[Secularism is a feature of industrial society, like those in North America and Europe. It is not a feature of feudal or semi-feudal societies, as in most Asian countries. Merely mentioning secularism in our Constitution does not make the country secular. India is still semi-feudal, as is evident from the rampant casteism and communalism prevalent here. Most Indians are deeply religious and since about 80 per cent Indians are Hindus, they are easy prey for communal propaganda. My own understanding is that most Indians are communal. When I am among my Hindu relatives and friends, most spout venom against Muslims. When a Muslim is lynched most Hindus are indifferent, some even happy. One terrorist less!]
By Markandey
Katju
 |
|
Markendey
Katju, addressing at an interactive session at Kolkata
on
December 05, 2011.
|
Something has happened in India which reminds
me of what happened in Germany during the Nazi era. After Hitler assumed power
in January 1933 almost the whole of Germany went into a frenzy, with people
shouting “Heil Hitler” (Hail Hitler), “Sieg Heil” (Hail victory!) and adoring
that despot without thinking.
Germans are such highly cultured people, who
produced great scientists like Max Planck and Einstein, great writers like
Goethe and Schiller, great poets like Heine, great musicians like Mozart, Bach
and Beethoven, great reformers like Martin Luther, great philosophers like
Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel and Marx, great mathematicians like Leibnitz, Gauss and
Riemann and great statesmen like Frederick the Great and Bismarck.
Nevertheless, when Hitler came on the scene and said Germans were “Herrenvolk”
(master race) and Jews were responsible for all their ills, they believed it and
did little against atrocities on them, which led to the Holocaust (many
supported it).
How did this happen? Surely Germans are not
inherently evil? I have always maintained that 99 per cent people of all
countries, religions and races are good. Then how could Germans send six
million Jews to the gas chambers? It happened because modern propaganda is such
a powerful thing that minds of even the most cultured and intelligent people
can be poisoned by it. This is what happened to most Germans of that time. The
distress of Germans after their defeat in World War-I and the massive
unemployment, inflation and economic crisis following the Great Depression of
1929 was easy fodder for Hitler for his evil propaganda.
The same has happened now to most Indians.
Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Right-wing Hindu party, come to
power in 2014, a huge communal propaganda has been unleashed in India against
the Indian minorities through hate speeches, accusing them of killing cows,
seducing Hindu girls (love jihad) and so on, poisoning the minds of most
Hindus. The demand for building the Ram temple and lynching of Muslims was a
regular feature over the last few years. The air strike on Balakot in Pakistan
and the war hysteria whipped up by the pliant media, was part of this campaign
and all this paid rich dividends in the form of a landslide spectacular victory
for the BJP in the parliamentary elections. The abolition of Article 370, which
to my mind will not solve any real problem, has resulted in most Hindus becoming
jingoistic.The real problems in India — record unemployment (as revealed by the
National Sample Survey, a Government organisation), appalling child
malnourishment (every second child in India is malnourished), huge number of
farmers suicides (over 300,000), almost total lack of proper healthcare and
good education for the masses, widening gap between rich and poor (seven
Indians own more wealth than the bottom half of India’s 1.36 billion
population) — were all non-issues in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Secularism is a feature of industrial
society, like those in North America and Europe. It is not a feature of feudal
or semi-feudal societies, as in most Asian countries. Merely mentioning
secularism in our Constitution does not make the country secular. India is
still semi-feudal, as is evident from the rampant casteism and communalism
prevalent here. Most Indians are deeply religious and since about 80 per cent
Indians are Hindus, they are easy prey for communal propaganda. My own
understanding is that most Indians are communal. When I am among my Hindu
relatives and friends, most spout venom against Muslims. When a Muslim is
lynched most Hindus are indifferent, some even happy. One terrorist less!
Communalism (hatred of minorities,
particularly Muslims) was always latent among most Hindus, only waiting for a
spark from somewhere to turn the powder keg into an explosion. Between 2014 and
2019 the communal fire was stoked by the BJP, which is dominated by the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Now that the BJP and its leader Narendra
Modi have won an astounding victory, there will be great pressure on them from
the people to create jobs, alleviate farmers distress, reduce malnourishment,
provide good education. But this they have no idea how to do. Instead what has
happened is that the economic situation has taken a nosedive, with the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) dropping to five per cent, steep decline in
manufacturing, real estate, power and mounting unemployment.
So to
divert the attention of the people from these real problems, which are
unsolvable within the present dispensation and in fact worsening, a scapegoat
has to be found, just as Hitler found in the Jews. In India this scapegoat will
be our Muslims and Christians, and I fear that now there will be recurrent
atrocities on them. Just as history was perverted in Nazi Germany, so was it in
post 2014 India. And just as Goebbels took over the German media, the Indian
media has largely caved in and is saluting our master ‘Ave Caesar Imperator’.
Dark days are ahead for India.
(The author is a former judge of the Supreme
Court of India.)
