थीम्स

Secular erosion, terror explosion

Fifteen years ago we started Communalism Combat in response to the pogrom against Muslims in a city which until then had proudly called itself the cosmopolitan capital of India: Bombay, now Mumbai. We started publishing the journal with the fond hope that the secular Indian state would soon slay the communal demon that was stalking the land of a tolerant tradition. Once the traumatic circumstances that gave birth to a special focus journal no long existed, CC would have nothing left to say. Sadly, with the Constitution of India being increasingly undermined by the very institutions it gave birth to, if anything, the demon now appears more menacing than ever. And the dawn of vibrant peace is nowhere in sight.
 

While India enjoyed relative communal peace in the first decade after independence, the following three decades were marked by recurring communal riots. The year 1984 marked the transition of India from the era of riots to that of pogroms and genocidal killings – Delhi 1984, Bhagalpur 1987, Mumbai 1992-93 – where the state was, at best, mute witness. The last so far, Gujarat 2002, was also the worst. The report, Crimes Against Humanity, of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by three retired judges of the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court named none less than Gujarat’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, as "the chief author and architect of the genocidal action" (CC, Nov-Dec 2002).

Who can be sure that India has now left behind the phase of mob terror with covert or overt state support, that it is purely a thing of the past? But bomb terror is certainly a part of our reality now.

In March 1998 CC separately interviewed half-a-dozen retired IPS and IAS officers, among the most respected names from the services, asking each the same question: What do you make of the bomb blasts in Mumbai (1993) and in Coimbatore (1998) coming so soon after mob violence and biased police conduct? Their unanimous reply can be summed up in a single sentence: By abdicating its responsibility in protecting the life of citizens the state is sowing the seeds of extremism (CC, March 1998).

Some years ago Irfan Ahmed, an anthropologist from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, was in India for research on the Jamaat-e-Islami and SIMI. Ahmed’s paper based on his research titled "Erosion of Secularism, Explosion of Jihad: Explaining Islamist Radicalisation in India" should be compulsory reading for people in the intelligence and investigation agencies in the country. According to Ahmed, "Too often the radicalisation of Islamists or jihad has been explained in terms of sacred beliefs and texts. For instance, it has been argued that the mind-set of Islamists stems directly from the readings of the Koranic verses on jihad. This paper calls such a line of reasoning into question… The radicalisation of SIMI, a young breakaway group from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, was articulated in the twin calls for jihad and installation of caliphate. It is my contention that SIMI’s radicalisation unfolded in direct response to the rise of virulent Hindu nationalism or ‘Hindutva’… As the assault on secularism by Hindutva – culminating in the demolition of the Babri mosque and accompanied with large-scale violence against Muslims – grew fiercer, so did SIMI’s call for jihad."

SIMI leaders and activists have been implicated by the police and other investigation agencies in bomb blasts in several states, including the most recent ones on two successive days in Bangalore (Karnataka) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat). As we go to press the Gujarat police claims to have made a breakthrough, accusing and arresting 10 SIMI activists. It is even claiming that SIMI was also involved in the earlier blasts in Rajasthan, Karnataka and UP. In most blast cases pending in Maharashtra and elsewhere the trials are pending and the prosecution has yet to get a verdict from the courts in their favour against the accused SIMI activists.

In other words, the accusation of the investigating agencies that SIMI is not only talking but also walking its version of "jihad" is yet to be established in a court of law. Given that the credentials of the Gujarat police are highly suspect, it also remains to be seen whether they succeed in procuring a conviction. Meanwhile, the lead story in this special issue of CC provides exclusive and incontrovertible evidence of the emergence of the "Hindu bomb", made and blasted by the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu extremist outfits in different parts of Maharashtra since 2003. If this is scary, scarier still is the fact that even an agency like the CBI is engaged in a shocking cover-up of the new face of terrorism in India.

With the emergence of the "Hindu bomb" now, who can be sure any longer of which Hindu or Muslim extremist "jihadi" is behind which blast in this or that part of India? But with naked double standards and discriminatory justice staring us in the face, one fact can no longer be denied. The real culprits for the "explosion of jihad" in India are the institutions of state responsible for the "erosion of secularism" from within.

And though the signs are highly ominous, we continue to cling to our dream that some day CC will no longer need to be published.

— EDITORS