THE communal riots in the West Indian town of Ahmadabad and other neighboring cities have delivered another blow to India’s image as a secular and democratic country. Communal strife in India is not a new phenomenon. In fact riots have been occurring with sickening frequency and every year thousands of people lose their lives and millions of rupees worth of property is damaged, in addition (o smudging the image India wants to project abroad. The main cause is fanaticism with which the Indian society is riddled, Sometimes this fanaticism relates to religion, sometimes to other trivial matters which need not be blown up to become national problems. Thriving on this fanaticism are militant groups such as the Shiv Sena and the RSS which deliberately play upon popular feelings for their own partisan gains.
That the minorities are unhappy is reflected in the troubles in Punjab, in Gujarat, in Assam, in south India and until recently in Mizoram in northeastern India. This immense source of manpower, physical and intellectual, could have been used more effectively by putting the minorities into the mainstream of national development. Although the Congress (I) and its predecessor, the Indian National Congress, both professed secularism, their failure to act against the forces of orthodox and extreme conservatism have led to situations jeopardizing national law and order on the one hand and alienating the minorities on the other.
The rioting in Ahmadabad is symptomatic of the malaise which is threatening to wreck the basis of Indian polity. Considering the diversity of races, languages and religions in India, the task of integrating them into one nation is not an easy one but the emergence of a Hindu revivalist movement, coupled with increasing violence, has made it even more arduous. Administrative measures will not be enough to bring an end to violence in a particular situation. Rajiv Gandhi’s government will have to treat the matter as a national problem and evolve a long-term policy which may help change the social behavior of the majority community and strengthen the values of tolerance and moderation in their interaction with the minorities.
Courtesy: The Muslim Pakistan
Article extracted from this publication >> August 8, 1986
