What is "Indian"?

The defence of so-called "Indian" ethos and culture by fringe groups has led to an increase in violence and hooliganism. ZIYA US SALAM examines the issue.

IN these times, disconcerting and unedifying as they are, reports of occasional lapses of sanity fail to evoke more than mild concern. But there is a method to this revanchist madness of Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal activists. Dangerous, convoluted opinions are gaining currency as "established norms of behaviour". Whether the attack is on shops selling Valentine's Day cards or on a noted film maker making a movie on the plight of widows in Varanasi or a cricket pitch being dug up before the visit of Pakistan team in New Delhi, only the notes differ. The tune that comes out is uniformly regressive with an underlying message: They (the self-styled vandals and their headstrong leaders) are the ones to decide what we should see, where, what and how we should celebrate, with whom we should play and even how we should love. The space for reasoned dialogue is shrinking - aggressive votaries of revivalism are usurping space and time.

Sample this. New Delhi (February 14, 2001): Shiv Sainiks are on the prowl in the nation's capital. Most well-known chains of restaurants have alerted the police to avoid a skirmish with the sainiks who understand and deliver only the language of the stick. Without provocation, the sainiks stalk into an Archies showroom in Karol Bagh, tear greeting cards, cause chaos. A few kilometres away at Wimpy's restaurant, the scene is repeated. Here the furniture is turned upside down, panes are broken. It is ugly theatrics without a social genesis. A party-sponsored show of "patriotism".

Sometime back, the sainiks in the city had delivered "instant justice" in their own provocative style. Ajay Jadeja, the much- maligned cricketer, was holding a press conference to explain his viewpoint in response to CBI's accusations. Not ones to respect any opinion in variance with their own, the sainiks stormed the conference and the cricketer had to be shielded by the police.

A little later, the sainiks got into action in South Delhi, causing damage to the property and premises of Manoj Prabhakar, another player accused by the CBI in the match-fixing case and who was contesting the CBI claims.

And the city has not quite forgotten what Jai Bhagwan Goel, city chief of the Shiv Sena did in early 1999 on the eve of the Pakistan cricket team's visit - the man earned notoriety by digging up the pitch, making it difficult to play a team which had been cleared by the Union Government for matches in India. It was yet another example of personal belief surmounting reason and larger common good.

Just as it was when Bajrang Dal and Sena activists stormed Regal cinema hall which screened Deepa Mehta's controversial film, "Fire". That the Central Board for Film Certification had cleared it did not seem to cut ice with head-strong revivalists. They saw an assault on Indian tradition in the movie based on intimate human emotion.

Or sample this. Varanasi: The activists of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad - the Bharatiya Janata Party's student wing - get down to work in the city on Valentine's Day. They crop young men's hair for the "sin of celebrating Valentine's Day - a foreign custom" and then parade them across the city. The women are humiliated, couples sitting in restaurants are beaten up. Here too the sainiks only "react" to "assault" on Indian culture. However, what is Indian is not to be decided by you or me, but by rampaging hooligans who brook no defence, no divergence from their straitjacketed viewpoint.

Incidentally, the city was the hotbed of controversy sometime back. Again, those upholding their own brand of justice were in the hot seat, trying to tell Deepa Mehta what she should or should not shoot. The film "Water" had to be shelved following constant threats by Bajrang Dal activists - it was the ultimate example of how intolerant we had become as a society - the film maker being prevented from shooting simply because people assumed that what she would film would hurt their religious sentiments.

Lucknow: On Valentine's Day, the Shiv Sainiks get into action again, forcing greeting card sellers and florists to shut down shops. The State Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, meanwhile, calls for a ban on beauty pageants. So Miss World Priyanka Chopra cannot be crowned Miss Bareilly or Miss Uttar Pradesh.

Then the RSS gets under people's skin. No birthdays, no honeymoons. No candles, no cakes, the multitudes are told. "They are un-Indian," is the message. This in a State which has the best known symbol of love - Taj Mahal.

And the incidents of acute intolerance in Jhabua, Dumka, Dangs district and Orissa are too well known to need reiteration. Bibles were burnt, priests and nuns assaulted, churches damaged and chapels set afire. Graham Staines charred to death with his children. Father Christudas paraded naked and humiliated on the streets of Dumka and a nun in Bihar forced to drink human refuse. All this in the name of defending tradition, keeping alive the ethos of India. What tradition? What ethos? It was a brutal attack on the elegant warp and woof of multi-layered tapestry of India. An outcome of jaundiced vision, lopsided thoughts, prejudiced action. Or simply organised fringe lunacy threatening to eat up the centre.

Under the circumstances, a slogan so casually painted on many public walls in Mumbai and Delhi in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition seems almost prophetic. It read: "Aaj kasai, kal Isai" (Muslims today, Christians tomorrow). It was, as time has proved, not mere sporadic scribbling of an insensitive soul, but a well- thought out statement to create a chasm between those following religions subcontinental in origin and those abiding by faiths Semitic in roots.

All along the Government seems to have abdicated its responsibility of bringing the culprits to book. And vandals have been allowed to be released on bail following clamping of milder provisions of the Indian Penal Code. Where they could have been imprisoned for up to three years along with a fine, they have been let off with merely a fine. Hooliganism goes on, unabated. But not necessarily unabetted. Mercifully, these people are merely their own leaders and not representatives of the common people. After all, like represents like, as some theoreticians say. And you and I are not quite like them! Nor are the multitudes of this country.

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