Taming the Communal Tiger

Politics Vs Communalism

*By SAUMITRA MOHAN

Every time this country witnesses a threat to the consolidation of its nationhood owing to an Ayodhya vandalism, a Bombay blast or a Gujarat holocaust, the prophets of doom start bawling, screaming blue murder over the systemic degeneration, which has set in in this country and we are pressed hard to ponder over the hydra-headed problem of communalism. After all, what is it that has seen the rise and sustenance of communalism right since the heyday of the British Raj in this country? Is it mere politics propelled by crass opportunism that is the root cause of communalism in India? Or is it something else? There are many more such questions, which need to be answered, and many more complex issued which need to be vetted before we attempt a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon called 'communalism' in India. One would attempt to show in the following passages as to how the present day politics propelled by crass opportunism has not only divided the Indian society along communal lines but has also weakened the institutional structure of the Indian State to the detriment of its very survival.

Defined simply, communalism denotes attachment or concern of the members of a particular community towards its own welfare or well-being. Defined thus, even casteism, regionalism or linguistic groupism would appear as only myriad expressions of communalism and, in fact, that is what they are. But for the purposes of this write-up, we would confine ourselves only to the religious connotations and implications of communalism.

The moment we try to trace the rise of communalism in this country, we very conveniently hark back to the days of British Raj and truly so. After all, it were the British who in their bid to continue to possess the 'jewel in the British Crown' tried through their reviled 'divide and rule' policy to divide the Indian society along religious lines. And once planted, the communal seed grew further stronger owing to the fortuitous combinations of many incidents and events, be it the use of many overt or covert emphases on religious symbolism as a strategy to continue the freedom struggle or be it the occasional communal conflagrations as a consequence thereof. The final nail in the coffin came with the division of the civilizational entity called India along religious lines on August 15th, 1947, the day we won our political freedom. So, the communal problem also came to us as a legacy from history but its continuance even in today's India can easily be attributed to present day politics, which seem to be propelled more by crass opportunism than anything else. But politics definitely is not the only cause; there are several other factors, which need to be understood before we satisfactorily try to explain the phenomenon of communalism in this country. In the same breath, one would also like to add that politics is the root cause of many other related problems like casteism, regionalism or linguistic fanaticism.

In fact, while vetting an issue like communalism and the threat it poses to our nationhood, one should keep in mind her capacities, constraints, liabilities, strengths and assets. When India earned her freedom on that fateful day of 15th August 1947, she had not only inherited an emaciated economy from her colonial rulers, her social fabric was also in tatters. A country with a very low industrial base, a huge population with very poor social and physical infrastructure and an agriculturally dependent country was still trying to delineate the contours of her identity. And such conditions are very ripe for the rise of the communal phenomenon.

Actually many problems facing this country are nothing but symptomatic of the overall crisis afflicting this country. Observers feels that things like corruption, nepotism, communalism, linguistic fanaticism, terrorism, infra-nationalism, secessionism and all other such cognate problems go on to show that unless something is done urgently, the very survival of this country would be threatened. But wait, do our intelligentsia and think thanks really need to get so down in the dumps? Well, like Dr. Pangloss, the overoptimistic fictional character in Voltaire's classic work, 'Candide,' I don't think so. Undoubtedly, measures need to be taken to stem the creeping rot but there is nothing so untoward or unnatural with the overall scenario as to threaten this country's very existence. Rather than carping about the failure to successfully deal with these problems, it would be worth its while to find out the reason behind those problems and proffer solutions therefore.

In fact, India hardly existed as a state before 1947, not to speak of its existence as a nation-state. Even though an idea of India was always there. So, Jawaharlal Nehru did not have to invent an India, he merely discovered it as the title of his celebrated book, 'The Discovery of India' itself reveals. Against her colonial background which underdeveloped her more than it developed and against her meager resources and myriad constraints, if India has managed to survive in one piece for more than five decades, that itself is an achievement. The problems including communalism, which look so minatory, do so because of this very fact, i.e., India's survival as a democratic state for over half a century. The very functioning of a democratic system quite naturally unleashed the democratic forces that now seem to have got so out of control as to threaten the very system. The competitive party politics which form the very pith and substance of an open, liberal-democratic system has in all these years mobilized the teeming millions of this country and this mobilization has been accompanied by an alleged deinstitutionalisation process which has only worsened the problem further.

The problem of deinstitutionalisation has been noted and comprehensively discussed by the social scientists for quite some time, which include people like Atul Kohli, Rajni Kothari, Sudipta Kaviraj, Partho Chatterjee, Paul Brass, Robert Stern and others. These scholars have noted as to how an irresponsible section of the political class with vested interests has been constantly chipping away at the various institutions of the system. The party system, bureaucracy, police, parliament, panchayati system, judiciary and all other such institutions which should have been there for the smooth functioning of the system and to carry forward the developmental agenda, have all ended up emasculated at the altar of the political Moloch. The institutions whose better functioning could have added to the strength of the leadership in the resolution of the sundry problems facing this society, their weakening only reinforces and aggravates those problems. In their hid to harvest rich electoral dividends, this class has not only compromised on the very democratic ethos which inform our constitutional structure, but they have also mobilized electorates on all those parochial and primordial ground which if stressed beyond a point could turn into the veritable Frankenstein's Monster which eventually devoured its own creator. Communalism forms only one such primordial basis for political mobilization.

But the employment of narrow identities provide very convenient grounds for predicating politics in a society where different sections and regions are on different scales of development and where owing to corruption and such other reasons including the financial weakness and deinstitutionalisation of the system, leadership finds it difficult to attend to the real issues. Here primordial identities and iniquitous developmental processes provide easy fodder for the political machine. Ethical degeneration of a section of society further removes those pangs of conscience, which could have acted as a barrier to such politics as give rise to the demon of communalism. Also, the very fact that our society is still very backward in more than one sense of the term, rooted deeply in its primeval identities and is not educated and aware enough as not to be preyed upon by the populism of the reckless politicians creates further ground for communal politics.

One feels that today slowly but steadily the Indian state is consolidating itself and the various problems it seems to be swamped with will go with time and the signs thereof are there for all to be seen. Over five decades of democratic existence has given birth to a lively civil society, which spurred by the demonstration effect in the age of information and communication boom is spoiling for more. The revolution of rising expectations has been taking on various hues and expressing itself in such forms as the increasing assertions of the civil society aided by the instrumentalities of public interest litigations, activism of non-governmental organizations, conscientious people's leadership exemplified by such people as our reigning President, Prime Minister, Anna Hazare, Medha Patkar, T.N. Sheshan, Alphonso, G.R. Khairnar et al.

The homeostatic checks and balance mechanism has been slowly evolving and has prevented any particular interest or force to rule the roost in a manner as to threaten the flourishing of other interests or forces. And in a highly inegalitarian and hierarchised society like ours, when the state fails to meet popular expectations, the people led by politicians, would naturally be left to their own resources and in a competitive democratic political system, identity politics come very handy as that is the only resource people have in a system where heads count. By pooling their numerical strength, they try to compete with each other in the political marketplace for value allocation in their favour. Scapegoating other communities or groups is only one of the many strategies employed by them to advance their interests and communalism is the natural outcome of such politics as celebrated historian Bipan Chandra opines. One strongly feels that the panchayati raj institutions aimed at the decentralization of power would eventually see the percolation of power to the grass roots and would lead to people developing a stake in the system and once this happens, Indian political system would no longer be a hostage to the whims and fancies of the crooked politicians. After all, some one has rightly said that 'you can fool some people all the time, all the people for some time but you can not fool all the people all the time'. The point is that there are so many interests operating in the society, that none would like to be left behind and in that scramble for power and increased share of the national pie all operate in a way to check and balance each other.

But as discussed above, there is nothing to be very despondent about. A country as huge and as diverse as ours is bound to have many teething troubles before it completes its journey from being a state-nation to a nation-state. India was fortunate enough, at least vis-à-vis her many time-twins, to have a leadership to start with which was relatively upright, scrupulous, visionary and committed enough to provide a solid foundation to the infant state and its prolonged presence only helped the matters. So, despite the growing instances of communalism, the national integration seems to be only consolidating. And there are many signs to that effect. The very fact that today Indians all over the country enjoy the game of cricket and root for Team India proves the fact that the 'imagined community' that Benedict Anderson talked of has slowly been evolving. Pokhran–II led to the same pan-India rejoicing. Kargil further corroborated this. And if there was any scruple, the overwhelming positive response to the Gujarat earthquake and communal holocaust removed that. Often the silver lining in the political cloud has also come to be seen. A section of our political class may be somewhat irresponsible, reckless and unscrupulous, but when it comes to national integration and betterment, it has not compromised. One remembers very vividly as to how the United Front Government led by I.K.Gujaral did not yield to the sinister demand made from certain quarters to drop a particular political party as an ally in the government. The demand came because the Jain Commission investigating into the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had indicted that that party’s role and by implication the people of a particular state for their alleged role in that assassination. Once conceded, it would have gone down in history as stigmatizing an entire community and, thus, creating enough ground for disaffection in that state. The Government fell but it saved the nation from alienating a section of the Indian citizenry. All these are nothing but various expressions of a growing nation.

Competitive party politics, sans real issues, falls back on easy resources for electoral mobilization howsoever unethical and unscrupulous that might be. And people answer to such calls because that appears to them to be the only salvation amid the overall scenario of gloom and doom and also as the only way to ameliorate their condition. Once a basic equity is achieved in resource allocation and once our human resources get educationally and cognitively enriched, there would be little scope for such parochial politics. Caste, religion, language would, at best, be only one of the various factors in politics and would not dominate the political skullduggery the way it does now.
The growing stature of some right-wing organizations has also been the cause of concern for many. But the point is what could one do about it? Can one think of banning such organizations or their style of politics? Certainly not, more so in a democracy like ours. Banning or stigmatizing them would only aggravate the problems further. As someone rightly said about someone that 'it is better to have him in and spit out rather than have him out and spit in'. So, our attempt should be at finding ways to restore them to the system. The massive membership of such organizations, if positively channeled, could prove to be a great national asset. Also, if their membership structure could be changed to reflect the sundry constituent units of Indian population, then it would be all the better.

Notwithstanding all those apprehensions about such organizations, some of them have greatly modified the content and style of their politics or activities, as they know only too well that with a confrontationist politics, which excludes a major section of the Indian society, they cannot hope to go very far. The way Indian society has become polarized lately, no political party can hope to form a government of its own accord. And for a right-wing Party, none would touch it even with a barge pole until it diluted its ideology and extremist political style. Some such parties have been slowly inching towards the center of the ideological spectrum and have emerged as one of the principal political actors on the national scene. It also shows as to how the party system has been evolving in this country. Having only one dominant political party could create its own problems as happened in the heydays of the one-party-dominant system in the immediate aftermath of our Independence. It could not only get complacent about the overall developmental project, but could also start developing a sense of invincibility which could make it irresponsible and autocratic enough as to endanger the very survival of the system. Here, one would quickly like to add that the bloated fear about the loss of the era of stable government owing to polarized vote bank politics is also unwarranted. Stability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for socio-politico-economic development of the country. And asked to choose between stability and responsibility, one would readily plump for the latter. A government with an absolute majority could become autocratic and conduct itself in an irresponsible way but the constraints of a coalition government force it to behave responsibly. And that is what should matter more. The multifarious societal forces would always be there to make it behave itself. Also, as long as there is a consensus on basic policies and values, instability should not be a cause for concern. Since 1989, several governments have taken their turns at the Centre, but the basic policy has remained the same. Despite all the rhetoric against the liberalization and privatization of the Indian economy, none has been able to reverse it.

So, even though the Indian nation state has been slowly emerging, consolidating and strengthening itself through the bumpy electoral politics in world's largest democracy, one would like to enter several caveats here. We not only need our leadership at every level, including political and administrative, to behave more responsibly than they have so far playing ducks and drakes with the many opportunities provided. A dedicated, committed and responsible leadership with a vision is what this country sorely needs rather than merely the military muscle. A leadership that fattens and grows at the expense of its people, which dwarfs its own people and erodes their capacities, would eventually discover that with pygmies (in terms of capacities) dotting the length and breadth of the country, it can't make the country great.

A democratic system runs on the principle of majority but the constraints of competitive party politics should not blind our political class so much as to lose sight of the larger interests of the country. Politics of vote bank should be positively and productively channeled towards the building of a cohesive and stronger nation-state, which can hold its head high in the Comity of Nations. And it would be in the interest of our political class to engage in responsible politics, as sooner rather than later the people are likely to see through their game plan and reject such politics out of hand. After all, wisdom of a minuscule political class cannot be more than the cumulative wisdom of the people of an entire country.

Also, our leadership has to do something about the institutional revival in the country and this has to be done in co-operation with the intelligentsia, media, industrial class and the civil society. If all of them act in tandem, we would soon be living in a developed India, an India in keeping with the ideals, values and principles enshrined in our Constitution, an India all of us have cherished and yearned to live in. And, of course, an India far untouched from the demon of communalism, which has so far been on the rise owing to the present day politics propelled by crass opportunism.

*Saumitra Mohan is an Indian Administrative Service officer presently working as Sub-Divisional Officer, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal.
Address for correspondence: Saumitra Mohan, IAS, SDO, Alipurduar, PO- Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri-736122.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 09434242283/03564-255188/03564-256391.