Pogroms in Gujarat
Published by marco on
Democracy − Who is she when she’s at home? on ZNet by Arundhati Roy from April 28 is a long article about recent racist riots in India’s state of Gujarat between Hindus and Muslims. Ever since “Muslim ‘terrorists’ who burned alive 58 Hindu passengers on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra…”, though no claim to the terror has been laid or evidence shown, Muslims have been persecuted in the Gujarat.
“Officially the number of dead is 800. Independent reports put the figure at well over 2,000. More than a hundred and fifty thousand people, driven from their homes, now live in refugee camps. Women were stripped, gang-raped, parents were bludgeoned to death in front of their children. Two hundred and forty dargahs and 180 masjids were destroyed … Arsonists burned and looted shops, homes, hotels, textiles mills, buses and private cars. Hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs.”
The violence is aimed solely at Muslims and perpetrated with the full complicity of the Prime Minister, the police and, in fact, the government. Early last century, similar events stirred Europe in Germany:
“While the parallels between contemporary India and pre-war Germany are chilling, they’re not surprising. (The founders of the rss have, in their writings, been frank in their admiration for Hitler and his methods.) One difference is that here in India we don’t have a Hitler. We have instead, a travelling extravaganza, a mobile symphonic orchestra. The hydra-headed, many-armed Sangh Parivar—with the bjp, the rss, the vhp and the Bajrang Dal, each playing a different instrument. Its utter genius lies in its apparent ability to be all things to all people at all times.”
What can be done to combat this fascism (for that is all it can be called)? Is it possible to fight this tooth and nail? Level punishments against those in power. Depose the government. Proscribe the ordinary citizens who have alienated their fellow human beings on a whim like religion. All of these things will not work. People have to change in their hearts. Exacting retribution does no good in preventing future eruptions of the same feeling and actions.
“… Fighting it means fighting to win back the minds and hearts of people. Fighting it does not mean asking for rss shakhas and the madrassas to be banned, it means working towards the day when they’re voluntarily abandoned as bad ideas.”
Do not think this sage advice is reserved for the Hindu pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat today. It means in any issue there is no way to fight violence with violence and win. The only way to win is to truly convince the enemy that they don’t want to fight anymore. It’s a call for education, such as the one most Americans sorely need in their own history and in the shadowy movements of its own government as it lumbers about the world.
Comments
#1 − Human Rights Watch report on Gujarat
kavorka –
For more details on the pogroms, look at the Human Rights Watch report. It has information on the origins of the Hindu fundamentalist parties as well as chilling eye witness accounts.
#2
“When we see bloodshed, terror and destruction born of such generous enthusiasms as the love of God, love of Christ, love of a nation, compassion for the oppressed and so on, we usually blame this shameful perversion on a cynical, power-hungry leadership. Actually, it is the unification set in motion by these enthusiasms, rather than the manipulations of a scheming leadership, that transmutes noble impulses into a reality of hatred and violence. The de-individualization which is a prerequisite for thorough integration and selfless dedication is also, to a considerable extent, a process of dehumanization.” − Eric Hoffer, from the True Believer
In 1992 a crazed mob razed the Babri Masjid to the ground. I still recall TV images of fanatical compulsion on the faces of the mob that took the structure down to its last brick. Ten years later, in early March of this year, a similarly crazed but significantly larger mob turned its annihilation onto the hapless victims of Gujarat. It dismembered, bludgeoned and razed them much as was done to the mosque a decade ago.
Bloodshed along the Hindu Muslim fault line in India is nothing new. And to be sure, both sides have been active participants. However, recent violence is unprecedented in the extent of the complicity of law enforcement and by the underlying passions that have fueled its scope and audacity.
Fundamentalist Hindu political parties used the destruction of the mosque and its long, simmering aftermath to espouse national and chauvinistic values. It helped the cause of the then emerging Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Today, while the BJP’s hold on the national government is shaky, it is no coincidence that Gujarat is the only major state where it has power. It is also not a coincidence that in the state elections held a few days before the violence began, BJP lost significant ground across the country. A rampant exercise of power and violence helps to invigorate support and pride.
On April 30th BJP survived a censure vote in the parliament, by 276-182. Its 27 allies in the coalition did not withdraw support in any way, despite having a secular agenda. These events will be surpassed if their perpetrators remain politically unchallenged. Although the BJP lost a lot of ground in recent elections, it can still get away with what transpired in Gujarat. That can only mean more horror is to follow on the road from destroying symbolic buildings to annihilating human beings.
Fascist violence always evokes comparisons with Nazi Germany, the prime illustration of the life cycle of such fascist mass movement. Historically, as Arundhati Roy notes, “fascist movements have been fuelled by feelings of national disillusionment. Fascism has come to India after the dreams that fuelled the Freedom Struggle have been frittered away like so much loose change. “ And historically, many of these movements have destroyed themselves, and in it have been vehicles of change. Are we to witness another such life cycle in India? Roy suggests that “Fascism itself can only be turned away if all those who are outraged by it show a commitment to social justice that equals the intensity of their indignation.” Unfortunately, humanity is not as infectious as a supply of false pride. Protest and outrage, no matter how intense, are a dissipation of righteousness, though they are essential starting points in building alternative change.