Dear reader, Ram Navami was marked by violence in many states ('A constant simmer', April 13). It followed the same old script - processions, provocative slogans, stone-pelting, clashes, destruction of goods and property, deaths. In Madhya Pradesh, the state responded by sending bulldozers to demolish houses and property that belonged to the alleged rioters. Meanwhile, Karnataka continues to simmer over hijab, halal, and now, loudspeakers. Another dormant fault line came alive when Home Minister Amit Shah batted for Hindi, not regional languages, as the substitute for English. Sonia Gandhi claims in an exclusive article in this newspaper ('A virus rages', April 16) that the ruling establishment wants India to be "in a state of permanent polarisation". She writes: "Whether it is dress, food, faith, festival or language, Indians are sought to be pitted against Indians and the forces of discord are given every encouragement, overt and covert. History - both ancient and contemporary - is continuously sought to be interpreted to promote prejudice, animosity and vengeance." She also warns that "an apocalypse of hatred, bigotry, intolerance and untruth is engulfing our country today".If Gandhi aims for the big picture, S Y Quraishi, Janaki Nair and Rita Kothari write on specific political strands and fault lines that have turned people restive. In an article on hate speech ('Calling out hate', April 15), Quraishi argues: "Hate speech must be unambiguously condemned and the law must take its course, although not merely because it can lead to events of violence in the future. Hate speech, in itself, must be understood and treated as a violent act and urgently so, for it has become an indispensable resource for the ruling powers." Janaki Nair ('Once upon a Karnataka', April 13) writes on Karnataka's "steep descent into the communal inferno it has become" from being a "sarva janangada shantiya thota" (A garden of peace), as poet Kuvempu described. Karnataka's unique kind of social justice politics, which addressed issues of electoral representation and welfarism, is now under threat from a new generation of Hindutva leaders which, supported by the state apparatus, wants to privilege a communal identity over the inclusive linguistic identity that was the foundation on which modern Karnataka was imagined. She writes: "Hindu Rashtra has become the sole visionary future for legions of young people. The giddy sense of psychic empowerment from staging this muscular, militant masculinity, compensates for the impotence arising from a gnawing awareness that education alone is no longer the guarantee of social mobility or indeed jobs. It arises from the impotence of conceding that Kannada's rich heritage is today no more than exhausted cultural capital, given the popular demand for English, the growing acceptance of Hindi, and increasing state support for Sanskrit. The 'outfits' performative violence is emboldened by the utter disarray among those social groups, and within those social movements - the Dalit Sangarsh Samiti, the farmers' and the women's movement - that had made Karnataka the site of novel social justice and development measures in the recent past… Karnataka's network of socially progressive Lingayat mathas, which have functioned like alternative governments in their respective regions, have either preferred to retain their autonomy, and tacit support of Hindutva, or have openly supported the 'outfits'. Political opposition in the state has also been silenced." Rita Kothari ('Speaking for Ourselves', April 14) reflects on the language fault line that has come alive after Home Minister Amit Shah flagged the government's preference for Hindi over English and local languages. She writes: "The spectre of Hindi emerges in India almost every few years and quite often, the reactions are to the state than to Hindi itself - the state and a particular version of Hindi. There is very little resistance to bolchaal ki Hindi, especially when made out of necessity and not inherent imperialism. Left to their own resources, the people of India manage to communicate across linguistic divides. It is when they are besieged that they ferociously proclaim the superiority of their languages." The Indian Express editorial ('Diversity in Unity', April 12) recalls that "the debate over India's official language has an acrimonious history, it triggered violent protests in the 1960s". It was settled "in favour of accommodation of different languages as against the dominance of Hindi". The editorial argues against disturbing this settlement, which "has proved to be successful in a country that speaks in many tongues". Pratap Bhanu Mehta ('The triumph of Putinism', April 14) spots the rise of a regressive idea, which he calls Putinism. Mehta describes Putinism as "a syndrome, a cluster of political tendencies that are congealing across the world". According to Mehta, its avowed aim is to displace Western hegemony. The West in this formulation is not a geography, or a cultural idea, but "a stand in for 'Liberal'." He writes: "There is an obsession with demography, the ethnic composition of populations. There is an abiding suspicion of the foreign and the cosmopolitan. In a slightly odd phenomenon what unites these countries is that they all hate the figure of George Soros, emblematic now of the foreign hand. They envisage re-altering the relationship between civil society and the state, where civil society is expected to serve the purposes of the state rather than be autonomous in its own right. There is a discomfort with pluralism, a contempt for moderation, disdain for freedom, and mistaking ruthlessness for achievement. Putin may lose, but Putinism is ascendant as an ideology-now aligning itself with White supremacism, French chauvinism, Israeli right-wing assertion, Ottoman dreams, Chinese aggression or Hindutva aggression, They want to take down the West but what they really want to take down is liberalism." Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan ('Change next door', April 11). Ajay Darshan Behera ('Failing the test', April 11), Kesava Menon ('Without a coup', April 11), C Raja Mohan ('The larger battle for Pakistan', April 12), Menaka Guruswamy ('An Islamabad moment', April 16) analyse the different dimensions of the change at the top in Pakistan. The Indian Express welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to hear the petitions challenging the electoral bond scheme. The Express editorial ('Bond identity', April 11) writes: "Given the increasingly polarised nature of India's polity, it is of the utmost importance that the Supreme Court either removes all doubts about the validity of the scheme or orders the government to make the necessary changes." Besides the rising lemon prices ('Sour lemons', April 15), the Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt wedding ('Mere star ki shaadi', April 15) and the untimely demise of script-writer actor Shivkumar Subramaniam ('Writing the image', April 12) caught the attention of the Opinion section. Madhav Godbole drew lessons from history to write that the city of Chandigarh should be transferred to Punjab ('City beautiful, historical wrong', April 15). He also questions why regions such as Chandigarh, Puducherry etc. must continue as Union Territories. The Centre must reconsider their UT status, he writes. Makes eminent sense. Thank you, Amrith Lal The writer is a Senior Associate Editor with the Indian Express Opinion pages and writes on politics, public affairs and culture | 
No comments:
Post a Comment