Hindu extremism and minorities

The POST, Sun, January,14, 2007.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema

Despite having periodically aired his distress over the low representation of the minorities particularly the Muslim minority in both public as well as the private sector and his assertions that the minorities should get a fair share in central, state and private sector jobs, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not yet been able to improve situation for the minorities in India. Nevertheless the notice of such glaring injustice perpetrated against the minorities in India, particularly against the Muslim minority, is indeed a good omen. Speaking at a ‘Dalit-minority international conference’ and sharing the dais with former Prime Ministers V.P.Singh and I.K.Gujral in December 2006, the current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged that the Indian Muslims have been deprived of equal share of development benefits whereas some other minorities such as Sikhs and Jains have done much better.

Cognizant of its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi religious and multi linguistic nature of Indian society, the founding fathers of the nation decided to opt for the secular nature of its polity. They even tried to provide protective measures for the religious minorities through constitutional clauses. Many clauses were included in its constitution with the objective of generating the notion that all minorities in India would be protected and given equal rights. However with the passage of time what has become clear is that the intensions of the founding fathers are given scant respect with regard to even the spirit of secularism.

Undoubtedly the Indian constitution attempted to separate politics from religion and theoretically speaking it still does, the constitutional clauses alone were unable to attain the desired level and spirit of secularism within Indian society. As long as men who control politics and are responsible for ultimate political decisions are not really either clear about the significance and importance of the secular ideals or consciously working towards their replacements, the constitutionally enshrined secularism will continue to face one challenge after another. In the ultimate analysis it is the quality of human mind, which provides adequate assurances rather than legislative enactments or even the constitutional provisions. One major challenge was unleashed by the demolition of Babri mosque, which, according to many independent observers could have been easily avoided. Both factions of the society, those who demolished it and those who were entrusted with the task of preventing the demolition undertook their respective policy pursuits that were guided purely by political considerations.

Periodic exploitation of religious and cultural prejudices both by the politicians and the media often not only strengthen the erosion of secularism but also facilitate the recurrences of periodic communal riots. Capitalizing on prejudices and spreading carefully contrived rumors invariably injects sufficient volatility, which could be easily ignited at the right moment. In addition it is not too far fetched to assume that the communal hydra often surfaces more in the urban environment than in rural areas. However one cannot overlook the fact that some areas are relatively more communally sensitive than the others.

It is not out of order to stress that in practice not much is left of secularism in India. Invariably such an assertion invokes strong reactions from many emotionally charged as well as thinking Indians who, instead of providing some logical arguments often dwell heavily on propaganda tracks. Undoubtedly the erosion of Indian secularism has been accelerated over the last decade especially after the demolition of Babri mosque. It is not very uncommon to find Indian analysts; both in print as well as electronic media, frequently describing Pakistan as a fundamentalist and theocratic state despite the fact that most of them are fully aware of their inaccurate description. They tend to quote the name ‘the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’ as a sufficient justification to label Pakistan as a theocratic state and the Pakistanis as the bigoted fundamentalists.

The decade of eighties saw the gradual re-emergence of Hindu nationalism or as some prefer to call it Hindu militancy, as the religiously oriented nationalism was always present in India. Eclipsed by Pakistan movement along with its religious contents, the ever-present Hindu nationalism opted to play a second fiddle with the specific objective to allow the Hindu leaders to malign the Pakistan movement for its religious orientations. A careful scrutiny of the concerted efforts to paint the Pakistan movement in derogatory terms adequately revealed the level and intensity of Hindu nationalism. The inadvertent push that was accompanying the vilification campaign eventually resulted in the acceleration of process, which caused the partition of the subcontinent and gave birth to Pakistan.

It is not all that surprising when one hears excessive sermonization of secularism in India by educated elite. However what needs to be highlighted is the fact that no amount of modern education is able to obviate with religious identities in most societies. Undoubtedly in South Asia the religious and cultural traditions are strong and deep rooted in both the Muslim and Hindu communities. These traditions are not totally averse to non-communal and non-caste based approaches but are extremely prone to all types of exploitations. A carefully contrived approach to exploit and transform the latent religious nationalism into a militant force primarily for political purposes often manifests in intense communal fury.

The former Prime Minister of India V.P.Singh bravely once asked the members of Lok Sabha ‘What kind of country you want?’ He was speaking to a specially convened session of the Indian parliament to ascertain the confidence of the House. He urged them to decide the issue of secularism once for all. He lost the motion by a vote of 142 to 346 and thus became the most famous victim of the rising tide of Hindu nationalism. Since then the Hindu extremism has been on the rise though it has suffered periodic set backs.

Implicit in the V.P.Singh’s question were two intriguing interpretations, which deserve to be highlighted. First, that the issue of secularism had not been finally decided even after the departure of the decade of the eighties. All those vociferous claims that India was and is a truly secular country as opposed to non-secular Pakistan were and are no more than sugarcoated exaggerations carefully produced by India’s sophisticated propaganda machine. Alternatively one could interpret that constitutionally India has and continues to appear as a secular state but operationally it has not lived up to its repeatedly proclaimed theoretical commitments to secularism.

The erosion of secularism has indeed made the life of minorities even more difficult and complex. While the major share of Hindu militants’ wrath is borne by the Muslim community of India, the other religious communities also suffered. To explain and exemplify how the Hindu India treats its minorities, perhaps a focus on the plight of Muslim minority could give us some insight and explain the exact cantors of the prevalent situation.

Apart from major events such as the demolition of the Babri mosque and communal slaughter of the Muslims in Mumbai in 1993 and Gujarat in 2003, the Muslims hardly get their due share in the parliament and services. The Muslims community is 13.4% of India’s total population and is 72% of all India minorities. The Christians and Sikhs are 2.4% and 2% of total population respectively. There is no doubt that the fury of Hindu extremists has also been experienced by all the minorities including the Christians as well as the Sikh at times but the main target has always been the Muslim community of India. 

Almost all academic and investigative studies reveal that Muslims have been the main victims of biased extremist Hindus’ mindset in terms of social position, economic status, and educational opportunities. Currently the Muslim shares in Indian Administrative Services, Police, Foreign Service and Army are 2.2%, 3%, 1.6% and 2% respectively. Given its numbers in India’s overall population which is 13.4% of the total population, it is not too far fetched to stress that at least 10% representation in all sectors could be viewed as a reasonable minimum.  Let us hope that the current Prime Minister is able to secure a reasonable amount of Muslim representation in all walks of Indian society.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy research Institute.