Seema Tyagi A four-time president of Congress, Malviya had faded into near-obscurity because his Hindu nationalist views were at odds with Congresss dominant secular credo. Bharat Ratna for him 69 years after his death signaled the Modi regimes defiance of the view that the highest civilian decoration should not be awarded to those long dead, as well as its keenness to embrace a leader who blended his strong opposition to cow slaughter and religious conversions and knowledge of rituals with a strong advocacy for allowing dalits in temples. Malviya, who founded Hindu Mahasabha in 1915 and Banaras Hindu University in 1916, was an influential Hindu nationalist leader. Called man of great heart (Mahamana) by Rabindranath Tagore because of the devotion with which he set up BHU, Malviya was instrumental in the coming together of Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj in 1923 to make common cause on issues like cow slaughter and reconversion. In fact, Malviya, who was closely associated with bodies like Pragya Hindu Samaj, Bharat Dharma Mahamandal and Sanatana Dharma Mahasabha, and other conservatives like the first president Rajendra Prasad had found such firm foothold in the Congress that the party was forced to engage with religiously volatile issues like cow protection and the growing demand for ban on playing of music before mosques. Bharat Ratna? Or Hindustan Ratna?? Yet another nail in the coffin of secular India. A person is an educationist because he /she teach lessons of equality. Not right or left wing extremism. Anusuya Datta : At the Second Round Table Conference, Madan Mohan Malviya reportedly refused to drink from the glass of water that Ambedkar offered him. This is the same man who was confered the countrys highest civilian honour yesterday
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 17:08:08 +0000