BJP most anti-intellectual party: Guha.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
Well-known Indian historian Ramachandra Guha came down heavily on the ruling BJP and its parent organization RSS, on Thursday.
Speaking at the five-day literary festival `Spring Fever` hosted by Penguin Random House, he said that rising Hindu fundamentalism is more threatening than Muslim terrorism in India.
“Globally, Islamic terrorism is a very, very dangerous phenomenon and is a danger to the survival of human civilization. But within India, Hindus are 85 percent. Hindu fundamentalism is much more dangerous than Islamic fundamentalism. I am terrified at the thought of Hindu majoritarianism because that is what we were not. If India was anything, it was not to be a Hindu Pakistan,” Guha said.
“The rising of Hindu nationalism in the country is not new. It happened immediately after Partition and during Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and both were orchestrated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS). It has severely affected the secular, cultural and political fabric of the country, and I hope that the situation shouldn`t escalate to that level,” he added.
Guha called the BJP as the most anti-intellectual party and said that they failed to produce right-wing intellectuals.
“BJP is the most anti-intellectual party and they failed to produce a single scholar in Gujarat after being in power for many years. You can`t have spokespersons as Anupam Kher, Praveen Togadia or Smriti Irani, who will only drive discourse further into the mud. As long as the RSS has the role in the political dispensation, you will never get right-wing intellectuals, but you get right-wing ideologists,” he said.
Referring to the recent incidents centered around the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Guha said that the attack on universities is unfortunate and ill-timed.
“This kind of vulgar denunciation of scholars and scholarships and universities is deeply unfortunate. Though one should not exaggerate how widespread it is, what is happening around JNU is worrisome. I think the attack on our universities is unfortunate and ill-timed,” he said.
However, he agreed to the accusation that universities are colonized by left parties.
“There is a certain level of truth to the accusation that universities have been colonized by the Left. But that cannot be changed unless the Right throws up better people,” he said.
“Everyone plays a role in society. I am sure many people in JNU agree that soldiers play a more important role than scholars. In my opinion, teachers and doctors play an important role. Scholars play a role in shaping the national consciousness and understanding,” he added.
Guha also termed BJP chief Amit Shah and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan as the most dangerous politicians in the country.
Guha is the author of books like ‘India after Gandhi’ and ‘Gandhi before India’.
2 Comments
This will only alienate the Muslim minority…India must be united from within, not divided.
Author is comparing apples with oranges, when he refers it Hindu Pakistan. Pakistanis have never elected religious parties to lead the country, it is actually Indian population which has every now and then elected Hindu fundamentalist party BJP to lead the country.
Moreover, India has been worst than Pakistan; there is hardly any incident from Pakistan that can be compared with genocide like that of Gujarat violence 1969-2002, Anti-Sikh violence 1984, Ayodhya 1992, Bombay 1993, in which Hindu-fundamentalists have perpetrated massacre of minority under umbrella of the government. Not a single such incident can you find from Pakistan.
In Pakistan, one or two incidents occur in years in which Christian couple could have been burnt alive, killed, accused of blasphemy. Hindu girls would have been abducted, married after their forcible conversion to Islam against the will of their family.
However, terrorist bombings have killed more Muslims in Pakistan (around 50,000) than minority non-Muslims, and those terrorist attacks, in which minority would have been targeted, all of them were perpetrated by the banned terrorist groups not Pakistani Muslims.
Hence, I’d urge people to think critically before quickly throwing lines like Guha said, “If India was anything, it was not to be a Hindu Pakistan,”. It is total blunder.