who is an extremist ? – a journey from tilak to kapil Mishra

History is always written by winners and the same is the case with India. words like extremist and communal are grossly misused by pseudo-liberals, Clergy media, and communist historians who were close to the post-independence Govt. of Congress which dominated the Indian political arena directly or indirectly from 1947 to 2014 barring Atal ji period of 1998-2004.
The abuse of the words like extremist/ communal has its history of over one century when the nationalists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bipin Chandra pal were called extremist in 1905 for taking a strong proactive step against British Govt. and staged a swadeshi protest against the partition of Bengal on Hindu Muslim line to divide the unity of Bengal. but those leaders who were loyal to British Govt. were termed as “liberal” by historians. the so-called liberal in congress in the early phase of congress from 1885 to 1905 was following the 3P policy of PRAYER, PROTEST, PETITION. And for liberal Congressi the word protest didn’t mean to confront the British but to convey their sentiment in a more polite manner.
The above examples are evident of the facts that the so called liberal and secular parties of India have been indulged in communal and radical activities since the India got independence. But the trend of pin pointing real extremist communal mindset was totally sidelined and the nationalist organization like RSS and BJP were termed Fascist, communal and extremist.
Before pointing fingers at BJP and RSS let us dig into the history and see how and why congress was made in the year 1885. In 1913 William Wedderburn published the biography of AO Hume. William Wedderburn who is also a founding member of INC along with AO Hume(British civil servant ). He served as congress president in 1889 and 1910. William Wedderburn said AO Hume got 7 volumes secret reports of discontent among lower class of the society and plan to overthrow British Govt. and to prevent this AO Hume made INC with help of Lord Dufferin. The main aim of making INC was to prevent big revolt against British govt by keeping INC as a middleman between people of India and British Govt. INC had no intention of overthrowing British govt from India as it was designed to appease the people only. furthermore the first president of INC W.C. Bannerjee in 1885 stated in 1898 that INC “as it was originally started and it has since been carried on , is in reality the work of Dufferin”. Lala Lajpat Rai who was one of the tallest leader of INC and became INC president of 1920s special session wrote in 1916 “young India” and said congress “was a product of Lord Dufferin’s brain” and argued “INC was started more with objective of saving British empire”.
The definition of extremist has been distorted in India. most nationalists who were committed to the nation were called extremists just to make them defensive be it LAL, BAL, PAL in the early 20th century, or Guru Golawalkar or Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The hunt for extremists by the clergy media of India found Lal Krishna Advani and current PM Narendra Modi in the early 1990s and 2000s. Now the same clergy media has found 3 new extremists namely Home minister Amit Shah, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, and Kapil Mishra since 2020 Anti-Hindu riot in Delhi. But the fact of the matter is all the above so-called extremists are great statesmen and patriots and unapologetic in their nature.
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.