Towards an endgame

It is one thing to write about death and reflect upon its implications on society, and another thing to experience personal loss, despair, grief, desolation and the failure to comprehend the death of a person near to oneself.

An ethnography of dying — which has yet to be written — would have to include the emotional involvement of the dying and the bereaved, it would have to cope with the silence before death, besides considering concepts of death and the cultural practices related to it. I quote these lines as a poignant comment on Gujarat’s bloody record in recent weeks.

While the affected families mourn the dead, Navratri is being celebrated throughout the country. But this Navratri is different from previous ones. An anguished mother goddess travels from north to south and east to west, appalled by the conduct of some of her devotees in Gujarat who gang-raped, abducted and burnt alive Muslim women. As her numerous devotees flock to her temples with cries of “Jai Mata Di”, she turns around, with pain writ large on her face, exhorting them to maintain and foster inter-faith harmony.

Invoking the Gita or the Ramayana will cut no ice with the practitioners of hate and violence. They have done irreparable damage to their faith and their Hindu heritage. There are other signs of degradation as well. A political party that adheres to no moral or ethical values governs us. Besides violating constitutional norms, it forges unprincipled alliances to stay in power. Now, of course, it is out in the open with its dagger pointed at not just the Muslims and Christians but all those who swear by the Constitution of India.

The BJP, the prime culprit, has seized the political initiative from its NDA partners, who were caught napping, to plot its own independent trajectory. With its declining electoral fortunes and the resurgence of the Congress, it has decided to shed its ideological inhibitions to clamour for a Hindu Rashtra. The gamble may not pay off, especially if the Congress, now holding office in 14 states, gives up its lazy habits and resorts to mass mobilisation on a continental scale. The message from Guwahati offers some hope and comfort.

Meanwhile, the left parties must abandon their doctrinaire approach vis-a-vis each other, raise the level of popular consciousness, and act in unison with NGOs in order to forge an effective front against the beastly communal forces. Otherwise, the BJP-RSS-Shiv Sena will, uninhibitedly, invent yet another divisive issue to further polarise communal sentiments across the board. In that event, the left, already fatigued by its excessive reliance on parliamentary processes at the exclusion of mass mobilisation, will be further marginalised. Moreover, we will be back to the dark days when L.K. Advani’s rath yatra left, in its wake, death and destruction.

In this context, it is important to underline, first of all, that the prime minister’s speech in Panaji provides a blueprint for his party’s manifesto, and a guide to the BJP-RSS cadres to deepen their hostilities against the minorities. Second, he has seemingly abrogated his role as the country’s prime minister and, instead, acted as the spokesperson of the RSS-BJP combine. Finally, by raising the spectre of a green menace and, in addition, expressing some unfriendly comments about the Muslims, he has implicitly but nebulously floated the “two-nation theory”. It is for opposition parties, as indeed the NDA partners, to debate the “dangerous streak of duplicity” in such utterances. Though the immediate issue is the fate of the Modi government, their conclusions will have a bearing on the survival of India’s democratic and secular polity.

Clearly, statements emanating from Panaji and elsewhere are designed to undermine the confidence of the minorities, and instill in them a sense of fear and panic. What, then, is the way out? While the minorities should unequivocally reject the communal rhetoric and eschew the path of violence and confrontation, they need to emerge from the safe confines of legislatures, classrooms and law courts to fight for their civic rights. They must act in unison with secular forces for fostering secular and democratic goals. Fear, complacency and passivity, at this juncture, will be construed as an admission of defeat. Hence, the sphinx-like silence on the campuses at Aligarh, Jamia Millia and Jamia Hamdard will not do.

Those habituated to agitating over religious issues should read the writing on the wall and draw a lesson or two from the following lines by Martin Niemoler (1892-1984): In Germany the Nazis came first for the Communists. And I did not speak because I was not a Communist. And then they came for the Jews. And I did not speak because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unions. And I did not speak up. Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics. And I was a Protestant and so I did not speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak for anyone.

Meanwhile, the prime minister should be reminded of what Maulana Azad said at the Congress session in 1940. “I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure of India is incomplete. I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.” Dr M.A. Ansari, another “jehadi” Muslim who presided over the Congress session in 1927, had this to say: “I consider the brotherhood of man as the only real tie, and partitions based on race or religion are, to my mind, artificial and arbitrary, leading to divisions and factious fights. Nationalism of a general and liberal type I can appreciate, but not the jingo nationalism of the German or the Italian type.”

Today, we experience the jingo nationalism of the Hindutva variety. So, Durga Ma, I appeal to you to descend on this land and offer the hand of peace and reconciliation. Victory, as always, is yours for the asking. When politicians turn demons, we seek your intercession.

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