Hitting home (norwegian attack and hindu terrorism)

Norwegian killer Anders Breivik’s mad manifesto has embarrassed many of those who have been approvingly cited. His endorsement of Hindutva-inspired terror, with lengthy quotations from RSS ideologues, has certainly caused great discomfiture to the Sangh Parivar. Breivik emphasises his sense of solidarity with “Sanatana Dharma movements and Indian nationalists in general”, and provides links to the BJP, RSS, VHP and ABVP websites.


We do not need an occasion like the Norway killings to ponder the reality of Hindu fundamentalist violence. It is absurd to trace straight lines between Breivik’s notions and any mainstream right-wing beliefs. The only things that bind his 1,518-page tract together are an unremitting hostility to Muslims as well as a hatred for multiculturalism and the “cultural Marxist” governments that hold it up as a value. But, equally, it would be difficult to deny that his ideas have a distinctly right-wing pedigree — those he applauds and those he deplores are the same that many conservative European politics would choose. The Hindu right-wing too cannot ignore the fact that he draws on a well of their own cherished ideas to support his murderous beliefs, and that others who have attacked Malegaon and Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif have also used and abused these ideas. Thinking of incidents of Hindutva-inspired terrorism as isolated instances would be to deny all coherence to the set of beliefs that propelled their actions.



Unfortunately, responsible right-wing forces in India are still largely reluctant to name the problem and combat it. The BJP and the RSS tend to quibble about terminology (objecting to the word “Hindu” terror) rather than confronting these angry variants and condemning Hindutva-inspired violent action in clear terms. Breivik’s manifesto does not discredit India’s mainstream right any more than it does Vladimir Putin or the Daily Mail columnists he quotes. However, the Indian right has, for too long, got away with the sense of an ideological continuum from the BJP to more extremist versions, which is why they look distinctly uncomfortable now. It is time for the BJP to identify the cluster of concepts it stands for, and what it unequivocally denounces. A convenient cloudiness about their various agendas might have served the BJP and the Sangh Parivar at a certain point, but it is now time for utter clarity.