Regressing to older India

Ira Pande

How ironic is it that as we progress into a new century, we are regressing with alarming speed towards an older India we thought we had put well behind us. Religious rituals and festivals have always been a wonderful means of celebrating the rich diversity of our multi-cultural and multi-faith country. All Indians celebrated Diwali, Dasehra, Eid and Christmas together regardless of their faith. Home-cooked sweets and goodies were exchanged among neighbours who professed different faiths and all this was done in a spontaneous manner, not because it was deemed politically correct. 

At some point — and I would like all of us to reflect on this turning point — we felt that another religion was becoming a threat to our own. So we invented ways of asserting our identity in a loud and intrusive way. I am not pointing fingers at the majority religious groups here but at all of us, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. Processions with swords and martial arts demonstrations, shobha yatras with loud music blaring from huge speakers, hysterical youths perched dangerously on tempos and motorcycles, veering this way and that to push people out of the way and lead this triumphal march through major roads, causing traffic woes for commuters and public transport… when did this become necessary to proclaim one’s allegiance to a faith?

The recent Kanwariya season showed us the ugliest side of brute power but equally, we are also confronted with Muslim congregations spilling onto public areas and holding open-air namaz in cities as diverse as Mumbai and Gurgaon. If not checked in time, this tinder box will explode one day and no one may be then able to control the violent seizures that will surely follow. Every political party is now guilty of using religion as a mobilising force, so who occupies the moral high ground?

Perhaps this disturbing trend owes much to the way history and mythology are now being merged in our curricula and popular imagination. The Indian way of remembering the past has much to do with the belief in its religious mythology that went side by side with empirical evidence. Who knows whether Lord Rama was actually born in Ayodhya? In fact, he may well have been born in his maternal home in Kosala (modern Punjab) since his mother was a princess from that land. To destroy a mosque built in Ayodhya simply because it outraged the bearded sadhus who thrive on the janmabhoomi commerce was an act of violence against the syncretic nature of our land. Today, this has become such an emotive issue that trolls hunt down anyone who dares to raise a voice against popular beliefs. 

This was made clearer to me when I recently attended a private gathering addressed by TV anchor Ravish Kumar. Anyone familiar with his Prime Time news programme will understand why he chooses to deliberately stay away from chalu news and raise questions that are based on historical facts and the Constitution. He recounted with pain and trepidation how he received death threats from the self-styled defenders of the Hindu faith for his apostasy. If this is how he feels, one can only imagine what happens to unprotected news stringers who dare to report unpleasant facts in our small towns. Something similar happened to several whistle-blowers during their pursuit of uncomfortable facts via the RTI. How can we call ourselves a modern country if this kind of bigotry and intimidation is being practised in the name of nationalism? Is this the freedom from repressive regimes that our parents’ generation fought for?

In fact, when I look back, I am so proud of that generation and its commitment to truth and honesty. How many youths sacrificed lucrative careers and joined the Swaraj movement is a testament to how strongly they believed in non-violence and a united confrontation, drowning their individual religious differences and lifestyles! Does the young India of today have even an iota of that fervour? The answer is sadly a ‘no’. A big part of this is to do with our unwillingness to teach history without bias and in this all our historians — left, right or centre — are guilty. Their commitment to an ideological creed, left or right, has blinded them to a fair and equitable distribution of facts. If the current government must answer us for appointing academics of questionable merit to our institutions, it is merely continuing a tradition set in motion by its predecessors. These are unpleasant truths and the blame must be apportioned equally. 

Finally, the stranglehold of language over dominant political and historical discourse has to make way for those voices of reason that speak the truth. Whether they are fluent in English or not, regional aspirations and opinions have to be accommodated and given an equal place alongside all those who have the privilege of an English education but can speak no Indian language with any degree of fluency. Making fun of accents and clothes is the lowest form of academic bigotry. It has destroyed our great educational institutions and is now going to destroy our very beliefs.

What needs to be done is speak of human rights, women empowerment and child protection. These are the eternal areas of discord and every religion has cheated the weak and dependent. It is time now to go back to our Constitution and set our compass to the way forward.