The idea of Indian nationalism was under intense attack from the construct of Hindu nationalism propagated by RSS, BJP and other Hindutva forces, alleged Ram Puniyani, Chairman of All India Secular Forum, while speaking at a seminar on ‘Communal politics and minorities’ organized by Diocesan Legal Cell of Archdiocese of Madurai in association with Society for Community Organization Trust here on Monday.
Asserting that Hindutva and Hindu nationalism emerged only in the last century, Mr. Puniyani said that they were put forth by the forces whose power began to decline as India moved towards Independence. “Religion was used as a cover by these classes, like the zamindars, to protect their interests,” he said.
He said that those propagating Hindutva were relying on polarising the people along religious lines. “A study by the Yale University shows that whenever there is religious violence in a place, it leads to polarisation and the political party which played a key role in the polarization becomes stronger there,” he said.
“We know about Gujarat riots in 2002 and religious violences in other places in the country and we can clearly see which party has gained,” he added.
Pointing out that these forces relied on spreading misconceptions, which lead to hatred and in turn to violence and polarisation, he said the progressive forces should confront the communal forces on all these fronts. “For instance, some of the common misconceptions spread about minority communities is that the foremost job of Christians is to spread their religion and the perception that all terrorists are Muslims,”
He said that a little reading of history and data would prove the misconceptions to be wrong. “The first Christian missionary came to India in 1st century AD. After 19 centuries, Christians still constitute only 2.3 percent of the population. Importantly, this percentage has declined from 2.6 in 1971 census to 2.3 in the 2011 census,” he said.
“Similarly, if it was about Muslims, Indonesia, which has the highest number of Muslims should witness more terrorism. But it is happening in oil-rich countries, which indicates that the politics around oil was the primary reason rather than religion,” he added. Antony Pappusamy, Arch Bishop of Archdiocese of Madurai, presided over the discussion.
Published - November 15, 2016 12:00 am IST
