The word ‘Hindu’ is in the news, both as a political and cultural identity. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat believes all those who live in Hindustan are Hindus. For book policeman Dinanath Batra Hindu is a crusading word, evoking a campaign against Macaulayite secularists who have monopolized Indian thought and education. ‘Hindu’ is posited as the opposite of the rootless and the westernized, India’s Hindu past an ‘Indian’ riposte to western imperialism.
Fear of westernization has always gripped Indians both of Left and Right persuasions. The Left regarded English as the language of foreign elitists and banished it from Bengal’s primary school education for three decades. The cultural Right believes – with some justification – that the modern Read More
