Main Presentation
Minorities Under Threat
By Abha Sur
The singular defining element
of South Asian countries is their immense cultural diversity.
The multi-ethnic, multi-religious and essentially pluralistic
South Asia has in recent decades been torn asunder by religious
strife and ethnic violence. Almost all of the countries of South
Asia have witnessed increasing hostilities and violence against
their ethnic and religious minorities, systematic suppression
of civil liberties of their citizenry and a renewed articulation
and acceptance of an ideology of hate and bigotry. While the social
and political conditions–the organization of the state, the
nature of the political parties and institutions–in the different
countries of South Asia vary significantly, it is also true that
the rise of religious right wing and communalization of South
Asia is inextricably linked.
In this paper, rather than
enumerate the various events and incidents that point to the threat
faced by ethnic and religious minorities in each of the countries
of South Asia, I will attempt to develop an understanding of certain
key elements in the phenomenon of resurgent communalism and ethnic
divisiveness. Such an understanding is necessary for organizing
an effective resistance to the communalization of our societies.
I would like to state at the outset that rather than offer a definitive
and overarching analysis here I merely suggest a couple of ways
of thinking about the problem which I hope will lead to a fruitful
and productive discussion in the workshop.
The historical trajectory
of the rise in religious nationalism in South Asia is relatively
easy to trace but the reasons for its particular enunciation at
this juncture of history are more complex. Here it is necessary
to understand the different layers of political and social formations
at the national, regional, and international levels and the interactions
between them. In thinking about cultural and religious nationalisms
in the last two decades of the twentieth century I am struck by
two coincidences. On the national level, specifically in the case
of India, there seems to be a distinct connection between economic
liberalization by the Indian State and its appeasement of the
majority community. On the other hand, on the international level,
it is striking that the rise of multiculturalism in the Western
world, in particular in North America, has been concomitant with
the rise and consolidation of the religious right in third world
countries across the globe. In the following pages I try to argue
that these are not mere coincidences but rather the product of
new economic conditions characterized, in part, by cold-war politics
of the 1970s.
National
India: The assault on the
civil liberties of the Indian people and the disastrous vote-bank
policies of the Indira Gandhi notwithstanding, it would be difficult
to ascribe communal politics to her regime. While the Center-State
relations took a nose-dive under her leadership resulting in disastrous
consequences especially for the state of Punjab, which finally
led to her assassination, the ideological stance of her government
posed no special threat to the religious minorities in India.
The situation began to change rapidly in the aftermath of her
assassination. The organized riots against the Sikhs orchestrated
by a number of government officials and congress party members
and for all practical purposes condoned by the state signaled
an ever increasing polarization of the Indian polity along religious
lines. Subsequently the Shah Bano case, the immolation of Roop
Kanwar on her husband’s pyre in Deorala and the ‘Rath
Yatra’ organized by BJP and its allies, and the destruction
of the babri masjid by them further established the increasing
complicity of the state with the forces of communalism and majoritarianism.
It paved the way for an ever-increasing articulation of communal
politics by the BJP and its allies and its steady incorporation
in the Indian polity.
The coming to power of
the BJP in a coalition government further legitimized the pernicious
ideology of Hindutava, with the state now openly committed to
ensuring what it euphemistically called majority rights. With
the BJP in power all secular institutions of India–education,
health, history, judiciary, and labor–are under threat. Indeed
the re-writing of history, the new sectarian educational curriculum,
the move to teach vedic sciences and astrology not as histroy
but as living sciences are all aimed at enforcing a Hindu Raj
which is fundamentally casteist, sexist and racist in its conception.
Although strands of cultural/religious
nationalisms have existed in India from the colonial period, their
ascendancy in late twentieth century warrants an explanation.
How do we begin to understand the very substantial shift from
Indira Gandhi’s vacuous but nonetheless highly popular slogan
of ‘Gharibi Hatao’ to he aggression laden and threatening
call ‘Mandir Wahin Banayege’ which also seems to have
captured sizable sections of the Hindu population in India and
elsewhere? What is the material basis for this insidious and pernicious
politico-cultural formation?
The explanation, in part,
lies in the imposition of the essentially anti-people economic
policies of structural adjustment and liberalization by the IMF
and the World Bank and the willingness with which the ruling classes
of India pursued these. The dictates of liberalization to not
only remove certain regulatory restrictions in business and industry
but more importantly to open India to global exploitation warranted
a recasting of the popular rhetoric since before independence
of economic self-sufficiency and implicit anti-imperialism. The
new rhetoric of science, technology and progress (by Rajiv Gandhi)
did not go very far as its appeal was restricted and unlike the
‘Gharibi Hatao’ slogan it was not accompanied, even
perfunctorily, by any popular social program. In this climate
it was relatively easy to promote the notion of an ‘oppressed
majority.’ Undoubtedly the majority was oppressed as were
the minorities, but not because of cultural onslaught as claimed
by the BJP and its allies but because of economic conditions.
Nonetheless, the emphasis on cultural and social subjugation and
the concomitant trivialization of struggles for economic justice
and labor rights as crass economism became appealing to the educated,
urban middle-classes especially in the wake of the break up of
the Soviet Union.
Needless to say, the fight
against cultural colonialism by the Hindu right-wing in India
was directed mainly against the so called Mogul invaders and their
supposed descendants and not against the West. Of course the Hindu
right denounced issues of gender equality and secularism as western
constructs but with the possible exception of RSS, remained firmly
wedded to the liberalization policies initiated by the Congress.
The de-linking of economics from political, cultural, and social
considerations has been critical for the considerable appeal of
the BJP in urban, Hindu India with its penchant for consumerism
and its notions of its own cultural superiority.
An effective opposition
to the pernicious policies and ideology of the Hindu right must
therefore make explicit the anti-people and anti-national character
of BJP’s economic policies. People’s secularism like
people’s democracy is only possible in an economically and
socially just society.
The social, cultural and
economic deprivation of a vast majority of people in South Asian
countries coupled with undemocratic method of governance has resulted
in tremendous suffering of the minority communities and nationalities
in all countries of South Asia. Denial of democratic rights to
minorities in Pakistan, failure of the Sri Lankan government to
redress the aspirations of the Tamil-speaking population and of
Bangladesh government to judiciously resolve the issue of autonomy
and return of land to the indigenous people (Jumma peoples of
CHT) and the stateless Biharis, attack on Nepali Madeshias of
the Terai of Nepal during the recent anti-India riots (December
2000) in Nepal illustrate the insecurity in the lives of minority
people. Aside from the attack on Muslim and Christian minorities,
Bangladeshi migrants to India are constantly subjected to threats
and police brutality.
South Asia as a Region
Geographical, cultural
and religious contiguities across South Asia ensure that major
socio-political shifts and or instabilities in one country would
affect the entire region. The problem of Kashmir remains a burning
issue between India and Pakistan as well as among the multi-ethnic
peoples of Jammu and Kashmir. Similary the Afghan war had and
continues to have major repercussions in Pakistan as well as in
India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Here INSAF can play an active role
in helping develop a truly South Asian perspective on key political
issues by creating a forum where people’s representatives
from each country can discuss and debate in a friendly amicable
atmosphere. Not only do we need to develop South Asian perspectives
on politics but also on issues of mutual concern such as environment,
energy and water resources as these can have a profound impact
of relations between countries and peoples.
International/USA
The seventies were a tumultuous
decade marked by the liberation of Vietnam, the partial successes
of the civil rights movement in the USA, the growing support for
the anti-apartheid movement the world over. In South Asia the
decade witnessed the liberation of Bangladesh and the undeniable
fervor and intensity of the Naxalbari movement. Yet by the close
of the 70s most of the popular movements had begun to dissipate
and in their place arose single issue based movements such as
the feminist, the gay liberation and the environment movements.
Where as the struggles
of the early seventies were decidedly anti-imperialist and evoked
international solidarity, the later movements were based largely
on identity politics concerning themselves almost entirely with
local specificity and contingencies and distrustful of meta narratives.
By the mid-eighties multiculturalism in the US was firmly in place
with support from the progressive and liberal sections of the
society. However, unlike the solidarity movements which had critiqued
imperialism, capitalism, and their respective national governments,
multiculturalism tended to obscure the inherent inequities and
injustices in the nation states by celebrating the ethnic, cultural,
and religious difference of the minority communities in western
metropolises. In this respect multiculturalism in the West although
identified with the left political stream, ended up, perhaps inadvertently,
supporting the cause of cultural/religious nationalisms in the
third world.
The rise of multiculturalism
in the USA parallels the support given by America to politically
and socially conservative counter movements in the third world.
Within the US multiculturalism gave voice to the disadvantaged
minorities but at the cost of muting and undercutting the radical
and subversive politics of the earlier solidarity movements. However,
regardless of the intentions of the powers that be, multiculturalism
did spawn a number of progressive organizations (including ours)
and opened up a political space that was increasingly stifled
by the state. But the lack of a coherent world-view and celebration
of difference for the sake of difference also saw to the emergence
of associations like the Hindu Students Council in the universities,
the direct intervention of the Hindu right wing forces in the
establihment and operation of "Indian Studies Programs" in some
universities, and the status of charitable organization given
to VHP America at a time when VHP was a banned organization in
India. All these are indications of the effectiveness with which
the Hindu right has been able to take advantage of the opportunities
afforded by the ‘apolitical’ nature of multiculturalism.
The increasing clout of
the non-resident South Asians in the internal affairs of their
respective countries behooves us to make public the nefarious
politics of these organizations. In this respect it would be important
to trace the low of money to and from these organizations and
to reveal the ideological contacts they establish with other similar
international organizations, for instance with the Zionists. Perhaps
INSAF can encourage or initiate such a study.
