Polarized India: Compassion is the way out

By M K George

Rome, July 3, 2022: India is polarized. The major polarity seems to be between the majority community and the minority communities.

However, as we look deeper we realize the labyrinth is more complex and vicious. There seems, at times, no way to come together, even on basic issues.

“The biggest crisis facing India at this juncture is a ‘collapse of the nation’,” said Amartya Sen recently. What scare him most were the divisions he saw in the country right now. (Times of India 1 July 2022)

Whom to cry for?

I was quite surprised to get the following response from one of my long-time friends, and a leading social scientist in the country, to my ‘Cry for Teesta…’

“Please write about the Kashmiri Pandits…the holocaust and the innocent lives that are being lost every day…Surprising how none of the activists are talking or writing about them…about the women who are being raped and driven out of their homes in their own country. Yes, we need to cry for India. An India where secularism has to be applied to every section of society.”

Yes. We do not hear as much about the Kashmiri Pandits as we hear about the Muslim or Christian minorities.

Who are the Kashmiri Pandits? They are ‘Hindu Kashmiris native to the Kashmir Valley and the only remaining Hindu Kashmiris after the largescale of conversion of the Valley’s population to Islam during the medieval times. Prompted by the growth of Islamic militancy in the valley, large numbers left in the exodus of the 1990s.’

Of the 120,000 to 140,000 of the Pandits, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, 64,827 families had to flee the valley. There have been various attempts at rehabilitation. But many thousands still live in camps in Jammu, Delhi and other parts of India in atrocious conditions of deprivation. After over thirty years of the criminal ousting of the Pandits and efforts at rehabilitating them back in the Valley, reports say that ‘a spate of killings of Hindus in Kashmir threatens to reverse years of efforts to rehabilitate Kashmir Pandits to the Valley. There is fear in the community which is once again faced with the dilemma of whether to stay or leave in the face of violence’ (Peerzada Ashiq, 2022).

The tragedy is that the issue of the Kashmiri Pandits have been so politicized by both the extremist groups, Muslim and Hindu, with the effect that the humanitarian concerns take a backseat. For instance, author Mridu Rai (2011) remarked, ‘Some see the valley as being in the grips of Islamic terror sponsored by Pakistan… Hindu supremacist groups from mainland India preying upon their insecurities have also fortified these impressions in no small measure. Ironically, these right-wing groups who have found easy targets among Pandits living in miserable conditions in camps but have demonstrated no interest in actually helping them out of those camps.’

There we are — Another group of victims, ignored at the core, but used by political groups for their own selfish gains.

Majoritarianism in India

India has seen a major surge in Hindu majoritarianism. Majoritarianism as a belief holds that the majority community should be able to rule a country in whichever way it wants, by even disregarding the wishes and needs of the minority. Sri Lankan example is a recent one, where the Sinhala rule after a ‘genocide-like’ attack on the Tamils has brought havoc to the people.

It requires not much thinking to realize the growth of Hindu majoritarian forces, along with the growth of ‘Political Islam’ is the core reason for the polarity in India today. Political Islam, though never a single strand ideology or movement is in its core, an interpretation of Islamic faith to create a specific political identity and achieve a Shariat based rule, Caliphate, across the world.

In India, almost over 90 odd years ago, the RSS set out to change India into a nation where Hindus dominate all aspects of life, and they remain faithful to that idea. From this perspective, 2014 to 2019 has been a period where the Hindu nationalist movement has enjoyed an unprecedented position of political power which has allowed it to expand and deepen its networks across the country, and to progressively control the symbolic and functional aspects of statehood and public culture to varying degrees.

This is especially evident in the extent to which public institutions have been Hindutva-ized. The most damaging effect of majoritarianism on India’s polarized democracy is the undermining of the rule of law. Law enforcement in India has always been fairly ineffective and biased against the poor and minority communities (Adrija Roychowdhuri 2019).

The saddest part of the growth of majoritarianism is that most citizens, even the so-called educated, have started ‘believing’ that there has been a ‘minority appeasement’ and that the majority community is under threat.

However, it is insightful to note that in a survey conducted by a Delhi based think tank, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), nearly 75 percent Hindus (who use social media) said India belongs to all religions, dismissing BJP and its parent organisation, RSS’s idea of Hindu Rashtra (NH Political Bureau 2019). Unfortunately, the voice of these sections does not get heard.

A welcome awakening among the Muslim community was observed when the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy made an appeal saying, ‘We advise those who speak on behalf of Muslim issues to desist from making emotional, bigoted, intolerant and fanatical appeals in the name of religion. As citizens of this country, the Muslim cause is best served through appeals to the constitutional ethos rather than some pan-Islamic rallying together in the name of saving the honour of the prophet’ (2022).

How do we respond?

When substantial number of the majority community starts believing that they are ‘persecuted,’ the first reaction of the minority community is to cry foul. That does not seem to help anymore. Over a period of time, when a whole lot of people have acquired an attitude of ‘victimhood,’the only way to change the reality is to understand them. Instead of crying foul, calling the lie out may be the victims now should practice empathy and compassion. Jesus in his crucifixion is a model to emulate.

In practical terms, Karen Armstrong’s ‘Twelve steps to a compassionate life’ (2020) may be a good step to begin with. She stated that compassion, living according to the Golden Rule, requires “removing oneself from the center of existence and placing others in that spot.” The twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life ‘proceeds to break down the barriers to living compassionately in a way that forces readers into a brutally honest self-examination.’

Learning about compassion, looking at your own world, developing compassion for oneself, developing empathy, growing in mindfulness, getting involved in action, realizing how little one knows, learning to speak to one another , developing concern for everybody, acquiring knowledge, growing in the art of recognizing and finally in loving your enemies, you will grow in compassion for the world.

In a situation of utter helplessness, as majority of Indians feel now, may be practising a bit of compassion and growing in compassion using the 12 steps may be the way out of the mess we are in.

(Jesuit Father M K George lives in Rome)