Books: Rite and Wrong

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Nov 15, 1999

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Issue Contents

"THE CONCERNED INDIAN'S GUIDE TO COMMUNALISM"
Rite and Wrong

Competently restating the secular argument.

By Harsh Seth

"THE CONCERNED INDIAN'S GUIDE TO COMMUNALISM"
EDITED BY K N PANIKKAR
VIKING
PRICE: Rs 395 PAGES: 252

Secularism, be it Sarva dharma sambhava or dharma nirpekshta, cannot today be understood as a mere separation of church from state, or even an avowed neutrality of the state in matters religious. It is, above all, a political project seeking to ensure equal rights and privileges for all, regardless of religious or cultural distinctions. It is this -- religious freedom, celebratory neutrality and reformatory justice -- that our Constitution promises. And this is what communalism derails in its efforts to steamroller diversity, hierarchise cultures or facilitate majoritarianism to the detriment of minority identity concerns.

All political parties are, to varying degrees, guilty of undermining secularism through a promotion of differential appeals and programmes designed to cultivate votes. While the preoccupation with identity concerns of minority political groupings can partly be explained by their fear of being swamped, it is the construction of a majority identity as synonymous with the nation that poses a danger to unity in diversity.

Central to a communal ideology is a religious conception of the nation and its history. Romila Thapar persuasively argues that Hinduised history is more than a reflection of ignorance; it is a deliberate, valorised construction of Hindu civilisation, painting our political history as a continuous record of Hindu resistance against foreigners, in particular the Muslim and Christian. Alongside Sumit Sarkar, who examines the basis of our fears about conversion, she questions the commonsense rendering of the foreigner in our psyche. Jayati Ghose adds the economic dimension, locating xenophobic tendencies in policies that exacerbate inequalities between peoples and regions.

More engaging is the elegant essay by Rajiv Dhawan on the relationship between religion, society and the state through an analysis of the Constitution and jurisprudence. Evidently our experience of maintaining neutrality and separation between state and religion is mixed. We have taken over temple trusts, supported denominational schools, even supervised elections to religious bodies. But when it comes to reformatory intervention, particularly ensuring gender justice in personal laws, our judges develop cold feet.

What, however, influences us most is the media. Siddharth Vardarajan shows up the infirmities in our mass media, both print and TV -- in particular how favouring of "News McNuggets" strengthens communal stereotypes and flattens complexity.

Finally, we have Tanika Sarkar's essay on the Rashtrasevika Samiti, exploring the wooing of women as voters, even encouraging them to step out of the home, while simultaneously reinforcing patriarchy. The strength of the Samiti has been stagnant even as the party has grown, an indication of how important women are in this framework.

As a restatement of secularist preoccupations, Panikkar et al do more than a competent job. For once an "engaged" tract locates itself in the terrain of debate, not polemics. It would have helped, however, had there been serious introspection about the failure of secularist imagination, its excessive reliance upon the state to mould civil society. In any engagement, the strength of the "other" has at least partly to do with the weakness of the "self".

NEW RELEASES

The Bharandas
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Novel that takes an objective look at the socio-political aspirations of the Bodos of Assam. P. Kotoky's translation does justice to the Assamese original.

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By Ritu Beri (Penguin, Rs 95)
Tips for grooming by the fashion designer that leave you wondering what's new.

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Part of a series, it looks at the cause and the solution for anxiety. Useful.

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Topical essays by top economists that stress the need for a more comprehensive theory of the title subject.

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A set of biographical sketches of well-known inventors. Handy for students.

Silent Valley
Ed by S.D. Biju, T.M. Manoharan, T.S. Nayar, P.S. Easa (Kerala Forest Dept)
Eminently readable anthology of life in the famed forest tracts of Kerala's Palakkad -- with spectacular photographs.

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