As the nation visionises a massive drive by the fascist forces to reorganize the society on the basis of religion by militant “religionisation” (if the term is correct), it has utterly forgotten that it is not religion which has helped mankind to make massive strides in the direction of a progressive society but rather but has always been the study of the various sciences and arts which have paved the path for mankind to illuminate the road to progress and development. I am using the word “progress” because to me, it refers to something more than just “development”.”Progress” in this article will always refer to the collective development of the human society into something more matured, both in terms of scientific development and social outlook.
The recent “ghar wapsi” program by the rightist forces has been gaining large strides. This has taken the Hindu communalization to a new level, which according to Nehru was the Indian counterpart to fascism. In a recent meeting, a prime member of such forces was heard stating that they had not been doing anything wrong in converting the non Hindus to Hinduism, but that they were just opening their arms to their derailed brothers. My question is that, is it necessary to threaten your brother with his daily ration to come back to you if you love him so much that you want to have him back in your house?
The rightist forces have always been upright about their grand objective, which is the formation of a politicized and united Hindu society. They had stated long back that if the Muslims have Pakistan , why not we have a “Hindustan” for the Hindus and the Hindu culture, now the problem in this whole call is I don’t see a point where the masses can be made to forego their habits of having kababs and tandoori , which are chiefly the imports from the Mughals, the dynasty which the rightists condemn for ruling over India(precisely calling them as Muslim oppressors),disregarding the fact that the Taj Mahal they built has been a national treasure since the time they built, th dishes they invented have taken Indian cuisine to the world and are known as Indian dishes and not some Mughal or Persian or Muslim dishes.
The minorities have never been so much anxious of the future as they are now because since the inception of the rightist government, it has looked like they have been robbed of their security and freedom, both culturally and economically. While the conversion programmes have been condemned by the progressive masses all over the world, the policies regarding cow slaughter and problems caused during the showing of “PK” have come under very serious allegations by the secular minded Indian.
The time is long gone when religion would be the weapon to organize the masses, today; it’s the economics which can and is the only thing that can take the whole of mankind into one single plate. It is economics and polity, and not religion that determine what food we can eat or afford to eat, or what clothes we can wear or in what type of homes we can reside in. The basic human needs of “roti, kapra aur makan” are solved by your monetary status and government policies govern your monetary status, so is it logical to think that it is religion and religion only which is the sole reason for your survival, or is it worth your time to fight for something as trivial as something which is determined by what idol or what picture you keep in your drawing room? What are we fighting for, some vague belief or our materialistic basic needs; this has to be cleared first by the forces which have been on their heels to start a war over religion?
The masses should remember now, more than ever that it was the fascists who had killed Mahatma Gandhi; it was them who had tried enacting a temple of his assassinator. This recent mass activity by the Hindu right has facilitated a very fertile land for the reactionary forces of other religions to take shape also. In history, nothing is free from each other, so this history of the up rise of the Hindu right will also have its counterpart, which in our context are the reactionary religious forces. So, when the interests collide, which will be very soon, it is very much possible that the country will be vulnerable to another repetition of the Godhra or the Babri Masjid riots.
The rightist forces should be wary of the dreadful times which are ahead, they are not far from the time when the secular and the minorities will start protesting The day is not very long when they will shout their lungs out with Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary slogan ,”If oppression is your habit, then protest is our right”. The religious oppression carried out by the RSS and the VHP can be crudely compared with the economic oppression carried by the Tsar in pre-revolution Russia, and they should remember what fate met the Tsar when the oppressed joined hands together.
It is worthwhile to mention here that when the great leader of the progressive movement in our country,Shree Harkisan Singh Surjeet of the CPI(M) was helping to bring the Janata Dal into power in the last century, he was asked by a journalist, whether it was communalism or corruption that he thought to be more dangerous to the society,Surjeet at that time immediately replied with corruption because he thought that it was only and only economics and policies which govern and can change a country’s fate. It surely, can be an interesting topic of discussion regarding, what Surjeet would think and what his answer would have been, had he been posed now with the question.
It is time that we should be resolved to unite ourselves against such sectionist ideas propagated by the rightist forces of the country and should be prepared to counter such ideas which can harm the idea of “ONE INDIA”, which has been fought for our great martyrs. We should remember our great freedom struggle, in which people, the masses forgot their differences and responded to one call “FREE INDIA”, to which we just need to attach two words to that, in this case and that is “from communalism”.
