Ramjanmabhumi: Hinduizing Politics and Militarizing Hindudom 119will speak out. I will not remain inert; I will begin to act. I will not run away from
challenges; I will face them.^33A psychoanalytical reading of the Brahminical orthodoxy's psyche
today would reveal that they feel threatened by their inherent weakness.
Discussing the characteristics of the religious outlook of the Hindu ortho-
doxy, one writer contends that they give the individual a deep sense of
security by making him part of a cosmic process where there are no mis-
takes and chance occurrences. They also reduce the danger of acute anxi-
ety by minimizing frustration and by defining religious duties precisely
with little room for any uncertainty. These traits tend to produce together
an acute sense of helplessness.^34 Another scholar points out that the prom-
inence of the Brahmins in the Hindu civilization must have given rise to
a narcissistic community, and that "a nation of narcissists will show weak
patriotism and public spirit." According to him, a typical narcissist tends
toward political indifference, although he hopes for benefits and tries to
gain them by submission. Thus the "Hindu rule is stable internally but
weak in opposing attack from without."^35 When the modern nationhood,
which is "not a space-and-time-independent mode of self-affirmation,"
is sought to be built "on the ruins of one's civilizational selfhood,"^36 we
encounter "angry Hindus."
An awareness that they had been tolerant of the foreign out of their
innocence, that they lacked organization and courage because of the defi-
cient somaticity, and that they did not resist foreign rulers and alien rule
out of their weakness has come to torment the Hindu psyche. Thus mod-
ern secularism, for them, smacks of tolerance; pluralism seems to under-
mine Hindu unity; and lack of organization, assertiveness, and aggression
reminds them of their weakness. So they oppose secularism, assert Hin-
dutva, reclaim mosques, and terrorize the Muslims. The crux of this project,
however, is the somaticity, the united Hindu body. The Brahminical ortho-
doxy, who have always remained privileged and powerful in the society,
interpret the situation in status-quoist terms without accommodating the
lower castes or changing anything in the oppressive Hindu social life but
pointing out a common enemy, the Muslims. This enemy, as described
earlier, is just an identitarian exigency in their game of reactionary politics.
An Indian scholar, B.P.R. Vithal, puts it like this: "The confrontation with
the Muslims is, therefore, not so much a basic Hindu-Muslim issue as an
attempt on the part of the upper castes to find an outside enemy as a chal-
lenge to unite the community itself, obviously under their leadership. This
explains the comment often made that Ayodhya has, at one stroke, nulli-
fied the divisive effects on the Hindu community of the Mandal Report
and the Dalit movements."^37
In the final analysis, the Babri Masjid is a symbol of this complex para-
noia of the Brahminical orthodoxy. In corresponding fluctuations with the