Against communalism of the best-loser system - Lalit Mauritius

“communalisme de défense”. If anyone uses communalism, even for their own political benefit,
it may not be a bad thing, if it is in self-defense, says the MMM. Thus, the Labour Party used
Hindu communalism because it was necessary to defend against NMU and the racist ruling
class. This was not bad, according to this dominant idea. And when the Labour Party came to
power (or the MSM after it), now that “the Hindu community is in power” (Yes, the MMM and
MSM are actually trapped into thinking in terms as grossly absurd as these), if other people use
communalism, this will be “communalisme de défense” and therefore not a bad thing per se.
Thus Paul Bérenger himself could from 1983 onwards take up Gaetan Duval's old refrain about
“minorités ecrasées” and “minorités persecutées” without it being a bad thing in his mind. The
MMM would then consistently use this language, especially as justification for supporting the
Catholic Church hierarchy (no matter how reactionary its demands, for example, taking a
position against the anti-discrimination GN Regulations) and for supporting the fundamentalist
demands for Muslim Personal Law. And then, so as not to be unbalanced, the MMM would also
support any Hindu communal lobby as well, and would happily follow Mr. Atal Biharee
Vajpayee, BJP leader around Mauritius. The MSM actually organizes separate private meetings
with people of different communities.
So much for the MMM as rampart against communalism. Both its erroneous position about
“community” and “communalism” not being linked, and its idea that “some types of
communalism are a good thing”, have led it to its downfall as a force to oppose communalism.
The MMM (particularly in its MSM and MMM variants, but also in its RMM variant) has
become communalism personified. Just like the Labour Party and the PMSD before it.
And with the MMM's initial anti-communalist rampart having completely collapsed from about
1981 onwards, communal classification and communal categorization has become rife in the
country.
Grave Situation
People refer without a twinge of concern to “the majority community” as though this was a real
fact. Other talk of “Hindu power”, for and against, as if it were objective truth. Prime Minister
Jugnauth calls for “Hindu unity”, whatever this might be meant to mean. And Labour doyen, Sir
Satcam Boolell says that in order to be Prime Minister you must be “a Hindu”, as he puts it. The
“Comité Premier Février” puts forward a counter-demand for a “Kreol Vice President”, and
“Minis inportan Kreol”.
Week after week, the “Star” has invented a whole concept: “la communauté cible”. A term used
sarcastically and mischievously around questions of promotion within the civil service or
nominations within parastatals. More recently “Mauritius Times” has invented its own
counterpart: “Hindu bashing”. Again the term is used provocatively and sneakily so as to
prevent criticism of important personalities, like heads of parastatals, under the guise of the fact
that “la grande presse” attacks “hindu” personalities more than it attacks “general population”
personalities. Often in Le Mauricien, there are editorials which classify individuals by
community, often by the rather harsh method of just “naming” them. And 5-Plus has often
printed editorials that are gross communalism, classification by sub-community and even by
caste, under the pretext of the following type of assumption: “let us say out aloud what everyone
is saying in whispers”.
We have even heard the absurd rhetoric that “Catholics pay taxes”. The Catholic Church
Hierarchy claims this in its ludicrous arguments to cover up its undefendable discriminatory
education policy. We know that smokers and drinkers pay tax (excise tax), buyers pay tax
(transfer duties), spectators pay tax (entertainment taxes), consumers pay tax (stamp duty and
sales tax), bosses pay tax (company taxes), sugar estates pay tax (export levies), salaried people
pay tax (income tax), workers pay tax (employees welfare fund), and even dead people pay tax
(estate duty). But Catholics do not pay taxes. We know that long ago the whole of Europe paid
taxes to the Pope, but that was done away with 400 years ago. The idea that the category called
“Catholics” pay tax, is a communal, and even a fundamentalist, argument.
Recently the RCEA has actually denied that it is guilty of “communalism” when it openly
discriminates in favour of “catholic” children. “La vérité oblige à reconnaitre que le troisième
critère (catholique) n'est pas non plus une défense communale, car la religion catholique n'est
pas liée à une seule ethnie – même si dans le présent, une certaine ethnie constitue la majorité
des catholiques à Maurice” (L'Express 9 August, 1995). This is very childish pretence that
“catholic” is not a division like “hindu” or “muslim”. It is indeed the case that the Constitution
does not define a “Catholique” Community, but it is certainly just as “communalist” to