TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/062491/0624005.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.3 KB | 109 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 35

INDIA

Mahatma vs. Rama


How a mild-mannered politician named L.K. Advani is leading a
movement that threatens to tear the country apart

By EDWARD W. DESMOND/NEW DELHI


    In the nearly 44 years since India became independent,
one vision of politics and society has reigned supreme. It
interweaves two powerful strands: Congress Party leader
Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy of a secular, socialist government;
and the nonviolence and religious tolerance exemplified by
Mahatma Gandhi, the ascetic Hindu champion. In elections
concluded late last week, that tradition faces an unprecedented
challenge from a movement that proudly proclaims itself to be
the antithesis of what Nehru, and to some extent Gandhi,
represented. It rejects the "foreign" influences of Islam,
Christianity, capitalism and socialism, and aspires to restore
Rama Rajya, a mythical golden age of Hindu civilization when the
Hindu god Rama ruled. In less than two years, the movement's
political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by L.K. Advani,
63, has moved from the margins to the center of Indian politics.

    The rise of the Hindu nationalists, like the upsurge of
Islamic politics in the Arab world, reflects widespread
disillusionment with the leftist political order that dominated
the freedom movements in the colonial world after World War II.
In India, Advani and other B.J.P. politicians draw huge crowds
to hear them rip into the Congress for the billions wasted on
unproductive, state-owned industry, the alleged "pampering" of
Muslims or the downplaying of Hindu tradition in favor of
"pseudo secularism" -- their catchall term for Congress
politicians who claim to be blind to religion but play to Muslim
sentiments. Nehru, Gandhi and Congress still have a legion of
defenders, but the tide is not with them. "The existing order
is in a state of decomposition," writes Girilal Jain, a former
editor of the Times of India. "Like the Soviets, we are facing
the moment of truth. The Nehru model has exhausted its potential
for good."

    The B.J.P. has been waiting a long time for that turn of
the wheel. The party traces its lineage to the 1920s, when a
young doctor named Keshav Baliram Hedgewar founded the R.S.S.,
or National Volunteer Corps; its members today form the core of
the B.J.P.. Hedgewar believed that divisions of caste, sect and
language made Hindu society weak and an easy victim of foreign,
especially Muslim, domination.

    Hedgewar argued that the only way to restore Hindu vigor
was to stir a sense of martial nationalism in Hindus. The
R.S.S., which has grown quickly in recent years to nearly
100,000 members, emphasizes fighting arts and militant Hindu
pride, choosing as its heroes figures like Shivaji, a 17th
century Hindu king who successfully fought the Muslim Mogul
emperors.

    The B.J.P. has shaped Hedgewar's thoughts into a political
juggernaut. Central to their political success is the promotion
of Rama, the warrior god of the Hindu Ramayana epic, and a
dilapidated 16th century mosque in the north Indian town of
Ayodhya. The B.J.P. claims the site marks Rama's birthplace but
that Mogul rulers destroyed a Hindu temple there and built a
mosque in its place. There is no conclusive evidence of that
claim, but as a point of Hindu self-esteem, the B.J.P. demands
that the mosque be moved and a huge temple to Rama built on the
spot. Muslims have resisted that demand, as have all of India's
governments to date, providing the B.J.P. with an explosive
platform. Last October, Rama's fanatical devotees stormed the
heavily policed mosque, and at least 30 died. The incident
sparked Hindu-Muslim riots that left more than 500 dead, the
majority of them Muslims.

    The B.J.P. uses the Ayodhya issue to stir Hindu anger, but
Advani is always careful to stress that he does not advocate
violence against Muslims or harsh treatment of any minorities
if the B.J.P. comes to power. What the B.J.P. advocates
officially seems mild -- an end to Muslim personal law in civil
matters and restrictions on religious schools for all
minorities. But in practice, B.J.P. workers are full of hatred
for Muslims and regularly provoke violent confrontations. Says
Qari Moinuddin, a Muslim politician in Jaipur: "They meet you
on the street and say, `Long Live Rama!' and if you don't
respond, they will kill you, or at least break your head."

    To broaden its appeal, the B.J.P. in recent months has
de-emphasized religion. Instead, it has promoted the party as
the disciplined, ultra-nationalist remedy for the mounting
ailments afflicting India, in particular the secessionist
movements in Punjab, Kashmir and Assam and mounting sectarian
and political violence. Since Rajiv Gandhi's assassination last
month, the B.J.P. has appropriated the Congress slogan of
"Stability" and argued that Gandhi's party, without a Nehru
scion at the top, has become too shaky to lead India. Said
Advani last week: "The B.J.P. appears to the common voter as the
only oasis of stability in a scenario where all other parties
seem to be on the verge of disintegration." It is up to Indian
voters to decide whether the B.J.P. is the new messiah or one
of the culprits in the country's instability.