Last update:03 November 2024, 5:43 p.m. IST

When Yogi Adityanath coined the slogan in the narrow sense of Hindus only, he unwittingly articulated a truth about the survival of India as a whole.

Batenge toh katenge is a campaign of fear, unless, in a statesmanlike manner, it becomes a call for unity among all Indians. (PTI file photo)

Yogi Adityanath’s recent slogan “Batenge toh katenge”, divided we will be decimated, was created in the specific context of the need for unity among Hindus, especially after what happened against them in Bangladesh. This slogan quickly received the support of the RSS, which has long stressed the importance of Hindu unity, beyond caste and other divisions. The BJP is now using this naara for its campaign for the upcoming national elections.

My point is that when Yogi coined the slogan in the restricted sense of Hindus only, he unintentionally articulated a truth about the survival of India as a whole. I say this because global unity is the need not only for one religion in our country, but also for the nation as a whole. Our history is long and full of fatal consequences of disunity among us, with consequences crucial to shaping the course of our history.

In the 3rd century BCE, Ambhi Kumar, king of Taxila, welcomed the invader Alexander to India and ceded his territory to him. His reason was to ensure that the rival kingdoms of the Pauravas and Abhisara faced defeat. When Mohammad Ghori invaded India in the 12th century, the forces of the courageous Prithviraj Chauhan were more than a match for him and had defeated him in the past. But during the second battle of Tarain, Chauhan was betrayed by Jayachandra Rathod, the ruler of Kannauj, who extended his aid to Ghori and thus paved the way for the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. Some historians dispute this version, but in Prithviraj’s biography, author Chand Bardai, clearly mentions the alliance between Rathod and Ghori.

The British conquest of India began due to the treacherous betrayal of Mir Jaffar, the commander of the armed forces of Siraj-ud-Dulha, the last Nawab of Bengal. This happened at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 against Robert Clive. Clive would have lost the battle if he had an ally in Jaffar, who surrendered his troops, leading to the British conquest of Bengal. Jaffar only did this out of personal greed. There are countless other examples as well. Raja Man Singh, the ruler of the Narwar kingdom, treacherously handed over the brave Maratha freedom fighter Tatya Tope, who had taken refuge with him, to the British. Even Rani Lakshmi Bai was said to have been betrayed by Jayajirao Scindia, the ruler of Gwalior. During the great revolt of 1857, the last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar, who had become the symbol of opposition to foreign rulers, was abandoned by the largely Hindu merchants of the walled city who, risking their lives, secretly supplied rations. and other items essential to the besieged British troops, abandoned on the ridge outside, simply to earn a little extra money.

These examples clearly show that unity is not a matter of Hindus against others, but of Indians as a whole against hostile foreigners. India is, and has been for centuries, home to many distinct religions, cultures, languages ​​and regions. As a civilization and a nation, we have survived precisely because we have nurtured and protected this diversity and – despite occasional but inevitable tensions – strengthened our composite entity, setting an example to the rest of the world of how a multi-religious , multilingual and multicultural can not only exist but thrive. If we encourage the emergence and hardening of divisions within us, particularly on the basis of religion, we send an open invitation to hostile powers to intervene and take advantage. An India divided within itself is a weak India, even if one part of it is nominally united.

As part of this pan-India imperative, unity among Hindus is also important. But to achieve this goal, we have undertaken the radical social and economic structural reform which is an essential precondition. The greatest proponent of Hindu unity, Veer Savarkar, has emphasized this point the most. He spoke of the Hindu community suffering from seven persistent obstacles. These included caste discrimination, gender disparity, untouchability, ban on inter-caste marriage and problems of food pollution. He wanted Hindus to eradicate these evils because he understood that if this was not done in a fundamental way, unity would be just an empty slogan.

We are still far from achieving what Savarkar wanted. You only have to go a little outside the metropolis to see the level of discrimination and gender exploitation, not to mention the growing inequalities and economic inequalities. True unity can only be achieved when the playing field is truly level. When this does not exist, formulating a unity slogan seems easy or self-motivated.

Batenge toh katenge is a campaign of fear, unless, in a statesmanlike manner, it becomes a call for unity among all Indians.

The author is a former diplomat, author and politician. The opinions expressed in the article above are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of News18.