What is Hindu Rashtra?

"HINDU" means....What is Hindu Rashtra? The word Hindu does not mean only a religious faith just like Islam or Christianity. Hindu denotes the national way of life here. It is a national connotation. Before the advent of the British, this country was known as Hindusthan and all the nationals as Hindus. Only the British gave the new name INDIA to this country and the word Indian came to be used in placed HINDU. Even today the word Hindusthan and Hindu are often used with a national connotation only. For example, the first nationalist daily from Madras, started in the last century, was named "The Hindu". Many public sector industrial units are named, Hindusthan Aeronautics, Hindusthan Photo films, Hindusthan Machine Tools, etc. The sea to the south of our country is called Hindu Maha Sagar.
Many travellers from our country who went abroad have the experience of being addressed as Hindus irrespective of the religion they belong to. Why, even Syed Abdullah Bukhari, the Imam of Delhi mosque was greeted as a Hindu at Mecca. Late Sri Mohammed Carrim Chagla, the former Chief Justice of Bombay High Court and Education Minister in the Central cabinet wrote that he is a Muslims only by religion but by culture and race he is a Hindu and all Muslims of this country are Hindus.
The recent All India Muslims Conference led by all fundamentalist Muslims was called Muslims Hindusthani Sammelan. Mohammed Iqbal, the famous Urdu poet has sung Sare Jahan Se Achha, Hindostan Hamara -- Note Hamara Hindusthan, i.e., Our Hindusthan.
For R.S.S. men, the word Hindu thus connotes, not a particular sect, a religion or a faith but the culture, the tradition, the way of life of the people inhabiting this part of the world from times immemorial.
This is a ancient country which has been described in our great books as Bharat, lying to the north of the seas and to the south of Himalayas. A galaxy of savants and sages, great in various fields of human activity were born here and have contributed to the welfare of humanity and its development. A unique value system blossomed here. The entire people living between Himalayas and Kanyakumari progressed, basing themselves on these values and built up their own traditions, beliefs, faiths and culture. Every great person, born in any part of this land has endeavoured to strengthen this cultural unity and integrity of this country and its people.
Not a Political ConceptThus we the children of Bharat are living on this common motherland for thousands of years. We have common forefathers, common sages, saints and heroes, common values of life, common traditions and culture, common history, common way of life, which is called Dharma and common aspiration etc. Those who identify with these common factors form the Rashtra or the Nation here and that is exactly Hindu Rashtra. We are all part of this Hindu Rashtra. Whether some people accept and recognise it or not due to their ignorance, Hindu Rashtra exists, it has been existing for ages and it shall continue to exist for ever. Thus Hindu Rashtra is not a political concept but a cultural and emotional one, eternally asserting itself.
National Sentiments, Values
This is the case as regards every nation. All nationals of a particular country have an emotional attachment to its history, forefathers, heroes and traditions. This makes them work hard, suffer and sacrifice for the progress and protection of their country. The national sentiment is supreme and above all other sentiments, whether religious or sectional. Take for example, the youngest nation America formed four hundred years ago by all kinds of people of various countries. For the past four hundred years they have developed an American identity, their own traditions and they have their National heroes like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Every American holds this national tradition and the heroes with highest regard respect. No Jew or Muslim of America can say that because Washington and Lincoln were not Jews or Muslims he cannot revere them. The religious sentiments are subservient to national sentiments and values. Similarly, in this country Bharat, in Hindu Rashtra, every national should hold its national heroes like Shri Rama and Sri Krishna in high esteem. They are the age old symbols of all the great values which the country stands for. Religion should not come into the picture at all.
English Education Twists Hindu
In this country from ancient days the Hindu, i.e., the nationals, held religious beliefs. Nobody objected to other man's way of worship here. Everyone was free to practise and propagate his own faith. There was full freedom. People say, Hindus are very tolerant. This word tolerance does not correctly represent our way of life. The word is very inadequate. You can hate a man but still tolerate him. But here there is no hatred. You recognise the right of every person to have his own belief. He is recognised and respected -- Religion is no barrier for mutual love and understanding. This is the Hindu attitude.
The grand principle of Unity in Diversity was developed and practised this land. That is why in addition to so many religions born in this country, when a few more religions came from outside the borders of our country, those religions and their adherents did not face opposition but received warm welcome here. Religion is considered as a personal matter, the relation of the individual with his Maker, People belonging to various religions in this country are all Hindus by culture and Nationals of this Hindu Rashtra. As there are Shaivas, Vaishnavas, Jains, Bauddhas and Sikhs amongst Hindus, there can be Christians and Muslims also. This is to be clearly understood. Of course, it may be difficult to understand this in the vitiated political atmosphere and also with the background of English education. That is why Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore exhorted : "If you want to understand Bharat study Vivekananda".
We have to know ourselves through the eyes of our own Rishis, Sanyasis and Scholars and their books and not through the Western scholars and their writings.

Not A Theocratic State
As Hindu Rashtra is not a religious concept, it is also not a political concept. It is generally misrepresented as a theocratic state or a religious Hindu State. Nation (Rashtra) and State (Rajya) are entirely different and should never be mixed up. State is purely a political concept. It is political authority with sanction concerned with the governance of the people, laying down and directing the policies of the government. The State changes as the political authority shifts from person to person or party to party. But the people and the Nation remain the same.
Since ancient days various dynasties ruled in different parts of this country at different times. But the basic and fundamental cultural unity if the people of this country was not disturbed. For the past one thousand years various invading foreign hordes following Islam also ruled over different parts of the country at different times and later the British ruled over almost the entire country. The people did not change. After Independence, the Congress party ruled the entire country for some time and then various political parties captured political power in different states. But still, the common emotional factors of the people of this country have remained the same and the people too uphold those values and sentiments in one voice rising above regional, linguistic and religious difference as was witnessed on several occasions. This is the uniform experience.
That clearly explains the difference between a Rashtra and a Rajya i.e., Nation and State. Rashtra is eternal and State is transitory. It is like the body and the Soul (Atma). According to Hindu conviction the Atma is eternal and only the bodies and their forms are changed.

Our Ethos In a Natural Way
What are the factors that have kept this nation as one in spite of foreign domination for over thousand years. It is its faith in its age old culture, Dharma, tradition and its forefathers like Rishis, Acharya, Sir Rama and Sri Krishna. All this can be condensed into one word and that is the HINDUNESS, HINDUTVA. The Hindu ethos is asserting in a most natural way in a social, political life and activities of the people. For example, the English legacy of cutting a tape at the time of opening ceremonies is being replaced by lighting a lamp. Launching a ship or a plane is done with coconut breaking. When the India Festival at Paris was to be inaugurated, Sixteen Sumangalis dressed in the traditional Hindu style carried Kalasams and Kumbhas filled with Ganga Jal. A number of monograms of Government department are lines taken either from Vedas or from the Bhagavad Gita "Sham no varunah" for the Indian Navy, "Yogaskshemam vahamyaham" for the Life Insurance Corporation etc. Examples can be multiplied.
Hindu Rashtra is very much alive and it asserts too in various forms. The R.S.S. wants to make everyone understand, realise and feel proud of the same. This is the strongest and the only integrating factor for binding people from North to South and East to West rising above all other considerations of region, language, religion, caste or class. It betrays one's ignorance to say that Hindu Rashtra's idea will disintegrate the country into various Rashtras. In spite of the havoc done by the political parties and leaders for the last forty three years of independence the country remains one only because of its essential Hindu character. The Hinduness only can integrate the entire country. Several fissiparous tendencies have cropped up only because this Hinduness is being suppressed by politically vested interests. R.S.S. is convinced that only when every person in this country realises that he is after all part and parcel of this Hindu Rashtra, this nation can progress, standing up as one man. We are working hard against odds to see this goal realised.
Modern Concept
Another criticism about Hindu Rashtra is that the modern concept of secularism and democracy will have no place in Hindu Rashtra. This is again because those who make this charge have never studied and understood the basic Hindu principles and traditions. Since the dawn of civilization, the first ever intellectual composition of the human being on earth was produced here in this land of Bharat -- and that is called the Rig veda. In this we find passages "Ekam sadviprah bahuha vadanti"; "Ano bhadrah kratvo yantu vishwatah", etc.,etc. (Truth is one and the intelligent speak about it in many ways." "Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions of the world.) That is the catholicity of the Hindu thought. Everything is based on such universal approach. It is by far very different from the concept of Christianity or Islam, with which alone our English educated people are familiar.
Because certain things happened in European countries, their calculation is that the same things will happen in this country also. But one should remember that this country and its Hindu ethos are entirely different. That is why even in the annals of Hindu polity you cannot find a theocratic State comparable to Islamic or Christian States.

Islamic States Today
In the Islamic states of Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. and most of the Gulf countries, no person not following Islam can practise the religion of his conviction and no place of worship can be constructed. It is compulsory there for everyone to fast during Ramzan month. A few years ago an Arya Samaji from Bharat was jailed for reading Satyarthaprakasha sitting in his house. If the ruling Muslims group is Shia, it will not tolerate the Sunni Muslims and vice versa. This is the type of Islamic theocratic State. Why, in our own country the Muslims throw stones at religious processions of others passing through a locality where Muslims are in good number. The Muslim is not prepared to give any right to people other than his own Muslim sect.

Christians & Pseudo SecularistsThe Christian theocracy is equally intolerant. It is very difficult to celebrate any Hindu function in Nagaland. In Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, in the coast line, were in the Christian fishermen dominate, the Hindu women pilgrims of Bhagavati Temple at Mandaikadu were insulted, molested and every year it is a problem. It is very difficult to conduct a religious, social or cultural function of the Hindus in such villages where there is good percentage of Christians.
Even the pseudo secularists are more fanatic and intolerant about any other idea became of the sematic background of their idea of so called secularism.
History ProvesWhereas in the long history of Bharat no Hindu king has ever tried to impose his brand of religion on the subjects in his territory; no Vaishnava king has insisted and forced that everyone should fast on Ekadasi; similarly no Shaiva has forced Shivaratri on all the people. The only instance is of Ashoka the great who after embracing Buddhism worked as a Buddhist missionary and used his state authority and resources for the spread of Buddhism. But still he was not intolerant of other religions. It is a paradox that Ashoka seems to have impressed Pandit Nehru and Ashoka and his insignia been adopted as the symbols of our secular state; for example the Chakra in our flag and the three lions atop the Ashoka pillar.
No Hindu objects to a muslim or Christian procession in a Hindu locality. In general every Hindu respects and recognises every other religions and does not prevent anybody following his own religion. This attitude of the Hindu is reflected in the social, cultural and political activities of the Hindus.
A Hindu State has always functioned as a secular and democratic State. There was never an autocratic or a fascist Hindu king. History bears witness to this. When Jews and Parses were persecuted by the Christian and Muslims respectively in their own countries, many of them ran for shelter to this country and since centuries they have been living here peacefully. Neither they had any problem from the Hindus nor the Hindus had any problem from them. The parses particularly have totally identified with the culture and national life of this country, still maintaining their religious identity. There are no conflicts or complaints on either side. Most of the Jews have returned to Israel after they got back their motherland. And what the Israeli government has got to say about their centuries of stay in this country? I would like to quote from the booklet Indian Jews in Israel published by the Israel Consulate general in India.
"While most of the Jews came to Israel (from countries other than India) driven by persecution, discrimination, murder and attempts at total genocide, the Jews of India came (to Israel) because of their desire to participate in the building of their Jewish Common wealth, because of their unshakable belief in the redemption of Israel. Throughout their long sojourn in India, nowhere and at no time were they (Jews) subjected to intolerance, discrimination or persecution."
The Parsees as a group refused to accept any special treatment or a separate electorate at the time of the British rule itself and said that they are happy with the Hindu society. Now the followers of this religion live happily only in this country while there is no trace of Parsees at their place of origin i.e. Iran. One leading Parsee gentleman exclaimed, Hindus are tolerant to a fault. then came the Christians and Muslims. They built their churches and mosques. All are safe now. This is the history of Hindu people, their kings and Hindu government long before even the secular and democratic concepts were born.
Traditionally the Hindu respects and recognises the feelings of other. His ideas are all broad based and universal, always all inclusive and never exclusive. There will be equal justice for all in a Hindu State irrespective of one's faith or belief or religion or sect.
Only a state with such universal Hindu ideas can uphold all the modern secular and democratic values. Mahatma Gandhi had realised the greatness of the Hindu ethos and he had proclaimed that our independent country would be a Rama Rajya - which was a Dharma Rajya, an ideal Hindu State. He had not hesitated to speak about this openly. Rather he advocated it with conviction, very vigorously.
British MischiefMany times some dub this Hindu Rashtra as communal and fundamentalist. Hindu can never be a communalist nor a fundamentalist. The British started this mischief of calling everything Hindu as communal. In Hindusthan, Hindu is national and not communal. But even after Independence, our political leaders, themselves Hindus, also have fallen a prey to this mischief and they speak about Hindu organisations as communal. To call the Hindu communal will be an insult of all our forefathers, all the Rishis and Sanyasis and their noble ideals, our culture, our tradition etc. It is a total self condemnation. Hindus have never been communal and they can never be.
It is only the Hindu majority of legislators of our country who easily agreed to call our State as secular as against what happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh, because the very nature of Hindu is secular.

Fundamentalists, Communalist ?
Fundamentalist is one who believes in one prophet and book and holds them as infallible. This idea itself is totally repugnant to the Hindu tradition. Hindus have several books and several prophets and nothing is considered infallible. For example in Bhagavad Gita, a great book explaining the highest Hindu values, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, practically at the end of his teaching that Arjuna need not accept everything as told by him, but only after pondering and discriminating. He leaves, Arjuna to do as he pleases. (Vimrishyait adasheshena yathechhasi tatha kuru). What an amount of freedom ! Similarly all Upanishads and many religious texts are in the form of questions and answers. Free questioning is encouraged in our tradition. Because of this, most of our texts are highly rational. To charge such persons who sincerely wish to uphold this tradition, as communal and fundamentalist is nothing short of blasphemy, and an indication of excessive ignorance on the part of critics.
The tragedy is that it is only these bitter critics of Hindu Rashtra, who boast themselves as secularists and are encouraging communalism and fundamentalism to grow in our country.
When the fundamentalist Muslims objected to the Supreme court decision on the Shah Bano case, the so called secular government yielded and brought a new enactment upholding the Muslim personal law, thus nullifying and rejecting the Supreme Court verdict. Recently this was reminded to Syed Abdullah Bukhari by a Central Minister while requesting Bukhari to see that Muslims vote to the Congress. During the elections to the legislative assembly of Mizoram, the Congress election manifesto promised that if they are elected to power the State will be governed according to Christian beliefs laid down in the Bible. It is during Communist regime in Kerala that a separate Muslim majority Mallapuram district was carved out just to appease the Muslims. These are only a few samples of communalism practised by the so called secular parties.
By always harping upon the interest of minorities and appeasing them, these political leaders have encourage minorityism and have never allowed the Muslims and the Christian to identify themselves with the national main stream. The truly nationalistic & integrating factors such as common forefathers and common cultural traditions, etc. are not being home to the people, and as a result every day new separatist groups mushroom and create problems. The basic values of democracy and secularism, such as the rule or law and equality before law irrespective of caste or creed have been thrown to the winds.

For All Round Development
The Hindu tradition of freedom of thought and recognition of an alternate path or dissent are highly democratic in character. The all inclusive Hindutva (Hinduness) alone can provide the strongest sense of nationalism, integrating this vast country rich in variety. This faith and convliction in the all inclusive Hindutva has become an inevitable factor to save the country from the present turmoil.
Every son and daughter of this country should be made to feel proud of his or her forefathers, traditions and culture and realise his or her Hinduness. Then and then alone he or she can rise above corruption and all the parochial feelings of caste, religion or region. The realisation of Hindu Rashtra alone can maintain not only the secular and democratic values, but also the unity and integrity of this great country and inspire the entire people to suffer and sacrifice to bring about the all round development of our dear Motherland. Let us all work hard to make everyone realise this truth about Hindu Rashtra. I hope I have tried to make everything clear to the best of my ability.�We are Hindus. I do not use the word Hindu in any bad sense at all, nor do I agree with those that think there is any bad meaning in it. In old times, it simply meant people who lived on the other side of the Indus. Today a good many among those who hate us many have put a bad interpretation upon it, but names are nothing. Upon us depends whether the name Hindu will stand for everything that is glorious, everything that is spiritual, or whether it will remain a name of opprobrium, one designating the downtrodden, the worthless, the heathen. If at present the word Hindu means anything bad, never that any language can invent.
�--- Swami Vivekananda
Each nation has a destiny to fulfill, each nation has a massage to deliver, each nation has mission to accomplish. Therefore, from the very start, we must have to understand the mission of our own race, the destiny it has to fulfill, the place it has to occupy in the march of nations, the note which it has to contribute to the harmony of races.
�--- Swami Vivekananda
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Will the resurgence of the Hindu nation not amount to new birth of several blind traditions of the past and tantamount to obscurantism?
Ans. In fact this is a very delicate and difficult issue for the supporters of consolidation of Hindus. We have great pride of our Dharma and culture. Many of our things are worthy of feeling proud. The thinkers and philosophers of the world have given highest respect to the philosophy and values of life as propounded in India, and called them capable of providing a very valuable contribution to the world peace and welfare humanity. These values have proved to be true and worthwhile on the occasions of hard trials amidst attacks on our country and historical and political upheavels which continued for a long time. Naturally we feel that these ever- lasting life-principles and values should be protected at all cost.
But it is quite clear in our mind that while defending and keeping in tact this glory and self-respect, this type of thinking that all that is old is good and useful will not work. Not only this, our ancestors also had a clear vision about it, as it emphatically stated --
"One who drinks saline water simply because that well was constructed by his force-fathers, is coward and fool hardy."
This type of blind faith will not benefit any one. Hence there is no reason, no justification for sticking to the worn-out, obsolete, anti-social and time-discarded blind faiths, which will have to be abandoned.�