23

Nov

Election Campaign : Communalism And Economic Realism

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Today's Edition

New Delhi, 23 November 2023

Pradeep Mathur  

The  five state Assembly election campaign, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where BJP is fighting a grim battle , has served only  to strengthen the two opposing narratives - minority friendly and minority unfriendly-- which have been dominating our political discourse in the Modi era.

 The two camps have their own well articulated narratives. The minority friendly camp emphasizes our long traditions, Ganga-Jamuni culture, a jointly- fought struggle for freedom from British rule and the great vision and wisdom of the fathers of our Constitution in support of a secular character for Indian polity. The minority unfriendly camp harps on the real or perceived oppression and hardships faced by the majority Hindu population in Muslim period and large-scale conversion to first Islam and then Christianity till India’s Independence. This camp also accuses the Congress rule after Independence for having allowed the historical wrongs to continue till Narendra Modi came to power as the saviour of Hindus and Hindustan.

 As prejudices and emotions take better of logic and rationality the two camps show no willingness to arrive an agreed common understanding of our history. In a way the two camps have divided the country’s public opinion in general and intelligentsia in particular into two clearly defined ideological lines. However, our masses  are utterly confused as till 2014 they were never asked to express their opinion in favour or against such a sharp political divide.

However, the whole debate has no element of economic realism in it and, therefore, it is totally meaningless and futile as far as the interests of the broad masses of this country are concerned. A debate on a matter of faith or history does not help people who need money to buy their bread and survive. Economics has its own logic and those claiming to lead people must understand it .However, neither minority unfriendly nor minority friendly opinion leaders ever bother about this. And we all like to keep our eyes closed as far as the all- important question of sustainability is concerned.

 How the logic of economic sustenance works is not difficult to understand. What we need is an understanding of the economic reality of the society we live in. During the height of Ram Janmabhumi movement in 1986-1992 the ordinary Muslim residents of Faizabad district were an unusually happy lot. The reason was simple. Rambhakts visiting the disputed shrine in Ayodhya will usually go there in kharaun (wooden chappals) and cover themselves with Ramnomi, a hand-woven bhagwa cotton cloth. As the number of Ram bhakts swelled so was the demand for the two items. This gave very good business and better price for the items to the weavers and carpenters of the area who were prominently Muslims. While Muslim leaders were feeling agitated everywhere Ram mandir agitation was a God sent gift for Muslim artisans of the area.

 During the height of the dispute a prominent leader of Babri Masjid Action Committee bought a house in an old colony of Lucknow, nearly three km away from the Council House, the seat of power. The house belonged to a devout Hindu. After the deal was done there was some dispute over payment. When the dispute could not resolved the Babri Action Committee member approached a VHP leader to help him. On VHP leader’s intervention the dispute was resolved in favour of Babri movement leader.

 Earlier, to that during the highly unfortunate anti-Sikh riots in 1984, the SSP of Varanasi told me that more than saving Sikh residents of Varanasi his bigger worry was to save the garment shops of Punjabi cloth merchants. When I was asked why he said the rioters wanted to loot the shops as in this winters the sale of the looted woollen cloth would fetch them good money.

 During the same time a rich Marwari trader with a flourishing Banarasi saree business told me that he had no love for minorities but there should be no violence. I thought he was a pacifist till he told me that violence was disrupting his business, and the demand of sarees had gone down and the salesmen he had sent to Punjab were returning with very poor purchase orders.

The fact is that the economic activity which sustains the masses has its own logic and it does not differentiate between majority or minority or between caste and creed. The bread we earn by such activity is creed neutral. It is neither anti majority nor pro-majority. It is unfortunate that the logic of bread is missing in our national discourse.

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