India: The Fault Lines
If there is one country where earthquakes (not seismic) can easily be caused, it is India. As Indians prepare to celebrate 75 years of partition (also, independence), the fault lines in Indian society continue to fester and cause discomfort to many Indians at a variety of levels. Most don’t even realise that these fault lines exist and how they have been exploited and continue to be exploited. Fault lines have always existed in a heterogenous country like India; however, they have been used to the hilt mostly in the last 100 years. As the structure of the country, its governance and a semblance of democracy took root, instead of bringing India closer, the fault lines have been actively used to pursue short-term political gains.
So what are these fault lines?
Now, I will not make an effort to count the number of fault lines that exist in India as they are numerous.
The British GOI (Government of India) first used the fault line between Hindus and Muslims in 1905 by the division of Bengal and then subsequently created communal representation in 1919. This recognition and establishment of Hindu and Muslim constituencies was an easy way for the British to “divide and rule”. It created two competing power centres in the Indian society which ultimately resulted first in the creation of the Pakistani society and then later in the creation of the Bangladeshi society. Interestingly, Islam wasn’t enough to hold Pakistan together and the Bengali Muslim — Punjabi Muslim fault line along with linguistic differences led to break — up of Pakistan. The difficulty of Christian missionaries to convert large swathes of Indians into Christianity resulted in exploitation of another fault line, and this time it was “caste”. The malgovernance and financial rape of India and its resources resulted in poverty; which in turn resulted in exploitation of the poor by the rich. The rich (Nawabs, Rajas, Zamindars etc.) followed the cue of their British masters and copied them in harassing their own countrymen (not true in all cases but it does stand out), without realising the societal impact of their actions. This in turn cemented the caste system, from being role based to birth based. To this day, the Indian society and specifically the Hindu society hasn’t been able to shrug off the caste divisions. Even Indian Christians and Muslims(almost all converts from Hinduism) haven’t been able to plug the casteist fault lines in their societies.
The use of reservations as a political tool, the census of caste, the caste math and formulas, their use in politics led to the rise of Identity politics. Today local political satraps who can cobble together small sections of their community can influence national politics. So, we have a party for Yadavs and Muslims in 2 major states, parties for Muslims (in a country already divided twice on the Hindu-Muslim fault line), party for Sikhs, party for Hindus, party for Dalits, party for tribals and so on and so forth. The missteps of the Congress in Punjab which had the unwanted consequence of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and the subsequent Sikh riots created another fault line and this time it was the Hindu- Sikh fault line. The exploitation of this fault line by Pakistan in the form of the Khalistani Movement is not to be missed. The latter was used again in the anti-farm law protests.
In 1989, the Mandal commission and Kamandal politics took root. One was weakly designed to reward lower castes of the Hindu society, while the other pulled in the opposite direction to unite Hindus through a temple movement. In the midst of all this, the Chinese have surreptitiously used the naxals, communists and groups in the north-east to wage an unofficial low intensity war against the Indian state. The Chinese on occasions have also used the Asian features of North-East Indians to cause a riot and fear-like situation for them. There are many such fault lines that continue to be used quite sophisticatedly by internal and external enemies of the country.
So, what’s the solution?
As a nation, India and its people have been divided and divided. However, in this division lies the solution. One, India can learn how to exploit the fault lines of other countries. It was done successfully in the case of Pakistan in 1971. Second, Indians can themselves through education and better understanding of the world and the nation desist from voting for political parties which use Identity politics. Third, the political parties can themselves change a few things. For example, one political party has been at the forefront of doing this. The BJP has continuously used one major fault line and i.e. the Hindu-Muslim fault line. However, there are multiple shades in its use of this. There is a carrot and stick policy that it clearly follows. On one hand, government services are provided to all citizens but when it comes to elections the fault lines are used and voters from the Muslim community are reminded who their forefathers were and how they need to fix their attitude towards nation building (clearly they are asked to identify with the nation and not the Muslim ummah). With the caste divisions in the Hindu centric societies, the divisions have been further deepened. And this might seem surprising as the BJP-RSS combine which is touted as a party which is against reservations and in support of unification of the Hindu society and its expansion through Ghar-Wapsi; how can it further divide and subdivide the Hindu society into smaller and smaller groups? This is not a folly but a great strategy. BJP understands that it cannot roll back years of reservations (no one wants a gift to be taken back), bad policies and the already solidified divisions in Hindu society but what it can do is make the caste divisions so small that the divisions stop mattering at the poll booth or at least they can be influenced much more easily.
Think of it this way. If you can’t move a few big rocks, then the best idea is to smash them into smaller pieces and then move them at will, either by moulding them into newer rocks or one giant rock. Thus, the smashing of castes into smaller and smaller groups will eventually allow the BJP to create better societal structures which can be motivated to vote it continuously to power. All this has two advantages: one, political parties that don’t reform themselves wouldn’t be voted to power and slowly get delegitimized; second: people who had voted leaders and parties who played identity politics are themselves left behind as they have a shrinking influence base.
The more individualized identities become, the brakes are put on the formation of powerful religious, ethno and cultural groups which influence the nation through incorrect use of social fault lines. Narendra Modi had aptly put it when he had said, “The fault lines are shifting from the boundaries of nations into the web of our societies and the streets of our cities. And, terrorism and extremism are a global force that are larger than their changing names, groups, territories and targets.” All Indians can just hope that it is not just his party but also the rest of the political class that listens to it and most importantly Indians need to understand that they need to bridge their fault lines and say, “India First”.
