The Hindu hotheads threaten Modi's development agenda

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RSS-sponsored conversion in progress

­­­­­­­­­­­­­The hold of religion on people seems to be strengthening every passing day. The newspapers run regular features relating to religious activities that, one can sometimes foretell, might cause trouble and conflicts. Some narratives are about the conflict situations that have already occurred and some are those that could well end up in tragedy.

With the installation of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government at the Centre the Hindu Right Wing organisations seem to have developed a lot of muscle – or that is what they appear to think. Their recent activities and utterances of some of their hotheads inject some amount of foreboding into the environment creating a lot of unease among the minority communities as also among such of the Hindus who are not of fundamentalist orientation. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right wing Hindu nationalist non-governmental organisation with the aim of consolidating the Hindu society, has started opening and flapping its wings, there are other numerous fringe organisations that take inspiration from the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu cultural organisation, are more fundamentalist in nature and have also started flexing their muscles. The latter seek to protect the traditional Hindu mores and, in the process, indulge in moral policing – sometimes becoming violent in doing so.

These fundamentalists are not much different from those of other religions, particularly of Islamic faith. Of late, they have been running campaigns of re-conversion of Hindus and even Sikhs who happened to have been converted earlier and taken into the Christian and/or Islamic folds. Branding the campaign as “ghar wapasi” or home-coming, i.e. return to the Hindu fold the various regional units fanned out in the country looking for prospective candidates for reconversion. They claim to have converted thousands of Christians and Muslims in various parts of the country. The conversions and “ghar wapasi” became hot news and provoked disorder in the Indian Parliament rendering the last few sessions in the Upper House infructuous.

 Worse, the Hindu fringe elements have been travelling to places that are communally sensitive where communities are already polarised and the chances of conflicts were bright with the persisting tensions. Some converts who were formerly dalits (untouchables) were assembled and were claimed to have been “reconverted” as Hindus at some places. There have been charges flying around that they were conned into the claimed conversions and were offered illegal inducements.  Many Hindu religious organisations disowned such conversions as the obligatory procedures were not observed. Besides, the question of putting them in a caste slot was also not possible as Hinduism has castes as an essential feature of its social set up. Besides, an institutional weakness, or strength whatever one may call it, is that none can really be converted as a Hindu. He or she has to be a born Hindu. The Supreme Court of India has pronounced a judgement to this effect way back in 1977. The ritualised (re)conversions would, therefore, seem to be of hardly any consequence.

All this apart, fishing for trouble the fringe elements of Hindu organisations pick on issues that could cause communal discordance. One such was about a recent Bollywood film “PK” which, according to them, had insulted Hindus and their gods and god men who in India have somehow come to abound. Their shenanigans have been exposed by some of their one-time gullible faithful. If not more, at least two of the very popular god men are now in jail for conning their followers and for rape of their female followers besides being charged for other criminal offences. It is the poorer and less aware sections of the population that fall prey to the machinations of the so-called god men who are nothing but confidence tricksters. After having viewed the film, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous province of India, exempted it of all taxes in order to enable more people to watch it and presumably get educated. The central government has also declared that, unlike previous occasions, the film would not be subjected to a review by India’s films Censor Board. Even the chairperson of the Censor Board, Leela Samson, emphatically asserted that “PK”’s certification would not be reviewed. And, now a high court has pronounced that there is nothing in the film warranting its review or re-consideration. Nonetheless, the unHindu-like demonstrations by Hindu groups, sometimes violent, had already done damage to various cinema halls as they went rampaging through them breaking furniture, kicking and spitting on the film’s posters with photographs of its hero, Amir Khan, a highly respected film artist of the country.

The governments earlier yielded to such unreasonable demands and the agitating fundamentalists got away with whatever they wanted. Salman Rushdie, An Indian Muslim litterateur settled in England,  was prevented from attending the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2012 as the Islamic fundamentalist groups asked for banning his entry into the country because of his book The Satanic Verses published years ago which they thought insulted their Prophet. Likewise, Tasleema Nasreen, a Bangladeshi author of repute, was chased out of her own country for her book “Lajja” (shame) written on the anti-Hindu riots soon after demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in India in 1992 and settled down in Kolkata only to be blatantly chastised and threatened and was chased out of the city again by Islamic fundamentalists for her mere plain and forthright utterances. Both the state and the central governments proved to be so weak that they succumbed to the unreasonable demands of the Indian Islamic fundamentalists and refused sanctioning extension of visa to her. Likewise, MF Hussain, an eminent Indian artist, spent last years of his life abroad as Hindu fundamentalists were up in arms against him for depicting Hindu goddesses in the nude - a way of depiction they did not like. There have been umpteen instances where Hindu and Muslim right wingers have forced the government to take steps to prohibit art and literature on frivolous grounds.

The recent activities of the Hindu hotheads were exploited by the Opposition in the Upper House of the Parliament where the current government lacks majority. The last few days of the winter session were disrupted because of the disorder created by the fragmented Opposition which managed to unite against the government. No work could be performed and many of the bills that were slated for introduction and discussion could not be dealt with. The BJP government had come to power with a mandate of development and had shelved its controversial issues that it had been pushing for long years. Those mandate-based plans of the six-month old Modi government were seen to be fizzling out. As was generally expected Prime Minister Modi expressed his displeasure at ‘re-conversions’ and rabid Hindu utterances and activities of members of his own Party and of several Hindu organisations. Eventually, the RSS let it be known that needless and avoidable controversial speeches or actions should be avoided by the right wing organisations. Even the “ghar wapasi” had to be put on hold by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Looking at all these confrontations over religious affiliations of people one wonders as to why has the world been reduced to a battleground over them. Religion, faith or belief is a very personal matter that evolves in an individual over a period of time according to his/her upbringing, education and exposure to the world around him. Each has a right to have his own faith and belief and practice in any which way he/she likes. Each, likewise, has a right to associate with any faith or religious group and interference in this matter by others ought to be unwarranted, even unwelcome. In today’s fractious world where there are numerous issues that could light the fuse what seems to be necessary is to cultivate humanistic traits among people and not religious bigotry. Religious leaders would do the world a great service if they converted people in their fold as genuine ‘humans’ – with all the positive human attributes.

Photo: from the Internet

India's "Dark Underbelly" set to bloat

While it has swept away the Oscars and the Golden Globe awards, Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” has offended some and hurt the sensibilities of many Indians. It has been exuberantly praised and has also been subjected to caustic criticism. Its technical qualities have been unreservedly extolled but its exploitation of the sordid life in Indian slums has come in for wholehearted denunciation. No wonder, it has been accused of purveying “poverty porn” and is alleged to have prostituted India’s “dark underbelly.

This is not a new phenomenon. Indians have always been touchy about depiction of the age-old poverty with all its ramifications. Even Satyjit Ray, the master film-maker, was accused of “exporting (Indian) poverty” through his much-acclaimed Pather Panchaali, “The Saga of the Road “. This sensitivity towards so pervasive a phenomenon is inexplicable. It is something which cannot be obscured from view – camouflaged or veiled. It is there for everyone to see, though it may not strike many of us as appalling – so thoroughly benumbed are we by its constant assault on our senses that we do not even happen to notice it. To us it is a part of the rural and urban landscape. Not so, however, for a Westerner, who finds such hopeless poverty curious and an object of enquiry.

Poverty generally resides in India’s myriad villages and rapidly multiplying urban slums. Time was when slums were virtually unknown in most of the towns except in the metropolitan cities. I, for one, saw a slum when I happened to visit Bombay (now Mumbai) more than half a century ago. And, slum-wise even Bombay was then considered to be no patch on Calcutta (now Kolkata). Our small town in Central India was free of them, though it indeed had areas where the impoverished lived. Those were the remnants of old villages which were overtaken by the town when it expanded. Today, slums are ubiquitous – visible in every urban Indian settlement, housing 20 to 30% or even more of the urban population. With their agglomeration of haphazardly built shanties they stick out like sore thumbs from every unlikely corner. If anything, they are burgeoning, fuelled by migrations from the depths of the rural hinterland that is devoid of economic opportunities. Rising population, fragmented uneconomic holdings, progressive impoverishment and absence of openings for making even a stark living have fostered a steady exodus from villages in search of livelihood. Drawn by the seemingly more affluent urban centres the poor and ignorant fall prey to the urban land mafia, who, backed by unscrupulous politicians, oblige them for a consideration to illegally build shanties on public lands. The politics of votes assuring grant of ownership of the illegally encroached public lands or rehabilitation in ready-built tenements, foster further influx. Thus the cycle goes on, promoting creation of massive shanty-towns of closely-built bare, unhealthy and unsanitary shelters that have become the hall mark of the Indian urban scene.

This is the Indian “underbelly”, with its nether universe of crime and criminals, illiteracy, hunger, mafia-controlled professionalized begging, prostitution, decadence and filth, the exposure of which by Boyle, with a touch of escapism, has offended the sensitive and the phoney-patriot. Although, dark and gloomy with desperately deprived and sometimes depraved souls, yet many slums have developed, despite severe handicaps, certain positivities of industry, enterprise and above all a “market”, a fact which caught the eye of the current Home Minister, which, he said, alone was reason enough for viewing Boyle’s film. What’s more, the inmates of some slums provide goods and services which, apart from being exported, are frequently the mainstays of middle-class homes. Nonetheless, it indeed is the Indian “dark underbelly” the candid display of which has embarrassed some of those who, pumped up by the country’s consistent 8%-plus growth, fancy it as having acquired a stature fit enough to occupy a place on the international high table.

Despite its frequent embarrassing exposure for viewers across the world it seems a trifle strange that nothing drastic has been attempted to redress the situation. Barring some cosmetic effort under the ongoing Urban Renewal Mission to improve sanitation and hygiene in the slums or to rehabilitate the “slumdogs” into indifferently built tenements nothing fundamental has so far been attempted. What, seemingly, needs to be done is to tackle the rural economy to make it attractive for the villagers to find a life of dignity in villages, discouraging them from looking for greener pastures in urban India that currently do not exist. Since Independence in 1947, billions of rupees have been spent for poverty alleviation and uplift of rural masses and yet it has not made any dent on rural poverty. The Central Minister for Panchayats (rural local bodies) recently gave out that while in 1994 as much as Rs 76 billion ($1.55 billion app. at current prices) was spent on rural development, anti-poverty schemes and social security, the outlay for the purpose in the last 15 years has gone up by 16 times and yet there is very little to show for results. All the money, seemingly, disappeared into a bottomless pit – enriching the rural political and bureaucratic elite, keeping the village folk destitute. The minister lamented that the expenditure “is not translating into human wealth” and blamed the bureaucracy for the failure. However, everyone, including the self-serving and scheming politician and the apathetic middle-class, must share the blame for glossing over the unremitting fraud that went on.

Pervasive corruption coupled with a still rapidly rising population are neutralising the governmental efforts in poverty-reduction. While there is scant legal or moral check on political and bureaucratic corruption, the National Population Policy does not recommend effective action for population control. According to 2004 estimates the population is still growing at the rate of 1.44% and the total fertility rate, at 2.85%, is way above the replacement level. No wonder, around 250 million people (a figure contested by many) live below the “poverty line” determined by the government on the basis of consumption of calories – 2400 calories being the basic minimum. Despite large investments on poverty alleviation the country, therefore, would seem to be “spot-jogging”, somehow managing to remain where it was during the past few years.

What is, perhaps, more disconcerting is that the current unseemly and sizable Indian “dark underbelly” is set to bloat. “India: The Urban Poverty Report 2009”, brought out with the assistance of the UNDP, predicts 50% of the country’s population, as against 27.8% in 2001, will be urban-based by 2030. Most of them will be rural migrants, mostly finding shelter nowhere else but in urban slums. Already, the illegal migrants, predominantly from Bangladesh numbering about 30 million, have raised numerous shanty-towns in metros, secondary and tertiary towns. And, the immigration continues unabated. Besides, India is going to be the likely haven for many poor environmental refugees from the neighbouring countries when global warming takes its toll submerging the precariously placed coastal areas and islands.

The slums are, therefore, likely to see exponential growth in the next few decades unless effective steps to forestall the process are taken. Some steps, basically illustrative, could be clamping down on the population growth and fertility rates by whatever democratic means possible, uplift of rural economy by revamping its communicational, educational and healthcare infrastructure, simultaneously creating in it openings for self-employment and job-opportunities, improving the urban infrastructure so as to be able to effectively handle migrations – progressive urbanisation being virtually unstoppable, preventing illegal immigrations, effective governance by states and the Centre and above all, eradicating corruption.

The governments alone cannot do it. Everyone has to chip in – the private sector, the non-governmental organisations and the people of all classes. Only then, perhaps, the country would be able to get rid of that obnoxious “dark underbelly” the exposure of which seems to shame it before the world.