Two, the Kumbh message would, at least, reach those who do not make it to the mela. Three, creating a grand Hindutva identity by state-supported mega celebrations of Hindu festivals and rituals.