Riots after Riots

In course of a conversation with a friend today, we meandered to the topic of our youth’s awareness and concern for events which impact us. While both of us were in agreement that this generation of high school – college going youth seem more concerned with good things in life, my friend opined that this indifference towards more profound events or history is actually good for the world. Logically, we fight only for what we hold dear. If we come to a state where we don’t care about issues which seem important to us now, there would be less and less to fight for. Truly speaking, I cannot find much fault in this logic. That said, it leaves me with a niggling feeling of discomfort. There would certainly be less to fight for – if people all around get indifferent almost at the same. However, if only one group adopts indifference as its mantra, doesn’t it leave the group vulnerable to attacks of more powerful ‘others’? Isn’t history, both distant and not so distant , replete with instances of a peaceful and prosperous but inward looking and decadent civilization falling prey to committed and organized hordes of barbarians? By this practiced indifference, are we coming to state where we would be similar to Delhi of 18^th century or Paris of early 20^th century?

A basis of my belief that this phenomenon of changing thought process of the youth of our country being restricted to the majority community alone is the changing pattern of communal riots in our country. A very welcome change which has happened over the last few decades is that the number of communal incidents in the country has come down. Yes, it has indeed come down irrespective of what the secular evangelists would like us to believe. Home ministry records are a testimonial to that. More than that, any observer of Indian modern history would know, triggering riots in India were amongst the easiest things to do. Particularly in the pre-partition India, the whole of North India was a communal tinderbox, with minor and major riots happening across cities and towns, over issues as minor as band playing before a mosque while a religious procession was on,  or to the much more serious issue of mass slaughter of cows. This tendency to riot continued well after India became independent, though with lesser vigour and started witnessing a drop 70’s onwards. Other than the changing mindset of Hindus in particular, in which religion was seen as archaic and a well of superstitions, the political support of religious identity witnessed a withdrawal. For one, late sixties onwards, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which used to be at the forefront of pro Hindu activities, got in multiple alliances with socialists of various hues, in effect diluting its ideology. Second, with Indira’s victory in 1971, the conservative wing of the Congress, or whatever had remained of it after Nehru’s continuous purges, was left without power; a forgotten bunch of people who had completely been sidelined due to people's fascination with Indira’s pro-poor image. Indira, completely the socialist messiah at that time, assiduously cultivated the minorities then and all these left little institutional support for those professing Hindu interests. Thirdly, with the decisive defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 war, Muslim separatism in India received a body blow and underlined that those dreaming of an Islamic sultanate in India would remain dreamers only. This in turn, tempered the ingrained bellicosity of Muslims in the country and resulted in lowering communal temperature in the country.  It is noteworthy  that there weren’t any major riots in the country in the decade of 1970s.

Compared to the era till the late 80s, the decade of 90s and beyond have seen a transformation of the profile of riot participants. While previously, the Jan Sangh would certainly be at the forefront of riots in pockets in North India, riots then were seen as one necessary for the defence of the community and its participants would consist of players cutting across the political spectrum. Even till the late 80’s, people from all parties, with a very big chunk contributed from Congress, would be among the accused in riots. Think of Bhagalpur riots, where almost all accused from the majority community were either from the Police force or affiliated to the Congress. Anyways, since the BJS’s electoral presence was relatively limited, crediting it with participation in all riots had would actually effect in paying unnecessary homage to its limited powers.

What changed in the 1990’s was the BJP’s hijackingof the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation and more importantly, the unfortunate siding of all Hindu organizations with the BJP. All of a sudden, most political parties were bereft of support of akharas, dharmacharyas  and groups of religious fervered activists, all of who had hitched themselves to the BJP bandwagon. The flip side of this phenomenon, combined with aggressive media evangelization and advent of Sonia Gandhi, has been that Hindu interests and concerns have become anathema to most parties, with the belief that any such articulation of support of Hindu causes would only benefit the BJP while further damaging their minority votebanks. That the BJP itself wants to dissociate itself with its past completely is another topic of discussion altogether. As far as riots are concerned, they have become a pure Sangh Parivar phenomenon, where almost all Hindu accused in communal riots are affiliated to the Sangh, with barely any 'representation' from other public bodies.

While the merits / demerits of the above mentioned changes can be debated, what has become more ominous is the fact that Islamic belligerence has been on the rise in all the riots which the country has witnessed in the 2000s. Other than Gujarat riots of 2002, the country has witnessed Hindu Muslim riots at Jalna (2009), Malegaon (2002), Dhule (2008), Sangli (2009), Miraj (2009), Burhanpur (2008), Hyderabad (2010), Marad (2003), Mau,(2005) Aligarh (2006) and Bareilly (2010), among numerous others. The good part is that none of these riots had a large number of human deaths. The sad part is that each of them entailed a huge loss of property and that each of them seems to have been instigated by the Muslim community. At Miraj – Sangli, the riots followed attacks on Ganapati pandals, ostensibly against some posters of the historical event of Afzal Khan murder by Shivaji. At Dhule, riots followed Muslims tearing down a Navratri pandal, ostensibly on account of their reluctance to walk underneath a saffron coloured gateway. Hyderabad riots happened after Muslims rioted against replacement of their banners which they had put more than a month back. Bareilley riots happened when Muslims violated orders and took out their procession through a sensitive locality and attacked houses while they were doing so. Marad massacre was a simple unprovoked attack on a group of Hindu Araya fishermen who were collecting their catch of the day, on Marad beach. Mau riots happened following unprovoked attacks on a Ramlila procession while Aligarh erupted in riots following Muslims removal of Ram Navami decorations from a temple. Malegaon riots happened after a mob protesting US invasion of Afghanistan decided to turn its ire against the hapless Hindus. Burhanpur riots happened after Muslims stoned a Hanuman Rath during the Hanuman Mela after Dushehra.

A few features, common across all these riots have been:

• All of them happened in towns / cities having a significant Muslim population
• All of them were invariably triggered by Muslims
• All of them were of a short duration, resulting in huge damage to property, but thankfully, relatively lesser damage to life
• Hindus suffered disproportionately as victims, both in numbers and in damage to property
• Few people were arrested, though the number of Muslims rioters would run in thousands
• Few of these riots evinced any interest in the media. Contrasting this with the 24 X 7 coverage of Muslim angst manifest in riots at Kolkata (2007) and Vadodara (2006), against Taslima Nasreen and illegal madarsa demolition, respectively

A renowned BJP watcher and a mainstream journalist now, had told me that following the Gujarat riots, Muslim belligerence has decreased. I guess that BJP wallahs are happy living this delusion. The fact of the matter is that riots have become more organized and more dangerous today. Senior personnel in home ministry accept that small modules of goons have spread up across India in a systematic fashion. These groups are highly motivated and trained to inflict maximum damage in the shortest time. Hence, in any riots, these bunches of goons can assemble at the nerve centre of riots at a short notice, create damage and melt away while the curfew is on. Then, the usual PUCL type ‘independent’ ‘citizens’ ‘fact-finding’ committees can come and proclaim that Muslim involvement in riots was restricted to their being victims or otherwise being a tool of ‘outsiders’ or that the poor unemployed Muslim youth are being unnecessarily terrorized by the Police.

It certainly does not seem that indifference is spreading among the Muslim youth too. Even today, most of the Muslim rioters are young and the very young. Their terrorists are not a bunch of uneducated or hungry lumpen elements but educated and coming from privileged backgrounds. It takes only a single determined man to change the destiny of a Nation. Think of Mohd Ali Jinnah, think of Gautam Buddha, Martin Luther King or our own Mahatma Gandhi. Here we are faced with a determined community riding the wave of its demographic strength, seeking to alter the Indian Civilization in their own way. At the same time, following Bareilley and Hyderabad riots, our Home Minister assures that the minority interests would be protected!!! Where does that leave a decent, law abiding citizen who simply wants to carry on with his life without interference from others? Where would this indifference to all what is happening take us? Can indifference ever be the solution to what lies ahead of us?

The concluding part to this post would touch upon the changing demographic profile of the country.

Freedom of Expression or Societal Peace???

Buried in inner pages of today’s Times of India was a small news item, captioned, 'SC upholds ban on book against Islam'. It stated that the Hon’ble court has upheld Maharashtra Government’s ban on R V Bhasin’s "A Concept of Political World Invasion by Muslims". The two judge bench comprising of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice H L Dattu held that Bhasin’s Right to Freedom of speech, as guaranteed under the Constitution of the country was secondary to the need of maintaining peace in society.

The author of the book, Mr Bhasin had challenged Maharasthra Government's 2007 decision to ban the book, four years after its publication, on the ground that it perpetrated hatred against Muslims, promoted enmity between communities and on the apprehension that it would breach harmony in society.

At the first glance, there does not seem anything objectionable in the judgment passed by the court, which by itself was a reaffirmation of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court order upholding the ban on the book. Since the constitution has explicitly affirmed restrictions on the Right to Freedom of Speech and the fact that even instinctively, we all know that rights are not absolute makes the judgment seem completely logical and in the larger interests of society.

However, a little analysis of the facts of the case and a comparison of this present instance with court judgments / Government actions in similar cases can leave a person much discomforted on the arbitrariness behind judicial pronouncements and the posturing of ‘civil society’. The most recent of these is MF Hussain’s renouncing of his Indian Citizenship and the Muslim riots in Shimoga, ostensibly against writings of Taslima Nasreen. In the case of Hussain, the Hon’ble court has already dismissed a couple of cases against him, citing artistic license and freedom of speech. His supporters disingenuously point out that most of his controversial creations were 20 years old and that it is indeed the Hindi (emphasis added) magazine Vichar Mimansa, which is guilty of insulting Hindu deities as it had reprinted those paintings. Notice the similarity with Bhasin’s case.


Unlike in case of books like Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ or Ram Swarup’s ‘Understanding Islam through the Hadis’, which were banned almost immediately after their publication, the Government took four years to realize that it could disturb peace in society! By that logic, opponents of Hussain’s work, have all the more valid ground to agitate against Hussain. But yet again, only a couple of years back, the Delhi Tis Hazari court dismissed a petition seeking a ban on Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s ‘Satyarth Prakash’ for its criticism of Islam. In that instance, the court held that a book published more than 135 years back cannot be taken to be a threat to peace now.

In the case of Taslima Nasreen, FIRs were lodged against the Kannada newspaper Kannada Prabha’s publisher, the translator and Taslima herself for bringing a religion in disrespect and wilfully disturbing societal peace. Taslima anyways is controversy’s child. So, even at the time when she was physically attacked by MIM goons (including 3 MLAs) in Hyderabad in August, 2007, an FIR was lodged against her! The victim of a murderous attack!!

Then there is the ban on James Laine's, S'hivaji, Hindu King in Islamic India.' The book supposedly questions the legitimacy of Shivaji’s paternity and led to an attack on Pune’s Bhandarkar Institute. The ban followed the attack and was defended by the Maharashtra Government right till the Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court dismissed the ban. The court judgment anyways became immaterial as the book was withdrawn from print in India altogether.

The only common theme which we can notice in all cases of bans are that such restrictions have been imposed only where there have been riots / demonstrations and / or damage to public property. Hence, protests against Hussain, which have been by and large peaceful and primarily restricted to legal and internet forum battles, have not seen any injunction against Hussain. At the same time, any book, cartoon or utterance, which can drive Muslims to paroxysms of rage, have been censored or banned. It is not the Islamists alone who are prone to get offended. The supposedly liberal Gandhian dispensation was apoplectic with the reception received by ‘Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy’ and did not rest till the play was banned by the ‘Gandhi-murderer-organization (RSS) associate, the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’.

However, the ban on Mee Nathuram…, should not blind us to the fact that in spite of their protests where any person questioning Gandhi is not deemed patriotic enough (recollect the avalanche of rage when KS Sudarshan of RSS declared Gandhi to be a noble soul, but not the Father of the Nation), criticism of Gandhi and Nehru are considered acceptable even in today’s dangerously divided India. In fact, that ban becomes all the more sad when we remember that Supreme Court had, in 1969, stuck down a ban on Gandhi-hatya Ani Mee (Gandhi-assassination and I), by Gopal Vinayak Godse, brother of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, even while accepting that the book did indeed glorify the murderers of Gandhi.

What is more worrisome is the growing tendency of the State to yield to hooliganism, particularly of the minority variety. It does not seem to take more than a few minutes for a couple of thousand of Muslims to assemble anywhere at anytime of the day and demonstrate against the numerous injustices being meted out on them. Only this demonstration is not peaceful and is always accompanies by riots, stoning, damage to public property and grievous injury (often fatal) to a few innocent bystanders. So, a caring Government and a judiciary, which wants to maintain public peace at all costs, is willing to abdicate its duty of being the enforcer of law, and succumbs to their demands. The same scenario being repeated, be it Mau, Azamgarh, Miraj, Burhanpur, Sangli, Murshidabad or Hyderabad. Lest it be assumed that this tendency is limited to Muslims alone, we must not ignore the fact that rising intolerance has become the mark of public discourse even in other communities. Remember the ban on the movie Da Vinci Code in Andhra Pradesh and some North Eastern states, when Indian States became probably the only governmental entities in the world to have banned the movie? That ban followed Government's fear that protests by hurt Christians could create a law and order problem. Punjab was rocked by violent protests against the attire of Dera Saccha Sauda's Ram Rahim for days altogether. Only last month, some alphabet book published in distant Mizoram became the crux of protest of Xtian hooligans in Punjab again, leading to arrest of the author and publisher of the book. No National newspaper has reported anything on the arrest of these hooligans who destroyed public property, so we can safely assume that none happened!

All along, we had been made to believe that while the lower courts judged on the facts of the case, the higher courts judged on provisions of the laws relating to the case. Sadly, that seems to be slowly getting diluted in cases where there seems to be a risk of violence by any affected party.  In this book's case, there weren't even any protests, merely the fear that there might be riots. I have not read the book and so don' t really know if it is actually offensive. Bhasin's book is supposedly based on analysis of Islamic scriptures. Logically, one would expect a scholarly rebuttal based on facts and not a blanket ban. I wonder if militant Hindutva votaries should take a leaf of their Islamic counterparts and be more aggressive and damaging in their protests. Should it start with Wendy Doniger's Hindus, An Alternative History?

Saving Ourselves

After many years and Crores of rupees spent on cleaning the Ganga, all to without any avail, we have yet another spectacle of the BJP Government in Uttarakhand launching a Save Ganga campaign. Quite a noble initiative, one would say. After all, aren’t rivers the life blood of our country? And doesn’t the Ganga occupy the highest pedestal of them all? Moreover, with environmental consciousness being the newest ‘cool’ fad amongst Indian elite, isn’t it time that we should all stop dumping plastic bags in the river and save it from drying up?

Of course, yes! Answers to each of these questions would be in the affirmative. Sadly, saving the river is much more that stopping sewage or dumping of sundry dead bodies. Coming from the BJP Government, which only a couple of days back has decided to oppose the Central GoM decision not to go ahead with construction of dams in the 155 kms stretch of Bhagirathi, this Save Ganga campaign seems to be as meaningful as Nitin Gadkari’s song at the BJP National Convention at Indore. As more and more hydrologists are now accepting, setting up of sewage treatment plants to save rivers are akin to administering distilled water before it is administered to a dead body; a dead body because a river without water is dead. Period.

Over the last century, we as a Nation has failed Nature which made the Indian Subcontinent among the most fertile, productive and populous regions of the world. Dams after dams on rivers crisscrossed with ill conceived canals have ensured that even the supposedly perennial rivers get reduced to a rivulet like trickle for most of the year. A dam building western model, simply duplicated without study of its applicability in the Indian context, has ensured that within a few years, dams get silted up, never achieve even half of their power generation or irrigation capacity and finally, fail to achieve its target of flood alleviation. Nothing can be more potent a symbol of this rot than the Hirakud on river Mahanadi. This dam was ostensibly constructed for protection of deltaic Orissa from floods. Now, the dam management has to flood Orissa to save the dam!

Coming back to the Ganga, the river as we know, is an amalgam of many streams and rivers, of which, some like the Yamuna are even mightier than the Ganga when it actually merges with the latter at Prayag. The primary stream, which flows from Gangotri and before it, from Gaumukh, is the Bhagirathi and it is the same Bhagirathi which carries the name of Ganga throughout its journey in the Indian heartland.  Most importantly, the BJP wallahs whose hearts seem to beat so strongly for the Ganga, want not 1 but 3 dams to come up over Bhagirathi, effectively killing the river and by extension Ganga. 

Unfortunately, killing the Ganga does not seem to be an obsession with the BJP alone. Since the times of British, when canals were built to divert water from the Ganga, more and more projects on the river have meant that there is lesser and lesser water in the river. A river, which sustained river trade, lakhs of fishermen and multiple civilizations has been left gasping for the element which makes it a river in the first place. What good would a save river campaign do when there would be no river to protect?

Unfortunately, like most other issues of public domain, environmental concerns in India have been hijacked by extremists, one of the breast beating variety, and the other and more dangerous ilk (for they are the power wielders), of everything-is-fine variety.

What is more confounding is that both these varieties come together when India is ‘pitted’ against the ‘imperial’ west, aka, India’s persistence with the per capita emission standards. While it can be argued that the Hagen summit was doomed to fail on account of the developed world’s intransigence on bearing the cost of cleaning up of their mess, more shameful has been India’s assertion of its right to pollute, based on the per-capita emission figures. Again, while India may not be found wanting in legal speak, the morality and truth behind such a position needs a definite enquiry. Rather than seeking refuge behind its destitute millions, India should pause and think of a developed country whose land, air and water is even half as poisoned as India or a country whose forests, rivers and mountains have faced so much denudation as ours. The fact remains that these destitute millions, who allow India to shamelessly ask for a Right to pollute are the ones who demand the least of Natural resources. I dare say that the carbon emission rates of our consuming classes would be at rates which would put even the much maligned Americans to shame.

More inexplicable is people’s reluctance to accept that the climate is changing. It doesn’t require one to be a greybeard today to proclaim that the summers are hotter, days hotter, nights warmer, and rains shorter than what they were even 10-15 years back. Flowers and fruits bloom out of season and what comes is always more severe than its predecessor. Our surroundings have changed. The common house sparrow has been replaced by the pigeon and mynah without even our realizing it. The weaver bird, the tailor bird, the parrot, the bulbul, the crane and the sarus seem headed only to our illustration books. Squirrel population has boomed and we have many more monkeys around. But what about other mammals? The udbilav, the mongoose or even the rabbit? We haven’t realised it probably but we have lost Spring. For a land which chronicled six seasons, we have been left with three, a very long summer, a short winter and a short season of rains. But who cares? Our culture, which was so intricately entwined with nature has moved on. For a people who worship trees, mountains, rivers, animals and birds, we seem to display little sensitivity even in instances where the land may be as sacred as Braj or the river as sacred as the Ganga.

Last year’s drought is still fresh in my memory. Indicators for this year have been far from cheerful with absolutely no rainfall in North India in either February or March. Even thinking of a consecutive year of drought sends shivers down my spines. In spite of myself, I cannot but go back to those hymns of the Rig Veda which talk of the 12 year drought, which caused erasure of all knowledge from Earth. We survived that period though at a great cost. Wonder if we have that much of time today?

Let us just remember that we will not be doing Gangaa favour by not throwing polybags in its waters.