58 "Presenting" the Pastcommunal path with the Ramayan, the Hindu communal groups were not
just licking their electoral wounds but also planning their next strategy.
Along with the telecast of the Ramayan, there began a discussion of
bhakti (devotion) in the special (January 1987) issue of Manthan put out
by the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI) in New Delhi, the intellectual
wing of the Hindutva forces led by "Nanaji" Deshmukh. The articles,
contributed by university professors, college teachers, journalists, and
others, discussed the anti-Muslim interpretations of Tulsidas's Ramcarit-
manas, the importance of Ram Leela and Krishna Leela as ideal people's
theaters, the impact of the bhakti movement in Maharashtra, the place of
Krishna in Indian national life, the profeminist concept of Seeya Ram, and
the potential of bhakti as a mass movement for total revolution. Interest-
ingly enough, the Vaishnavajana (followers of Vaishnavism) came to be
the focal point of all these discussions.
A National Intellectuals Convention was held at the DRI on January
11-12 with quite a few RSS personalities, including K. S. Sudarshan, Rajen-
dra Singh, Bhaurao Deoras, K. Seshadri, and Hindutva sympathizers and
journalists such as Rama Swarup, Devendra Swarup, Sita Ram, and oth-
ers. Besides the usual anti-Muslim and anti-British rhetoric, the meet was
full of Hindu canard. Another National Thinkers Conference was held in
Bangalore on April 11-12 by the Rashtrotthana Parishat, a literary and cul-
tural organization, with the RSS figures of the South. Many national Hin-
dutva leaders, including K.R. Sudarshan, H.V Seshadri, M.M. Joshi, and
K. R. Malkani were also present. Malkani advocated having a "National
Dream" and the need "to articulate it in the idiom that our people will
understand, appreciate and accept with all their heart and mind." B.N.
Jog of Hindu Ek Jood in Maharashtra felt that "we cannot have Ram Rajya
without the modern equivalent of Rama's 'Bow & Arrow.'" Another Hin-
dutva leader from Tamil Nadu, Rama Gopalan, said, "Let us give the
country what sister Nivedita described as 'Aggressive Hinduism.'"^36
The DRI celebrated Independence Day in August 1987 with a discus-
sion on "Bharat, Akhand Bharat, Vishal Bharat," and most of the speak-
ers emphasized the need for everyone to realize that they are children
of Bharat Mata.^37 The DRI circulated K.R. Malkani's paper "Resolving
Religio-Cultural Differences in the Service of the Indian People" to a few
thinkers and writers all over India to have their responses. This paper had
a whole array of ideas and suggestions to bridge the chasm between Hin-
dus and Muslims. Concealing the resentment that Indian Muslims do not
accept Ram as their hero, and injecting the contention that Ram is actually
a historical figure, the author argued,
Mohammed is not a religious prophet for Hindus; but Hindus could recognise and
respect him as the Napoleon or Lenin of Arabs—the great unifier and liberator of
his people. Rama and Krishna are not the religious leaders of Muslims. But they
sure are heroes par excellence of all India. Even Indonesians accept Rama as their