By Jacob Peenikaparambil

Indore, April 6, 2020: Yesterday (April 5) at 9.00 pm many people in India switched off electric lights for 9 minutes and lighted candles or oil lamp or torch, as response to the appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The prime minister had specifically told that the symbolism was meant for expressing solidarity and unity of the people of India in their fight against coronavirus COVID 19.

As happened on March 22, something went wrong yesterday also in the area where I stay. Many families burst crackers. Some shouted Vande Materam. A few of them shouted slogans against a particular religious community.

How an event meant for expressing solidarity and unity of all Indians could become highly divisive and a means for spreading hatred against a particular religious community? It shows something fundamentally wrong has happened with the Indian society.

Ever since the prime minister addressed the citizens of India and requested them to switch off their lights for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5, there have been many responses, both supportive and critical. Many opposition party leaders criticized the prime minister for the symbolic actions without sufficient and concerted efforts on the part of the government to deal with the pandemic. The social media became overly active to justify and glorify the event as well as to criticize it.

The religious gathering of Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement at Markaz in Nizamudin area of New Delhi and the media reporting about its role in spreading COVID 19 added fuel to the divisive discourse. Tablighi Jammaat meeting is presented by a large section of the media as the ‘super spreader’ of the coronavirus and Muslims as its “distributers.”

It is a fact that about 1,000 people got infected with coronavirus as fallout of this meeting and strict action is to be taken on the lawbreakers. But there is no justification to use this incident to stigmatize and demonize the whole Muslim community. What happened at Nizamuddin is being presented as a part of a large conspiracy to undermine and harm the country through bio-Jihad.

Even when the whole world is fighting against the pandemic COVID 19, the virus of hatred is alive and active in the minds of many people of India. The outburst by some of my neighbors against a particular religious community shows that the communal virus is stronger than the coronavirus.

Today all over the world people are terrified of the pandemic, COVID 19 that has infected about 1.3 million people and killed about 70,000. The mighty nations of the world feel helpless before the tiny virus. Frantic researches are going on in different laboratories of the world to invent medicine and vaccine for the deadly virus. Human beings endowed with immense capabilities will be able to invent medicine and stop the seemingly unstoppable COVID 19. What about the virus of hatred and revenge, the communal virus?

Yesterday being Palm Sunday, I reflected over the significance of the day in the context of today. I remembered the well known Biblical commentator, William Barclay’s interpretation of Jesus travelling on an ass. According to him, Jesus on his way to Jerusalem traveled on a mule and not on an ass. During peace time when a king goes to visit his people he goes on a mule, whereas when the king goes for war he travels on horseback. The journey of Jesus to Jerusalem symbolizes that Jesus came to establish peace. The mission of Jesus was to establish a kingdom/society of peace through love and forgiveness. There cannot be peace without forgiveness and reconciliation.

Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jn., Nelson Mandela and many others have taught us by their own life example that the virus of hatred and revenge can be treated only with the antivirus of forgiveness and love. When the Churches are closed and all rituals and prayers are suspended in the churches, the followers of Jesus are forced to sit at home. It is time for them to reflect whether they are role models of forgiveness and reconciliation in a political atmosphere when hatred against a particular religious community is consciously being promoted as political mobilization strategy.

It is widely observed that the middle class are in the forefront of the supporters of the ruling party in India. Large section of the beneficiaries of our education ministry is from the middle class. About 1,000 children come to Universal Solidarity Movement (USM) for Enlightened Leadership Training every year from the Catholic schools of mostly central and north India.

We, the core team members of USM, have observed that more than 70 percent of the students who come for the training in USM are brainwashed by the ideology of the ruling party. In the heart of their heart they have aversion and hatred towards a particular religious community. They are blind followers of the current prime minister. They are not convinced of the vision of the preamble of Indian Constitution, a pluralistic democratic country.

The first question we have to ask ourselves during this period of lockdown is whether we are aware of this brainwashing that is being taking place in the young students of our educational institutions. If we are not aware of it, is it not a huge failure on our part? What can be done to make us aware of the socio-political situation of the country?

If we are aware of it, what are we doing? If a large section of the students of our schools are victims of an ideology that justifies hatred, revenge and exclusion, I think that we have failed in our mission as disciples of Jesus.

(The writer can be reached @jacobpt48@gmail.com)