A change for the worse

The portents are ominous. Besides the bulldozer, which has emerged as the current symbol of the Indian State’s repression mechanism, the sudden metamorphosis of Vajpayee-era BJP leaders of the gentlemanly variety, like Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP and Pramod Sawant in Goa, into Gujarat-style lions is a signal to the nation to girdle its loins for the next stage of the march to a ‘Hindu rashtra’! Chouhan’s transformation is nothing short of a miracle. A mild-mannered leader, who had Tino De Sa, a Christian and a distant relative of mine, as his Chief Secretary for a few years, is suddenly adopting the bulldozer as his symbol of governance, a la Yogi in UP. A flicker of smart movements towards a more aggressive stance has also been noticed in other BJP-ruled states, with bulldozers acquiring resuscitated importance.

Advertisement

Now, Goa CM Sawant has begun talking of churches built by the Portuguese on the ruins of temples!

There were hardly any Muslims in Goa at the time of liberation in 1961, just 2% of the population if my memory holds. So Sawant has begun talking of churches built by the Portuguese on the ruins of temples! I am sure there are many such constructions which have faded with the passage of time. If one wants to do a Gyanvapi or even an Ayodhya in peace-filled Goa, I suppose there would not be too many hindrances.

Sawant intends to introduce an anti-conversion law in the state! What was the provocation? Conversions in Goa stopped 200 years ago, with the advent of the Marquis of Pombal as Portugal’s Vizier. He was openly anti-cleric and had driven the Jesuits out of the country. Today, Portugal is one of the most atheistic societies in the world. In Porto, I came across a band of European girls dressed in white saris and boys in white ‘dhotis’ and ‘kurtas’ sporting ‘shendis’ and chanting ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Ram’. They tried to reconvert me to the religion of my ancestors till they realised that I was a gone case!

Europe itself is replete with instances of churches being converted into mosques and reconverted into churches. In Spain, the Moors who had conquered the south of the country were driven out after four or more centuries by Isabella, known as the Catholic ‘king’, though she was the queen! The church, which was converted into a mosque, was opened for Christian prayer on Sundays but its architecture was preserved as a mosque so that tourists could revise their knowledge of history.

In Istanbul, which was once the seat of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Ottoman Turks turned the massive Cathedral of Hagia Sofia into a mosque. The 19th century Turkish ruler, Kemal Ataturk, got the walls cleaned of Islamic motifs so that Christian icons are seen by the naked eye. Tourists pay to peep at these fragments of history so powerfully portrayed in paint.

The story takes a different turn in England where steady migrations of old colonial subjects, both Muslim and Hindu, have been recorded on that small island. The migrants have come in search of a better quality of life. The disinterest shown by white youth in religion and spiritual matters has resulted in the virtual closure of many places of Christian worship and their ultimate sale to Muslims and Hindus who have converted these churches into mosques or temples.

But I have digressed. Mild-mannered gentlemen are leading BJP’s mushrooming adherents in different states into ‘Gujarat Lions’ or ‘Gujarat Titans’. Take my ancestral home, Goa, where my forefathers settled thousand or more years ago. It was the quietest place on earth. Suddenly, Sawant felt it incumbent on himself to prove his timber as a lion or a titan by sending a contingent of his hard-core supporters marching through the Baina area of Vasco, where Muslims resided, with trishuls, swords, etc shouting paeans to Lord Hanuman. Such a procession had not been organised in the past.

This first attempt at provocation was like an opening salvo at a tiny community that has never figured even in electoral calculations. Simultaneous marches through Muslim localities in other BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal as well as opposition-ruled Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal on Hanuman Jayanti and Krishna Consciousness day gave indications of more such attempts to foment communal passions where none existed.

The people of this ancient land should be prepared to expect the unexpected going forward. Besides the lynching of traders in cattle and of people suspected to be in possession of prohibited flesh, the ban on Muslim men falling in love with Hindu girls, the ban on Muslim women wearing hijab to school or college, the ban on Muslim traders participating in Hindu fairs and selling their wares to Hindu neighbours, a new list of don’ts is sure to be ratcheted up to deprive the Muslims of their livelihood.

A new threat that has surfaced is the interest taken by the UP Police in inter-caste Hindu marriages, where one of the consenting adults belonged to the Dalit community. Recently, in a village where a Dalit girl eloped with an OBC boy, the police went out of their way to restore the girl to her parents against her will. She was a major entitled to make her own decisions. What business has the police to poke their noses into the lives of citizens? Is it the job of the police in the looming-on-the-horizon ‘Hindu rashtra’ to restore the ‘varna’ system?

Such trends do not augur well for the new India that is being created on the model of an ancient social order. In ancient times, every caste had its appointed place and allotted duties. If the intent is to restore that order, there is sure to be resistance from those who have been suppressed for generations and have now learnt what is available to them if they cast their nets in the realm of knowledge and learning. I doubt if this new (old) social order can be revived.