As much as the Bharatiya Janata Party may wish to distance itself from the more brazen extremists of the Sangh Parivar, its members frequently slip up and remind voters about the party’s deep right-wing roots.
On Tuesday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad reportedly announced that Himachal Pradesh should be declared a Hindu state. At a VHP conference in Solan, the Hindutva organisation adopted a resolution that included urging the state’s BJP-led government to officially make such a declaration, because 95% of Himachal’s population is Hindu.
Even as BJP leaders and office-bearers in the state did not openly endorse the idea of a Hindu state, they used familiar Hindutva phrases to emphasise Himachal Pradesh’s Hindu-majority status.
Hindus, therefore peaceful?
“I think the state should retain its current secular character, but the fact is that we are a peaceful state because there is negligible presence of minorities,” said Ganesh Dutt, the spokesperson of BJP’s Himachal chapter, speaking to Scroll.in.
Declaring a Hindu state will make no real difference to the state, said Dutt. “Because we have a Hindu majority, our social culture is not aggressive and we live with bhaichara [brotherhood],” he said.
Shanta Kumar, a parliamentarian from Kangra and former Himachal chief minister, explained his position with the Sangh Parivar’s favourite theory – that Hindutva is a philosophy and all Indians are Hindu in that context. Kumar, however, used the words Hindutva and Hinduism interchangeably.
“A religion is something with one book and one style of praying, but Hinduism is a way of life, with different gods and multiple ways of praying,” said Kumar. “There is no question of declaring Himachal a Hindu state, because India has lakhs of Muslims who see themselves as Indian, which is no different from saying they see themselves as Hindutva.”
Kumar did not want to comment on the VHP and its announcement, but instead chose to make a point about Ramakrishna Mission-founder Swami Vivekananda. “I just want to say that when Vivekananda went to Chicago [in 1893] and the world stooped before him, he had preached Hinduism,” he said.
Love jihad connection
Last month, the VHP stoked a controversy in Himachal Pradesh when its women’s wing, Durga Vahini, made claims about multiple cases of ‘love jihad’. Even though Muslims form less than 2% of the state’s population, the VHP claimed Muslim men were tricking Hindu women into marriage with the intention of converting them to Islam.
At that time, the state’s BJP leaders had completely denied coming across such cases of fraudulent marriages or forced conversions.
Now, however, some party leaders are aligning themselves with the VHP.
“Declaring Himachal a Hindu state may be the VHP’s personal opinion, which I don’t share,” said Vikram Thakur, a BJP legislator from Kangra. “But the VHP’s concerns about love jihad are completely valid.”
On Tuesday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad reportedly announced that Himachal Pradesh should be declared a Hindu state. At a VHP conference in Solan, the Hindutva organisation adopted a resolution that included urging the state’s BJP-led government to officially make such a declaration, because 95% of Himachal’s population is Hindu.
Even as BJP leaders and office-bearers in the state did not openly endorse the idea of a Hindu state, they used familiar Hindutva phrases to emphasise Himachal Pradesh’s Hindu-majority status.
Hindus, therefore peaceful?
“I think the state should retain its current secular character, but the fact is that we are a peaceful state because there is negligible presence of minorities,” said Ganesh Dutt, the spokesperson of BJP’s Himachal chapter, speaking to Scroll.in.
Declaring a Hindu state will make no real difference to the state, said Dutt. “Because we have a Hindu majority, our social culture is not aggressive and we live with bhaichara [brotherhood],” he said.
Shanta Kumar, a parliamentarian from Kangra and former Himachal chief minister, explained his position with the Sangh Parivar’s favourite theory – that Hindutva is a philosophy and all Indians are Hindu in that context. Kumar, however, used the words Hindutva and Hinduism interchangeably.
“A religion is something with one book and one style of praying, but Hinduism is a way of life, with different gods and multiple ways of praying,” said Kumar. “There is no question of declaring Himachal a Hindu state, because India has lakhs of Muslims who see themselves as Indian, which is no different from saying they see themselves as Hindutva.”
Kumar did not want to comment on the VHP and its announcement, but instead chose to make a point about Ramakrishna Mission-founder Swami Vivekananda. “I just want to say that when Vivekananda went to Chicago [in 1893] and the world stooped before him, he had preached Hinduism,” he said.
Love jihad connection
Last month, the VHP stoked a controversy in Himachal Pradesh when its women’s wing, Durga Vahini, made claims about multiple cases of ‘love jihad’. Even though Muslims form less than 2% of the state’s population, the VHP claimed Muslim men were tricking Hindu women into marriage with the intention of converting them to Islam.
At that time, the state’s BJP leaders had completely denied coming across such cases of fraudulent marriages or forced conversions.
Now, however, some party leaders are aligning themselves with the VHP.
“Declaring Himachal a Hindu state may be the VHP’s personal opinion, which I don’t share,” said Vikram Thakur, a BJP legislator from Kangra. “But the VHP’s concerns about love jihad are completely valid.”
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