Inheritance of Discrimination

Why is Civil Society mute to threat of communalism in India?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Steve Bucknor is out. The umpire with impeccable credentials became victim of a slander, which the exploiters often use for their own purposes. All of sudden, we found the upper caste Indians crying about racism and discrimination. That Harbhajan Singh is no saint has been well elaborated by former legend Bishan Singh Bedi. It is a well-known fact that he abused Andrew Symonds. But what was the abuse is not verified. The Australians, who are known for their own brand of racism and sucked the blood of the indigenous population, are clamoring for it. Paradoxically, fight is between the two exploiters of colors and the umpire was the one who played cricket during the heydays of
racial discrimination in Africa.

This event highlighted one fact that we are afraid of admitting our own disabilities and feel that offense is the best defense. Mr Sharad Pawar, the BCCI head hails from Maharastra, a land of great social rebels like Jyoti Ba Phule, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Chatripati Shahuji Mahraj and others and how they waged war against caste system and untouchability. Perhaps, Sharad Pawar know it well how the caste discrimination is still part and parcel of our life. Defending Harbhajan’s innocence was Navjot Singh Siddhu, who is famous for his loud mouth on television channels. We laugh at his quotes and jokes but that reflect our mental make up as most of the jokes, wits and humors that we have in our country is based on somebody’s physical appearance, color, castes and disability. Mr. Siddhu often uses such terminology to emphasise his viewpoint. It is not long back that we had famous song from a Bollywood which suggests “ Mochi bhee khud ko sunar samjhe’, that the cobbler thinks himself of a goldsmith. This is nothing short of racial abuse that certain people deserve success and others do not have right to compare themselves with the ‘big’ people.

The social cultural conditions in South Asia are alarming. They are reflecting of our tainted cultural practices. It is important that before we come to any conclusion, we must introspect what is happening around us.

The events at end of 2007 do not reflect the entire subcontinent in good light. First, the election results from Gujarat gave a chance to the saffron brigade to feel happy about their presence, a victory, which was followed by them in Himachal Pradesh. Modi’s victory became a toast for all those right wing nationalists who enjoy this cocktail of capital and Hindutva in India. When Modi was celebrating in Gujarat, the Hindutva foot soldiers were busy in experimenting the same things in another state, which is one of India’s poorest states yet naturally very rich. Here this richness of nature does not help the protector of nature, the Adivasis, but the exploiters of nature, the big corporate houses, who are on a purchasing spree. Yes, I talk of Orissa, a state, which has a government whose chief minister did not know how to speak Orriya in the beginning. Yes, the legacy of the family made this corporatised man, chief minister. The Sangh Parivar worked without any administrative control and is now the horrific tales of violence against Christian community in Kandhamala district of Orissa are out. A white paper issued by some of the civil society activists led by Dr John Dayal reveal the hidden danger of communalization process in Orissa and how the state administration became a silent spectator allowing the houses of the people be torched. While the white paper does speak about violence against non-Christians or Hindus but the fact is that communalization process in Orissa has hit below the belt. Why is the Hindutva so eager to make Orissa its Gujarat replica? One needs not to be an ideologue to understand the philosophy of Hindutva or religious rights in general. They work closely with the business houses. While in the west the capitalist might have social concern and secular ideals, in India Hindutva enamors them. Not a single industrialist could stand up and be counted to condemn the isolation and exclusion of Muslims in Gujarat. Every time, the demand for their safety and natural justice was raised, Modi and his gangs made them an issue of MUSLIMS. And the resounding victory that Gujarat gave to Modi is a reflection of how the community has grown. It is a victory not of diversity but homogenization of thought and deeds. Yes, Gujarat became a perfect Hindu Rastra and Gujaratis world over, unfortunately, have remained an isolated community, rarely meeting and mixing with the locals. Yes, they remain caged in their temples and money.

A few days later after Modi’s victory we found Gujarati’s being amidst a storm in Kenya. Reports appeared in newspapers here that they were targeted but independent sources said that the violence was general and not particular against Gujarati community but Narendra Modi was ready to give them shelter in Gujarat, bypassing the foreign ministry’s domain. He wanted government to act immediately. Of late, the Indians are becoming target of attacks but not due to any racial prejudices but because of their own isolation in those societies. In April 2007 when I traveled to Uganda, a country which witnessed violence just before I reached there, between the ethnic Ugandans who targeted Indians. It is no doubt that the Indian’s worked hard to reach to top slot but it is also a fact that a large number of them have reached to such a position with not much hard work but by sheer manipulations too. I was alarmed to hear from my African friends as why the Indian community is unable to mix up with the local communities even when the Europeans come and marry there, mix up with the local populace and share their feelings, the Indians have a deep sense of color prejudice and a superiority complex. While some of the Indians wrote me back from Uganda that they have contributed a lot but the fact is that the Gujarat’s exclusivism will ultimately hurt their own communities. Today, Modi want Gujarat exclusively for the upper castes and there is no voice of the tribals who have faced the brunt of the industrial Gujarat as their voice is not heard, the Dalits who plight is not heard. Such things do not make stronger India. Gujaratis enjoyed fruits of diversity world over and they do not want the same thing in their own province. In Uganda, Kenya elsewhere they are using Gandhi but in Gujarat, they have thrown away the old man.

Spending the last 10 days of the year 2007 in a remote town of Andhra Pradesh, I got opportunity to understand and meet many people from different parts of the country. A humanist friends from Gujarat made his presentation on the issue of communalization in Gujarat for which he openly blamed the killings and ostracisation of the Kashmiri Pandits. How can the Gujarati’s keep quiet if the Hindus are being killed and ethnic cleansing happening there on large scale, he retorted. Then he went on to explain, how the Gujarati people got annoyed after the Muslims had burnt the train in Godhara. When I asked him as why he feels that the Muslims burnt the train at Godhara and Hindus retaliated elsewhere? That is where we make mistake, I told him. How can you say that the Muslims burnt the train? They were criminals who might or might not be Muslims as their identities have not been established, I said. It is the duty of the state to nab the culprits and get them punishment. Who are you to punish the people of Gujarat, I questioned. ‘Oh, but tell me why are the terrorists only from the Muslim community’, he responded to my observations. My answer is simple. ‘Not a single Hindu has been implicated in the communal riots in India. Not a single one has been punished. You can catch a Dawood Ibrahim or Chhota Shakil but the culprits of the Mumbai Riots, Gujarat Violence, Delhi’s anti Sikh violence are roaming. They got rewarded by getting elected to parliament and became ministers’, I said. In a diverse society, the communalism of the majority is soon turned into a ‘national’ ethos while the demand of the minorities become communal, hence the votaries of the Ram mandir have become ‘national’ while those who demand justice for Babari Masjid become anti national. I am shocked not because people say such things. I have no doubt about death of civil society in India but it pains when those proclaiming humanists and human rights defender behave in such a way to justify one brand of communalism. One has to understand the dilemmas of the Muslim community in India to understand the ground reality. The more the community is marginalized the better the space for the fundamentalists to take over. That political leadership failed Muslim community in India, which depended on the Hindu leaders to prove their secularism, is another tragedy of the post independence India. A dalit can shout on the rooftop saying Bahujan Samaj Party is my part but for a Muslim to say Muslim League is my party would mean a tag of communal mindset.

It is easier to blame the Muslims for everything. Often such questions greet us. Why are they terrorists? Why no Muslim country is secular? Why Muslim breeds so many children? Why do they have so many wives? These things are true about every one. These things depend on your socio-economic status. One can also say that the population growth in the North India is tremendous comparatively to South. Secondly, the North Indian population is not just confined to Muslims; the increase in the population of Dalits and OBCs is enormous. The fact is that the population grows because of poverty and has nothing to do with religion.

Now, the important aspect is the false hood of the Hindutva campaign If they are against the Muslims for all those reasons, I mentioned above, then the important question, I am asking is, why are they hitting the Christian community? Are they terrorists? Do they have more children? Do they have more wives? the Hindutva does not want to understand that despite 9/11 incidents, Europe and American showed exemplary resilience. There were violence but those incidents were stray and isolated. Even when technically many of the European countries are still Christian, the individual freedom and human rights are highly respected and are well in place and the society by and large is secular. If the Hindutva want to compare India’s own record of discrimination, it must come out of a better alternative rather than blaming the Christians and Muslims for its own problem.

The problem is clear. The issue of Dalits and tribals are getting not only politicized but also internationalized. The great tolerant society now is exposed to the world. And we feel that this expose of our society can be countered by a false aggression that we have shown in Australia. In the age of information technology, we still want to hide our evils and not fight against them. Conversion was a potential tool once upon a time, a sense of revolt against the unequal system. One can differ with its perceptions and outcomes but definitely for the Hindutva propagandists, they were the first one to hit upon the rights of the Dalits and marginalized in India. Arun Shourie, the former editor of Indian Express is today the propagandist of the Hindutva in India. Shourie who once upon a time epitomized the probity in Public life, fought for the victims of the 1984 riots in Delhi when every news paper forgot about them, is today, ironically, speak against not only human rights but want to speak in terms of an eye for an eye. His writings against Dalits, Muslims, Christians are well known to be documented here. The only thing he changed in these years was that his love for Ambanis has increased. A company against whom he wrote passionately like a Gulshan Nanda’s fiction. These are the people who came out from some of the best-known Christian Institutions and later grew up in the shadow of the veterans of the human rights movement in India.

The justification of happening in Gujarat and now in Orissa underline two things. That the Sangh Parivar have Hinduised the entire political system. Second, despite a secular constitution, we still have not won battle against fundamentalism and religious intolerance. It is a challenge for all of us. The gain comes from the Political Islam in our surroundings but comparisons are rarely made with the Europeans where a large number of those who supply hate to India, live. Now, whether it is civil society or the political parties, the basic framework is the ideas, I mentioned earlier. Justification to violence under the garb of something else. You kill Hindus in Pakistan hence we have a right to retaliate in Gujarat. The Pakistani fundamentalists will do the same thing.. You kill Muslims in Gujarat and we will avenge it in Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere? When will this politics of prejudice end?

One needs to understand the threat perception in Orissa. The violence that killed Graham Stains and his two children was preceded with violence against the church and Christians in Gujarat. Prior to killings of Muslims in Gujarat, we had seen attacks on the churches and Christian Institutions in Gujarat and other parts of India, predominantly the tribal areas. So while Muslims are ‘terrorists’, produce more ‘children’, keep more ‘wives’, the Christians convert to our children. Why are Mr Adwani and his team leaving the prestigious Christian Institutions in the cities? why they target in the villages? Is it because these Christian Educational Institutions have more RSS wallahs than the Christians there? Is it because the Adivasis might also learn English language and understand their rights. Some body has to work. Let the Sangh also work there. Let the government work in the tribal areas. Displacing them from their habitat, killing them culturally and then imposing some religion on them, which has never been their own, is against their fundamental right. Another question comes in my mind is Christian contribution in India to civil society, health sector and education system. Can the Sangh Parivar and their different offshoots give us some counter argument on these issues?

Hatred in Orissa is long-term idea. The National Commission for Minorities has already said it in its note. Why is civil society so submissive, is a matter of grave concern. The fact of the matter is that barring a few exceptions; it has remained so every time. It is systematic intrusion in our civil society through the right wing forces, like media where even the most secular character has saffron rob underneath; the face of civil society is more tainted. It compromised on these issues because of various reasons. India’s health will only be good if it has a pluralistic heritage and a will to live together. Any imposition of ideas, identities, cultural and society on any other non willing partner will make it a nation, more dangerous than any of our neighbors. If lessons could be drawn from our immediate neighbors like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri lanka then, diversity, human rights, new ideas should be hallmark of a democratic system. Any deviation from these will turn India into an Afghanistan, which is still battling for unification and where different tribes are up in arms against each other. An India, where the women are not safe and where the discrimination on the basis of your caste, identity, colors and physical appearance are still rampant. The Sangh and its different Avatars should focus more on these issues so that life of the common person is changed. At least, this is what they can learn from the Christians.

At the end, we all pay our taxes. A government is there to protect the people and not become mute witness to violence against one community. If we do not find answers to our inherent discriminations as well as false nationalism, which is disturbingly turning into an upper caste cricket match that we witnessed in Sydney, then, I am afraid, the situation would go out of hand. This is the biggest hour of crisis in our social life and we have to respond it with responsibility and courage and not to let down the founding fathers of our nation, who gave us a secular and liberal constitution which is still our proud possession and a guarantee for social justice and equality for all.

Intimidating Peace

Muslims in Gujarat: Victims of a conspiring State


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Nafisa Bi lost her eyesight three years back after three of her sons were arrested under the notorious Prevention of Atrocities & Terrorist Act (POTA) after the Sabarmati Express, was burnt by the miscreants in Godhara railway station in February 2002. Today, Nafisa, 60 is completely blinded in her isolated home, which used to have a bakery. There are 11 such families living in Rehmat Nagar area of Godhara who have lost everything after their male members were arrested and kept in prison. Charges have not been framed yet, said Rehana Bi whose husband Shabir Hussein was a conductor in a private bus and was randomly arrested along with other ‘conspirators’ for their alleged role in the incident. The meager earning were not enough to sustain their family of four. Her younger daughter Shamim Bano was not born yet and has not seen her father so far. Rehana does not have any other members to support and is earning her livelihood through domesticated work at the houses of nearby Muslim locality of Boharas. “ I go at 8 in the morning and return at 12 pm. They give me the left over food, which I eat and bring for my children. In cash, I just get Rs 250/-. My husband was getting Rs 1,200/- as monthly salary. How can my family survive in a meager Rs 250/-, she asks. No body comes here to ask us about our problems. A few social work organizations were here for some year but now they too have left leaving us in lurch. We have no clue about when our people will be released from the jail, despite the fact that we are informed that Supreme Court has ordered them bail, she explains.

Gujarat has witnessed systematic isolation of the Muslims in the past 10 years. Their movements are traced and livelihood shattered. It is very difficult for them to get even the work in the Hindu households. Even if the community wants to restart its life forgetting the past, there is no certainty whether the product that they make would sale in the market or not. Efforts were made by many NGOs, which failed because of the un written economic blockade by the powerful group of the Hindutva brigade. In fact, the tribal and Dalits face the same wrath in the village if they ally with any likeminded organizations which talks of their identity and rights.

The pain of Nafisa bi needs to be understood in terms of the ailing Gujarati society and the crisis Muslim women face in Gujarat. With most of the male members gone behind the bar, these women today face the uphill task of reviving their lives in a deeply polarized and hostile atmosphere. Rehmat Nagar area reflects the mood of the state government and their zeal to isolate Muslim further. There is no activity in the area, which is completely cut off from the main high way. No link road and if it rains then perhaps it would become nearly impossible for these women to go to earn. Most of the women are surviving on the alms which their employer give them apart from a salary of Rs 250/- per family per month.

Activists come and promise that our people would be released soon as the Supreme Court has ordered, said Rehana Bi. But Nafisa Bi seems to be resigned to her fate. ‘It is more than three years that I saw my sons. Now even if they come, I would not be able to see them.’ Neighbors inform that Nafisa weeps all the time. Her husband divorced her long back without caring their children. Fortunately, her sons were hardworking and earned their livelihood well to take care of her. Today, she is thoroughly dejected at the plight of her sons who she alleges were beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Her son Shabir Anwar Ansari have three sons and one daughter while Alauddin, the other son got married the same year. The locality is about 5 kilometers away from the railway station where the Sabarmati Express’s coach were burnt. ‘ The police came in the evening with their face covered and asked the male members to accompany them to their bosses office’, say Rehana. She further added that there were no women police personnel when they came. They were all men showering the choices abuse on us.

Fakharuddin Yusuf was a Bus driver. He was arrested as soon as he returned from his trip. He was put in Sabarmati jail where he died one year later. He was beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Obviously, the Gujarat police whose track record is worst while tackling with the minorities cannot escape the blame. Many young children who were born after their father was arrested often ask their mothers when would their father return.

The police and administration has become so nasty that it does not even allow the
detainees to meet their ailing parents even when they were waiting for a peaceful death. Rehana’s mother in law died weeping and crying to see her son who could not come to see her before her death. Payroll was granted to Rehana’s husband three days later after his mother was cremated. Mother and son did not see each other for three years says Rehana wiping her moisted eyes. When the Gujarat police come here they do not bring any women constables and on our defiance we are beaten up. She was arrested for one day. Rehana is outspoken when I ask about who burnt the train. “ we did not know about the burning of train before the police came and started arresting the people. They informed that all the male members would be required to go to SP sahib but once they were put in the police vehicles they never returned and families only came to know about the whereabouts of their male members about three months later when they started writing to them.

‘ I too was arrested but they released me the very next day but my father was kept up in the lock up for six days’, she says. Her moist eyes narrate the innocence inside her ‘, we do not burn even the dead, why would we burnt people alive?’

A total of nearly 100 families are charged under POTA in Godhara. The eleven families whose male wards have been arrested immediately after the train was burnt hail from this locality of Rehmat Nagar which is located on right hand side of the Godhara-Badodara high way. There is no connectivity road to this locality and one has to take off from the vehicle to reach here. The narrow muddy lane is the only way for you to reach the place. None of the man in the area has any work. In fact, they do not get any work outside. Tragedy is that Nafisa and like her many women’s pains and agonies are compounded with the fact that with in their own community they have lot of resistance. When there is no work, man have no work to do and mere domesticated work in nearby locality of the Bohras cannot make them survive. It is ironical that many of the women are being pushed in the flash trade since there is virtually a crisis of survival. Immediately after the riots, many NGOs started working among the victims but two-three years after the incident when they are faced with a hostile state administration which is hell bent on keeping the Muslims in particular and minorities in general out of the mainstream, organizations winded up their charity work. Of course, some of them are still working creating awareness in an otherwise thoroughly communalized atmosphere of Gujarat.

The Modi government kept quiet and even the press has not been able to follow up all the cases. How long the select few would come every day to expose a government, which has been corrupted at every level. The water in Rehmat Nagar area is totally contaminated, as there are factories in the area, which release chemical waste every day and therefore have turned the ground water totally undrinkable. The families go to fetch water from high way, nearly half a kilometer away from the area. Most of the families, which lived here before February 27th, 2002, have now left for other areas leaving 11 of the families here in complete isolation.

Rehana’s mother in law died. When she was on bed, her husband applied for a payroll but was denied. He came to see his mother three days after her death. That is the tragedy of the entire incident. Says Rehana,’ Narendra Modi is not a married man. Had he been married and had some children, he would have been sensitive to the issues of family, pain of a mother or anguish of a wife or cry of the children who miss their father. How would he explain to a mother who died crying without seeing her son?

In the global war on terror, it is very clear that it is the educated elite, which is now becoming a tool in the hands of the deeply religious fanatics. Poor were actually never were part of it. They might be looked down upon as ‘fundamentalists’ but never as ‘terrorists’. In this age when war are psychological as well as more so on modern techniques, a look at the profile of 11 POTA victims would tell how government was hell bent on making the innocent as terrorists.

Shabbir Hussain was bus conductor with a happily married life with children has been arrested. Shabbir Anwar Ansari and Alauddin Ansari were brothers with their families. Both were with their mother and running a bakery shop. Sadiq Khan Sultan Khan was a painter. Shamsher Khan is brother of Sadiq Khan. Yusuf Khan used to make bamboo Pinjara while Feroj Khan was working with Yasin Habib in a hotel. Feroj Khan was working in a steal company and Jabir Binyamin was working with a dairy. Fakhruddin Yusuf was working as a driver and was not even in the town. He returned in the evening only. The work profile of all these people may not suggest whether they had time to conspire against people. He has six daughters and 2 sons. Now all of them have left this place, as there was no security of life and livelihood for them. Jabir’s wife Jainab informs how her two children miss their father. Daughter Saima Bano 4 and son Shehjad 5 have not got their fathers live as he is in jail. In fact Saima was born after her father was in jail.

Jabir’s brother Ramjani was a rikshawpullar with a school. He was arrested from school where he was taking school children. Ramjani has six children with the eldest daughter Naseem Bano aged 12 and the youngest son Sarfaraj aged 5. Another brother Habib is also arrested. He has two children Shamir and Ferhan. The families are virtually living in despair and starvation. All the women are working as domestic servants in the relatively middle class Muslim households and get a maximum of Rs 250/- added with left over food. Irony is that the children are looked after at home by the neighbors or elders like Nafisa bi and other elderly women who cannot work. Some of the children go to a nearby school but majority of them dropped out.

Now Gujarat will face elections and the government of Narendra Modi has started divising methods, which can create communal wage. Dalits are being charged in false cases. Inter caste and inter religious marriages are being blown out of proportion. The state administration is thoroughly Hinduised. Even inside the booking windows of the railway stations one can find the pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, which is against our secular ethics. Cases are not registered for Muslims. Take the case of Jatun Bibi whose house was burnt by the rioters in village Mirapuri which is about 13 kilometer from Godhara. They have a total of 12 acres of land in the family of six yet even 5 years after the riots Jatun can not go back to her village. She now stays in the slums of Rehmat Nagar on a rented house along with her husband. Jatun Bibi filed a case against Sarpanch and won at the session court. The case was challenged in the high court where she lost. She does not even know about the case and files. It was never challenged later. Her husband says that they will never go back to the village as the village Sarpanch and his goons would kill them. Today, Jatun Bibi lives on rent in a small one-room house at Rehmat Nagar. She pays Rs 200/- per month as rent. Her husband is a labour. She used to own a Kirana shop in the village. Both husband and wife worked on the shop and had a big house for them along with others in the family. The three relatives (brothers and sisters) lived together but now they are not ready to return. Her husband expresses his fears that if they return to village, the Sarpanch would kill them. Police does not help in these matters. In fact, a BJP MLA has been supporting the sarpanch.

Jatun Bibi lost her mother in the childhood. She has four sisters and one brother. The one brother, according to her, has turned out to be an anti social element who would not share his parental property with the sisters. Tragically, Jatun Bibi has no sources to challenge the high court order. One does not know what her lawyers are doing at the moment. The condition of rule of law in Gujarat is that Muslims do not come out in open; you have to prove to them that you really care for their issues. Such things may shock people outside Gujarat but this unjust peace in Gujarat must be opposed. Peace building groups are roaming around but how can there be peace in Gujarat if the second majority of Gujarat lives in abject poverty, isolation and complete fear. Can such peace be supported which prohibit people to speak against injustice?

It is not that only Muslims are being targeted in Gujarat. The Dalits and tribals are used against the Muslims and are intimidated if they do not cooperate. Recently, a tribal leader of a social movement who was fighting for the forest rights of the tribals was barred from entering into four districts by the administration. The wife of a well respected Muslim doctor in Godhara was disturbed so much in the aftermath of Godhara that she shifted from Gujarat along with her children as safety of the children was paramount to her.

Gujarat is on the verge of history today. Gujarati’s enjoyed the fruits of globalisation. People greeted them everywhere from Africa to America and England where they went for their business and succeeded. Today, the same Gujarati’s particularly the Non-resident Indian variety are conspicuously silent on the functioning of the governance, which want to weed the fellow Gujarati Muslims out from the state. Often, Gujarati’s use Mahatma Gandhi and his message of social reconciliation for their own benefits abroad particularly in Africa, it is time, they realize that Bapu’s dream of reconciliation hold true for their own state also. In the so-called war against terror we should not forget that it also call for a just government. It also calls for justice against those who are terrorists but not Muslims. They too are terrorists who kill innocent people, rape their women and publicly support killing and humiliation of human being who happens to be Muslims. War against terror should not only be against the terrorists who happen to be Muslims but all those also who kill Muslim selectively. If this so-called war has to be won against the evil designs of all those then those in power or those who wish to come to power must show their resolve in providing governance and protecting all those who are citizens of state. One hope our governments in the Center and states listen to those cries of the victims of the mass killing in Mumbai after the demolition of Babari Masjid or those killed in Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Kanpur and elsewhere. Not only war against terror, we will need to define genocide in present day term and its linkages to fundamentalist ideologies supported by the state. All those ideological dictators need to be brought to book for abetting the riots, supporting the killing or threatening them with dire consequences. Unfortunately, deeply prejudiced mindset cannot change. Gujarat needs a strong civil society as well as a strong rainbow coalition of the Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Christians and OBCs to tackle fascist onslaught on people’s right and livelihood. The real target of the saffron forces in Gujarat is actually not Muslims but Dalits and Adivasis as we only talks of Gujarat issue in terms of Muslims but not in terms of socio political issues, which have threatened the very basis of this government. Adivasis are threatened from their livelihood as Modi goes abroad inviting big industrialists to suck the blood of poor Adivasis and Dalits. All Dalits and Adivasis who are trying to assert are boycotted and pitched against Muslims and Christians. Public land in Gujarat is being given to private companies and nothing has been done to eliminate poverty. The only thing Gujarat has these days is rabid Hinduisation or I would simply say, brahminsation process. It is sickening to see such ritualistic symbols present in everyday life from posters in railway stations to Panchayat Bhavans, you will find not one or two Gods but large number of Godmen. Nowhere, in India such naked neglect of the secular laws of the country. Why should railways allow a picture of Hanuman in its reservation counters or why should the schools and Panchayat buildings have Asha Ram Bapu or Murari Bapu. If you love so much your Gods please do allow the other gods also. And definitely, then will have to put a Mao and a Marx also to satisfy the nonbelievers. This hypocrisy must be challenged. Gujarat is communalized very systematically and the disease is spreading like a virus.

The answer lies in strong ties of real Gujaratis who do not have golden plates in their homes or who do not have NRIs in their family. Yes, Gujarat could be saved by a strong people’s movement involving every segment of the marginalized sections of our society including Muslims and all those victims of Narendra Modi’s rabid anti Dalit, anti tribal and anti farmer policies. It is also time to take these religious lunatics head on otherwise they will deny every one a right to live with dignity and freedom to express.

Equity of Faith in Secular India ?

Review Article

Christians: A Faith under assault in Secular India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Christians from all over India are gathering to protest against the Hindutva assault on their faiths in different parts of the country. On May 29th, 2007, when they all assemble at Jantar Mantar seeking government’s intervention to protect their institutions and people, it would remind all of us that in plural society, every one need to appreciate the contribution of linguistic and religious minorities in its development. The gathering of the Christians therefore should not be seen in isolation and must have support from all of us who believe that best bet for India’s survival is cohesiveness of different ethnic, religious, secular groups. In the past few months, the goons of the Hindutva have targeted the community and their faith leaders in various north Indian states particularly Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat. States like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where Christian population is abysmally low are bringing out special laws to prohibit conversion. Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand have already enacted laws prohibiting conversion. It is these states where extra constitutional groups of the Hindutva have taken it on themselves to do not only moral policing over people’s behavior but also convert the tribal and dalits back to brahmanical fold. With Hindutva devotees at the seats of power, the goons are having free day to kill any one at their will. The assaults on Christian institutions have wider implications. The freedom of the gangs of Hindutva has become agony for all peace loving people including the minorities. We must also understand that minorities suffer from certain dilemmas and such assault isolate them further and strengthen the theocratic leadership in the community. Moreover, the assault on Muslims and Christians is deliberate to suppress the internal contradictions with in the Varna system. With UP gone out of their hand, the Sangh Parivar would re-launch its assault on the Muslims and Christians so that the assertion of Dalits, adivasis and backward classes is diverted against the ‘enemies’ and Brahmins and brahmindom have an unchallenged supremacy in the broader Hindu Samaj.

In many of these states the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of the Hindutva’s discriminating and destructive ideology, is in power. Much before they slaughtered Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, it was the Christians, their churches and their educational institutions, which were targeted by the Hindutva’s lumpen organizations. This unaccountability of the Hindutva and its various offshoots emerge from the open encouragement and support from the ruling parties in these states. It is not only outrageous but also unconstitutional that the state governments run by the Bharatiya Janata Party behave conspicuously and in double speak justifying these assaults in the name of intrusion of foreign culture and threat to India’s unity.

Look, what happened in Gujarat today where the Kolis are up in the street seeking justice. Narendra Modi never loses sight of targeting the Muslims and Christians, whom he fears, are proselytizing the tribal by throwing money at them. Absolutely farcical Mr. Modi, Gujarati Banias and Brahmins have enough money to buy equally great product as the evangelical groups, so please suggest them to go in the villages, sit with the Dalits and tribals, share their agonies and pains. But we know it well, that is impossible in brahmanical Gujarat who used the multiculturalism of the west for their benefits but became Hindu chauvinists when the issue of multiculturalism cropped up in their own state. In other way, Gujarat’s psyche has become totally brahmanised and a mere change of Narendra Modi would not work. An assertion of Dalits, Adivasis and backward communities (Gujarat’s backward are Hinduised), for their political rights in coalition with Muslims and Christians, would pave the way for throwing a challenge against the current Hindutva culture prevailing in the state.

One of the issues that John Dayal has raised in his book is the issue of right to profess the faith of your choice. The Hindutva groups obviously are not comfortable with it as they feel it as a threat. But conversion is a political tool and apolitical conversion has cost Dalits a lot. The first conversion that jolted the brahmanical structure was not in 1951 when Baba Saheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in 1951 but the 1982 conversion of hundreds of Dalits to Islam in Meenakhsipuram, in Tamilnadu. For Hindutva every body who is dissatisfied with their faith has been paid handsome amount of money to convert. Unfortunately, that is where the problem lies, as most of the converts are still much below the poverty line. If conversion had fetched good money and good life in monitory terms, I am sure the Brahmins, Banias and other upper caste Hindus would have been the first to grab the opportunity.

We also tend to ignore the fact that the government has itself divided various Dalit communities. It has knowingly done the biggest conversion in the history of India for including Dalits, tribal, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and all those who are not a Muslim or Christian, into a Hindu category. That has been the biggest blunder and conversion in the history of India and must be opposed with as all these communities have their distinct cultural identities. Opposition to Dalit converts come from that fact Dalits are considered as Hindus. So the government, the Hindu reformist want them to first face the untouchability and social oppression again to get the benefit of the reservation?

Despite my deep antipathy for Justice Rang Nath Mishra for the horrible and politically motivated report that he presented for the 1984 victims, the latest efforts by the Mishra Commission need our support, because it strengthen defend the right of an individual to profess any faith at the personal level without loosing his fundamental right. Asha Das’s objections must be rejected before it takes dangerous turn. Nevertheless, it is also essential for the Church and Christian leaders to introspect about their Dalit agenda. It is easier for them to ask from the government for the rights of the Dalit Christians but at the same point of time, let them come out categorically as what efforts have they made to empower Dalits with in their community. A Community which has in its possession India’s best known colleges, medical colleges, Engineering colleges, media institutions, academic institutions etc. What percentage of reservation has been given to Dalits and tribals in these institutions? If Christians were really willing to mobilize the Dalits on their side, empty slogans would not work. They have to be seen to be working for the Dalits. They cannot expect Dalits to follow their upper caste leadership.

Christians are not hated in power structure even when the Hindutva thugs target their priests. One of the reason for that is that the growing feeling that Christian own large educational institutions which actually strengthen the Hindutva. The bitterest critique of Christendom comes from those who were educated at these prestigious institutions. They will not targets prestigious institutions in Delhi, Mumbai or elsewhere because most of their family members come out from these colleges. We must understand the philosophy behind this as my friend Ram Puniyani often suggest. That the RSS and its Parivar have most of their ideologues coming from these institutions but when the church and its educational institutions goes in the villages and teach English and modern education to Adivasis and Dalits, that raises eyebrows. Education would open the mind of these people and will instigate them to challenge the racist philosophy of Hindutva. Tomorrow they will challenge the concept of merit of the upper castes? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Barring a few exceptions, things have not worked. Education is for profiteering and not much has been done at the village level. There have been compromises from the Christian leadership on this issue and their stand on the emancipation of Dalits and reservation.

Amid all this, one person who has unequivocally and uncompromisingly spoke against Hindutva and its fundamentalist ideology is, Dr John Dayal. For the past few years, he has been very active putting the political agenda of the community and taking a strong action line against the communal outfits though it is also a known fact that for his strong secular approach and convictions he is not the best person of the religious leadership.

‘A Matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India’, is an outstanding work of John Dayal. Though a large number of articles have been compiled and updated for what were published in the Indian Currents yet bringing them all together with other important documents, this book serve a great purpose for all those who are interested to know about the Christian community and its work in India as well as the vitriolic campaign of the Sangh Parivar against the Christian Educational Institutions

John Dayal has not only been a critique of the Sangh Parivar and its goons but he has asked the Church also to look for its role. He had documented major violence against Christians in the last 10 years. May he get the strength to document and assist other secular groups also, those who may not like the evangelical groups very much like their disliking for the Muslim and Hindu radical groups. Yes, John Dayal is Christian community’s secular face who has stood against all kind of oppression, for the freedom of expression, which he has so wonderfully documented in his book with Ajoy Bose as well as his campaign against the fascist government of Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Therefore, it is not surprising that while many of the Church friends were not happy with this uncompromising man who has no interest of ‘protecting’ his prime location institutions. Hence those uncompromising men actually help the community more than those who pretend to help them in the name of ‘protecting’ their community identity. And these points reflect sharply in his analysis when he says that National Minorities Commission does not really care about the rights of the Christians.

Some of the chapters in the book are great essays and shows John Dayal’s grasp over the problem and his efforts to link the Christian community with the varied secular groups.
‘A Christian perspective to National Integration’ is one such excellent essay in the book where Dayal ask to create for awareness for Human Rights and developing civil society, which according to him ‘call for sacrifice’.

The article ‘ Ignorance, Bigotry and bloodshed: Perspective of confrontation, coexistence and Peace in India and South Asia,’ is simply superb and need to be read by all those who wish to know the birth of various ethnic-religious identities in India and South Asia. It also helps understand the culture of appreciation towards those who are not ‘like’ us and differ with one another on not only in outlook and perception but also language and religion.

Another important message was the ‘liberation theology’ of the Church which liberated the Shanar women in Travancore and Tirunalveli district of erstwhile Travancore state, where the Dalit women were prohibited from covering their breasts. The missionaries helped them a life of dignity and self-respect. An unknown story of Sophie James Joseph, who was a nurse in St. Stephen’s hospital and saved life of a Sikh family when they were butchered by the upper caste thugs of the Congress party in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

The Christian community needs to heed his advice to introspect its own work among the Dalits. He writes: ‘ How have we responded to the demands of Dalits. Not low cost schools for low caste people but high quality English schools which will allow the Dalit Children to find their place under the sun in modern age. The answer has to be given soon.’ This call was made by Dayal in September 2001 but seven years onwards he need to ask the church again and the catholic groups again whether their call for right to convert and rights of the Christian Dalit is confined to number games only? What substantial work has the church institutions done during the past 7 years to uplift the Dalits. The Christian Institutions have enormous powers and strength to help the Dalits. Two months back. Ambrose Pinto, principal of St Joseph’s College Banglore revealed to me how his college has reserved seats for Dalits, OBCs and minorities and that it still remain one of the best colleges of Banglore. And there is no dent to its meritocracy, perhaps a right answer for the principal of St Stephan’s College, which constructed the brahmanical think tank of India and officially went against the policy of reservation of the Dalits and OBCs in the Supreme Court, under the pretext of being a minority institution. The Church institutions must respond as how many seats are being reserved for the Dalits and tribal in its elite institutions and how much help is being offered for that.


Another superb piece from John Dayal comes in the form of ‘Hindutva’s Dollar Trail’, which exposes the funding mechanism of the hate campaigners of the Sangh Parivar. That India Development and Relief Fund ( IDRF) has been supplying the funds to Vikas Bharati and 9 other offshoots of the Sangh parivar is a shocking revelation. Between 1994-2000 it contributed 3.2 million USD to these hate mongers in India. The government of India must look into it and must find more details of such organizations which spread communal hatred in communities in India. Such funds must be treated as per the terrorist funding against which the US administration and UK are waging a decisive battle. Unfortunate part is that the Christian world is deeply divided today and still consider Islam as their enemy number one and hence other hate mongers get benefit of these things. Even in Britain, the right wing Hindu groups have got great protection from those in power. Interestingly, for the Sangh Zealots, there is another interesting revelation in the book. The 106 % growth of Indian population predominantly upper caste Hindus between 1990-2000. Sangh Parivar is too much disturbed with Christian growth rate while unable to understand that if conversion was taking place that strongly the population of the community would not have reduced during the past five years.

While the government is going strongly in providing data related to the condition of Muslims in India. Muslims have been discriminated in administration and political system with the ‘sin’ of creating Pakistan. It would be grossly wrong not to find out the problems of the Christian population in India, a majority of whom happens to be Dalits and tribal. The recent NSSO data have revealed that the poverty in Christian community is far below than that of the Muslims. While Muslim being the second majority of the country must get their due share in power structure, we must also ask the government to appoint a similar condition to study the condition of Christians as they are the main victims of the Sangh Parivar’s violence against them

The Christian community must introspect why it is unable to counter Sangh Parivar’s propaganda and assault on its churches and machinery. It must learn a lesson or two from its Muslim brethrens. Muslims are a politically mobile community in India particularly in Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar. Their political understanding is far superior to other communities. Muslims have depended on their own work and never on any government dole out and therefore can still live their life in greater dignity. Christians on the other hand remained highly apolitical community. People like John Dayal are in a minority in the community for they speak the truth without feeling guilty or apprehensive of the Sangh Parivar and its goons. Ofcourse, the price has been bigger in the form of target and attacks but they have remained uncompromising. The Christians by and large remain part of power structure particularly the upper caste elite of them and therefore do not hesitate even in compromising the interest of the community. John Dayal remain exception among its elite who we can find at every platform from those speaking against communalism to fight against unsustainable globalisation or assault on Dalits and tribal or special economic Zone.

It is therefore important for the religious groups to leave the space for the political people to lead the movement for the human rights of its people in India. A community under theocratic leadership cannot fight its battle of survival, which is essentially political. And hence John Dayal’s words need to be heard with great care.

Name of the Book: A matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India
Author : John Dayal
Anamika Publishers & Distributors
Year of Publication : 2007
Page: 487
Price : Rs 800 ( Hard Cover)