Indian Election 2019: History Revisited
By Syed Osman Sher
Mississauga, Canada,
Arnold Toynbee writes in Mankind and Mother Earth: “Religion is the most important of all human experiences and activities… In most periods of the history of the Indian subcontinent the Indians have felt more concern about religion than about politics and economics.” Playing a dominant role in the lives of the Indians, religion assumes a special position. It was the monster that tore the Indian subcontinent into pieces in the twentieth century.
During the struggle for freedom from the British rule, (though it is a misnomer: it was more an internecine struggle for privileges) one of the main disagreements of M. A. Jinnah with M. K. Gandhi was the latter’s mixing of religion in his politics. In the opinion of Gandhi, religion would appeal to Hindu minds, and politics mixed with religion, would draw greater force. Gandhi, therefore, often referred to ushering in of Ram Rajya in an independent India. Little did Gandhi realize that any reference to Hindu religion and its legends in a national movement would fall hard on the sensitivities of the Muslims and sound alarm in their ears, especially when the Indian nation was already standing on a slippery slope caused by the arousal of religious differences by the British authorities in order to lengthen their rule.
Paradoxical though it may sound, Gandhi adopted the same tool of religion for creating communal harmony by supporting the Muslims in their Khilafat Movement that was launched to save the caliphate in Turkey, which was threatened with extinction by the Allied peace terms. Justifying his stand, Gandhi wrote in Young India on October 20, 1921: "I claim that with us both the Khilafat is the central fact, with Maulana Muhammad Ali because it is his religion, with me because, in laying down my life for the Khilafat, I ensure the safety of the cow, that is my religion, from the Mussalman knife."
Jinnah was not happy with this move. He warned Gandhi to desist from arousing fanaticism in Muslims by supporting the Khilafat Movement. The Governor of Bengal, Richard Casey, noted in his diary dated December 6, 1945, that during one of his interviews, Gandhi informed Casey that "Jinnah had told him (Gandhi) that he had ruined politics in India by dragging up a lot of unwholesome elements in Indian life and giving them political prominence, that it was a crime to mix up politics and religion the way he had done."
Jinnah was alienated by the utterances and ideas of Gandhi, whom he described as “the one man responsible for turning Congress into an instrument for the revival of Hinduism” and the establishment of “Hindu Raj in the country.” Resigning from Congress Jinnah seemed to have given up his concern for national causes, concentrating his energy in reorganizing Muslim League, protecting Muslim interests, and adopting the same tool of religion for his success in the division of the country.
Religion appeals to fickle minds, and that abounds in India. In the election of 2019, religion has once again proved itself right: ‘whosoever will hold my banner high would succeed’. Ironically, it is the victory for both the arch-rivals, Gandhi and Modi.
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