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[ GUPTARA GARAMAGARAM ] Diwali and the Soul of India “More and more, the fundamentalists are hijacking not only our festivals but even our language. ” [ By PRABHU GUPTARA ] In case you are not familiar with Diwali, it is an ancient Indian festival which lasts four days and celebrates the return of Shri Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, from his 14-year exile in the forest, after killing a demon king, Ravana. Diwali signifies the renewal of life and the victory of good over evil, and encourages society to dispel darkness and ignorance, and to spread the power of love and wisdom. It has been described as a time for cleansing, for closure of past negativities, and for re-committing oneself to one’s ideals and dreams. My childhood memories of Diwali are so vivid: visiting friends homes taking mithai and going to visit friends and relatives - where we would be confronted by stacks more of mithais and namkeens. I remember the deeyas on the roofs and on the lintels and windows, lighting up magically every house, no matter how poor. Fireworks everywhere. Rockets that lit up the sky. When I was very little, the terror and fun of sparklers in one’s own hand. Pataakas of various sorts - and the terror and fun of lighting one of them and rushing away before it went off! And the even greater excitement of going to check why a pataaka wasn’t going off - was it a dud? Or was it only the fuse that had failed? - just in case it went off while you were approaching it or poking about! Most of all, Diwali was running about with friends, and all the fun and card games and Monopoly. Not just for an hour, which might happen any time, but for four whole days! The great thing about Indian festivals when I was growing up was that all our festivals were entirely secular. Muslims and Christians celebrated all the Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Holi. Hindus and Muslims celebrated Christmas and New Year. Hindus and Christians celebrated Id and enjoyed the special and rather delicious Ramadan meals (though only at night of course). The same applied to Buddhist, Jain and Sikh festivals and, depending on where one lived, I am sure that applied equally to local festivals. Everyone took presents around to all one’s friends and everyone was treated with respect and love beyond any thought of whether the person belonged to “your” religion or not. Sadly, those days appear to be disappearing in India. More and more, the fundamentalists are hijacking not only our festivals but even our language (“only PURE Hindi, please!”). Fundamentalists are also weakening our already corrupted and enfeebled institutions, so that the police and other government officials are increasingly unreliable not only when it comes to protecting minorities but even innocent people who are from the majority community if they are secularists, or not “powerful” or “connected” enough. In fact, it seems to me that there is a tussle going on for the soul of India. At Independence, the secularists were in the ascendant, due to the influence of the British and of Britisheducated Indians such as Gandhiji and Nehruji. Even though the secularists were 18 THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN
[ GUPTARA GARAMAGARAM ] tiny in number, it was they who set the tone for the nation. At Independence, most of our leaders were secular. Now there are few political leaders who are truly secular. Hypocritically, they talk secularism only to get political mileage out of it. Now, 60 years and two generations of leaders later, the influence of the British is of course (quite rightly!) gone, and the influence of the secularists, though it is still expanding in terms of numbers, is losing its moral authority both because of political fragmentation and because of corruption. With the decline of secularism as a force, there is a rising threat from fundamentalists, who are using mass violence to try to intimidate not only the minorities but also those elements in the police, judiciary and administration who are secular. The attempt is not new. What is new is the extent of their activities. Once the fever around Independence passed, there were of course a few occasional riots against Muslims. Over the last few decades, we see more and more riots all over the country, happening at the same time against Muslims and Christians, along side threats to any Buddhists, Jains or Sikhs who insist on considering themselves “non-Hindu” (and the traditional violence against Dalits and OBCs). Looking to the future, it seems to me that the next general elections, which could take place any time after April 2009, may be crucial to the future of secularism in India. Why? Because we have a tradition of throwing out the party in power. So it seems to me a foregone conclusion that the Congress will be thrown out. Why do we have a tradition of throwing out the ruling party? Because all parties are equally corrupt and none of them delivers much to the public. So, though Congress could still win by some miracle, let us examine the alternatives. One is the Hindu fundamentalists represented by the BJP, the political arm of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its thugs in bodies such as the Bajrang Dal. “The BJP can’t win”, I am told, “because they are not a national party”. Well, they may not be a national party, but they could still be the undoubtedly largest party after the elections, even if they have to go into a coalition with minority partners in order to “ If the Dalits/ OBCs can resist the temptation of power at any price simply to line one’s own pockets, then we could see the return of secularism perhaps in a new political form. We could see the soul of our country being restored - and we could look forward to a time of cleansing. ” rule. And if the BJP does come to that kind of power, this time they won’t have the moderating influence of very powerful partners in the last coalition, nor the moderating influence of Vajpayeeji. Their new leaders are out and out ideologues who have made it quite clear, by their words as well as by their actions, that they will unleash Hitlerite actions in the country against all minorities. So if the country does not want to be taken “back” into a new “Ram Raj”, what are the alternatives? First, it seems to me often forgotten that a major alternative is Maoism (“Naxalism”), which has recently taken over our neighbouring country, Nepal. The reaction, when I mention this, is usually absolute disbelief - till I point out that, according to our government’s own figures, Maoists already control 10% of India’s districts. Their recent murder of the Swami Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati in Orissa does not make any sense unless one sees it as their assertion of strength against Hindu fundamentalists. So if we don’t want the Hindu fundamentalists and we don’t want the Maoists, do we have an alternative? Surprisingly, we are seeing, into the third generation after Independence, thanks in large part due to the reservations system (with all its inequities!), that Dalits/ OBCs are finally being freed in massive numbers from the oppressive hold of castes such as mine. Naturally, no one likes to lose privileges and perks that go back thousands of years. Equally, some individuals from the Backward Classes, and even from the minorities, are sympathetic to the Hindutvans for reasons ranging from their own advantage to seeing (however rightly or wrongly!) in the Hindutvans a less corrupt and more efficient administration than that provided by the secularists. But that does not take away from the fact that the Hindu fundamentalists, at least in the rural areas, are attempting essentially to re-impose the hold of traditional structures. But we know that such an attempt will not succeed in the long term, whatever happens in the short term. So the long term future lies with our masses being finally enlightened enough to provide a corruption-free government that actually delivers the progress that we thought was within our grasp at Independence, but which has been so cruelly betrayed so far by our brown sahibs. If the Dalits/OBCs can resist the temptation of power at any price simply to line one’s own pockets, as all the other politicians have done, then we could see the return of secularism perhaps in a new political form. We could see the soul of our country being restored - and we could look forward to a time of cleansing, closure of past negativities, and re-committing our nation to our ideals and dreams of darkness and ignorance finally being dispelled, and the power of love and wisdom being spread all round. Then I could not only be able to look forward to future Diwalis, Holis, Christmases, Easters, Ids, Ramadans and other festivals with a secular ambience once again, but life itself in our country could be a Diwali. Professor Prabhu Guptara is Executive Director, Organisations Development, at Wolfsberg. He is responsible for the UBS Think Tanks on a wide variety of market and global issues. Professor Prabhu Guptara writes here in a purely personal capacity. He blogs at www.prabhuguptara.blogspot.com THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN 19
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