Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: Vijayvaani.Com
Date: July 7, 2009
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=682
By a curious coincidence, the Justice S.C.
Mohapatra Commission probing the Kandhamal riots of 2008 submitted its interim
report almost simultaneously with the final report of the Justice Liberhan
Commission on the post-1992 violence following demolition of the Babri structure
in Ayodhya.
The reasons for which the respective commissions
were set up, viz., tensions between Hindus and Christians in one case, between
Hindus and Muslims in another, sum up the psycho-political existential crisis
faced by India's native Hindu community since independence.
Hindus are caught between a rock and a hard
place, squeezed between Muslim obduracy and Christian belligerence, both funded
and backed by external powers, while the Indian state refuses to support the
legitimate needs of its Hindu populace, and even denies Hindu religio-cultural
identity in its pursuit of secularism. We thus have the bizarre asymmetry
of minority rights vis-à-vis an undefined majority that is denied form
and name, but blamed for resisting its own negation.
Justice (retd) Mohapatra's interim report on the Kandhamal violence following
the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Janmasthami, 23 August 2008,
endorses the popular view that conversions were a major factor for the riots.
It upholds tribal grievances that land disputes and issuance of fake caste
certificates by the local administration triggered the unrest which took 40-odd
lives. The judge said there was deep anguish among the Scheduled Tribes that
Scheduled Caste Pano dalits were "capturing their land through fraudulent
means."
Fake certificates which enabled the Christian
Panos to corner jobs from quotas meant for backward tribals were a festering
sore. The judge urged the state government to end this fraud and ensure quick
release of tribal land possessed by non-tribals. He recommended vigilance
in the matter of conversions and re-conversions - a secular balancing act,
as if the deliberate alienation of people from their natal religion and cultural
traditions through questionable means is at par with the dawning of wisdom
and return to ancestral paths.
Meanwhile, the UPA's decision to defer tabling of the Liberhan Commission
report, finally submitted after 48 extensions spanning 16½ years, suggests
it may not yield any political mileage. While the Rs 9 crore Commission reinforced
public cynicism about the farcical nature of enquiry panels, the Liberhan
Commission was no ordinary body. It was tasked with arriving at the truth
behind the events leading to frenzied demolition of the disputed Babri Mosque
at the birthplace of Sri Rama, exemplary prince and king of Hindu tradition,
and an incarnation of Vishnu.
Justice Liberhan failed to comprehend the
enormity of this civilisational mandate, this magnificent opportunity to sift
through history and tradition, to differentiate between the rights of natal
communities and claims of latter-day iconoclasts, to wade through the debris
of political negation and arrive at cultural affirmation. Liberhan's endless
extensions exhausted public interest in his conclusions. But in my view, in
sharp contrast to political rhetoric following UPA's second victory, the report
has arrived at a moment when identity politics is making an honourable and
spontaneous comeback.
Some immutable principles are behind this
reality. First, no Abrahamic faith is prepared to mitigate its traditional
creedal intolerance of other religions. The old truce whereby they refrained
from poaching each other's flock has given way to sustained Christian attempts
to convert Muslims, particularly in occupied and semi-occupied lands like
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pope Benedict XVI's May 2009 Jerusalem pact,
wherein he promised not to convert Jews, has reportedly been denied by the
Vatican to devout Catholics who complained, so the last word has not been
said on this issue. Jews are converting poor Christian Mizos - ostensibly
a 'lost' tribe - for cheap labour in Israel.
Second, the rhetoric of secularism (for non-Christians
only) is no longer useful in checking native assertion in former colonial
or semi-colonial lands; hence a more naked religious imperialism is being
unveiled.
New forms of minority encroachments in Indian
private and public life have long been perceived by the public, but are now
gaining political acknowledgement. The most recent case pertains to 'communal'
violence that flared in Mysore soon after Mr. Hansraj Bhardwaj was sworn in
as Governor of BJP-ruled Karnataka.
Press reports suggest that two years ago,
local Muslims tried to build an (illegal) mosque on public land in the vicinity
of the Huliyamman Temple; the Temple trust to obtain a stay from the court.
The Muslims did not face this legal challenge, but suddenly resumed construction,
which led to a rise in tensions. Thereafter, we are told, pig flesh was found
inside the disputed construction and riots broke out.
It is now openly acknowledged that Muslims
and Christians wantonly encroach public spaces in the vicinity of Hindu Temples;
an audacious attempt to build a church on Tirupathi Hills some years ago was
sharply resisted by locals, prompting chief minister Samuel Reddy to declare
the seven hills as the body of Sri Balaji and ban other religions from the
site. Moreover, these new mosques and churches are totally disproportionate
to the minority population in the said districts, and are clearly an instance
of externally-funded drives to boost conversions in those areas.
Another issue causing heart-burning among
Hindus, which the Congress-ruled Maharashtra government has been forced to
admit, is the rising graph of love affairs resulting in marriages between
Hindu girls and Muslim boys. Popularly, this has been labelled 'love jihad;'
targets include rich families whose wealth can be used to serve the monotheistic
agenda. The state CID has been asked to look into the matter.
Any honest appraisal of reality would show
that faith plays a critical role in the self-image and identity of a people.
This is particularly true of monotheistic creeds whose very raison d'etre
is the denial of the religious merit of other faith communities and their
gods.
Secularism was Christianity's mask to continue
operating in the post-Holocaust era when Jews seized the moral high ground.
It proved useful in fooling Third World elites like India's that religion
had no place in public life, while quietly making inroads in the guise of
education, social service, and outright intimidation in remote areas. The
unrest at Amarnath and Kandhamal shows that regardless of electoral outcomes,
Hindus can face both the rock and the hard place simultaneously, and will
not allow monotheists to walk all over them.
- The author is Editor
