For time immemorial, anarchy has struck into our chord a feeling of uneasiness, a state of chaos difficult to control without a central figure of power, and has long been associated with the synonyms of disorder, disturbance, lawlessness and mayhem. But quite surprisingly the dictionary meaning and the one accepted in the political spheres of theorists and researchers claim anarchy as a concept having both positive and negative implications. On one hand it is described as a negative “lack of control” (Cambridge Dictionary n.d.) and on the other it is portrayed as a positive “utopia” where citizens enjoy complete freedom without the government’s intervention.
Hence, it was no surprise that famous anarchist David Wieck in his famous article “The negativity of anarchism” mentioned anarchy as an idea of liberation, an end to overt or covert power structures that control movements of liberation as well as rejection of concept that dominates the society for dubious self-interest on grounds of hierarchical control. Though it sat well inside the ears, he also ended up describing it as highly anti-political and a system of inconceivable power calling out a greater question of who will decide and quite fearfully attached it to the dissolution of only stable political order – democracy.
Anarchy has prevailed as the reason for some of the greatest revolutions that the pages of history have ever seen. The French Revolution of 1789 and the Tunisian Revolution in early 2011 stands out as some of the most prominent revolutions arising out of positive anarchist ideas among others, threatening to topple the regimes of their respective countries by the likes of common men like Robespierre and Bouzazi if the demands of the ordinary citizens are not met to establish a democratic state, if not a socialist one. Quite contrary to that, one such people’s uprising is currently brewing in the Hindi heartland of India which has shocked the walls of political analysis, creating a scene of dissent like no other we have witnessed in the near past in the albeit revolutionary history of this country.
True to the roots of political theory, this particular revolution is indeed anarchical with hordes of common citizens taking out ideological rallies, marches, public meetings, threatening to topple the government formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party elected with popular votes in 2014 if the demands are not met before the General Elections in 2019. But what is more intimidating than the state of chaos is the demand itself, which at the same time threatens both the secular and judicial fabric of this country and was an integral part of BJP’s election mandate in 2014 and has been effectively used by BJP firebrands like Yogi Adityanath, Sambit Patra and Athawale among many others to win state and panchayat elections thereafter. A scenario of what we call negative anarchy to quote David Wieck, which in the place of bringing reforms will bring more chaos in the electoral politics of India on the lines of religion and community.
The demand, as we all would have guessed by now, is that for a controversial Ram Mandir in Ayodha whose fate after the three judge Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on September 2010 and Supreme Court Judgement on May 2011 has been sealed to be decided somewhere in the early to mid-2019 by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.
In the middle of the entire prospect however is the leash of BJP’s sustenance and its fate in the 2019 General Elections. The BJP seems to have lost the charm amongst its supporters, which was clearly visible in the assembly poll results in Chhattishgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (their three main strong holds) where political analysts observed that the dissent among staunch Hindutva supporters over the inability of Modi led-BJP government to fulfill its prospect to bring forth an ordinance over construction of Ram Temple in the controversial land of Ayodhya is the reason to blame rather than speculated anti-incumbency.
Ram Mandir as an electoral prospect has long before in the past been a toxic agenda to pursue by political competitors, not to mention that BJP’s strongest opponent and the party to play the secular card, the Congress under Rajiv Gandhi pursued a similar agenda in 1989 in the then Faizabad. They were surprisingly backed by VHP only to win 15 out of 85 seats compared to 82 in 1984. Right now, quite similarly to the fate experienced by Congress in 1989 in Uttar Pradesh, the electoral prospect of a Ram Mandir which opened up a massive religious and caste vote bank based on Hindutva Ideology by dubiously portraying Hindus to be religiously and socially vulnerable in comparison to the Islam dominant history and culture in India for BJP in 2014 is acting as a suicidal guillotine for itself because of its non-competence in an ordinance. Not to forget that it was the same electoral promise that also played a massive role in cutting out Congress from the central helm in 2014. It is the French revolution re-incarnated as struggle for Ram Mandir where BJP has become Robespierre.
The incident in Babri Masjid and Godhra riots claim to be the closest India can get to create a permanent division between Hindus and Muslims. In fact, these sour events have created a bitterness among the two most dominant religions in this country, leading to a minor scuffle every now and then. Now the prospect of unrest among Hindu factions again to build a Ram Mandir threatens to open a similar scar and most fearfully by ignoring the order of law in this country. The call for action against BJP by Hindutva factions, self-styled Godmen and seers have time and again called for yet another march to Ayodhya to seize the land and harm anyone who comes their way; defying the Supreme Court is the most horrendous state of chaos we can expect. Added with the inability of a party to act against its vote bank for upholding the judiciary in the fear of being out of power is also the closest to negative anarchy India can get. The supporters of Hindutva ideology have taken ideological arms against a non-competent government but only to further burn the secular, judicial and constitutional fabric of this nation.
In the end, it won’t be unsafe to say Indian politics right now sits on the biggest and the most sensitive religious rifts in a decade, ignored by the government and the opposition alike for the prospect of vote bank going against the rules mentioned in People’s Representation Bill (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013. The current declaration of no early ordinance for the temple by the Prime Minister, followed by delayed judgements of the Supreme Court combined with the hardcore irreplaceable Hindutva ideology preached by BJP since 2014, which has helped score hundreds of small scale riots, lynchings, vandalism of shared Indian history in the name of Islamophobia in recent times has been and will always be a problem to the ordinary citizens of India. Some religiously motivated groups take up arms against each other and will ask for allegiance from their neutral brother under the ambit of soft power “If you are not with us, you are against us” to spread hatred and atrocities in the name of a disputed temple.
The poll loss of BJP and the current ideology pursued by Congress in Gujarat are not path-breaking moments for Indian secularism. In fact, secularism is in danger due to lawlessness and falsified ideologies.
The author is a first-year Post Graduate student pursuing his degree in Diplomacy, International Law and Business from the School of International Affairs at OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana.