P. B. Mehta: With eyes wide open, we’re hurtling into an abyss / In Jahangirpuri, bulldozers leave trail of despair
Anyone who has ever genuinely immersed themselves in Ramcharitmanas will recognise the singular poignancy of one moment in the Sundarkand where Hanuman meets Sita. Until that point the story is hurtling towards disaster. Sita has been abducted. Ram is distraught and unsure of himself. But the moment Hanuman meets Sita is the point at which the epic turns; the confidence that order will be restored reappears. Hanuman drops Ram’s ring from the tree. Sita experiences contradictory emotions: Joy at recognition of the ring; fear about what its presence might mean.
(In Tulsidas’s rendition: Harsha vishaad hridya akulani). Sita is thinking many things. Suddenly Hanuman’s words of reassurance break out as he identifies himself. In all musical renditions, whether by Channulal Mishra or the underrated version by Mukesh, the gentle line “madhur vachana bole Hanumana (Hanuman spoke, his words like honey)”, always stops you in your tracks. Its power is not just the simple poetry but the magical calm it produces, an almost irresistible effect that, for a moment at least, bathes you in gentle reassurance and bliss. That moment is itself the deliverance from all worry, and from evil.
It is a measure of our
perversion as a society that Ram and Hanuman are now tropes to prepare the
ideological groundwork for pogroms. The communal frenzy that has accompanied
Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti, spread across several cities, should leave us
in no doubt about the direction in which India is headed. On the surface, the
narrative circulating in society is simple “Hindus were taking out processions
celebrating festivals. We were asserting our right. We got pelted by stones or
worse. The minorities are responsible for this. It shows Hindus are not safe
nor do they have space in their own country”. And then the ominous “We need to
get rid of them.” This narrative is designed to feed the most contrived sense
of Hindu victimhood. This is an old playbook.
In Jahangirpuri, bulldozers leave trail of despair: ‘What have they proved with this?’
What should give us nightmares is this. The simple fact is that this narrative is very widespread. All the arguments that we used about majoritarian communalism in India no longer hold. Its logic is no longer merely instrumental (as if that is not bad enough), that will pass with election cycles. It is no longer episodic where we can take reassurance that it will somehow pass of its own accord. It is not local in nature, but has taken on a national character.
The orgies of hate and
prejudice are not aberrations. They are now the norm. They are the norm because
the highest levels of political authority, including the prime minister, by
silences or dog whistles, condone it. They are the norm because elites openly
spout it, without shame. They are the norm because being communal in some ways
has become almost a necessary condition of political advancement and is fast
becoming the default common sense of civil society.
But what is more ominous is this. Think of what might happen to a society whose dominant religious sensibility literally inverts everything of value. Religion has often been misused and put to grossly perverse and violent uses. But can you think of another occasion in the history of modern Hinduism where everything sacred has become ominous, forms of worship have become fearsome, singing and text weapons, acts of public piety menacing, a sense of community murderous, and any talk of decency or civilisation constraining? That is the fearsome image the organised mobs that masquerade as religious processions now evoke. Let us be very clear.
This new form of Hinduism you are seeing unfolding is not an
expression of genuine pride and piety. It is meant to be a raw assertion of
power and violence to intimidate minorities. It is meant to literally extract reaction
(even one photograph will do), that can be used as a pretext to construe all
minorities as a threat. The number of seemingly well- meaning people for whom
stone-throwing on threatening processions can become a vindication of the
deepest prejudices against minorities is truly alarming. It is the one factoid
they are looking for to sustain their insidious lie that Hinduism will not be
safe unless minorities are shown their place if not erased. This was the
mission and the aggressive processions accomplished that. It sustains the
insidious lie that the murderous perversion of modern Hinduism, now sustained
by state power, is entirely reactive; a belated self-assertion against a
minority that dominates us, rather than what it is: Increasingly a drive to violence
and cruelty.
Writing on communalism has become a futile act. Who is it addressed to? Certainly not the state whose ideological practices and power fuel the crisis in the first place. Not civil society, because there is not much of civil society left. Not religious groups. To the votaries of new Hinduism, the only discourse of communalism that matters is one they can use in a discourse of revenge.
To Muslims, what reassurance can
we now give that asymmetry of numbers, state power and ideological zeal will
not be used in a project of their cultural erasure? Those who claim to be
secular are bulldozed by the lie that secularism is minority appeasement. To
those who want to speak the language of human dignity beyond the vortex of
communal identification? Is anybody left in that camp? To the Opposition
parties who have no courage of conviction or a grammar of politics that can
combat majoritarianism?
There is a comforting
fallacy out there that somehow a pragmatic, instrumental logic will at some
point assert itself over the politics of Hindutva: Inflation and
unemployment will show up the cracks. But this communalism is not always rooted
in material conditions. The fact that hordes of young men are seeking
vindication and self-esteem through a public display of collective narcissism
and violence suggests that communalism is now so deep that even social
discontent has to express itself in the language of communalism.
Almost all the
preconditions for widespread pogrom-type violence are now in place in India.
You almost dread the thought that India has reached a point where the question
is not “if” but “when.” What else would you call the widespread acceptance of
vile prejudice, the dismantling of any semblance of conscience, the alignment
of the state with majoritarian power, the complete effacement of the individual
by imposed communal identification, the self-justification of the majority that
has cloaked itself as the victim, the total contempt for rights, the
glorification of violence, the search for the slightest pretext for revenge,
and the radical othering of minorities?
Even Hanuman Jayanti
is not the deliverance from evil but us hurtling into it, with eyes wide open.
Source: Indian Express
Jahangirpuri - bulldozers leave trail of despair: ‘What have they proved with this?’
One was selling cold
drinks to police until yesterday. Another had been running a store in the
building where he was born 40 years ago. A third was saving up for the
festival. None had any prior notice, none were given the right to respond — all
were scrambling Wednesday evening to pick up the pieces of what
was left.
Just hours earlier, as
two CRPF officers took position atop Akbar’s home in Jahangirpuri and
complained about the harsh sun, the 35-year-old shop owner had immediately
split a red flex board into two to make a temporary sun shade. “All I asked was
whether the encroachment drive will damage my shop and they promised me it was
against scrap dealers,” Akbar said.
Due
process lies at heart of citizens’ rights. A bulldozer ran over it in
Delhi
Barely an hour later,
all that a bulldozer left of his small shop was squashed cigarette packets and
cold drinks covered in dust. And all that this family of four was left with was
an earthen piggy bank with coins and spare notes….
Source: Indian Express
Bharat Bhushan: Communal djinn and the vanishing State
Bharat
Bhushan - Incitement to violence: When will Supreme Court take note?
Ashoka University: Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s letter and my comment DS
Samar
Halarnkar: The lights begin to wink out in India’s democracy
Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even
Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation
Suhas Palshikar: Bhoomi pujan of the new republic //
Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Political colonisation of Hinduism
Anand
K. Sahay: The idea behind capturing power in any kind of way: fair or foul
Bharat Bhushan - 'Entire political science'
lesson: Peoples' power trumps people in power
Bharat Bhushan - Save the Election Commission: Common electoral roll can wait
Bharat
Bhushan: Frontier of warfare? Wrong to securitise civil society discourse
Ashoka University: Correspondence on
Professor P. B. Mehta's Resignation
