March 15, 2019
Modi Musings
Some Pakistani elites tend to be bedazzled by Indian imagery of secularism, nonviolence, and shanti. They now have been jarred and startled by the uncorking of hate across the border after the Valentine’s Day suicide attack in Pulwana.
Modi has been merchandizing Hindutva, whose core appeal is hate – hate of the “other,” particularly Muslims.
Had there been an impartial tribunal, Prime Minister Modi would be behind bars for his complicity in the 2002 Gujarat Muslim massacres, which happened under his watch as the Chief Minister. Because Hindutva is not seen as a threat by the West, they have literally gotten away with murder.
During a visit to India many years ago, I saw two contrasting reactions. The Hindu guide at Delhi’s Red Fort remarked that India’s greatest benefactor is Shah Jahan, and that because of him, tourism fetches millions of dollars and millions like him earn their livelihood through it. At Agra, after seeing the incomparable Taj Mahal, a monument to the eternal power of love, I was taken to a site where workers were trying to build a Hindu temple. I asked them what they intended to accomplish. They said this will exceed the Taj.
Post-Partition India witnessed the disgraceful expropriation of Urdu and it being fraudulently presented as Hindi. Do ascertain whether SahirLudhianvi, HasratJaipuri, MajroohSultanpuri, ShakeelBadayuni, and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan wrote their poetry in Hindi or in Urdu. India’s greatest living movie lyricist, Jhelum-born Gulzar primarily writes in Urdu. Ad nauseam is repeated the common refrain that educated people are a game-changer, yet underneath often lurks the same bigotry and hate.
My early orientation to irrational hate was during my boyhood schooling in Jakarta, Indonesia, where there were Indians in the class. These boys and girls had never been to Pakistan and they had never before met a Pakistani. They picked up hate from their elders. It is a reminder of the song from the musical “South Pacific”:
“You've got to be taught to hate and fear, you've got to be taught from year to year; it’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear, you've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, and people whose skin is a different shade, you've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate; you've got to be carefully taught, you've got to be carefully taught.”
Unstated in the current Kashmir crisis has been the unnerving impact of the Kartarpur initiative on the Modi regime, with its Sikh implications.
The exchange of blows between India and Pakistan has once again catapulted Kashmir onto center stage. The unilateral and unconditional release of the downed Indian pilot calmed tensions by humanizing the issue. It shows the enduring power of grace and generosity.
Hindutva, like fascism, has its appeal but it has a short shelf-life. Already, Modi has undone much that has been good in India while inadvertently undermining its global ambitions.
---------------------------------------------------------------
