Communalism always thrives when it appears as nationalism .. Quite paradoxically, while minority communalism is lambasted as separatism, the majority communalism appears to be promising as mainstream nationalism. The question, however, is that in the garb of a secular democracy should a majority community in the name of ethnic superiority make the minority toe its line?
In recent years, the temptation to answer this question has been in affirmative, thanks to the myriad my this which have been sustained with the help of the media, which, due to its social composition, generally shares the fears and anxieties of the BJP. High sounding words like political morality and pragmatic idealism have enabled the Hindutva forces to make significant inroads into the middle class, media, academia, bureaucracy and even the armed forces. Putting some of the contentious issues like the Ayodhya Mandir, the Uniform Civil Code and Article 370 on the backburner is only a strategic shift, born out of political compulsions. But mere absence of overt communal overtones cannot befool the world into believing that the BJP has had a new avatar, and it has become different ... The party will take no time to take U-turn to bring the contentious issues in the front row as and when the situation is perceived to be favourable to them.
Even today, amidst 23 un-like and not-so-like-minded friends, a hysterical attempt is being made to rewrite the Indian history and saffronise the cultural heritage. By excessive and slated glorification of the past. impressionable minds are made to believe the RSS philosophy of Hinduism as something close to nationalism.
The Indian history, on the contrary, does not suggest that communal ideology which serves the interests of the ruling elite and propertied classes has been the guiding force of nationalism ... Mass mobilisation, using communal ideology is non-existent. However, the revolt of 1857 proved to be a watershed for the growth of communal politics in India; for, then onwards the British policy took a decisive shift to encourage every possible existing division within Indian society.
The spread of modern education and western ideas gave the Indian middle class new social and political insights. The western ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity led to new political aspirations. The advent of modern industrialisation had given rise to new social classes with antagonistic class relations - the nascent bourgeoisie and impoverished proletariat. The colonial rulers had, by then, realised the socio-political consciousness evolving in both the communities – the Hindus and the Muslims. And they quite successfully managed to chennelise it within the parameters bound by the religion.
There has been a variety of complex historical reasons for the growth of communalism in the early 20" century. Contradictions inherent in the form and content of our Independence movement paved the way for communalism to transform itself into an alternative ideology of mass mobilisation. The Partition witnessed the killing or maiming of over two lakh people. More than a million walked their way for almost 15-20 days in 24 foot convoys to reach this country and many more moved in the opposite direction, "filling up the mirages of freedom with tears and irrigating the wilderness of the new republics with migration." As per one estimate some 170 lakh people had moved out of their homes. If that had failed to awaken the conscience of people then perhaps nothing can.
In the post-Independent India ... the poor economic growth and degradation and deterioration of our democratic institutions caused the gradual departure of the Indian elite from secular. principles of democracy to pragmatic communalism. The internal Emergency, imposed in1975-76 by Indira Gandhi provided an opportunity to the communal forces to acquire political legitimacy. Thus, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the precursor of the BJP, which had polled just about 3.06 percent votes and won 3 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. of 1952, entered into the Janata Party government in 1977 as a respectable entity. Nevertheless, communalism was confined to a few political parties during those days with no popular appeal. It was only since the late sixties that religious sentiments had started emerging as a major feature of electoral politics.
The non-BJP political parties and their secularism are part of this conflict that cause fear psychosis among different communities. During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi realised that pampering of the minorities alone would not ensure an electoral success ... Since then, the Congress has kept the minority and majority communalists on either side of the track and has exploited one or the other when it suited them. Rajiv Gandhi won the elections after the massacre of Sikhs in1984 by appealing to Hindu sentiments. Bowing before the Muslim fundamentalists after the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case, a year later ... It then supported the Hindu militant outfits in opening the locks of the Babari Masjid. Three years later his representatives - Buta Singh and N.D. Tiwari -entered into a pact with the VHP. And thus, in 1989, while the Indians were looking up to him for his promise to take the country into the 21s century. the 'energetic' prime minister was busy in ... allowing shilanyas of the mandir ... (By) 1992, the pseudo-secular credentials of the Congress were thoroughly exposed with its top leaders, including the prime minister, hobnobbing with the Hindu frontal outfits during the latter's march to the demolition of the Babari Masjid.
The slate of the third forces and the Communist parties have also not been very clean either. In the name of discarding the Hindu communalism, these Third Front leaders like late H.N. Bahuguna, V.P. Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav pampered the Muslim sentiments and thus was introduced the phenomenon of fatwa into the Indian electoral politics. This fatwa politics did no good to the Muslim community (but) helped the Hindutva forces to organise their vote bank in the name of fighting Islamic fundamentalism. The CPI(M) in Kerala is guilty of maintaining a soft line towards different Islamic terrorist groups that have propped up after the demolition of Babari Masjid ... For all practical purposes, these political parties ... know that a religious dispute is an instrument of power politics. Yet nobody's rules of the game subvert the principles of Constitutional governance as much as the BJP's, which is guided by the M.S. Golwalkar's RSS philosophy of lambasting the Muslims, Christians and Communists as India's internal enemies. No wonder then, its rise to the power in an era of religious hatred (1984-92) has been phenomenal ... Now with the third BJP-led government at the centre in a short span of four years, a spell of gloom has been cast over many people who are concerned with the future of the Indian democracy ... (Source: R. Sinha, K. Nayan & B.K. Joseph in The Microcosmic, Dec.,99)
