PURUSHOTTAM AGRAWAL - The BJP has Unleashed the Bhasmasura of Aggressive Nationalism. Good Luck Controlling It.
The demonisation of intellectuals, the glorification of
brute force and the weakening of institutional practices are all
indications of Indian democracy turning into a dystopia.
The recent call by a top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary to
“purge all universities of anti-national elements” is not just another barb in
the ongoing controversy over recent events at JNU. It indicates the RSS’s
resolve to achieve as much of its agenda as possible through the first-ever
majority government formed by its affiliate party, the BJP. The RSS hopes, and
not without basis, that even if ousted from power in 2019, its ‘achievements’
will remain intact, given the support it has built amongst the vocal middle
class, aided by the political naivety of its opponents.
Since its inception, the RSS has been following a well
prepared agenda of replacing the inclusive, democratic and secular idea of
India with its own. The call to ‘purge’ and the campaign against JNU are but
manifestations of this far-reaching design.
Nationalism is a complex and potent sentiment. It is an
elevated and constructed abstraction of community feeling, which is integral to
the human mind. It is also used as a psychological and ideological
justification for different political orientations. Some space for critical
enquiry and even existential interrogation is a must for any nationalism that
intends to remain democratic and inclusive.
Such nationalism tries to
accommodate those who for whatever reason feel wronged or excluded; it tries to
assimilate them by giving them a space to vent their frustrations within the
framework of law, based on democratic consensus and facilitated by autonomous
institutions such as universities. Our national movement was broadly based on
this kind of nationalism, as opposed to the one obsessed with fantasies of
domination and rooted in the ideas of blood and racial or religious
‘authenticity’.
Hyper-tense nationalism
Any democratic nationalism is both aware of its historical (not ‘eternal’)
existence and confident of its potential for inclusion and assimilation. As
opposed to such confident nationalism, we have the perpetually hyper-tense
nationalism of the RSS variety, which in spite of all the hype generated, is
weak at its core and hence cannot but adopt an aggressive, abusive and
irrational posture. It has been justifiably compared
with Fascist and other totalitarian ideologies.
Over the last couple of decades, global developments have
contributed to a sense of unease even for the traditionally inclusive Indian
nationalism. Prominent among these is the spread of jihadism and its horrifying
manifestations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The deliberate portrayal of a local event at JNU as a
threat to the nation is an attempt to exploit these fears for the RSS’s
political agenda. The place being JNU (a ‘left-liberal bastion’) and the issue
being discontent in Kashmir presented the RSS with an opportunity too tempting
to be missed.
And, it could, of course depend on the shrill, unethical ‘nationalist’ sections of the media to
push under the carpet not only the larger issues of democracy as such, but also
immediate ones like the BJP’s new found love for the Peoples Democratic Party –
which officially holds a position on Afzal Guru’s hanging that is much
sharper than those of most of the JNU ‘anti-nationals’.
The RSS seeks to make fundamental changes in the way an
ordinary citizen would see the achievements of, and threats to, the nation. The
BJP hopes to reap rich electoral dividends by presenting JNU as a den of
‘anti-nationals’ and by posing itself as the sole champion of
nationalism.
The friends of the BJP in the media are only too willing to help
and oblige. The airing of doctored videos is only one example. There
are several ‘patriotic’ tricks of earning high viewership ratings: provocative
and judgmental headlines, deliberately and misleadingly rendering the legal
term ‘sedition’ into emotionally loaded terms like ‘anti-national’ and
‘deshdrohi’ (traitor) and the not-too-subtle communal profiling of ‘targeted’
individuals. Such ‘patriotic’ tricks, when coupled with the posters that have
been appearing in various cities that contain hate propaganda and that are
either anonymous or bear the names of obscure organisations, lead to a
situation of unprecedented gravity.
A sinister tapestry
One is reminded of the meticulously documented and
horrifying portrayal of ‘Hitler’s willing executioners’ by Daniel Goldhagen in
his 1996 book of the same title. Fortunately for India, at this
moment, we are still far from that nightmare. However, given the presence of
24/7 TV contributing to hype and jingoism, are we in the first throes of
fascism, as some scholars are arguing?
One is also reminded of Hans
Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin, based on the true story of a
working class, ‘Aryan,’ ‘patriotic’ couple who lost their only son at the altar
of Hitler’s nationalism and were left so alone in their anguished realisation
of the deceit that almost all the post-cards written and left at various places
by them in order to awaken people to the danger of brutalisation of everyday
life actually landed up in the hands of the Gestapo. Imaginable
consequences follow.
Let us look at the tapestry of nationalism being woven
around JNU events.
First, demonisation of not only ‘JNU types’ but of the
intellectual class as a whole is taking place. The social media as well as the
so-called mainstream television media is overflowing with condemnation of
intellectuals. In other circumstances, this could have been pitiable or even
laughable – but here is an organised attempt to turn the word ‘intellectual’
into an abuse to be hurled at anyone who seeks to form an opinion through dialogue
and the objective appraisal of facts. The intention is to marginalise the very
idea and practice of rational enquiry. This is bound to lead to a situation
where the word of the powers that be is seen as divine diktat and submission as
nationalist duty. Remember, during the bloody repression in Bangladesh in 1971,
intellectuals, teachers, writers, journalists and students were the first
target of the Pakistani army.
Then, we have the glorification of brute force coupled with
the evergreen rhetoric of hurt sentiments. The lawyers and elected
representatives of the people feel free to beat an accused in the court premises. They
are confident of teaching journalists a lesson or two, and even hurl abuses at the senior lawyers sent by the Supreme
Court to oversee the situation. All this is accepted as ‘natural’ – as hurt
national sentiment is involved. It is okay to harass senior academics for
hours, it is okay to ‘profile’ a person of a Muslim background, even if he or
she is an atheist, it is patriotic for the police to describe a brutal assault
as a ‘minor scuffle,’ and it does not matter at all if a couple of young lives
are sacrificed to domination fantasies masquerading as nationalist sentiment.
Meanwhile, the ruling party can breathe easy on all its
failures, and can do whatever it pleases with natural resources and the lives
of Adivasi and Dalit citizens as long as it can be seen teaching the ‘enemies
of the nation’ a lesson.
Democracy is not a mere game of numbers. It is a matter of
individual and collective temperament, of the autonomy and credibility of
institutions, and a sense of participation for the most marginalised. The
current campaign of demonisation of intellectuals, mob frenzy, the
systematic weakening of institutional practices ranging from universities and
the media to the judiciary and police are indications of Indian democracy
turning into a dystopia.
Those knowledgable about Hindu mythology – and
hopefully this included the political Hindutva types – are surely aware of the
story of Bhasmasura. The demon was granted a boon by Shiva to turn anybody he
wished into ashes, but he soon turned upon Shiva himself. The myth holds
lessons for those who believe that their power and the forces that they have
unleashed will remain under their control.
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