Ideas travel faster than ideology, says BJP leader

‘Gandhiji’s ideas of Satyagraha, Ahimsa was picked up by many nations’

India has been a land of philosophers and thinkers rather than ideologues, so much so that Gandhiji’s ideas of ‘Satyagraha’ and ‘Ahimsa’ spread rapidly and was picked up by many nations. In sharp contrast, the Communist ideology propagated by Karl Marx through ‘Das Kapital’ took 50 years to be adopted in its own way in the then Soviet Russia and another 50 years later in China in another form, said senior BJP leader Ram Madhav on Sunday.

Addressing a gathering after the release of his latest book Hindutva Paradigm by the former chairman of the National Judicial Academy Justice (retd) Raghuram, he claimed “ideas travel faster than ideology” and “Hindu thinking is never about finality or “offers any final solution”. “We have always been philosophers so I desist from using ideology word. Even the RSS doesn’t have any ideology but a great philosophical thinking and world view,” he said. The book explains the philosophy of Deendayal Upadhaya’s ‘Integral Humanism’ drawing from the ancient wisdom of the country which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governance is deeply influenced by, he said.

Hindutva philosophy is integral to ‘integral humanism’, the book also traces the differences between Indian and Western thoughts. Later, academic Vijay Kumar held a discussion with Mr. Madhav on the book. Party leaders including N. Ramchander Rao, MP D. Aravind, MLA A. Raghunandan Rao and N.V. Subash were present.