Hindutva: A Silver Bullet for world peace volume 1

A major step towards achieving a globalized world was taken when the world powers conceived the Idea of ‘The League of Nations'. The journey, henceforth, to the formulation of a global platform under the aegis of United Nations had been a major achievement in this direction. The situations under which the General assembly and the Security Council were fashioned once have drastically changed and somewhere the present dexterity of the UN needs a fresh change to cope up with the changing scenario. The archetypal notion of a global society needs equal representation and equal participation on the one hand and on the other hand, needs to ensure the protection of the weaker nations to survive and provide assistance to warrant them encouragement. The society, whether ideal or paradoxical, will remain overwhelmed by materialism and hence achieving the perfect state of harmony will remain a distant dream. Succinctly, the nations with the voluminous economy and military might remain enthused with the propensities of world domination in a never-ending tug of war.

 

Reactionary globalization:

The formulation of the axis powers created the alternate need for formulating a strategy to check these intransigent forces. The Pearl Harbor incident instigated the dormant and capable nations to arrive at common grounds and the Atlanta charter of 1941 can be termed as the major milestone in the process. The United Nations, which was conceived in the process, generated the necessary pool of resources to win the war and rid the world of the ills of the obdurate axis powers. On the one hand, a pioneer of the allied forces and the UN, the Britain under Winston Churchill were hailed as liberators of the Jews and oppressed, whereas on the other hand the same Britishers as colonizers plundered and massacred millions to induce colonialism and the western worldview into the otherwise prospering Indian society. A hero to some was a villain to many and to placate the weak, the ‘candy’ of equal representation in the general assembly was awarded, while the concomitant powers under the aegis of Security Council nefariously kept their discriminative powers intact. Succinctly a new world order driven by the greed of the few elite nations repackaged as globalization quickly grappled the word. This time again the invariable that ascribed this new age subtle colonialism was vetted through the urge of gaining pelf via exploiting the weak. The cornerstone of diplomatic relations between nations under the aegis of UNO was kindled through the need of the weak and the ability of the strong, but it actually made the weaker nations vulnerable and at the mercy of the powerful nations. The VETO that empowered the UN also became the very reason for major policies to be stalled as an when they were perceived to be against the interest of these elite nations. The eccentric distribution of power among the UN nations itself became discriminative towards the promised utopian global platform. The dream of dedicated standing army for the UN still remains a distant avenue, the UN bureaucracy remains disposed to the hegemony of the patrons and its organs for manifesting policies at various parts of the world remains indisposed. The Globalization that sprouted as a reaction to the Axis powers failed to contemplate to the idea of one true global society. Geo-strategic intergovernmental blocks such as the NATO, ASEAN, and even the EU poses a tough question for the UNO that whether they don’t see the UN capable of meeting their geo-economic and strategic aspirations or if they consider the UNO to be biased to a few still remains to be deliberated upon.

Isms and ideologies:

Numerous ideologies sprouted at various stages of time and at times beleaguered humanity with innumerable hardships. From colonialism, that believed the supremacy of white men and legitimised slavery, to Nazism, that believed the supremacy of a race and legitimised the holocaust of Jews, from theocratic states in the west, to the reactionary secular states, from capitalism to communalism and to socialism, all notions of ideologies that had its inception as a reaction to the prevalent factors of those times and either became oblique with time or caused massive obliteration of human values, like in the case of colonialism and fascism. In the Petri dish of society, all these ideologies and their social experiments failed the promise of human upliftment as all these ‘Isms-logies’ and religions considered others inferior, it failed to portray the required sense of inclusiveness to celebrate the prevalent diversities of thought, faith, and religion.

Hindutva: the silver bullet for world peace:

While most ideologies, isms and religions failed to ensure peace and harmony, yet Hindutva I;e a way of life kept its relevance alive time and again alongside all odds and even flourished during comparatively hostile conditions. It survived the brunt of Islamic invasion and it survived colonial subjugation and even survived when all of its centres of knowledge were destroyed and the minds of its future generations were polluted by isms induced by the colonizers. It survived, resurged and replenished itself to remain relevant throughout its eternal existence. In this argument of ‘Hindutva: a silver bullet for world peace’, we will compare Hindutva through four parameters to check if Hindutva has the potential to rid the world of its sufferings:

1) Inclusive:

Where conventional religions and ideologies suffer from a superiority complex and often hegemonize other philosophies, the Sanatan way of life take a different approach to the existing variety to faith, philosophy, religion and approach to life. The fundamentals of this Sanatan philosophy i; e Hindutva is founded and propagated through the principles of ‘Ekam Sat Viprah Bahidha Vadanti’ or truth is one, yet the pundits profess it in various ways. The all-embracing notion of brotherhood and an accommodating nature for even a comparatively hostile ideology, religion or faith, establishes Hindutva on the moral high ground that is all appealing for those who seek the deliverance of world peace and harmony.

2) Equitable:

While nations, with constitutions, defined duties for their masses, Hindutva engrained the masses with civilization memory I; e the Chitta to aspire for and fulfil the divine duties or Dharma. While the scope Dharma is voluminous and can include every aspect of life, yet its essence can be simply understood as Dharyati Eti Dharma or that which sustains and uplifts is called Dharma (Dharana and Uddharana), for e.g. to sustain and uplift humanity is Manav Dharma of a human, similarly to sustain and uplift one’s duty towards their parents is called the Putra Dharma and so on. Hindutva, which is essentially a Dharmic philosophy emphasizes on these divine duties and signifies them as priorities then to worshipping gods or performing rituals in a prescribed manner. The equitability of this Dharmic philosophy inspires equality for every human and inspires to act in an egalitarian manner. Establishing these values through policy intervention in various spheres of the society will be a first step towards ensuring an equitable future generation.

3) Progressive:

While the world created binaries of race, colour, creed and religion, Hindutva identified Guna’s or Qualities in every human in an egalitarian manner and classified them according to their propensities. The binaries of races, sect, and creeds were trivial and paradoxical, where people were forever stuck in their respective parochial attributes. Whereas the Guna’s classified and freed humans from the narrowness of these binaries and at the same time gave them the freedom to rise up in the Guna classification with constant pursuit of knowledge until one realises the ultimate knowledge or transcends to achieve the Brahma Gyaan.

This argument is further established through a Shloka from the Manusmiriti[1] as follows:

जन्मना जायते शूद्रः संस्कारात् भवेत् द्विजः |

वेद-पाठात् भवेत् विप्रः ब्रह्म जानातीति ब्राह्मणः

According to this Shloka, every human is by birth a Shudra, then after his Saṃskāra[2] one is reborn and is called a Dweeja, thirdly after studying the Shastras’[3] and with attainment of knowledge one becomes Vipra (विप्र) or the learned/scholar and lastly, after realising Brahma one becomes a Brahmana. The fluidity of intellectual progression and its accommodating nature inspires everyone to rise above trivial issues and frictions to pursue knowledge as the ultimate goal of humanity.

4) Universality:

The modern world today thrives to achieve a global society that can bring together nations, communities and arrive at a platform which is above the paradox of religions or ideological binaries. While religions or ideologies throughout the globe encouraged proselytiation, Hindutva advocated a completely different approach while promoting a worldview beyond binaries and deliberating a discourse that had and still has the elements for establishing a true global fraternity. The narrative of ‘universality’ in Hindutva can be best understood via a Sanskrit Shloka from the Maha Upanishad, where it states

अयं निजं परोवेति गणानाम लघु चेतसाम ।

उदार चरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम

Here it extols the aptitude of a person who can realise the world as one family and exhorts it to be the highest attribute in ones character.

Conclusion:

The worldview presented in Hindutva is vast and comprehensive. Whereas due to our own limited and penumbral understanding of our philosophies and scriptures like the Upanishads, Smritis, Shrutis and Suktas etc (which are the collective recorded memory of our civilization) we suffered from delusion and intellectual impotence to steer our civilization in the right direction post independence. We as a civilization in continuum, had always possessed the silver bullet to potentially stimulate the world into a state of universal fraternity and rid the world of its ills and binaries to recognize a true global family which till date has remained a Utopia. The need of this hour is to re-introduce Hindutva as a policy intervention into the dynamics of public policy overcoming the physical limitations of countries and ideologies. The second volume in the series “Hindutva: A silver bullet for world peace”, will deliberate upon the ideals of Philanthropy and often misquoted ideals of non-violence vis-à-vis self preservation (“अहिंसा परमो धर्मः धर्म हिंसा तथैव च”).