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| The
Hindu Phenomenon |
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THE
NEHRUVIAN FRAMEWORK
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common civil code can be, indeed is, part of a nationalist platform
which, on the one hand, demands that all citizens live under the
same laws, and on the other, entitles Parliament, or any other
legally constituted body, to enact such laws for all citizens. But
it cannot figure prominently in the Hindutva platform which must, by
its very nature determined by the Hindu civilization's unlimited
catholicity and broadmindedness, seek to influence by way of example
and not engage in coercion. The Hindu temperament also militates
against uniformity and coercion. Unlike Muslims,Hindus have never
sought to fix a mould in which Hindu personality must be shaped.
Indeed, in the case of Brahmins, the personality shaped by the
tradition of memorizing texts is yielding place to a different one,
better attuned to critical analysis. Pandit Nehru could recite no
Sanskrit shloka. That apart, however, the proponents of secular
nationalism cannot sidetrack certain questions. Since they too
cannot deny that Muslims, on the whole, have remained frozen in
their attitudes, as illustrated by their passionate adherence to the
Muslim Personal Law, they owe it to themselves to explain why this
remains the case after more than four decades of life under a
secular political order, and what they propose to do to end this
stagnation. They should not beat about the bush and indulge in
tirades against Hindu communalism, or fascism, or whatever
new term of abuse they can borrow from the West; for they also
cannot be so ridiculous as to argue that it in any way accounts for
the prevalence of the ghetto mentality among Muslims.
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| About
The Nehruvian Framework |
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