'Modi's legacy could be defined by how he reconciles Golwalkar, Gandhi': Capt Gopinath

Capt G.R. Gopinath | Reuters

A most striking paradox of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that he wears M.S. Golwalkar on one sleeve and Mahatma Gandhi on the other. These were two irreconcilable leaders who could not be more different in what they preached. Modi’s youth was shaped by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, where he worked as a pracharak, an activist in the shadows for many years. Golwalkar, who made the RSS a national force, was his idol.

Modi has been a zealous votary of Golwalkar’s philosophy of hindutva. It is a curious irony that Golwalkar was inspired by the revolutionary firebrand V.D. Savarkar, who propounded the foundational idea of hindutva and Hindu Rashtra through his books and speeches, but was an atheist. He was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha and not the RSS. He propagated a collective Hindu civilisational identity as the essence of Bharat or India. It was not a religious identity for Savarkar, but the aims and activities of the RSS have, over time, morphed into a religious crusade for the creation of a Hindu state.

The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the formation of Islamic states replacing monarchs and dictators in neighbouring countries, and in the Middle East and North Africa, along with appeasement of minorities for votes by the Congress and other parties, helped the RSS enlist more Hindus for its fight for a Hindu state. The propaganda that Hindus were under threat resonated with many, and catapulted the BJP to power at the Centre and in many states, including in the northeast, where Hindus are not in the majority and where the population consumes beef.

While Modi swears by Golwalkar’s ideology and idolises Savarkar, he simultaneously invokes Gandhi, whose message is antithetical to what Golwalkar and Savarkar propagated. For Golwalkar, all were equal before God, but not before law. For Gandhi, all Indians, all human beings, were equal before God as well as law. Removing untouchability was as important to him as driving the British out of India. The RSS, which is seen as a Brahminical organisation (no dalit has occupied its top spot), has shown remarkable astuteness and alacrity in inducting backward classes into the BJP, its political arm, and has done extensive work in rural and tribal regions in areas of health and education. This has helped it knit diverse castes under a Hindu umbrella for electoral purposes.

For Gandhi, nonviolence was his creed. For Savarkar, violence was justified to realise institutional goals and objectives. Savarkar, in fact, fell out with Gandhi and declared nonviolence would never win us independence.

Modi is a master of mixed messaging. He vigorously advocates the credo of Golwalkar and Savarkar during religious functions and election rallies, and equally showcases Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram to high-profile foreign heads of state. He unveils a portrait of Savarkar in Parliament and pays homage to Gandhi at his samadhi in Raj Ghat and pays tributes to him on overseas visits. He knows Gandhi is a global icon, and he overlooks the emotions of the RSS.

He chose Gandhi as his mascot for the Swachh Bharat campaign. He is unschooled in marketing and boasts no Ivy League degree, but has the native genius to capture the imagination of the masses. Even as he embraced Golwalkar, he realised intuitively that, for all the glory of our past and advances in space and information technology, India’s underbelly is choking in its own filth and open defecation is its national shame. And what better global symbol than Gandhi, for whom cleanliness was godliness. With ease and elan he appropriated Gandhi, who is the father figure of the Congress.

There are other Modi paradoxes that are intriguing. He is thoroughly modern but also superstitious. He pushes for solar energy and digital India and Rafale fighter jets, but also invokes cosmic energy to drive out the Covid-19 virus. He praises India for being the world's largest vaccine producer, but does not pull up his cabinet colleagues when they launch untested medicines of a baba to fight the coronavirus; the Indian Medical Association condemned the drug. He is, in a sense, like countless Indians who embrace modernity without abandoning their superstitions. Is there any physicist or rationalist among us who will have their children's wedding during the inauspicious raahu kaalam?

Modi’s paradoxes, though, are not a problem for his followers. They have no ambiguity―Modi is their messiah. His constant invoking of Hindu pride, his party's demonisation of Muslims, his high-decibel “nationalism”, a well-choreographed and marketed Make in India pitch, his savvy Startup India campaign, his carefully cultivated macho image, and his bravado and bluster against Pakistan have, in fact, drawn people to him to make a cult following. They readily overlook his muted restraint against the bigger threat from China and its incursions on our border and his other failings.

On the other hand, minorities fear Modi and see him only as a Hindu nationalist. They feel insecure when he turns a blind eye to vigilante attacks on those who consume beef and to attacks on their places of worship; and when the state metes out ‘bulldozer justice’ after communal riots.

Liberals, intellectuals and leftists view him as a fanatic who is dividing society on religious lines. They allege that his friendship with capitalists is widening the gap between the rich and the poor while his party benefits disproportionately from the anonymous electoral bonds.

There are large sections of the population who are neither right nor left; they are unable to decipher the man Modi is.

As the opposition has no single leader with a pan-India appeal or vision, Modi is likely to return to power in 2024. But he, and the country, will be at a crossroads.

In whose footsteps will he steer India’s future? What will be Modi’s legacy? Will it be the path of Savarkar and Golwalkar, or will he blaze his own trail following in the hallowed steps of Mahatma Gandhi?

Capt G.R. Gopinath is a retired soldier, farmer and entrepreneur