Indian secularism battered

The POST, Sun, Feb,17, 2008.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema

No matter how many times Narender Modi wins election in Gujarat, it does not wash away his shadow of an effective and active communalist over the often drummed and regularly projected Indian secularism. Having participated enthusiastically in the slaughter Gujarat Muslims, his rise within the ranks of Hindu extremists is quite comprehensible. Apart from mere acknowledgement that Gujarat killings was a black spot, not much was done in this regard either by the Indians themselves or the human rights guardians in the west.

Gujarat is the land of Gandhi who stood for not just the unity of India but also actively worked against the rising tide of communalism. The land that gave birth to Gandhian pacifism has rapidly transformed into a laboratory of Hindutva. Despite being called as Maut ka Saudagar (merchant of death) by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, not mush was done to address the wrongs committed by Modi who is now seen as a strongman by Hindu militant organizations.

Whatever be the explanation of the Indian moderates for Modi’s thumping victory in the latest Gujarat elections, one cannot ignore the fact that such a development is bound to take a heavy toll of Indian secularism. Undoubtedly Modi’s win has effectively discredited secular politics at least in Gujarat. The Gujarati Muslims will have now to reconcile with a status of a second class citizen within their own state or move out of it.

Many Indians react rather strongly when made to realize that the erosion of Indian secularism has been accelerated over the last decade especially after the demolition of Babri mosque and Gujarat massacre of the Muslims. 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 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.

While it is true that the constitution of India, in many ways, attempted to separate politics from religion and theoretically speaking it still does, the constitutional clauses alone could not attain the desired level 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.

It is ultimately 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 could have been 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. It is also alleged that then Congress government of Narasimha Rao played a game of duplicity putting one foot in the Hindutva camp and other assuaging the minorities.

Equally important case was the massacre of the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 with the active connivance of the state authorities of Gujarat. Not only Narender Modi who was the Chief Minister who actively encouraged the militant Hindu organization to slaughter the Muslims but also neither demonstrated remorse nor apologized to the nation as well as to the Muslim community of India. The Congress did not go whole heartedly and took active actions against the man whole disregarded all elements of decency and encouraged massacre of the Muslim minority.

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 abusive and propaganda tracks. Perhaps by employing abusive language, they feel they have done their patriotic duties. But this does not change the ground reality. There exist forces that are continuously eroding secular foundations of the Indian society. Many factors account for this erosions such as the resurgence of Hindu nationalism, and weakening of secularism along with the existing disunity within secular forces. Linked with them is the inability of secular forces to take cognizance of rapidly rising tide of Hindu militancy.

The decade of eighties saw the gradual re-emergence of Hindu nationalism or shall we 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 the sub continental societies. Undoubtedly the religious and cultural traditions are strong and deep rooted between both the Muslim and Hindu communities. These traditions are not totally averse to non-communal and non-caste approaches but is 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 results in the generation of intense communal fury.

Equally important factor that needs to be stressed here is that the founding fathers perhaps opted for a secular India because of ethnic and religious diversity of Indian society. In many ways the issue was somewhat settled at least in the minds of secular leaders and therefore they often opted to follow individual party’s agenda rather than making a united front against the rising tide of Hindu militancy. When an opportunity came to dislodge the incumbent BJP led government, the secular parties were unable to demonstrate the requisite unity.

The rapid rise of Hindu militancy which has been mainly invoked by the concerted efforts of Sangh parivar spearheaded by BJP has repeatedly confronted the nation to re-evaluate the notion and the practice of Indian secularism. The ferocious Hindu fury that was experienced by the Muslim community in Gujarat riots clearly revealed the intensity of hatred for a minority community. The re-election of Modi with an impressive majority despite having caused an ugly massacre in Gujarat should appear to Indian secularists as a matter of extreme worry and should inject urgency to effectively deal with this rapidly spreading menace.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy research Institute.