Sirajuddin Aziz

(Dis)united states of India

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, at Benares (now Varanasi) in 1827 wrote a taunt meant for the British rulers; but in my opinion, he echoed the vision of how India would be under Modi. In the poem titled ‘Chirag-e-Dair’ (The Lamp of the Temple), he wrote,

“Said I one night to a pristine seer
(who knew the secrets of whirling time)

Little did Ghalib knew that his lamentation would become the cry of all the minorities almost two centuries later and, in particular, of the Muslims of India – who today face genocide and ethnic cleansing at the hands of the fascist regime of Modi.

Rahul Gandhi passionately spoke about how Modi and his cohort of extremists were systematically destroying the Indian social fabric which has a history of more than 4,000 years of peaceful coexistence between diverse people. It echoes the sentiments expressed by Sir Stafford Cripps, who said in 1942: ‘The Indian states are governed by treaties and these states are to join the vision of India….’ At the time of partition, there was disagreement amongst historians on the number of princely states that existed. Some believe that they were as high as 565 States that varied in size and status; Kashmir and Hyderabad were bigger than some European countries and there were also some which were the sizes of a village. The fact: a union of states and territories. The word “Union” is used.

Rahul expressed his understanding of today’s India, which is split into two: the rich India and the poor India. The gap is yawning and continues to grow which he says would eventually lead to bloody clashes between the haves and the haves-not.

In his indictment of the Modi government, Rahul reminded fellow parliamentarians that the Indian Constitution refers to India as a ‘Union of states’; it does not call India, a ‘nation-state’. He said that India has always been ruled through “negotiations and conversations”. It was always a partnership between states. No King of Delhi ever ruled the geographies of South India and North East India directly. The Mauryan, Gupta and Ashoka ruled through “conversation and negotiation”, and no force or subjugation was used then.

Rahul went on to say, “Modi has no sense of history. Each state has its own dignity, language, culture, and history, that is distinct and different, they can be part of a union, but cannot be pushed into the fantasy of Akhand Bharat. The flawed vision of ruling by stick will be smashed into pieces. No donkey king installed at Delhi can create India into a nation-state – it never was, it never will be.” In his final plea, he warned Modi not to fiddle with the institutional framework because it is a fragile concept.

India is simmering with separatist movements from the north to the south. In 1949, the Commander-in-Chief of India, General Sir Claude Auchinleck predicted, “The Sikhs may try to set up a separate regime. I think they probably will and that will only be a start of a general decentralization and break-up of the idea that India is a country, whereas it is a subcontinent as varied as Europe. The Punjabi is as different from a Madrassi as a Scot is from an Italian. The British tried to consolidate it, but achieved nothing permanent. No one can make a nation out of a continent of many nations.”

The general’s prediction seems only around the corner and with Modi’s lack of sense of history, it may happen quicker than expected.

The conditions in the North-Eastern states are brimming with movements to seek independence. The British left in a hurry and these states were gifted to India; however, when they ruled, they treated these territories differently from the rest of British India. The Kingdom of Sikkim, at the foothills of the Himalayas, was annexed through a dubious referendum in 1975 as the 22nd state of the Union. Nagaland in 1963; Meghalaya in 1972; and Arunachal Pradesh in 1982 were made part of the union. Today the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim are held within the Union, or mainland India, by a narrow corridor between Bhutan and Bangladesh. The cleavage of distinctions and differences between these states and New Delhi is only widening and it is stark. In a short span, these will separate and emerge as independent nations. Besides these 8 estates of northeast, the following states in the south are ripe with resentment towards New Delhi; these flexing muscles and thinking of separating from the union are Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.

The saffron attired Narendra Modi is essentially a fascist. While giving a lecture at a famous university in Aligarh, post the 2002 genocide of Muslims in the Modi controlled states of Gujarat, the celebrated writer and activist Arundhati described him and the BJP as a fascist party. In a published piece, while discussing the Indian government, she used the word ‘fascism’ eleven times in a single paragraph.

Meanwhile, Modi continues with the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in India. The conscience of the world, humanity, and of the sleeping Ummah remains unmoved by state-sponsored terrorism by India in Kashmir and other minorities. The silence of the 57 odd Muslim countries is nerve-racking. To be militant about a cause does not require packing up a gun. There are many ways to be militant for justice, for gaining self-respect, and above all to be answerable without guilt to one’s own conscience. Silence is not an option; by turning a blind eye one becomes an abettor. The militant voice is more peaceful than a Kalashnikov or an armored tank. One who refrains from militant protest, of non-violence, will have to carry the cross of burden and responsibility for the crime of being silent spectators and for submission to injustice. History does not and has never pardoned cowardice.

India, the union of States, where its founding fathers believed in the union of languages, cultures, religious beliefs, and history stands on the verge of a justifiable collapse. Both Gandhi and Nehru did not subscribe to a “Hindu India”. Abandoning the Nehruvian ideology and preferring Modi’s dangerous liaisons with communalism, will undo the Union.

The writer is a freelance contributor