Sunday, March 15, 2020

C - 05 (A) ANATOMY OF R I O T - COMMUNAL VIOLENCE or RIOTS : Communalism vs Secularism AND POLITICIAN

SOURCE:
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/communalism-vs-secularism





                                   WEEP  MY  COUNTRY



Communalism vs Secularism


                                                         &

                         The Politician

                       SOURCED FROM  SPEAKING TREE


"India is a secular, socialist republic.” The Congress party takes great pride in having introduced these "noble” concepts in the Preamble to India’s Constitution. In last month’s column, I had discussed how the great god of Nehruvian socialism had nearly bankrupted the country. As for secularism being noble: balderdash. It is no more noble than the bogey of communalism that it constantly derides. The fact is that both secularism and communalism are medieval concepts that deserve to be thrown into the dustbin of history.
Secularism is based on the concept that all religions are considered equal in a nation’s polity. It sounds grand, but the reality is that many of the problems and outrages our country is constantly prone to, have their roots in Religion. Mobs are ready to commit mayhem at the drop of a hat because their ‘religious sentiments’ have been hurt. Religion has become a convenient weapon in the hands of unscrupulous politicians. Self styled and opportunistic ‘secular champions’ use the bogey of religion to further their own venal agenda.
Champions of secularism among India’s political class are the biggest hypocrites going. Mayawati and Mulayam Singh spring instantly to mind in this respect. They shamelessly exploit caste differences to score political brownie points and cajole potential voters. Technically, they can still claim to be secularists since the castes belong to the same religion, but they aren’t fooling anybody. Sometimes, they carry this to absurd lengths and open themselves to ridicule. Very recently, Mayawati was pulled up by the Election Commission for violating the code of conduct when she was found to be carrying Rupees One lakh in cash to an election rally. She brazenly claimed that she was being singled out because she was a Dalit. Heaven help us!
Communalism is equally obnoxious, if not more so. It posits that one religion is somehow superior to another. Part of communalism’s popularity in many parts of India has to do with the nation’s history. For over a thousand years, our country has suffered conquests by people’s of an alien race and religion. The Mughals sought to impose their Islamic faith over large parts of the territory they ruled. It was made apparent to their Hindu subjects that their prospects of advancement in any sphere depended on their willingness to convert. The imposed and implied superiority of Islam meant that the concepts of religions being equal was never given an opportunity to take birth. The British imposed another type of segregation, not based on religion but on the colour of one’s skin. With the best intentions in the world, the Congress party’s intent to declare India as a secular nation found itself butting heads with a thousand years of history.
While some of our leaders clung to the concept of secularism, other savvy politicos used communalism to devastating advantage. Take Narendra Modi for example. Some may consider the post-Godhra riots as a blot on Modi’s career, but in reality it was a stepping stone to his rapid political advancement. Before Godhra, Modi was a local leader virtually unknown outside his home state. After Godhra, he instantly became a household name all  over India and abroad too. Modi accurately tapped into centuries of resentment bottled up inside Gujarat’s Hindus against the "other” community. During decades of Congress rule, they had deemed it prudent to toe the secularist line. Now they had a leader who proudly echoed their sentiment that theirs was a Hindu Rashtra and it was time the Muslims were put in their place. Modi may rightly credit his successive electoral victories to good governance, but the whole hearted support of Gujarat’s Hindus played a significant part too.
The literati and intelligentsia keep bemoaning the lack of good, or even adequate, governance in most parts of India. Of course, apart from lip service, editorials and endless television debates they have hardly any workable solutions to offer; but that is a topic for another essay. One of the most obvious and sensible paths to governance would be to disassociate religion from politics to the maximum extent possible. Advanced nations in the West realized this truism a century ago; and it is a major factor in their prosperity. In America, in fact, a lunatic fringe sometimes goes to absurd lengths to separate church and state, but fortunately it is a minority. The bottom line is that it works. It is easier to make calm and rational decisions when the minds of the rulers, as well as the populace, are not inflamed by religious dogma or extremism.
It is not as if Indian politicians are ignorant of this fact. They know it very well; and take great pains to suppress it. They realized long ago that good governance is actually at variance with their raison d’être of joining politics; which is to amass huge amounts of personal wealth and set themselves up as unquestioned overlords. A population that can be periodically riled up on religious or caste issues will be less inclined to ask uncomfortable questions and demand accountability from their rulers.
As mature democracies in the West discovered a long time ago, if a country is to prosper economically and politically, religion must be kept totally separate from politics. The separation of church and state is sometimes taken to fanciful lengths in America, but it is nonetheless a sound policy. More importantly, it works. If adopted in India, it would engineer a political revolution. For one thing, it would rob opportunistic politicians of their weapon of choice; namely reservations based on caste and religion. Robbed of the opportunity of playing one group against another; and compelled to compete in elections based solely on performance and good administration, many of the current lot of charlatans would be cast into the cesspool of oblivion where they belong. Abolition of reservations would also exculpate the obnoxious suppression of merit that it encourages. If today we are cursed with the unedifying prospect of a preponderance of incompetent politicians and bureaucrats controlling our destiny, the blame to a large extent can be laid at the door of the government’s misguided reservation policy.
Is there even a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel of our despair. I would like to believe there is, although there is no real justification for my optimism. In the present system, the charlatans in parliament make the laws and pass the bills. You can be sure they won’t make any reforms that curb their power and their greed. They will continue to flaunt their power and privileges in the face of the common people: and there is damn all we can do about.

                          Weep my country.
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