Politics Foments Firestorms Of Hatred

By Aashish Bapat

The Indian subcontinent is unique in that for centuries thousands of different civilizations, speaking mutually non-intellectual languages, have developed in harmony. Here, Egyptian, Persian, Turkish civilizations have blossomed and become a part of Indian culture. However, today India is a land plagued with communal disputes, religious intolerance and lingual indifference. One often ponders what has caused this drastic change What can be the reason for this region, which was always known to be inclusive, to become so intolerant? ¦ It is well known that India's famous freedom struggle was fought by people of all races and religions under the able leadership

of Mahatma Gandhi. Hindus and Muslims were counterparts during the freedom struggle. Paradoxically India's freedom came with the curse of communal tensions. The day when India won it's freedom is infamous for the massacre of more than 100,000 Hindus and Muslims because of the India-Pakistan partition. The story of communal tensions wasn't restrained to Hindu-Muslim rivalry. The carnage of thousands of Hindu-Brahmins (priests), the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, slaughter of thousands of Sikhs, the murder of Indira Gandhi in 1985 are excellent examples of this.

Over a period of time India has managed to minimize tension between the groups, however the Hindu-Muslim rivalry never seems to end. The tensions are fueled by the Kashmir problem, which is often portrayed as a Hindu-Muslim dispute. In the 60's some sections of hardcore Muslims in Kashmir, who claimed to be the fighters of Allah to free Kashmir, massacred thousands of Hindu priests Kashmir.

The most recent episodes of the Hindu-Muslim rivalry are the Bombay riots in 1992 and the Gujarat (Godhra) riots in 2002. Pakistani based terrorists executed serial bomb blasts targeting many economically important buildings in Bombay. Godhra, Gujarat is a place known for high communal tensions. When terrorists set a train full of people going to a Hindu pilgrimage on fire, killing 58 pilgrims, it triggered revenge of Hindu forces, causing communal riots. Almost 5000 Muslims were massacred and it took at least a month for the police to stop the bloodshed.

These events suggest that there is severe hatred amongst Hindus and Muslims. Surprisingly this is not the case. It is a fact accepted by the Indian as well as the International media that the carnage on Muslims in Gujarat was a well-planned act, one that couldn't take place without the support of the government and law enforcement. The hard-line Hindu organizations like the VHP and Bajarang Dal had organized the mobs against the Muslims. These two organizations were a core part of the BJP government, which was in power. Also the Chief minister of Gujarat, Mr. Modi, openly stated that he was part of the hardcore VHP that caused the riots. Many policemen, who chose to remain unidentified, told the media that they had received orders from the government saying that no action should be taken on the rioters

The government had an interest in fueling the riots. There are 30 million Muslims in India (30% of the population), which outnumbers the Muslim population in any other country. Securing the Indian Muslim voter is very important. Traditionally, hardcore Hindu organizations haven't received support from Muslim voters. By creating communal disturbances between Muslims and Hindus, these organizations are looking to secure more votes for Hindu candidates. On the other hand hard-line Muslim organizations can be accused of taking similar actions. Strangely neither India's democracy nor its law and order system have been able to stop such political hypocrisy from going on for more than fifty years.

It is a high time the people of India realize that religion is being used to cause havoc and bloodshed for political interests. At the end of the day it is the common man who is used to create unrest and it is the same man who suffers from it.