DMK’s Sanatan stand may queer pitch of Rahul Gandhi’s Hindutva-Hinduism distinction

“This is shifting the debate from Hinduism vs Hindutva — which uses a Left-liberal language — to Sanatan vs others, be they non-Sanatanis or atheists. This can turn to our advantage if the DMK continues to repeat its statements to appeal to its core Dravidian constituency, and in the process embarrasses its allies outside Tamil Nadu,” said a BJP insider who did not wish to be named.

Rahul reiterated his point during an interaction in Paris recently, where he said that he had read the Hindu scriptures and that they never supported the dominance of a few. He added that the BJP had nothing to do with Hinduism and was only interested in power.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s son and minister Udhayanidhi sparked off the controversy when he called for the “eradication” of Sanatan Dharma, likening it to a disease like malaria or dengue.

While there were some Congress leaders such as Kamal Nath, who is running a Hindutva-lite campaign in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, who disapproved of the statement, what created confusion for the party was the support Udhayanidhi’s statement garnered from Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s son and Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge and Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and a Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu.

The BJP, which has been attacking the Congress relentlessly on the issue after a nudge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, held a press conference Wednesday where spokesperson Sambit Patra labelled the coordination committee meeting being held by INDIA alliance as “Anti-Hindu Coordination Committee”.

Realising the political fallout, the DMK has tried to counter saying the BJP “misunderstood” Udhayanidhi and that he was not attacking Hinduism but seeking the eradication of the ills of Sanatan Dharma, such as casteism. However, BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai shared a screenshot of a Tamil Nadu Class 12 textbook saying Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism were the same to counter the DMK argument.

The turn of events might undo Rahul’s careful distinction between Hinduism, a religion, and Hindutva, a political ideology traced to a booklet written by BJP ideologue V D Savarkar in 1923, as separate and perhaps irreconcilable. While the ‘distinction’ — largely part of an academic debate in the social sciences — may not resonate with the masses, Rahul’s gambit is to underline that the BJP is not the “natural” party of Hindus, and that, rather, its ideology is different from traditions within Hinduism.

The fact that Congress ally DMK — and some Congress leaders, including the party president’s son — ended up making no distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva in their attacks may also undermine Rahul’s efforts.

Since the controversy erupted, more statements have emerged from DMK ranks, adding to the discomfort of INDIA alliance members. The BJP shared a speech of Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy – at the same event where Udhayanidhi made his Sanatan remarks – where he said that the Opposition alliance had been formed “to fight Sanatan Dharma”. DMK leader A Raja was quoted as saying in an interview that caste enacted in the name of Hinduism was a “threat” to the world.

Hindutva-leaning academic and nominated Rajya Sabha member Rakesh Sinha said Rahul was to blame for the row. “Rahul Gandhi is the one who has been propagating this idea through his attacks on Hindutva. He is the failed ambassador of forces that believe in the Balkanisation of our civilisational trajectory,” he told The Indian Express.

“This may turn out to be an easy weapon for the BJP against the Opposition if the DMK remains unrelenting and the BJP is able to scale up the issue in north India,” says academic Badri Narayan. “The DMK will gain in Tamil Nadu, which has a deep history of Dravidian politics, through this, but such statements may prevent floating votes from moving to the Congress elsewhere and also damage the prospects of other Opposition parties. The DMK is imposing its local politics on national politics, and this can harm many parties in the Opposition alliance if the BJP runs a sharp campaign on it.”

Local calibration

While the BJP has gone hammer and tongs against the Congress and its allies in the national context, its approach in Tamil Nadu has been somewhat calibrated. Annamalai has defended Sanatan Dharma and labelled the DMK a divisive force on caste lines, but also called an Ayodhya seer who announced a bounty on Udhayanidhi’s head a “fake preacher”.

In Delhi on Wednesday, Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy and BJP state co-incharge P Sudhakar Reddy chose not to wade into an ideological controversy within the context of the state. Asked at the press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi whether the DMK was trying to bolster its Dravidian constituency in the state through these statements, Narayanan called the same a diversionary tactic to wean attention away from the “success” of Annamalai’s ongoing yatra in the state covering multiple Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.