COMMUNALISM----THE COST OF MISCARRIED & DELAYED DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
Repeated incidents of communal conflicts and especially hindutva communal mobilisations are frequently in the news. Just on the eve of the general elections to the Lok Sabha the Muzaffarnagar communal mobilisation that evicted fifty thousand muslims from their villages spilled over into adjoining large regions of Western Uttar Pradesh. Later prior to some more by-elections for assembly seats in UP and the assembly elections of Haryana again Saharanpur, Moradabad, Meerut, Haryana?s Mewat, Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh?.. further names have been added. And now recently when Delhi is gearing up for polls ---- Trilokpuri, Bawana, Majnu ki Tila?.. even the capital city of this country is in the grips of communalism. The list of communally affected places is getting longer and longer.
Side by side another noticeable thing that has started happening in this country?s national political arena is the repeated communal-nationalist utterings of different proponents of aggressive hindutva forces viz Hindustan means Hindu Rashtra; all inhabitants of Hindustan are Hindus; the despicable act of Babri Masjid demolition is being celebrated as Shourya Divas etc etc.
Regarding the recent series of communal incidents certain common features are already noticeable. Firstly, from the presentations of the media it has been made to appear that such communal tensions and conflicts arose all of a sudden just from some minor incidents. But is it the real fact? Did the flare-up from just an incident of eve-teasing and the lynching of youth of both the communities in one little-known village of Muzaffarnagar spill over into a large region involving four districts leading to communal mobilization of thousands just like that! Have all these incidents suddenly started happening without any provocation? Successive aggressively communal meetings, counter-meetings and mahapanchayats after the village incident definitely paved the way for such a grave damage inflicted on the social fabric in this region that is yet far away from recovering. But no less important is the fact that for several months before this incident communal campaigns against the so-called ?love zihad?----of muslim youth enticing hindu girls---- carried on by different hindutva organizations overtly or covertly connected to the Sangh Parivar was already heating up the region. As a result several previous incidents of communal tensions and scuffles already vitiated the atmosphere in the region. In the Saharanpur communal incident also behind the dispute over a piece of land there was not only provocations from outside but even organized role for the communal conflict. Media has already reported through statements of one sikh and another muslim woman that on that day of the incident a group of unknown outsiders came and created turmoil by firing and setting cars and shops ablaze. At about the same time in July last, in Moradabad also, in spite of a compromise reached between villagers in presence of local leaders, including the newly elected BJP MP, over a dispute that arose due to non-removal of speakers from a temple of dalit villagers during the month of Ramzan, the communal tension was allowed to aggravate. Although BJP agreed to withdraw its pre-planned mahapanchayat programme on this issue, after the compromise meeting it changed its position and continued heating up the communal atmosphere through its demonstration programme. Their new alibi had been----the issue was not just a matter of the dalit community, it was about ?hindu society? ?hindu identity? etc. Thus the communal tension was kept alive. Similarly recently in Bawana near Delhi there have been reports of creating false commotion by aggressive mobs of a hindutva outfit on the eve of Eid in the name of unearthing secret, illegal cow-slaughter this October. Once again a communally provocative mahapanchayat was held on the eve of Muharram to oppose the procession route of muslims. Then this Diwali Trilokpuri, once again in Delhi before the polls, was also made to gulp a dose of similar communal conflict. A Mata-ki-Chowki in front of a mosque was not removed for a long time even after the jagaran programme has been over?.some mischief between members of a local group of lads of both communities near the chowki sparked a scuffle between them. But once again there are reports of communal instigation of a former local MLA of BJP for giving it a communal colour, mobilizing a mob and reports of repeated police laxity that precipitated a conflict between two communities---once again dalits tried to be wooed versus the muslims.
Secondly, one thing is getting more and more established from the places of these repeated incidents that these areas where the conflicts occurred or are occurring are important from the point of view of some imminent elections. The bourgeois media has also pointed this out. In fact the BJP has already reaped unprecedented electoral harvests during the last Lok Sabha elections in the communally charged up Western Uttar Pradesh although the party did not fare that well in the later bye-elections.
But the way BJP successfully planned to make up the numbers consolidating the jat and uppercaste votes of the Western U.P. that takes us to the third feature seen in these conflicts. It is that in all these communally affected places muslim population is significant in number. Hence against the muslim section of the public the already existing communal influence on the masses are being exploited further and used to consolidate different, disparate non-muslim masses on the basis of hindutva. In Saharanpur, with the disputed construction by sikhs over land contested by muslims boiling up into a communal conflict, it helped the hindutva forces to consolidate sikh people in their fold. Prior to this the media repeatedly pointed out that numerically sikhs are equally significant in that region as the muslims are. In Moradabad Kanth similarly the dalit jatavs and muslims are prominent in numbers. In the last Lok Sabha elections these jatavs were reported to have ensured the new win of a BJP candidate from this region. It was for a ceremony to honour this new MP that speakers were put up on a dalit temple and not removed leading to the dispute. In this case the BJP openly aggravated the communal tension to pit the local dalits against the muslims. In Delhi?s Trilokpuri and Bawana also specifically these dalit and other downtrodden non-muslim masses have been seen to be suddenly drawn closer by the hindutva forces and utilized to flare up communal tensions.
But another noticeable feature is, almost all these conflicts are mostly localized, low-key ones. That is the fourth common feature. Due to this it has been possible to make these incidents appear as mere sudden local outbursts from petty incidents which the media, more so initially, also tried to portray. Of course that is far from truth. Rather the alarming thing is there is a planned, sustained campaign at the grass-root by the hindutva Sangh Parivar promoted organizations to communally divide and consolidate the major sections of society on this basis. The simple instances of the recent blatant abusive utterances of Sadvi Niranjan Jyoti in open campaigns in Delhi on ?Ramjadon and?.? or that of venom-spewing Yogi Adityanath and the BJP UP state committee?s outbursts on the eve of UP by-elections on ?love-jihad? are only the tip of the iceberg amply confirming what is being carried on stealthily among the masses. Although after every repetition of controversies centred around such communal outbursts the BJP leadership pretend each of them to be either ?slip of tongues?, apologizing or claiming those utterances does not have the endorsement of the party, disowning and somehow covering-up the controversy so that these can be easily passed away and forgotten.
Hence are these incidents to be taken casually and passed over just as local reactions without attaching much importance? The answer can be found if we figure out why these low-key, localized conflicts in a series are being nurtured and aggravated by the hindutva Sanghi elements and why also the shame-faced kind of response to those of the BJP and the Modi government? On one hand this has been due to the compulsions of far more important problems of economy and hence that of the ruling capitalist class and on the other also due to the resulting hardships afflicting the masses both of which have converged leading to the formation of the Modi government. On the basis of promising economic prosperity by ending the continuing economic stagnation during the Congress-led government rule the Modi government was catapulted into power both by the big bourgeois of this country and the masses, obviously for different reasons. The big bourgeois, as it was their yearning to launch a still bitter and faster pace of attack through the economic reforms on the masses while the masses as they sought respite reeling under deteriorating economic conditions. In such a situation Modi?s involvement in the riots of Gujarat was pushed to the background projecting him as the builder of earlier a ?vibrant Gujarat? and now India and the people, including the common masses bought it. Thus on the road to the elections the hindutva fascist and communal face of their politics have been craftily disguised, apart from a few pockets like Muzaffarnagar, making it appear that Modi and his party has changed. That understanding between BJP and the other hindutva forces still hold. That is why the RSS and its organisations talk at present of moratorium on their demands to the Modi government [ NAGPUR, October 4, 2014 THE HINDU--- RSS pats Modi government] and hence the low-key localized conflicts and shame-faced ?we-don? t-know? ?we do not endorse it? kind of innocent postures adopted by the PM and the government.
The important thing to note is that other political parties also utilise communal, casteist, national or other divisions existing among the masses for electoral gains but the modus operandi and aim of BJP and hence the Sangh Parivar organizations are quite different from those of all these opportunist parliamentarist parties. Their aim is not simply whipping up local communal conflicts or tensions to win elections. Their aim is to usher in more far-reaching changes in society, politics and the state which cannot be figured out isolatedly from these local communal conflicts. The manifestations of those aims and targets are also getting revealed in other spheres. Their simultaneous activities in the sphere of ideology---- history, through education, politics etc---- are revealing this actual direction without going into which we won?t be able to understand the implications of the local communal conflicts for the future in its totality.
Just after the Modi government?s accession to power in the central government in Pune a person, muslim by religion, was killed in broad daylight by activists of a hindu communal organization falsely accusing him of posting objectionable matter in Facebook. A BJP leader of Andhra Pradesh denigrated tennis player Sania Mirza chosen as the ambassador of Telangana by labelling her ?Pakistan?s daughter-in-law? [Sania Mirza controversy exposes the dark underbelly of Indian nationalism---CR Sukumar, ET Bureau Jul 26, 2014]. In Delhi?s Maharashtra Sadan a Shiv Sena MP expressing allegedly his anger over a low-quality food served by a canteen worker forcibly thrust the food down a muslim canteen employee?s throat in spite of his repeated resistances for being on Ramzaan fast[ July 26, 2014
An unedifying spectacle. Then there has been a series of out-and out communal, democracy-bashing comments by different ministers, MPs, MLAs of BJP or prominent Sangh Parivar organizers. Defending the comments of his cabinet colleague Deepak Dhavalikar in the Goa state government said"If we all support it and we stand by Narendra Modi systematically, then I feel a Hindu Rashtra will be established," Francis D'Souza one of the most senior minority members of the BJP in Goa, said "India is a Hindu country. It is Hindustan. All Indians in Hindustan are Hindus, including I ? I am a Christian Hindu,"[ IANS, Jul 25, 2014 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/]. Later reverberations of the same has been heard from Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the RSS, ?If inhabitants of England are English, Germany are Germans and USA are Americans then why all inhabitants of Hindustan are not known as Hindus??[PTI Mumbai, August 17, 2014, India Today]. Through such remarks the Sangh Parivar hindutva organizations are planfully trying to impose on the masses of this country, that India is a country of hindus only; that Indian culture, tradition, education means the culture of hindu traditions, the traditions brought along from the beliefs and faiths of ancient ?hindu? era which is being sought to be revived and strengthened. Negating the long history of diverse nationalities, languages, cultures etc only a particular identity and culture is being imposed in the name of hindu culture and identity. Thus through their distorted campaigns these forces are confusing the original meaning of the word ?hindustan?. In Old Persian, the region beyond the Indus River was referred to as Hindu?,the Iranic equivalent of Sanskrit Sindhu, hence Modern Persian Hind, Hindu. This combined with the Persian suffix stan results in Hindustan, "land of the Hindus". The term "Hindustan" has been historically applied to the Gangetic Plain of North India, between the Himalayas and theVindhyas and the Indus river basin in Pakistan. [Hindustan---Wikipedia]. It was no where related to the hindu religion. But this imagined discovery of the RSS and its affiliate organizations made to serve their ulterior motives is not a recent one. On the eve of independence of this country long time back on 14th August 1947 the RSS in an editorial in their mouthpiece Organiser rejected the idea of a composite Indian nation by stating clearly----?Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by the false notions of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future trouble can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation?.the nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu tradition, culture, ideas and aspirations.? [Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism: A Study of RSS----Shamsul Islam]. Thus it is nothing new they are preaching now. Although the Modi government at the Centre are apparently distancing itself and putting up a posture of disowning the communal-nationalist comments of its party leaders and Sangh Parivar members it is becoming clearer day by day that this is more of a tactical ploy. Otherwise how can it be explained that the Prime Minister and his government keeps mum and adopts just a forgive -and- forget attitude to the venomous outbursts of communalist statements of its MPs like Yogi Adityanath and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti openly out in front of the public and even inside parliament and still the Yogi is given responsibility of heading the Uttar Pradesh by-polls on the plank of ?love-jihad? and numerous posts in the government are distributed to RSS men maintaining a regular liaison with the communal-fascist organization.
The RSS has also minced no words to bring to the notice of the public that the spectacular win for BJP has not been possible just because of some magic by a couple of individuals like Modi and Amit Shah but by the fullest efforts of the regiment of the RSS and they want to have their share of the pie. In fact notwithstanding the long pursuance of their communal-fascist ideology they are feeling that now they have got an opportune time give it a bigger push with minimum of burdens of coalition politics for the BJP in the present government.
Hence in different spheres and not only through the local communal conflicts they are more and more being seen to come out of their camouflage and asserting their hindutva nationalism with aggression. They speak about the recognition of glorious traditions of this country from ancient period. It is true that like any other ancient civilizations this country also has many instances of excellence in the fields of art, craft, education, architecture etc. But Sangh Parivar organizations are distorting it to suit their own ends. Its education related branch Vidya Bharati has published books, books by staunch hindutvavadi writer Dinanath Batra are being made text-books in government schools of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and recently after the formation of BJP government also in Haryana [Batra to advise Haryana govt on education reforms---Hindustan Times, 13-11-14]. In such books it has been claimed that in ancient India motor-car and aeroplane and even the latest sensational stem cells could be artificially made. Through such claims they are attempting to mix-up the mythological tales with the evidence and fact based history.
Things have not been restricted simply to such apparently innocuous claims of spectacular scientific discoveries of ancient India. From the task taken up by RSS-led Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana also it is clear that they are out to reconstruct the past of this country to justify their aggressive hindutva ideology. This so-called organisation for collection of history is claiming to search among the traditions and heritages of tribals for influences of hindu Vedic heritages or links between the two. The aim actually is to ideologically influence these original, indigenous inhabitants of the country and draw them into the communal hate campaigns of hindutva forces. Already other RSS organisations like the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram are carrying on such campaigns among the tribals of different states for quite some time[6 times more ?Puranas? in hand, RSS puts 100 on job for new history,Written by Shyamlal Yadav | New Delhi | Posted: August 18, 2014 1:38 am Indian express]. Due to this in the last couple of decades there have been riots and destruction by hindutva groups on christian missionaries and their tribal followers in Dang Gujarat and Kandhmal Orissa. In fact they are also attempting to prove from their ?research? and reconstructed history that Aryans did not come to this country from outside but were original inhabitants and it is from this country that they have spread to other places of the world. Secondly, their approach towards history does not recognise the evolution of mankind and their successive stages of different societies as a march towards development of their lives, livelihood processes. To them much of the so-called glories of ancient clan based society or the histories of medieval kings and feudal lords can be revived in today?s era of capitalism and imperialism. In an effort to search and resurrect especially the ?hindu? glories from history even in present conditions they are constantly singing paeans to hindu kings and dynastic rules. They do not see the kings and their ruling systems as oppressors of the masses but segregate the hindu rulers as glorious heroes. Recently this last October the RSS?s Itihas Sankalan Yojana has paid tribute to another of their new-found hero in king Hemu--- the ?Great Warrior of India?, and ?the last Hindu Emperor of Delhi? about whom very little is known authentically. But now he is being said to have established a hindu rashtra after hundreds of years, proved to be a stellar administrator in his 29 day rule, before the advent of Akbar, and that his first Ghoshana Patra (decree) banned cow slaughter and declared that anyone practicing it would be beheaded, although no evidence has been found about such a ?hindu rashtra? or ?Ghoshana Patra?. Getting killed fighting against the Moghuls, which the Sanghis refer to as muslims and hence foreigners, Hemu is their new nationalist, according to the Sanghis, one of ?our forgotten, real heroes?. Of course for which region or nation Hemu displayed nationalism at that time that they can only explain as India did not exist then. In fact they do not accept the truth that nation, nationalism, democracy or secularism are all categories that appeared only in the modern period of advent of capitalism. [In praise of Hemu: Medieval king reveals true intent of Hindutvahistory Oct 10, 2014 by Pragya Tiwari]. Thirdly, historians try to rediscover the different stages of history on the basis of different proofs, evidences and informations collected on scientific basis. But these forces have started presenting selectively different mythologies and puranas, which are literatures, as history as such claiming them to be depicting the reality of that time. Purana based encyclopaedia is being compiled. Fourthly, based on different folklores, or imagined, exaggerated tales prevalent at local level they have also started compiling district-wise ?history? of different regions.
It is true that the puranas or myths are forms of consciousness of those times someway reflecting reality of those times which the colonialist thought influenced historians denied. But they are only reflections, often symbolic through those literature, and hence not history as such. Much later they have been made into written form, modifying and even consisting of numerous versions like that of Ramayana and there is much yet to be properly verified[Ancient Indian Social History, Some Interpretations---Romila Thapar]. On the other in their reconstruction of indigenous history there is no place for the parallel history of exploited, toiling masses, the emergence of their alternative culture, materialist philosophies as opposed to the dominant history of the nobles and kings. But to them the glories of hindu kings is their only subject for propaganda.
Thus not only through the spreading of communal conflicts but also through repeated projections in the sphere of ideology and elaborate arrangements to reconstruct and revive a selected, distorted, hindutva history the anti-democratic, communal concepts of hindu rashtra, hindu communal-nationalism and through the recent furore intentionally created by dramas being enacted about religious conversions etc? they are more and more actively attempting to lead the present society towards a communal-fascist system. For that they are raking up the influence of backwardness and divisions among large sections of masses to propagate communally interpreted history and a doctored education curricula which are one of their important weapons. And this they are being able because both the history of modern India during the days of independence struggle and that of the recent happenings have provided them favourable conditions.
Because of the weakness of the national liberation struggle led by the bourgeois and petty bourgeois leadership the struggle for establishing a country and society really liberated from imperialist dominance and thoroughly democratized, sweeping away all the remnants of feudal and other backwardness, has remained unaccomplished. The real struggles of the masses of workers and other toilers aspiring for that have been repeatedly diverted or suppressed. Remember the sudden withdrawal of struggle after the Chauri-Chaura mass outbursts by Gandhi brought in frustration and another wave of communalism in the country[A R Desai?Social Background of Indian Nationalism]. Throughout the period of the so-called independence struggle among different trends of nationalist struggle there was a prominent trend of communalist historiography and communal-nationalist politics that nurtured this. In fact the congress-led national leadership also displayed hindu imageries and possessed and on many occasions expressed this communalist trend that pushed the muslims more and more under the communalist influence of the muslim league, the two-nation theory and ultimately partition of the country. The British imperialist rulers took every such opportunity to aggravate it.
After the transfer of power, during the last six decades and more, the problems of unaccomplished democratic revolution have acquired more and more complicated forms. With each failure of struggles of the masses, economic stagnation depriving the masses more and more, later the increased attacks of globalization and liberalization as at present showing no signs of let-up, and then rampant corruption, have resulted in the masses becoming steeped in despondency. Along with different forms of oppression that has kept the masses divided, communalism has spread its tentacles. The legacies of partition in the sub-continent and the US-led War on Terror has further bolstered communalism.
On the other hand the Indian big bourgeois led state has more and more revealed its majority biased role be it in cases of the recent local communal conflicts or through earlier incidents of Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat communal destruction or numerous instances of persecution of muslims and other oppressed sections. It is not a secular state that has been revealed time and again as it allows rampant use of religion and powerful, moneyed religious institutions to influence the society and politics of the country, and exploit the deprivations of the poor and needy. The state has time and again succumbed to the pressures of such dogmatic, religious forces active and interfering in the social and political lives of the masses as in cases like the Shah Bano alimony case as early as mid-1980s, the Babri dispute case and the recent withdrawal of Sethusamudram like projects. All this shows the still pending issues of establishing a real secular state that has detached itself from all kinds of religious affairs of the masses restricting it to their personal domain has remained unresolved. Consequently the history of miscarried democratic revolution has given fillip to the rise today of a more strengthened Modi-led BJP government and a further aggressively communal Sangh Parivar as a grave danger among prevalence of other fundamentalist-communalist sections. Today the hindutva communal-fascist ideology is being thrust upon from local conflicts to the dominant national politics aided by a more active role of the state.
The aggressive hindutva mission of Sangh Parivar organisations is posing a great danger to the not only the working class but also before all sections of the toiling poor masses and all those who are in favour of democracy and progress of society. The impetus to communalism means increase of incidents of communal conflicts, riots, and hatred and naturally it brings about destruction in lives and properties of the common masses creating turmoil throughout society. But this is not the main loss to the working class. The main loss is disruption of possible unities among the working class required for struggle against the bourgeois, the disruption of possible unity of the working class and toiling masses against the exploiters of society. If the toiling masses get divided on the basis of religions, exist in an atmosphere of distrust and hatred then how will they advance unitedly against the exploitations and oppressions of the rulers and exploiters through their struggle towards a society free from exploitation? The proletariat and hence the toiling masses cannot be perturbed due to any kind of conflict or turmoil because without struggle they cannot transform the society. To them mere communal harmony has no value. Because the working class and toiling masses cannot demand mere communal harmony that is harmony between the communities keeping the communal divisions, distrust and hatred in tact. To them the unity of the toiling masses particularly the unity based on struggle of the toiling masses is important. Secondly, another loss of the toiling masses because of this communal mobilization of the Sangh Parivar is that the grave problems of price-rise, unemployment, poverty etc that are oppressing them and against which they are facing the problems of building up their struggles and unity, that is being relegated to the background. Thirdly, as the most unrelenting and consistent soldier for democracy it is also important for the proletariat that as a result of this mobilization by the Sangh Parivar the democratic right of each individual to accept and follow any religion or remain an atheist is being violated, the real secular principles of separating religion from all kinds of promotion by the state is being violated. In the name of unity of hindu religion the discrimination and oppression of the caste is once again sought to be continued by further strengthening the dominance of the upper caste powerful hindu sections. Through efforts to draw adivasis more and more within the fold of hindu religion the age-old dominance of exploiters and the social oppressors of upper caste hindu money-lenders, traders and landlords are being sought to be maintained. In short, Sangh Parivar is trying to take further backwards the present undemocratic society and state structure giving it a firmer, more permanent position. Above all they are out to further replace science and scientific approach with blind religious faith and superstition. In the name of decolonization they are reviving medieval values and social customs opposed to modernity. Thus in totality they are acting against progress. Of course in some way or the other fundamentalists of all religions are acting in the same way. But without further elaboration it may be undeniably said that in all such matter the danger posed by the Sangh Parivar is several times more.
It must be clearly understood by those who intend to resist this mobilization of the Sangh Parivar that Sangh Parivar and the fundamentalist forces of all the other religions are getting their strength from the present condition of society itself. Because due to the unfinished, unaccomplished democratic revolution of this country the age-old economic and social relations still now prevail to a large extent. Among the masses, especially among the backward sections, the influence of religions, and along with that of superstitions, blind faith etc. still prevail. Communalism, communal divisions, hatred, suspicion etc. prevail whose extreme expressions are communal conflicts and riots. All the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois political parties confined within this country?s parliamentary politics utilise these for their narrow ends. In fact the nature of their politics and class allegiances have left no alternative before them. Consequently in the midst of this Sangh Parivar organizations have been able to carve out their aggressive reactionary position prominently. Of course in India the problem of communalism is not merely the internal problem of this country, it is also linked with the history and the resultant communal actions of the neighbouring states of the sub-continent.
As Sangh Parivar is able to gather its strength from existing conditions of society, at the same time the forces able to combat this is also coming into existence within this society. The modern production relations are giving birth to the working class, the class which due to its very class interests will uproot the old production relations from society and eradicate communalism. It is true that at this moment the working class is not in a position to resist the mobilization of Sangh Parivar. The class-conscious detachment of working class is not yet organized. The mass of workers and toiling masses are still in an unorganized, dispersed state. Only recently the workers have started to turn around and that also through struggles against the attack of employers at only the factory level. The extent to which these struggles develop in that extent, for the interests of their class unity, the workers will more and more realize the necessity of rising up against communalism and all forms of divisiveness. But the all round mobilization of communalism cannot be resisted merely with this consciousness. As an inevitable result of capital and labour contradiction the primary level struggles of present will advance towards more developed stages and the working class will also advance towards developed class-consciousness, organizing their advanced detachment and forming their own political party. The class-conscious army of the working-class are only able to unify the whole of the toiling masses and the democratic forces of society to resist the aggressive hindu communalist mobilization of the Sangh Parivar.
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