https://aliahd66.substack.com/p/manipur-as-hindutva-laboratory

Manipur as Hindutva laboratory

Not Hindu-Christian, Not Meitei-Kuki but Hindutva-Minority

The real nature of the internal conflict in Mainpur recently spilt out of internet constraints emplaced there, precisely to prevent such a spill. The true nature of the conflict is now in better, though not full, view.

Apparently, to those who know, what is visible is merely the tip of the iceberg. Chief Minister Biren Singh lets on that ‘hundreds’ of such atrocities that recently jolted the national conscience took place.  

The same logic the regime’s master spinner, S Jaishankar, attends the internet ban. If blood thirsty and voyeuristic mobs can be gathered at short notice across Hindutva-pervaded New India for the lynching itinerant Muslims, mobs can equally easily be incited in conflict zones for mass killings.

Left unstated is that without scrutiny there is impunity, allowing for atrocities.

The bonus from an information blanket is that the wider voting public is denied information necessary for making an informed electoral choice on whether the State observes the Rule of Law and is capable of maintaining Law and Order.

However, the nature of internet being such, the reality of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) in Manipur is now known to the embarrassment of the Modi regime.

Currently, it is brazening it out in parliament, avoiding accountability that goes with the parliamentary system of government. Procrastination over a discussion on Manipur is craftily being attributed to Opposition stonewalling.  

What’s clear is that the Modi-Shah duo will not allow the Manipur iceberg a Titanic replay.

Dimensions of the conflict

The conflict has been characterized as an ethnic conflict. The visiting Chief of Defence Staff - well-briefed by Army subordinates - clarified the nature of the conflict early on, refuting the spin of the state chief minister that it was a spike in Kuki insurgency necessitating a crackdown on that ethnic group.

To what levels religious animosity informs the ethnic hostility is debatable.  Ipso facto, from the manner churches have been targeted, it cannot be wished away. Doing so would be to down-play the addling of the Meitei mind that majoritarian supremacism has wrought.

Not only has a Hindutva busybody Ram Madhav admitted to making inroads into Manipur’s social context, but Narendra Modi’s claim of several visits since his Pracharak days to Manipur, testify that Hindutva – with all its energy, single mindedness and money - cannot but have been an active causal ingredient.

Home Minister Amit Shah claims that Modi contributed to ‘emotional integration’ of Manipur with the country. Hindutva, the vehicle for such ‘integration’, has resoundingly proved its limitations.

Quite like the mess it has made of society and politics in Gujarat, Karnataka and the Gangetic belt, it can be expected to have a similar baleful effect in a delicate border state.

CRSV and ethnic cleansing

CRSV has come to symbolize the conflict.

In the short term CRSV escalates a conflict and over the long term its effects make reconciliation difficult, if not impossible. Usually incident in ethnic conflict, it serves to brutalise.

Since criminality gets full play with conflict outbreak, CRSV can have an inadvertent start in criminal behavior. It gains momentum in mirroring actions if left unchecked.

In Manipur, rationalization has it that a rumour of Meitei women being raped supposedly set Meitei perpetrators off on a reprisal on bodies of Kuki women.

To the extent CRSV is resorted to by design, the intent of perpetrators and their minders is to use women’s bodies for signaling dominance. Unable or unwilling - due to lack in testicular fortitude - to get at the other side’s well-armed males, perpetrators set upon women.

CRSV incidence in Manipur suggests that there have been - and likely continue to be - dimensions of the conflict that have been kept under wraps. Damning is participation of some Meitei women in handing over Kuki victims to rapist male counterparts. They also interfered with the response of security forces to stanch the prevailing instability that provides conditions for CRSV. 

As to whether, CRSV is present by design or is byproduct of the conflict spiral will probably be ascertained by the Central Bureau of Investigation that has taken over some cases for trial outside the state. However, it may well be that the caged parrot will instead obscure linkages and accountability.

For the regime, CRSV potentially busts the lid placed on the nature of the conflict. It exposes the driver of one engine, Prime Minister Modi, who has studiously kept mum all through the conflict, and has instead chosen to persist with the driver of the second engine, Chief Minister Biren Singh.

Biren Singh allowed full play to majoritarian Meitei vigilante militias, the Arambai Tanggol and Meitei Leepun, along with the women organization, Meira Paibe. As vehicles for restoring traditionalism and authenticity, these militias style resemble affiliates of the Sangh Parivar.

A big difference is that they are armed. The looting of armouries at conflict outset emboldened them. Despite asymmetry, Kukis held their own. As underdogs in an existential fight, they mounted a successful self-defence.

They appear to have been more circumspect in targeting unarmed civilians. They permited transit out of territory in their control of Assam Rifles escorted Meiteis. They kept their powder dry for taking on raiding parties and, from perches in the hills, interdicting a resumption of normalcy in the contiguous plains area.

The unambiguous result has been mutual ethnic cleansing as fait-accompli. Figuring amongst crimes against humanity, CRSV facilitates ethnic cleansing. Both signify a burning of bridges.  

This couldn’t have been due to inadvertence. It can advisedly therefore be taken as the intent. That burnings of houses continue shows that returns are not envisaged as part of a usual post-conflict peace process.

Causal theories

The Kuki’s protesting Meitei efforts to gain Scheduled Tribe (ST) status through the judicial route led to outing of the dubious means being used by the Meitei-dominant state government.

A judgment of the single judge bench of the Acting Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court required the state government to fast track the Meitei demand for ST status. The Supreme Court took umbrage at the High Court’s proactivism on the issue, it being outside the judicial ken.

When the Meitei are already advantaged as members of the Other Backward Caste and some as Scheduled Caste, what purpose could have been served if the whole state populace numbered as ST? Clearly, cornering reserved seats was not the purpose.

Access to land controlled by Kukis and Nagas, who number in the ST list, is supposedly the root cause. This inordinate and sudden hunger for land begs the question: Why?

Musings on social media provide a tentative answer. Given the close hold on information that the Modi regime has, speculation cannot be dismissed off hand. Controversial bills such as the one that opens up the forests for exploitation at the cost of local communities show up priorities.

One piece has it that quite like in mineral rich Central India, there are mineral deposits in the hills that corporate India – that has the Modi regime in its pocket in a new ‘Black Market of Power’ – wishes to exploit.

The second is that centralized planning in authoritarian India has alighted on the hill areas for plantations for palm oil production. Consequently, as in Central India, locals have to be sufficiently conditioned – if necessary by use instrumental use of force - to give way.

A third is the renewed thrust for India’s Belt and Road Initiative look-alike project in its Act East playbook. Foreign Minister Jaishankar, while attending a regional meeting recently, pushed for the India-Thailand land corridor through Myanmar. This has put a premium on the route the eventually-multimodal corridor would take.

That Meiteis perhaps want a piece of the action explains the recent finessing of ethnic cleansing in the burning of vacated properties in Moreh, the likely site of a future multi-sectoral hub.

An alternate theory

Violent political extremism does not emerge in a vacuum. When country-wide political culture is Hindutva-tinged, Manipur cannot escape being singed. Prevalent local conditions lead to particularism in the way a place is Hindutva-impacted, which, in Manipur, translates into violent political extremism.

The misuse of the judiciary by Hindutva is no secret, be it Ayodhya then or Varanasi now. The mass exoneration of perpetrators in Gujarat 2002 cases while human rights defenders continue in prison or face the courts shows up the Gujarat Model.

The Manipur High Court continues under an Acting Chief Justice, who pushed for an early conclusion to the vexed issue. The Acting Chief Justice has been in the chair since February, though the Supreme Court had recommended early enough that the vacancy be filled with a permanent appointee. However, the matter kept pending by the government, led to the Supreme Court changing its nominee, with the new Chief Justice named early this month.

The interim duration was long enough for the Acting Chief Justice to in a single-bench case judgment set the cat among the pigeons. This begs the question as to whether the delay in appointment was by design.

Interestingly, the Acting Chief Justice claim to fame is his ‘nationalism’ on display in his judgment on the Vande Mataram case. In that case he required a wider dissemination and increased sanctity for the song.

To the extent Vande Mataram is praise for a Mother Goddess, it is akin to idolatry, prohibited for Muslims. A long-standing Hindutva ploy is to keep Muslims on the back-foot by projecting that their reservations on such provocations as showing up a deficit in their allegiance to the nation.

Whether the learned judge lent his services yet again to Hindutva purposes, either purposively or unwarily, is moot. Another judge in Imphal – a Meitei - arraigned a prominent academic Kuki voice in order to silence it.

A Gujarati judge in Gujarat shut out a parliamentarian in a defamation case. Has the Gujarat Model been extended to Manipur?

A security accounting

Hindutva implicated, it would be naïve to expect the regime to turn against its instruments. The state government has been transparently duplicitous in underplaying the conflict in order to legitimise its tepid response.

But, what of the record of the Army in light of its knowledge of the nature of the conflict evidenced by incident CRSV?

To acknowledge, the Army has done sterling service in securing the Kukis in the hill areas and creation of a buffer zone in areas covered by Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), allowing it greater freedom of action.

The Assam Rifles has stood up to bullying by the state government, that attempted to put it on the backfoot citing illegal immigrant influx, though fully knowing that there is a civil war on next door across a porous border.

However, in retrospect, to call the situation in Manipur a ‘law and order kind of situation’ did injustice to the magnitude of the conflict.

The implication of the other characterization - ‘clash between ethnicities’ – should have been followed up with energetic counsel. As the repository of national security expertise, it knows what happened in the Balkans.

It can be plausibly argued that being called out in aid to civil authority does not imply it usurp power for securing people. It can only be subordinate to the government and operate with restraint and preferably in magistrate presence.

However, it bears recounting that the Army didn’t wait to deploy and operated with gusto at the outbreak of conflict in Kashmir, even without AFSPA cover till it was applied in mid 1990. When it did wait for AFSPA before launch in Assam, the militant horse had already bolted its jungle camps. (I know for I was there.)

In the early days, the Manipur situation was akin to the one in Gujarat in end February 2002. The Bison Division when flown in did not call for AFSPA imposition but set about its task. Leading the Punjab Boundary Force under worse circumstances, India’s most respected general, ‘Timmy’ Thimayya, did not dither.  

When there are the Code of Criminal Procedure protections for those acting in good faith in aid to civil authority, is AFSPA necessary?

Even so, AFSPA is an existing legislation for Manipur. All it takes is for the Governor to declare an area ‘disturbed’. Just as AFSPA can be rolled back – as it was done only lately from most of the Imphal Valley – it can be reinstated as quickly.

In any case, to retrieve the Indian State’s loss of monopoly over force when some 3000 stolen weapons continue in Meitei hands, it may yet require to be reinstated, if only when the regime changes.

For its part, this regime might prefer the weapons with their ‘own boys’, just in case needed to contain Nagas – who are no doubt watching intently - when the Framework Accord gets by its sell-by date.

Being an in-house matter, it is cannot be known if the Army thumped the table adequately. From the meek manner if fell in line with the regime’s policy stance on the deflation of Article 370 and the response in Ladakh, it cannot be readily taken that the Army’s input was firm, frank and forthright.

Laboratory Manipur

Manipur is the new Hindutva laboratory. Here are some take aways:

·         The arrogance of the first engine is transmitted to the second one, seen in the state government targeting Kukis in eviction drives and cornering them on poppy cultivation.

·         From the Gujarat pogrom is clear CRSV and ethnic cleansing are endemic to Hindutva. Its surfacing in Manipur should suggest a linkage.

·         The double engine promise includes holding hands of the second engine driver even if in a train wreck.

·         The judiciary will be subverted when it signals amenability for such abuse.

·         Unwary Hindu communities will be exploited as a Hindutva beachhead to threaten non-Hindu neighbours.

·         Crying ‘wolf’ over illegal immigration is hallmark.

·         The Citizenship Amendment Act being no substitute, non-articulating a refugee policy creates yet more vulnerable groups for Hindutva leverage.

·         Other areas are equally primed, such as Assam.  

·         The military is reduced to handmaiden.

However, the principal take away of the Gujarat Model was how to escape accountability for crimes against humanity. The learning from its Manipur laboratory reinforces this lesson.

The closer Modi gets to miss the bus to his already-announced third term, the more likely that the Manipur conflict will replicate on a wider scale, where the double engine drives the Hindutva gravy train.

For their part, the learning from Manipur for national security minders and instruments is how to end the Gujarat Model of impunity. Implacability on this score will deter and contain another Manipur, a Manipur elsewhere or Manipur going national.

 

Former ADC to Chiinar Corps corps commander during outbreak of troubles in the Valley has this Whatsapp take:  

1. The full  unit was not there at the site in Kokernag fire station building when we reached at about 5am. About half hour later Gen Malik and his escort reached. By which time your dad and I went around the cordon by the coy from opposite sides, trying to coordinate the cordon which wasn't done at night. Troops were in shock and coy cdr was in state of mental paralysis. Company had lost casualties in the ambush and later when some NCOs tried to storm the building. No CO anywhere in sight. 

2. JJ wasn't there either. At least till about 8.45am when I came out and your dad agreed to be evacuated. 

3. It wasn't a grenade splinter that got your dad. It was AK bullet, which hit Nk Budhi Singh in his palm, bounced off his AK47 barrel, angled up and the ricochet and few smaller splinters of the bullet hit your dad in the forehead and scalp. 

3. No discussion with JJ happened at the site. Because your dad lost lot of blood and was unconscious. About 45-60 minutes later he regained consciousness and was treated by RMO and spoke only to RMO to tell him he was OK and with Gen Malik to refuse evacuation till ADC was extracted 'He may need evacuation more than me'. Thereafter while travelling in jonga from Kokernag to Anantnag, and later in chopper from Anantnag to BBCantt, he spoke very little. Firstly he was furious at the whole episode, secondly he was really weak and faint. I shut the hell up because I knew with him when to shut up. 

4. I have no idea what happened between CO and JJ. Maybe CO misled him... . 

5. Did JJ come very close to being sacked? I think so.... He then started to lead from the front in all ops and got shot in the thigh for his trouble. After a series of successful ops, he did muster the courage to actually meet your dad. Yes, that part is true, he came within an inch of being sacked himself. Don't think your dad would forgive anyone for lies or wrong reporting in operations. 

He didn't have to ask Malik or your dad to fire CO or him. I'm pretty sure they contemplated firing both 🙄

That day, before and after getting wounded, your dad was in a really foul mood. I think he immediately sensed that he wasn't getting the truth and wanted to see for himself. Seeing troops in a shell shocked condition and the officer barely coherent wouldn't have improved his mood. Getting wounded didn't improve things, neither was being informed that his ADC was dead. Bring his body to me and I will go he had said to Malik (escort JCO and Capt Khera, Malik's ADC confirmed this part). He had also realised that his officers had lied and misled his HQ. When we reached BB Cantt, BH Comdt was fussing about offering tea and refreshments when all he wanted was to go home. He couldn't do that because he had to go to Corps HQ and pass orders to BGS. Meanwhile I left him with the doctors and went home where your mom who by then had received several phone calls from journalists wanting to know if Gen Zaki was indeed dead. When she saw me alone in the state I was in, she assumed the worst. "Aapke rehte kaise hone diya, AP?". Took me about 10 minutes to convince her that Gen was alright and will be home in an hour or two. I stayed with her till he came home

 https://www.thebookreviewindia.org/speaking-truth-to-power/

Book Review

Anuradha Bhasin, A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir after Article 370, Gurugram: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-93-629-608-4, pp. 386, Rs. 699/-.

Anuradha Bhasin hit the national headlines with her challenge in the Supreme Court on the government disconnecting Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from India and those living there from each other by turning off the internet as part of its massive crackdown to usher in Naya Kashmir with the evacuation of Article 370 of all meaning. It was a courageous standing up to authoritarianism by Bhasin, a senior editor distressed by her inability to pursue her professional calling as a consequence of all communication conduits lapsing between her and her team in Kashmir. The government won that round, only reluctantly and in ‘due course’ allowing light back into and on Kashmir, and that too only in fits and starts.

Bhasin does the Indian nation another favour in writing up this book, a body blow to the government’s narrative on Kashmir. Even though one and half crore tourists visited the region last year and the statistics of those meeting a violent deaths in the insurgency there are comparatively negligible, no one is under the illusion that the situation in Kashmir has stabilized. No wonder the government advisedly keeps the security forces in places that it had pumped in prior to its move on Article 370.

It has rightly been said, ‘there are lies, damned lies and statistics.’ Bhasin unsparingly exposes the grand lies on Kashmir. How bad the situation is can best be put in her own words:

The Indian government can use all its power to subjugate and suppress the local peoples in J&K and their multiple and complex aspirations for now, but it cannot sustain this till eternity (p. 295)…. Breathing beneath the behemoth of silence is a deceptive volcano, which could erupt in a chaos of different forms and varied voices. What would be its dominant articulation – frightening, violent rage or a kaleidoscope of ideas and vision? That moment is yet to come.

Assuming that the landslide victory in the national elections on the back of the Pulwama-Balakot episode had given the government the backing for widespread change, Narendra Modi used the moment to hammer home the long standing pledge of the right wing: to ‘integrate’ Kashmir into India. This to the Hindu nationalist government meant ending the special relationship signified by Article 370 that J&K maintained with the rest of India. While Article 370 allowed J&K relative autonomy and Article 35A permitted protection of its land and livelihood of its people, the two were nullified through a parliamentary procedure that has yet to face judicial accountability.

While the Supreme Court dallies on when to take up the raft of challenges to the neutralisation of Article 370 on both procedural and substantive grounds, the government has gone on to walk the talk on integration. Knowing that is would be unpopular, it has maintained its dragnet, toting up statistics on Kashmiri youth killed for futilely taking to the gun in despair. Bhasin’s is a blow by blow account of how the State is going about its scheme and the implications of the changes being taken by fiat and absolutely no reference to the people. This holding of democracy in abeyance is lamented, as are the consequences of political arrogance and bureaucratic vandalism on the Rule of Law and the very laws themselves.

Bhasin’s critique covers the whole gamut: political, security, legal, social and economic. With three decades of experience in journalism behind her, Bhasin is able to tap not only the strategies of political leaders but also the sentiment in common folk. She spices up a narrative that could otherwise get dull - it traverses legal details - with the human element, using the voice of the marginalized to tell of the impositions and hardships Hindutva’s liberation of Kashmir has wrought them. The hopes and fears of Gujars and Bakarwals, of lower caste Hindus, of those living along the Line of Control, of shikara paddlers and forgotten Kashmiris come alive through her pen.

Though as a strategy the government has momentarily shifted Kashmiri demands away from meaningful autonomy to statehood, that it continues to dither on conceding the latter shows that its intent is not problem solving or conflict resolution inspired, but merely to pile on humiliation. In a post Article 370 scenario, restoration of statehood by inclusion of another subclause to Article 371 is the way to go. However, with the government denying Sixth Schedule status even to Ladakh, it is unlikely to oblige. The impetus for such strategy-defying logic is in an ideological animus that makes Kashmiris doubly-damned, their being Muslim too.

Bhasin engages also with the development aspect, since it is the legitimizing plank of the government. She cites data to reveal how land laws are being tweaked to acquire land and evict those settled on it. As a native of Jammu, she worries how the developmental model of the plains – based on road building and widening and siting of industrial centers – will impact the fragile environment. Joshimath had not happened by when she wrote the chapter. It’s a pity that the juggernaut will role on since that’s the model in the rest of India, into which Kashmir is being integrated.

The book has copious end notes, doing credit to her current status as a fellow at Stanford University. The only glitch spotted is where she dates the Mumbai terror attack to 2007 (p. 222). Its chapterisation is logical, allowing for a comprehensive coverage of the past three years in Kashmir. A quote from this reviewer also finds mention (p. 114), making it only fair to disclose that Bhasin as editor of Kashmir Times oversaw some 100 opinion pieces by this reviewer over the years. Her book informs that the archives of her newspaper have since gone missing in the cyber world, no doubt part of information operations executed by the State.

The book is a recommended read, particularly for non-Kashmiris. What is happening in Kashmir is a negation of the democracy. It is already visibly and painfully getting clear that jackboots on democracy anywhere endanger democracy everywhere. The book must also be prescribed reading for those in the counter insurgent State apparatus on how not to do counter insurgency. It is true that they are hampered by the preceding political prong Their self-congratulations shall prove rather premature when trends identified by Bhasin in her book eventuate in their logical conclusion.

We can only thank her parents, to whom the book is dedicated, who taught Bhasin to write and to speak the truth fearlessly. She has done them proud, and, in the bargain, done India a national service in bringing to light the ‘untold story of Kashmir’ in face of an authoritarian State’s massive propaganda effort to efface reality. That with such truth telling she opens up herself to paying a personal price is to her credit.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 https://www.thebookreviewindia.org/footprints-to-follow/

Book Review

Geeta Mohan (ed.), Nothing is Impossible: Eight Inspiring Profiles (Illustrated by Saurabh Pandey), New Delhi: Children’s Book Trust, 2020, ISBN 978-93-88157-26-1, pp. 86, Rs. 80/-

Naveen Menon (ed.), Kusum Lata Singh (translator), Abhootpurv Prerak Vyaktitva, New Delhi: Children’s Book Trust, 2020, ISBN 978-93-88157-27-8, pp. 78, Rs. 80/-

The first book is a collection of eight prizewinning entries in the category Creative Non-Fiction for children in the 9-12 year bracket of the Competition for Writers of Children’s Books organized by the Children’s Book Trust (CBT). Seven of the profiles are of Indians, while one is of a Kenyan, Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. The seven Indians are of varied background: a soldier, Param Vir Chakra winner Albert Ekka; Everester Arunima Sinha; solo-forest planter Abdul Kareem; Hockey Olympian Dilip Tirkey; visually impaired Jawahar Kaul; ‘India’s James Herriot’, Vet Dr. Naveen Kumar Pandey and sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik.

The book in Hindi is a compilation of winning entries from the children’s literature writing competition with the topics, Bharat ka Ratna and Shunya se Shikhar Tak. Two additional profiles in the book are respectively of Infosys founder and chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Engineer Sudha Murty and Bharat Ratna Engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.

The Children’s Book Trust has been doing yeoman’s service since its founding by renowned cartoonist, Shankar, in 1957. Its significance has increased exponentially in the internet era when the reading habit is tapering off and books, of paper and held in the hand, are on the verge of extinction. That it continues on the frontlines of preserving a way of life based on accessing knowledge and cogitation is evident from its contribution, as its website has it, in the ‘area of children’s education and entertainment through multi-faceted activities hosted under its various wings’. Its various activities include the dolls’ museum, Shankar’s Academy and a reading room and library. These preserve old-world simplicity and modesty that ought to characterize life, howsoever difficult this is living under the assault from materialism and ostentation.

The two books introduce children not only to reading but in so doing to a set of achievers. The lives recounted leave an impression. The inclusions are thoughtful and the range of their contribution wide. The protagonists of these stories have talent, but, more importantly, a will to fulfill their destinies. They have a vision and endure. Selfless, they are socially mindful. Their footprints in the sands of time shall surely serve as guide for today’s children reading about them, who are the youth of tomorrow. None of the heroes was born with a silver spoon in the mouth, but are now household names. Children get to know how to identify and live up to life’s purpose.

Tales of bravery are in following Albert Ekka in his battle field exploits, how as a junior tactical leader he extricates his squad from a tight spot at the cost of his life, and in Arunima’s mountaineering exploits on overcoming her loss of a leg on being thrown off a train by robbers. Quiet courage is evident in the life of Jawahar Kaul, who goes on to help blind people after himself losing his eyesight at a young age. Pandey’s adventures as a vet take him from Darjeeling to Kutch, while Dilip Tirkey’s hockey wizardy sees him showcase his skills for the national team from Busan to Athens. Self-taught sand artist Sudarsan, winner of international competitions dedicates his craft to Lord Jagannath. Abdul Kareem pioneers a citizen’s forest, creating one out of an empty patch of land. Wangari Maathai’s story ends with her narration of a story, of a hummingbird making trips with water in its beak to stanch a raging forest fire, signifying that though individually puny, we collectively make a difference. The two additional stories in Hindi, of Murthy and Visvesvaraya, each a distinguished engineer, who go on to leave a wider societal imprint through their dedication.   

To keep children hooked, the books have colourful covers, are well illustrated in shades of grey, are of non-intimidating length and are reasonably priced. Now that Covid is over, hopefully, CBT books and products will find their place at book fairs. May its stalls fill up with children browsing, and not scrolling down that enemy-of-eyesight, a computer screen.

A drawback is the distressingly difficult Hindi used in the Hindi edition. It’s almost as if Hindi is only for grown-ups and those with it as a first language. Thoroughly off-putting for a non-native Hindi speaker, this does disservice to a language with ambitions to be a nationally connecting one. Hindi must not ride on the coat tails of Sanskrit, but preserve the cadence of languages it is displacing, Hindustani and Urdu.

 https://aliahd66.substack.com/p/what-to-do-about-a-global-good

India's Democracy: What to do about a global good

In atonement of what was done to our sisters in Manipur

Even as Narendra Modi was cashing in for domestic electoral purposes on his foreign ministry brokered and defence ministry incentivized invite by France for a visit as Bastille Day chief guest, at a nearby French town, Strasbourg, European Union legislators passed a resolution on India and the situation in Manipur.

The resolution, inter-alia, had it that European parliamentarians, “strongly condemn(s) the intensifying and systematic attacks, discrimination, and persecution against groups targeted due to their religion, caste, ethnicity and public opinion;” and, “(U)rge(s) Indian authorities to end discriminatory policies and practices against minorities including indigenous people...”

Expectedly, India’s foreign ministry in a Pavlovian fashion dismissed the “so-called Urgency Resolution”, adding, “(S)uch interference in India’s internal affairs is unacceptable, and reflects a colonial mindset;” going further to ask that supra-national assembly to focus on internal matters of Europe instead.

The Indian reaction was predictable. What is concerning is the resonance of the nationalist sentiment even among Liberals.

The liberal-conservative consensus

Once in response to Pakistani needling on twitter, a prominent liberal voice had tersely replied, “Our domestic politics and debate are our business and no one else's. Please focus on your own matters."

More recently, she went on to argue, "Yes, India’s democracy has to be strengthened and repaired. But this must be done by Indians—and Indians alone. Let us have the argument. Let us make the noise."

This is of a piece with what India’s leading wolf-warrior, Dr. S Jaishankar, believes in. To him, letting out the word on the slide in India’s democracy, “is concerning.” With Rahul Gandhi in his sights, he said, “when they take India’s problem out in the world and then invite people from outside to come and interfere… If you say that India has problems and great concerns then the world must do something about it, this has big implications and that is not good for the country.”

For Jaishankar, there is no problem - least of all one to be taken to the international arena - evident from his quip, “Elections happen in our country and parties win or lose. Had there been no democracy, then why would elections be taking place, and giving different outcomes?”

In effect, both Liberals and conservatives have it that even if India has the problem of an increasing deficit in Democracy, then it is not one that requires external support but is to be sorted out within.

Even Mr. Gandhi – who attracted Jaishankar’s ire with his remarks on a recent visit to the United Kingdom and United States when basking in wake of the Bharat Jodo Yatra – is similarly inclined. He was merely dilating on the state of India’s democracy – which he felt was a global good - while taking care not to ask for intervention for its rescue. He assumes Indian democracy will hold its own and repair itself.

All he tacitly asks is India’s well-wishers abroad not go overboard in feting Modi, given Modi’s known propensity to magnify foreign interest as approbation of himself and his regime, selling it to the voter as acknowledgement of the Vishwa Guru status of Modi’s New India. This inflation of Modi’s already-outsized image by opinion abroad does little for shortfalls in Democracy, debilitated by the absence of an Opposition.

The rabbit is out of the hat

Modi began his maneuvering for Election 2024 early with a host of activities to keep in the public eye through the year. These comprise summits in New Delhi, including one that was postponed by a year to accommodate Modi’s electoral schedule; tours abroad with innovative hosting fixtures by the host State, no doubt at the soto-voce suggestion of Jaishankar’s pointsmen in national capitals visited; and inaugurations, as that of the new parliament building and the impending one of the temple at Ayodhya. (For sure, the two foreigners who touched Modi’s feet on foreign shores were prompted by Hindutva folks in the diaspora.)

Meanwhile, the regime has the leading Opposition light running from judicial pillar to post trying to figure his way back into parliament. Rahul Gandhi was expelled for no fathomable reason in a defamation case dating to the last elections, laying bare a feature of politics-judiciary nexus in the Gujarat Model. This, even as defamation of communities – such as the chief minister in Assam against Miya Assamese - is par for the course.

While last time round, Modi pulled the Pulwama-Balakot episode out of his hat to go on to win the national elections, this time the rabbit is the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). Designed as prelude to cultural genocide of Muslims, it is intended to garner the electoral verdict for the Muslim-baiting and bashing ruling party.

If enacted before the hustings, it takes advantage of the current parliamentary majority, allowing Modi to go to the electorate claiming another promise fulfilled. Others objecting – such as tribal communities - could be brought on board with exception clauses in the bill. If the action itself is deferred, polarization resulting might be good enough.

The Hindutva hope perhaps is that it would energise another anti-Citizen’s Amendment Act (CAA)-like agitation on part of Muslims, thereby enabling another opportunity for Hindutva to show Muslims their place. They imagine the captive voter base finds this appealing. The loss of Karnataka makes little difference since Hindutva retained its vote share there.

Only Muslims appear to have wizened up. If a viral video from Karnataka is any indicator – in which a bus conductor being berated by a woman for wearing a skull cap holds his calm and has the transport authority clarify the uniform code – Muslims plan to lie low and allow the political spectrum to respond to the ruling party’s electoral gimmick.    

While there is liberal-conservative divergence on levels of cultural assimilation being in the national interest, gender justice moves Liberals. Liberals might band-wagon with Hindutva on this latest gimmick, to be rid of patriarchy. This might force the hand of political parties to go in for soft Hindutva yet again.

For Hindutva, rescuing Muslim women from the masculine and aggressive Sunni Muslim male is at its ideological core; never mind that it cannot protect women wrestlers from predators within its ranks. As for saving Muslim women, the likes of examples as Kausar Bi and Bilkis Banu are legion. Ask also after what Kuki women now believe.

A perfect storm coming up?

Just as Modi pulled UCC out of his hat, the Opposition has taken a leaf out of Modi’s book of acronyms and come up with INDIA. It has beaten the Hindutva troll brigade with its catchy tag line, Jeetega Bharat. It must finesse this promising start by taking a stand against foisting of a UCC.

The closer the opposition gets to unity and promises a Karnataka at the national scale, the greater the likelihood of Hindutva to go rogue. Being named INDIA won’t deter Amit Shah from breaking it up.  The passage of the Article 370 dilution bill in both houses is instructive that it would be a sore test of unity. The Opposition, if not led up the garden path by Liberals, may yet stay the course.

If UCC fails to go through as did Article 370, and in the mean time the Supreme Court shoots down the Article 370 Constitutional caper of the Modi-Shah duo, the voter might see the Emperor without clothes on.

Hindutva may be gripped by convulsions, presented with a fait accompli of an end to its honeymoon period. While the threat of genocide – made every now and then by assorted saffronite busybodies at ‘religious’ gatherings - is held as a Democles sword, cultural genocide – a soft kill - will not quite raise heckles. With the former holding Muslims down, the latter can be unrolled.

Though genocide is hyperbole, lesser cousins - crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing – may be invited to the pre-election party, or just might gate-crash it in over-enthusiasm.

Mischaracterising one-sided mass political violence as a ‘communal riot’ prevents these from being treated as atrocity crimes. Self-defence by the victimized minority is used to self-serving effect, the term ‘riot’ well-chosen to give it a two-sided frame. The assault by the police on students in Jamia Millia Islamia and the North East Delhi mini-pogrom are cases to point.

The threat has in any case to be held out as part of the Hindutva strategy to, both, get the UCC through without an anti-CAA like backlash and, if needed, to generate conditions for polarisation.

Though the institutionalized riot system is in abeyance, ubiquity of lynch mobs show micro-terrorism is available in double-quick time. Annual religious gatherings and yatras show the mobilizing power of Hindutva. It would not take much to vector WhatsApp groups so formed onto Muslim localities.

Indeed, procession routes are so planned that rather than spirituality, the very aim is to impose the majority’s will and instill terror. An opportunity to pray for the spiritually-inclined few provides an opportunity to prey for the many. The ongoing experience in Manipur provides more grist to the Hindutva planning mill, this time including deployment of women for more than merely the hitherto rhetoric by so-called sadhvis.

The localized instance in Manipur against the Zo-Kuki communities is internal strategic signaling of sorts. Hindutva’s finger prints are all over the continuing episode, visible in the operation of the Gujarat Model from 2002. Not only has ethnic segregation resulted, it is being rationalized in terms of national security. 

Jaishankar indulged in a bit of diversionary tactics supposedly addressing the cross-border spill-over of Myanmar’s internal conflict. He conveyed the false impression that the external aspect of the civil war flare-up in Manipur was the more consequential factor in the flare-up, in line with the parochial state government’s version that influx of illegal immigration and drugs from Myanmar is at the root of the conflict.

Just as the apprehensions over changes to Article 370 proved overblown, Ajit Doval can be entrusted with management of a violent push back. The trailer to this end has already been screened in the crack-down on anti-CAA agitation.

Below-the-threshold violent extremism

Just as the Liberals have studied the Nazi period in Germany and ineffectually point to similarities, Hindutva - that self-confessedly draws inspiration from the period – has also studied the period deeply. It is unlikely to repeat Hitler’s mistakes – be it premature expansionism without or atrocity crimes internally that compel international accountability.

Hindutva can unleash violent extremism at the lower rungs of the proverbial ladder of atrocity crimes – making it debatable if external scrutiny of Indian intent and conduct is legitimate or otherwise. India’s information and media policy is such – as seen in restricted spaces for free media and internet shut downs – it is difficult to explicitly discern the thresholds of violent extremism crossed.

Thus, internally, there is an easy clubbing of Liberals and conservatives in a defence of India. Both are persuaded that external concern with India’s distancing from democratic values and conduct is inapt, even if they disagree between themselves on whether and to what extent there is such a distancing.

Externally, Narendra Modi’s evincing surprise on being questioned when at the White House on India’s record towards its minorities, shows up the strategy. The foreign ministry’s thrust to project India as the fount of democracy is to keep such concerns at bay. Its position is that a democratically endorsed mandate is being implemented by Narendra Modi, its recipient.

Alongside, India placates liberal democracies with presenting itself as a strategic bulwark against China. Strategic convergence is designed to evoke self-interest in India’s democratic interlocutors with strategic imperatives trumping ideological considerations. Besides, economic incentives and trade keep any criticism muted.

To the extent there are critical voices – such as that of Barack Obama when Modi was visiting the United States – these are perfunctory, allowing the West a clean conscience and Hindutva trolls a target to take down.

Selectivity of evinced external interest in India’s domestic affairs makes India’s Liberals wary of external keenness on India’s democratic travails. The benign Western gaze is tactical, to have a stick to beat India with so that it comes to heel against China tamely.

They also fear that the interest expressed shall prove ineffective, if not counter-productive. Hindutva will be inclined to dig-in and cover itself with a nationalist blanket. It will use external criticism to further marginalize the minorities as external proxies. While Muslims have long been painted as Pakistan’s fifth column, Christians risk being taken as the West’s lackeys.   

Liberals have also bitten off the nationalist apple. They are not content with just being patriotic. They have to beat the self-anointed nationalists in their own game, wresting nationalism – that has got a bad press with Hindutva’s doings – from Hindutva hands. Not for them are the reservations on nationalism of a Tagore but the nationalism of Netaji Bose.

Even their most fiery proponent has to first reaffirm her nationalist credentials before she alights into Modi; witness, “India is bigger than him (Modi). It will see him off. The question is: When? And at what cost?”

Liberals are chary of being taken as woke. Liberal intellectual hubris has run its course. It got identified with elites, alighted on by the troll brigade, eagerly looking for a handle to substitute the Lutyen’s elite with plebian pretenders.

Alongside, liberal internationalism acquired a bad name. Between the Clintons and Barack Obama, it took the agenda of neo-cons further. While the latter stopped with Afghanistan and Iraq, Democrats took down Libya, Syria, Yemen and, now, Sudan. Consequently, the rank hypocrisy in Obama recently taking potshots on India was lost on no one.

The regime has taken care to book through false cases those who have the guts to defend them, be they leftists, media, social media influencers and human rights defenders. Some are left free to be active.

The regime can point to them to show how is it be that they were so voluble when they say India is an electoral autocracy. Besides, the internal dividend is to point to their output for trolls to work up its constituency.

International attention deters

However, from the Manipur events – including the latest one of mass rape of two (presumably Christian) women – it is clear that the state is a laboratory. The vehemence in inaction on part of the Union government suggests a message is for Western interlocutors who pointed to Indian democracy being flushed down the drain: “Mind your own business for we won’t mend our ways at your say-so.”

The internal message is that the Manipur can go national, quite in the footsteps of the Gujarat Model in all other spheres of national life. Already, the pieces are in place in the Gangetic belt. The potential victims – Muslims - already lined up.

Under the circumstance, it can only take a minority voice to shout out loud, “It’s unconscionable that the international community remains silent in the face of what is going on.”

Liberals may be embarrassed by international attention, believing that India neither needs nor deserves this at a stage it is overthrowing the colonial legacy and striding the global stage. However, since the portents are not bright, the asymmetry in power that the victims of majoritarians – aligned with the State - are up against needs reaching out to every helping hand.

The retreat of liberalism has put the globalised world into question. It cannot be that globalization is restricted only to trade and supply chains.

The alliance in plain sight between India’s Liberals and Hindutva in preserving India’s reputation abroad cannot be allowed to obscure the Muslim condition, set to worsen in quick time. Hindutva must be held accountable for bringing India to disrepute.

Political parties must discard soft Hindutva, sign of their subservience to a Right Wing ordained political culture. They must stake out their space, beginning with opposing UCC, over which they appear to be hemming and hawing just as the Pied Piper expects them to. Since a third of the electorate is already in Hindutva’s pocket, and presumably a third of liberal persuasion, bid for but a fifth to put majoritarianism back in the bottle.

Liberals must stake out the liberal space in direct contrast to the majoritarian one. To be sure, Hindutva has a 100 year head start and a captive political party. Offensive defence – turning-in awards, writing letters to the prime minister, being mealy mouthed on Hindutva’s domestic security outrages, whataboutery over foreigner interest - has failed. While the UCC is desirable, the niyat behind it being what it is, any lobbying on its behalf must be pended to a later date.

Liberals are on the threshold of failing India’s minority. They cannot ask that the minority sacrifice its cultural markers for them to take up cudgels on its behalf.

Minorities cannot wait till Liberals get around to understanding New India. In any case when the regime comes after Liberals – some are kept going so as to keep up the veneer of democracy – the minority will have to fall back on its own resources.

Ideally, the Liberals are the first line of defence; failing which, a minority is on its own. It cannot have the liberal-conservative combine stifle its outreach to external parties with an interest in human rights and the way the world ought to be and isn’t.

Indian democracy is a global good, the good health of which cannot be left to Hindutva ministration anymore.