ONE SHOULD NOT MISS THIS VERY 7 PAGES LENGTHY ARTICLE BY PANKAJ MISRA A WELL KNOWN WRITER FROM INDIA KNOWN FOR LONG FOR HIS LEFT & LIBERAL LEANING .
The Other Face of Fanaticism

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By PANKAJ MISHRA
n the evening of Jan. 30, 1948, five months after the independence and partition of India, Mohandas Gandhi was walking to a prayer meeting on the grounds of his temporary home in New Delhi when he was shot three times in the chest and abdomen. Gandhi was then 78 and a forlorn figure. He had been unable to prevent the bloody creation of Pakistan as a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. The violent uprooting of millions of Hindus and Muslims across the hastily drawn borders of India and Pakistan had tainted the freedom from colonial rule that he had so arduously worked toward. The fasts he had undertaken in order to stop Hindus and Muslims from killing one another had weakened him, and when the bullets from an automatic pistol hit his frail body at point-blank range, he collapsed and died instantly. His assassin made no attempt to escape and, as he himself would later admit, even shouted for the police.
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Millions of shocked Indians waited for more news that night. They feared unspeakable violence if Gandhi`s murderer turned out to be a Muslim. There was much relief, also some puzzlement, when the assassin was revealed as Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Brahmin from western India, a region relatively untouched by the brutal passions of the partition.
Godse had been an activist in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association, or R.S.S.), which was founded in the central Indian city of Nagpur in 1925 and was devoted to the creation of a militant Hindu state. During his trial, Godse made a long and eloquent speech claiming that Gandhi`s ``constant and consistent pandering to the Muslims`` had left him with no choice. He blamed Gandhi for the ``vivisection of the country, our motherland`` and said that he hoped with Gandhi dead ``the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan.`` Godse requested that no mercy be shown him at his trial and went cheerfully to the gallows in November 1949, singing paeans to the ``living Motherland, the land of the Hindus.``
Now, more than half a century later, many Indians feel that the R.S.S. has never been closer to fulfilling its dream. Its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People`s Party, B.J.P.), the most important among the ``Sangh Parivar`` -- the ``family`` of various Hindu nationalist groups supervised by the R.S.S. -- has dominated the coalition government in New Delhi since 1998. Both Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India`s prime minister, and his hard-line deputy and likely heir, L.K. Advani, belong to the R.S.S., and neither has ever repudiated its militant ideology.
In the last five years, the Hindu nationalists have conducted nuclear tests and challenged Pakistan to a fourth and final war with India. They have taken a much harsher line than previous governments with the decadelong insurgency in the Muslim majority state of Kashmir, which is backed by radical Islamists in Pakistan. After a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, they mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops on India`s border with Pakistan. The troops were partly withdrawn last October, but a war with Pakistan -- one involving nuclear weapons -- remains a terrifying possibility and is in fact supported by powerful, pro-Hindu nationalist sections of the Indian intelligentsia.
The Hindu nationalists` attempts to stoke Hindu fears about Muslims also appear to be succeeding among many of India`s disaffected voters. In December, the B.J.P. won elections in the western state of Gujarat, despite being blamed by many journalists and human rights organizations for the vicious killings of more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat early last year.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the worst violence occurred in the commercial city of Ahmedabad: ``Between Feb. 28 and March 2 the attackers descended with militia-like precision on Ahmedabad by the thousands, arriving in trucks and clad in saffron scarves and khaki shorts, the signature uniform of Hindu nationalist -- Hindutva -- groups. Chanting slogans of incitement to kill, they came armed with swords, trishuls (three-pronged spears associated with Hindu mythology), sophisticated explosives and gas cylinders. They were guided by computer printouts listing the addresses of Muslim families and their properties . . . and embarked on a murderous rampage confident that the police was with them. In many cases, the police led the charge, using gunfire to kill Muslims who got in the mobs` way.``
Continued
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The Other Face of Fanaticism



===================
By PANKAJ MISHRA
n the evening of Jan. 30, 1948, five months after the independence and partition of India, Mohandas Gandhi was walking to a prayer meeting on the grounds of his temporary home in New Delhi when he was shot three times in the chest and abdomen. Gandhi was then 78 and a forlorn figure. He had been unable to prevent the bloody creation of Pakistan as a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. The violent uprooting of millions of Hindus and Muslims across the hastily drawn borders of India and Pakistan had tainted the freedom from colonial rule that he had so arduously worked toward. The fasts he had undertaken in order to stop Hindus and Muslims from killing one another had weakened him, and when the bullets from an automatic pistol hit his frail body at point-blank range, he collapsed and died instantly. His assassin made no attempt to escape and, as he himself would later admit, even shouted for the police.
Advertisement
on error resume next ShockMode = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFl ash.4")))
Millions of shocked Indians waited for more news that night. They feared unspeakable violence if Gandhi`s murderer turned out to be a Muslim. There was much relief, also some puzzlement, when the assassin was revealed as Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Brahmin from western India, a region relatively untouched by the brutal passions of the partition.
Godse had been an activist in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association, or R.S.S.), which was founded in the central Indian city of Nagpur in 1925 and was devoted to the creation of a militant Hindu state. During his trial, Godse made a long and eloquent speech claiming that Gandhi`s ``constant and consistent pandering to the Muslims`` had left him with no choice. He blamed Gandhi for the ``vivisection of the country, our motherland`` and said that he hoped with Gandhi dead ``the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan.`` Godse requested that no mercy be shown him at his trial and went cheerfully to the gallows in November 1949, singing paeans to the ``living Motherland, the land of the Hindus.``
Now, more than half a century later, many Indians feel that the R.S.S. has never been closer to fulfilling its dream. Its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People`s Party, B.J.P.), the most important among the ``Sangh Parivar`` -- the ``family`` of various Hindu nationalist groups supervised by the R.S.S. -- has dominated the coalition government in New Delhi since 1998. Both Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India`s prime minister, and his hard-line deputy and likely heir, L.K. Advani, belong to the R.S.S., and neither has ever repudiated its militant ideology.
In the last five years, the Hindu nationalists have conducted nuclear tests and challenged Pakistan to a fourth and final war with India. They have taken a much harsher line than previous governments with the decadelong insurgency in the Muslim majority state of Kashmir, which is backed by radical Islamists in Pakistan. After a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, they mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops on India`s border with Pakistan. The troops were partly withdrawn last October, but a war with Pakistan -- one involving nuclear weapons -- remains a terrifying possibility and is in fact supported by powerful, pro-Hindu nationalist sections of the Indian intelligentsia.
The Hindu nationalists` attempts to stoke Hindu fears about Muslims also appear to be succeeding among many of India`s disaffected voters. In December, the B.J.P. won elections in the western state of Gujarat, despite being blamed by many journalists and human rights organizations for the vicious killings of more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat early last year.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the worst violence occurred in the commercial city of Ahmedabad: ``Between Feb. 28 and March 2 the attackers descended with militia-like precision on Ahmedabad by the thousands, arriving in trucks and clad in saffron scarves and khaki shorts, the signature uniform of Hindu nationalist -- Hindutva -- groups. Chanting slogans of incitement to kill, they came armed with swords, trishuls (three-pronged spears associated with Hindu mythology), sophisticated explosives and gas cylinders. They were guided by computer printouts listing the addresses of Muslim families and their properties . . . and embarked on a murderous rampage confident that the police was with them. In many cases, the police led the charge, using gunfire to kill Muslims who got in the mobs` way.``
Continued
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Next>>
5 Die in India During Protests Over Falwell (October 12, 2002) $
After Attack on Temple, Indian City Remains Quiet (September 27, 2002) $
In Massacre Of Hindus, A Grim Omen For All India (September 26, 2002) $
Gunmen Raid Hindu Temple Complex in India, Killing 29 (September 25, 2002) $
Find more results for India and Hinduism .
Doing research? Search the archive for more than 500,000 articles:
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