Hitler and Hindutva

Circa 1920. After the treaty of Versailles, Germany enters a new decade, devastated. Its mineral rich region, the Rhineland was taken over by the Allies. From the start of the decade, the country started witnessing hyperinflation. High rate unemployment loomed over the future and as if there was no respite, the Great Depression occurred at the end of the decade. During these times of despair, a person comes into the national scene. This man, capitalizes on the dire situation of the country, directs the feelings of resentment of the people towards his personal, political motives. The man, Adolf Hitler made the world witness something that is still remembered with an air of grief and sorrow.

Post First World War Germany had a devastated economy. The youth of the country was unemployed and hence there was a brewing feeling of the typical lunacy and discontent, which arises when there is no opportunity to employ one’s skills to earn his/her bread. The standard of living was too low and above all- hyperinflation. Moreover the Depression stomped over any sign of economic recovery, if there was any. During these times, society disintegrates as the wisdom of man surrenders itself to hunger and unemployment. There’s an up rise in crime; people start finding reasons for their sufferings. It is then, when they are provided by the reason they were searching for, and people sponsor that reason, en masse. That reason was provided by Adolf Hitler. He blinded the German people by directing their naturally volatile sentiments towards one particular community, the Jews. He promised the people that if comes into power, he’ll give all the jobs, held by the Jews to the Germans. He made them believe that the country has to be occupied by blue eyed Germans of the great Aryan race, in totality. The people thought of the Jews as aliens, as their enemies and their competitors in the fight for survival, for food and employment.

Hitler influenced every German. The first concentration camp was built by 1933. Holocaust ensued…

Circa mid 1980s. India struggles keeping in line with the socialist economic structure, propounded by Nehru. The tigress of Indian politics, Indira Gandhi is assassinated in 1984. Suddenly there’s a newly found breathing space for the opposition as it sees cracks in the ruling government. By the end of the decade, the Indian economy sailed into dire straits; a third of the population was living below the poverty line; unemployment was on the rise which instigated bitter feelings amongst the youth. The bureaucracy demands bribes as its dharma, the political scenario changes drastically- for four decades India was under a single party polity, and now there’s a weak coalition government, the people have less faith on. By the year ninety-one, India has a serious foreign exchange crisis; reserves are left for only a month’s import! The condition of the economy is serious and the resultant affects on the society much grave.

Enter Hindutva; the ideology of a political front which aims at making India a Hindu nation. It propagandizes that the Hindus have been kept as slaves by the Muslims for centuries and that they are the reason for their economic deprivation. That they are their competitors in the struggle for existence, for food and employment. They came to country to loot the wealth and they still continue to do so. All of a sudden, King Ram was hailed as the principal deity. A fear psychosis amongst the Hindus was created- fear of the Muslims.

The effect by this massive propaganda was huge. Hindus living in Muslim majority areas started keeping weapons for protection. Employed Muslims were looked upon as someone who has taken away the bread not rightfully meant for their consumption. December 6, 1992. A sixteenth century mosque, Babri, is demolished by thousands of “kârya sewaks”, the whole incident a manifestation of the formed cleft between the two communities.

Then the Bombay blasts, communal riots, Godhra, blasts across major cities…

Circa 2009. Nearly twenty years after opening up the economy and having worked a remarkable economic growth, the dynamics of the society has for yet another time changed; but thankfully for the better. As a mere consequence of the economic success, with the last half-decade ticking near ten percent growth rates, the standard of living of many urban as well as rural Indians has raised. The great Indian middle class has swelled up, with high aspirations, focussed on education and employing its entrepreneurial skills. Now people have started understanding that the terrorists are not from the community within the country but from across the border. Even if there are some Indian terrorists, then the whole community cannot be labelled as pro-terrorists. As a watershed turn in the Indian cinema, the lead roles are Muslim characters, not Raj or Rahul. Slowly, the society has started understanding that the Muslims are no more enemies but an integral constituent of a pluralist India, made up by the confluence of many religions, cultures and customs. That is the effect of economic upliftment. Had the liberalization process taken place in nineteen eighty-one, this social change would have started early, and the Babri Masjid would have place in its place, intact.

Between 2004-2008, there were over fifty incidents of terrorists bombing Indian cities.

On November 26, 2008, five months before the general elections India saw the worst terrorist attack on its soil.

The people chose their government. Hindutva is now left only in few pockets of the country. The ideology itself is struggling for its existence…

Hitler killed himself in his bunker in 1945. Nazism collapsed with the Berlin Wall.

Hindutva got killed when the Indian economy grew over five percent and there was socio-economic emancipation.