India, which was once known for its integrity and diverse nature, is no more a tolerant nation. Peace and non-violence which was the dream of Mahatma Gandhi has remained merely a dream. Atrocity and barbarianism has become a part of our culture.
From the ongoing incidents it seems like intolerance among Indians is increasing because of cultivation of politics of hate and the behaviour shows India is tending towards an era of barbarism and the civilization of illiterate where nobody thinks on his own but believes whatever religious and political leaders say. Here sentiments are much more worthy than life of human beings. A man is lynched just because of a rumor that he had consumed beef. Condemning the Dadri incident former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju said, “What could be more unfortunate than this that a man is killed on the basis of rumour and for no other reason”, during a lecture at Banaras Hindu University. Incident like Dadri have become common incident. The Right-wing activists don’t hesitate to take law into their hand and behave like culture police. After the brutal killing of Akhlaq, now it was turn of Zahid Bhatt and Noman Akhter who were killed by a wild mob. Incidents like Dadri are no longer limited to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana but have reached states like Kashmir, Himachal and Manipur. It sounds bizarre when a chief minister of a state advises Muslim and Christians not to eat beef if they want to live in India. Manohar Lal Khatter is not a fringe element, but chief minister of Haryana and his statement indicates where India is moving. In fact, the statement of the Prime Minister on Dadri lynching came after a week which was also not very mature. He spoke on unity, but kept himself away from the main issue. He expressed sorrow over the death of Akhlaq, but didn’t condemn his killing, and nor did he defend the Constitution and its values.
In India groups like gau raksha samitis gau seva mandals are emerging and hence it is clear who is responsible for changing the definition of Indian democracy from “of the people, by the people, for the people” to “of the cow, by the cow, for the cow”.
Suddenly, the cow has become the instrument to mobilise the Hindu population for saffron agenda of RSS and ally BJP. Apoorvanand, a Hindi teacher of Delhi University explains this phenomenon in his article in The Indian Express “According to the RSS narrative, Muslims are the political rivals of Hindus. But since Gandhi and Nehru conspired to make them equal citizens of the Hindu country, ways have to be found to show them ‘their place’. The cow has proved useful for this. If Hindus hold it sacred they can kill whoever defiles it. And Muslims are the first suspects”.
However, the debate on intolerance began when BJP was sworn into power, but it intensified in September after the cold-blooded murder of Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi and other rationalists. Kalburgi was gunned down at his home in Karnataka. He was an academic and a rationalist.
After these two specific incidents social forces started uniting and protest came from all over India. Academic, writers and artists followed by scientists and filmmakers took charge and started returning their awards. Eminent writer Nayantara Sahgal also returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in protest against what she called the “vanishing space” for diversity. In an interview to The Indian Express, she said, “The attacks that are taking place today have to be countered, have to be opposed in a loud, clear voice, not the muted voices we are hearing from very diplomatic commentators on TV programmes. There are times in history when you have to stand up and be counted. And this is one of them.” Irfan Habib, the renowned historian, also joined the campaign saying, “There is not much difference between Islamic State and the RSS as far as intellect goes.” Later many personalities like Saeed Mirza, Narayan Murthy, Arundhati Roy, Raghuram Rajan, Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan joined the protest against increasing intolerance.
Now a perception is building that Narendra Modi has used the slogan of development merely to stimulate the principles of its parental organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Perhaps this is not the first time that India is facing intolerance, but this is surely the only government which is communalising the population to promote the ideology of Hindutva of its parent organisation.
This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print issue of 1-15 March 2016 on page no. 8
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