Violence was just waiting to happen in Assam. It happened now; it could be anytime. The violence had its wake that extended to Mumbai and there has been reported exodus of all North-Easterners from Hyderabad which was heretofore a great place for them to work and to integrate into this country where prejudices against them run high. A Tibetan has been stabbed in Mysore which may even be the consequence of the same communal hatred that began to rise from the otherwise quiet Assam.
The country has been divided on religious and caste lines due to its policies of differentiating between them for all discourse in the Parliament, legislatures and public domain, fossilising the division through unending lists, schedule if you like of a great variety. The division is between the followers of different religions such as the Hindus (which is wrongly used by the government to cover many non-Hindus such as Jains), Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc. Within them they have sectarian divide, not spurred in small measure by the reservation policies and religious bigotry which together form the most lethal social poison. The polls happen on the basis pf caste and religion. Gangs of Wasseypur has shown how even the Muslims known for their solidarity in all matters of state are divided. There are Syeds, julahas, kasais, and I do not how many others. Hindus of course are the most divided of all. The castes were originally defined according to the occupation of different social groups and thus their was division of labour that resulted in ensuring all people could earn their livelihood without encroaching the specific terrain of each other. This became a burden instead of a boon due to the persecution of the weaker by the powerful and the rich of India for generations.
One must stop here and ask whether the mentality of the Indian of exploiting the weak is merely caste based, or is it all pervading. I think the latter is true. The average Indian tends to exploit the weaker and suppress the weak through his economic, political or brute power. burgeoning numbers of rapes are but a small indicator that brings the extreme of this malaise of the Indian on shameful display. But you will see this even starting from a petty Constable to the Minister and their behaviour towards a Rickshaw puller or a beggar to the IAS secretary in the ministry. The streak of this malicious mentality is all pervading and starkly visible at all times. What is happening to our temper? What makes us so impatient and tense? fear of each other? Fear of losing something? Unsafety we feel? Arrogance that is ingrained in us from childhood without any sense of fairness? Perhaps all of it.
But I want to write about the riots. And I have gone to the lengthy explanation and cursory exploration of the divide in Indian society that leads to the riots. the division breeds competitiveness, often unfair, which in turn leads to exploitation and usurpation by the powerful groups whether they are the so called 'minorities' or otherwise, and then finally frustrations, jealousies and lastly the violence encouraged by the desire to grab what one can't get by fair effort. This is also at the root of Assam violence. It will be found at the root of violence almost anywhere. The false sense of usurpation by Jews trumpeted by Hitler led to the WW II and to holocaust. The story is the same everywhere. The migrants from Bangladesh have flooded not only Assam but the entire country. It is believed that around Mrs. Gandhi's declaration of war on East Pakistan there were about 10 million Chakma rebels that crossed into India. Where have they gone? And during all theses years more Bangladeshis have been coming into India and vanishing, working as labour, household help or whatever all across the country using not infrequently Hindu names and claiming to be Bengalis or East Biharis. I suspect that in Ghaziabad there were plenty of them before the UP Police built pressure on them during Mayawati's regime. On one hand it is hard to understand why Indian Muslims do not oppose them and why consecutive governments have done nothing to send them back to Bangladesh. The political parties want their votes, but what about India Muslims? The foreigners come and take their jobs too among those of others. And no Muslim country would allow the refugee Muslims to come and settle in large numbers, not Saudi Arabia even which is the topmost seat of Islam. This means no country brooks any incomers irrespective of their religion. Our boundaries are our boundaries and we have got them to live within and to survive or thrive on what nature gives us within those boundaries and what we can make of it.
Our intolerance is at all time high and it is appalling that today we are discussing cartoons in text books, simple jokes that have been humour without malice, ordinary caste references all inflame us no end. And we have demonstrations, acrimony, violence - anything that is far from civility at the bat of an eyelid.
Assam violence happened because the demography changed there. the infiltrators are usurping the scarce resources of the Bodos and this is not a situation that can be accepted for long by any community that has lived there for ever and has nowhere else to go.
There are rumours that the strife is between the Budhhists and Muslims in that area. I prefer to think it is between the owners of the place and the infiltrators. If we eventually did find that that there were religious undertones to the strife, indeed this will throw open the bigger question for future of the nation. The three aggressively converting religious active in India are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam in the same order. It would seem that Hindus would become a minority ceding a large chunk to these religions, being the sole donors. This major demographic change will bring about unprecedented strife as a failing group will make its last ditch, desperate attempts to survive. Things can not be stopped but we should not underestimate or brush aside the forebodings of utter chaos that may one day grip the country. We must initiate steps now to avoid the possible strife that will inevitably occur if foreigners of any religion, caste, nationality or identity will continue to infest our land.
The country has been divided on religious and caste lines due to its policies of differentiating between them for all discourse in the Parliament, legislatures and public domain, fossilising the division through unending lists, schedule if you like of a great variety. The division is between the followers of different religions such as the Hindus (which is wrongly used by the government to cover many non-Hindus such as Jains), Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc. Within them they have sectarian divide, not spurred in small measure by the reservation policies and religious bigotry which together form the most lethal social poison. The polls happen on the basis pf caste and religion. Gangs of Wasseypur has shown how even the Muslims known for their solidarity in all matters of state are divided. There are Syeds, julahas, kasais, and I do not how many others. Hindus of course are the most divided of all. The castes were originally defined according to the occupation of different social groups and thus their was division of labour that resulted in ensuring all people could earn their livelihood without encroaching the specific terrain of each other. This became a burden instead of a boon due to the persecution of the weaker by the powerful and the rich of India for generations.
One must stop here and ask whether the mentality of the Indian of exploiting the weak is merely caste based, or is it all pervading. I think the latter is true. The average Indian tends to exploit the weaker and suppress the weak through his economic, political or brute power. burgeoning numbers of rapes are but a small indicator that brings the extreme of this malaise of the Indian on shameful display. But you will see this even starting from a petty Constable to the Minister and their behaviour towards a Rickshaw puller or a beggar to the IAS secretary in the ministry. The streak of this malicious mentality is all pervading and starkly visible at all times. What is happening to our temper? What makes us so impatient and tense? fear of each other? Fear of losing something? Unsafety we feel? Arrogance that is ingrained in us from childhood without any sense of fairness? Perhaps all of it.
But I want to write about the riots. And I have gone to the lengthy explanation and cursory exploration of the divide in Indian society that leads to the riots. the division breeds competitiveness, often unfair, which in turn leads to exploitation and usurpation by the powerful groups whether they are the so called 'minorities' or otherwise, and then finally frustrations, jealousies and lastly the violence encouraged by the desire to grab what one can't get by fair effort. This is also at the root of Assam violence. It will be found at the root of violence almost anywhere. The false sense of usurpation by Jews trumpeted by Hitler led to the WW II and to holocaust. The story is the same everywhere. The migrants from Bangladesh have flooded not only Assam but the entire country. It is believed that around Mrs. Gandhi's declaration of war on East Pakistan there were about 10 million Chakma rebels that crossed into India. Where have they gone? And during all theses years more Bangladeshis have been coming into India and vanishing, working as labour, household help or whatever all across the country using not infrequently Hindu names and claiming to be Bengalis or East Biharis. I suspect that in Ghaziabad there were plenty of them before the UP Police built pressure on them during Mayawati's regime. On one hand it is hard to understand why Indian Muslims do not oppose them and why consecutive governments have done nothing to send them back to Bangladesh. The political parties want their votes, but what about India Muslims? The foreigners come and take their jobs too among those of others. And no Muslim country would allow the refugee Muslims to come and settle in large numbers, not Saudi Arabia even which is the topmost seat of Islam. This means no country brooks any incomers irrespective of their religion. Our boundaries are our boundaries and we have got them to live within and to survive or thrive on what nature gives us within those boundaries and what we can make of it.
Our intolerance is at all time high and it is appalling that today we are discussing cartoons in text books, simple jokes that have been humour without malice, ordinary caste references all inflame us no end. And we have demonstrations, acrimony, violence - anything that is far from civility at the bat of an eyelid.
Assam violence happened because the demography changed there. the infiltrators are usurping the scarce resources of the Bodos and this is not a situation that can be accepted for long by any community that has lived there for ever and has nowhere else to go.
There are rumours that the strife is between the Budhhists and Muslims in that area. I prefer to think it is between the owners of the place and the infiltrators. If we eventually did find that that there were religious undertones to the strife, indeed this will throw open the bigger question for future of the nation. The three aggressively converting religious active in India are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam in the same order. It would seem that Hindus would become a minority ceding a large chunk to these religions, being the sole donors. This major demographic change will bring about unprecedented strife as a failing group will make its last ditch, desperate attempts to survive. Things can not be stopped but we should not underestimate or brush aside the forebodings of utter chaos that may one day grip the country. We must initiate steps now to avoid the possible strife that will inevitably occur if foreigners of any religion, caste, nationality or identity will continue to infest our land.
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