The sharp turn from democracy the country has seen recently should shock the citizens to stop the descent
Prime minister Narendra Modi loudly reiterates India’s embrace of democracy internationally, Praised its ‘diversity’ when abroad and is seeking the relevance of India as an ally of the West on ‘democratic values’. Therefore it is imperative to measure the distance between today’s India and democratic values.
The central building of democracy, or what makes it a revolutionary idea, is equality, or that it gives equal status to all its people. But the e-word is rapidly in remission. The commitment to being equal to all as a desired ideal – even if not fully realized in reality – gave India its radiance and vigor in the past. India now, being a truly remarkable case of overall nationalism, seems happy to hide in the corner of the room that many of its neighbors live in.
belief as the differentiator
The visionary Indian Constitution promised equal rights to all. If any benefit was given to small groups, religious or linguistic minorities or Dalits, it was to achieve real equality. It cuts across all markers of identity – colour, race, language, belief, caste, region or food. But trust seems to have rapidly emerged as a clear distinction among citizens. It must be acknowledged that the laws – not just the spirit – are in the process of being rewritten in India.
First and foremost, the basis of citizenship Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, allowing non-Muslims from the three countries to fast-track their citizenship was the most serious push to include religion in citizenship.
Second, in terms of matrimonial options, laws in the country where the national ruling party is dominant Rigorous focus on inter-religious couples. The hypothetical fear of a ‘love-jihad’, the basis of the new laws, means that inter-religious marriage is viewed as a crime unless proven otherwise. The Gujarat law to criminalize inter-religious marriages has been Called by Gujarat High Court, but the ordinance introduced in the Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020), which is now a law, as of July, has registered 63 FIRs against it, and 80 people arrested Most of the 162 people who were booked were Muslims. A similar law in Madhya Pradesh has a similar trajectory, and a different effect on Muslims, emphasizing the rapid unspooling of the e-word. In terms of personal law, only Muslim men are divorcing their wives through triple talaq, which has now been outlawed by the Supreme Court, considered a criminal act; Not so for men of other religions.
big change
Third, food has been criminalised. Strict laws on cattle punish those who have a fixed diet, namely beef. The mood created and instigated by those close to power in the country has given rise to lynchings. IndiaSpend has recorded bovine hate violence from 2010 and concluded that 98% of these attacks occurred after May 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party took power. State governments and the central government in 2018 mostly ignored Supreme Court directives to set up fast track courts, take steps to curb hate messages on social media, or compensate victims, or bring in an anti-mob lynching law Is.
Fourth, consider Gujarat Act for Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Protection of Tenants from Premises in Disturbed Areas, popularly known as the Disturbed Areas Act, which mandates where one can live. Brought up in an environment where communal riots and forced displacement took place, to save communities from distress sales, the turn given to it over the years strongly explains the forced segregation of communities. Vijay Rupani, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat till recently, said in an interview on 27 July 2019; “It is not right to sell property to a Hindu and a Muslim. Even a Muslim selling property to a Hindu is not right.” “We have established this rule in areas where riots have taken place to tell them (Muslims) that they should buy property in their areas,” he said.
hostile environment
Recent studies on the subject have made it clear that even in the informal sector where minorities took refuge in occupations to fight the prejudices of the formal sector, it is now becoming cumbersome. With those holding extraordinary power in high offices, and violent mobs on the ground with social media making noise, Muslim businesses are trying to shut down – or attack vegetable vendors or bangle vendors to operate them. Relationships to stop from – are becoming more obvious by the day. It is an old thing to say that haters are “proud to be followed by the prime minister” on social media. But that too is only the tip of the iceberg.
Those in power actively support and reward those who lead mobs, raise slogans or display enough hatred to shut down cities and routine life. Ministers garlanded them And the anti-minority hatred spread by him is a CV building exercise for better political prospects within the ruling party. Pragya Thakur, MP representing Bhopal, a public defender of the killer of the Mahatma, is only one of many that exemplifies the career paths available to those who vehemently condemn harmony or call for harmony.
Scholars such as Thomas Blom Hansen and Paul Brass have without hesitation pointed to the role of violence that has historically been acceptable in Indian society and politics. The biggest difference between now and a few decades ago is the difference between top leaders being silent at critical moments when mob violence is reported prominently. Dissidents are sought to be marked “by their clothes” As the Prime Minister infamously said in December 2019 About those opposing discriminatory citizenship laws. Far from discouraging those indulging in hate speech, they are given a place in the party hierarchy.
When the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was banned after the assassination of the Mahatma on September 11, 1948, a simple but sharp line was drawn by someone less than Sardar Patel. Patel wrote to RSS chief MS Golwalkar, that he had no problem with the Sangh’s involvement in activities that organized or benefited Hindus, but had problems with actions that aimed only at spreading anti-Muslim hatred – “all his speeches Were full of communal. Poison. It was not necessary to spread poison to enthuse Hindus and to organize for their protection.”
Special right
There was clearly a sentiment in Indian society and politics that wanted a country in the mirror image of Pakistan as a Hindu majority. This approach did not want to improve the life of Hindus. It was about claiming that those following a religion have a special right to Indianness. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organization in the ruling party’s family, rejects the Mosaic’s idea that India is India, when its general secretary, Milind Parande, said on September 7, 2021, that “the idea of the Ganges—Jamuni Tehzeeb (Hindu and Hindu in the country) The term used for the coming together of Muslim cultures), is irrelevant. What exists is one culture, and the rest can simply merge into it. Hindu causes must predominate.” of India as a shared palette. Such statements to defame the idea are never condemned by those in power. In fact, increasingly, little to distinguish these from statements from the ruling and ruling officials representing the Indian state. The gravity of what is happening must be acknowledged.
Base
Scholars such as Christophe Jaffrelot have pointed out that there will not be a seamless transition to “ethnic democracy”. There is no easy path towards ‘category two’ or lower citizenship status for the vast majority of people who stray from a defined cultural path. The Indian nation is built on the promise of a shared and participatory kinship, which differentiates Indian nationalism from the belief you practiced at home. Prioritizing any one identity will have disastrous consequences and history gives ample evidence of this. Rwanda, South Africa or Germany are reminders that the e-word is as much a practical idea as it is a lofty ideal.
India was proud of its sacred constitutional precepts. Even more so, because it was in an area that has seen a sharp decline; Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar preferred one ethnicity/religion and defined belongingness and nationality in the narrowest possible sense. But the differences between him and India are fast eroding, and not just because of street fighting or mobs. The formal ruling establishment, with its silence, assertions and formalization of new laws and norms, is indistinguishable from the ideas that guide the crowd. The reading crowd, along with the actions of the central government and state governments, takes a sharp turn from the democracy that India claims. It should shock us into recognizing the distance that we have already walked the wrong path. It may be the first step in trying to plunge into the darkness of an apartheid state.
Seema Chishti is a journalist. Views expressed are personal
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