Difficult times for rationalists

Hindutva's political success always seems inversely proportional to the development of science and reason. The Sangh Parivar’s project of cultural nationalism in India has always rested on the premise of a revival of the “glorious ancient Hindu past” of the country. This envisages a “modern” India which is based on the identity and symbolism of Hindu nationalism. That is why, despite the Parivar’s political wing positioning itself as an agent of “development and economic growth”, these core beliefs continue to be expressed and asserted repeatedly.

The remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of a hospital in Mumbai in late October claiming a scientific pedigree and historical veracity for mythological references were followed by a rash of statements by his party colleagues and ministers in the same vein. The PM claimed that modern medical achievements – plastic surgery, cloning and in vitro fertilisation – were all practised in India’s ancient past. In Parliament, when some of his colleagues were questioned about these remarks by the opposition, they were stoutly defended and further claims such as Indian astrology trumped all sciences and that India had nuclear bombs and planes in ancient times, were made!

The project of Hindutva has always approached modernity in instrumental terms. Science and technology, which have spurred modernity and development, are seen as necessary only insofar as they are needed for generation of profits.

Science and technology are seen as necessary in order to advance business interests, and development is seen only in these terms. The Hindutva project, therefore, has no qualms about associating with what has originally been a western form of development. Capitalist development, even of the kind that is fostered through neo-liberalism, is not considered incompatible with the core beliefs of a Hindu nation. But the other aspects of a modern world view, and its most crucial components – rationality and the practice of critique – are ignored and rejected in favour of blind faith in Sanatana Dharma and a revival of a supposedly Vedic past.

There is a conflation of myth and superstition with the scientific advances of the past; and then a spurious equivalence is sought to be created between ancient myths and modern science. The technological products of the Enlightenment are eagerly sought, while the critical methods of science, which lead us to question every assumption and belief, are firmly shut out.

Science as a vehicle for rationality and as an expression of reason is something that Hindutva strongly opposes, even as it seeks the credibility of science for its myths. This Hindutva vision – or “political Hinduism” – is not dissimilar to how every other religio-political project relates to Western ideas, whether these are Muslim fundamentalists or Christian ones.

The project of revivalism is therefore not interested in understanding what engendered the achievements in science and technology in ancient India. Historian Romila Thapar recently argued that early achievements in ancient and medieval science, such as astronomy and mathematics, were never consolidated in India because of opposition from religious orthodoxy; and philosophers who believed in reason and science had to encounter opposition from dominant religious authorities. It is an irony that the upholders of a monistic version of Brahminical Hinduism are today claiming the achievements in ancient Indian science for a political project whose lineage can only be linked to those who opposed that very scientific endeavour.

The statements and appointments to positions in academia by the Modi-led government also conflict with what the Constitution of India explicitly mentions as fundamental duties – the development of a scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform (Article 51A(h)).

The current form of state indulgence and support for myth-making and irrationality has had its natural consequences. The Government of Gujarat has already commissioned books authored by the Hindutva activist Dinanath Batra for its school reading lists. Some of the science texts among these books reproduce the myths about the achievements of science and technology of the Vedic past.

These are difficult times for rationalists in India. The murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Maharashtra last year was not unrelated to his strident opposition to extremist Hindutva organisations. The challenges have only increased since the coming to power of our Hindu nationalist Prime Minister.