Pseudo-Secularism

Hindu dharma is implicitly at odds with monotheistic intolerance. What is happening in India is a new historical awakening... Indian intellectuals, who want to be secure in their liberal beliefs, may not understand what is going on. But every other Indian knows precisely what is happening: deep down he knows that a larger response is emerging even if at times this response appears in his eyes to be threatening.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Minorityism, Kerala's time bomb

VA Gangadharan

Kerala is fast emerging as a hotbed of "communal feudalism". It is manifested in the broad spectrum of Malayalee life and culture. In her democratic road to communal power, the patronage regimes of Kerala have virtually destroyed every socio-political structure so assiduously built by men of great conviction during the social reform movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Kerala is now caught in the vortex of appeasement politics. Governance has become a dirty game of apportionment by feudal caucuses controlled by influential minority leaders - a paradox of pluralistic democracy. This is perhaps the only state in India where the concept "minorities" is irrelevant because the ratio of Hindus (the "majority") to non-Hindus is almost 50-50. Yet it is witness to the worst form of communal feudalism. The Hindus of Kerala are victims of all-out discrimination by the owners of fiefdoms earned through minority appeasement by leaders of both the LDF and UDF.

Under colonialism, they were deprived of their social capital through a process of systematic dethronement. Political isolation went hand-in-hand with economic deprivation thanks to well-orchestrated policies. Now, brainwashed by an educational system which promotes self-flagellation for Hindus, they are reduced to pleading for the unity of the majority against the minority.

But strange are the ways of democracies. The majority does not matter! Kerala's political parties are in thick competition to appease the minority vote-banks. That is considered legitimate under "secularism". The Kerala Congress (KC) was created under the indirect auspices of the Church to promote Christian interests by retaining power in core sectors - revenue,education and rural development - irrespective of the formation in power. The KC's ministers pampered their community and when the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)'s turn came, they outdid the feat of the trendsetters. The response of the majority has not been matched in deeds - only words. Ideological combat is all that is offered.

Politics is the art of possibilities. For the minorities, support or opposition to the UDF or LDF is based on the extent of the commitments each group is able to extract in order to ensure that the majority is kept divided. Examples are available in plenty. An exploration of these issues will bring out the nature of the struggle discreetly fought by the minority against the majority. Leaders who try to rise above this unseemly game are shown the door. The fates met by AK Antony and VS Achuthananthan highlight this fact.

Antony was removed from the post of CM because he dared to tell the world about the relative prosperity of the minorities over the majority community. He wanted to befriend the estranged Nair-Ezhava leadership which supported him to secure the best ever UDF victory in its history. But the minorities were in no mood for reconciliation and he was shown the door.

The Justice KK Narendran Commission report is yet another classic case of minority appeasement. The history of reservation policies, right from the age of the Maharajahs, was one based on appeasement. The Travancore kings did it by implementing Noke's report (1936) and disregarding the Legislator Committee Report. When the Constitution of India confined reservation to the SCs and STs, successive governments in Kerala opened new windows of appeasement by extending 40 per cent reservation to "backward classes". In the end, the minorities turned out to be the largest holders of resources, power and privileges. The Commission, much to the discomfiture of its sponsor, brought out a surprising story of over-representation of OBCs and minorities. The report has had a profound impact on Kerala society. The Ezhavas, who led the struggle in the company of Muslims and Christians, now withdrew and initiated a movement for the majority. This has been one of the few salutary effects of the Narendran Commission. It ended the era of enmity between the Nairs and the Ezhavas.

The Muslim League, which converted communal feudalism into an ideology, is now consolidating its fiefdom ahead of the panchayat elections by raising the demand for the implementation of the Narendran report. In the process, the UDF's edifice will be damaged permanently. This may be divine justice because the UDF was the original creator of communal fiefdoms. Communalism was its mantra and feudalism its practice.

They allowed parades in Marad to appease Muslim fundamentalists and quelled the Muthanga and Mathikkettan agitations to pacify Christian settlers. They had no qualms in selectively pumping public resources to realise private political objectives. These monies were used to monopolise profit-making institutions in utter disregard to sensible public opinion. They wrested government properties worth crores in prime locations of Kerala's towns to harvest the "dreams" of the state's GenNext.

They sympathised with Kerala' first known Islamic terrorist,Abdul Nasser Madani, the prime accused in the 1998 Coimbatore blast case, and moved covertly to get him bail. An Assembly dominated by the UDF can be counted upon to enact any law for abetting minority aggrandisement.

The LDF, led by the Marxists, is no better. The CPI(M )'s choice of Malappuram as the venue of its 2005 state conference was deliberate. It was an ill-concealed move to reach out to Muslims and convince them of the closeness of Marx and madrassa. The party condemns and humiliates all those who speak out against appeasement. Even a senior comrade like V Achutanandan, the leader of the CPI(M) in the Assembly, was subject to such treatment.

The CPI(M) has no qualms about courting alliances with parties like the IUML. Convenient theories are advanced to justify this policy. In the process, the LDF is alienating the majority by clandestinely aligning and co-habiting with known communal feudal lords. Historically, the LDF has never been seen without a communal group under its fold - whether Muslim or Christian.

Instances of double standards in appeasing communal feudalists are too many to be listed. A classic case is the the Plus-Two schools' scandal of the mid-1990s when the LDF, which was then in power, merrily allowed sectarian groups to take over government institutions. Thus, an excellent opportunity for course correction was frittered away. In the ongoing self-financing college issue, what concerns the Communists more is protecting the nterests of the (minority-dominated) managements of 85 per cent of the colleges profiting from the system rather than pursue justice for Rajani, the student of one such college in Adoor, Pathanamthitta district, who was forced to commit suicide last year after she was denied a loan. They got their cadres free in the Nadapuram case by succumbing to the ultra Muslim communal outfit, the National Development Front.

There is not so much to be said about the so-called "Hindu Right". For obvious reasons, political formations espousing Hindu unity are yet to open their account in Kerala politics. But if indications are anything to go by, they will outdo the LDF and UDF in vote-bank politics if ever they come to power.

However, the analysis will be incomplete if we ignore how majority community is responding to communal feudalism. Yes, there is Hindu consolidation: The NSS and the SNDP Yogam are coming closer. There is reason to believe that the unity will sustain because, unlike past experiments which were top-down, this time the impetus is coming from the grassroots. This is certainly giving Kerala politics new undercurrents. Vellappaly and Panikker are speaking in favour of broad Hindu unity - this is something unheard of in Kerala.

But, no, this enthusiasm will be swept away once the communal feudals, promoted by the existing poles of Kerala politics, invent a new ideology and barge into the centrestage with a profound appeasement policy. Their success is assured because divisive politics has deep political, socio-demographic and economics foundations.

The pessimism is compounded by experience from near history. The resolve to contain the ogre of appeasement is sure to be diluted once the loaves and fishes of office are won. Ending minority appeasement soon gets reduced to a slogan.

(The writer is Director, Sage India Knowledge Associates (SIKA). He can be accessed at drvagsika@gmail.com) l

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