The mark of the indelible ink on my left forefinger is slowly fading, as Mr. Modi seeks to be re-elected as the Prime Minister of the country. This mark gives me the pride of being a participant in the process of the grand choice, in the most sacred festival of democracy, while the entire nation awaits the 23rd of May. I shall continue to be a proud Indian Muslim, whoever forms the next government!
“Wait For Election Results In Fear”
The other day, I stumbled upon a tweet by Rana Ayyub, the author of the book “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a cover up.” It was a link to her article “You know India’s democracy is broken when millions wait for election results in fear,” in The Washington Post.
She remarks, “In the past five years, Muslims like me, who had placed our faith in this secular democracy, are unable to recognize India.” She is nastily trolled on Twitter by all kind of people full of ‘nationalistic’ bravado, palpably blended with masculine sexism, getting horny on the sadistic pleasure they derive from the fears of a Muslim woman.
However, that is quite an expected response from the vigilante, against a person like Rana who boldly speaks out her mind, and also considering that fact that she is a woman and a Muslim. But the questions running in my mind are, is the future really that bleak for Muslims in India as she presumes it would be if the Modi government returned with a full majority in this election? Have Muslims been safer during earlier governments? Are Muslims indeed that scared? Moreover, whether the present election campaigning by the lotus party has succeeded in increasing the communal divide among the masses, and if yes, will they be interested in carrying it further during their five-year rule, assuming that they come to power again?
Origins Of The Hindu-Muslim Divide
I was reading through the newspaper archives, of the days just before the independence, when heated debates for and against the two-nation theory were going on, and I saw this interesting report in the Indian Express Madras (Chennai) edition of Jan 1, 1946. Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, an avowed supporter of united India, speaking on “1945 and After” under the auspices of the Lakshmipuram Young Men’s Association, in no unclear words blamed the “rulers” (the British) of fomenting the division. He said, “Even now if they were to go to the villages in the north, they would find that in dress, in their manners, in almost everything the Hindus and Muslims lived side by side with mutual tolerance.” He added that “The people of the Indian National Army were prepared and were able to live and work together. It is only under the British leadership that we were unable to come together.”
Moreover, finally, he rightly said that “The energies of every Indian should be harnessed to the solution of the one problem – The eradication of poverty…”
The rulers, the British did it under a conscious design after the 1857 war of independence, so that both the communities should look at each other as enemies, and each separately upon the British as benefactors and protectors. The two-nation theory was injected into the minds of takers at both sides, Muslim League, at one end and the Hindu Mahasabha-RSS combined, on the other who looked upon the Muslim population as ‘Others,’ ‘Aliens’ and ‘Foreigners’ to be driven out of India.
Facing them both were the real nationalists who firmly believed that Indians were one nation, across the religious denominations. The fact is that religion-based nationality theory soon crashed when the Pakistani army unleashed one of the worst pogroms on people, their co-religionists, in its Eastern part and ultimately Bangladesh was born.
The partition of India no doubt was the worst crime, that the Indian people were ever subjected to and left deep scars on the minds of the ordinary population.
There is only one ultimate solution to this artificial divide; the partition must be undone. The country must be un-partitioned now, better late than never. Staunch supporters of a United One Nation India, you may call it the United States of India, if you wish, must rise in each of the political fragments – India, present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh – and vote governments in each segment to power who promise to reunite the motherland, much in the same way the East and West Germany were united. I hope the younger generation will be able to work in that direction, someday, successfully.
Pampering Priests Both Sides And Neglecting Ordinary People
It is a fact which we must accept that the secular India, has not remained secular in the real sense. The successive governments have remained busy in striking a balance in appeasing religious bigotry at each side, through pampered priests in the name of “respect to each religion.”
We may quote, for example, government’s capitulation to the Muslims in the Shah Bano case, and as if in an attempt to correct one wrong by doing another in letting the Ayodhya dispute, which was peacefully being tried in a court of law, to be brought to the streets. Somehow those in power supposed that the masses were represented by the priesthoods.
All India Muslim Personal Board was venerated as if they represented the Muslims in India. All parties did that. Even this time during his pre-poll visit to his constituency Lucknow, Mr. Rajnath Singh of BJP made it a point to visit the Hindu, Sunni and Shia godmen, perhaps in the hope that they would be able to fetch votes for him from their respective communities. Alternatively, maybe, he thought he was playing the “good cop” role in his party’s “good cop, bad cop” tactics.
He could have done much better, had he himself done a random survey of the shanty dwellings of say the artisans of Lucknow and tried to listen to their fears, concerns, hopes, nightmares, and dreams, and what they wanted and how could they be developed into an asset of ever-increasing value for the nation.
Failure To Prevent Mass Murder Of Innocent People Is Not Exclusive To Mr. Modi’s Rule
All parties use communal hatred, not for the sake of religion but as a cover for the so-called economic “reform,” which is slowly and surely making the economy more and more malleable for the big corporates, and the lives of the ordinary people more and more difficult. No doubt Mr. Modi’s Gujarat government miserably failed in preventing the Godhra carnage, in quickly punishing the real culprits, and in curbing the dreadful pogrom, while taking revenge from innocent men, women and children who had no role in that “original sin” – but such barbaric acts were in not way invented during his rule. Many similar incidents took place during other so-called secular governments too; Moradabad, Nellie, Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 are just a few.
Global Terrorism Has Aggravated The Problem
Resorting to terrorism by the subscribers of a particular radical group among Muslims has stoked Islamophobia the world over and a resulting in the aggravation of communalisation and mistrust in India. It is difficult to deny that the heinous terrorist attack at Pulwama followed by the terror attacks in Sri Lanka only benefitted those seeking vote cashing on the phobia, sweeping the economic issues under the carpet. The doctrine of terror, supposed by its preachers to protect the Muslims, is doing the worst harm to them, and the poor people of the world in general. Every sane citizen, and Muslims especially, therefore, must at all cost do everything possible to crush the terror mentality, in all its forms.
This Time Polarisation Is Not Hindu-Muslim, It Is Communal Forces Vs. Reasonable Citizens
As I have always been writing, the actual polarisation is between “haves” and “have-nots.” Unfortunately, this time also they succeeded in suppressing the actual dichotomy and diverting the talks to communal issues, so much so that even I have been compelled to write these lines. However, fortunately, they failed utterly this time in making this a Hindu-Muslim divide. The divide now is between those who want a Hindu Rashtra and those who want a modern secular state. So, that is a great victory of progress over retrogression. It is also not true that hatred has increased in the psyche of the general public. If I am not wrong, they had succeeded in inculcating the highest level of communal hatred during the last few years of 1980s and at the beginning of 1990s. Even at that time, they did not entirely succeed. I had some of my Hindu friends then and have them now, who have been to me more than what a sibling could have been.
The Future Of Muslims In India
At least, I do not know any Muslim contemplating plans to relocate to friendlier countries or sending their children away to foreign universities if Modi is re-elected as Rana wrote. Is there any country more friendly than India? I cannot imagine living, for example, in a country where people are beheaded because they spoke or wrote something, which did not suit the rulers. Here, in India, I am so freely writing whatever is coming out of my heart while Mr. Modi is still the Prime Minister, and stands at least a 50-50 chance of coming back to power. I am sure the forces of progress here, will never let India degenerate into a country in which people are executed for expressing their views.
BJP needed a communal divide to get votes; how much they succeeded is something we will know only on the 23rd. But, once they form the next government, if they do, they will not need it anymore for, at least, the next five years. They cannot afford to start mass chaos by, say, throwing “termites” in the Bay of Bengal either, as it might disturb the business, investment, and foreign policy environment in the country. (M)issteps within will have an outsized impact abroad, which the corporates will never like.
That is just another jumla. Don’t fear. Heaven is not going to fall.