By Saji Varghese
“Values cannot be just theoretical: they must find expressions in relationships and all actions, thoughts, feelings and speech. It is impossible to be aware of the values as distinguished from talking or thinking about them without expressing those values in action and behaviour” ( Radha Burnier) While colonialism and the subsequent emergence of class structure among the third world and developing nations are continuously blamed for the evils of division, partition, conversion, communal and religious violence , it is also a known fact that the so called decolonising movements have further added to the existing divisions and polarisation . The contemporary moves within India to enforce homogeneity and to be dependent on it for the sustenance of minorities have led to considerable amount of fear, hatred and distrust among different minority faiths. Keeping this perspective of the predicament of the minority faiths in the subcontinent, there is a need for rebuilding the trust and subsequently religious/communal harmony by evoking a greater responsibility of individuals to engage in dialogues with each other with compassion, self respect within a shared, incessant and consequential contexts of life .
History is not simply a series of unconnected events happening in time and space .There is a connection between events of the past with what is being created or thought about today. Thus Memory is a crucial element which makes history significant. It has been talked about since the time of St Augustine that the present is the memory of the past. It is the link between the consciousness and the past. But, people do not remember alone, but with the help of the memories of others; they take narratives given them by others for their own memories; and we compose our own memories with support from commemorations and other public celebrations of significant events which have changed the course of history for groups to which we belong. It is worth remembering Leibniz’s words “Every individual memory is a point of view on the collective memory.”The shared recollections is that which give a profile and an ethnic, cultural, or religious identity to an alleged collective entity. “Memory is not what happened, but what people felt had happened” (Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm). History is the collective recollections shaping the history of a group or a nation . The shared collective identity is the distinguishing feature of a nation.
History is often written in a manner that keeps alive negative memories and promotes prejudices. The winners boast, and the losers remember. Some groups in India seek to re-write Indian history highlighting Islamic excesses and showing the minorities in bad light. It is reported that Pakistani textbooks describe Jews as tight-fisted money-lenders, Christians as vengeful conquerors, Hindus as devious and cowardly people. China and Japan have serious differences of opinion about their recording of World War II events. All states have minorities within their borders, and if they divide according to community further, they will find other minorities within the new area, ad infinitum. History records repeated clashes between neighbouring communities. And thus, ancient hatred remain. A narrative of victory stirs resentment on those who were defeated. A narrative of defeat calls for redressing a grievance. There is a general human weakness that when we revive our memories we tend to be selective, prejudiced and lost in self-pity. Only a healing of memories can make the world into a less destructive one.
There is no nation probably more internally diverse than India : twenty two official languages, over three hundred languages that are actually spoken, the major religious group are the Hindus which form the majority followed by the Muslims and Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and a small number of Jews. Regional differences are immense: some regions especially in the south had for centuries, more association with South and South East Asia than other parts of India. In India riots were very common in places like Bombay (present Mumbai) where a large number of non-Hindus and migrants live. They were victims, often of political vendetta of groups/individuals who consciously spread hatred and violence in the name of religion and caste. There are two conceptions of nation prevalent among the normal citizens also the political party affiliates in India. One sees India as a pluralistic society built on ideas of respect for different regional, ethnic and religious traditions, united by a commitment to democratic and egalitarian norms. The other believes that this morally grounded unity is too fragile, that only the unity of ethnic homogeneity can make a nation strong. The clash between the proponents of ethno-religious homogeneity and of those of pluralistic norms is a perpetual warfare between two groups in a single society .
In all countless events of violence which we were subjected to in colonial and post colonial periods, minorities, subaltern groups or otherwise marginalized individuals tend not to share the mainstream social memory rooted in any of these official national narratives. Referring to the political context surrounding the November 2008 terrorist carnage in Mumbai, Arundhati Roy wrote, “On this nuclear subcontinent, that context is Partition. . . . Each of those people carries, and passes down, a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror, but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity, but also love.”
Nevertheless, in a land like India with its heterogeneous culture and chequered history, the narratives linking place and humans are innumerable, couched in diverse perceptions and points of view, and filtered through multiple discourses over a long period of time. Geographically, historically, and geo-psychically, Indian narratives afford pluralistic and complex readings. Philosophy, religion, and poetry have a deep history in this part of the world, as much as oppression, domination, and ideologies of resistance and subversions. Riots and instances of violence and its consequences upon the generations later, must find an answer ,and it can come only through healing by way of creative day to day exercise of dialogue and co-existence.
Dialogue and responsibility are integrally linked. As there are growing movements of violence and hatred and monological closure of many kinds, there is also a need for movements of dialogues across borders. However, it is not just only differences but also a complex and many- sided relationship that as a matter of fact, get established between hegemonic and subaltern cultures. This relationship is not only one of the most important expressions of the central social conflict that has marked human societies, but it is also one of the essential clues that allows us to understand the important defining elements of that which we encompass under the complex term of “culture.” It is clear that relations among cultures that dominate and those that are dominated within one society do not only include diverse realities and expressions of the opposition and struggle that exists between both cultures, but rather, a vast range of interrelationships. These interrelationships include exchanges, borrowing, and mutual cooperation together with situations of commitment and confluence that also include ‘dialogue’ as one of the many forms of connection between antagonistic groups or communities of cultures. It is not a formal process of sitting across the table to discuss and decide on action, rather a day to day life situation where the members of the society constantly engage in exchange of ideas and material goods which cannot be avoided. These exchanges lead to constant negotiations among the members of the society which form new meaning and draw significance to the existing order.
Social healing is a phenomenon that seeks to ‘deal with wounds created by the conflict, collective trauma and large scale oppression’. Wounds which have been caused due to challenges of a political agenda of a government or oppression on minorities by the majority, made scars and need to be treated and overcome in a positive way. It requires a focus on the history of the community which has suffered or gone through the traumatic experience, their lived experiences in settings of protracted conflict with their inevitable need to survive and locate both the individual and collective voice. Though common suffering and its memory is an enduring element of nation building, suffering in itself is negative. Gross human rights violations and collective violence often result in large scale loss of lives and properties. A primary requirement of healing in today’s context is a deeper understanding among the antagonistic groups or parties. Co-existence a necessary factor for a reasoned peace between the groups. “Whoever is devoid of the heart of compassion is not human, whoever is devoid of the heart of courtesy and modesty is not human, whoever is devoid of the heart of right and wrong is not human” (Mencius) The following passage of Rabindranath Tagore communicates the possibility of generating new truths by meeting and being in constant communication with others (races) with a cultured mind. “I have tried to save children from the vicious methods which alienate their minds and from other prejudices which are fostered through histories, geographies and lessons full of national prejudices. In the East there is a great deal of bitterness against other races, and in our own homes we are often brought up with feelings of hatred I have tried to save the children from such feelings. It will be a great future when base passions are no longer stimulated within us, when through their meeting new truths are revealed”. ( Rabindranath Tagore ).
(The writer teaches at Lady Keane College).