Death of secularism: This is Modi and Hindutva's dream of India
We have become a country for banning books, films, art and ideas.
- 4.15kTotal Shares
Has the slide begun? That too so
easily? Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not a man of ideas. He is a
strange mixture of copy-cat economics and pulpit politics. If this is a
positive side, at least he thinks so, there is a downside - allowing his
social and electoral armies (the saffron brotherhood) to send India
sliding into divisive disaster. In the Vajpayee government, there was
what Professor Pralay Kanungo called a "confidence deficit" in the RSS.
Today the Parivar is pervasive.
Never in our independent history, has our conscience been so
stubbornly strained. In Gujarat, it is reported an FIR gave the
residence address of an accused as "Vatva, Pakistan". In Nalasopara, a
number of Muslim families got electricity bills addressed to Chota
Pakistan. The ghetto Juhapura is called a "Mini Pakistan... with Wagah
border".
- 4.15kTotal Shares
Has the slide begun? That too so
easily? Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not a man of ideas. He is a
strange mixture of copy-cat economics and pulpit politics. If this is a
positive side, at least he thinks so, there is a downside - allowing his
social and electoral armies (the saffron brotherhood) to send India
sliding into divisive disaster. In the Vajpayee government, there was
what Professor Pralay Kanungo called a "confidence deficit" in the RSS.
Today the Parivar is pervasive.
Never in our independent history, has our conscience been so
stubbornly strained. In Gujarat, it is reported an FIR gave the
residence address of an accused as "Vatva, Pakistan". In Nalasopara, a
number of Muslim families got electricity bills addressed to Chota
Pakistan. The ghetto Juhapura is called a "Mini Pakistan... with Wagah
border".
Intimidation
The "ghar wapsi" campaign is not a request but intimidation.
It is a sequel to the undeclared "desh chhodo". We have seen the
campaigns in Mumbai against Biharis.
Violent campaigns against the people from the Northeast. If
India does not want the Northeasterners, are they prepared to allow the
Northeast to secede? Culture minister Mahesh Sharma says late APJ Abdul
Kalam "was a nationalist despite being a Muslim". Was vice-president
Hamid Ansari a "communalist" in seeking the uplift of Muslims through
reservation? A meat ban is imposed during the Jain festivities. The
Kashmir Valley's Majlis-e-Ulama urged the Kashmiris to defy the beef ban
during Eid and change the beef ban law. A PIL has been filed. The
Bombay High Court passed an interim order lifting the ban on the sale of
meat imposed by a municipal corporation.
The Jains came to the Supreme Court where Justices Thakur
and Kurian told them "meat ban cannot be forced down citizens'
throats... Be tolerant to diversity."
Meat shops are banned on the Kanwariyas' route from Hardwar.
The RSS inspired Parivar "think-tanks" are preparing India for enmity.
Now, India has become a country for banning books, films,
art and ideas. The Censor Board has been taken over. Leela Samson was
ousted. In 2009, Madhya Pradesh banned Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor.
In Gujarat, Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah was banned for its
reflections on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as also Joseph Lelyveld on the
Great Soul (Mahatma). That such bans take place in other states for
other reasons (Vasanthi's Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Jaishree Mishra
on Rani Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh) is not the point. A culture of
banning pervades over life and living - by party cohorts and Sangh
Parivar.
Khap panchayat
India can now be portrayed as a conglomerate of khap
panchayats against love, Muslims, Christians, books, publications and
nonconformist thinking. This is the alternative reality of India, as a
khap dominated by state intolerance, moral police, religious fanatics
and rabid communalists.
And the new-found swamis of the faith have established dens
of slave sex and corruption. It does not stop here. Orient Blackswan
virtually coerced Megha Kumar to withdraw her Oxford dissertation on
"Communalism and Sex in Ahmedabad".
MM Basheer had hostile phone calls and gave up his column
on the Ramayana. What do we say of Tamil writer Perumal who was hounded
by casteists to declare himself dead as an author? Who killed Narendra
Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Kalburgi? The latter was murdered to
showcase what happens to those who question Hinduism and social
practices.
This is not the India one dreamed of, but the India of Modi
and his "Hindutvas". He will not silence his ranks or condemn. Let them
do what they like. A feeble remonstrance, if at all.
Hindutva history
Not that I approve of Muslim fatwas on music genius AR
Rahman, but today Hindutva history has rushed to the fore. The
controversy over changing the name of Aurangzeb to honour Kalam is
petty.
Aurangzeb was a great emperor who gave grants to Hindu
temples, imposed religious taxes on both communities when his treasury
was empty and unified parts of India. Like many emperors, he did things
we consider wrong. Examine his rule. Don't denigrate him ignorantly.
Kalam was not the greatest of presidents. His elevation to fame is
exalted by Hindutva.
The Parivar wants to remove contemporary secular legacies.
The obvious target is Jawaharlal Nehru. That, too, over the Nehru
Memorial Museum & Library. Not just a museum, it is a research
archive, inspiring learning. Nehru's secularism seems anti-religion, but
it was hugely tolerant of and celebrated the diversity of India. The
Parivar wants to denigrate Nehru and the Congress but with him secular
governance itself. Nehru was without doubt among the greatest statesman
of the 20th century. To denigrate him serves perversity.
What is India if its diversity of religions, cultures and beliefs is blunted? Surely, we cannot commit murder for a man's views.
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