The history of this communal antagonism is predominant in the mid 20th Cen. colonial India, where the idea of nation-state was an emerging phenomena and the only means for future governance was a bourgeois democracy. This gave rise to what we now understand as communal vote bank politics.Till then the word 'Hindu' had a broader and vague connotation. Hinduism being a polytheistic religion never had a centralized consciousness which one might see in the Abrahamic religions. The social system of caste was an equivalent to a modern day apartheid system of oppression where majority within its contemporary fold(false conscious)are still oppressed socially and economically because of their descent. To define a caste, it can be said as a tribal system of endogamous marriage practices primarily based on an exogamous base. It has a hierarchical pyramid of religious privileges and duties, where the highest of the castes enjoys most of the privileges and minimal duties where as, most of the "duties" were pushed on the lower ones. This infers to the fact that Hindu by themselves were never a one nation. Similarly, the remaining minorities of the sub-continent i.e: Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc,were and are still marginalized in all aspects of the society.(Housing, jobs,prestige, social acceptance) This system of hegemony of the upper-class Hindus is what I term as Hindu-supremacy.I do not intend to criticized the philosophical attempt of a religion to understand the nature of existence,but the institutionalization of its prejudicial social structure i.e so-called Śāstras "scared laws" needs to be smashed!
A through analysis of Hindu nationalism would be a topic of another blog, but since it's a summary I would jump into post-independent India, Where caste-based segregation still remains as an issue(i.e socially accepted), but the apathy of the rising urban educated middle-class fumes its sentimentality.Fear based intimidation has been its prominent streak. An international product of capitalist propaganda, Where "war on terror" has been intentionally placed in such a manner which blurs the lines between fundamental Islamist groups, the ideology of Islam and the word terrorism. Since most of the rational for the hanging were based upon "fighting terrorism". I would urge the sincere to objectify their stand. To fight terrorism we need to 1st be able to define it and later find appropriate measures to deter the crimes committed. So, Terrorism can be defined as "the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature...through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear"-NC. It is a method, not an ideology.If one applies this definition to other acts of calculated violence like the intimidation by Hindu leader Bal Thackeray during the'92 Mumbai riots, openly spilling venom against the Muslims of Mumbai and challenging the police and judiciary to arrest him for his fear mongering, this coercive nature has given his proto-fascist Shiv Sena party the political capital which still has its hold on working-class communities in Mumbai. Or take for example the infamous Gujarat Riots of '02 where there has been suo moto evidence against the now Prime minister of India and then, the members of his state cabinet with his associates from the same reactionary groups like the RSS, BD and VHP, to which Mr. Modi belongs. RSS(Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has a history of openly praising the fascist dictators of 20th Cen. Europe. It preaches for a Hindu state and has openly called out the Muslims as the Jews of India. There are several examples of terrorist activities instrumented by the state on its own people. In a bourgeois democracy the state is always antagonistic towards the interests of the people, and this is evident in the deeds of the so-called secular party the Congress,the "lesser-evil" which has its own hands in people's blood(the plight of the Sikh community in'84) While the national consciousness was very keen on hanging Yakub, the accused on the other side have not faced any considerable legal actions. Mr.Thackeray was given a state funeral on his natural death, whereas Maya Kodani and Babu Bajrangi accused for their respective involvement during Gujarat riots are out on bail. can't this be ruled as the use of state to institutionalize a reactionary anti-people ideology?
"The peculiarity in Memons’s case stems from the fact that he had chosen to travel to Delhi from Pakistan—where he and his family had been in hiding since the blasts—on 28 July 1994.He had come back with the intent, as the sequence of events seems to suggest, of aiding the investigating agencies in their task. The evidence that Memon provided during the investigation proved to be crucial in proving Pakistan’s links to the blasts. However, if Memon had made this journey with the expectation being shown leniency, he was to be proven wrong. This became evident when his death sentence was read out by a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (Preventive) [TADA] judge in 2007".[1]TADA is a similar draconian law which parallels the Bush era PATRIOT act of '01 in the US. This was the reason why the reactionary elements from the Muslims community vocalized their rhetoric, which in turn would create another generation of Yakub Memons. Remember!the Mumbai blast of '93 was a reaction to the post-Babri riots of '92-93."Punishment in a humane society must balance between retribution on behalf of the victim and the possibility of the rehabilitation of the criminal.And, of course, it must meet the requirement of proportionality, in other words, the punishment must fit the crime".[2] The issue of capital punishment morally speaking is a remnant of inhuman colonial era law,and my denouncement doesn't equals me of being an anti-national.This verdict doesn't serve as justice but adds the vicious cycle of vengeance.
"While the youth of the nation got occupied in a jarring outcry post the commutation of the sentence. The ruling class with its politicians has managed to subdue the recent surge surrounding the External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje over their murky connection to Lalit Modi,the former commissioner of the Indian Premier League(Cricket event); the scores of mysterious deaths around the massive Vyapam scam"[3]. Looks like our Capitalist masters have revived the old trick of stroking the goat in the process of looting the wealth of the nation.
Articles cited: [1].http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/death-yakub-memon-should-alert-us-birth-new-republic [2]Paraphase.http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/death-yakub-memon-should-alert-us-birth-new-republic [3]Paraphase http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/death-yakub-memon-should-alert-us-birth-new-republic
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