Rise in anti-democratic acts; is parochialism being revived?

The recent noise of Sanatan and Hindutva is only a reassertion of the parochialism we have discarded at the very onset of our nationhood. The flag-bearers of Hindutva have been blocking the amalgamation of communities and social groups all these years in post-independence India

Have we entered into an era of barbarism? Do the incidents such as the suicide of a senior police officer of Haryana belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the mob lynching of a Dalit in Raebareli, and throwing a shoe at the Chief Justice of India indicate symptoms of a severe disease the republic has acquired? For a long time now, we have been debating India's limited democracy and its ratings on scales of democratic and human rights.

We need to self-introspect because the analytical tools used by international agencies might be inadequate. The agencies have their own standards. We must remember that although we might have adopted the structure of democracy prevalent in the West, we have invented new premises to erect our democracy. The West can boast of its inclusiveness and freedom of expression. However, the basis of its nationhood itself is parochial and stands on principles that are contrary to inclusiveness and individual rights: national states are based on territorial, linguistic, and ethnic identity. These identities have been fiercely clashing with each other, often serving as a source of war.

All the modern nation-states, such as Italy, Germany, France and England, have originated from violent upsurges. Violence has a conceptual acceptance in their ethos.Unlike them, the Indian democracy is built upon the ideology of non-violence and humanism. The long debate on the two-nation theory propounded by Jinnah and Savarkar has only driven us to firmer grounds. The Indian nation decisively rejected any parochial foundation for its polity.

The civilizational nation, like ours, has had its own dangers. There have been continued efforts by forces to usurp it. They are inimical to the very core of our democracy. The recent noise of Sanatan and Hindutva is only a reassertion of the parochialism we have discarded at the very onset of our nationhood. The flag-bearers of Hindutva have been blocking the amalgamation of communities and social groups all these years in post-independence India. They have been subverting the mandate of the Constitution, the holy book of our democracy. They are opposed to any integration of diverse cultural and religious streams. They are stumbling blocks in the path of evolving an India that the British put all their might to prevent from emerging.

The incidents cited above are different symptoms of the same disease: exclude the weak and attack them when they assert. The case of Y Puran Kumar, an IPS officer of the Haryana cadre, is revealing and raises long-overdue questions. He, in his suicide note, has alleged caste discrimination and atrocities by his seniors. The officer could not bear it anymore and shot himself with his service revolver, the gun that was supposed to protect him from attacks by terrorists and outlawed. Is it not a case of subverting the mandate of the Constitution that allowed Puran Kumar to cross the age-old social barriers and get rid of infirmities imposed by the caste-system? This is an example of sabotaging democracy from within. It reinforces the view that power and position do not ensure immunity from caste-based discrimination.

The case of throwing a shoe at the Chief Justice of India BR Gavai is another example of subversion of the Constitution. The attack was carried out with a slogan: Sanatan ka apman, nahinsahega Hindustan (India will not tolerate the insult of Sanatan Dharma). Advocate Rakesh Kishore, the accused in the case, says that he is aggrieved by the remarks of Justice Gavai in the case seeking to restore the idol of Lord Vishnu in the Javari Temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. He also cited Justice Gavai’s remarks that India is ruled by the Rule of Law, not by bulldozer justice, as the reason behind his ire. He also claims that God provoked him to do it.

The incident has many layers and reveals the goals of Hindutva project. The ire of the advocate indeed has an immediate political context. He is unhappy with Justice Gavai’s bulldozer remark. The remarks were a direct admonition of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is regarded as the champion of bulldozer justice. The opposition to the supposed insult to Sanatan has also been on the agenda of the BJP and the RSS. However, the episode also has some other ominous indications, such as the talk of divine provocation and insult of the Sanatan Dharma. It undermines the Constitution and subordinates laws to the heavenly mandate, which religious gurus and believers interpret.

We can see it in the forms of Islamic democracies, where Islamic laws are superior to modern jurisprudence. The intolerance expressed in the name of divine inspiration and Sanatan Dharma only denies the philosophical evolution of Indian nationhood under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar and many others. We recognise various belief systems, but deny the domination of any one system. The sectarian assertions are paralysing our political system. We have seen how the demolition of Babri Mosque was held illegal by the apex court, yet it directed building the temple of Sri Ram at the same site.

The court granted well beyond what was prayed for by the petitioners. It only confirms the apprehension of an external intervention from outside the court. Justice Chandrachud, the author of the Ayodhya verdict, has defined this external intervention as a divine instruction. Advocate Rakesh Kishore might have taken a cue from Justice Chandrachud’s assertions. He dismisses the allegation that he has attacked a chief justice who belongs to the Dalit community, and says that he himself is a Dalit. His claim means nothing. He has acted as a representative of Hindutva, an ideology that defends the caste system. The case of Raebareli reveals symptoms of a more critical malady. HariomBalmiki has been lynched by a mob that feared a theft through drones. It shows the people’s deep economic insecurity, which is making them communal and violent.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)