Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, could have learnt from history. He doesn’t seem to be a reading or learning type but there are plenty of learned people around him who know history. They could have tutored him but an uneducated leader catapulted to power wants sycophants and not teachers. This transformation of the educated to sycophants in the Indian power circles was reflected in the statement of their foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar who, in the run up to the events of 6th to 10th May, made a statement that India wanted “partners, not preachers.” This sentence would have been complete if he had added, “partners in crime, not preachers in sanity.”
To give him credit, Shri Jaishankar appeared tense and cheerless in those tense and cheerless days. The folly that the dour trio of Modi, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh was committing was evident, but the saner elements of India could not challenge their verdict without sacrificing their sanctimonious perches in the government.
When Modi Ji took office of the prime minister in May 2014, many in Pakistan were worried that he would pursue anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan policies but there were some who rejoiced in the knowledge that the divisive and militant policies of BJP would create schisms in Indian society. Modi Ji has proved both these groups right. Perhaps unknown to him, he had plenty of precedents in many nations who transformed their society negatively; as surveyed below.
During the first term of BJP in the late 1990s, the prime minister was AB Vajpayee; a man with a balanced mind, a logical thought process and humane attitude, though sometimes hamstrung by his extremist Interior Minister LK Advani
In the early 1930s, before Hitler placed his nation on the path of Nazism, Germany was struggling with the economic and social aftermath of their defeat in WWI. Hitler employed a combination of anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik oratory to mesmerize the despondent masses and sway them to right wing extremism. He promised dignity for Germans but employed the SS and SA to force President Hindenburg to make him the Chancellor. He then used the false flag incident of burning of Reichstag to get himself appointed a dictator. Germany never recovered and was led to an irreversible path to self-destruct.
In Pakistan, General Zia took over power through a coup d’état in July 1977 when the country was in an equilibrium; where liberalism and orthodoxy coexisted in harmony side by side. This author remembers that as a young air force subaltern, one could go to watch a movie in the matinee-show to while away fasting in Ramzan. In the interval, the non-fasting would crowd the samosa and chat shops or smoke away a cigarette or two, while the fasting ones would simple breath in fresh air. Armed forces’ messes, as indeed the eateries in the towns, would be open to cater for those who didn’t fast. It was a time when girls were not forced into wearing the suffocating burqa. A simple dupatta served for some, and others went without even that. Young men chased girls, who too enjoyed the flirtation. Mosques were few and unfrequented; their visitors being mostly old men. Being a mosque Imam was not a prosperous career. Beards among the young were for fashion, not for piety. Religion was graced in heart and not worn on the sleeve. There was space for leftist, secular and agnostic beliefs.
It’s true that religious political parties had a large vote bank, especially among urban areas, as in Karachi. In the face of the leftist Bhutto regime, they felt threatened and raised divisive religious disputes, especially the anti-Ahmadiyya movement in 1973. Bhutto erred in being forced to give in on the question. He forgot that concession given in weakness doesn’t satiate but whets the appetite of the opponent. He was then forced to concede a ban on sale and consumption of alcohol, and the weekly on Friday. However, the religious right eventually led him to the gallows. Zia cashed on these sentiments and distorted the constitution, laws and trajectory of the state that has completely eliminated the leftist politics, secular meritocracy and liberal thinking. The country continues to drift aimlessly, sinking in all international rankings of social development, educational progress, human rights, gender equality and personal freedoms. Blasphemy laws have generated groups that honey trap people into blackmail and exhortation. This swing towards fundamentalism has proved to be irreversible, at least for the foreseeable future; with shrinking space for free speech and writing. This author would like to write about the various dimensions of weaponization of religion but is mindful that discretion is the better part of valour.
Afghanistan was a heterogeneous nation with an increasingly liberal and educated class till the Soviet invasion in 1979. In Kabul, people enjoyed greater personal freedoms than in any city in Pakistan. Many youngsters travelled to Kabul from Peshawar for a day of fun and frolic. Then the US sponsored and Zia assisted jihad against the Soviet invaders transformed the business oriented liberal environment to a militant, misogynist and dogmatic society. The subsequent US invasion, justified or otherwise, brought a rigidity in Taleban that portrays a dark future for that unfortunate country. The changes seem long term with no reversal in sight in near future.
Iran is another example of a nation transforming from being modern (at least in the towns) and progressive to a rigid regressive theocracy. It is true that political repression during the Shah era had alienated the people. Unfortunately, in Muslims countries, people confuse religion with religious parties. The forget that, once in power, the later bring a more dictatorial, repressive and cruel regime than the previous set up that people remove at a great sacrifice. Iran is under tyranny for the last forty five years with no sign of recovery.
Another nation that is in the process of transforming from somewhat liberal democracy to militancy is Israel. The reasons for attacking Gaza, like the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 incident, can be debated ad infinitum. Perhaps, Israel, like its benefactor in the US, thought that it would be a short and quick conflict. War, however, is unpredictable, and in this case has dragged on for over two years while Hamas still stands on its feet; battered but undefeated. Zionist army has resorted to indiscriminate killing of children, journalists, women, the medics and anyone else coming in their gun sights. Gaza has been completely levelled. Israel has now attacked a neutral Qatar. The bitter fact is that in these two years, the Israeli forces themselves have become sadist and masochist. This mindset of deriving pleasure from savagery becomes ingrained in personality. When the war is over, one way or the other, Israel would find its society brutalized, unable of living in peace with itself.
Coming back to India, Hindutva is becoming entrenched in its socio-political fabric. My schoolmate, a fellow Air Force Officer and well known media personality, Gp Capt SM Hali (retd), has explained in detail the ill effects of Hindutva in his book titled Rising Hindutva and its impact on the Region. During the first term of BJP in late 1990s, the prime minister was AB Vajpayee; a man with a balanced mind, a logical thought process and humane attitude, though sometimes hamstrung by his extremist Interior Minister LK Advani. The political conditions at that time were such that the later, being a hardliner, could not position himself as the head of the government. Now, however, the environment has transformed to such a degree that a self-confessed mass murderer, with the well-earned moniker of ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ due to his part in the bloody anti-Muslim riots of 2002 in his State, and a person then banned for entry into many western countries due his leading role in that massacre, was easily elevated to the position of Prime Minister and was able to induct his close like-minded colleagues to the key cabinet positions. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, all ex-presidents of BJP, are fiercely anti Muslim. Yogi Adityanath, another unapologetic rabidly (excuse the word) anti Muslim, was in the forefront of Babri Mosque movement and cow vigilantism. That he has been elected twice to be Chief Minister of UP state, speaks of the polluted politics in that large state. With these people in the power, India cannot expect any escape from a drift to extremism, which, as has been said here earlier, is an irreversible deterioration.
To summarise, the BJP government in India, headed by Narendra Modi and staffed by a clique of RSS extremist Hindus, has altered the nature of Indian society from liberal to ultra-conservative. The effects of this change are adverse and long term. Keeping in view a large Muslim (14.2%, or 200 million) and Christian (2.3% or 28 million) population, it will be difficult for India to get back to pluralism – without which, it cannot find social peace.