The Hindu : All Indians are Hindus: RSS chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

All Indians are Hindus: RSS chief

By Our Special Correspondent

DHARWAD Jan. 17. K.S. Sudarshan, chief of the RSS, has frowned upon attempts to give a narrow connotation of the word Hinduism.

Mr. Sudarshan, who was participating in an interaction with a select audience here today, maintained that Hinduism was a secular phenomenon and a way of life. But the efforts to give it a narrow connotation should be condemned in the strongest terms. If the use of the words Islam and Christianity could be regarded as secular expressions, how could Hinduism acquire a narrower meaning? he asked.

He noted that the fixation with vote-bank politics had led to the concept of secularism being looked at from a narrow point of view. This had triggered off a policy of appeasement of a section of society, which deserved to be condemned.

Mr. Sudarshan maintained that tolerance towards other religions was something inherent in Hinduism. All those who lived in India were Hindus. Muslims and others were as much Hindus as anybody else, and one would be doing a disservice to this section of the society if they were identified as minorities instead. The only people who could be considered minorities in India were those who had come from other countries and settled down here, Mr. Sudarshan said.

A member of the audience sought his opinion on the views expressed by Praveen Togadia of the VHP that India would become a Hindu rashtra within the next two years. Mr. Sudarshan said that there was no need to wait for two years. The country was already a Hindu nation. What remained to be done was to consolidate the concept of Hindutva.

Asked about the unclear stand taken by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister on the matter, their RSS background notwithstanding, Mr. Sudarshan said government was government. The RSS had extended support to the governments led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Morarji Desai. The only achievement of the present Government led by A.B. Vajpayee was that the multiparty coalition had survived.

He said the spiritual bulwark of the country was slowly waning as a result of the onslaught of forces such as money and muscle power which had triggered off waves of violence, dissatisfaction, and an imbalance of sorts.

The time had come for ushering in fundamental changes in the economic, the social, and the political spheres and there was a need for a wider debate in this connection, he said.

Mr. Sudarshan was of the view that the entry of multinational companies in the country was a part of the development strategy of the developed countries. This had resulted in a centralised system wherein only the urban centres progressed. The situation was such that only industries that hardly used human resources were prospering despite all the huge investments made. He said this tendency should be checked and the country should move in the direction of decentralised rural development with the stress on swadeshi and increasing employment opportunities.

The confrontation in the name of caste and religion should be put an end to with the help of new thinking and approach, he said.

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