New Delhi, December 14, 2025
In a flurry of high-profile events and parliamentary exchanges over the past week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has thrust its cultural nationalism agenda back into the national spotlight, invoking icons like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, critiquing colonial legacies through Thomas Babington Macaulay, and celebrating Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's "Vande Mataram." Party leaders frame these moves as a push for decolonization and heritage pride, while critics accuse the ruling dispensation of manufacturing controversies to distract from pressing governance issues.
The resurgence comes on the heels of major ideological milestones for the BJP, including the Ram Temple inauguration in January 2024 and the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. With those "boxes ticked," as one party insider put it, the focus has shifted to broader cultural reclamation—targeting what Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls the "Macaulay mindset" that allegedly perpetuated a colonial inferiority complex in independent India.
### Savarkar Statue Unveiling: A Nod to 'Forgotten' Freedom Fighter
The week kicked off with a poignant ceremony on December 12 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat jointly unveiled a towering statue of Savarkar at Beodnabad in South Andaman. The event marked the 115th anniversary of Savarkar's Marathi poem "Sagara Pran Talmalala" ("Ocean, My Soul is in Torment"), written during his imprisonment in the Cellular Jail, a notorious British-era penal colony.
Shah, addressing a gathering, hailed Savarkar as a social reformer who "never got the recognition he deserved" for his efforts to eradicate untouchability, emphasizing the islands' role as a "sacred land" soaked in the blood of freedom fighters from across India. "This park and statue, just like Veer Savarkar Ji himself, will continue to inspire future generations to steadfastly protect cultural nationalism and realize his dreams," Shah posted on X, underscoring the BJP-RSS alignment in promoting Savarkar's Hindutva ideology.
The unveiling, attended by Lt. Governor Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi and other dignitaries, also saw the inauguration of the 'Veer Savarkar Inspiration Park.' It drew sharp reactions on social media, with supporters hailing it as a correction of historical neglect, while detractors, including some X users, revisited debates over Savarkar's mercy petitions to the British and his post-release associations.
### Vande Mataram at 150: Parliamentary Fireworks and Historical Revisions
Just days earlier, Parliament hosted a special discussion on the 150th anniversary of "Vande Mataram," the revolutionary song from Chattopadhyay's 1882 novel Anandamath. What began as a tribute spiraled into accusations, with Modi and Shah alleging that Jawaharlal Nehru truncated the song's verses in the 1930s under pressure from Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League—a move they linked to Congress's eventual acceptance of Partition in 1947.
In a fiery Lok Sabha speech, Modi accused the Congress of perpetuating a "Macaulayan" legacy of cultural subservience, declaring, "Macaulay broke India’s self-confidence and instilled a sense of inferiority. In one stroke, he discarded thousands of years of India’s knowledge, science, art, culture, and entire way of life." The Prime Minister, speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture, called for a "national mission" to eradicate this "mentality of slavery" within the next decade, positioning decolonization as India's "second freedom struggle."
The debate, timed ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, elicited backlash from opposition leaders. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra questioned the BJP's priorities in a viral video clip, asking why the government was fixated on historical songs amid crises like unemployment, Manipur's ethnic violence, and Delhi's air pollution. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the BJP for "insulting Bengal icons" like Chattopadhyay, accusing the party of using the song for "political misuse" in BJP-ruled states.
Critics, including author Mohd Ziyaullah Khan in a *Countercurrents* op-ed, described the controversy as "manufactured" to target Muslims and discredit Nehru, embedding distortions into official records. "The problem is not Vande Mataram. The problem is its political misuse," tweeted Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain, referencing the 1937 Congress resolution that had settled the song's status.
### Macaulayism: The Colonial Ghost in Modern Discourse
At the heart of the BJP's narrative is Macaulay, the 19th-century British historian whose 1835 Minute on Education advocated for an English-educated Indian elite—"Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect." Modi, hoisting the 'dharma dhwaj' at the Ram Temple on November 25, decried this as a lingering distortion that post-Independence leaders like Nehru failed to dismantle, aligning India's systems with "foreign models" at the expense of indigenous knowledge.
BJP ideologues like former Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha view this as "a natural flow of the BJP’s ideological evolution," with Modi transforming anti-Macaulayism into a mass movement. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, head of the party's good governance department, told *The Indian Express* that cultural nationalism must "permeate different aspects of public life," citing Diwali's recent UNESCO recognition as a win.
Yet, RSS chief Bhagwat tempered expectations, stating there is "no need to search for a temple under every mosque," signaling no immediate escalation of religious disputes. This comes as the BJP advances a Uniform Civil Code in states like Uttarakhand, blending cultural with legal reforms.
### Broader Implications: Distraction or Genuine Revival?
Analysts see the timing as strategic. Post-Ram Temple, the BJP had pivoted to issues like caste census, Dalit outreach, and immigration, but recent weeks mark a return to core Hindutva themes. With Bengal polls looming, the agenda rallies the base while framing the opposition as "anti-national" inheritors of colonial legacies.
Opposition voices, however, warn of divisiveness. A Lok Sabha debate clip highlighted concerns over ignoring "real issues" like Manipur's 65,000 displaced amid the cultural focus. On X, users debated Savarkar's legacy, with one post noting, "BJP's Muslim supporters chant Vande Mataram, while Congress's secular Hindus oppose it—now that's true secularism!"
As the Winter Session continues, these cultural flashpoints underscore a polarized India: one side celebrating reclaimed pride, the other decrying weaponized history. Whether this agenda sustains momentum or fizzles amid economic headwinds remains to be seen. For now, the echoes of "Vande Mataram" reverberate far beyond Parliament's halls.
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