I read these two news articles on the same day, first was the report of the suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal by the UP government to avoid communal tension after she ordered to demolition of the wall of an illegally under-construction mosque, and the other news was about objection on removal of statue of Shivaji Maharaj from entrance of one new museum in Pune. In both cases the officers responsible for the maintenance of law and order acted to remove unauthorized structures, I believe that both acted according to present law and there was no other intention behind these actions. In the first case, the officer became a hero for acting according to the law and not bowing to political pressure but in the second case police officers who ordered the removal of that statue are treated like villains. Religion plays playing a huge part in both cases. Depending on their faith people react differently if an illegally constructed temple is demolished instead of a mosque and vice versa. There are people who support the destruction tomb of Afjal Khan (a Mugal officer who was killed by Shivaji), but the same people are against the removal of an unauthorized Shivaji statue. Ironically, the tomb that they want to destroy was built by Shivaji himself. This is an ideal example of a double standard and hypocritical behavior by people who want to bring religion, especially Hindu-Muslim conflict, in each and every issue (as it polarizes people which in turn brings a lot of media attention).
Both these actions are actually very routine incidents that happen every day as regular administrative processes. Demolition of illegal structures is not a new thing, but it always creates a lot of controversy if some religious structure is involved. Most people switch off their common sense and logical thinking when they deal with religion and politics. Both these institutions love to control people's minds and people oblige in large numbers, which gives them a lot of power and strength. These news articles clearly show how difficult it is to create religious harmony in Indian society, as long as these narrow-minded elements from all religions are present in society this task is going to be very challenging. I already wrote about the "secular and communal trap" that most political parties use to fool their voters and hide their own failures and corruption. Equal blame is on all voters and citizens who allow these parties and religious institutions to exploit them. These institutes are thousands of years old and their effect is very strong on the human psyche.
When the administration starts thinking about whether to implement a law just because of fear of hurting the religious sentiments then definitely there is a problem. According to me this can happen only because of two reasons, either the administration is not strong enough or courageous enough to act against these anti-social elements or they are only interested in playing politics of appeasement, the politics of divide and rule. This policy of divide and rule is used by various rulers to control their masses because they know that if the masses unite they will discover the truth and then it's not good for them.
I think it's up to us to decide how long we are going to allow them to divide us and exploit us. There will be always people who fall prey to these divisive politics but we need to try our best to make more and more people aware of this trap. Only voters can make these politicians realize that this divisive politics won't work anymore and they should do the work that they are supposed to do. We need to change ourselves first then only politicians will be forced to change, let's hope every one of us contributes their share to bringing that change.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)
Links:
1. Shivaji Maharaj statue removed from the entrance gate of FACT museum
2. U.P. IAS officers, Opposition slam Nagpal’s suspension
3. Furious IAS officers protest against Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension
Vinay, thanks for another thoughtful article. Religion and religious sentiments are truly being exploited by so many different people - and this has a grand historical tradition. In all ages since the religion came into being, it has been used as a weapon to seduce common people to do or not do a particular thing. Today, the ugliness has increased and is now influencing almost every decision. We Indians are particularly getting killed by this weapon today - because of our caste system. We not only create biases based on religion, but also based on castes and sub-castes. It is ridiculous, maddening, and frustrating. Most of all, we feel proud to falsely assume and celebrate that Hindu is the most tolerant religion in the world and Hindus 'were' the most advanced civilization/society in the world. A friend of mine shared an interesting article by Dr Naralikar today. It comments on supposed advancement of science in vedic era. Please read it: http://www.carvaka4india.com/2012/05/were-our-ancient-ancestors.html
ReplyDeleteA little diversion that was. But if this article is published in a Marathi/English local newspaper today, I am sure Naralikar will face unreasonable outrage.
Thanks a lot for sharing your opinion, no religion is tolerant once it faces a tough competition, they all become aggressive and violent when they face a competition or resistance.
DeleteThanks a lot for sharing that wonderful article by Dr. Naralikar, I really enjoyed reading it, there is nothing wrong to loot back at glorious past and to be proud of good deeds of our ancestors but the the same time its wrong to make unverified wrong claims and try to justify each and every act of our ancestors. I advise all readers to read that article and you are right, it surely will create lot of controversy if published today.