By Amulya Ganguli
The Prime Minister’s call for ending the targeting of Kashmiris living in other parts of the country in the wake of the Pulwama outrage has come not a moment too soon. The young Shiv Sena leader, Aditya Thackeray, has also done well to sack those party workers who assaulted Kashmiris in Maharashtra. Few will deny that the attacks were yet another manifestation of the atmosphere of intolerance which has been evident in the diatribes directed against the minorities on social media and the assaults on them and even murders by the self-appointed cow vigilantes.
It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that the hyper-nationalism whipped up by the saffron activists on the ground and in the media would seize the Pulwama massacre to vilify, terrorise and attack innocent Kashmiris. How deep-rooted such vitriol is in the Hindutva camp can be gauged from the fact that a BJP-appointed governor, Tathagata Roy of Meghalaya, endorsed the statement of a retired army officer to ostracise Kashmiris and refuse to buy their goods.
Roy’s vitiated mentality is not dissimilar to that of the Union minister, Jayant Sinha, who garlanded the convicts of an act of lynching. That both of them remain ensconced in their positions tells it’s own tale.
Like these two, there is also a section of the media which has been unabashedly jingoistic ever since the Pulwama tragedy. Their current obsession is a campaign calling for cutting off all sporting ties with Pakistan. Such a ban may be generally supported in the case of bilateral fixtures between the two countries.
But extending it to international encounters such as the June 16 cricket World Cup match is problematic as it is unlikely that India will be able to persuade the International Cricket Council to treat Pakistan in the same manner as South Africa was during the apartheid era as Vinod Rai, the cricket control board chief in India, has said.
A boycott of the game in the event of the world body rejecting India’s plea for outlawing Pakistan will result in India not only forfeiting two points, but there will also be a cloud over its participation in future games and even its right to stage international events, as the row over reports of the denial of visas to Pakistani players for a rifle shooting competition in New Delhi showed.
It is obvious that the country will see no lessening of the display of muscular nationalism as the general election draws near. Yet, it will be a pity if people in responsible positions, such as a governor, or the government itself tend to be swayed from the path of sanity as the country becomes more of a “cacophonous cauldron”, as a British high commissioner said at a time when the Twitterati did not exist and the mainstream media was a model of restraint.
There is little doubt that ultra-nationalism has come to the fore with the rise of the BJP and can be said to have reached its highest and more venomous level now. Apart from the minorities whose patriotism has always been in doubt ever since V.D. Savarkar pointed out that their holy lands were outside India, either in Mecca or Rome, it is now even the BJP’s opponents who have earned the label of being anti-national.
Post-Pulwama, Kashmiris have joined the latter. But where the non-Kashmiris can brush off such calumny as being typical of the illiberal outlook of the Hindu Right, for the Kashmiris, who have to contend daily with the sight of patrolling paramilitary personnel, such labelling is a reminder of their less than secure status as citizens.
It goes without saying that the prohibition of their admissions in colleges or ouster from rented premises elsewhere in India can only further widen the gulf between Kashmir and the rest of the country, making the already existing alienation virtually irreparable.
It isn’t enough, therefore, only to condemn the attacks on them, but also to foster an atmosphere of goodwill which can only be achieved if the government severely admonishes those who doubt the patriotic credentials of its critics.
Europe learnt about the pitfalls of nationalism from the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. In contrast, Indian nationalism was singularly devoid of the poison of sectarianism through the long years of the freedom struggle because of the presence at the helm of the independence movement of luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Unfortunately, the last decade of the movement saw the rise of Muslim separatism, leading to the creation of Pakistan. In India, such divisive sentiments were kept at bay after 1947 by a successful democratic system.
In Kashmir, however, they reappeared because of the flawed election of 1987 and has since been aided and abetted by Pakistan and the generally insensitive attitude of the governments in New Delhi towards Kashmiri grievances and aspirations.
A delicate situation should not be further jeopardized by the hyped-up nationalism of the Hindu Right. (IPA Service)