Kar Seva through scholarship

Little did I know then that his article published alongside would appear as a posthumous tribute to Swarup. While editing the article, I had a doubt about a particular reference he had made. And when I got back to him about it, he promptly went through his notes and admitted that it was indeed anerror. Later he even wrote a letter to confirm the correction. It was difficult to believe that this man was the same Ram Swarup, who was often projected as a rabid Hindutva ideologue.

Of course, there was no mistaking that he was one of the foremost proponents of militant Hinduism. In fact he and his friend, Sita Ram Goel, provided the religious underpinning to the otherwise political movement. While the kar sevaks wielded trishuls, Swarup took to scholarship to rubbish what he considered as intellectually unacceptable. And it included a whole lot of beliefs considered sacrosanct by their adherents. But to give him his due, he learnt about other religions even if it was to condemn them.

Swarup was one of the first to recognise the dangers of fundamentalism of the Semitic variety. He exposed such a mindset in his Religious Faith and Fanaticism, Understanding Islam Through Hadis and The Word as Revelation. But he failed to recognise that his aversion to Islamic and Christian fundamentalism was adding fuelto Hindu fundamentalism. More so when the Hindutva forces selectively used his writings to attack other faiths and to even justify the demolition at Ayodhya.

He passionately believed that Hinduism had a lot to offer the world and it should not, therefore, shy away from religious interaction. It was in this context that he told me about the stupendous work that had gone into the chiselling and hand-carving of 4,000 stone pieces weighing 3.2 million pounds in south India, which were later shipped to Hawaii to create a magnificent temple there.

The irony inherent in Swarup8217;s happiness about the New World8217;s readiness to accept the concept of friendly Gods8217;, of nature inhabited by Gods, isha-vasya, of man being both good and godly at a time when religious tolerance was being undermined in India, did not register on him.When his views were sought on the anti-Christian campaign in Gujarat, he dismissed it as the acts of 8220;those who do not know what they do8221;. He might have sounded Biblical but then he could notbe faulted, for he had a deep understanding of things Biblical. After all, his last work was Hindu View of Christianity and Islam. However, his interest in things Occidental appear to have waned for he seemed to have been concentrating on Buddhism during his last days.

He saw Buddhism and Hinduism as complementary to each other. Nothing strange as it conforms to the Hindu tradition of incorporation whereby Lord Buddha becomes an avatar and Christ and Mohammed join the ranks of the pantheon of gods. Comparative religion would have been richer had he lived longer and completed his work on Buddhism. In his death, Hindutva has lost one of its foremost spokespersons.