FANATICAL INDIA

As India grows in importance and economic power, it is becoming intolerant, Inflexible under Modi than it used to be under the Nehru- Gandhi’s. The numerous bans example- attack the writer, lynch the rape accused, and kill the rationalist, returns to your forefather’s religion, vandalize the church, add the Gita to the syllabus. The comman thread that runs through most of these eruptions is reactionary ideology, “Hindutva.” It is forbidden to watch BBC documentary on India’s Daughter, Fifty shades of Grey, It Is forbidden to use words like lesbians or Bombay in films. Etc.

In Murugans case, V.SubbaLakshmi, The Namakkal district revenue officer, brokered a deal between him and his thin skinned critics forcing him to withdraw his book announces his “writely death”.

According to Peter D’ Souza, professor at the Centre for the study of developing societies in Delhi, “The great of India lies in its several little pluralities. But over the last several months we seem to be moving from plural democracy to a majoritarian democracy.”

The brittleness with which the government has dealt with several issues, from ghar wapsi to re- imagining the educational system in the ideological prism of the Hindu right to littering the nation with a series of absurd prohibitions recently, has merited concern.

The bans have been an in escapable fact of life in the independent India.  Two processes are taking place at the same time: The liberal agenda are becoming more public and becoming countered by conservative agendas. A generational shift is taking place. The older conservative economy is being shaken up by new economies, giving rise to an emerging middle class who is quite conservative.

The social struggle inside India in the last nine months sends bad message to the potential investors. The numerous bans as well as the ghar wapsi programs are manifestations of those social controls being challenged.

 The sharp reply by the Indian Government against the Manipur attack in Myanmar is a point that to be noted. India has been treated   as sitting ducks by foreign aggressors. It is point at hard to accept intolerance any more.

In our country competitive politics is transforming the idea of difference in the idea of adversary. In a period of change, these differences often get accentuated, ending up covering the adversary into an object of hate. As the thrash hold of the offense comes down, the right to offend and to be offended becomes an area of contestation.