Hindutva is a travesty of Hinduism: Nayantara Sahgal

Author Nayantara Sahgal today said that the Hindutva being practised today is a travesty of Hinduism.
In conversation with writer Githa Hariharan in a Facebook Live video on the 'The Making and Unmaking of India', Sahgal said the "transformation of the nation is happening right now in front of our eyes".
"What is projected today as Hindutva is a travesty of Hinduism. Hindutva is a distortion of Hinduism, and that is what we are being shrunk into from this huge and rich inclusive idea of India," she said.
The author, the niece of the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, said that in the name of Hindutva, debate has been crushed and dissent outlawed.

"We know what is happening...Dissenters, writers and journalists are being murdered by passing vigilantes. There have been mob lynchings of humble people, who were just doing their jobs... This is what's taking place before our eyes. This transformation is happening now."
Sahgal recently came out with a book -- 'When the Moon Shines by Day' -- which has been described as a dystopian satire based loosely on the current political circumstances.

During the video chat, she also talked about her early years during India's freedom struggle under the leadership of Mahatama Gandhi, whose prayer meetings included Hindu, Muslim and Christian prayers.

"There was something unique about India's struggle for freedom, the secularity, it was across the board and class and it had patriotic songs in all Indian languages.
"But this idea of Hindutva maintains that India is a country of Hindus. Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs will be tolerated, but Muslims are our enemies. The Musalman has to be told his place if he is to live in this country. He is here on sufferance. The faultlines are deeper there," Sahgal said.
She also said that the RSS' ancestoral organisation, the Hindu Mahasabha, was "greaty enamoured" with dictators and developed the belief that Mahatama Gandhi was "a bad event" for the country.

"Hindu Mahasabha was greatly enamoured by the rise of dictatorship in Germany. In the 1920s, Hitler wasn't in the saddle but Mussolini was (in Italy). So BS Moonje of the Hindu Mahasabha went and met Mussolini.
"So the Hindu Mahasabha always believed that Gandhiji was a bad event in India, because he emasculated Indians through non-violence. He weakened them. They believed that his memory must be obliterated, and that's why Godse killed Gandhi," she added.