Book review: Hindutva and Hind Swaraj

A review of how religion and political narratives shape public discourse

December 19, 2025

Debate over cultural narrative and national identity in India

We are living at a time when Sanatana Dharma and Hinduism are under threat, threat from all corners of India and from the hitherto unheard Deep State. The forces inimical to India are out in full vigour to destroy and demolish Sanatan Dharma and its offshoot, Hinduism. Flunkies of the Deep State, which include Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, his son Udhayanidhi, a non-entity who is ruling us only because he happens to be the grandson of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the spectrum-tainted Andipetti Raja, the king of Kangaroo Courts Thol Thirumavalavan, are all working overtime to annihilate Sanatan Dharma, the moving force and soul of India. The anti-Sanatana Dharma forces are spread across the length and breadth of the country. In Kerala, the Marxists-Mullahs-Moulavi-Methran cartels are hand in gloves with each other to eliminate Sanatana Dharma once and for ever.

No state or establishments are free of these poisonous termites and parasites, which are gnawing the nation’s spirit from within and outside. There is a general feeling that had it not been for the Narendra Modi-led NDA government that assumed power at the Centre in 2014, Sanatana Dharma and Hinduism would have been given a burial by the UPA Government led by Congress. We cannot blame the UPA for this, its evil intention. The Muslim and Christian leaders who had hijacked the Congress do not believe in pluralism and in the concept of equality of all religions. Indian history has been distorted and misinterpreted by the Marxist-Mullah-Christian axis. They spread all kinds of nonsense and cock and bull stories about the past of the subcontinent. The Marxists consider everything that had its origins in the subcontinent as scum. For them, Lord Rama is a fictitious character, Ramayana and Mahabharat being myths. Nicholas Kazanas, director of OMILOS Meleton Cultural Institute, Greece, who is a scholar of global repute, has said during his lecture delivered in Chennai that the oldest written work in the world is the Vedas and Upanishads. “Ramayana and Mahabharat are the world’s first literary work and these books inspired and encouraged many scholars to take up writing about literary and cultural stories from their countries of origin,” said Prof Kazanas in the course of his lecture.

Researchers and scholars from the West are convinced about the achievements made by India in the sphere of culture, traditions, and civilizations, but not our comrades and Dravidians. The Communists were critical and cynical of the subcontinent’s past. This writer remembers a speech made by Marxist strongman Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who claimed that India got freedom fromthe Britishers only because of the efforts and sacrifices made by the CPI(M). But the truth is that the CPI(M) was born only in 1964, while India got freedom in 1947.

The Communists know well that they do not have any prospects of growth in the spiritual ambience of India, and hence their hatred for anything Indian. For the Congress, which is owned and operated by the Signora staying in 10, Janpath, New Delhi, these things do not matter at all. She is here as the modern-day viceroy of the Vatican, and her mission is to liquidate Sanatana Dharma.

It is at this juncture that Makarand R Paranjape, the well-known literary person and author, has come out with “Hindutva and Hind Swaraj,” published by Penguin. Makarand Paranjape took up the project of writing this book as part of Azadi Ki Amritmahotsav (75th anniversary of India’s independence). The author says that the work is an introspection, which was the need of the hour because of the widening chasm between the majority community and the minority communities. But these fissures are caused by the spiritual heads of the minority communities. While one sect offers their votes to the BJP if the government increases the price of rubber to Rs.300 per kilogram, leaders of another minority community demand that they should be allowed to marry any number of times and the marriage age of girls be brought down to 14. Those who bemoan the control exerted by the RSS over the BJP are ignorant of ground realities. The Sangh leaders have not approached the government with any kind of demands. For them, what matters is the nation, India First. This is the slogan borrowed from the Sangh by Donald Trump, the president of the United States.

It is better to understand the meaning of Hind Swaraj from our own history. Much before Bala Gangadhar Tilak coined this term, Chatrapathi Shivaji, the Maratha emperor, had made it clear that his mission was to establish Hind Swaraj. “Hind Swaraj is a country where each religion is happy; where women and children can roam freely without any fear; where the poor do not feel orphaned”, Shivaji had told his people. This is well portrayed in Shivaji, The Great Maratha, authored by Ranjit Desai, which has been translated into English by Vikrant Pande.

Veer Savarkar fought for this Hind Swaraj throughout his life. All his sufferings were for this objective. But the Indian National Congress, the outfit hijacked by the Nehru clan, could not digest the truth that a Maharashtrian could emerge as the national icon, and they unleashed a disinformation campaign against him. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who earned the moniker Mahatma by default, was no match for Savarkar. If the writings about him are any indication, Gandhi will go down in history as a “spineless wonder” suffering from a number of complexes. Though he was against religious conversion, he did not make his opposition public lest he irritate the pastors and bishops.

“Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj does not ask the English to leave India, but to remain and rule in accordance with Dharma”, writes Dr. J K Bajaj and M D Srinivas in their pathbreaking book Making of a Hindu Patriot-Background of Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, published by Chennai-based Center for Policy Studies. Dr Bajaj and Srinivas took years of research and went through all the works authored by Gandhi.

Makaranad Paranjape’s mission is to establish a similarity in thought between Savarkar and Gandhi. It remains two parallel lines because Gandhi was wedded to non-violence ridiculously and obsessively. What Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the indomitable founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), explains is the foolishness of the principle followed by Gandhi.

“What is a religious fight? Religious fight means you have the right to kill your aggressor. If somebody takes your property, if somebody sets fire to your house, if somebody kidnaps your wife, or if somebody is trying to kill you, they are called an aggressor. So the aggressor should be killed immediately. It is not that somebody has become an aggressor, and if I say, “Now I have become a Vaishnava, I’ll not be violent. I shall tolerate. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has taught us to be tolerant like the tree or the grass. So I shall become tolerant. Let him do.” Just like Gandhi used to say. Somebody questioned him, “If somebody comes and violates the chastity of your daughter in your presence, what will you do?” He said, “I shall remain nonviolent.” This is foolishness,” says the Swami Ji.

Gandhi’s politics too centered on flippant policies, and this has been stated by Sir C Sankaran Nair, the president of the All India Congress Committee for the 13th edition of the outfit held at Amravati. He was opposed to the policies pursued by Gandhi, viz., the Khilafat Movement, the civil disobedience, and the non-cooperation movement. Sir Sankaran Nair alerted the Congress leaders about the gargantuan mistake being made by Gandhi by supporting the Khilafat agitation that was taking place in Turkey. Thousands of Hindus were slaughtered by the extremist Islamic elements in Kerala’s Malabar province in 1921 under the leadership of Variankunnathu Kunjahammed Haji, the Osama bin Laden of those days. They described themselves as the fighters for the reinstatement of the Khaleefa who was ousted by the British-led allies after the First World War. IN Malabar, the victims of the so-called Khilafat agitation turned out to be poor Hindus! The Islamists named the agitation the Moplah Rebellion, and Gandhi, till his last, remained silent about this genocide. Gandhi, who was annoyed by the stance of Sir Nair, ensured that he kept out of the Congress leadership forever. He remains the only Malayali to date who has held the post of AICC president.

Paranjape is worried that there is no space for open discourse in India. The moment you dare to criticize Narendra Modi, you are labelled unpatriotic or anti-national, alleges Paranjape. He is also apprehensive of the dictatorial tendency being seen among the top leadership of the BJP. There is an undeclared emergency all over the country, alleges a section of media persons. But what I see every morning in newspapers is open criticism of Modi and his style of functioning. Sir, how is it possible to charge that there is no freedom of speech and expression in the country when the newspapers, news channels, and portals work round the clock to churn out anti-Modi stories? We in India are experiencing this kind of hypocrisy for the first time after the internal emergency (1975-77). The media go all out and attack Modi and accuse the government of having no press freedom!

It was from Jawaharlal Nehru University that we heard the slogans “Bharat Teri Tukde Honge…”. For what? The agitation against CAA, the triple talaqs, the agitations against Farm Reform Bills, Uniform Civil Code, etc., were executed with the sole purpose of unseating the democratically elected government. These agitations were supported by the Deep State and forces that want the disintegration of India. Savarkar, had he been alive, would have staged demonstrations against these agitations. The truth is that despite the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi abusing Savarkar, the latter’s stock is surging ahead despite no help from the government of the day to spread his messages. The charisma of Gandhi, who became Father of the Nation by default, is withering fast as his escapades are coming out one by one. The experiences of Abha and Manu, his two grand-nieces, could be the beginning of the end.

Gandhi had no Hindutva in him, while Savarkar remained wedded to Hind Swaraj till the end of his life.

Hindutva & Hind Swaraj by MAKARAND R PARANJAPE
Penguin
Rs.799/-

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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