OPEN LETTER TO SHARDA UNIVERSITY [NOIDA, INDIA] VICE-CHANCELLOR
Discarding a Question on Linkages of Hindutva with Nazism/Fascism
is blatant Academic Dishonesty!
Dear Professor Sibaram Khara Saheb,
Namaskaar!
According to your esteemed University’s portal “The name of University,
'Sharda' is synonymous to 'Goddess of knowledge and learning-Saraswati'. She is
identified with 'veena' an Indian musical instrument and the 'lotus' where she
resides. The lotus in our logo symbolizes the seat of learning that the
University is created for. Variety of colours signify the variety of
disciplines the university offers and the overlap between petals creating new
colours demonstrate the ethos of collaboration between students and teachers of
different programme, nationality, creed and colour working towards creating new
knowledge…the University's cherished mission to provide education beyond
boundaries and to facilitate the students and faculty to achieve pinnacles of
success throughout the world!”
The web-site
of School of Humanities & Social Sciences states that “The courses have
been designed methodically to provide rigorous knowledge of subjects to
students as well as to enhance their critical and analytical abilities”.
I am sorry to write that Sharda University by
dropping the question “Do you find any similarity between Nazism/Fascist and
the Hindu right-wing (Hindutva)?” in the first-year Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
political science paper (2022) has violated the above mentioned noble mottos.
The unfortunate saga did not stop here. According to leading English daily a
three-member committee of senior faculty members was constituted to look into
the possibility of bias in the questions asked and pending this inquiry, the
university suspended the faculty member concerned. The university regretted that
such an incident took place that “may have the
potential for fomenting social discord” and stated that university authorities
were “totally averse to any line of thought which distorts the great national identity
and the inclusive culture inherent in our national ethos”. “The University also
ordered that the specific question found prime facie objectionable, would be
ignored by the evaluators for the purposes of an award of marks to the
students.[i]
The University Grants Commission which is not
supposed to intervene in day-to-day functioning of the universities and remains
mute spectator to the countless incidences of violence against teachers and
students perpetrated by the organizations connected with the ruling party in many
universities was quick to intervene and declared: “"It has been observed that the students objected to the question
and lodged a complaint with the university. Needless to say that asking
students such a question is against the spirit and ethos of our country, which
is known for inclusivity and homogeneity and such questions have not been
asked.”[ii]
Dear Sir, I believe that your esteemed
University is a serious place for sharing, learning and development of academic
ideas; that is, in fact, the purpose of any educational institution. I am
afraid that by discarding the question on Hindutva’s linkages with
Fascism/Nazism and penalizing the teacher who set the said question paper, the
contributions of the 3 most prominent of prpounders and developers of the
theory, Balakrishna Shivram Moonje (1872-1948), Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
(1883-1966) and Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar (1906-1973), regarded as
Fathers of Hindutva, have
totally been ignored. Even a casual perusal of their writings (and activities) would
make it clear that Sharda University has succumbed to extra-academic-mobocracy totally
disregarding even the records available in the Hindutva archives.
All three Fathers of Hindutva unwaveringly fell
in love with Fascism/Mussolini and Nazism/Hitler and strongly advocated to
emulate these totalitarian European ideologies in India; a prerequisite for
turning India into an exclusive powerful Hindu nation and solving the minority “problem”.
I am reproducing the ORIGINAL WRITINGS of Moonje, Golwalkar and Savarkar in the
following so that your University rectifies its serious act of misconduct.
MOONJE HAD PERSONAL AUDIENCE WITH MUSSOLINI
& SPENT HIS LIFE TO EMULATE FASCISM IN INDIA
Moonje
led the Hindu nationalists (who believed India to be a land for Hindus only,
Muslims and Christians as foreigners and Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism not
independent religions but branches of Hinduism) in establishing concrete
relationship with Fascist Italy led by Benito A. A. Mussolini (1883-1945). He
has left detailed accounts of his visit to Italy, Fascist military
institutions, personal meeting with Mussolini and emulating Fascism in India in
a diary which are available with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi.
The Italian researcher, Marzia Casolari has
done pioneering work in making public the direct linkages between this Hindutva
ideologue and Mussolini based on Moonje’s diary. Moonje, a politician openly related
to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had man-to-man meeting with Mussolini
on the evening March 19, 1931 at Rome. According to Moonje’s own diary, he told
Mussolini that
“I just saw this morning and afternoon the
Balilla [Italian Fascist Youth Organisation which specialized in killing
opponents of Fascism and Jews] and the Fascist Organisations and I was much
impressed. Italy needs them for her development and prosperity…Every aspiring
and growing Nation needs such organisations…’Signor Mussolini–who appeared very
pleased–said–Thanks but yours is an uphill task. However I wish you every
success in return.’ Saying this he [Mussolini] got up and I also got up to take his
leave.”
According to Moonje’s diary immediately after
his return from Rome he called upon prominent Hindu nationalist leaders to
“Imitate the youth movements of Germany and the
Balilla and Fascist organisations of Italy. I think they are eminently suited
for introduction in India, adapting them to suit the special conditions. I have
been very much impressed by these movements and I have seen their activities
with my own eyes in all details”.
On March 31, 1934, Moonje, Hedgewar and Laloo
Gokhale had a meeting, the subject of which was again the military organisation
of the Hindus, along the Italian and German lines. Moonje called upon the
gathering that they should work for
“standardisation of Hinduism throughout
India...But the point is that this ideal cannot be brought to effect unless we
have our own swaraj with a Hindu as a dictator like Shivaji of old or
Mussolini or Hitler of the present day Italy or Germany... But this does not
mean that we have to sit with folded hands until some such dictator arises in
India. We should formulate a scientific scheme and carry on propaganda for it…”
Moonje publicly admitted that his idea of
militarily reorganizing Hindu society was inspired by the “military training
schools of England, France, Germany and Italy” His ‘Preface to the Scheme of
the Central Hindu Military Society and its Military School’ declared at the
outset:
“This training is meant for qualifying and
fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of men with the ambition of
winning victory with the best possible causalities of dead and wounded while
causing the utmost possible to the adversary.”
Moonje’s
diary expresses overgenerous love for Mussolini and Fascism and his boundless commitment
to emulate their principles in India while organizing Hindus. He wrote:
“The
Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organisation have appealed
to me most, though there is still no
discipline and organisation of high order. The whole idea is conceived by
Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy. Italians, by nature, appear
ease-loving and non-martial, like Indians generally. They have cultivated, like
Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war.
Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of
the Balilla organisation…Nothing better could have been conceived for the
military organisation of Italy...The idea of fascism vividly brings out the
conception of unity amongst people...
“India
and particularly Hindu India needs some such institution for the military
regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasized
by the British, of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus, may
disappear…Our institution of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Nagpur under
Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend
the rest of my life in developing and extending this institution of Hedgewar
all throughout Maharashtra and other provinces.”[iii]
GOLWALKAR PENNED A BOOK IN PRAISE OF FASCISM
& NAZISM
The most prominent ideologue of the RSS,
MS Golwalkar (known as Guru Ji in the RSS circles) authored We Or Our
Nationhood Defined in 1939 which justified cleansing of Jews by Mussolini
and Hitler and demanded the same treatment for Muslims and Christians of India.
This book, a Holy book for the RSS cadres stated:
“If, as is indisputably proved, Hindusthan [sic]
is the land of the Hindus and is the terra firma for the Hindu nation
alone to flourish upon, what is to be the fate of all those, who, today, happen
to live upon the land, though not belonging to the Hindu Race, Religion and
culture.”[iv]
For Golwalkar there was no confusion on this
issue. It would be like what Jews faced under Hitler and Mussolini. Thus
Golwalkar glorified the Holocaust in the following words:
“German Race pride has now become the topic of
the day. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the
world by her purging the country of the Semitic races—the Jews. Race pride at
its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh
impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root,
to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to
learn and profit by.[v]
Golwalkar, following into the foot-steps of
Hitler, arrived at the following solution for the minority “problem” in India;
Muslims and Christians who were declared as foreign races,
“From this stand point, sanctioned by the
experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindusthan must either
adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in
reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification
of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their
separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country,
wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no
privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen’s rights.
There is, at least should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old
nation: let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign
races who have chosen to live in our country.[vi]
When
Hitler’s armies were devastating neighbouring countries and cleansing Jews, it
was Golwalkar who came forward unfalteringly in defence of ‘ethnic cleansing’
by Nazis in the following words:
“The
other Nation most in the eye of the world today is Germany. This Nation affords
a very striking example. Modern Germany strove, and has to a great extent
achieved what she strove for, to once again bring under one sway the whole of
the territory, hereditarily possessed by the Germans but which, as a result of
political disputes, had been portioned
off as different countries under different states…German pride in their
Fatherland for a definite home country, for which the race has traditional
attachments as a necessary concomitant of the true Nation concept, awoke and
ran the risk of starting a fresh world-conflagration, in order to establish
one, unparalleled undisputed German Empire over all this ‘hereditary
territory’. This natural and logical aspiration of Germany has almost been
fulfilled and the great importance of the ‘country factor’ has been once again
vindicated even in the living present.”[vii]
Golwalkar
equally praised the Fascist ally of Hitler, Italy led by Mussolini for
enslaving Ethiopia and Libya as part of his project of building a Roman Empire
in Africa and the Balkans. Golwalkar justified enslaving of nations by
Mussolini glorifying “depredatory ancestors” in the following words:
“Look at Italy, the old Roman Race
consciousness of conquering the whole territory round the Mediterranean Sea, so
long dormant, has roused itself, and shaped the racial-national aspirations
accordingly. The ancient race spirit which prompted the Germanic tribes to
overrun the whole of Europe has… [arisen again] in modern Germany, with the
result that the nation perforce follows the aspirations predetermined by the
traditions left by its depredatory ancestors.”[viii]
SAVARKAR’S
PROFUSE LOVE FOR NAZISM & FASCISM
Savarkar, the originator
of the term ‘Hindutva’ who penned a book with the same title in 1923 too had
great liking for Hitler’s Nazism and the Fascism of Mussolini. Savarkar went on to support Hitler’s
anti-Jewish pogroms and on October 14, 1938, he suggested the same solution for
the Muslim problem in India:
A Nation is formed by a majority living
therein. What did the Jews do in Germany? They being in minority were driven
out from Germany.[ix]
While
delivering the Presidential address to the 22nd Session of the Hindu Mahasabha
at Madura in 1940 he declared,
“There
is no reason to suppose that Hitler must be a human monster because he passes
off as a Nazi or Churchill is a demi-God because he calls himself a democrat.
Nazism proved undeniably the saviour of Germany under the set of circumstances
Germany was placed in…”[x]
Savarkar
rebuked Jawahar Lal Nehru for opposing Fascism and Nazism in the following
words:
“Who are
we to dictate to Germany, Japan or Russia or Italy to choose a particular form
of policy of government simply because we woo it out of academical [sic]
attraction? Surely Hitler knows better than Pandit Nehru does what suits
Germany best. The very fact that Germany or Italy has so wonderfully recovered
and grown so powerful as never before at the touch of Nazi or Fascist magical
wand is enough to prove that those political ‘isms’ were the most congenial
tonics their health demanded.”[xi]
Savarkar
not only had devotional attachment towards racist and totalitarian political
project of Fascism but also praised its male chauvinist attitude towards women
as an ideal to be emulated by Hindus. In an essay titled ‘Madam Mussolini’
which he wrote in praise of the wife of Mussolini, Rachele Mussolini he stated that she was worshippable
because
“She is
a simple, rich house-wife who never comes out of home…she believes that
domestic chores, bringing up children, serving husband, managing family and
slaves are the primary and fundamental duties of a woman. This is her
commitment and interest. Mussolini’s wife
is achieving real great status as a house-wife.”[xii]
Dear
Vice-chancellor, I am immensely sad to write that Sharda University’s total
ignorance of the original writings of Fathers of Hindutva which prove inalienable
fraternal linkages with Fascism and
Nazism led to a situation that a teacher who had real knowledge of the facts is
being penalized. The anti-academic attitude of the University has created a
situation that the above mentioned question is being presented as attack on
Hinduism by those who know more about Hindutva then Moonje, Golwalkar and
Savarkar.
Since,
paper setter happened to be a Muslim the Hindutva eco-system communalized the
whole debate. A leading Hindutva news-portal joined the hate mongering by
stating: “It is worth noting that Waqas Farooq
Kuttay also attended Jamia Millia Islamia University.
He had passed the JRF and NET (National Eligibility Test) exams. He
continues to write articles targeted toward nationalists.” It also carried the
following tweet by one Vikas Pritam Singh targeting Muslims in general.
यूनिवर्सिटी का नाम 'शारदा' पर कृत्य देखिए कि परीक्षा में छात्रों को 'हिन्दुत्व' को अनिवार्य रूप से फासी और नाजीवाद के समकक्ष सिद्ध करने के लिए कहा जा रहा है। यह प्रश्नपत्र कथित रूप से किसी मुस्लिम शिक्षक द्वारा बनाया गया है. (Q no. 6)
[The name of the University is Sharda but see the act that the students are being asked in the examination to prove 'Hindutva’ as essentially equivalent to Fascism and Nazism. This question paper is allegedly made by a Muslim teacher.][xiii]
Sir, the trolls are targeting his name, his upbringing, his family
and religion. Shockingly Sharda University helped this Islam-o-phobic witch-hunting
by declaring the question having potential to “foment social discord”. Without
looking into the writings and deeds of Moonje, Golwalkar and Savarkar your
University came out in defence of Hindutva declaring it as “great national
identity”. The University seems to be totally oblivious of the fact that those
criminals who assassinated Father of the Nation, Gandhiji, identified
themselves as Hindu nationalists and believers in Hindutva.
Professor
Sibaram Khara Saheb, ignorance should not be bliss for any sensible person or
institution specially an educational institution and those running it. I would
make a humble request that the individuals or committees of Sharda University
which took atrocious decisions on this issue must read the original writings of
three Fathers of Hindutva. I can gift these to the University. If University
and UGC want to censure those who established linkages of Hindutva with
Fascism/Nazism, Moonje, Golwalkar and Savarkar have to be investigated and
censured, not a poor teacher whose only fault was that he had read them and
asked a genuine question!
I hope
University under your guidance will not betray the TRUTH!
Shamsul
Islam
May 19,
2022
Link
for some of S. Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam,
Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and video interviews/debates:
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter:
@shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email:
notoinjustice@gmail.com
References
[i] https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/sharda-university-professor-suspended-over-question-in-political-science-exam-7905927/
[ii] https://scroll.in/latest/1023602/ugc-seeks-report-from-sharda-university-on-question-about-similarities-between-hindutva-and-fascism
[iii] All
quotes from Moonje's diary cited in Casolari, Marzia ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up
in the 1930’s: Archival evidence’, The Economic & Political Weekly,
January 22, 2000, 218-228.
[iv] Golwalkar, MS, We Or Our Nationhood Defined,
Bharat Publications, Nagpur, 1939, p. 45.
[v]
Ibid., pp. 34-35.
[vi]
Ibid., pp. 47-48.
[vii]
Ibid., pp. 34-35.
[viii]
Ibid., p. 32.
[ix] MSA, Home
Special Department, 60 D(g) Pt III, 1938, ‘Translation of the verbatim speech
made by V D Savarkar at Malegaon on October 14, 1938, cited in cited in Marzia Casolari, p. 223.
[x]
Savarkar, VD , Samagra Savarkar Wangmaya: Hindu Rashtra Darshan, vol.
vi, Maharashtra Prantik Hindu Mahasabha, Poona, 1963, p. 418.
[xi]
Casolari, Marzia, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930’s: Archival evidence’, The
Economic and Political Weekly, January 22, 2000,
p. 223.
[xii]
Savarkar, VD, Savarkar Samagr, vol. iv, Prabhat, Delhi,
2000, p. 520.
[xiii]
https://www.opindia.com/2022/05/sharda-university-suspends-prof-waqas-farooq-kuttay-for-comparing-hindutva-with-nazism-and-fascism-notice/
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