8 "Presenting" the Past
dominated the Ayodhya action and the ensuing national debate on secu-
larism.
Goebbels preferred "black" propaganda (whose source is concealed
from the audience) to verifiable "white" propaganda. For example, when
he wanted to induce the British to stop bombing Berlin, he used rumor-
mongers to spread the idea that Berlin "no longer existed," meaning that
the city had already been destroyed. Such a story had a better chance to
be believed if Nazi authorities were not connected with it. Hindutva his-
tory, likewise, is being disseminated through word-of-mouth propaganda
and published material such as pamphlets by anonymous authors and
publishers or sympathetic newspapers without disclosing their associa-
tion with the Sangh Parivar.
The Nazi propaganda minister believed that propaganda must be care-
fully timed with agility and plasticity and that its psychological effects
should be calculated in advance. If it was propaganda, he should speak the
first word, and if it was counterpropaganda, he would not let the enemy
reports sink in too deeply. He would repeat a propaganda theme until it
was thoroughly learned, and reiterate it even more to reinforce that learn-
ing. Thus an anti-Semitic campaign would last for weeks, and during that
time 70 to 80 percent of the Nazi broadcasts were devoted to it. The repeti-
tion would be deemed unnecessary when the material had convinced the
public completely and/or it had reached a point of diminishing effective-
ness. Typically, the Sangh Parivar whipped up the Ayodhya frenzy repeat-
edly, commencing in the mid-1980s in a calculated manner; struck out the
reasonings of the Muslim and other groups; and beat a retreat only after
the mosque was demolished.
With respect to the effect of the propaganda and the public morale, which
form the sixth major principle in our discussion here, Goebbels made a
distinction between Haltung (bearing, conduct, observable behavior) and
Stimmung (feeling, spirit, mood). Although both components of morale
were important, Haltung was sought to be maintained at all times and
Stimmung was ignored as things got worse for Germany during the war.
When the strong countertendencies could not be affected, propaganda
must offer some action or diversion or both. As the Haltung and Stimmung
of the victorious "Hindus" should not recede and halt the onward march
to state power on the back of history, the Mathura and Varanasi controver-
sies are being dug up by the Sangh Parivar.
In the final analysis, however, there was one major contrast between
Goebbels's project and that of the Sangh Parivar. Goebbels did have some
things to worry about: the content, purpose, and effectiveness of enemy
propaganda; his own appropriate response to it; and so forth. But the Hin-
dutva forces have a wide-open field with virtually no resistance to their
historiographical project. Although Muslim communalism has been com-
parably vehement and has assumed various forms both in India and in