TRUTH TO TELL by Nirmalya Deb
Communal polarisation is an intricate subject but research done by noted
political scientist Paul Brass and his followers have shown how “the
production of Hindu-Muslim violence” in parts of the country has panned out to the advantage of certain powerful lobbies and groups. In India, secularism is an expedient term, often an excuse, championed either by impotent forces or by those who care a fig for social rationalism and scientific temper but are ever-eager to milk the communal cow
Before an approaching election with campaigning at its shrillest it often gets difficult to think calmly about issues. Like it is in Bihar now. Charges and counter-charges are traded between the leading parties, allegations and counter-allegations are levelled, netas shout on the microphone, padayatras block traffic, the mercury soars with parties playing the age-old game of competitive populism and the whole ambience becomes altogether uncongenial for clam reflection and sober understanding.
The role of the media and political campaigning have an immediate impact on the voter and both are integral to democratic functioning. The aam admi is concerned about politics: the shifts in allegiances and coalitions at all levels of the polity excite heated drawing room and tea shop conversation that flares up ahead of big elections. However, there is an irreconcilable difference between a general level of understanding of social and political affairs and an expert’s take on the structure of the polity and the historical forces at work that shape the destiny of a nation or a race.
This elevated level of understanding is the forte of the true expert and certainly not one who likes to be known by that name but has nothing more than truckloads of dry statistics to offer in the context of a discussion. The true expert can pierce the veil of everyday political phenomenon and penetrate deep to investigate forces and relations that seem to be ruling society but are fundamentally man-made. But, then, as we had observed in this column before, there is an acute dearth of people with a profound understanding of politics and history in the realm of politics today. There are very few people we could look up to. This sense creates a kind of paralysis of thought and action in the rational mind and the social necessity of creating a stable base for action, understanding and interaction gets all the more pressing.
Everyday political discourse is coarse, cut-and-dried, full of blank symbolism but the problems refuse to evade notice. Caste, for example, is an issue that is related to social dynamics and stratification and has been a historical feature of Hinduism and Hindu society. OBC parties, upper class parties all fight on the same level in parliamentary politics and the Indian state’s effort to eradicate the evils of history through a purgatorial democratic effort is acknowledged globally. But caste plays out in varied and often baffling forms in political practice: the fight to ameliorate backwardness gets sucked into a political programme of crude glorification of backwardness by parties ruled by individuals who lack a democratic insight into the struggle for economic emancipation. These individuals have filthy financial connections and are involved in monetary misdemeanours of the most objectionable kind.
Regional identity-based parties, and the concept of region above nation, point at the absence of a cohesive social vision in modern Indian politics. The so-called secular, democratic parties are either those that are historically inclined to the upper class, and elitism generally like the Congress or puny parliamentary entities like the left forces that once had succeeded in rousing the working class in parts of the country (by working class it is meant the agrarian sector in parts of the country and a tiny section of urban industrial workers.) The rise of ultra right nationalism of the Jan Sangh variety and the Narendra Modi government’s efforts at cultural regimentation, albeit wrapped in slogans like ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ is a clear threat. Communal polarisation is an intricate subject but research done by noted political scientist Paul Brass and his followers have shown how “the production of Hindu-Muslim violence” in parts of the country has panned out to the advantage of certain powerful lobbies and groups. In India secularism is an expedient term, often an excuse, either championed by impotent forces or by those who care a fig for social rationalism and the need to build a scientific temper but are adept chemists in the political laboratory who know how to form compounds called coalitions against obscurantist forces in times of duress that are doomed to fail. Why? Because they are built on the quicksand of self-interest and hunger for power that can never sustain a polity.
The real political struggle is against caste, backwardness and the regional mindset. If it is claimed that regional identity is the basis of personal identity there would be very little argument left, but the sheer narrowness of the claim and the selfishness inherent in it are far from political virtues. Unfortunately, India has been categorised as a fractured, divisive sociological entity, according to VS Naipaul a land of “million mutinies” that has to trundle along in faltering steps with the load of a constitution imported from the west on its back. That bulky constitution, sound political thinkers have averred, often doesn’t fit with the distinctive character of the faiths, traditions, customs and cultures of the people. But, then, the other side of the argument that the democratic experiment of multicultural, modern existence is a noble one, as envisioned by an array of modernist thinkers, politicians, constitutionalists, writers and visionaries.
This political experiment of establishing a true multicultural, multi-linguistic secular republic is belied by a renewed spurt in regionalism, divisiveness, collapse of harmony with the multiplication of antagonistic interests among groups that wield power and overall eruption of corruption, chaos, anarchy and violence. Such state of affairs doesn’t inspire hope. Those in thrall of Modi are making the rather dubious claim that the NDA dispensation is concerned about the aspirational class, the youth, those on the lookout for entrepreneurial opportunities and careers. Despite statistics chopping by monetary and market experts and repeated assurances of sustained growth and development, not only the Prime Minister but the entire class of bureaucrats, businessmen and sections of the media that have brought the BJP to power prefer to look the other way when uncomfortable questions related to primary education, healthcare and poverty alleviation are raised. No amount of macroeconomic mumbo-jumbo can justify rampant divestment of public resources, rising levels of unemployment and industrial stagnation and falling productivity in agriculture.
One can go on and on. However, the crucial issue of the realignment of secular-democratic forces is hardly, if ever, raised by pundits and commentators, who, it seems, have grown so used to the status quo that any talk of change, other than that of the routine toppling of one government and the installation of another, is considered heresy. India has only a formal democracy, it’s essential to invest it with meaning and substance.
