LEFT RIGHT & CENTRE BY SRIHARSHA HARWAL-NewseNse

            

                         Eternal i am ! Eternal i am ! equally inviolable too

           Who can destroy me in this universe? Such a foe is yet to be born!

Recent trend in India has been that when someone criticises an irrational act involving a minority and practises associated with them and their culture, the popular fashion is to declare him/her or a group of them as Bhakts, revivalist, reactionary fundamentalists. For some time now, an outspoken hindu is pilloried as cow worshipping, caste ridden superstitious primitive. Stereotypically naming and shaming him follows thereon. Also, an outspoken member of a minority challenging illegitimate dogmas of his society is casted out and labelled a traitor followed by declaration of bounty on his head. Having had verbal and ideological duel with so called liberals,champion leftist ‘messiahs ‘of humanity, and often been dismissed blatantly as sanghi, chaddiwala, fascist, militant right wing hindu for taking an opposite stand, I find it ironical to call them liberals by very definition.

The first thing one may notice is that while certain people and parties are described as leftist, certain others are designated as rightists. Once in a while political scientists and journalists add nuances to this broad bracketing when they pronounce some splinter groups as left or right of the centre itself.  It is sometimes suggested that the centre is constituted by the congress party.But these attributions are not verified by an impartial tribunal hence the coinage is questionable as there was no permission taken nor prior consultation was done before deciding who is what.  

Leftist intellectuals and publicists claim that their language got formulated in the course of India's fight for freedom from British rule which is far away from truth. The annals of that freedom struggle provide no evidence that this language was used in India's politics till the late thirties of this century. Some prominent words of this language were totally absent from India's political parlance prior to that time. Some other words which we do find in that parlance were used to convey meanings that were entirely different from the meanings they acquired at a later stage.

The development of such language can be witnessed by the end of the freedom struggle and propagated by Jawaharlal Nehru who was deeply impressed by the Soviet Union and its socialistic regime. This influence is more than evident in the genesis and implementation of many of his ill-conceived governmental policies, which plagued and crippled the Indian economy much later. Accordingly many Indian scholars travelled to the west for acquiring sound acumen in the field of economics and political science. These scholars were introduced to the soviet begotten language of class struggle and that of communism in its most corrupted form. The idea of political revolution and Bolshevik movement captured their minds and hearts, now their tongue spoke the same language. On return, hardcore communist ‘vessels’ were hailed luminaries and were given the responsibility to steer India from darkness to light, post independence.

What followed was selective distortion of India’s history and loathing of anything which was native to her. Hindu traditions and customs were ridiculed as primitively discriminative and religious books were often misquoted and misinterpreted leading to conception of ideological devoid between hindus resulting further alienation of dalits. A self loathing hindu was hailed progressive and secular whilst the later was shamed a manuwadi. The secular version of medieval India under Muslim rule, as taught in our schools and colleges at present, is a case in point. Foreign invaders and mass murderers are being portrayed as illustrious emperors while patriots and freedom fighters are being pilloried as petty upstarts.

Congress wanted to drop its image as a group of hindu organisation dominated by bengali babus wanted to prove that it is not hindu but a national organisation. This was the time when the word hindu was pitched against the word nationalism as in the past both the words meant one and the same. 
It assumed the role of centre, while communist declared themselves “Leftists” symbolising themselves with progressiveness and upholders of the rights of peasants, workers and now protectors of minorities. Incidentally right by default was demonised as a symbol for revivalism and brahminism. At this stage, the labels cease to be merely descriptive, they become laudatory and denunciatory instead. Labels like progressive and revolutionary, etc., acquire an aura of virtue and holiness. On the other hand, labels like reactionary and revivalist etc., start smelling of vice and sin.

Since then many political parties which have walked out from congress share the same ideology and language Ex: AAP, NCP, TMC. The splits were a result of different personalities and not on basis of ideology, though the parties have severed the ties with congress we often see them flaunting the congress culture. And the culture consists of the same language J Nehru and his followers once popularised. The only party which has grown independently can be seen picking up the parlance lately, which is deemed to be vote yielding to get into power.

The language coined by lenin during the October revolution of 1917 has crept into India and is being used on an everyday basis, by small time netas to big shot journalists. The language like many other things borrowed from other countries is undergoing struggle in the political arena between the forces of nationalism and the forces of anti-nationalism. Leftism, even when it is not a part of the Communist movement is, by and large, the political expression on a self-alienated psyche. It serves as a smoke-screen for all anti-national forces. Be watsapp, twitter or facebook, such social interaction/messaging platforms are being pragmatically used by ill informed online warriors to circulate such anti national verbal diarrhoea of a language formed irrationally, having no leg to stand upon.

Sent by Sriharsha Harwal from Hyderabad

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