Friday, November 20, 2015

Tolerance is an empty word : Need for more localized resistance against Hindwata

There is much buzz around the word ‘intolerance’ these days. There were a series of incidence that have been interpreted as ‘intolerance’ to various minorities and ideas. Fringe elements are active which tries to reap maximum advantage from a communally polarised atmosphere. The government has also criticized for its reluctance to take strong action against those who instigate hatred through their hate speeches and actions. Five stages can be identified with regard to the evolving political condition in India.

1)      BJP, a pro-Hindwata party, come to the power with a clear majority in the 2014 parliament election on the basis of charisma of Narendra Modi. He was enchanting and promising through his forceful rhetoric of development agenda in contrast to the corrupt and inefficient congress incumbent.
2)      However, Modi’s victory has slightly dented by several criticisms raised against him. His silent support to the 2002 Gujarat pogrom and his commitment to the Hindwata organizations came under criticisms. They also pointed out that the major party does not have a single MP from the Muslims which constitute 15% of the total population.
3)      Modi showed engaging statesmanship, wished to be well connected to the people and attempted a vigorous foreign policy. The emphasize was on the ambitious campaigns such as make in India, digital India which are envisioned to fast-track the development agenda. While doing so, Modi put least care to address the eroding communal fabric of the society.
4)      It provided the fringe groups to usher in more intolerant actions ranging from the brutal killing of rationalists, Muslims and Dalits. Though not spondaic in character, the events had enough to shaken the trust in the government. Prime minister remained silent, abdicated from the responsibility of addressing the concerns and fear of minorities.
5)      This was outrageous at least for liberals who came out open for protest and returned their national honours condemning the intolerant situation in the country. Several others have joined with them expressing solidarity. Their argument is that the communally motivated groups engage in unacceptable actions against minorities and the government has done nothing to prevent those. They fear the basic tenants of Indian constitution, especially secularism, might be altered and worry the intolerant situation in the country.

Two equally different perspective analysis can be offered for these evolving conditions. One is to argue the unnecessary haste with which the political opponents and liberals went against the BJP government.  The intolerant actions may not have a spike in the recent past. Such actions happened in other regimes also and not always the onus has put onto the central government. Add to the fact that the state governments are in charge of law and order situation and, therefore, more responsible for not preventing such actions. Interestingly most of the state in which these unfortunate events occurred is ruled by BJP’s political opponents.

Second is to blame central government for its inaction. Otherwise vocal and communicative PM has remained silent to address these issues. Though he has spoken out, the genuineness and determination to prevent such events were absent. Add to the fact that he already has a past which is suspected for his communal character.

Therefore one cannot conclusively argue that how far the central government is responsible for these unfortunate events. But there is also no denial that the fringe elements are active in a way that is unprecedented.

So how do we make sense of the reluctance of the central government amidst the irresistible outcry to blame the government? Here we must clearly distinguish the unfolding events into three processes that are operated in two interconnected levels.  These processes are ‘stimulations’, ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’. The terrains are ‘national’ and ‘local’.  What we can conclusively argue that the problematic events are happened in the local level due to stimulations at the national level for which a national solution is sought.  

The specific events in different places are perpetuated by intolerant, organized or unorganized, local fringe groups.  The events are indeed local in character as these events neither were sporadic nor were happened in one specific issue. This creates logical inconsistency in reading these local odd events into a national problem. But through vigorous campaigning and convincing arguments it is being established that the stimulation for these events are derived from the pro-Hindwata party BJP led government. So the only counter BJP can offer is to disown the stimuli it created at the national level in order to create problems at the local level.

But my concern is regarding the solution to this specific issue. It is indeed laudable that the vigilant intellectuals and politicians has seen the national stimuli behind the local events and have done well to counter it in the national level. The present situation has two fronts as far as Hindwata groups are  concerned. They are adopting a two-prone strategy ever since the present government in the power. While it has taken a soft and slow approach at the national level, it has also envisaged a more concrete and aggressive local strategy to push Hindwata effectively. When an opponent opens two fronts it is important to oppose them in both the fronts. The resistance is effective in the national front as the political leaders and civil society leaders have done really well. But what about the local front through which communal tensions are crawled in an irreversible manner.

What does mean by the local front of the Hinduata? It refers to the active platforms created through the well functioning organizations which have effective hold over local issues. These innumerable hindwata groups are active in various manner at various places and involves in local issues which offers them a certain kind of legitimacy. Effective functioning is facilitated by a cadre like structure of RSS and monetary support of the interested people in power. The cultural organizations are consisted by these groups are effective in propagating their ideas to a vast population.  In short, Hindwata has a well laid out and well trained carder like support basis and a ready to act institutional capabilities at the local level. It is alarming and unfolding of such a situation in our localities are largely neglected by the national leaders who are engaged only in a national resistance to Hindwata.

And why we must take into our localities, micro spaces as one would call them, into serious consideration? Even while there would be national stimuli for these kinds of unfortunate local events, it also has peculiar immediate local circumstances that ultimately lead to these events. These local events in turn react upon the national sphere and will have infectious effects. Pick any communal riot happened in the country since partition. While some of them have directly drawn from the national issues, it is the effective local institutional capacities which have enabled facilitative conditions for these riots.  The communal events which are not directly linked to any national issues are evolved out of local communal tensions which were prevailed in a particular place for long due to local reasons. Also the communal tensions, especially riots, have a peculiar character that creates conditions in which the national and state level leaders might lose grip over its followers. Historians have pointed out that the tower tall figures of independence movement were mere spectators to the partition holocaust as they have no control over the already maddened people. Therefore it is imminent for secularists to create and operate local institutional mechanisms, dedicated bunch of local leaders and cadre like followers who are committed to the secular ethos. Secularist must create a vigorous local front along with its resistance at the national level to effectively counter the creeping Hinduata.  


Such an action requires imagination and leadership. But above all, we must abandon the toleration idiom altogether as it refers to a negative attitude towards harmonious living. ‘Tolerance’ means that we must either not to be bothered about other communities or we must adjust/bear the other community for the sake of coexistence. It is utterly a flawed attitude we must forsake. The ‘toleration’ is a word that rest primarily on liberal ethos like non-interference and religious freedom. Such a paradigm is well suited for a society that is homogeneous in character or it will work well as far as there is no conflict of interest between communities. But India is highly diverse and wounded by periodic communal tensions and most grievous was the partition itself. With this strained historical baggage, it is no more viable to practice non-interference. The memories of communal hatred are a dormant force within communities which is often aroused and exploited by opportune political leaders. Therefore toleration is an empty phrase which can do nothing to douse the communal flame and heal the communal wound. We must go beyond to offer a hand to the other communities as a sign of assurance and as a solid gesture of forgiveness. It can only happen only by moving beyond the toleration paradigm to the active engagement to learn and respect the others ways and culture. Differences are an integral part of our societal living which is needed to celebrated and cherished, not a burden to be tolerated.  Such a mind set is the starting point from which our liberal framework of mutual coexistence can be transformed into a meaningful harmonious living of a communitarian framework. Such transition will be cathartic for India. 

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