Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

W. B. Yeats had written these lines in a different context but they best describe India’s situation today. All sorts of separatist forces including Islamic fundamentalism plague India. And a new evil has awakened in Gujarat.

Narendra Modi has started to play the communal card in his election campaign. He is referring to the Godhra massacre. And unfortunately, the International Herald Tribune quotes the ultra-right wing Swapan Dasgupta who paints Modi as a colourful man, victimised by the media.

Hundreds of Gujarat farmers are committing suicide burdened with bad debts. Also opponents of the Modi camp within the BJP have forced Modi to provoke communal passions. We have to remember that Modi has a strong RSS background and is rabidly anti-Muslim. His recent declaration of wanting to shelter controversial writer Taslima Nasreen is just a camouflage. He is holding silver swords at campaigns. We can only guess the underlying message of such gestures.

It is common knowledge that Hindu supremacists had orchestrated the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. Why did it all happen?

a) During the Raj, British and German scholars had separately studied Hinduism and Indian Islam. They complemented each group but just added to the clerics of both how low the other group was. This is so ingrained in us that when a Modi speaks in communal terms, we just lap it all up. And somewhere some Muslim fundamentalist cleric is also feeding his flock ideological rhetoric. The only way out of this is a solid- history curriculum and the training of a new breed of historians who will not decry both Islam and Hinduism. The present historians are unacceptable to both religions for being blatantly atheist and Marxist.

b) Other so-called ’secular’ political parties like the Congress and the CPI (M) skirt all matters dealing with religion. They err on the side of cautiousness. Good men in our country need to stand up to both Islamic and Hindu fundamentalists. Modi’s divisive rhetoric needs to be answered both legally and ideologically.

c) The Judiciary needs to take suo moto notice of such hate speeches. Though in the case of Modi, the election commission has sent him a ’show-cause’ for provocative speeches.

d) The mainstream media needs to practice responsible journalism. In certain cases, the public should be clearly presented the truth. There should be no ambiguity. If anyone, be they Hindu or Muslim, tries to stir hatred, then that person should be decried by the media and not valorised.

We are not Pakistan, or even Ireland. They profess particular religions. To preserve our heritage of tolerance we need to be strictly intolerant of any sort of fundamentalism.

Via: International Herald Tribune

Images: BBC News, Anti-caste.org & World Prout Assembly