Awakening Hindutva is necessary for the resurgence of Bharat

Sometimes complaints are heard from several political parties that the party currently in power at the centre is playing religious politics. They further allege that the main objective of that political party is to make Bharat a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. It is worth mentioning that in this case, the complainants put Dr. BR Ambedkar at the forefront, and said that if Bharat is declared a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, the Constitution framed by Dr. Ambedkar will be insulted. But did Dr. Ambedkar formulate the word ‘secular’ in the Indian Constitution ?

Let’s take a look at the Indian Constitution Amendments so far. If you notice, one of the most important amendments to the Indian Constitution was passed in 1976, which is the 42^nd Amendment Act. Notably, this constitutional amendment was passed during the National Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi-led Government. Millions of leaders from all political parties were then imprisoned. That is, in a dark period of Indian Democracy, such an important constitutional Amendment was passed by the autocratic Indira Gandhi Government. Through the 42nd Amendment, the words ‘sovereign, socialist, secular’ were added to the Preamble of the Constitution. So, till now, we have a clear idea that the word ‘secular’ in the Indian constitution was not coined during Dr. Ambedkar’s tenure or that these words were not coined by him. Now let us see whether Dr. Ambedkar was in favour of adding these words to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution or not.

In this regard, it is necessary to look at the Constituent Assembly debate on the Preamble on November 15, 1948, in the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, at ten o’clock, with Mr. Vice-President (Dr. HC Mookherjee) in the Chair. Professor KT Shah demanded that the words ‘secular, federal, socialist’ be included in the Preamble of the Constitution. However, Dr. BR Ambedkar strongly protested against his claim. He said, “Mr. Vice-President Sir, I regret that I cannot accept the amendment of Prof. KT Shah …. What should be the policy of the State, how the Society should be organized in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself, because that is destroying Democracy altogether. If you state in the Constitution that the social organization of the State shall take a particular form, you are, in my judgment, taking away the liberty of the people to decide what should be the social organization in which they wish to live.”

That is to say, he clearly states that the policy of the State, how society should be organized in its social and economic aspects, should be decided by the people themselves according to the time and situation. If the Constitution specifies it, it will be a deprivation of the people’s freedom.

The allegation that declaring Bharat a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ or a Hindu-dominated country would be an insult to the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar has already been proved false. Now let us see what the relation of Hindu Dharma is with the rise and fall of Bharat.

From Swamiji to Sri Aurobindo, Bankimchandra, Rabindranath, all have eloquently said that the rise of India is not possible without the rise of Hindu Dharma. Sri Aurobindo said in his historic Uttarpara speech on May 30, 1909 from Uttarpara, Bengal, “When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists. To magnify the religion means to magnify the country”.

Swami Vivekananda said, “In India, it is religion that forms the very core of the national heart. It is the backbone, the bed-rock, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built. Politics, power, and even intellect form a secondary consideration here… But mark you, if you give up that Spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the materializing civilization of the West, the result will be that in three generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the Nation will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round”.

In another speech he said, “Shall India die ? Then from the world all Spirituality will be extinct; all moral perfection will be extinct; all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct; all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female Deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force and competition its ceremonies and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be.”

It is very clear that, in Swamiji’s words, values are there in Bharat because of the influence of Dharma. But he clearly mentioned that if there is no existence of Bharat, Adharma will be established all over the world. So, where Swamiji says that Hindu Dharma needs to be developed for the development of India, a group of politicians are promoting secularism for their own interests. Will the people of India be confused by the words of those who insult the views of great men like Swamiji and Sri Aurobindo ?

Not only Swamiji or Sri Aurobindo, but poets like Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra, or scientists like Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Roy all accepted Hindutva as the foundation of Bharat. So despite being a scientist, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy named his book ‘A History of Hindu Chemistry’. On the other hand, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose named the science research center established by him as ‘Basu Vigyan Mandir’.

As Bharat is a Hindu-dominated country, they address the country as ‘Ma’ and are proud of it, calling it ‘Punya Bhoomi’. Bankimchandra wrote ‘Twang hi Durga Dashapraharanadharini’, imagining Bharat as Goddess Durga. In his novel Anandamath, he brought out the Karmayoga of the Gita.

In other words, all the eminent Sages who were born in the lap of Bharat Mata; those who have increased the glory of the Motherland Bharat in various fields of literature, science, and philosophy were all devoted to Hindu Dharma. No, they did not want Bharat to become a secular country, nor did they want the importance of religion to diminish from Bharat. So, to reach the goal of Viswa Bharat in 2047, we have to decide whether we will fall into the trap of creating a secular India or join the journey of Bharat’s resurgence through the awakening of Hindutva.

(Courtesy : Excerpts from an Article written by Mr Diganta Chakraborty for hindupost.in, 15^th May 2024)

As Bharat is a Hindu-dominated country, they address the country as ‘Ma’ and are proud of it, calling it ‘Punya Bhoomi’ !