By Binay Adhikari
In 2004, when I was in my 6th grade I remember singing aloud the NCC song the lyrics of which has hit me hard in the recent days of communal chaos and political upheaval in the country.
“Mandir Gurudware bhi hai yahan Aur Masjid bhi hai yahan Girija ka hai ghariyal kahin Mullah ki kahin hai ajaan”
The past few months have been quite unprecedented when the country is experiencing a sequence of events unfolding with the intention to change the course of history. I can only imagine telling my son some other name of a ‘Hindu’ temple when showing Qutub Minar. The discovery of Shivlings and pious depictions in the form of art and Swastika in a few mosques have been making headlines since last year bringing two major religious communities against each other.
Now that most of the renowned mosques are being renamed into Hindu temples and places known by Urdu/Persian or Islamic names are baptized with the names of our freedom fighters who belonged to the Hindu religion, I wonder about the fate of the NCC song in the coming generations. By the way, just in case you were wondering about that NCC song mentioned above, the last verse of that song reads as follows:
Ek hi apna Ram hai ek hi Allah tala hai/ Ek hi Allah tala hai/ Rang bi range Deepak hai hum/ Lekin jag mag ek hai/ Ah ha ha…ek hai…oh ho ho…ek hai/ Hum sab Bharatiya hai/ Hum sab Bharatiya hai
Such was the spirit of brotherhood, unity and integrity tied with the respect for distinct diversities in our nation that were nurtured into us to uphold and observe those ideals in our lives. I was fascinated and overwhelmed by the magnificent togetherness of cultures, religions and regions across ages and genders after every 100 km of our sub-continent and 20 years later, I can tell a different story altogether.
My generation and the first batch of millennials grew up in India which celebrated and fostered a spirit of unity, brotherhood and integrity. We never saw a day of a communal clash or religious-based propaganda becoming the agenda of the nation’s debate being shown in all the newsrooms of media houses. Journalism in our days was precise, abstract, and according to the time, place circumstances, objective as well as subjective without being prejudiced and biased to any side in particular. Alas these days, the media are identified with their affiliated political parties to the extent of earning recognition of becoming a ‘Godi-Media’ and even ‘Sell-out Media’.
Today’s generation is being brainwashed in a very systematic and psychological manner which is beyond the understanding of any 20-year-old boy listening songs in his EarPods on his phone while waiting for his bus to arrive at the bus stand. We don’t bother watching the news and getting information about the world by staying tuned to TV rather our way of life has adapted its ease and comfort to the portable mobile devices on our hands.
I will relate a very common ordinary everyday experience with social media: When I open YouTube to watch some news and print the name of any news channel, for example, in the search field and as I click on one of the search results of that news channel I am amazed and startled to see the achievements of the ruling government and the smiling faces of a bunch of rural oldies and babies in some state being shown in the screen of which I had no interest whatsoever and for which I did not type the name of that particular news channel in the search field of YouTube in the first place. Such is the reality that is prevalent across all the social media platforms. While the media houses are sponsored by political parties to preach their agenda and highlight their accomplishment in an attempt to manipulate the masses the common man is still unemployed and has insurmountable pressure of financial obligations to his family and to repay the loan taken for his higher education.
Recently, one text in WhatsApp University went viral where a guy in Madhya Pradesh converted himself to Hindu religion by changing his name from Sheikh Zaffar Sheikh to Chetan Singh Rajput. In the process, big people like the Head Guru or Maha Mandaleshwar of Akhil Bharatiya Panchayat Akhada MahaNirmani Sangh and two legislators inducted him into the Hindu ways of life by first getting his head shaved and dipping him in the Holy river of Ganga followed by rubbing cowdung on his shaved skull. A puja was then conducted following the rituals of Sanatani Dharma and thus that guy is henceforth, without any ancestry or family tree or Gotra or Nakchetra a self-proclaimed Rajput. I am not sure if he did get his name changed legally by swearing an oath before a Magistrate in the form of an affidavit which is, as far as I know, not allowed in the provisions of any laws in India. Thus, what we ignore yet we perceive becomes the essence of our thought process and general perception.
The brainwashing of the citizen by the news goes untraced and undetected in many ways:
Firstly, the news of him converting to Hindu Sanatani Dharma made headlines, which was needed to fuel the Hindu claim over Gyanvapi discourse and Ayodhya Ram Mandir. Secondly, It also gave room for a feeling of dominance and superiority of Hindus and subjugation of Muslims by Hindus. Thirdly, whether it is actually a fact and whether the guy was in fact allowed by law to live his life as a Hindu Sanatani for the rest of his life remains a mystery and no one, literally no media would pursue the genuineness and authenticity of the news till its end. However, as soon as the event took place somewhere in Masaud, Madhya Pradesh all the pseudo nationalist journalists reached the site to report it as a headline for, we all know, TRP and PR of their sponsoring party.
Fourthly, for the common man, his takeaway is just a faint memory of some Muslim guy being converted to Hinduism and he does not care and he does not bother to know if he lived a Sanatani life or not for the rest of his life when he is finding ways to sort out the mess in his own life.
Similarly, preaching and advocating the basic Hindutva ideology which remains core to the BJP, a message is being circulated and shared on social media platform WhatsApp where the contents of the message asks the reader to consent to the control, power, jurisdiction, autonomy and authority of government in the administration, management, and operation of religious places of worship including the power to deal with its assets, revenue and properties in the country. The content of the text is in the form of 5 or 6 one-liner close-ended questions of yes or no in which all the answers are default check-marked with a tick asserting positive response to the whole question of the government taking the charge and control of religious institutions. The message manipulates the reader to be convinced that the government should have all the powers to deal with all affairs and monetary and authoritative transactional management of the holy places in the country including the power to sell, transfer, levy tax on its donation and utilize its funds for any other purpose as deemed fit and necessary. You read that right!
Once upon a time in school, you certainly must have read the tussle between the Holy Church and the King far away in Europe, that emphasized on the notion of separation of religion from power. And perhaps it was one of the most epoch-making events in history that re-shaped the dynamics of power which allowed and paved the way for progressive development. The non- interference of King over the religious faith, practices and rights of his kingdom allowed a citizen to profess and practice his faith in peace without being disrupted or obstructed in his duty and profession by the soldiers of the King.
As an educated youth of the Modi-led Digital India I feel sorry for TV journalists who pretend to be neutral to both the sides in a debate, yet their statements clearly give voice to their own political party’s agenda and party’s position or stand on the debate. In the coming days, it will be interesting to see the political turmoil in the country as the hitherto silence of the unprivileged, socially backward and Dalit classes have found voice in one Dalit leader who is breaking the unconventional stereotypes associated with reservation for the socio-economically backward classes. The question of the hour is whether the masses want an Akhand Bharat with its narcissistic Hindtutva traditions or whether they want the nation to be dictated by the provisions of our Constitution, which is also known as the ‘law of the land,’
While the world is divided between Russia and Ukraine, India is divided between Ram and Rahim. Unfortunately, looking back at the history of both, neither have anything new, but a hysterical ode to the same old wives’ tale.
(The writer is Legislative Research Fellow, Meghalaya Institute of Governance (MIG), Shillong)