New Delhi: Hindutva is neither a Left nor a Right construct, said RSS sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale at the launch of a book written by RSS national executive member, Ram Madhav Friday. The book is titled The Hindutva Paradigm: Integral Humanism and the Quest for a Non-Western Worldview.
“The world had gone to (the) Left, or was forced to go Left and now the situation is such that (the) world is moving towards the Right, so that it’s at the Centre. That is what Hindutva is all about, neither Left nor Right,” said Hosabale, adding that the essence of Hindutva was integral humanism.
“I am from the RSS. We have never said in our discourse in the Sangh training camps that we are Rightist(s). Many of our ideas are like Leftist ideas and many definitely this so-called Rightist.”
Explaining further, Hosabale said, “that’s why the geographical, religious and the political divide of the Left and the Rright and the East and the West, I think all those things have blurred, dimmed and melted. Today the world is embracing each other’s ideas and a new man is emerging.”
The RSS leader said that iconic RSS pracharak and president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh Deendayal Upadhyaya had “tried to put the ancient Bharatiya thought into modern context… and how it should be calibrated to the future generations.”
“It is not by Deendayal ji, but it is through Deendayal Upadhyaya ji that these thoughts have flown. It is not a new political ideology that Deendayal Upadhyaya has presented… though it is put as a political philosophy for the modern times.”
Hosabale said there is no idea of a ‘full stop’ in Indian thought and tradition. “And now I would like to say calling this East or West, the Left, and the Right, all these things are suitable for our present-day political discourse, present-day geopolitics. When I say the present day, it is post Second World War, when a new world order started and it continues post-liberalisation and globalisation,” he added.
“The West is not East totally, the East is not totally East. The Left is not totally Left or Right is not totally Right,” he emphasised.
He further said that Deendayal Upadhyaya had not used the word Hindutva paradigm, but integral humanist philosophy.
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‘Western worldview cast aspersions on our worldview’
Hosabale referred to Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, who had talked about the Indianisation of the country’s legal system last month and said that ”very often our justice delivery poses multiple barriers for the common people. The working and the style of courts do not sit well with the complexities of India. Our systems practise rules being colonial in origin may not be best suited to the needs of Indian population. The need of the hour is the Indianisation of our legal system”.
Touching upon Ramana’s statement, Hosabale said some colonial remnants are still ruling our institutions and our minds, and to achieve full freedom India will have to get rid of it. “The western worldview has cast aspersions on our own worldview,” he said.
The RSS leader said Upadhyaya also questioned the Western worldview and offered an alternate which is essentially Bharatiya and Hindu.
Author Ram Madhav too touched upon Deendayal Upadhyaya’s thoughts and said that in the post-Covid world order integral humanist thought can play an instrumental role. “In a post-Covid world order.. in this period of transition, we should be able to provide our wisdom. Deendayal’s humanism’s time has come today,” said Madhav.
Madhav also said that his book argues for a “non-Western worldview”, but it’s “not anti-West”.
“This book is about the ideas of Deendayal Upadhyaya who gave the integral humanist thought. If there was one idea that originated from India and influenced the world it was Gandhi ji’s ahimsa and satyagraha. In the realm of socio-political ideas, Deendayal Upadhyaya’s integral humanist idea is also an equally profound socio-political idea,” said Madhav.
“Deendayal Upadhyaya’s idea did not get enough attention neither across the world, nor in India.. One reason was that he didn’t get enough time to elaborate on the idea about what he actually meant by Integral Humanism,” added the RSS member and author.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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