FROM GRAMSCI TO SANGH: THE REAL WAR OF IDEAS, CULTURE AND POWER

FROM GRAMSCI TO SANGH: THE REAL WAR OF IDEAS, CULTURE AND POWER

28-JULY-ENG 9

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA---------------------------One morning in 1926, a man was brought to a court in Italy—not with weapons, not shouting rebellious slogans—but with an idea in his calm, deep-set eyes. His name was Antonio Gramsci. The judge sitting in the court looked at Mussolini's dictatorship and said—"We will have to keep this man's brain shut for at least twenty years." For the first time, the power accepted so clearly that its biggest enemy is not the gun, but the idea.

Gramsci was put in jail. But what he wrote there is still a burning torch against every dictatorship in the world—Prison Notebooks. In these notes, he put forward a revolutionary concept—"cultural hegemony". He said, no power runs only with sticks, jails and bullets. Real power is established when people themselves adopt the ideology that is suppressing them. When they start considering slavery as culture, when they start calling patriarchy as dignity and casteism as tradition – then there is no need for the government to open fire.

Mussolini imprisoned Gramsci, but he understood his warning very well. He turned religion, nation and culture into a triangle, where the church, school and media all repeated the same thing – the nation is supreme, opposition is a crime, and the government is the representative of God. He knew that if a child learns the lesson of 'greatness' from birth, if he considers the nation as God, then he will never ask questions.

This experiment was repeated in India years later – and even more deeply. The Sangh prepared the ground of consciousness before climbing the ladder of power. It did not create a violent celebration of power like Mussolini, but gradually took over the thinking of the people in the name of 'culture' and 'sanskaar'. It knew that war is won not with guns, but with curriculum. That is why mythological lies were taught in schools as 'Indian knowledge system', faith was put in place by replacing science, and temples were turned into platforms for politics.

The biggest trick of the RSS was that it usurped the culture before coming to power. It decided the language, the festivals, the clothing, the family structure that could become the foundation of its 'Hindu nation'. From Vidya Bharati schools to TV channels, the same idea was spread everywhere—those who are not like 'us' are traitors. Anyone who talks about the Constitution is a foreign agent. And anyone who asks questions is a part of the 'tukde-tukde gang'.

Why is the Constitution being called foreign? Because it talks about equality. It rejects the Manu system in which Brahmins were created from the mouth and Shudras from the feet. The Constitution says that no human being is low, no one is great by birth. And this very thing shakes the entire casteist system to its roots. This is the reason why Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar are being removed from the curriculum—because they had the audacity to break the sleep in which this country had been lying for thousands of years.

These were the same people who went abroad and learnt what humanity is. Ambedkar said—"I was born as a Hindu, but I will not die." Phule said—"Break the caste system, educate." Periyar put logic above religion. He was the soul of that India which had been rendered mute by centuries of silence. He told that what you thought was religion, was actually your mental chains. And this fight is not happening for the first time in India. It had started the day when religion and power joined hands. This alliance is the biggest hypocrisy in history. Whenever religion came with power, it enslaved man at two levels—the state's control over the body and religion's control over the soul. Church, Sharia, Manusmriti—all three did the same thing: they declared discrimination in their respective societies as God's will. In Europe, Galileo was imprisoned because he talked about science. In India, Dalits were barred from entering temples because they tried to touch God. When religion becomes a tool of power, it does not give compassion—it demands discipline and subordination.

The Sangh's Hindu Rashtra is a modern iteration of the same tradition. Here cow worship and women's freedom cannot exist together. Here the Constitution is foreign and Manu is our tradition. Here a child reads Manu's shloka in school but does not know Ambedkar's name. Here Shankaracharya is taught instead of Darwin, and the myth of Ram Rajya is taught instead of equality.

Gramsci had warned—the most dangerous situation of domination is when the people themselves start considering their oppression as justice. Today's India is standing at that very juncture.

The question now is not which country the Constitution came from. The question is whether you want equality? If yes, then the Constitution is yours. If not, then you want to pick up Manu's ashes and light them again.

Gramsci has become necessary again. Because Mussolini has returned again—this time wearing saffron, and capturing consciousness in the name of culture.If we are silent now, then remember—when ideas are held hostage, history sits in the lap of dictatorship. Now you have to decide—which side of history are you on? On the side where ideas are shut down? Or on the side where they are freed again