36 "Presenting" the Past
the Mahabharat, Harshwardhan, Pulakeshi, and Shivaji. He concludes
authoritatively, "No, it is not these that are our bane, but the dormancy of
National feeling Except this meanness, we do not see any other reason
why we do not still rise, as a nation, to our full height It grieves us to
see how we fritter our energy in anti-national work and lay the blame
upon the Social order and such other things as have nothing to do with
national revival."^82
This carefully doctored self inevitably leads to the engineering of
the Other. Golwalkar describes the nationhood with its five unities—
geography, race, religion, culture, and language—and asserts that Hin-
dusthan, with its Hindu race, Hindu religion, Hindu culture, and Hindu
language (Sanskrit and her offspring), complete the nation concept. As
a result, "in Hindusthan exists and must needs exist the ancient Hindu
nation and nought else but the Hindu Nation. All those not belonging to
the national—that is, Hindu Race, Religion, Culture and Language, natu-
rally fall out of the pale of real 'National' life."^83 As long as they maintain
their differences, they would remain foreigners. They could have a place
in the national life if they "abandon their differences, and completely
merge themselves in the National Race."^84 The other option these "foreign
elements" have is "to live at the sweet will of the national race" and "stay
in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming noth-
ing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even
citizen's rights."^85
Although the "triangular fight" among "we, Hindus," the Muslims, and
the British was going on, because of the freedom movement and "wrong
notions of democracy," "we began to class ourselves with our old invaders
and foes under the outlandish name-Indian and tried to win them over to
join hands with us in our struggle" (italics mine).^86 But now, there is only
one way as far as Pakistan is concerned: "Pakistan's very existence is its
war potential. People argue that we should hate the sin, not the sinner. But
has any one ever been able to separate the two? Not even Bhagwan Ram-
chandra could do so—or else he would have destroyed only the sinful
mentality in Ravana and saved Ravana himself from death. The aggres-
sive mentality of Pakistan can end only when Pakistan itself is ended.
There is no other way."^87
L. K. Advani, an important Hindutva leader, wrote "A Four-Point Appeal
to Muslims of India" in BJP Today on the 50th anniversary of India's inde-
pendence. Besides purging "every trace of the Two-Nation theory from
their mindset," burying vote-bank politics, and concentrating on educa-
tion and economic elevation of poor Muslims, Muslims should "under-
stand cultural nationalism" and accept "the symbols and inspirational
sources of our national culture," such as Ram and Krishna.^88 Obviously,
Advani does not consider Muslims Indians, and they can Indianize them-
selves by subscribing to the Hindutva interpretations and programs.