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Intolerant
India vs. Incredible India:
Homegrown Civilian
Terror & the Threat to Ethical Democracy |
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Chithra Karunakaran,
February 09, 2009 |
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Is the
current BJP-led Karnataka Govt. leading the great state of Karnataka down
the treacherous path of violent cultural fundamentalism?
Is the BJP at least complicit with the forces of civilian vigilantism,
gender apartheid and ethnic hatred as it flexes its communal muscle in
governing the state?
Why pretend that communal vigilantism and terrorizing of civilians (by the
Sri Ram Sene and others inspired by their hatred-driven example), is a
foreign invention? Did we in India really need the Taliban to inspire us or
is the work of the homegrown Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its extremist
political party spinoffs like the Bajrang Dal, now bearing toxic fruit? Are
we forgetting that Godse, a member of the RSS assassinated Gandhi? Was that
a homegrown heinous crime or was it somehow foreign and alien to us? Did
homegrown violent, criminal cultural fundamentalism result in the Gujarat
pogroms or were they a foreign invention?
Why pretend that
civilian terror, terror against innocent individuals, unleashed in the
Mangalore pub molestation and the assault on two persons because they were
conversing with one another, one Hindu one Muslim, on a Kasaragod bus, is a
Taliban style operation? No it's not. It's totally Indian, homegrown,
civilian, communal terror and our own civil society must vigorously oppose
it. The people who were the victims have to stand up in public, speak in
their own voices and fight back. NGOs involved in social justice initiatives
must help them. Ordinary citizens of the families and communities have to
speak up. The people of Mangalore and Kasaragod have to speak up for social
justice, not sweep social injustice under the rug. The students of St.
Aloysius College spoke up against the ordeal suffered by their friend and
fellow student on that Karasagod, Kerala bus. Good for them. They showed
their courage when others were silent.
In speaking up and speaking out for a free and democratic civil society, in
which we have both responsibilities and rights, we have to be careful to
develop our own language of anti-oppressive resistance. Therefore I would be
cautious in the use of words like Talibanization, Islamist Jihadism,
Hindutva or Saffronization. Such language evokes the symbols of oppressive
civilian and partisan politics, whether in Kasaragod or Kashmir, and
empowers the oppressors to defend and implement their violently oppressive
strategies, whether in Mumbai or Mangalore.
Instead of borrowing the language of our homegrown oppressors we need to
speak up, speak out and act against
hate-and-divide terror crimes,
anti-civilian violence, violation of
civil rights, all of which are punishable under Indian law.
There are
several conflicting media reports about both the Mangalore pub assault of
women as well as the Kasaragod bus detention and assault. However,
regardless of the details which are yet to be clarified by the victims,
police and political authorities, there is no doubt that innocent civilians
were physically abused, abducted, illegally detained by anti-social,
anti-secular elements. The victims' civil liberties were violated and they
have a right to legal redress, which can and should include jail time for
the perpetrators and cash compensation for the victims.
Hit the hate-and- divide oppressors especially the hate-peddling politicians
in government, right in the wallet, where it really hurts.
These instances of Indian homegrown civilian terror and the destructive
antidemocratic, anti-secular strategy of cultural supremacist fundamentalism
has its roots, not in Afghanistan, but right here at home in the divisive
anti-democracy and anti human rights tactics of the RSS, BJP, VHP, BD and
others playing the hate-and divide game. Religion and so-called "cultural
values" are deployed as weapons to
terrorize civilians, ordinary folks like you and me.
Terror against civilians has its supremacist roots in patriachalism,
casteism, communalism, vigilantism and it is a direct assault on the fragile
construction of ethical democracy first articulated in the Gandhian
liberatory era that produced the unprecedented postcolonial democracy of the
sovereign Indian nation-state. With all our cultural and societal flaws,
through oppression, invasion, occupation and exploitation, our diverse
peoples in India have somehow hewed to the ideal of Satyameva Jayate. The
Indian sovereign nation-state's central ideal of Satyameva Jayate must
confront and expose the violent falsehood of cultural fundamentalism.
How do we in India construct the Self in Society? What is the psychosocial?
That is an extended project for the pursuit of Ethical Democracy in India.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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