Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (Sanskrit for "World Hindu Council"), widely recognized by its initials 'VHP', is a Hindu organization in India, an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It was founded in 1964. Its slogan is "Dharmo rakshiti rakshitah", or "By defending what is righteous, you will be protected." Its symbol is a banyan tree.
History
The growth of this Movement to ban cow slaughter in the late 1950s and early 1960s gave rise to the VHP. Senior members of the RSS organized the Parishad to primarily achieve the construction of a Ram Mandir, at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The Lord Rama of the Ramayana is a highly revered incarnation of the Lord Vishnu, and the site where the mosque stood is considered his historic birthplace, or Janmbhoomi.
Sarsangh Chalak of RSS 'Guruji' M.S. Golwalkar entrusted the responsibility of creating a front to voice the concerns of the Hindu society to Shivram Sanaukar Apte. Apte contacted 600 distinguished personalities through correspondence and personally contacted about 200 thinkers, philosophers, and leading persons of various sects. In addition he contacted about 40 organisations and persons working outside India. A meeting was proposed by these personalities to discuss the idea and take it ahead. Accordingly, a meeting was held at Paw, Sandipani Sadhanalaya, Mumbai, on the occasion of Sri Krishna Janmashtami on 29th - 30th of August 1964.
It was decided at the meeting that the name of the proposed organisation would be Vishva Hindu Parishad and that a world convention of Hindus was to be held at Prayag (Allahabad) during Kumbha Mela of 1966 to launch the organisation. It was further decided that it shall be a non-political organisation and that no office bearer of any political party shall be simultaneously an office bearer in the Parishad. The following aims and objectives were set before the Parishad.
- To consolidate and strengthen the Hindu Society.
- To protect, promote and propagate Hindu values of life, the ethical and the spiritual in the context of modern times
- To keep in touch with all the Hindus living abroad, and to organise and help them in all possible ways in protecting their Hindutva.
Growth and the 1980s
For over 20 years, the VHP conducted peaceful demonstrations, petitions and tried by litigation to liberate the Ram Janmabhoomi. The Babri mosque was in a dilapidated condition and not used for worship or any religious activity by the city's Muslims. For years the VHP amassed public support and a broader membership in its organisation. In 1984, it founded the Bajrang Dal as its youth wing (Bajrang being the word for the Lord Hanuman, the most loyal disciple and follower of the Lord Rama). Bajrang Dal members were more militant in their attitude and activities. Other arms of the VHP, including Sewa International expanded charities and service projects such as alleviating poverty-stricken Hindus, opening schools and hospitals, spreading religious and cultural awareness, and actively working against the proselytizing efforts of Christians and Muslims.
In the late 1980s, the BJP brought the temple issue to the centerstage of national politics, and the BJP and VHP began organising larger protests in Ayodhya and around the country. But the issue was continually ignored by fractious coalition governments and the secular-socialist Congress Party, as well as the courts.
The Ayodhya Dispute
On December 6, 1992 the Babri Mosque was burnt down by a large group of Hindus, who had been camped out at the site for weeks. Members of the VHP were allegely part of this large group, as reported by controversial [1]organisation Human Rights Watch. [2] This mosque was believed to be the birthplace of Rama, the Ram Janmabhoomi temple was believed to have been destroyed and replaced by a mosque, in the 1500s. This event led to violence. Over 900 people were killed across the country, a third of them Muslims. [3]. The Liberhan Commission headed by Justice Liberhan was constituted to investigate the whole episode. A large number of VHP workers testified before the commission.
The incident at the Disputed Structure came as a shock to many Indians, who had known the VHP as a peaceful organization. In its defense, many VHP supporters have claimed that the VHP simply represented the increasing alienation and anger of India's Hindu community in response to marginalization by the government in favor of Muslim and Christian minorities. As far as these sympathizers were concerned, the Structure demolition was an inevitable consequence of Hindu disaffection.
Their Agenda
Continually criticizing its political ally the BJP for acting too slowly on the Ram temple issue, conversions and a uniform civil code, the VHP demands legislation from Parliament authorizing the temple construction, and the proclamation of a Hindu Rashtra, literally the "Hindu Nation," in Bharat and leaving the politicians to explain it as a statement of cultural nationalism. Though it claims not to deny Muslims fundamental rights and freedoms, the website of its youth wing Bajrang Dal says "We believe that they (Indian Muslims) all should have taken advantage of the 1947 partition. All muslims should go back to Pakistan and Bangladesh"[4]
The VHP says Bharat has historically been a Hindu nation, in culture, heritage and history. Islam was brought by foreign invaders who imposed and coerced it upon millions of Hindus (corroborated by many historic acts of temple destruction, pogroms and mass conversions); Christian missionaries brought in Christianity when the Portuguese, French and the British colonized the land. It is a fact that Christian missionaries often denigrated and demonized the Hindu religion to coerce native peoples into converting. While working to convert Christians, tribal peoples (native Hindus) and Muslims to Hinduism, the VHP states that all Muslims and Christians were Hindus in the first place, and that all citizens of Bharat are naturally Hindus. The VHP demands are broadly as follows:
- Creation of Ram temple at Ram Janmabhoomi
- End of forcible conversions by Christian missionaries and Islamic institutions.
- Ban on cow slaughter.
- Declaration of India as a Hindu Rashtra, literally Hindu Nation.
- Tougher anti-terror laws and tougher penalties for terrorists.
- Implementation of a Uniform Civil Code.
- Revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
- Erasure of Casteism from Hindu society.
The stated goals of the organisation are as follows:
- To consolidate, strengthen and make invincible the global Hindu fraternity by following the eternal and universal life values based on Sanatan Dharma and work for total welfare of humanity on the basis of the unique cultural ethos of Bharatvarsha.
- To promote activities of education, medical aid and relief to the poor or any other activity in the advancement of general public utility for furtherance of literature and scientific and socio-religious research.
- There shall be no discrimination on the grounds of religion, sex, caste, race or colour at any time amongst the beneficiaries of the Association.
- For fulfillment of above-mentioned objects if any activity is carried out which requires money to be collected in the form of sales, charges for boarding and lodging, distribution of books, literature etc., then the prices and charges will be such that as far as possible they will not yield any profit.
Organization and Leadership
The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the VHP, and it is organized in many states in major training camps called shakhas, where thousands of young men simultaneously train in group activities, receive religious and cultural education and in many cases, self-defensive arms training. The Durga Vahini is the female arm of the Dal.
The VHP organizes in community meets and shakhas throughout the country. Its national organisation is democratic, with an International Working President and an International General Secretary as their most important executives. However, only seasoned, senior leaders control the seats on the Central Council which will elevate men to the varying posts.
The Dharma Sansad is literally a religious parliament, a gathering of Hindu seers, scholars and high priests from all over the country. They rule on policy and principles and advise the executive on social and cultural questions.
The VHP and its religious parliament have no recognition in Hindu religion or society. The religious parliament is by no means the central authority of Hinduism, as the Vatican City and the Papacy is to Catholicism. The VHP is an independent, modern organization of a socio-cultural nature, but also many political activities. It has many active branches in North America, South East Asia and East Africa, where large numbers of Hindus live. It is engaged in many social development activities in hundreds of villages in different parts of the country, helping in their economic alleviation and cultural revitalization.
Criticism
Despite its organisational strength and prominence in key issues, the VHP only reaches a small segment of the gigantic Hindu population in India and worldwide, which consists of 820 million Hindus in India and about 40 million worldwide[citation needed](mostly in USA, UK, and other nations). It cannot be considered the representative of the vast and diverse Hindu society.
While elderly leaders like Acharya Giriraj Kishore and Ashok Singhal led the VHP from the 1970s, the reins of the organisation in the 21st century seems to be passing to a younger, more radical and vigorous generation, headed by Praveen Togadia, a Gujarati oncologist. Togadia is already infamous for organising the 2002 Ayodhya stand-off and defending the Hindu mobs and Chief Minister Narendra Modi the Chief minister of Gujarat state who restricted the police to take action and stop the communal voilence, he was denied entry in America for his passivness. It is also important to note that there were no direct implications against Narendra Modi. Togadia is actually banned from speaking in several districts of several states of the country, owing to his talent of provoking tensions and sensitivities and has been detained by Indian police several times.
The VHP along with other Hindutva organisations are accused of several riots in the country, the most recent being the Gujarat riots in 2002 [5]. The riots were a response to Muslim terrorists burning down a train full of Hindu pilgrims and other atrocities committed in India.