India towards Majoritarianism

By: Asad Mirza

It would not be an overstatement to say that the 2019 Lok Sabha election verdict and the sheer scale of the National Democratic Alliance’s victory is in large measure a manifestation of the deepening religious divide in the Indian society.

The most recent example of this divide or a shift towards majoritarianism was seen earlier this week in the parliament. When Muslim MPs were taking the Oath of Office they were greeted by cries of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. The most heckled was AIMIM president Barrister Asad Uddin Owaisi, who was greeted with cries of ‘Bande Matram’.

Most MPs responded to the sloganeering in their respective style. However, the point is that if lawmakers of the country are going to act in a manner befitting hooligans or lumpen elements, not upholding the prestige and sanctity of the highest house in the country, then what is going to happen in the long run?

What is going to happen is that, emboldened by their lawmakers and representatives’, the hooligans and lumpen elements, are going to play the same scene in every locality and street of the country, taunting people of the minority community. They’ll be secure in knowing that no action will be taken against them, since they are just replaying the same scene, which was played by the country’s lawmakers in the parliament.

This one act shows the commitment of the BJP and RSS taking the country towards majoritarianism or imposing the will of one against the other.

Another related case is that of ‘Bande Matram’. It is being shown as an anathema to the Muslims. This week only and earlier in 2017 also, a social media uproar was built up, by portraying Muslims as against ‘BM’ along with a photo of a newspaper masthead in Urdu, with words ‘BM’ emblazoned on the masthead.

What most social media activists missed, was the point that Lala Lajpat Rai started the newspaper shown in the picture in Lahore in 1931. The strip on the right hand side of the masthead shows the name of the Editor, Printer and Publisher as Pandit Karam Chand Shukl and the masthead gives out the names of literary contributors or assistants as: Kumari Lajya Wati, Lala Ram Prashad B.A. and Lala Feroze Chand.

This shows that the newspaper was not started by Muslims but a staunch Congress loyalist. Further, the people pointing finger towards Muslims should be reminded of the fact that well known Muslim scholar and noted freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad a “fusion of endogenic creativity”, stressed on the Islamic doctrines of “wahdate-e deen” (unity of religion) and “Sulah-e kul” (universal peace) portrayed in Bande Matram. Pertinent to mention here that when Azad was the Congress president, ‘Bande Matram’ was sung at each and every session of the Congress party.

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, a prominent Muslim leader who was also a minister in the Nehru-cabinet, had also strongly defended ‘BM’.

Both the above facts have been mentioned in Prashant Jha’s book Resurgent India.

Now what is the real issue, why are Muslims against ‘BM’? The answer is Muslims are not against ‘BM’ or any other nationalist notion. But when you are forcefully ordered to either subscribe to a thought or perform an act, to prove your loyalty to your motherland, then that results in rejection of that thought or act.

The party in power is using these gimmicks to rile and harass Muslims, and forcing them to react in a pre-meditated fashion. Muslims should understand very clearly that such prickly acts would not stop, but will only continue one after the other, in a pre-mediated fashion, so as to digress their mind from the real issues and also react emotionally, which may go against them. Further, this will also stop them and their leaders to act in a logical manner, whenever any issue related to the community is being debated or discussed.

We should remember that this all is a precursor to make India, a Hindu Rashtra. The voters who voted the BJP in power are being told that all their economic and other woes are due to Muslims presence in India, and the illiterate lot which has always voted an believed the political leaders, continues to do so with an added attraction of living in worlds only Hindu Rashtra.

Incidents where the Muslims are taunted and asked to sing ‘BM’ or ‘Jai Sri Ram’ are not going to die down, but will only increase in intensity. As could be evident from a incident in Delhi’s Pitampura locality, where a Maulana was asked to chant JSR and afterwards was hit by a speeding car, in Assam’s Barpeta a group of young Muslim labourers were forced to chant JSR by a group of 15-20 men, as reported by Indian Express, and a Muslim youth was lynched by a mob and forced to chant JSR in Jharkhand’s Saraikela village of Kharswan district, the youth was badly beaten by the mob and later died in the hospital.

The need of the hour for the Muslims is not to loose their cool and act in a dignified manner, the way in which Asad Uddin Owaisi and other Muslim leaders did in the parliament and not be drawn into any unsavoury controversy, instead Muslims should use their energies to contemplate their future course of action, when India will be turned into a majoritarian, sectarian country and decide what should be the community’s future plan of action should be.

This also leads us to another issue, how politically active the Indian Muslims should be?