The Chaos of Communal Riots
Introduction -
From the Hijab row to the gyanvapi mosque to the latest riots in North India is all a indication that India's social cohesion is in shambles. The gap between religious groups is widening. Despite the fact that India has a long history of communal strife, this time is different.
History -
Many people blame the British for instilling religious intolerance in India, however many historians argue that communal strife has existed in Indian society since the Mughal era. Whoever is to blame, no one can dispute that this is the current reality in the nation.Formation of India was in the midst of communal riots ( violence during partition) . From Nellie massacre to hindu sikh riots of 1984 the country has seen many of these tensions. The current scenario, on the other hand, is directly related to Rajiv Gandhi's choice to open the door to the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir dispute, which sparked the emergence of fundamentalist organization and parties.
Causes of current religious tensions -
Worldwide right wing tilt, right-wing extremism is spreading across the globe, not only in India. Right-wing politics is on the increase all over the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, leading in tightening of western immigration policies and a preference for solitary living and religion or community over the nation. Global shift does affect a nation's politics but India's problem on sectarian troubles has much deeper origins.
Democracy is the culprit ?
Religious riots appear to have been rare during the monarchical period of Indian history prior to the arrival of the British. Not only in India, but in most parts of the world, monarchy appears to keep communal tensions at bay. Because a monarchial king or queen does not need to mobilize their population in order to rule over them, but in a democracy where the people elect their ruler, a leader must mobilize his or her people's support, and the easiest way to do so is by instilling fear in them about different communities. As a general psychology of the public , they want to feel safe rather than being safe. Community segregation Sectarian violence appears to be prevalent in the country's north, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, which has a large Muslim population. However, if you look for the date of the last riot in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh's capital, you'll have a hard time locating it. Similarly, during the Gujarat riots of 2002, Ahmedabad was the epicentre of violence, whereas Porbandar's harbour city saw nearly none. Porbandar and Lucknow have one thing in common: their Hindu and Muslim populations are not segmented, unlike towns like Ahemdabad and Delhi, where the majority of communal deaths have occurred after independence, have severely segregated Hindu and Muslim sections.In Porbandar, Hindu and Muslim traders are interdependent, so there is no incentive for them to battle for religious identity at the expense of their own economic interests, whereas in towns like Ahemdabad and Delhi, there is no such relationship.
Government's action and judiciary's silence -
Muslims are forced to take a defensive stance due to their fear of persecution by the majority population. The minority is further marginalized by PM Modi's silence on any communal tensions in the country and the UP government's handling of the riots by bulldozing the homes of accused people where they reside with their families. The silence of the judiciary in response to this mocking of the rule of law reduces the likelihood that these tensions will be resolved soon.
Religious conservatism -
The minority community has the most adamant religious beliefs and the least tolerance for any discourse that criticises their religion. People are so ready to offend that even a mildly controversial comment, spoken without regard for the motives, can cause not just national rioting but also international condemnation. For some people, religion is more than just a conviction,it's an identity; yet, we must ask ourselves if this is the only identity we have. Do we have a national identity as well? If that's the case, which one is on our priority, the religious one or the national one ?
Inevitable Consequences -
The last few weeks, our country has been a witness to the bitter harvest of hate. It has been evidently the fact that the process of tearing apart India’s social fabric has acquired a terrifying momentum. But these all have embedded tariffs, they are social, economic and judicial. Such communal riots may come to a halt in coming weeks but they leave stains on our judicial process and leave some social structures too damaged to be restored.
Social Instability &
human right abuses -
Violent clashes broke out between sectors of Hindus and Muslims in many regions of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and West Bengal during Ram Navami celebrations and recent prophet Mohammad row.
During these communal violence, what we observe is that ordinary people just not the people involved in riots get caught into circumstances beyond their control. Communal Violence strengthens vote banks of ideologically aligned political parties and further disrupts the cohesiveness in society. In reckoning the image of being a pluralistic society as of ours gets tarnished in front of the world. To check the affair of riots ,state eventually have to Deploy large scale security forces that dissipate the state exchequer and also result in Human Rights abuses. The Human Development Index of the society is adversely affected by these hampering restrictions that are laid on the basic right to freedom of people.
Economic Loss -
The ongoing Communal violence is leading to loss of life and public property. It leads to exploitation by way of robbing and indulgence in activities only for personal gains.
There is an avoidable loss of life and essential public property gets damaged. The anti national elements get adequate opportunity to fan anti national feelings and work on creating an atmosphere to break the cohesiveness of our society.
The atmosphere of uncertainty and internal turmoil dissuades the foreign investors from setting up their businesses in India.
The examples of these are; Burning down of Churches in Delhi and other parts of India, Hindu-Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in 2013, ethnic clashes over the disputed Nagaland-Assam border in August, rumours of beef consumption, i.e. Dadri lynching, sacrilege of holy book, Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab , Caste-based violence was also reported in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
These all are good enough reasons why investor are reluctant to invest in regions that are not safe and sound.
Deterioration of Rule of law -
Communal violence like these are dampening constitutional values like secularism and fraternity. Lawlessness accruing out of communal disharmony is been exploited by the divisive forces operating in the country because of which internal security risks heightens. As the State government intensified its crackdown against the Muslim protestors on , several members of the ruling party, endorsed using bulldozers to demolish the properties of the accused.
Administration is also in agreement that damage caused to public and private property during the clashes would be recovered from the accused. Their properties would be seized under the Gangsters Act, said the officers. The homes of the alleged rioters were bulldozed in complete violation of the rule of law and the judicial process. It was as if the courts and the criminal justice system had ceased to exist in this country, and the state had arrogated unto itself the right to deliver summary justice on those suspected of wrongdoing. In the previous month's Madhya Pradesh administration claimed that it was demolishing illegal structures that had encroached on public land. That’s not even a fig leaf. Besides, that exercise, too, has a due process under the law.
Finally, there is ample evidence of state negligence or complicity in the violence. Whether it be the clashes on ram navmi, or the recent violence on remarks on prophet Mohammad, there is a common feature of the police standing down as mobs carry out violence — as this allows state actors to avoid direct culpability for the violence.
Will restoration would be
possible ?
How much divisiveness is too much? Are we nearing its endgame in India or has it become a self-fulfilling enterprise, a gift that keeps on giving, and the only possible way to overcome this is too add more fuel or the better question is whether all of this is leading to us as a society or as a country?
India has seen plenty of communal violence in the past, but in today’s time of social media, these aggressions are not just restricted to the regional or local population, the entire country is taken along. The fog of rumours, innuendo, and hate that act as kindling in a local communal clash immediately spread across India through social media.
The social fabric of the society gets irreparably damaged and the conditions of mistrust serve as a catalyst for future conflicts on flimsy grounds.
However, the point is not which group was directly responsible for igniting this flurry of communal clashes around the country, as different groups are seems to be the cause in different regions of our nation.
But should we be surprised by this significant uptick in communal tensions? Haven’t we been hurtling towards just such an outcome for the last few years?
The pressures of political correctness often lead analysts to ‘spread the blame’ in communal incidents. The reality, however, is that violence is often meted out to one group, just not by the politicians but also the narratives they create through different mediums also radicalising the core of our social structures.
It causes serious damage to communal harmony for a long period.
Government need to take a firm stand -
The state ignored general public effort to bring to its notice the surge in hatred and anti-Minority violence in the country. Conversely, the rise of ministers with a history of hate speech in the cabinet of the ruling party has further nurtured this ecosystem of hate.
The state need not to make any structural changes, it just needs to draw some clear lines of not tolerating any self proclaimed speakers of its own part or other so that they wouldn't be able to create false narratives on social platforms and mainstream media. In contrast to some past years, the state seems quite proud in promoting such narratives implicitly and sometimes explicitly promotion of speeches to persecute minorities in election rallies is evident.
The state seems active in combating judiciary in defending it's definition of justice in regards to the alleged rioters. As we observe in Uttar Pradesh recently, in its affidavit to the court notice, the UP government justified the action by its municipal authorities. They took the stand that these demolitions had no relation to the riots, and that the actions were taken as part of the ongoing demolition drive against encroachment and illegal construction under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1972. These laws have a proper procedure to follow and the state doesn't need to take in hand the action of determining guilt or innocence based on a false narrative and try to send a message to a particular community.
Some well known faces of right wingers have argued how just the mere quoting of religious scriptures can be reason to put a person behind bars and if it's valid then similar action must be initiated against individuals who shared derogatory memes on Hindu Gods. This line of argument needs a proper facet of debates in judicial context as we discussed earlier.
These riots have tariffs on foreign relations -
So the question emerges: Could the recent comments by the BJP party spokesperson damage India's reputation and its foreign policy goals in the economically and strategically important Middle East?
Social media in Arab countries began running reactions to the comments, calling for a protest against Mr. Modi, and a boycott of Indian goods unless there was an apology or action.
Groups like the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the 6-nation Gulf Cooperation Council also issued strong statements. The rush to control the situation in New Delhi was striking. The reasons are obvious as the Gulf and the extended West Asian region have gained significant strategic and economic importance in Indian foreign policy calculus over the past few years. Ironically, some of the most significant strides made between the region and India have been during the tenure of Mr. Modi. During this period, India’s interests in the Gulf have gone beyond diaspora and oil, with economics, counterterrorism, defence, technology, and other critical aspects of international cooperation witnessing an important boost. Trade between India and the GCC has continued to grow, reaching $155bn in 2021-22 compared to $87bn a year before. A bulk of the trade involves oil and gas imports as New Delhi sources 60 percent of its petroleum supplies from GCC countries. India annually receives more than $50bn in remittances sent by more than 8 million Indians who work in the GCC countries, with Indian businesses participating in the success of the region’s economy. So, India and the Gulf both need each other from economic perspective in these times, we as a nation don't want glitches in our relations due to any such events.
The diplomacy filter has limitations today, as control of official narratives and counter-narratives gets even more diluted as we move forward in a hyper-connected world. The fact that foreign intervention has worked has only diminished the standing of the Indian government. Didn't our government have sent a rather tragic message to its own citizens and the world: that it cares only about the economic interests ? Isn't it create a impression to the Muslims population of our country that their problems will only be heard if other Muslim nations speak on their behalf ?
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