A rchive Date
[ 12-03-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ India ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur.html
India bleeds from cuts of communalism
By SALIM MANSUR -- For the London Free Press
March 6, 2002
The orgy of communal killings we have witnessed recently in India once again reveals the dark underbelly of this subcontinent of a country, and the world's largest democracy.
The immediate cause for the grisly riots in India's western province of Gujarat was the torching of a passenger train by a mob of allegedly Muslim bigots. The victims were Hindus returning from a visit to Ayodhya, a sacred Hindu city, located more than 1,000 kilometres east in India's most populous province of Uttar Pradesh.
This frenzy of violence is fuelled by a quarrel over ownership of land in Ayodhya, where once stood a medieval Muslim mosque. The Baburi mosque, named after Babur (1483-1530), the Muslim emperor and founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, was reputedly built in 1528 over the ruins of an ancient temple. Hindus claim the ancient temple, presumably demolished to build the mosque, marked the site where Lord Rama, one of the gods in the Hindu pantheon, was born.
In December 1992, a mob of religious fanatics, led by Hindu nationalists, among them Lal Krishna Advani, one of the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a prominent cabinet member of the present day government of India, stormed the Baburi mosque and reduced it to a rubble. Hindu nationalists identified the mosque as a symbol of Hindu India's depredation in history by alien forces, most notably those led by Muslim warrior-kings.
In seeking to reclaim the disputed mosque site for building a temple dedicated to Rama, Hindu nationalists were once again unleashing the most potent force in politics, a heady mixture of religion and nationalism, in their bid for political power.
The poison of communalism runs deep in the veins of Indian history. It precipitated the division of India in 1947, with Pakistan in effect being the product of Muslim communalism. The most prominent victim was Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, killed by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist.
Communalists, be they Hindus, Muslims or of any other faith, believe that people sharing a common religion also share as a result common social, political and economic interests. This view of politics leads inevitably to the conclusion that religion is the defining element in national identity and from this theory emerges the terribly destructive politics of religious nationalism that has caused so much grief in modern India and elsewhere.
Hindu nationalism threatens to wreck India's constitution. The stake in the mosque-temple controversy goes to the heart of India's secular democracy and its future. This is why since prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and the Congress Party failed to prevent the mob demolition of the Baburi mosque, no Indian government, including the present BJP-led government, has conceded to the Hindu nationalist demand of permitting the construction of the Rama temple.
Hindu-Muslim relations in India have a complex and layered history. Islam arrived in India in the early eighth century. The spread of this monotheistic faith beyond the confines of Arabia in successive waves occurred by conquests and by the patient efforts of itinerant preachers and mystic exponents of Islam known as Sufis. It is estimated that Muslims constitute about 14 per cent of India's population of more than one billion.
India felt both the weight of Muslim conquerors and the tenderness of Sufi holy men. The bitter memories of conquerors, such as the notorious Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030) raiding 17 times the Hindu temple of Somnath for its fabulous wealth, fuel the politics of Hindu nationalists and their desire to make India a Hindu state. Forgotten is the making of a uniquely Indian culture over 1,000 years through the mixing of Hindus and Muslims and their joys and pains becoming in the confluence of this history inseparable.
Communalists unmindful of consequences seek a realization in politics of their exclusivist and bigoted versions of history. India, as a result of Hindu communalism, bleeds from 1,000 wounds of those who cannot let the past go, nor embrace fully the democratic impulse of those who conceived of India as a mosaic of diverse faiths and cultures.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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