highlights
The cooperation of the General Assembly with Britain was not limited to only theoretical ideas.
This also came in the form of Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League alliance.
This was the time when there were restrictions on all political organizations including Congress.
Country Now the excitement regarding the general elections is in full swing. The first phase of voting is near. On Friday (April 5), Congress released its election manifesto. After which the rhetoric between political parties and leaders has intensified. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Congress over its election manifesto during a rally in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). Narendra Modi said that the Congress manifesto has the imprint of Muslim League. PM Modi said, “The Congress manifesto reflects the same thinking as that of the Muslim League at the time of independence. “What is left is dominated by the Left.”
Congress also hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying that it had the imprint of Muslim League in its manifesto. Congress said that Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had formed the government by compromising with the Muslim League, we never compromised. Congress also alleged that BJP leaders are Jinnah’s supporters. It is known that Lal Krishna Advani and Jaswant Singh had gone to Pakistan and praised Jinnah.
Alliance of Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League
Although today It seems difficult to imagine that once the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League had together formed governments in many states. But this is the reality. The Hindu Mahasabha, under the chairmanship of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, had shamelessly supported its British masters in suppressing the Quit India Movement in 1942. His cooperation with the British Empire was not limited to only theoretical ideas. This also came in the form of Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League alliance. This was the time when there were restrictions on all political organizations including Congress. There was no ban only on Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League. This was the time when Hindu Mahasabha along with Muslim League ran coalition governments.
Coalition governments formed in three states
After the invitation, Hindu Mahasabha took the responsibility of running a coalition government in Sindh with the Muslim League. Everyone knows the example of the coalition government formed in Bengal in 1941. The mixed government of Bengal ran successfully for a year under the Prime Ministership of Fazlul Haq and the leadership of Syama Prasad Mukherjee, a recognized leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, for the benefit of both the communities. Apart from Bengal and Sindh, the coalition government of Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League was also in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Muslim League, which the Congress could not keep happy despite all its good intentions, after coming into contact with the Hindu Mahasabha, became ready for very reasonable compromises.
‘Practical Politics’ of Hindu Mahasabha
In his presidential address at the Kanpur session of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar had advocated this nexus in these words: “Even in practical politics, the Hindu Mahasabha knows that progress must be made through intelligent compromises.” But soon contradictions began to appear between the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha. On March 3, 1943, when the Sindh Assembly presented a resolution and discussed and passed it. Syed recommended to the Viceroy, “The Muslims of India are a separate nation.” Leaders of Hindu Mahasabha were in the government. Although Hindu Mahasabha ministers opposed the proposal and voted against it, they remained in the government.
read this also- The only Muslim who presided over the session of Hindu Mahasabha was a big advocate of cow protection.
Committed to furthering Hindu interests
Savarkar claimed that the Hindu Mahasabha followed a policy of ‘responsible cooperation’ with the British Empire because he considered the Congress a ‘pseudo-nationalist body’. For Savarkar, this “pragmatic politics” led to “reasonable compromises”, which meant “capturing the centers of political power only in the public interest”, undermining his personal interests. On June 10, 1943, a few months after the Sindh Legislative Assembly endorsed the creation of Pakistan, Savarkar reiterated the Hindu Mahasabha’s commitment to form provincial governments including the Muslim League to advance Hindu interests.
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
When Hemandas Wadhwani met Jinnah
On June 17, 1943, Dr. Hemandas Wadhwani, the health minister in the Sindh coalition government and a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, met Mohammed Ali Jinnah, head of the Muslim League, to talk about the state of communal harmony and form an anti-Congress party. Hemandas Wadhwani also informed Savarkar about his conversation with Jinnah and tried to arrange a meeting between the two. To be fair, it was the political right of the Hindu Mahasabha to form a coalition government, but it does not bode well for the ‘nationalist’ credentials of Hindutva heroes like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Savarkar.
There was ideological similarity between both the parties
Savarkar’s commitment to the creation of a Hindu Rashtra overtook the goal of India’s political independence. This pragmatic politics of the Hindu Mahasabha led by Savarkar may have been beneficial for his organization, but it was certainly disastrous for the fate of the Indian subcontinent. Hindu Mahasabha had ideological similarity with Muslim League. Borrowing from the narrow nationalism of Western Europe, both parties believed in the notion of ‘one religion/culture, one language’ as the guiding force of nationalism.
read this also- The world’s largest family in India… 167 people live in a 100-room house, so much food is prepared daily
Mahasabha wanted a country for Hindus
The Hindu Mahasabha wanted a country for Hindi-speaking Hindus, while the Muslim League wanted a country for Urdu-speaking Muslims. By doing this both the organizations also adopted the principle of having a ‘common enemy’. For example, the Hindu Mahasabha considered Pakistan (read Muslims) as their common enemy, while the Muslim League hated India (read Hindus), considering a secular nation as the homeland of Hindus. Like the Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha believed that Hindus and Muslims were two separate and opposing nations.
Savarkar had put forward this idea of a separate nationhood in his presidential address during the 1937 session of the Hindu Mahasabha held in Ahmedabad, three years before the Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution in Lahore: “Today India should not be a unitary and homogeneous nation. It may be assumed, rather on the contrary, that there are primarily two nations; Hindus and Muslims in India.” The path of pre-independence Hindutva movement was not so correct. When the Congress leaders were in jail, the Hindu Mahasabha took the partition forward by helping the Muslim League. (Input- The Wire and Navjeevan)
,
Tags: 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, BJP, Congress, Hindu Mahasabha, PM Modi, RSS, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 7, 2024, 12:33 IST