The Verdict & The Proletariat
September 30 was an unusual day. People rushed back home or neighbourhood early in the afternoon. Ambience was apprehensive and tensed. And it was simply because the Verdict would be given - the verdict of the Ayodha dispute. And after that Verdict was spelled and the news was spread and some time elapsed, everybody gave out a sigh of relief - no 'untoward incident' (i.e. rioting) happened!
But untoward incident(s) did happen. And that was the Verdict itself. Have anybody thought beforehand that an idol or deity can become a 'live' litigant in a court dispute! Have anybody guessed, even wildly, that the said deity, ramlala, could be seen as a 'minor' who had to be represented naturally by a guardian, in this case, 'his next friend' an individual; and that the said 'minor' remained a minor for decades (or centuries or millennia) in the eyes of not ordinary folks but a 'court of justice' in the 21st century in a country that takes Lunar Expedition and explodes Atom Bombs! A 'minor' litigant can come to the court if he wishes, but this said minor, ramlala, was not able at all to come to court simply because of being a 'non-living thing' or inanimate object in scientific, reasonable and strict sense of the term. But a court, that too of a 'secular' country, refused to see 'reason' and yielded to the 'belief' and 'faith' of the people of majority religion. What more was needed to produce a farce of a verdict!
The court said in its verdict that the place was believed to be the birthplace of Ram by the Hindu people, but refused to see that the structure was also believed to be a mosque by the Muslims at large. The judges gave weights to different 'belief's and majoritarian belief got more weight. One judge was outright like a Hindu priest as his pronouncement says. Without having concrete evidences he could say that the mosque was build demolishing the Ram Janambhumi temple. Whereas professional persons like those belonging to the Archaeological Survey of India could not (or did not!) produce any conclusive evidence of a mosque having been built demolishing a temple, our justice Sharma could unhesitantly say so. And he further stressed that as Islamic tenets debar building a mosque on a demolished shrine of any other religion, that mosque was un-Islamic. Another judge, justice Agarwal, likewise said that the mosque was built on a demolished 'non-Muslim religious structure, i.e., a Hindu temple,' as if there can be or could be nothing like a non-Hindu religious structure, a Buddhist shrine as for example. And still another judge, justice Khan, made it amply clear (vide Times of India, 01.10.10) that he did not delve deeper in history (in the scientific sense of the term) and archaeology due to four different reasons, the first reason being he did not find it essential for this judgement and the second reason being he could not say whether after studying history (based on facts) he would find a treasure or face a monster! And all these persons are called judges in the court of justice in what is labelled as a secular country. If this judgement is to represent Indian Judiciary in general then it can be said, here faith and belief of the majority religion prevail over Reason, Facts or concrete evidences.
But it will be perilous if we merely pass some sarcastic remarks regarding that verdict. The underlying dangerous trend will then evade our eyes. That trend is the dynamics of slow (and at times rapid) but steady forward march of Hindu fascism under the aegis of the state machinery of pseudo-secular India.
What little is known about the construction of Babri Masjid is that it was built by one Mir Baki, a general of Babar, in 1528. It is not established whether he got orders to do that on that place by Babar himself. Anyway, it got the name of Babri Masjid. It is also known that there were incidents of violence regarding the right to worship between Hindus and Muslims during mid nineteenth century when some Hindu fanatics tried force-entry, some years before India's First War of Independence (1857). The British government erected a barricade to separate worshippers. Till 'independence' the 'disputed' site acted as a standard Mosque. But after 'independence' the Hindu side got free hand. In a night of 1949 idols of ramlala were surreptitiously brought inside the mosque in the central dome area and it was declared that ramlala has appeared there, as if appeared from nowhere; and the Hindu mind was brainwashed likewise. The court was called in and the structure was declared to be 'disputed' and the gates were locked. The Muslims naturally got debarred from worshipping in what was a mosque. Legal battle continued but yielded nothing.
During the reign of Gandhi II, i.e., Rajiv Gandhi, the government took more tilt towards Hindus (i.e., tilt away from Muslims); the state machinery (of which judiciary is a part) ordered opening the locks to the favour of worshippers of ramlala in1986. But here let us make a point clear. General or ordinary worshippers of faithful Hindus were actually used as pawns of chess. Because the economic and political mileage were gained by the 'saints' (!) and their political & social representatives (the sangh parivar). [There is a lot of money, honey, in this religious 'trade'; who does not know why crusades were fought under the blessings of Popes.] This step certainly hurt the Muslim sentiment, but they knew that they are second-class citizens. Then more thumping blows came. BJP carried their rath-yatra for ram janambhoomi temple in 1990 to stir a mass hysteria. The sangh parivar collected enormous money for that temple and the kar-sevaks were mobilised from different parts of the country. Their first attempt to storm the mosque failed in 1990. But they, in presence of parliament members and top notches of BJP, could demolish the Babri Masjid on Dec 6, 1992.
18 years have passed since then, but the perpetrators and executors of that illegal, criminal act, demolishing the mosque remain unpunished. Much is heard about judicial activism in India, but no court in the country tried to strive that criminal case in a reasonable time. Riots followed. The angst and anger suppressed in the Muslim mind got expressed through acts of criminal elements, through acts of blasting, etc. Muslim fundamentalism got a good breeding ground. Though for 18 years the criminal case of Mosque demolition can remain pending in this secular democracy, within a much shorter time-period verdict was passed for Bombay Blast of 1993. The Hindu fascist side also committed blasts, but they still remain unpunished.
And perhaps, as the last nail in the coffin, came this Sept 30, 2010, verdict ? existence of the Mythical ramlala, who remains a minor for years after years, got a legal stamp; this Mythical Figure's birthplace was legally sanctioned to be the place where the mosque existed! The fascist forward march of the sangh parivar passed another landmark. They are advancing. And what about us, the fighters against fascism?
Members of the proletariat coming from Hindu background can easily estimate the dormant feeling of being subjugated among the members of Muslim community. It is obligatory that the proletariat should not only dissociate them from the Hindu communal feelings but also, and it is more important, they should openly stand up against all Hindu Fascists' steps, actions and excitement. They should step forward in forging unity among the workers irrespective of religions, castes, nationalities, etc and also exert influence through their acts on other sections of oppressed and toiling people. They should keep in cognisance the steady forward march of Hindu fascism, which, particularly in these years of new economic policy and 'India shining', seems to be pushed to the background. That this agenda is seemingly inconspicuous makes it misleading; just scratch the skin and the superficially hidden agenda of Hindu fascism will appear as a repugnant carbuncle of Indian society. The proletariat should keep in mind that each individual step of the Hindu fascist victory march had deepened the cleavage within the Indian society among Hindus and Muslims, and the verdict of Sept 30 has widened the gap even more and generated much more mistrust and alienation among ordinary Muslims.
But certainly there is a ray of hope. The bourgeois press gaily gave a 'thumbs up' sign to this India saying that today's generation was less bothered with the Mandir-Masjid dispute, that they hate riot mongering, they were witnessing that they had been progressing forward with prospect of prosperity. This is certainly not the ray of hope on which the proletariat can bank on. All these are middle class khwabnamah, the dream of the economically rising 'class' that constitutes a marginal minority in Indian society. The ray of hope lies in the restrain shown by the majority, the toiling and oppressed section of the society including the proletariat. Not only restrain, but also newer feelings have been seen among the workers. As for example, a group of new generation workers (in their twenties) of a jute mill were conscious of their task of marinating peace and harmony among workers in their neighbourhood and they acted likewise. They had suggested that no temple or mosque should be built on that 'disputed' place and instead, a hospital with ample facilities for the poor should come up there. Their voice certainly did not find way to the bourgeois press though a similar 'verdict' passed by the 9-year old school children of an upper-middle class school, the St James School, Calcutta, on Sept 30 got a wide publicity - though the proletariat of course congratulates those children of our society, indeed we are proud of them. In another incident, a hard-core BJP activist, worker of a factory, expressed his desire to cut off relationship with BJP because not only he was disillusioned by TU practices of BJP, but he felt it urgent to maintain peace and harmony to forge unity among workers against capitalists, and he opined that this sort of dispute and practices of Hindu forces only help to disunite the working class. Several other workers said 'we had enough of that Mandir-Masjid fight; now we are crushed by high prices, low wages and etc, these are our main concern and there should be fight for these issues'.
So comrades, everything is not lost, we are not playing a lost game. It is indeed true that after the decadence of the 'left' forces and movements in the country the fundamentalist and fascist ideologies gained ground and after the defeat of the working class movement world over became pronounced the militant religious ideologies of fundamentalists, religious-fascists got upper hand in the society. The era of globalisation only seemingly hushed up the growing cleavage in the society. But the class is not dead. Count on it; and let's be brave and face the world boldly. Every struggle against oppression of the ruling classes will steel the unity among the toiling masses. This unity is of utmost important for the fight towards a truly secular truly democratic India through a revolutionary change of this India. And on the other hand, the elements of the basic masses who have rejected the mandir-masjid dispute are to be imbued with the idea of fighting for the truly secular democratic India - a radical change in the society - which only can wipe out communalism; and this in turn will mould the unity with revolutionary ideology.
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