(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
been a difficult one, reminiscent in many ways of the
American civil rights movement in respect to blacks.
In some parts of India, especially Bihar, the peas-
antry-—-for whom the Scheduled Castes mainly work
as landless laborers-—have responded with incredible
brutality to attempts by Scheduled Castes to better
their lot. In other areas, most notably Maharashtra,
large numbers of the group have adopted a new ethnic
identity by conversion to Buddhism, employing a
social dynamic comparable to that of the Black Mus-
lim movement among blacks in America. Other Hari-
jans have been converting to Islam.
Hindu Nationalism .
Hindu ethnicity sank roots even before the tum of the
present century. Within the Congress Party there
emerged the powerful conservative voice of a Marathi
Brahman, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who perceived in the
increasing Westemization of India’s elite the seeds of
the destruction of Hindu culture. He sought, some-
times violently, to oppose the British presence. No
less conservative in some respects, but far more toler-
ant of non-Hindu perspectives, was Mohandas Gan-
dhi. Gandhi’s commitment to inonviolence and his
fruitful collaboration with the‘ liberal and secular-
minded Jawaharlal Nehru lessened the following for
Ti1ak’s brand of Hindu nationalism for decades but
could hardly extinguish its appeal. Even before Tilak’s
death in 1920, Hindu nationalism was institutionalized
in various guises, beginning with the Hindu Mahas-
abha, founded in 1907 in partlas a reaction to the cre-
ation of the Muslim League. Although never posing a
serious challenge to Congress, the Mahasabha was
particularly influential in the period before and just
after partition in fomenting anti-Muslim activities and
in giving credibility to Jinnahls aforementioned two-
nation theory. Also noteworthy is the militant and fas-
cistic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Vol-
unteer Association), one of whose members
assassinated Gandhi in I948. Founded in 1925, it
remains a potent force, especially in Maharashtra, the
region of its inception. K
Despite their high visibility and local prominence, no
Hindu nationalist party in the postindependence
period even came close to gaining control over any
state legislature, not to mention Parliament, until
1990. The Bharatiya Jan Sangh, however, gained
heightened respectability by being admitted into the
hodgepodge anti-Congress Janata coalition that swept
to power in 1977. The period 1990-91 witnessed a
dramatic rise in the strength of the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BIP), successor to the Jan Sangh. This was
especially marked in India’s conservative Hindi heart-
land.
Some observers of the Indian political scene anticipate
that the BIP will be able to form the next government,
either alone or at the head of a new anti-Congress coa-
lition. The changed fortunes of the Hindu nationalists
may be attributed to a variety of factors. Among them
are the termination of the Nehru family dynasty, the
decline in public confidence in the long-ruling and
increasingly corrupt and scandal-ridden Congress
Party, and the failure of any other ideologically based
party to win the allegiance of a major segment of dis-
enchanted Congress supporters. No less important has
been the BJP‘s ability to project the sense that it stands
for the true India. It appeals mainly to the landed,
albeit nonelite, segments of the rural population and to
the lower middle class of the urban population. Nei-
ther of these groups has previously enjoyed a large
share of political power over any sustained period.
Implicit in the appeal of the BJP is a certain rejection
of Western influences, along with a generous dose of
anti-Islamic sentiment vis-a-vis both Pakistan's and
India's own Muslim population.
The B.IP’s cynical exploitation of popular Hindu emo-
tional sentiment in regard to the controversial destruc-
tion of a 16th-century mosque allegedly built over the
site of Lord Rama’s birth put the BJP at the center of
public attention and was instrumental in bringing on
the most serious wave of Hindu-Muslim communal
violence since the period of partition. This led to the
dismissal of BIP ministries in four states in December
1992 and their replacement by President’s Rule. (This
is shown on figure 12.) Some commentators argue that
the BJP leadership is more representative of the true
India than was the Congress Party—as well as less
corrupt—-and anticipate that, once in power, the party
will act with a considerable degree of responsibility
and will restore stability to the nation. I am inclined to
doubt that assessment.
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268