Page 273 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

here, “culture” there, bemoans the materialism of the West while sanctifying
the free market in the idiom of “native tradition.”
At present, Hindu “missionaries” are being trained and sent abroad to work
among diasporic populations, projects that yield lucrative ¤nancial bene¤ts. The
Internet is being used to construct a “nation of Hindutva” that spans the globe
and on which services ranging from access to political speeches and government
documents of the ruling party to “cyber-rituals” ¤nd a place. The “nation of
Hindutva” group argues that
the primary weapon in the defense of the Hindu Rashtra has been identi¤ed as
information and publicity. This is achieved by targeting all forms of media and
promoting the cause of the Hindu Rashtra through the various media channels.
With the incredible surge in popularity of the Internet as one of the major forms
of publication, it is essential that the Hindu community are [sic] able to keep
up with things. The vast array of anti-Hindu and anti-Indian propaganda being
spread around via the medium of the Internet means that it is becoming increas-
ingly necessary for this disinformation to be countered. It is here that the Nation
of Hindutva website aims to strike, and by publishing information, as well as
acting as a resource center to various other related sites on the WWW, the website
aims to promote the cause of the Hindu Rashtra internationally. 6
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; a leading Hindutva organization) now
offers cybershakas (physical drills) on the Internet where one can sit in one’s
room anywhere in the globe and participate in the regular exercises and drills
of the organization using one’s computer. E-Prarthana, an Internet site, provides
the faithful with the daily opportunity to offer prayers (“click on a deity”!) to
more than 450 temples in India “for all your personal and business needs and
7
get the blessings shipped to you.” For every archana performed, devotees are
guaranteed two free gifts such as a designer Ganesha clock, while the site’s
“shopping mall” provides the instantaneous purchase of statues, books, cas-
settes, and CDs. The dissemination of Hinduism throughout the globe, through
the activities of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Overseas Friends of the BJP,
the RSS calling itself the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) outside India, and
several af¤liate organizations and networks of support such as the American
Hindu Students’ Council and other “cultural heritage” organizations, as well as
numerous religious groups and foundations set up by diasporic Indian Hindu
communities, particularly in the West, are clear evidence of the bankruptcy of
a view that sees narrow, sectarian, national or subnational, and premodern re-
sponses as the necessary outcome of globalization.
If Hindutva has gained and is exploiting the hi-tech dimensions of globaliza-
tion, particularly among diasporic groups, the discourse in India itself around
accelerated consumerism and questions of identity are increasingly couched in
terms of Hinduism. For example:
The BJP believes in a new social and economic order which is non-exploitative,
cooperative and harmonious, and which provides full play to individual initiative
and dignity. The multifarious urges and aspirations—spiritual, intellectual, eco-

262 Sudeep Dasgupta