TOUCHSTONE OF HINDUTVAAN - ENLIGHTENED UNIFIED SOCIETY

WHILE SPEAKING ON THE OCCASION OF SANT RAVIDAS (ALSO REFERRED AS SANT ROHIDAS IN MAHARASHTRA) JAYANTI, RSS SARSANGHCHALAK DR MOHAN BHAGWAT INVOKED RAVIDASJI’S TEACHINGS AND SAID THAT IF SOME SCHOLARS (PANDITS) WITH REFERENCE TO SCRIPTURES JUSTIFY CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION, THEN IT IS FALSE. A SECTION OF THE MEDIA MISTRANSLATED OR RATHER MISCHIEVOUSLY TRANSLATED THE WORD ‘PANDIT’ (WHICH MEANT ‘SCHOLAR’) FOR BRAHMIN. MOHANJI WAS SPEAKING AT A PROGRAMME ORGANISED BY RAVIDAS SAMAJ PANCHAYAT AND VASUDHA CHARITABLE TRUST AT RAVINDRA NATYA MANDIR IN MUMBAI, TO MARK THE 647TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF SANT RAVIDAS

- RATAN SHARDA

Dr Mohan Bhagwat ji's lecture has created a furore in social and political circles. There are two streams of negative reactions. One from the usual suspects whose political enterprise runs on dividing Hindu society, the other from newly awakened Hindus angered by years of mistreatment by secular establishment and the left illiberal politics, awakened by the RSS working tirelessly for 97 years for this purpose. Of these, there are two kinds of purists. One, those who consider themselves Savarkarites and think that the RSS has diluted its Hindutva by having open talks with Muslims and Christians. It's worth noting here that Savarkar in his book said: "A time will come when being a Hindu may mean nothing but a person born in this land, when people have got over bigotry… ” The other purists are traditionalists and ritualists who think that the RSS’s Hindutva is sham as it is not religious and ritualistic.

The speech of Mohan Bhagwat ji has left the Left in confusion. They are not sure how to react, except show scepticism. Who can oppose a solution that unites the people, except those whose agenda is to divide and break the society?