The New Citizenship Law Has Ignited a Battle for India's Soul
By Jawhar Sircar
(The Wire, 30th December, 2019)
The sudden, unplanned outburst in many
parts of India on the issue of citizenship is, no doubt, the first major
agitation against Narendra Modi. For 5.5 years, the world’s largest democracy
silently watched authoritarianism and communalism tighten their stranglehold,
but now it appears to have found its voice back.
People who were distressed at the serial collapse of every public
institution and bulwark of liberty and fair play, and had despaired at the
death-wish of the Congress, the decimation of the Left and the listlessness of
unimpressive opposition parties, have suddenly woken up, thanks to this
spontaneous fury. Many media houses that were tirelessly manufacturing consent
for the regime were compelled to take note.
Analysts feel that the recent agitation is not sufficiently broad-based,
as it is led by students and the youth; that it is confined only to some urban
centres and to the middle class, and is largely fired by one community. These
accusations could have been true on December 15, when the movement started in
Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, but the disproportionate
brutality of the police action united thousands of non-Muslims all over India
and broadened the base of the agitation.
We may also recall that the two mass uprisings that shook India in
1974-75, the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat and Jayaprakash Narayan’s Sampoorna
Kranti in Bihar, were also localised and led by the young, before really old
men like Morarji Desai and JP took over. Frankly, it required the party-less,
leaderless youth to muster both courage and recklessness to halt the invincible
Ashwamedha horse whose yagna was
celebrated by Modi-Shah, as soon as their batteries were recharged in May 2019.
The first five months of Modi 2.0 witnessed
more depredations on India’s democracy and secularism, especially on the
latter, than ever before. This year’s two sessions of parliament made a mockery
of democratic discourse, as the regime’s brute majority in the Lok Sabha and
floor management in the Rajya Sabha ensured that the bombardment that started
with the triple talaq Bill never stopped.
Amendments were hustled through parliament
to curb civil liberties and further strengthen the National Investigation
Agency, to empower detention without ascribing reasons under the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act and to emasculate the Right to Information Act.
Other hastily-hustled laws introduced dangerous clauses in medical education
and central universities, and legitimised Big Brother’s Aadhaar card.
But palpable shock waves rocked the nation in early August, and went far
beyond, when Article 370 of the constitution was read down with undisguised
relish by the Central government. Given the sui generis nature
of Kashmir’s accession to India and the special guarantees given then, this
article conferred some token autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, but this was
amputated without anaesthesia. Unprecedented numbers of armed forces were flown
to ensure that any dissent by Kashmiris was totally overawed, even as their
state was slashed into ‘union territories’ and deliberately degraded.
Mainstream India was too stunned to respond and the endless series of
vindictive tax raids on opponents and peremptory arrests by the Central Bureau
of Investigation appeared to have sent shivers regarding the ruthless,
malicious style of governance.
Even before the nation could recover from the massive crushing of civil
liberties in Kashmir came another trauma on August 31, when the National
Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was published. It took 50,000 government
officials ten long years to prepare this register, and it cost the people of
India some Rs 1,200 crore, even if we remain silent on the corruption and sheer
harassment that accompanied this programme.
In the last few years, the Supreme Court
had taken upon itself the task of regular monitoring this very difficult
exercise to weed out infiltrators, but when 19 lakh people, most of them Hindu
Bengalis, were excluded from the Register, everyone was upset. Those who had
targeted ‘Bangladeshi Muslims’ were disappointed at the small number caught in
the net, while those who were left out were shattered – especially as
‘detention centres’, inspired surely by Nazi concentration camps, were being
built for them.
Flare-ups took place in Assam but before we reach the next phase of
unrest, let us recall how the Supreme Court had fast-tracked hearings and
submissions to resolve the vexatious issue of Ayodhya before a chief justice
retired, which is rather odd. The same court had put on hold critical decisions
on the constitutionality of the blitzkrieg in Kashmir and severe human rights
issues. The court’s verdict of November 9, which effectively handed over the
disputed plot to Hindus, was based on non-watertight evidence, but it may have
ensured that majoritarian violence did not break out, as it had in 1992-93 and
in 2002. Or, maybe the perpetrators of the mentioned riots had sheathed their
swords as, after all, they got what they wanted – ‘Mandir wahin banayege (We
will build the temple at that spot).’
Naturally, disconcerting whispers also arose and many criticised what
they considered to be a capitulation before majoritarianism. A lot of angst
would, however, surely have been taken care of if only the honourable court had
issued a deadline, as it had done to ensure land for the temple and mosque, for
the time-bound finalisation of criminal cases, that are dragging for a quarter
century, and punish those who openly vandalised Babri Masjid. After all, the
apex court had severely condemned it, and what better could we expect if
action had accompanied words?
But let us move on to the tipping point,
which came finally in mid-December when the regime gloated about successfully
passing the amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955. Though it spoke
sentimentally of wiping the tears of persecuted minorities who were seeking
refuge in Mother India, the undisguised target was the legitimisation of
discrimination against Muslims. Strategically, Hindu and other non-Muslim
refugees from three Muslim countries were chosen for this favour and four other
neighbours were left out.
It was, however, the promise-cum-threat issued repeatedly by
home minister Amit Shah that the Assam-type gruelling NRC survey would be
extended to other parts of India, that led to the sudden explosion of popular
wrath. At this stage, we also need to understand that the causes for protests
in Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the rest of India are quite distinct from
each other. The Assamese, who are paranoid about being outnumbered by Bengalis,
are up in arms against the BJP and its CAA for trying to ‘regularise’ Hindu
Bengali immigrants who were left out by the NRC. They feared that many more
Bangladeshi Hindu refugees will be given citizenship and upset Assad’s
precarious demographic balance.
On the other hand, Tamils are agitating mainly against the omission of
Lankan Tamil refugees in this Christmas gift, though some are also against
religious discrimination. The ruling party in Bengal, that has organised
massive all-community protests, aims to further consolidate its base among the
minority community. It also highlights the terror that NRC evokes – of
bureaucratic harassment, corruption and heartlessness – to win over the majority.
The semiotics in the battle are interesting. The national flag has, for
instance, been snatched back by the agitators from the ultra-nationalists, who
had appropriated it quite brazenly. Historically, this Sangh parivar had
virulently opposed the Indian tricolour at the time of our independence and had
continued to insult it until Sardar Patel compelled them to accept the nation’s
flag. Muslims, who were being repeatedly grilled and heckled for the last five
years about their loyalty to India, are now proudly waving national flags as
their response, as part of the citizenship agitation.
Students in Delhi and elsewhere are also
innovating several Gandhian techniques like, say, offering flowers to policemen
and trying to reach their hearts. National and patriotic songs are now the
weapons of the weak as they stand up to the grossly inhuman viscousness let
loose by the regime in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam, where their
hegemony prevails.
But then, this reminds us of similar
outbursts of patriotism that we had seen in the protests in Delhi after the
Jyoti Singh gangrape and murder, in 2012-13. We can hardly forget how countless
young men and women had responded to Anna Hazare’s call against corruption and
had brought the capital city and other parts of India to a halt. They had given
fresh life to forgotten Gandhi caps, but the lasting result of their agitation
and sacrifice is that a crafty Arvind Kejriwal has been catapulted to power and
a publicity-crazy Kiran Bedi sits in the overrated chair of a Lieutenant
Governor.
But attacking a doddering liberal-secular government in India then is
different from taking on the present breed of ruthless megalomaniacs, who stop
at nothing. No one can predict how long the public anger will be sustained and
how the Modi-Shah duo will retort, and with what ferocity and vindictiveness.
One prays that communal conflicts do not break out in this charged atmosphere
or are even manufactured to split the movement. Some say that a war-like attack
in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir could also distract attention from civil protests,
as belligerence always pumps patriotic adrenaline.
The protest that was lit by students of two central universities and may
have been taken up first by Muslims, as they were/are the targets of Hindu
extremists, has certainly metamorphosed into a general revolt. It is now a
movement of the young, not only against unfair religious discrimination, but
also against authoritarianism and against cutting of funding and interfering in
education. Economic failures and increased joblessness are also stoking
dissent, finally.
The fact is, however, that our liberal
secular forces have remained content with signing righteous petitions, writing
strong articles and holding debates on television or within safe surroundings.
Liberals in neighbouring Bangladesh, on the other hand, had to combat brutal
authoritarianism and religious fanaticism much and more directly. From 1989,
they organised massive Mangal Shobha-jatra rallies as
anti-Ershad protests by secular forces and continue to bring out these mammoth
demonstrations every year on April 14, as evidence of their war on Islamic
obscurantism.
In February 2013, several thousand
intellectuals, teachers and street-shy middle class professionals gathered
spontaneously at Shahbagh in Dhaka and demonstrated for days on end, compelling
their government to hang Islamic fundamentalists, who were guilty of murder and
rape. The Religious Right was taken aback by the scale of protest and the
determination of secular democratic forces, that withstood physical attacks –
thanks to the bold youth brigade that had joined the secular chorus.
Whatever be the results of the present CAA-NRC movement, the first
gashes and scars that have been inflicted will not be easy to hide. Modi’s hypnotic
charm, created through his glib, sweet-talking series of lies and fanned
largely by well-paid corporate marketing and media professionals and amoral
strategists, is finally broken. Those who were aghast to see India’s youth
following him like the pied piper and heaping their votes in his favour are
finally relieved.
The moot point we need to remember is that different sets of Indians had
voted for different Modis – as India’s multi-purpose saviour or Kalki Avatar;
as Mister Clean who would bring black money from Swiss banks; as the poor
tea-server who symbolised humility; as the determined anti-dynast who lived a
frugal existence; as the great patriot who would elevate India’s position to
the highest level; as the warrior who would smash terrorism; as the economic
Midas who would usher in revolutionary liberalisation; as Santa Claus who would
distribute millions of jobs; as the heroic, aggressive leader of the Hindu
‘nation’ and as the dreaded nemesis of ‘pampered Muslims’ who would show them
their place.
Every time this multi-rooted banyan around Modi is shaken by protest, as
now, different self-contradictory elements get jolted out and disaggregate
themselves from this contrived conglomerate of power – that money, cadres,
oratory and chutzpah aggregated. As repression increases and brave-hearts face
the brunt, different and differing heterogeneous groups are compelled to come
together in their united struggle against authoritarianism and communalism.
That is the lasting contribution of each such mass movement towards the
strengthening our democratic tradition.
Ugly majoritarian fanatics who were
conferred legitimacy by Modi and his ilk will, however, continue to bark and
troll – even among the most educated or prosperous circles. At the end of the
day, we must realise that even after seven decades, India is still a process,
not a product. More important is the harsh fact that this India has space for
only one idea to prevail, hopefully the plural one.
No comments:
Post a Comment