One regret of mine is that too much of the time, we seem to be focusing on issues smaller than those that merit our attention. Fortunately, we all have our own avatars who keep us focused on some of the really big-ticket issues, the ones that should keep us awake at night. Arundhati Roy is one of mine, and her newest piece is about, well, it’s about economic pressure, the fight over natural resources, good governance, judicial systems, and finally, genocide.
She traces out the roots of the Rastriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological outfit devoted to making India a Hindu state. She quotes this chilling piece from an early RSS ideological publication:
In Hindustan, land of the Hindus, lives and should live the Hindu Nation…. All others are traitors and enemies to the National Cause, or, to take a charitable view, idiots….
The foreign races in Hindustan…may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizen’s rights.
Towards the end of a recent discussion in Drishtipat, the debate turned towards the space and legitimacy of religion-based parties in Bangladesh. I could not participate, one of the reasons being that religion for me is such a private matter that it is very hard for me to respond when generalities are made about religions and people’s religious views. However, I think a couple of points can be stated unequivocally, and with complete assurance.
Firstly, the Bangladesh I dream of should have an inclusive, open nature as one of its principal hallmarks. For all that our country is small and overpopulated, I believe that the people of Bangladesh are open-hearted and hard-working enough to include all religious, ethnic, and social groups in their vision of their beloved country. Nor should any such group live in our country in fear of being targeted or discriminated against just because of their membership in such a group.
Secondly, you cannot kill ideas by banning them. The RSS has been banned at least twice, I believe. Each time, it has emerged stronger and more durable. Ideas must be fought in the marketplace of ideas. Most people do not believe in and have little time for hate and hate-mongering. As long as our mainstream, democratic forces espouse a tolerant, inclusive Bangladesh, hate-mongers will be forced to remain in the fringes of our political culture, and never be able to dominate and set the terms of public discourse as they have successfully done in India.
Ending with a pet peeve, I had always thought that if we had allowed Taslima Nasrin to remain in Bangladesh, she would maybe have matured enough to desist from scoring cheap points by writing anti-religion shills, and focussed on some of the actual social and economic issues that plagued our country. Unlike us, Indian polity was mature enough not to hound Arundhati Roy out of her country, although she has consistently been much more vitriolic and anti-establishment than Nasrin had ever been. Nor has Maqbul Fida Hossein been forced to flee India, despite drawing nude representations of Indian gods and goddesses. It is a pity that Nasrin was never allowed the chance to become a voice for our own oppressed, as Roy was.
