From India to Bangladesh, America, China, and now the heart-wrenching case of Shri Lanka has left me deeply saddened. I don’t know how many more incidents like this will take place just to prove one community greater over others.
Are communities greater than humanity? To live in a world, do we really need communities? To understand diversity, do we really need castes and religions? What about the other aspects of life which are necessary for survival? We are neglecting all those aspects just for the sake of communalism.
Communal violence always affects the life of human beings. Poor and middle class suffer more than anyone. This loss includes not just their families but their lifetime earnings, homes, their places, which they had earned with their sweat and blood.
Intellectuals, news channels, politicians talk only about the number of casualties belonging to a certain caste or religion; even worse, such incidents are politicized. Political parties belonging to different communities start blaming each other and humanity takes a back seat.
From ancient to modern India, invaders and politicians have always taken advantage of our religious differences. From the time of the British colonial era, robust propaganda of “divide and rule” is being used as a tool to incite hatred among people of different communities.
Our country has witnessed a large number of communal violence. I will discuss some major incidents of communal violence from the past that shook the conscience of the nation.
Gujarat Communal Riots (1969):
When a temple in Ahmadabad was attacked, it resulted in a communal violence and rapidly expanded to major cities and town of Gujarat. It continued over a month. 660 people were killed, 1074 were injured, and more than 40,000 lost their property. It was the most deadly violence after 1947. Only political parties were benefited from it. Not a single person or party took responsibility. No one talked about the loss. Common people suffered. Nobody learned any lesson.
Later in the same state communal violence took place in Godhara. In which a train was set on fire, that later resulted in huge communal violence between two major religions of India and lives were lost.
Anti-Sikh Riots (1984):
In an attempt to “Save Democracy” through the “Emergency” Indian constitution was suspended. Without any legal process entertained, 140,000 people were arrested, of which 40,000 were from the Sikh Community.
When the Emergency was lifted, the Sikh community demanded a separate nation under the leadership of Bhindarwale, who moved his political base to Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple). In retaliation, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered Indian Army to launch an attack on them with armored vehicles and tanks.
This resulted as a crucial armed conflict in the nation between Sikh Khalistanis and Indian Army. Later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards which they justified as an act of vengeance.
Allegations to cover-up and shielding of political leaders of Indian National Congress over this role in 1984 riot crimes have been widespread. Sajjan Kumar, an Indian National Congress leader was convicted and found guilty for the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case.
This had proved that it was a politically inspired conspiracy in which only common people suffered.
Exodus And Killing Of Kashmiri Hindus:
Since the partition of India, due to the persecution by Islamic Fundamentalists (article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution), Kashmiri Hindus were asked to leave within 24 hours or die, through notices placed on their houses. And later in the Kashmir region, approximately 300 Kashmiri Pandits were killed between 1989 and 1990.
Since March 1990, approximately 50,000 Kashmiri Pandits have migrated outside Kashmir. The proportion of Kashmiri Pandits has declined from 15 percent to 0.1 percent since 1947.
No political party raised any question. People of one community were motivated to kill other people belonging to other communities. This was also a politically conspired incident. If we look at it closely, the problem of Kashmir has worsened. Could it be solved by killing people?
These were some of the incidents of communal violence that took place in India. If we observe closely in our daily lives also we keep coming many incidents of communal hatred every now and then.
But Why Does This Happen?
We take the words of our leaders, preachers and ideal intellectuals as the ‘words of God’. Hardly do we even try scrutinize their claims using rationality and logic, and thus end up following them blindly. Thus instead of addressing actual problems and focussing on development, politicians often resort to inciting communal hatred by using hate speeches in order to garner votes in the elections.
Even the media these days is skewed and indulges in spreading propaganda for the sake of vested interests. Nobody talks about humanity and peace; nobody talks about how we can eradicate the demon of communal hatred from society; nobody talks about how the violence and unrest can affect our lives or have affected our lives in the past. us in the past and how it might affect us in the future as well.
We must understand that hatred begets hatred and it will only result in catastrophic consequences. We must also understand that the people in power benefit by dividing communities and spreading hate and they will continue doing so. The onus falls on us to be mindful of every speech we listen to, every person and ideologies that we subscribe to. They might not be right every time or anytime but with a renewed and rational thought process, we can save our family, our friends, our society, community, and our country from falling into the pit of never-ending darkness.