India yearns for Rang De Basanti

Just when the whole country was oozing the stink of fascism; just when the saffron colour was dyeing everything black; just when the spine of an entire nation was missing; just when the fear was reigning supreme; just when the country ran out of hope, the courage of a few girls as they braved baton charge while saving their classmate shook the nation and evoked its lost conscience and valour.

What unfolded in India’s capital on the hazy day of December 15 proved to be a long-awaited spark that ignited the smouldering anger and concern in Indian youth into an unquenchable fire where the flames of hope blazed high.

Narendra Modi’s closest comrade and Home Minister, Amit Shah, also the former member of RSS–the mothership of BJP–who previously had the privilege of announcing the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status and putting it under a (till-date) siege and communication blackout with the similar honour introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Lok Sabha earlier this December. This has now become a law; ensuring the banishment of Muslim migrants, whom he termed “termites.”

In the garb of a purge of persecuted or illegal migrants, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), combined with National Register of Citizens (NRC), is a tool for the marginalisation and systematic expulsion of Muslims from India and a step towards the hegemony of Hindus. This notion of Hindu supremacy is not new. It dates back to pre-partition, when Congress denied Muslims an equal representation in the party and later in the government (of United India) after the end of British rule, which became the basis for the two-nation theory, and later led to the creation of Pakistan. Since then, history has been vindicating Jinnah in claiming any idea of united India will lead to a great disaster as well as validating his stance for the creation of a separate state for Muslims.

The crop grown on the seeds of hatred is always red

This notion revived with the birth of BJP–a right-wing Hindu nationalist party–which has close ideological and organisational links to the RSS. Now, with the RSS member, Narendra Modi, in power, this dream of India becoming a Hindu Rashtra by marginalising Muslim community will be fulfilled soon, if not challenged by the true believers of secular India.

Contrary to the belief of BJP, the backlash on the CAA took the Indian government by surprise. The protest against the revocation of this contentious Act that started from Jamia Millia Islamia spread throughout India; uniting youth from all religions against alienation of one community.

India of 2019 is Nazi Germany of the 1930s. Just like Germany, fascism has crept into the psyche of most Indians to an extent that they are unable to identify fascism anymore let alone condemning it, rather they cheer it. Those few (largely youth) who have finally risen against India’s incumbent fascist regime are met with the brutal crackdown and beatings by the state police giving a glimpse of brutalities in Kashmir and refreshing the memories of Nazi police’s barbarities in silencing dissent.

The countrywide rage against Citizenship Amendment Act is premised on the argument that the said law, aimed at granting Indian citizenship to the persecuted migrants, reeks of religious and communal discrimination. It includes Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian and Jain migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh but deliberately excludes Muslim migrants, which could subject them to statelessness resulting in them landing either in detention scamps or facing deportation.

These protests by Indian youth aren’t ordinary by any measure. Rather, they hold great significance. Through these protests, BJP’s trajectory towards making India a Hindutva state is not only challenged but disapproved by the Indian youth, albeit a bit late. The students including Muslims and Hindus were seen holding Gandhi’s posters reminding the authoritarian regime the principles of their founding father. The youngsters were witnessed wearing Tilaka and donning the same attire as a symbol of being “one nation.” Many gathered at Gateway of India reading constitution of India reverberating its ethos, a few were even seen giving Azaan there as a gesture of solidarity with Muslims. Others were found chorusing slogans of “Azadi” and singing Faiz’s “Hum Dekhein Ge.”

These protests, which are gaining momentum with each passing day, are a remarkable spectacle of the power of youth and them denouncing tyranny and fascism and deploring wide-scale state-endorsed persecution of Muslims in India. All these protestors are making it to the roads as small water drops, hoping to become large enough to form a sea that could erode the blot that Modi regime is on the idea of secular India and treading with baby steps to save India from further plunging into bigotry, communalism and fascism.

As a neighbour, it’s heartening to see Indian youth coming forward and saving the idea of secular India and not letting their elders repeat the same mistake their elders made in 1947.

The crop grown on the seeds of hatred is always red. Nations that thrive on the idea of ruling by dividing people based on religion, ethnicity and communal demonisation and try to build itself on the roots of hatred and bigotry, its future generations pays its cost with their blood.

India released a globally acclaimed film Rang De Basanti in 2006. Its title means “Paint me with the colours of spring.” That’s what India needs today, not the colour of Saffron (fascism) but the colours of spring (tolerance, harmony and inclusiveness).

Today, India yearns for Rang De Basanti.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad