following article gives the real reason for the cmuunal devide.
Dr Moonis Ahmar
The writer is Associate Professor,
Department of International Relations, University of Karachi
[email protected]
It was the colonial rule, which began to give rise to various controversies sharpening division between Hindus and Muslims. It is also important to note that the controversies were between political elites of these communities rather than masses of these communities." This is what Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, an eminent Indian scholar said in his paper presented on the occasion of a three-day international conference on "Politics and Security in South Asia: Salience of religion and culture" organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Strategic and International Studies (BIISS) in collaboration with the German Embassy, Dhaka from October 8-10. Twenty participants from South Asia and abroad participated in that conference and dwelt at length the dynamics of religion and culture in the context of politics and security of the region.
Dialogue between different cultures and religions is vital for peace and stability of any society. The problem with South Asia since 1947 has been the over politicisation of religion resulting in the outbreak of hundreds of communal and sectarian riots claiming thousands of lives. Unfortunate happenings in the Indian state of Gujarat in which thousands of Muslims and Hindus became a victim of religious fanaticism is a vivid example of how the lack of meaningful dialogue and tolerance between different religions could lead to insanity and the loss of innocent lives. Ambassador Dr Gunter Mulack, Commissioner for the Dialogue of Civilisations, German Foreign Office, Berlin was right when he said in the inaugural session of the conference that "one should find out the causes of violence instead of calling for Crusades or Jihad. The only way one can deal with the virus of religious intolerance is by promoting better education and the alleviation of poverty through sustained and collective means. That the Islamic world needs to meet the challenges of 21st century by putting its own house in order instead of blaming others for their problems and the predicament." In the post-September 11, 2001 situation, one can see a sharp polarisation between the Muslim and the Western worlds. The growing frustration in a section of Muslim society in the aftermath of Israel's policy of liquidating the Palestinians through massive use of military power and the policy pursued by the Bush administration to change the Iraqi regime by force tend to raise a fundamental question: how a situation of peaceful coexistence could be created among different religions and cultures?
The BIISS-German embassy conference in Dhaka dealt with the fundamental issues of religions based politics and the failure of secular forces to stop the process of fanaticism, particularly in South Asia. The biggest problem which the South Asian countries are facing today concern the failure of state actors to rein in those forces who promote communal and sectarian hatred and destabilise society. The only solution to deal with the predicament faced by South Asia today is to encourage reason based, instead of communal based politics, because, as long as politics is pursued for further dividing the society on religious and cultural grounds, the result could be more insecurity and violence.
Four important factors of reason based politics need to be taken into account while examining the reality of religious intolerance in South Asia. First, for a successful political culture, it is essential that those who are involved in the political process do politics on the basis of reasoning instead of rhetoric. Unfortunately, what has happened in South Asia is total lack of responsibility expressed not only by the politicians, but also by the policy-makers in dealing with the sensitive issues of religion and culture. Instead of dealing with critical issues in a rational manner which divide society, they encourage parochial politics resulting into the outbreak of violence and loss of human lives as happened during the recent communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat and the killing of Christians in Pakistan. The problem with most of the political leaders and their parties in South Asia is they prefer following a short cut to power instead of pursuing a policy, which requires patience. To them the easiest way to win elections is by encouraging communal and ethnic feelings of their voters without realising the fact that such a policy could result into the fragmentation of society.
If reason based politics is practiced by political parties, they can ensure tolerance, sanity and political stability. Second, reason based politics also requires the civil society to remain vigilant and exclude all such elements in its midst who promote hate and violence against a particular community. But, the fact is, the civil society in South Asia is divided into moderates and hard liners. The traditional notion of civil society only representing progressive, secular and moderate sections of society is not valid in a given situation because as things stand, a strong section of civil society in South Asia is composed of extremist religious and ethnic groups. As it appears from political trends in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, one can see the marginalisation of secular and moderate forces of civil society and the assertion of those groups who advocate intolerance and the use of force against a particular ethnic group or religious minority. Recent elections held in Pakistan also depict the emergence of religious groups as a strong factor in the country's politics. In India, the ruling coalition led by the BJP is involved in religious and communal based politics and the Indian civil society has not been able to do much to stop the process of religious persecution of minorities. Therefore, the division of civil society, into moderates and hardliners, also shows the failure of those who want to do reason, instead of religious based politics.
Third, it is also the responsibility of the state to promote reason-based politics because if state actors are involved in communal and ethnic schism the result could be anarchy in society. But, in South Asia, it is very unfortunate to see that in some cases it is the state policy to promote religious intolerance and target a particular religious or ethnic minority. India, which is the largest state of South Asia is facing the predicament of communal violence, particularly in the aftermath of Gujarat riots. It is beyond any shadow of doubt that the state government in Gujarat, which belongs to BJP, followed a policy of fanning communal hatred against the Muslim minority. If it becomes a state policy in India today to target religious minorities like Muslims and Christians, it means the total failure of secular or reason based politics in that country. In Pakistan, during the days of President General Zia-ul-Haq, the state policy was to target a particular sect, which resulted in sectarian based politics thus polarising Pakistani society into Shias and Sunnis. In Sri Lanka, till lately, it was the state policy to target the Tamil minority, which led to bloody civil war for more than two decades. Only recently, ethnic based politics in Sri Lanka has been replaced with reason-based politics leading to ceasefire between the security forces and the Tamil Tigers. Finally, media plays an important role in promoting or neglecting reason based politics. But, one can see that a large section of media played an irresponsible role during the Gujarat riots resulting into massive killings and looting. The problem is, the English media in South Asia, which to a great extent supports reason based politics is not read by the majority of people. On the other hand, a large section of vernacular press read by the majority, is involved in fanning flames of religious, sectarian, communal and ethnic hatred. If print and electronic media behave in a responsible manner and project issues, which are rational in nature, much can be done to curb those forces who promote and project religious based politics.
It seems the reason-based politics in South Asia is the only solution to effectively deal with the cycle of ethnic, communal and sectarian violence. If state, society, political parties and media agree that they will support reason and rather than irrational based politics, much can be done to stabilise things in the region. Because of the tendency among political parties to follow short cut to power, reason based politics is not preferred by them. Most important, it is only through reason-based politics by which the energies of people could be directed in the right direction. If issues which are of a critical nature like poverty, education, environment, water and so forth are seriously considered by political parties, state actors and the media, much can be done to improve the socio-economic conditions of people and marginalise those who focus their political agenda on seeking power through short cuts. It is time, the South Asian countries liberate their minds from parochial issues and concentrate their energies on dealing with matters of human survival.