Introspecting Aloud

Just found out from this post about the report on Cultural Policing in Dakshin Kannada(PDF) just released by The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka (PUCL-K). An interesting excerpt mentioned in the blog post:

As one observer, who has been covering the events in Dakshina Kannada, put it, “Today saffron is the colour of power. You just walk around with a big red tilak and see how people treat you. Right from the shop keeper to the bus conductor to the policeman, everybody gives you respect. Without the tilak you are nothing, with the tilak you become a power structure.” Munir Kattipalya of the DYFI echoes this sentiment when he says, “This district is not only communalized but also progressively criminalized.”

What is indicated by such statements is that there is a strong link between communalization and criminalization. It is precisely because the state has chosen not to act when criminal activities are perpetrated under the garb of religion that criminal elements now feel that they have the sanction to perpetrate violence and Cultural Policing in Dakshina Kannada other forms of intimidation by using the garb of religion. This possibly explains the proliferation of vigilante groups in Dakshina Kannada.

The tentacles of communalism is not restricted merely to Gujrat, Orissa and Karnataka. Religious violence and blackmail, this time from a section of the Muslim population came up again in Kolkata.

In November 2007, a certain section of Muslim population rioted in Kolkata against granting of visa to Tasleema Nasreen, who they claimed has insulted Islam by asking for greater rights for women. The state government, instead of showing a spine, succumbed to the blackmail and sent Tasleema packing to Jaipur. As usual, the government claimed that they had to do this to ensure law and order. However, the bottomline of what happened was that the city was blackmailed by violence and instead of doing the right thing, the government chose the politically safer option. Thus ensuring that a precedent was set in which no Kolkata based author critical of religion, especially Islam, can ever hope to find themselves safe in the city.

This is 2009, and instead of taking a chance to redeem itself, the same Kolkata government has shown it’s spineless self again. When the Statesman merely re-published this brilliant article by Johann Hari, a section of the muslim population started a riot once again, and yet again, the government instead of defending the people being attacked – the editor of Statesman, instead arrested him and charged him under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code which forbids “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings”.

If you read the article, you will find out that the article actually talks about all religions and how each of them are playing a part in undermining the institution of United Nations in following their goals of all resisting all attempts to reform or self-criticize.

If you read the article you might find a particular passage about the prophet having sex with a nine year old as perhaps unnecessary or being too unjustly specific. I did too. This was one of the text which was protested against. However, you should realise how topical this particular fact is, as just last month (January 2009), top clerics in Saudi Arabia approved marriage of girls as young as 10-12 years, for no other reason other than the fact that the prophet had done the same.

However, as Johann wrote in his response to the riots, he was uniformly harsh on all religions – Islam, Judaism, Christianity. Islam got a bit more attention simply for the fact that its proponents were much more active than others in subverting the UN charter.

The bottom line is, the Kolkata government got one more chance to show that it represented a modern country which while remaining secular by constitution but deeply religious within, is progressive enough to not just make safe but encourage literary space to reform and take the country forward. A Kolkata which once was a city of literature, is now a city where only sanitized political and religious discussions can take place. Which is just a shame for a city I like so much.