BJP has won the elections to Lok Sabha
with an overwhelming majority and Mr. Modi can form a government without the
support of the other parties that went into an alliance with the BJP. However,
it is very unlikely that in India we would see a pure BJP government, in spite
of BJP having a clear majority. There have been some “moda” (foolish)
statements made on the victory of Mr. Modi (Modi gena moda katha) , such as it
would create a dark age for South Asia, but we should not be disturbed by the
statements of politicians and political commentators who see the world through
dark glasses. They only see dark ages. The BJP has won in most of the states,
the glaring exceptions being Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. It is clear
that Hinduthva nationalism, somewhat akin to Sinhalathva nationalism in Sri
Lanka has swept the polls at the elections. Incidentally it has to be mentioned
that I have been using the term Sinhalathva for some time, and when this
concept was criticized sometime ago by people such as Peter Shalk, I was
disowned by the Sinhala nationalists. In any event it has to be emphasized that
we have graduated from Sinhala Buddhist nationalism to Sinhala nationalism over
the years, especially after the school takeover in early sixties, and the
latter has been reinforced after the victory over the Tamil terrorism of the
LTTE.
In Asia there is no nationalism in the
western sense, a concept that has been evolved in Europe only after Capitalism
became the mode of economic production. In this part of the world what we have today
is mainly a cultural nationalism, as we do not know how to evolve a political
nationalism and an economic nationalism that go hand in hand with cultural
nationalism, after centuries of colonialism that is still in existence. India
and Sri Lanka have cricket nationalism (could be considered as part of cultural
nationalism), the only phenomenon that make the people to think as one entity.
As the Asians including the Chinese are grappled with political institutes and
economic models of the west the final establishment of political nationalism
and economic nationalism will take place only with the overthrow of western
Judaic Christian colonialism. However a kind of political nationalism is
operating through cultural nationalism, and in Sri Lanka political, economic
and cultural nationalism had been in existence since the Anuradhapura days,
long before western nationalism was evolved. In fact it had been only the
Chinese and the Sinhalas who were able to establish nationalism before the
westerners did so. Sinhala (Hela) Buddhists
had a nationalism that incorporated all three aspects, cultural political and
economic even before the arrival of Arhant Mahinda Thero and it was in
existence until the Rajakari system was abolished after the plotting of
Colebrook and Cameron. We still refer to the work of these plotters as reforms
and to our independence struggles as “kerellas” (rebellions) and in a teledrama
currently being telecast the freedom fighters refer to themselves as
“keralikarayo”! Our political nationalism is to be reestablished. In any event
we still have remnants of combined cultural nationalism and political nationalism
but it cannot be said of economic nationalism that has been ruined by the open
economy of J R Jayawardene following western economic structures.
India is somewhat behind Sri Lanka in
cultural nationalism, due to historical reasons as there was no India as such
before the arrival of the English. However, Ramayanaya and Mahabhratha had
unified most of what is known today as India culturally though not politically and
economically, and it is this unity that is expressed by the victory of the BJP.
We should not forget that the BJP fielded only ten Muslim candidates and that
all of them lost at the elections. In Sri Lanka if not for the politics
introduced by Ashraff, Muslims, especially the Moors would have joined hands
with the Sinhalas in cultural nationalism. It is unfortunate that Ashraff
decided to follow the Tamil racist leaders even going to the extent of
attending the infamous Vadukkodai conference in 1976. The Malay Muslims though
fought against the Sinhalas as soldiers of the English, and police constables, have now closed ranks with the Sinhalas, some
of them sacrificing even their lives for Sri Lanka fighting against the LTTE
terrorists. Organisations such as Bodu Bala Sena are only reactions against
aggressive politics of Ashraff, still being followed by some of his “golayas”.
The three major states that did not vote
for the BJP did so because they are not bound by the orthodox cultural
nationalism of Hinduthva. Both Kerala and West Bengal have had Marxist
governments and their Chinthanaya does not follow the orthodox Hinduthva
Chinthanaya. Bengalis find it difficult to think as Hindus in the other regions
do with a culture associated with goddess Kali, and also their “national pride”
makes them feel somewhat superior to the other Hindus. The artistic talent
found in Kerala and West Bengal makes them somewhat different from the other
Indians, and Hindi cinema has failed to unite Kerala and Bengali with the rest
of India in general. There is a kind of intellectual pride that can be found in
both these states and they are first Malayalis or Bengalis before they are
Indians.
The nationalism of Tamil Nadu is
influenced by Christianity than by Hinduism. Though the majority of Tamils are
Hindus their opinion leaders are influenced by Judaic Christian culture and it
makes them different from say Uttar Pradesh or Bihar Hindu. The Tamils think
that their language is one of the oldest in the world and some of them would
try to dissociate from Sanskrit as much as possible. This is mainly under the
influence of Christian opinion leaders, some of them being clergy, and sort of
“anti Sanskrit” and “anti Pali” attitudes can be found in “linguistic
nationalism” dissociated from “religious nationalism” in Sri Lanka and Tamil
Nadu. Cultural nationalism should combine “religious nationalism” and
“linguistic nationalism” but there are cases that do not follow this rule due
to some other reasons. The LTTE was
influenced by Judaic Christian Chinthanaya and not by any orthodox Hindu Chinthanaya
and Prabhakaran was interested in dropping any connections with Sanskrit
whenever it was possible to do so. He even Tamilised his name and called
himself Piripahiran, and there were more Catholic and Christian clergy than
Hindu Kurukkals sympathetic to his movement.
It is very unlikely that Tamil Nadu
would be able to influence the Modi government, and the Congress that went to
the extent of obeying Jeyalalitha, as they were both influenced by western
Judaic Christian Chinthanaya would now be watching Sri Lankan affairs from very
far. It is up to the President of Sri Lanka to educate the Prime Minister of
India on Tamil politics in Sri Lanka, and the latter would understand the
commonalities between Sri Lankan Tamil politics and Indian Tamil politics that
stem from the same Chinthanaya. Anti colonialism of both India and Sri Lanka at
present mainly springs from cultural nationalism as we still depend on western
political structures, their theories, economic and development models.
However, even in the sphere of culture
we still depend on western knowledge and it is here that India, China and Sri
Lanka should try to develop non western knowledge systems that have been there
for millennia. The common axis that would make Asia the leader of the world is
nothing but Hindu Buddhist Tao axis and we should be thinking in terms of new
silk route and new political theories and try to break away from the western
abstract thinking that is not our forte.
Nalin De Silva
21-05-2014