BackThe gospels of Maududi and Golwalkar
Modi has popularized Golwalkar's ideas through democracy, just as Maududi's ideology is dominant in Pakistan's constitution and its civil society
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In the 1900s sprang the two great men from Maharashtra who would trouble the world with their ideas before they were 40. One was M.S. Golwalkar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The other, from Aurangabad, was Abul A’la Maududi of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
This is not widely known, but Maududi has provided the intellectual underpinning for Islamism across the world.
Very briefly, he did this through his brilliant interpretation of the word tawheed (indivisibility of Allah). Traditionally Muslims were always suspicious of things such as the Christian Trinity and insisted there be no violation of Allah’s godhead. Maududi extended this principle of indivisibility and said tawheed “totally negates the concept of the legal and political independence of human beings, individually or collectively".
From here, Maududi arrived at the idea that because of tawheed, all sovereignty belonged to God and not to the people. Thus he rejected Western democracy, which was not Islamic and had to be resisted. The other thing Maududi did, through his text Al Jihad Fil Islam(Jihad In Islam), was to lay down the way in which Muslims were to establish the theocratic state.
Every Islamist, from Sayyid Qutb of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to Saudi Arabia’s Osama bin Laden to Iraq’s ISIS, has located his rebellion inside the theoretical structure provided by Maududi. There is not a single idea that the Arab jihadists have put out that eclipses Maududi (our loonies being brighter than their loonies) and in several ways he remains more advanced.
He rejected Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s tribal jihad in Kashmir against India, saying only the state could wage war and such freelance jihad was not lawful.
Maududi conceived a small vanguard (exactly as in the Marxist sense) of Muslims who would take over the state and impose piety on society top-down.
Today, the Jamaat-e-Islami seeks to implement Maududi’s ideas in Pakistan through electoral politics, and I hope to be able to write again about these soon.
Though the founder of the RSS was K.B. Hedgewar, its true identity emerged after the young Golwalkar took it over in his 30s. Hedgewar was a doctor but he didn’t have the sharpness of his successor, who was also well educated.
Golwalkar expanded the RSS with an unrelenting focus on the shakha, a word that means branch, and its morning activity. Golwalkar theorized, correctly, that it was simple physical work, playing games, singing anthems together, that would build a disciplined neighbourhood Hindu community from a society fragmented by caste. This Hindu brotherhood would be deployed where Golwalkar needed it, for relief during a natural disaster, protecting Hindus during a riot, and spreading the cultural message of Hindu nationalism.
Golwalkar’s stress is also, like Maududi’s, on indivisibility. But here the suspicion is of diversity not in godhead but in nation. It is breaking from Hindu culture and Indianness that is unacceptable and everyone must fold their cultural expression into it.
Golwalkar was the real father of Hindutva, figuring out exactly how he could use the ideas of Hindu nationalism on the ground.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recognizes his genius. In his biographies of 16 great men, Modi writes his longest chapter on Golwalkar. Though the Prime Minister doesn’t engage with his master’s ideas intellectually, offering only anecdotes that show his character, the reverence is total.
Here is how Modi describes Golwalkar’s release from jail: “After Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the Sangh was banned. It was later found to be not guilty. Guruji was released from jail. This man, who spoke of loving all humanity, was to be felicitated in Delhi. He was a young man of only 40. Lakhs of swayamsevaks were ready to sacrifice their lives for him. Lakhs of ears were eager to listen to him in Delhi. Journalists from all over the world were at hand. Everyone was eager to know what instruction Guruji would send out. Would he urge them to bring down Pandit Nehru’s government violently? To spread anarchy across India? Instead, after 19 months in jail, this great man said: ‘Forget all that happened. Those who did it are our people. If the tongue is caught between the teeth, we don’t break the teeth to punish them because the teeth are also ours. Forget it.’"
Ultimately, of course, the ideas of the two great thinkers Maududi and Golwalkar turned out to be dangerous and violent both to their own communities and to others. Maududi had international impact, but we must consider that Golwalkar’s heirs are only just taking over.
The papers say Modi is thought to be considering the Bharat Ratna for two men, Subhas Chandra Bose and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
This is being written a couple of days before 15 August and I don’t know if he will announce this. In any case I doubt Bose and Vajpayee are particularly important to him. The man whom Modi would really want to give the Bharat Ratna to is Golwalkar.
The Congress has given Bharat Ratnas to its leaders and one could say it has done so indiscriminately, handing it to everyone from Gulzarilal Nanda to K. Kamaraj to Rajiv Gandhi.
The RSS feels aggrieved by this and rightly so. In 2003, The Times of India’s Akshaya Mukul reported that an RSS man, Dattopant Thengadi, refused the Padma Bhushan under Vajpayee, saying he couldn’t accept it before “Shri Guruji", meaning Golwalkar, was given the Bharat Ratna.
This had been attempted in 1998, but Vajpayee was careful in managing relations with his “secular" allies and wisely kicked the can further down the road. Modi’s management of Godhra destroyed Vajpayee’s coalition. After that he was forced to ignore his Hindutva instincts but lost the election in any case.
Modi has never disowned or forsaken Golwalkar and at some point in his tenure, I believe, will give him the Bharat Ratna. Modi has popularized Golwalkar’s ideas through democracy, just as Maududi’s ideology is today dominant in Pakistan’s constitution and its civil society.
Also Read | Aakar’s previous Lounge columns
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