The Hindu : A time for introspection

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 04, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

A time for introspection

By Raju Rajagopal

There will be no communal harmony in the nation unless we make a concerted effort to win back the hearts and minds of "Middle India".

THE VERY politicians who were seen as the instigators of the worst carnage in India's history have been handed a landslide electoral victory! India's pluralistic ethos that we grew up with, and the Hindu values that many of us imbibed at home, have been stood on their heads. The edifice of Indian democracy, which we have always proudly defended to our friends overseas, seems to be shaking at its very foundation.

What went wrong? How did the voters of Gujarat not see through the vicious hate campaign that has been going on in the name of all Hindus? Incensed and pained as they were by the torching of innocent Hindu pilgrims on a train, shouldn't they have been as troubled and angered by the images of innocent Muslims, who had nothing whatsoever to do with Godhra, being torched alive, and of women being raped and burnt alive for no fault of theirs? How could they miss their one opportunity to say NO to those remorseless politicians who have been standing unashamedly atop the graves they had dug, to proclaim themselves the sole champions of Gujarat's gaurav?

I for one refuse to believe that Gujaratis have turned overnight into unfeeling, stonehearted rakshasas, out to destroy the minorities. Rather, they have themselves been cruel victims of a brilliantly choreographed political strategy of the Sangh Parivar, which has been on the anvil for quite some time. Thanks to Godhra, that hate-filled strategy has been successfully show-cased beyond the wildest dreams of its architects — to the point that a large segment of the majority community refuses to acknowledge the scale of brutality that took place right under its nose, and many otherwise decent people rationalise the inhumanity that they did behold as a legitimate expression of Hindu frustration.

Well, the citizens of Gujarat have spoken. The Sangh Parivar has won a democratic victory at the ballot box, proving that violence does pay... even in the land of the apostle of non-violence. This is a time of reckoning — a time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we too have been unwitting partners in their diabolical plan to divide Indians; to own up to the ugly reality that the Sangh Parivar's triumph is, in many ways, a reflection of our collective failings.

If we are serious about averting a repetition of the Gujarat "experiment" in other States, we must begin a serious introspection and analysis of our disastrous failure to gauge the vastly changed mood of that hard-to-define, yet real, "Middle India," which in the past could always be counted on to exercise its franchise against political excesses. During the two weeks that I spent in Gujarat in the run-up to the elections, I met many courageous Gujaratis who have been working non-stop since Godhra to stem the tide of communal poison, often risking their own safety. Many of them were hoping that the same Middle India would rescue their State from the tyranny of the last ten months. Alas, the vehement voting in favour of the BJP drove home the unmistakable message that Middle India has now become synonymous with a deeply communalised Hindu majority.

If there is one lesson that we can all take home from Gujarat, it is this: there will be no communal harmony in the nation unless we make a concerted effort to win back the hearts and minds of that Middle India. As Hindu Indians, are we prepare to challenge our spiritual leaders on the significance of their near-unanimous mauna (silence) in the face of inhumanity in Gujarat, and ask them how they can possibly reconcile their complete disregard for the murder of innocent human beings with the spirit of Hinduism? Are we ready to demand that they put a stop once and for all to the VHP's plan to hijack Hinduism, and rescue Hinduism from Hindutva; that they speak out forcefully to head off a devastating civil war that the likes of Pravin Togadia seem to be itching for?

As Muslim Indians, has the time come for us to break free of our "victimhood", and embrace a more enlightened leadership, which is willing to place education, jobs and housing above all other issues, and is prepared to constructively engage Middle India? Are we prepared, in the larger interest of our community, to call the Sangh Parivar's bluff on Ram Janmabhoomi and the so-called Haj subsidies, and to reassess our knee-jerk opposition to any dialogue on the concept of a common civil code?

As Christian Indians, possibly the next target of the Sangh Parivar's vicious campaign, are we ready to acknowledge that the issue of religious conversions cuts deep into the Hindu psyche, not withstanding the constitutional freedoms and demographic statistics that we are fond of quoting? Do we understand that this issue colours the minds of even the most secular-minded Hindus, and that every new evangelist and "crusade" that we brook in our midst spawns another legion of followers for the VHP's brand of Hinduism?

As Indians who claim to abhor all forms of violence, but who rationalised the post-Godhra carnage as a "lesson" that needed to be taught, do we now see that there is no such thing as controlled violence; that once we have condoned the creation of an extra-constitutional militia, it will be impossible to put the genie back in the bottle; that the thirst of such groups for hatred and violence will inexorably consume the nation, and is sure one day to bring violence to our very doorsteps?

As reputed journalists and academics, are we willing to grant that a vast section of Hindus now believe, rightly or wrongly, that they have legitimate grievances; that it is a moot point whether there is a historical basis for such grievances; that we may have created a significant hurdle to dialogue by the harsh terms of our own rhetoric, often replete with stereotypical expressions such as saffronisation, infiltration, chaddiwallahs, and so on — expressions that are can be as biting as the term pseudo-secularist, which has been so cleverly employed to de-legitimise us in the minds of Middle India?

Passionate as we are about the plight of marginalised peoples are we, as human rights activists and development experts, ready to actualise our belief that without lasting peace among communities, there can be no true development; and that our commitment to development automatically implies that we should be at the forefront of civil society initiatives such as inter-faith dialogue and electoral reforms? As we willing to take serious steps to build bridges to Middle India, which may entail working with religious groups, a path scrupulously avoided in the past? And, are we ready to wean ourselves away from our dependence on foreign funding, which is often a serious impediment to our active engagement in civil society initiatives?

As NRIs, are we prepared to purge communalism, often couched in the name of religion and culture, from our midst? Are we willing to take some responsibility for the violence of words and deeds in Gujarat by our funding of organisations that pose as development organisations, but whose very backbone is hatred for others? Are we ready to redirect our philanthropy towards true developmental and communal harmony efforts?

All together, are we willing to acknowledge that the Congress party's bankrupt "Soft Hindutva" strategy in Gujarat, which exploded in its face, was bound to fail, that it is futile for us to continue to trash the Sangh Parivar unless we are ready to work together to either reform the current opposition from the ground up (if such a thing is possible), or to begin creating a credible alternative political force, which is ready to redefine the very nature of our secular polity?

Whoever we are, wherever we are, it is clear that we Indians have our work cut out for us. It is bound to be a long haul, and it may even be too late to stop the victory march of fanaticism in our land. Nonetheless, the time has come to stop lamenting the outcome in Gujarat and head back to our respective communities to begin the grim task of winning back Middle India. Our future generations will not forgive our complacency in this time of national crisis.

(The writer is a member of Coalition Against Communalism, a group based in California, U.S.)

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