India is considered to be the world’s largest democracy and there is no doubt that India has accommodated in itself a huge diversity-be it with respect to religions, sects, ethnicities and caste groups. Post 1947 partition, India, off course, has excelled in many areas like economic development, sports and cinema; however, India, in many ways, is the same as it used to be in pre-partition era. It will not be wrong to assert that today’s India is more conservative than the era in which Indians were struggling against colonial rule for independence collectively.
Prior to partition, Hindus’ wanted to be at the helm in power structure and they did not believe in granting separate electorate to Muslims. Their constant refrain was that Congress, a Hindu majority party, was the sole representative of India and they viewed Muslims’ concerns only inspired by religion and culture which they thought could be catered to by providing safeguards to Muslims in the constitution with respect to religion and culture. This is what Gandhi said during second Round Table Conference, which took place in 1931, that India was united under Congress and the grudges that Muslims had they were fed by their religious and cultural rights which, as per Gandhi, could be addressed constitutionally. Back then, Congress leadership presented India as a uniform entity; however, it did pay heed to religious and cultural distinctions of Muslims and other minorities in India.
Today, Modi-led India is also trying to pitch Indian identity mainly inspired by Hinduism ethos like Congress but it has gone two steps ahead of Congress. In contemporary India, in a systematic way, minorities, especially Muslims, are being robbed off their cultural and religious rights and government, on the face value, does not lend support to democratic decline of India at the hands of Hindu extremist groups; however, it is working hands in glove with the Hindu conservative groups to make an Indian identity defined by Hinduism.
Onslaught of Muslim culture in India can be testified from the often-reported cases of mob lynching of Muslims across India for eating or slaughtering cows which are worshipped in India by masses. Similarly, cases of forced conversions of Muslims into Hinduism appear more than often. The other day, a 15-year-old was set on fire by four people in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly, the teenager was allegedly forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. The rising frequency of these reports clearly indicate how India under Modi-led government has been cracking down on Muslims’ religious identity and how India under its superficial claim of calling itself a beacon of democracy has been violating essence of democracy that believes in religious freedom.
The other day, Indian parliament passed a law against the Muslim practice of instant divorce after saying Talaaq (divorce) three times in succession and criminalized it with a punishment of three years in prison. The law was made in the light of Supreme Court judgment in 2017 in which it had declared the practice unconstitutional. It is important to mention here that the court ruling regarding the unconstitutional nature of divorce in 2017 came in the wake of petition which a group of Muslim women filed in high court pleading that the practice gave unilateral power to Muslim men and thus it was violation of fundamental rights which provided equal rights to males and females by Indian constitution.
Modi-led government has been trying to enforce uniform civil code in India which has caught minorities in India, especially Muslims, off guard. Reportedly, Indian minorities have opposed such moves arguing that it’s an infringement of their constitutional rights with respect to religion
The take away from the above development is that India overall does not have uniform civil law for marriage and property. Indian constitution allows members of religious minorities including Muslims, which constitute 180 million of India’s total population, to follow religious laws with respect to marriage and property as per their religions. However, Modi-led government has been trying to enforce uniform civil code in India which has caught minorities in India, especially Muslims, off guard. Reportedly, Indian minorities have opposed such moves arguing that it’s an infringement of their constitutional rights with respect to religion.
Moreover, a systematic drive to turn India into an exclusively Hindus’ hub on the part of Indian government is reflective from the recent scrapping of article 370 regarding Kashmir in the constitution in the wake of which India has cancelled the special status of Kashmir which is a Muslim majority area and is a disputed region between Pakistan and India. In the wake of the new constitutional development, now any Indian can buy a property or apply for government job in Kashmir which earlier was prohibited. It’s perceived that India wants to change the demographic composition of region and wants to selectively close the chapter of Kashmir dispute, in which both Kashmiris and across the border Pakistan have stakes, through settlement of Hindus in large numbers.
India under the stewardship of Modi has been losing on its entire democratic ethos. Democracy accommodates diversity. It does not enforce conformity among diverse entities rather it develops a sense of collaboration and develops unity in diversity. Take any example from anywhere in the world. When states have tried to bring uniformity in its diverse constituents in a forceful manner, the strategy has backfired and has resulted in chaos.
Indians, at large, should learn from Pakistan’s experience of creating uniformity in its ethnically and religious diverse society through an Islamic ideology and how it backfired. We, in Pakistan, tried to unify the diversity within Pakistani nation through Islamic ideology initially; however, for not paying attention to the concerns of ethnic diversity, first we lost our eastern wing, East Pakistan, which is now known as Bangladesh, and later on imploded our society with the monster of extremism during General Zia’s era in 1980s when Islam as a state religion defined state’s policies. Pakistan, fortunately, has made sense of its mistakes and is trying recoup. However, India needs to be vigilant. The direction it has right now will not only implode India from within but will explode it outside too.
The writer is teaches at Department of Political Science in University of Management and Technology, Lahore, and is a member of editorial team at Kenznews. He can be reached at [email protected]