Three Murders and a Lynching

Laws of nature cannot be applied to human society so directly. Still sometimes these have been used to explain-justify social catastrophes, “When a big tree falls, Earth shakes’ (in the aftermath of anti Sikh massacre 1984), ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction’ (during the Gujarat carnage of 2002) are too well known.

I have been rather puzzled since the last month or so with the scholars-writers, who have returned their awards, being questioned as to why they did not do so during the Emergency , or the anti Sikh violence or when the mass migration of Kashmiri pundits took place, or when the Mumbai train blasts killed hundreds of innocent lives. I am tempted to think of the laws of physics of ‘qualitative transformation’ during the heating or cooling of water, the temperature remains the same but the water becomes either steam or ice.

When Dr. Dabholkar, Com Pansare and then Prof Kalburgi were killed over a period of a few months, the danger signals started being perceived but still it took the beef lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq to send out a message that something has drastically changed in society , and the spate of returning the Sahitya Akademi, national and state, awards followed in quick succession. Their protest was against the rising intolerance in the society.

The incidents that followed and ran parallel to these ‘award-returns’ were equally horrific. The killing of a trucker on the assumption that he is carrying cows for slaughter; beating of a MLA in Kashmir Assembly by BJP legislature and the scattered incidents of attacks on Muslims on the ground of beef consumption are too striking. We are currently facing a situation where anybody can incite violence by just uttering the word beef, while seeing mutton or some such thing. We are living in an atmosphere where a cow cannot be shooed away from say, blocking the traffic on a busy road..

The viciousness of the atmosphere is not lost on social perceptions. The insecurity of minorities has gone up by leaps and bounds. One knows that since the present NDA regime came to power all those ‘spewing hate’ are working overtime. For one Akbaruddudin Owaisi there is an army of Sakshi Mahraj, Sadhvis, Yogis and what have you. This army of mostly saffron robedd personnel occupy senior positions in the Hindutva hierarchy.. The prime Minister himself had exerted the Hindu youth to emulate Maharana Pratap to save the honor of Mother cow during his election speeches.

During this last over one year, words like Haramzades (illegitimate) have been used with gay abandon. On mere suspicion; a Pune techie Mohsin Shaikh was done to death. Serial attacks on Churches were passed off as thefts, the love jihad bogey was kept alive and the likes of Yogi Adityanath, the top BJP leader from UP, stated that for every one Hindu girl marrying a Muslim, Hindus should bring 100 Muslim girls. Muslim youth have been barred from participating in festivals like Navaratri. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP’s Muslim face advised those wanting to eat beef to go to Pakistan. The glorification of Mahatma’s killer Godse has been stepped up and temples are being planned in his memory, while a BJP MP from Kerala stated that Godse was right but he chose a wrong target. Communal violence has gone up in a big way during the preceding year.

Even after the awards started being returned the BJP leadership looked down upon the writers/scholars and overlooked the phenomenon which has lead to the returning of awards. To mock these writers Buddhi Shuddhi puja path (purification of intellect ritual) has been organized and BJP spokespersons are humiliating them in talk shows with all their ferocity. To cap it all the Haryana Chief Minister, an old RSS pracharak, said that Muslims can live here but only if they will give up beef eating. No doubt the BJP Chief Amit Shah has talked to some of these leaders behind closed doors, but that does seem to be a mock drill as the leaders concerned did say that they went to meet their chief for some other reasons and none of them gave any serious apology.

Disturbed by what is going on, the President Pranab Mukherjee on three occasions urged the nation to uphold, pluralism, the core civilizational value of the country and to uphold tolerance. Vice President Hamid Ansari reminded the Government that it is the duty of the state to uphold the ‘right to life’ of citizens. The index of the changing social atmosphere is reflected by the statements of two outstanding citizens of the country. Julio Reibero, the top cop, expressed his pain and anguish by saying that “as a Christian suddenly I feel a stranger in my own country.” And the renowned actor Naseeruddin Shah had to point out that “Have never been aware of my identity as a Muslim until now.”

These are not ordinary times. The values of pluralism and tolerance have been pushed to the margins. With this Government in power all the wings of communal politics, the RSS affiliates, have unleashed themselves in full blast. Communalism is not just the number of deaths due to violence, it is much more. The foundation of this violence begins with the manufacture of perceptions about the religious minorities. These perceptions based on history and some selective aspects of present society are given an anti human tilt and interpretation. This is used to create hatred for the minorities and that’s where the communal elements can unleash violence either as a massive violence like Gujarat or Mumbai or Bhagalpur or Muzzafarnagar or the one in Dadri. This creates the divide in society which over a period of time is converted into polarization. And polarization is the foundation of electoral strength of a party wanting a nation in the name of religion. As per a Yale University study, communal violence is the vehicle which strengthens the BJP at the electoral level.

Communalism has been planted in India over a century and a half ago. The British policy of ‘divide and rule’ used communal historiography as a major weapon. This type of interpretation of history was picked up by communal organizations and given an anti Hindu or anti Muslim tilt and gradually this has been strengthened after every act of violence which has been the outcome of their politics. The present phase is the one where the cup of communalism is spilling out from its earlier levels or boundaries. The intensity of ‘Hate’ constructed around temple destructions, love jihad has been supplemented by the oft used tool of beef. In the present situation where the divisive elements, who are at the center stage of politics also know that they are safe and secure as the present Government supports them entirely, contrary statements notwithstanding.

The present combination of the Government guided by the ideology of Hindu nationalism and the ‘fringe elements’ having the same ideology, provides a vast network and a wide reach. The ruling has the advantage that it does not have to dirty its hands in the local agenda of sectarian nationalism, and so there are many elements which can do the local work for dividing the society. The flood of awards being returned is a direct response e to the situation created by deeper communalization of society. This is manifested in growing intolerance, attacks on plurality and is leading to the insecurity of minorities, which has qualitatively transcended the earlier limits. The question is how to uphold the values of Indian Constitution in the current times?