Plurality is the essence of Indian civilisation and it will not survive if plurality and openness are sabotaged, eminent poet and literary critic Ashok Vajpeyi has said.
The ‘idea of India’ had not only been plural in nature, but the dynamic idea was plurally created and evolved by many sections, many religions, and many people. Nothing was singular here. So the thrust on uniformity was absurd, he said while speaking on the sidelines of the International Literature Festival of Kerala here on Monday.
“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindutva ideology are the biggest dangers to Hinduism. They are going to destroy the Hindu religion that had thrived on plurality,“ he said.
“According to the Anthropological Survey of India, there are more than 4,600 sociologically definable communities in the country. None of them is racially pure. So India is a ceaseless celebration of human impurity. All notions of purity are fake. “
Mr. Vajpeyi, a former civil servant, said that the ‘idea of India’ was under attack. “On the one side, there is an undeclared phenomenon, which is behaving as if India is already a Hindu nation. On the other side, there is growing intolerance for and unacceptance of the ‘others’ — those who do not agree with you, other religions, caste, or ideas. So there is a great thrust on uniformity.”
Dissenting voices were under attack in the country, he said. The essential feature of our civilisation was dissent, disagreement and debate. Even in Upanishads, Ramayana and Gita, we had a huge tradition of questing. But these had been undermined and sidelined. If you raised your voice or questioned, you might be labelled anti-national, he said.
“All religions seem to have abandoned their spiritual content. Literature and arts are the last saviours of spirituality. Spirituality is no longer in the exclusive domain of religion. It has to find its residence. Its residence is in literature and arts. It is important to raise your voice. “
Our leaders used to keep religion away from politics. Neither did such a distinction exist any more nor was it considered unacceptable. Large part of the media was hailing the situation. So, raising questions was important.
Our civilisation was in deep crisis. But it had survived many such complexities. We would survive this period too, he said in an optimistic note. No tyranny had lasted long in the world. We should continue to raise our voices. The mission of arts and literature was to retrieve the spirituality from the clutches of religion, he added.
