Communalism
Or Affirmative Action
By Ram Puniyani
21 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement to the National Development
Council that we need "to devise innovative plans to ensure that
minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share
equitably in the fruits of development, these must have first claim
on resources" was backed up by the statement in Parliament by the
minister of minorities affairs that Government will implement the recommendations
of Sachar Committee, have on one hand acted as the ray of hope for the
'discriminated against' Muslim minorities, while on the other hand RSS
combine has started crying fowl, BJP asserting that it is rank communalism,
its ideologues saying that these steps of the govt are in the footsteps
of Jinnah. BJP has raised the serious question mark on the very formation
of this committee calling it unnecessary and it being against the interest
of the nation.
Just to recapitulate, Sachar
Committee submitted its report (November 2006). The committee after
extensive home work found that the Muslim minority is way behind the
national averages in most of the parameters of social development, its
economic status has been sliding seriously, its representation in jobs,
bank loans is abysmal, and its representation in the political process
has been very poor and worsening on the top of that. In sum and substance,
Muslim community is under-represented in most of the arenas of society
barring the jails. One also recalls the report of Gopal Singh committee
of 1982 which also had found the poor status of this minority. Gopal
Singh committee report kept lying in the deep freeze while the issues
like Ram Temple kept hogging the national attention. To add up one can
say this community's representation as riot victim is way above its
percentage in population. The committee has recommended that an Equal
Opportunity Commission should be set up, a national data bank should
be started, a nomination procedure should be started to ensure their
participation in public bodies, in order to promote religious tolerance
by a procedure to evaluate text books for appropriate social values,
so on and so forth.
Whatever one could glean
from the yet to be initiated policies being reflected in the statements
of the government functionaries, it seems to be taking it a seriously.
Steps are being contemplated, short of reservations to improve the lot
of the Muslim minorities. It is a matter of conjuncture whether this
Govt is really serious about it or is it a mere replay of the earlier
broken promises during last several decades. During last several decades
while Governments after Governments have been promising to look after
the problems of Muslim minorities, nothing much came out. This includes
not only the longest reign of Congress party but also of the one's of
formations in which BJP was an important component or supporter. Amongst
multiple reasons of this neglect of this minority one was the aggressive
propaganda of Hindu right that Government is out to 'appease' the Muslims
so that they can be used as vote banks. One does not know whether this
aggressive anti minority propaganda did contribute to the policies of
the government, but one can say for sure that this 'appeasement of minorities'
had become a part of 'social common sense' in the face of the worsening
situation of Muslims.
It is during last two decades
that not only Muslim minority was battered through the post-Babri demolition
violence and Gujarat carnage, it was during the same period that another
big minority the Christians also started being attacked, especially
in the remote Adivasi areas. Where do we go from here? Was the commissioning
of Sachar an act of appeasement? Will the implementation of measures
to alleviate their plight be communalism, as claimed by RSS combine?
India has inherited a negative
legacy of partition. While the major part of the country was for democracy
and secularism, the communalists, Muslim League and Hindu Mahsaba, RSS
were for Islamic Nation and Hindu nation respectively. Their ideologies
served the British 'divide and rule' policy very well. With partition
tragedy, the communal propaganda here went on getting sharper over a
period of time, saying that Muslims have been responsible for partition,
the subtle nuances and policies which led to partition were deliberately
underplayed and put under the carpet. The role of elite of both communities
in partition tragedy was put aside and the process to blame the whole
Muslim community for this tragedy started, and this identity of Muslim
minorities started becoming a negative one. This was in contrast to
the dalits, who were also underprivileged but their identity came in
as a positive one and the reservations, which came for them came to
be accepted to some extent.
Even in their case the Hindu
right and their followers did sabotage the whole reservation process
in order to keep the status quo of Brahminmical system, in newer garb
though. That's how while the reservations were subtly sabotaged, the
implementation of Mandal was countered by the Babri demolition, Mandal
opposed by Kamadal. Essentially the RSS combine is against any affirmative
action which can lead to social transformation towards substantive equality.
In the case of Muslims, to demonize them is no big deal for this formation,
RSS combine. The propaganda is simpler; 'they' created Pakistan now
through such measure for their uplift, foundation for another Pakistan
is being laid down.
In democracy, the concept
of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (community) remains at a formal
level unless one does proactive action to undo the inherent infirmities
of sections of society. One notices this in most of the advanced democracies
including the United States where serious proactive steps were initiated
for the African Americans. The politics of right wing and more so right
wing in the name of religion is against affirmative action. For them,
democracy itself is not an acceptable concept. Today they pay lip service
to democracy so that they can use it to subvert it, to bring in a Hindu
nation based on refined values, social relations, from Manu Smriti.
Democracy is neither their goal nor the cherished value system. They
nurture the hope to have Hindu Rashttra and inherent hierarchies of
caste and gender. And any affirmative action cannot be tolerated by
them.
What is being called rank
communalism is essentially a bit of affirmative action. Surely even
the reservations, which were brought in for Dalits have improved their
conditions slightly, so now a full fledged opposition to those polices
in different language has been unleashed. While in the case of minorities
not only the condition is bad as of today, the bigger worry is that
it is sliding towards worse very rapidly. We need to distinguish abuse
of community identity for politics and the bowing to the institution
of religion from the concrete economic steps, social actions to support
the weaker sections of society. Will the community identity become strong
due to this? Will the community become crippled due to this?
If one notices amongst the
dalits who have slightly benefited from reservations, their community
identity has loosened up. It is a contradictory process, as such you
bring a community to economic level the religious or caste identity
becomes weaker and other identities start becoming stronger. When a
community is so helpless due to political reasons, how can this affirmative
action cripple them? As such a lack of such an action will cripple them
forcing more of them to go in the aberrant way. Already a large section
of youth from them is being targeted on any small pretext, the number
of them in jails is appalling. Surly that's what RSS combine wants and
any hindrance to the measures meant to uplift them will worsen their
condition.
To revoke Jinnah at this
stage is deliberate. The idea is to frighten and polarize the upper
castes/middle sections of society around the politics of Hindu right.
While Jinnah played the card for Muslim elite, the current efforts,
if at all they come through, are for the poorer sections of society,
which in no way can be labeled as communalism. As such had there not
been the fear of backlash of RSS combine, reservations for Muslims would
be the ideal solution out of this impasse. In the present scenario all
steps short of reservations should and need to be taken to work towards
the democratic goal of equality.
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