A Mandate From The Youthful Multitudes

The youth and women of Delhi, not the leaders, set the tone for a resounding rejection of Hindutva

- G.R. Gopinath

The people have spoken in the Delhi election. So has Home Minister Amit Shah. He admitted earlier this month that provocative slogans by a few of his Cabinet colleagues and party members during the campaign may have contributed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s loss. But he also wondered aloud in the same breath, “Who knows why the people of Delhi voted the way they did.” Was this an expression of genuine remorse or a show of disappointment?

Arvind Kejriwal won handsomely. But the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and, more pertinently, the defeat of the BJP has a message that goes much beyond the results. The election was clearly a clash of two ideologies and a contest for two visions of India. One is about fashioning India into a ‘Hindu’ nation in the image of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the ideological fount of BJP — an image that is distinct from the idea and ethos of India and philosophy of Hinduism as enunciated in the Upanishads and Gita and interpreted by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda and many eminent philosophers of the East and the West. It is a zealous, jingoistic and parochial interpretation of Hinduism called ‘Hindutva’ where nationalism and patriotism are equated to a subscription of the ironclad ideology that the BJP espouses. The other vision is composed of a universal spirit, a philosophy that embraces all creation. And the latter won.

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