By M K George
Rome, July 20, 2023: The call ‘Mere ghar aake toh dekho (Visit My Home, Be My Guest)’ captures one’s imagination by its sheer simplicity. As per the brochure in circulation ‘it is a simple campaign to change the preconceived notions and opinions about people of another community, class, caste, religion, sexual orientation, language, region.
The objective is simple and straightforward; people have to visit each other’s homes, spend 2-3 hours, have a meal together, drink tea or water, and break the socially constructed barriers.’
The context: Rampant hate speech
The urgency of the call is evident when you look at the nadir India has reached in hate speech. The UN defines hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.”
Hate speech has been a problem in India for decades. ‘But the scale of the problem has accelerated in recent years, with Indians being regularly bombarded with hateful speech and polarizing content. With social media and TV channels amplifying remarks and tweets even by minor politicians – many of whom find it the easiest way to make headlines – the hateful rhetoric seems “pervasive” and “non-stop,” as political scientist Neelanjan Sircar puts it,’ reported BBC News in 2022.
The same report continued: ‘News channel NDTV, which in 2009 started tracking “VIP hate speech” – offensive statements made by major Indian politicians including ministers and lawmakers – reported in January that such comments had risen manifold since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014.’
In fact, when you look at Indian history, the last 98 years have seen concerted hate speech from right wing nationalist forces in India to spread hatred against particularly three groups, Muslims, Christians and Communists. An interesting common factor about all the three groups, despite their many and unforgivable failures, a concern for the weakest of the weak. So one can decipher why hate speakers target them. It looks like a conscious and deliberate attempt to put down the good that these groups are doing, with power politics in mind.
Hate speech has led to extreme violence in the country with the result that reports inform. A CJP (Citizens for Justice and Peace) report said, ‘2022: a year of othering and violence for religious minorities in India. Over the past year, a culture of impunity against state and non-state actors has allowed for perpetual instances of vulnerability, leading to physical attacks especially for the Muslim and Christian minorities.’
Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, the Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said (in 2022), Over 2,900 communal violence cases were registered in country in last 5 years : a total of 378 cases of communal or religious rioting were registered in 2021, 857 in 2020, 438 in 2019, 512 in 2018 and 723 in 2017. How many more unreported cases is anyone’s guess.
The latest and saddest story of three Kuki women being so horribly treated by armed gangs (Mojo story July 20, 2023) is an indication of the lowest level the country has stooped to. In the Mojo story, one of the Kuki women asks, why are the preparators not caught even after a month when their faces are clear in the video? A clear indication with whom the rulers are. And the silence of the rulers still baffles and hurt.
Love is the answer
Hate can be won over by love alone. As the saying of Mahatma Gandhi goes, ‘an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind’. Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’.
The proposed campaign is a simple project of love in action. Visiting your neighbor, spending time with them and building simple friendship is the way to begin. In fact, if you recall the Christian tradition, before the church was so heavily institutionalized, pastoral visits of priests and nuns to the neighbourhood, irrespective of religion, caste or class was the most common pastoral activity.
The call to visit one’s home should reach every Indian and you and I have the role of the traditional squirrel who helped Lord Rama to build a bridge to Lanka.
WRITERBYCHANCEBLOG is Absolutely right! Otherwise the USA and France, champions of democracy and human rights, would not have showered accolades on our PM. Their only goal was to bag multi-billion dollar arms deal under the garb of “good humour!”
the champion of hatepeech in India the BJP and it’s patriarch is now the world’s hero. the-‘most effective world leader. the world, it seems have learnt to condone hate-speech as far as trade obligations and market forces are kept in good humor!