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March 08, 2002
Hindu Fundamentalism
If a proof was needed to mark the latently imperceptible divide in the Indian polity it was furnished by two isolated events during the course of the last week. First, the ruling BJP party known for its Hindutva policy and strong anti-Pakistan sentiments, lost the elections in four states of India. The BJP defeat came at a time when Indian troops were amassed at the Pakistani border in numbers never witnessed in the 54-year eventful history of the two countries. The eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation could spark off a major conflagration between the two countries and could even lead to an exchange of nuclear strikes. Yet, the hate-Pakistan campaign mounted by the BJB government did not wane and consistently sustained its momentum but it failed to whip up the passion to vote the party to power in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,and Uttaranchal. A singular development which was cogently explained by prominent Indian commentator Praful Bidwai thus, “For Indian citizens, the election results signify a forceful rejection of the politics of Hindu chauvinism and community driven war-mongering typical of the BJP. The people refuse to be swayed by the BJP’s hysterical, ultra-nationalist ‘anti-terrorism’ campaign, which tars Islam and all Muslims, especially Pakistani Muslims, with the fundamentalist, fanatical or terrorist brush. The anti-Pakistan ‘nationalist’ card didn’t work in the elections. Nor did the ‘Ram temple gambit’, the promise to build a temple in Ayodhya where the BJP and associates destroyed the Babri Mosque in 1992…” Given the raging Hindu-Muslim animosity, the development was truly a surprising and a welcome one.
But perhaps Bidwai prophesied too soon. Barely a few days after his column appeared in The Hindu (Madras), Hindu-Muslim riots broke out across the length and breadth of India as a train carrying Hindu activists from Ayodhya was set on fire. Precious lives were lost as the majority community resorted to a reprisal: Indian Muslims experienced another blood bath at the hands of their Hindu compatriots. As the clock ticks, there is a systematic targeting of the Muslim community in India. Hapless children, aged men and helpless women are mercilessly butchered by Hindu mobs bent on avenging the attack on the ill-fated train. Not only the Indian police and the army but the world looks nonchalantly the other way. The Ummah is a silent spectator, a role it has unabashedly embraced of late. Neither the killings in Palestine, nor the atrocities in Kashmir, and now the latest blood bath of Muslims in India, can move it to action. The use of force, which led to the systematic annexation of Junagudh, Manavadar, Hyderabad, and Kashmir continues, unhindered and unabated. The pattern and mannerism of the barbarity knows no change.
While the BJP defeat at the polls bred a great deal of optimism about a transformation in the attitude of the majority community in India, the riots following the elections seem to portray an entirely different picture. The discord and ambivalence in the Indian polity is all too evident. While the former kindles a ray of hope, the latter seems to be a fresh resurrection of the tragic events of the past.
Lamentably, it is the latter mood – the Hindutva philosophy - which seems to hold sway. The scourge of Hindu fundamentalism menaces the Indian scene. And there are several indicators that seem to confirm that the BJP defeat could simply be a fleeting phenomenon. Writing in The New York Times under the title ‘Hinduism’s Political Resurgence’, Pankaj Mishra seems to make the incisive point: “ While General Musharraf strives towards a secular polity, the ruling politicians of India head in the opposite direction. Hindu nationalists have long exalted Hindutva, or Hindu-ness, over the secular identities proposed for India by Gandhi and Nehru. So now the federal minister for education, Murli Manohar Joshi, promotes a new Indian history that highlights the depredations of Muslim invaders (as they are called) and celebrates Hindu bravery. Mr. Joshi has also allocated funds for such ‘Hindu sciences’ as astrology. This sectarian minded education is objected to by many of India’s distinguished historians – especially those who had stressed India’s pluralist traditions in their now discarded textbooks. Mr. Joshi recently denounced these historians as ‘academic terrorists’ who were more difficult to fight than the usual kind of terrorist…. Oddly, the illiberal tendencies a military dictator seeks to expel with popular support, from Pakistan seem to be finding a hospitable home in democratic India.”
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