Opinion View from the right

Echoing the message delivered by various speakers at the WHC — that Hinduism is the answer to the problems faced by the world.

December 4, 2014 01:07 AM IST First published on: Dec 4, 2014 at 01:07 AM IST

EDUCATION MODEL
With changes imminent in the education system, there is a need to bring all individuals and organisations together and channel their thinking to reintroduce values in education. So says an article in the Organiser, quoting RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Bhagwat, who was delivering a lecture on tasks for workers in the field of “education in the present situation” during the academic council meeting of Punarutthan Vidyapeeth in Nagpur, called for immediate action: “Time is ripe… and we all must grab this opportunity to bring about the desired change at the earliest…” As a first step, the “polluted mindset” has to be cleansed: “In the past 1,200 years our mindset has been polluted and influenced by the values of people and forces that attacked Bharat and ruled over her. We need to wipe out this influence completely by decolonising our mindsets with sustained and consistent efforts…” Bhagwat called for creating a battery of dedicated workers who would work with conviction by training them in transferring knowledge in the real sense to students and by conducting debates to convince intellectuals. This step should be followed by introducing an education system based on Indian culture and ethos.

HINDU UNITY
The Organiser editorial, with its cover story on the recently held World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Delhi, says that in order to ensure the Hindu civilisation fulfils its destiny in the world, Hindus should introspect, assess their abilities and develop themselves in such a way that their lives should be a lesson for others. Echoing the message delivered by various speakers at the WHC — that Hinduism is the answer to the problems faced by the world — the editorial laments that “unfortunately, not only ‘liberals’ and ‘secularists’ but many propounding Hindus fail to understand the role of Hinduness for the world at large.”

The editorial argues that as the Hindu way of life has always been humanist, “the coming together of people who believe in a humanist way of living cannot be only for themselves but for the whole of humanity.” It also rejects the view that such a call for unity among Hindus can be seen along the lines of monolithic conventions or as an attempt to bind Hinduism as a religion: “Many attempts were directed to bind Hinduism as a religion; ample reform movements took place to bring monotheism; and anti-Muslim or anti-Christian rhetoric were also endeavoured, but all failed,” it argues. “Despite all this, Hindu way of life remained non-Semitic, tolerant, diverse and still looking for oneness in everything; in view of this, Hindu unity can be rightly called a positive force rather than a reaction or imitation.”

ASK KARAT
Taking a swipe at CPM general secretary Prakash Karat’s call for trade unions to “learn from the RSS”, an article in Panchjanya says the beginning of that learning has to be a deep knowledge and understanding of the ideology and philosophy of the Sangh Parivar. Claiming that the Left’s ideology and that of the Sangh are entirely different and parallel, the article says the basis of the Sangh is culture and its means is the individual. For the Left, it is politics and power. Taking on Karat’s call for the Left to spread itself deep and wide like the Sangh, it says Karat seems to have missed the point that India’s identity in its diversity is Hindutva, which is also the Sangh’s identity. That identity helps understand everyone in this country in its diversity. However, the Left, across the world, tried to destroy indigenous cultures to impose what they wanted. In India too, the communists tried to destroy its cultural symbols. Communists follow Karl Marx, who said workers have no country. Today’s Left has gone even beyond that and become the enemies of the states they belong to.

Compiled by Liz Mathew