On Delhi Riots

This time the riots broke out in Delhi.

Not in Malda, Mangalore or some mufassil town in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar.

This time they killed each other 15 kilometers from the seat of Bharat Sarkar.

Only the naive or the indifferent were surprised.

Ever since the enactment of Citizenship Amendment Act, the frenzy generated on social media echo chambers around ‘Civilizational War’ and ‘Soul of India’/’ ‘Idea of India’ had spilled on the streets.

What had started as a peaceful protest, against the enactment of the law, had turned into a political movement with a religious identity as its bulwark and a totem for wider disillusionment and discord with ideological moors of and decisions made by the central government.

As the protests turned from expression of democratic right to a voice against lack of representation and an aggressive assertion of religious identity, the slip down the fault lines and into centuries old cleavages was inevitable.

Everyone did their bit.

They were helped by the fact that the most visible of the protests happened in Delhi.

Delhi is convenient for everyone.

A city that gets a disproportionate share and thrives on its sense of entitlement.

Opportunist politicians, they know since they are failing to deliver governance the only way to mobilize is to induce fear and build a siege mentality among their constituents. Cater to their baser instincts, never miss an opportunity to bring the worse out of people.

Media, for the talking heads gave up on objectivity years ago and now survive on serving the narrative that feeds them.

Social media influencers, how could they let go of an opportunity to burnish their credentials. If the reason for your existence is to do your bit for the outrage of the day, why let go of this one. Consequences be dammed.

Supreme Court, not that any further evidence was needed, but if anyone still has any doubts about how corroded the judiciary is…this writer has heartfelt sympathy for them.

The keg was brimming with gunpowder, all it needed was a spark.

Who lit the fire in a minor question compared to where was the state when the fire was raging, how did we end up here and where are we headed?

Let it be said unequivocally, the state failed, and it failed abjectly.

Not only did it demonstrate gross negligence in the aftermath of early conflagrations, allowing the matters to get out of hands, the fact that it allowed the matters to come to this pass is an indictment of its incompetent functioning.

The need for structural reform of our governance architecture and need for augmenting capacity of the state were on public display.

How did we end up here? The writer will avoid the question in this post.

What this case of rioting and his lived experience of the past few years has done, is made him ask questions on the big elephant in the room.

What is the future of Hindu-Muslim relations in this country? For this is the question that will answer where are we headed? The answer to this question needs answers to a few other questions.

First to the Muslims of this country.

You are part of an experiment that has no precedence in Human history.

Never ever has there been an attempt to build a democratic nation state in a country as diverse, as poor and with deep historical fault lines as India.

Name another country in Human History, when it was at the stage of economic development that India is at, has ever enshrined universal franchise in its founding constitution.

Name another country India’s size that does not discriminate people on the basis of religion and by law favors religious minorities over its religious majority.

Name a Muslim majority country that extends the same rights to its religious minorities that you enjoy in India.

Yes, compared to the size of your population you are underrepresented in India’s governance. From the highest body of legislature in this country to local tehsildar’s office, your participation is not proportionate to the size of your population.

The state has often let you down when it comes to protecting your life and rights since independence.

You increasingly find institutional disadvantages now come with open and more brazen bigotry by individuals.

So how do you plan to change the status quo?

How will letting a loud minority, that does not believe in democratic means and constitutional framework, hijack your representation, help your cause?

Why is it the you are the only religious minority that does not enjoy a higher HDI reading than the majority community?

How will allowing your religious identity to trump your identity as an Indian help you thrive in an environment where the majority is now playing the same tune?

You have already asserted your demographic advantage in the past century, do you seriously think you will be able to do it again? Even if some have convinced you that you can, what will be the cost of that assertion?

If you don’t think a democratic India and its existing constitutional framework is your best bet.

What is your end game?

Now a few questions to the Hindus.

You are a poor country with vast majority of your fellow Hindus struggling for a respectable standard of living, how will fighting cultural wars of a millennium help their present?

It seems a strand of your polity has convinced you that you can categorize 200 million fellow Indians as ‘others’ and ‘they’, who can be put in their place: do you think that can be achieved? Even if you think it can be achieved, what will be the cost of that achievement?

You let a loud minority lend strength to your identity by hating ‘them’ and not from the confidence that should come from achievements of an ancient civilization. How long do you think you can sustain this hatred? When do you plan to give yourself the confidence of your heritage that can only come from your educational and religious institutions?

You are pagans and do not believe in one way and one book.

Your essence is acceptance of diversity.

Yet you have allowed the cancer of caste to flourish and it is ingrained in you.

Why do you complain when your lower castes find acceptance among the Abrahamic faiths?

You brandish your demographic advantage and you have often used that, and your conservative streak, to suppress evolution of society that holds primacy of individual’s rights as sacrosanct.

Your Demographic advantage is the source of all your strength.

However, you have failed to use it in building a nation or state that has the capacity to protect an individual’s rights.

You still believe group rights should prevail over an individual’s rights.

What happens when you lose the demographic advantage?

Will you have created a modern progressive state that will protect your way of life when the day comes?

A Hindu majority country that is piss poor, a Hindu society that refuses to acknowledge and wage a war against malignancy of caste, a Hindu polity that spends all its political capital in fighting cultural wars and fortifying the siege mentality of the largest minority in the country, an avowedly Hindu government that ignores the urgent need for reviving and revitalizing Hindu educational and religious institutions.

Flexing your muscles for you have the numbers.

What happens when the numbers vanish?

What is your end game?