What happens when a religious-communal political party suddenly finds itself in total control of a large prospering country thanks to that party’s appeal to a single religion that dominates the landscape and thanks to a previous government that made up in corruption what they lacked in religious fanaticism.
Power goes to their head, that’s what happens and hotheads take over. Beneath the surface of the governing elite among whom are many reasonable men, there is a boiling mass of semi-literate zealots, as fanatical as any Taliban element who are restless at the slow pace of Hindutva which is a word that means increasing Hinduisation of the body politic. This element is constantly pressuring those in power to make more and more concessions to their demands of making India a Hindu state or at least make it look like one while ignoring the Constitution as much as judges will allow. All this is now playing out in Maharashtra and erupting in Bombay and other parts of the state where the party is in power. The provocation is the eroding of the normal rights of the lower classes (once called untouchables) and the religious minority populations. The Dalits as the lower classes are called, have in military precision, taken to the streets and paralyzed Bombay, in a violent manner in the likeness of a valve opening on an overheated pressure cooker. With the Dalits making up 25% of India’s population and the Muslims with whom they have often joined cause, making 14%, they are a combined force the ruling party can ignore only at their own peril. So far the Muslims have remained on the sidelines despite various provocations like the beef ban, but they are easily instigated and prone to violence as the country’s communal history indicates. If the two large sections of India’s society feel they have no other avenues of redress, the conflagration will mean more brakes on the already slowing economy and the last thing the country needs. Roland Francis Toronto.
