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Sabrang Team
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Hindutva Hypocrisy on Family Planning
Yoginder Sikand
One of the central themes of Hindutva propaganda is the myth that
the Muslims refuse to practice family planning as part of an alleged
grand conspiracy to swamp the country and convert it into a
Muslim-majority state. On the other hand, and this is hardly known,
Hindutva ideologues have been consistently exhorting Hindus not to
adopt population control measures and to produce as many children as
they can. In his book, ‘The RSS Story’, the BJP Vice-President, the
late K.R. Malkani, reveals:
‘On the subject of artificial population control, Shri Guruji (Golwalkar,
the RSS supremo) felt that there was no need for it’. [1]
Malkani quotes Golwalkar as having further said:
‘I for one think that the world is wide enough to house and feed all
the children that are brought into it.’ [2]
Reactionaries readily read conspiracies into any move that might
threaten their vested interests, and Golwalkar went on to discover
the ubiquitous foreign hand behind family planning. Thus, he
declared:
‘Foreign powers are only too eager to see the Indian population cut.
They know the strength of numbers and the connection between
population and power’. [3]
The same view is repeated in the writings of other Hindutva
ideologues, some of them going to ridiculous extents in passionately
arguing the case for a higher Hindu population. Thus, for instance,
a certain Prof Subramaniam Swamy, writing in the RSS weekly,
Organizer (November 13, 1971), came up with the absurd assertion
that "population control would have very dangerous consequences for
economic growth". To preempt his critics he claimed that ‘The effect
of any increase in population could be overcome by increased
production for which there was great potential in the country’. He
went on further to declare that ‘growth of knowledge was facilitated
by large populations’, and asked why ‘if a certain number of people
could bring about technological progress, a larger number could not
bring about more progress?’ Without adding any substantiation he
added, ‘Historical data suggested that the rate of growth of
population and the rate of economic growth went together’.
Similarly, a certain Kaka Bhushandi, writing in the Organiser
(August 21, 1971), under the caption "Birth Control Has Ruined Many
Countries", declared that ‘The thesis that birth control is
necessary to ensure sufficient food for the existing population in
our country is questionable’.
Typically, Hindutva ideologues project birth control as an
‘anti-Hindu’ measure, while at the same time complaining that
Muslims refuse to practice it. Thus, the Organiser (May 4, 1974)
reported that the Hindu Sammelan held by the Hindu Raksha Dal passed
a resolution advising Hindus "not to fall prey to the family
planning propaganda of the government." Likewise, a certain M.W.
Onkar, writing in the Organiser (November 18, 1990) claimed that
‘the government machinery compels the Hindu population to resort to
family planning devices and undergo vasectomy and tubectomy
operations’. In a similar vein, another hardcore Hindutva
propagandist, a certain Bishen Swaroop Goyal, in a booklet
revealingly titled ‘Family Planning is a Conspiracy Against Hindu
Society’ [4], claimed that only the well-off among the Hindus
practised family planning because of which, he said, ‘Muslims,
Christians, Sikhs and Parsis think that the Hindus are fools’. [5]
He contended that the poor and backward social groups also were not
favourably inclined towards population control. Hence, he declared:
‘What is most painfully worrying is that because the nationalist
intellectual classes (a euphemism for educated and better-off, and
presumably ‘upper’ caste Hindus) are adopting family planning, they
shall turn very soon into an even smaller minority’.[6]
Since every issue on the basis of which the Hindutva brigade
attempts to mobilise support is given a strong anti-Muslim colour,
family planning, too, is projected by them as a pro-Muslim,
anti-Hindu conspiracy. Thus, Goyal wrote:
‘The family planning programme has been introduced with the sole
purpose of reducing Hindus into a minority. The world knows that
wherever in India the Hindus became a minority, those areas were
separated from the country. So, is it that family planning is being
propagated solely to break-up India and thereby revive Muslim rule?’
[7]
A similar appeal for Hindus to rapidly multiply while at the same
time condemning Muslims for allegedly refusing to limit their
families appeared some years ago in an writ petition filed by group
of ‘upper’ caste Hindus from Gorakhpur in the Supreme Court (No. 15,
1993) against the Union of India, praying for a ban on the Quran.
Among other things, they declared in their petition that:
‘It may be noted that Hinduism has not restricted Hindus to have one
wife only. It is the sectarian Indian Parliament which has
restricted the population growth of Hindus to meet her (sic.)
nefarious designs, viz. appease Mohamdens (sic.) to grab Muslims’
vote-banks and rob and slay Hindus...’
They went on to declare that:
‘The one and only reason of [sic.] the Hindus’ survival is their
population strength. The Indian Government and, Constitution are
colluding with Muslims to finish this barrier. [8]
Hindutva ideologues consistently accuse Muslims of allegedly
multiplying at an alarming rate. It needs, however, to be noted that
the Scheduled Castes and Tribes have among the highest rates of
population growth, perhaps exceeding even that of the Muslims in may
parts of the country. Poverty and population growth are positively
correlated, and the Dalits and Tribals are among the most
impoverished communities in India. Given the fact that Hindutva
represents the interests and worldview of the minority Brahminical
elite, one supposes that a rapid rise in the Dalit and Tribal
population is seen by many Hindutva supporters, and ‘upper’ caste
Hindus in general, as a menacing threat. Appeals to Hindus to
abstain from birth control would one supposes, be directed
particularly at the ‘upper’ caste Hindus, who constitute only a
small minority of the Indian population. Thus, for instance, a news
report titled, "Brahmin Mahasangh Appeals to Each Brahmin to Produce
Six Sons" in the Hindi daily, Hindustan (New Delhi, October 3,
1991.), states:
‘Anguished at the growing caste contradictions in society, the
Brahmin Mahasangha has appealed to the Brahmins of the entire
country to produce at least six sons each.’
Not surprisingly, the appeal of the Brahmin Mahasangh passed
un-remarked in the ‘upper’ caste-owned media, as did a recent
statement by a top leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, calling on
Hindus to abstain from birth control. And as Muslim ‘ulama and Hindu
pundits cry hoarse against family planning in a pathetic race for
numbers, India’s menacing population bomb ticks away unnoticed.
NOTES
1. K.R. Malkani, The RSS Story (Impex India, New Delhi, 1980), p.
74.
2. Ibid., p. 75.
3. Ibid., p. 75.
4. Bishen Swaroop Goyal, Parivar Niyojan Hindu Samaj Ke Virudh
Shadyantra (Vikalp Prakash an, New Delhi, n.d.).
5. Ibid.,p.1.
6. Ibid., p.2.
7. Ibid.,p.2.
8. Writ petition No. 15 of 1993-A.P. Tripathi, R.C. Agarwal, R.P.
Gupta and I.L. Shrivastava versus Union of India.
http://www.islaminterfaith.org/
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