FROM GRIEF TO UNITY

A Call for a United India

One positive trend discernible during the aftermath of the Pahalgam tragedy was the near absence of attacks on Muslims or Kashmiris across the country by Hindu fanatical fringe, as it happened after the Pulwama massacre. Maybe, the Kashmiris rising up as one to unequivocally condemn the terrorist outrage and the fact that one of the first casualties was a Muslim young man trying to protect the tourists, as well as ordinary Kashmiris did their best to help the traumatized survivors, would have struck a chord. Shared human values go a long way in uniting people. While only the government can undertake retaliatory measures, ordinary citizens of the country could contribute immensely to the process of integrating Kashmiris to the mainstream narrative of the country at this stage, by refusing to be cowed down by the terrorist act and continuing to visit Kashmir as always. Besides saving ordinary Kashmiris being deprived of their livelihood, nothing could better snub the terrorists than our showing them the middle finger this way. Condolence meetings and candlelight vigils could only amount to lip service. This would mean that we really care. The authorities would indeed need to boost the security setup, which would only be a meaningful counterterrorist measure.

Religious and ethnic differences have haunted this country for long. It might be time for political and social forces to sit up and think positively of ways to make all Indians think as Indians first and anything else later. The other day, I was heartened to listen to a Muslim friend asserting while addressing a gathering that he was an Indian first and a Muslim later, a statement some of the Muslim political figures often find difficult to make, suggesting that both, being an Indian and being a Muslim, is one and the same thing. Nothing could be more ambivalent.

It’s an attitude not so different from those of the Hindu fanatical fringe, which harbours the notion that only the Hindus make true Indians and all others are aliens. We live in the twenty-first century and it is ridiculous that we cannot outlive such regressive attitudes. The problem with India is that most people, Hindu, Muslim or any other, are deeply religious. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they treat it as a personal choice and do not make an exhibition of it in public. Our educational institutions must epitomize ideals of secularism and groom the children to overcome the religious orthodoxy that is invariably ingrained into them at home. The French model of forbidding the students from wearing any religious symbols with their uniforms would be the ideal one for us to emulate. It’s certainly not difficult, if only the political parties do not poke their nose in for vote bank gains. The hijab controversy that went on in Karnataka some time ago (may be even continuing, who cares) is a case in point. It’s ridiculous that women are fighting (even dying) to get rid of the hijab in Iran, which is an Islamic state, when in India, which is secular, women fight to wear it! Equally condemnable is the Hindu students wearing saffron trappings and tilaks.

In fact, we could do well by enacting laws to enforce secularism. Banning the wearing of any kind of religious trappings in public will go a long way in shedding the communal differences. Indeed, the Muslims would be affected most by such a law, because burqas would certainly have to go, even if skull caps and hijabs may not have to. A sustained awareness campaign might be needed in advance, taking the Muslim clergy into confidence. They have to be encouraged to shed their medieval mindset in the interests of their community. The principal reason for the backwardness of the Muslim community is lack of education for their young. Education is the core factor in the development of any community and the national environment must provide for children from all communities to be imparted proper education. Madrasas or other religious institutions cannot substitute proper schooling.

Retrospectively, Indian Union could have done better had they enacted a Uniform Civil Code right at the time of independence. So should they have abolished all kinds of cast divides across the board. Reservation system has turned out to be a defeatist mechanism, which condemned the beneficiaries as low-calibre individuals, instilling an inferiority complex in them that prevents them from being competitive. A more sensible option would have been a welfare state that uplifted the downtrodden, creating an environment that ensured equal opportunities of education and career progression for their children vis-à-vis their richer counterparts. Reservation system is akin to socialist schemes that end up distributing poverty instead of generating wealth. The political slugfest going on in the country presently, with every party playing one-upmanship championing caste-based census, starkly evidences the vote bank politics and the despair of the entire political class to cling on to the caste system to exploit and thrive.

The terror victims of Pahalgam, in their martyrdom, have united India as nothing else did. It might be an opportunity for the powers that be to promote the core values that define our country, values of unflinching patriotism that respect our plurality, diversity and secular ideals. For starters, the political class must cast aside all kinds of sectarianism, be it religious, ethnic or caste-based. At the moment the only institutions in India which follows such grand ethos are the armed forces. Our political class would do well to emulate their conduct, if they genuinely care for the country and not power.