Congress keeps forgetting its own history. Hindu Mahasabha was inseparable part of the party

File photo of the Hindu Maha Sabha Bhavan in Delhi | Representational image | Commons

Indifference to history and ineptitude in politics are two permanent blind spots of Hindus. As the Indian National Congress, for more than a hundred years, has been the most representative party of Hindus, it has also been afflicted with this Hindu defect.

Presently, the claim of a Congress spokesman is a display of the same. He said that the two-nation theory was the idea of the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Muslim League merely adopted it. Therefore, the blame for the Partition in 1947 must be apportioned to the Hindu Mahasabha also. This claim reflects not only ignorance of history, but of politics too.

Decades before the birth of the Hindu Mahasabha in 1915, Muslim thinkers like Altaf Hussain Hali, Syed Ahmad Khan, and Allama Iqbal had declared— on the strength of Islamic theory & practice—that “Muslims are a separate nation.” The Congress seems ignorant of the history of Islam, as also of the magnificent documents such as Hali’s Musaddas (1879) and Iqbal’s Shikwa (1909) and Jawab-e-Shikwa (1911). Historians like Francis Robinson and Khushwant Singh rightly considered it as the “first manifesto” of the Pakistan movement or the two-nation theory. Here was the proposition based on which the Muslim League demanded Pakistan, and Jinnah reformulated it in technical language. Only those ignorant of history can have the gumption to blame a Hindu organisation for the two-nation theory or the Partition.

The second piece of ignorance is quite strange. The Hindu Mahasabha, which the Congressmen are blaming, was inseparable from the Congress! The president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Madan Mohan Malaviya, was four times president of the Congress as well. Lala Lajpat Rai, too, was the president of both organisations. There were many others. Sometimes the Hindu Mahasabha’s session would also take place in the Congress pandal. Finally, in the last phase, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, whom Prime Minister Nehru made his cabinet colleague. So, either Nehru did not know the history of the Hindu Mahasabha, or today’s Congressmen do not know the history of Nehru.

Therefore, it is with reason that no historian came out to support the Congress’ claim. Historians, Hindu or Muslim, know that the demand for Partition, and the violence for it, was led by Muslim leaders. Jinnah had threatened: ‘Divided India or destroyed India.’ During the Muslim League’s Direct Action Day (16 August 1946), in just one city, Calcutta, four thousand corpses were laid on the streets! To deny such recent history and put the blame of Partition upon Hindus is proof of the vanishing historical sense of the Congress.

Gandhi’s consent

The political ignorance of Congress leaders is all the more deplorable. Even their own leaders, like AK Antony, have repeatedly warned that the policies of Congress have created its image as a ‘Muslim party.’ In 2002, instead of condemning those who burnt alive 59 Hindus in Godhra, Congress leaders went on calling the RSS-BJP demons. Later, the ‘Communal and Targeted Violence Prevention Bill’ (2011) brought by Congress in Parliament proposed legal provisions by presuming Hindus to be permanent rioters and Muslims as permanent sufferers. As a result of such instances, a section of Hindus, traditionally Congress supporters, turned away from it.

All this is a consequence of forgetting its own history. Congress had been a liberal Hindu party, though showing special care for Muslims. It was in harmony with the normal Hindu sentiment, which is not communal by nature, even if ignorant. But by relying solely upon wooing Muslims, Congress has left itself hanging in the air. Such inaptitude is also due to its ignorance of the history of Islamic politics. BR Ambedkar had termed Muslim politics as a ‘close corporation,’ in which there is no place for any non-Muslim concern.

Therefore, Muslim politics merely uses deftly non-Muslim parties, leaders, or governments. Once the work is done or the party becomes weak, it turns its eye away like a parrot. Gandhi, for three decades, kept giving Muslims all sorts of ‘blank cheques,’ and in the end gave Pakistan once too too. Nehru himself said that “if Gandhi had told us not to, we would have gone on fighting, and waiting.” Thus, only with Gandhi’s consent could Pakistan come into existence. In return, let alone gratitude, is there even Gandhi’s name anywhere in Pakistan? Rather, even during Gandhi’s own time, Muslim leaders kept insulting him in various ways. From Maulana Muhammad Ali to Maulana Abdul Rashid, they kept humiliating Gandhi repeatedly. Even Gandhi’s eldest son converted to Islam.

Therefore, Gandhi drowned for Muslim interests, taking a large number of Hindus with him. As VP Menon mused: “He lived for it – indeed he eventually died for it”.  Forgetting this tragic history, many Hindu leaders in Independent India continued in a similar vein. It is a consequence of being unmindful of history. Using this ignorance is a commendable Muslim cleverness. Muslim leaders, rising above their differences, rivalries, personal or party interests, etc., keep Islamic interests supreme. It is the Hindus—due to their blindness toward history—who are forever engaged in ‘liberating’ India from each other. The BJP wants to make the country ‘Congress-mukta’, and Congress wants to finish the RSS, calling it ‘Hindu terrorism’. To do so, both seek Muslim votes and compete with each other in granting concessions to ‘nationalist Muslims,’ forgetting that all Muslims share one creed—warts and all. Both Hindu parties, Congress and BJP, are equally unaware or ignorant about the terrible history of the consequences of Gandhi’s appeasement policy.

Political harakiri

The statements of Congress leaders are a new sample of the same. With a single statement, they failed themselves in both subjects, history and politics. This attitude of Congress has contributed significantly to the growth of the BJP over the past decade. This statement is one more item that the BJP will exploit. Its leaders are delighted to see lakhs of Hindus cursing Congress for such inane claims.

Sikh scholar Harpal Singh says, “Congress used to be the representative of Hindu society. Despite the fact that it was concessive toward Muslims. Congress leaders were at ease that they had to safeguard Hindu interests. This role Congress abandoned. It orphaned the Hindus. Then where would they go! By its policies, Congress has pushed Hindus towards the BJP. Before this, despite its secularism, Congress had not lost its Hindu character.”

Thus, Congress now has no character. It no longer wants to remain the party of Hindus, and Muslims cannot consider it their own. No Hindu party or leader has been able to achieve much with Muslim appeasement. From Gandhi to the communists, socialists, Lohiaites—all have repeatedly found that once their utility is over, Muslims slip away from them.

Therefore, forgetting even the recent history—that the Islamic ideology had demanded the Partition of India—Congress is leaving itself suspended in mid-air. Neither conscious Hindus nor Muslims consider it their party. Then, abandoning its traditional role as a liberal Hindu party, and relying only upon Muslim appeasement, it is bent upon political harakiri.

Shankar Sharan is a columnist and professor of political science. He tweets @hesivh. Views are personal.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)