An exclusive dharma

The BJP’s constitution (Article 3) says, ‘Integral Humanism shall be the philosophy of the party.’ The party’s membership form bears a pledge which members are required to take. The first line of this pledge is: ‘I believe in Integral Humanism which is the basic philosophy of the Bharatiya Janata Party.’

'Integral humanism' is a term many Indians are familiar with but few know much about. It comprises the text of four lectures by Deendayal Upadhyaya between 22 and 25 April 1965 in Mumbai. Upadhyaya held a bachelor’s degree in arts and was a journalist at the RSS house publication, Panchjanya. He was about 50 when he delivered these lectures, and became president of the Jana Sangh a couple of years after.

Let us go through the message of the BJP’s philosophy, which we can then analyse at a future date. What follows is a summary of the argument that Upadhyaya presents in his speeches, and it is presented as neutrally as possible:

The cause of the problems facing Bharat is a neglect of national identity. The nation is like an individual and becomes ill if its natural instincts are disregarded or suppressed. Despite independence, India was still undecided about the direction it would take to realise development. Independence is meaningful only if it is the instrument to express culture.

The focus in India was on episodic problems: economic, social and political. This was because India adopted a Western way of looking at economic, social and political doctrines along with Western science. Westernisation was synonymous with progress for Indians.

However, the West was unable to reconcile nationalism, democracy and socialism. These were essentially Western ideals and they were all in conflict with one another. These ideologies were not universal and not free from the limitations of the particular people and cultures which gave birth to these '-isms'. Ayurveda said we need to find local cures to local diseases. Could Bharatiya culture provide a solution for the world?

It is generally thought that Bharatiya culture thinks of salvation of the soul and does not bother about body, mind and intellect, but that is untrue. Dharma is given foremost place in Bharatiya culture. Dharma is the natural law that is eternal and universally applicable.

Dharma is higher than the executive, legislative and the judiciary, and it is also higher than the people. If out of 450 million Indians, all except one voted for something, it would still be wrong if it was against dharma. The people have no right to act against dharma. The words ‘secularism’ and ‘dharmnirpeksh’ used in the Constitution are wrong and bad because dharma is a necessary condition for the State.

That which is not based on dharma is unacceptable and therefore secularism was fatally flawed. National unity is India’s dharma and so diversity was problematic. For this reason, India’s Constitution needs to change from federal to unitary with no legislative powers for the states, only for the Centre. Conflict between individuals and institutions of society is a sign of decadence and perversion.

The West was wrong to see the adversarial relationship between the individual and the State as the reason for progress. The individual was made up of body, mind, intelligence and soul. A human being is born with a soul. Personality, soul and character are different from one another. The person’s soul is unaffected by personal history. Similarly, national culture is continuously modified by history.

Culture includes all the things held as good and commendable, but they do not affect ‘chiti’, the national soul. India’s national soul is fundamental and central. Chiti determines the direction of cultural advance. It filters out what is to be excluded from culture. Societies are animate and a society has a body, mind, intellect and soul. Some Westerners were beginning to accept this truth. One of them, William McDougall, said a group had a mind and a psychology, its own methods of thinking and action just as an individual did.

Societies have an inborn nature that is not based on its history. Events do not affect it. This group nature is like the soul in individuals, which was also unaffected by history. This group mentality is like mob mentality but developed over a longer period. The nation needs both an ideal and a motherland and only then is it a nation. And the State exists to protect this nation, which has an ideal and a motherland.

The difference between India and the West was that we regard the body only as an instrument to achieve dharma. Our efforts were for dharma, artha (money), kama (pleasure) and moksha (liberation). The mistake of the West was to treat the four separately.

You could get voting rights but then you didn’t get food. The United States had both political freedom and wealth but it also topped the list in the number of suicides and mental patients. This was puzzling — there were bread and voting rights but no peace or happiness. Sound sleep was scarce in America because they had not thought of the integrated human being. The Americans said ‘honesty is the best business policy’ and the Europeans said ‘honesty is the best policy’, but the Indians said ‘honesty is not a policy but a principle’.

This, broadly speaking, is what the BJP says is its basic philosophy. It would be interesting to see how many BJP ministers or members can explain what it means and what it is intended to do. If they believe in it, as they are required to pledge, one would be interested to know what that belief is.

Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s writing may be read here.