| Investigations into the Malegaon incident have brought to fore some ugly facts about Hindu right’s involvement in terrorism. Inam ul Rehman tries to dig out some pertinent themes related to the debate of terrorism and communal stereotyping
Surprising exposure that Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, along with Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh, all hailing from Madhya Pradesh, are involved in Malegaon blasts has shaken the majority community of India. Whenever, there is a bomb blast in India, fingers are raised towards Muslims. That Hindus can be involved in such acts was unthinkable. Since such acts were, and are, always interpreted as anti-national, Hindu involvement was automatically ruled out. This had become a part of Indian popular psyche. It was a forgone conclusion that acts of terror were anti Hindu and anti India, both at once. This mindset was strengthened by the state apparatus of India, Indian opinion makers and reporters, and the political propaganda machine.
Whenever a bomb exploded in India the usual suspects, Muslims, were made the target of investigating, law enforcing, and security agencies. The first question that would come to mind on all such occasions was this: is India trying to create Hindu India and Muslim India. Is the state itself laying the foundations of another partition? The way Muslims are isolated from the larger Indian society, is state hell bent to divide India again on communal lines? As the Indian news channels, newspapers, intellectuals and political analysts started to dissect the bombing incidents, all the rest fades out, as if India is confronted with only one problem; anti-national activities undertaken by Muslim terrorists.
As some people began to talk of Hindu terror, the rightwing BJP took strong exception to it. On October 27, BJP asked, "Why such people are being called "Hindu" terrorists when members of the minority community involved in blasts have not been called "Muslim terrorists" at any point or by anyone."
"The nation requires a much more seasoned and nationalistic approach to such critical issues. The nation needs to ponder a larger question. Should we condemn an entire religion or way of life for the indiscretions or misguided actions of but a few?" said the rightwing BJP on October 30 (TOI).
Even Shiv Sena Supremo, Bal Thackeray lashed out at pro-Hindutva elements for 'disowning' Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant-Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit, and asked the legal community to come forward and defend the trio. 'The entire Hindu community should support the Sadhvi, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni who are being framed by the Anti-Terrorist Squad,' says an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna.
VHP leader Pravin Togadia charged the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) with fabricating evidence against the Sadhvi. He would rather like to consider all this a fiction. But the basic argument made by Mr. Togadia was: "No Hindu can be a terrorist."
Speaking to TV channel Times Now, former deputy prime minister of India L K Advani said, "We don't defend her. She was with ABVP sometime back, nothing now. If the government has any proof against any one...against ABVP or any Sangh Parivar outfit, if there is proof, he/she should be punished." Now read what the Bajrang Dal chief, Prakash Sharma says: ‘And we train our youth to shoot and fight because physical prowess creates self-confidence. It is because of the Bajrang Dal's determination that 50,000 Bajrangis went for the yatra despite the odds’. (Tehelka Nov 08)
There is no denying the fact that Hindu terror is a reality. But there are larger themes hidden in this. There is an immediate political motive and that is if you want to divert the attention from the internal problems create a ghost problem. And these bombs serve two important ends; teach Muslims a 'lesson' and keep the fragmented India together. After all India is a land of caste ridden and fragmented societies and a land with forced unions. A superficial look at India will tell that it is Hindu majority state whereas if one scratches little deeper it can easily be grasped that Hindu society is divided into rigid caste system, where upper caste Hindus still hold sway and the inferior castes are targeted in many crude and subtle ways. There is growing poverty among the lower castes, about 40 crore population of India lives below the poverty line, and not to forget those farmers who commit suicides on daily basis in south India. Shining India turns pale when some scribe from the fourth estate of India inadvertently write or poses questions to the politicians about poverty, suicides, caste and honour deaths. Politicians want the populace of India to live in a make-believe world where India is an emerging super power, where India is going upwards in economic and military prowess.
In the popular mind India is united by two things: Bollywood and hatred against Muslim. And this India has released that hatred against Muslims and making them suspect in all anti national activities, is bound to help unite India. Police, bureaucracy, and the political system of India know well that Muslims are as unproblematic to India as Hindus, yet framing them as traitors is an unwritten code of conduct. Think India without Muslims and there will be civil war. Caste ridden Hindu society will fight amongst itself. Temples will become scenes of confrontation; non vegetarians will fight it out with vegetarians and suddenly the myth of united India will vanish. India was never a united country. It was always ravaged with internecine wars, only the hatred against Muslims holds it together.
Whatever has come to fore after the Mallegaon blast must serve as an eye opener for all the people in India. All the propaganda carried out against Muslims must be now rejected. The reality behind creating ghost enemies should get exposed and people should start questioning politicians for creating stereotypes that make any particular community vulnerable, insecure and a soft target security agencies.
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