The Editor of Assam Tribune, seeking to throw light on the stage of helplessness that the Centre Government found itself with Manipur affairs, explained it this manner, “One must concede that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are from Gujarat and therefore totally unfamiliar with the ‘psychology and mental makeup’ of the ethnic entities of the North-East”.

Unfortunately, this has been true of central interventions in the North-East, too many areas on too many occasions. The Centre has generally adopted the policy of delaying, until problems solved themselves.

Of late, with Nagpur seemingly taking over policy-making and appointment to administrative posts on lines of saffron interests, matters have worsened. National interests are continuously being sidelined for the promotion of RSS interests, election interests, and exploitative corporate interests, so that regional interests are totally forgotten.

A perceptive handling of the situation by judicious and sensitive leaders would have helped. By giving majoritarian fads priority over common good, local communities’ future has been compromised. Over 40,000 armed forces and state police stood by, while helpless people fell victims right before their eyes.

People Long for Peace

One thing is certain. Even the toughest fighters long for peace. Human life is not about conflict and war, it is about cooperation and warmth. The other day, a letter of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War was sold for $85,000. The underlying message in that precious letter was Lincoln’s intense desire for peace. In the midst of war, he longed for peace. Even the fiercest fighters are concerned for peace and their future.

The recent Inter-faith Rally for Peace in Imphal proclaimed to the world that Manipur longs for peace, welcomes peace initiatives. Kukis are calling for a return of people who left their homeland. If hundreds of people have died in Manipur, hundreds came out for the above-mentioned Peace March. Every blood cell in the state is vibrating for peace. Give peace a chance! Today we pray for peace in Manipur, peace in India, peace in South Asia. We belong together.

Peace under Threat

Farahnaz Ispahani in the anthology “Politics of Hate” which he edited (Harper Collins, Gurugram, 2013) laments the unfortunate situation of conflict into which South Asia, an area of two billion people, is steadily moving. Radicalism in one country radicalizes the other. Citizens do not trust each other. It would seem that one can show loyalty to one’s nation only by expressing one’s hatred for a neighbouring one, fidelity to one’s religion only by condemning others’ religions. A sympathetic word about a neighbouring country is considered a betrayal, criticism of one’s government a treachery.

It is little realized that a sense of insecurity is created in the majority community in each country by certain political leaders only for their own power-interests. These leaders systematically cultivate a sense of insecurity in the dominant group which in turn generates intense hatred against minority communities.  Such leaders’ interest in their community does not seem to go beyond their own election success and business promotion. 

Religious zeal is used merely as a political tool, not shared as a spiritual energy. In reference to religious exaggerations, the impression is that Indian majoritarians learnt much from Pakistani extremism and have passed on similar anti-minority attitudes to Sri Lanka and Nepal. So, today we all find ourselves in the same boat.

The ‘otherisation’ of other communities has not contributed to stability in society in any of these South Asian countries. Economy has suffered, foundations of the nations have been shaken.

Sri Lanka

Gehan Gunatilleke says, Sinhala Buddhists nationalists act as though they own the island, as though others like Tamils, Muslims and Christians are there on sufferance. They control policy-making and history writing to strengthen their Sinhala entitlements. They brush up stories of their ancient kings defeating “foreign” Tamil royalties (Ispahani 119). Organized violence against Tamils and Muslims has increased. 

Sinhala nationalists suffer from what has been described as a “majority with a minority complex”, even though they form 75% of the population. They argue, Tamils, Muslims and Christians have wide international connections. Possibly the Sinhalese elite have learned from Hindutva elite, who have never got rid of this sort of inferiority complex even though all political power and economic resources are in their hands.

The great fear that Sinhalese have is of being absorbed by India. They are afraid that the Tamils, who constitute only 11% of the population, will act as ‘Indian agents’ (Ispahani 20). During the civil war of 1983-2009, over a million Tamils fled the country (Ispahani 103). With the defeat of the ‘Tamil Tigers’ in 2009, Sinhalese extremists have turned their hostility against Muslims and their business network (Ispahani 121). New extremist groups like Bodu Bala Sena, Sinhala Ravaya, and Ravana Balaya have come up (Ispahani 21). What they want to do is to put minorities in their ‘proper place’, and make them accept their subordinate position (Ispahani 102).

Pakistan

Pakistan’s Christian origins go back to St. Thomas. The historicity of king Gondaphares whose conversion to Christianity is described in the Acts of St. Thomas has been established.  Coins and steles in Greek and Prakrit refer this Indo-Bactrian king who ruled from Gandhara. Taxila cross too was a great discovery (Ispahani 131). But today Pakistan is totally Islamized. Radical policy-makers and extreme Islamist clerics shape the policies (Ispahani 177).

They have re-written history in such a way that it would look as though the entire  Islamic expansion was a preparation for Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan and Bhutto had placed the nation firmly on the path towards Islamization. Gen. Zia-ul-Haq (1977-88) moved ahead with blasphemy laws, Shariat courts, curbs on Ahmadis, and religious taxes. He decreed that government offices open every day with prayer (Ispahani 16). Islamization seemed so threatening that the non-Muslim population dipped.

Use of violence in defence of Islam has become a fashion. Attacking minorities for Prophet’s honour is in style. So it happens that Pakistan projects the image of having the “angriest Muslims” in the world (Ispahani 18).  Gen. Pervez Musharraf set an example of making political use of terrorists. Those whom he trained to target Afghanistan he called ‘good terrorists’. Those who turned violent in Pakistan itself came to be called ‘bad terrorists’ (Ispahani 174-75). The disastrous consequence within Pakistan and in the neighbourhood is widely recognised. America began acknowledging it only they had done with Afghanistan.

Bangladesh

The US looks at Bangladesh as a “moderate voice”. India deals with her as a cooperative partner. However, recent surveys have shown that a good proportion of Bangladeshis are inclined to Islamist radicalism. They would like to impose Shariat on the nation (Ispahani 214). Islamist activists consider ‘secularism’ as insult to Islam and a sign of servile dependence on India (Ispahani 219). Curiously, they remind us of the RSS attitude that considers secularism ‘anti-Hindu’ and a sign of allegiance to Pakistan. “Go to Pakistan” is the greeting that Indian citizens with a neutral stand meet with.

Clandestine Islamist militants have multiplied in Bangladesh. Intolerant language in mainstream politics has made radicals and moderates look similar when they speak about tortures and extra-judicial killings (Ispahani 201). Islamist activists are gathering strength.  Not long ago, they made an attack on Hindus in Sylhet, and took out a march in Dhaka (Ispahani xvii). Between 2001 and 2019 about 3,844 were killed by law enforcement agencies. We hear of secret detentions and disappearances. Authoritarianism is fully in command, intolerance towards dissent visible (Ispahani 203-03).

India

Islamic Arab merchants had reached Konkan, Gujarat, and Malabar coast around the year 630 (Ispahani 30). Therefore, Islam has been a respected religious tradition for centuries in India. Christians have been in the South of India for about 2000 years, initiated into the Faith by Thomas the Apostle. Therefore, the Founding Fathers of our nation recognised the composite nature of our society. Great leaders of recent times like Vivekananda showed respect for ‘practical Islam’ and suggested teaching the Vedas and the Bible, side by side with the Quran (Ispahani 29-30).

In spite of all these, with the BJP takeover of our leadership and surrender to the RSS, our national conversation has changed, violence has increased, minorities are marginalized, Dalits are made insecure through vigilantism; and secular traditions rejected (Ispahani 70). The consequence is that our “social capital” has been greatly eroded.

Today, ‘moral police’ decide for the Indians what they should think, write, eat, drink, and wear. Intellectuals are attacked, critics abused, violence has increased against what is described as love-jihad. An objective evaluation of affairs is held up as ‘pseudo secularism’.

The RSS seeks “cultural hegemony” over India and teaches a distorted version of history to the rising generation (Ispahani 71-72). Paid trolls, blind bigots, cooperative journalists create fear among masses. Being soft on Kashmir is treason! Criticism of Modi anti-national (Ispahani 81).

A religious rally in Delhi in January 2021 invoked the trishul and the sword, and honoured those who destroyed Babri Masjid (Ispahani 35). A Dharam Sansad in December at Haridwar invoked violence to control Muslim population growth. Annapuran Maa screamed, “If needed, we can kill them... We will be considered winners even if 20 lakhs of their population is killed” (Ispahani 29). Hindus in danger is an ongoing theme (Ispahani 32).

Reason Must Speak to Reason

Those who have worked sincerely for peace amid intense conflict know that even “The toughest fighter longs for peace”. In the depth of everyone’s heart there is a hunger…a hunger for Recognition, a thirst for happy Relationships, a longing for Peace.

It was at the height of Manipur violence that a newly constituted Interfaith Forum for Peace and Harmony sent out an appeal for peace on June 5. Conflict was still at its height when they took out a Peace March in the heart of Imphal on July 11 with much risk to their lives. No criticism was heard. Their initiatives soon won the attention of the Governor and other authorities. There is a long way to go, for certain. But people have a chance to express their ‘hidden’ desire for peace!

General Secretary of the Muslim World League from Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, said the other day in Delhi: “Diversity promotes good relationship between cultures”. It is for creative leaders, intellectuals, spiritually inspired people who can make the first move. Netanyahu of Israel recently called for “reasonableness” in discussing his proposals for judicial reform. Apart from his political motivation, an appeal to reason is an enlightened approach. Let reason speak to reason, and subject emotions to a period of education. 

People of Good Will Can Help

Certainly, armchair philosophizing alone does not help. You may come face-to-face with irreconcilable positions master-minded by the Sangh Parivar and their Think Tank. That is where Manipur had reached. Milan Kundera, the Czech refugee from a Communist world, who departed recently, had experienced such moments, “We’ve known for a long time that it was no longer possible to overturn the whole world, nor reshape it…There’s been only possible resistance: do not take it seriously”. Do not take your difficulties too seriously, do not yield to a sense of helplessness.

Indeed, Islamic intellectuals in India have not been sitting idle. While they have been claiming their Constitutional rights, they have also been exhorting their co-believers to avoid extremism. They warn against a persecution complex, a victimhood attitude, and melancholic depression. They also call for greatly needed reform within Islam (Ispahani 40). Their intelligent approach can set their co-religionists thinking in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sober thinkers can urge an intelligent evaluation of blasphemy laws and pan-Islamic solidarity for wrong causes (Ispahani 53).

Intellectuals within India’s majority community can do the same with regard to Freedom of Religion Bills, food restrictions, vigilantism, limits placed on self-expression, and curbing of criticism. Thanks be to God! Indian thinkers have been doing so whether they belong to the majority or minority community. They will continue to do so. South Asian thought has always been sober. May there be correction, if it strayed for a while. Balanced thinking in India can influence Sri Lanka and Nepal…and gradually the others. We have a shared destiny.

Former Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu claimed in the US that minorities enjoy greater freedom in India than in America. If it is not true at present, may it come true in the near future. Modiji pledged to work for Sab ka Vishwas. May he take us by surprise by doing so! After all, he has promised to G20 to be “inclusive”.

May peace return to Manipur. For even the toughest fighter longs for peace.