Even though the protests for the CAA and NRC and NPR have lost its momentum due to the pandemic, to the relief of the state, it has only built the confidence of the state to push several more legislations against minorities indiscriminately. All of these laws emerged in rapid succession, especially during the pandemic, with hardly any challenge as people are unaware and more obsessed about a virus that will kill less people than communal tension and hatred.
SALOMI JACOB
The media seems to fan the fears of the majority of their own dwindling numbers against the swelling of the minorities. Facts point out otherwise. Christians have dropped in numbers and the Muslim community has marginally increased. However, it’s the latter that is at the receiving end of the ire of the public, failing to recognise their own community’s specific numbers and proportions compared to the minorities in this country. In totality, minorities make 16-17% and the Hindus 66% of the total population. There has been a steady drop in the rate of growth of population of each community across decades, but those numbers are not factored in. So where is this unfounded fear of minorities taking over stemming from?
The Growing Narrative
A narrative has been carefully crafted with no or hardly any opposition. That narrative takes from the general Islamaphobia spreading globally. India just happens to harness those fears for its own advantage to keep up communal tensions. Media plays an essential role in maintaining and sustaining such fears. Sentiment seems to hold sway over facts. This disbelief in facts, the isolation, and disconnect that we choose to live in come from the myopic vision of history we hold of each other’s religion. The emergence of a highly skewed narrative of booming minorities is a very colonial insecurity which we have not shed decades after independence. A method of divide and rule prevails. Conjectural history erases histories of minorities who have been around in India for well over two millennia and have been peaceful settlers mixing with the locals. However, the dominant narrative of being labelled as marauders and colonisers prevail - a convenient narrative erasing a millennium and more worth of identity. The dominant narrative prevails and the ‘enemy’ marked. Victimhood narrative have willing takers amongst the majority.
This misconception has been amplified, especially with economic turmoil that happens periodically in the country. Economy is something we are unable to control; so, we direct our ire and frustrations towards marginalised communities and minorities as they are easy to be demonised and marked as outsiders. They become clear identifiable targets. When the economy is struggling we see the automatic rise of communalism. This pattern has been consistent and building with vigour in the last few decades.
There seemed to be a rigours proliferation of intolerance around the 1980s in this country and it coincided with the economic uncertainties of that time. That insecurity coupled with communal tension eventually led to the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. Since then there has been a sense of unspoken uncertainty for minorities in this country. In the more recent past it has reared its ugly head. Idea of secularism seems to be on unstable grounds, particularly after the Prime Minister of the country laid the foundation stone for the Ram Mandir over a destroyed centuries-old Mosque. This is a person who is supposed to represent the tenets of the democratic constitution that upholds justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all, yet willing to place foundation stone on a building which becomes a reminder of the precarious position of the minorities when none of these principles apply to them. A reminder that secularism is only on paper.
While the bulk of the violence is experienced by the Muslim community, it does not mean that Christians are untouched by these changes. They may have the protection of their brethren in the West, that would put social and political sanctions on India if the India does nothing to prevent direct attacks on the Christian community. However, that is not good enough, especially if they live as secondary citizens in this country because of their religion. If they live as equal citizens guaranteed by law, should they be living constantly looking over their shoulders? Direct attack may be sporadic and far in between to really get the international media’s attention. Legislations, policy changes, orders have come about demeaning their status in this country. These attempts seem innocuous to draw international attention.
New Legislations: Undemocratic in Content and Process
Demonetisation and the establishment of the GST knocked the economy to its knees. Just before we went into the lockdown, our economy was already suffering with high levels of unemployment and lowered industry growth rate. Around that time, we see the NRC, CAA and NPR being introduced by the Indian State, feeding into the majority’s insecurity of growing numbers and pushing the minorities to a level of discontent that they came out onto the street to point out its constitutional invalidity and its clear intention of brewing communalism. If legislations like these can be easily passed with hardly any opposition, when will the Christian community be targeted similarly? ‘Each for one’s own’ attitude can be highly detrimental. Even though the protests for the CAA and NRC and NPR have lost its momentum due to the pandemic, to the relief of the the state, it has only built the confidence of the state to push several more legislations against minorities indiscriminately. The show of dissent by the people was followed by a flurry of legalisations that reminds the minorities of their secondary status in a country that professes secularism but heading towards a theocracy. The vilification of the Muslim community by the media during the pandemic was for an obvious reason, especially after the spontaneous movement of citizens protesting against draconian laws of citizenship. The Courts, in the Tablaqi Jammat case, eventually had to step in to change the narrative, but the damage was already done through trial by media. So, when laws have come out in direct attack of minorities in the last few months, the people’s cavalier attitude comes from the narrative fed to us by the media during the pandemic.
Our complacency and willingness to give in to a narrative without question has snowballed into legislations that have been passed in the most undemocratic fashion. No debate, no discussion and hasty passing of the laws in parliament and legislature make these actions a challenge to democracy. While Christians may think that as a community they have been spared of such intolerance and hatred, they need to understand that they are not out of the waters and on safe land. The multiple legislations and ordinances and policy changes that have occurred in Karnataka recently should make us sit up and observe what is happening around us.
Karnataka, the Vanguard of the South
Karnataka, seen as the model state enthusiastic to implement these provisions after Uttar Pradesh, has become the experimental ground of the South.
The New Education Policy clearly moving towards privatisation of education would have a direct impact on minority educational institutions across Bengaluru. A lot of them subsidised education for many communities. If forced to privatise, this assistance would be reduced considerably, alienating many from accessible quality education. If secularism is targeted, Article 29 of the Constitution that gives rights to minorities to set up educational institutions for the preservation of their own communities will become defunct. The targeting of the prestigious Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh University during the CAA protests is indicative of what is coming ahead for minority institutions that does toe the line.
Funding for minority development from Karnataka has been slashed by 44% for 2020-21, and many welfare schemes for the minorities have been withdrawn.
The Minority Community Doctoral Student’s Fellowship has been cut by 66%. Reducing their fellowship from Rs. 25000 to Rs. 8333 with the ultimatum to finish their PhD in three years or pay back the state at 12% interest. The State declared that these were measures taken as a result of the pandemic, which seems like a weak excuse.
The Prevention of Cow/Cattle Slaughter Bill pushed and approved by Karnataka State Legislature, with our representatives coming into the legislature adorning the saffron around their necks shouldn’t be taken lightly. The bill completely interferes into our food habits and dictates what we should eat, disregarding our liberty and privacy which are constitutional guarantees. It deprives many of affordable nutrition as the most affordable meat is taken away. It impacts several who are employed in the abattoirs, meat dispensing shops, leather industries who are predominantly from marginalised Muslim and Christian communities, and a few castes from the Hindu fold. We are the second largest beef exporter in the world, however, that industry will not be impacted. It is the small and marginalised business that will be affected. The largest self employed community, the Muslims, become the easy target. Farmers are going to be impacted as they are unable to get rid of non-performing and non-productive cattle, adding to their already heavy burdens.
The provisions of punishment are greater than those given for grievous crimes against humans themselves. The bill states that those ‘acting in good faith are free from persecution’ thereby justifying lynching. If this does not raise your curiosity on who it is directed to we need to relook at our privilege and appreciate the security that we have. However, this is not the reality for majority of the population that is impacted by such a legislation. The persistence with which the present Karnataka State Government pushed this as an ordinance as last recourse should make us look closer at such intentions.
Women and Love Jihad
The Love Jihad laws or conversion laws seem to have piqued the curiosity of the people. However, they have deadly repercussions on women and children across communities. Women are now again reduced to the whims and fancies of a communal state. Liberty, Freedom and Human dignity somehow do not apply to women who make decisions independently as adults. Our lives as women will be micromanaged. Caste and religious rigidities will remain intact and more performative. Indignities against women will be continued with more fervour, all of this to maintain religious and caste purity of communities. When communal tensions are high, women and children will be sent back into private spaces with limited access to public life.
The contents in the bill, legislations, orders intend to stoke a fire and to create unrest which would lead to communal tensions. All of these seem to be needed to distract people from the State’s huge and obvious economic insecurities, with the drying up GST funds from the Centre, the pandemic related regression and the general slowdown we have experienced since demonetisation and the implementation of GST. An incontrovertible connection of economic insecurity and communalism is the writing on the wall - a tried and tested method to distract people from the economic insecurities that stares them in the face. This is one thing that could unite people, create a bloc of resistance. However, communalism is effectively used to break any sense of solidarity that can be built.
The idea of secularism has been battered and almost threadbare now. With the Centre and respective state governments pushing for legislations that have ulterior motives to demean the idea of secularism, the minorities should be aware and resist back. All these legislations may seem innocuous to many, but to the minorities it is a reminder of their secondary status in this country, a country that should guarantee liberty, religious freedom and human dignity. All these laws seem to have a domino effect and the fall has just begun. To prevent the unending cycle of destruction and hatred, we all need to acknowledge our frailty in isolation and learn to work together as communities to challenge the falsehood. All of these laws emerged in rapid succession, especially during the pandemic with hardly any challenge as people are unaware and more obsessed about a virus that will kill less people than communal tension and hatred. Our silence or willing ignorance will be at our own peril. ∎
Salomi Jacob has done her studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is a professor of Sociology; and is a strong social critic.
