We are Indians first: Divisive politics in the name of religion defeats Constitution’s secular principles

Iam a wildlife professional and having spent three decades in the bush I have learnt a lot from the wilderness. One lesson learnt is that once the population of a species suffers any kind of trauma and drops below a certain level, it finds it impossible to regenerate back to its original healthy form. Has this in some manner happened in Kashmir? With nowhere to go, all hope lost, has the young populace of Kashmir arrived at a desperate position from which it feels it cannot recover? Their forefathers, way back in 1947, had found Hari Singh’s swords of genocide raining upon them from the north and the road to Independent India closed, brimming with the blood of innocents, with the only open route to safety leading to nowhere. Kashmir was burning then and Kashmir is desperate today. Nearly seventy years of hatred and discord has finally erupted and created an entire generation of teenage youngsters who have never known the peace and tranquillity of a heaven, once referred to as Kashmir. Today do they believe that all roads to India are closed to them? If so who is responsible? Times have changed.

Reactions to any stimulus now are different from what the Government has been used to. Growing up on a bed of turmoil, without proper policy and implementation of administrative reform, an anti-India mindset has crept into the young blood. Sadly such young blood is volatile, most times destructive — even self-destructive. The question at hand is how to bring this disillusioned youth into our fold?

As with any discord we have to first try and figure out where it wrong in order to get it right. We have to start at home and here I fear that many households that I know have taught their lot to hate freely, without fear or ramifications. The fundamental political parties have worked hard fuelling this hatred, dividing us, whilst many other households have embraced idioms like, “Woh Kafir hai”, “Woh ghair hai” — divisive words that sadly became part and parcel of many an Indian childhood. Through the years I have tried desperately to grapple with this Hindu-Muslim discord. My Indian Constitution and my religious scripture both tell me that I have no business to ask another of his God, yet I know that our country was born on this very hatred and I also know that no politician, bureaucrat or educational system has ever attempted to amend this psyche. Gandhi tried and was murdered for changing his stance. Have we fought for independence from colonial powers only to be shackled by hatred for one another? It was always going to be a matter of time before such spewing of venom would lead to radical changes shaking the very foundations of India. The consequences have been disastrous, hatred has crept into every household be it Hindu or Muslim. It will get worse unless something drastic is done. To start with, the Government must make ‘Secularism’ mandatory in every school and college. No bureaucrat or politician should be allowed to hold office unless he has passed a stringent exam on Secularism. The beauty of all religions must be taught at every level. We have to break the back of this religious discord. We must change mindsets and ban fundamental parties and religious schools spewing venom against others. Many say as such discord fuels vote-bank politics; why would the politician interfere with his win-win formula? We must remember that the politician is from amongst us. Brought up on our ideology and corruption. He is but a plastic child moulded and remoulded by our society, bred on hatred and non-acceptance of any other belief system that differs from his. And if such hatred has become a reality all over India, why would it be different in Kashmir for isn’t Kashmir an integral part of our country? The people of Kashmir are our people. Have we not failed them over the years in many ways? Is it not the time to make amends? I believe it is time to change ourselves from within and instead of declaring those that speak the language of separation as enemies, rehabilitate them till they become a part of us, again. For isn’t every person that divides India into Hindu and Muslim a separatist too? Though the process of change will be slow and painstaking, it must be done. The way forward rests within us, within every Indian household. We must change ourselves first before we expect the Kashmiri to do the same.

The bureaucrat, who has played the balancing part between the public and the politician since independence was always the tool for maintaining communication and dialogue between the two; he was the instrument that effected change. He was the sacred and sacrosanct channel that preserved our Constitution. He built trust and implemented policy. His disappearance as the neutral balancing act has been calamitous for us. The laws in India are extremely exclusionary and over a period of time have led to the bureaucrat distancing himself from the public and drifting into the realm of the politician, thereby not only compromising himself, but compromising the entire trust process that he had so diligently been trained to preserve. With a compromised bureaucracy, the politician became a loose wire and the basic tools for upholding our constitution dwindled into insignificance. Let me give you an example. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Chapter X – Maintenance of Public Order and Tranquility under Section 130, freely empowers the Executive Magistrate of the region, ie, the District Collector, and in his absence the Tehsildar, the power to disperse any assembly that he feels is a threat to the state by using the armed forces. Whenever such a magistrates so deems fit he can pick up the phone and order any officer in command of any group of persons belonging to the armed forces to move in and control the agitation. He does not need any prior permission from his superiors, including the Chief Minister or Governor of his state. The law states that the armed forces under his command must obey him in such manner as the Executive Magistrate deems fit. Further Section 132 protects this Magistrate against prosecution for acts done in good faith. When such is the power given to the bureaucrat, then why was it not used in Bastar when Maharaja Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo of Bastar, in a supposed well-planned “police action” by Government, on March 25, 1966, was executed on the steps of his own palace in Jagdalpur along with scores of tribals and courtiers? Or in Delhi when the Sikhs were being slaughtered or in Gujarat where unabated genocide continued for two days? He had the complete support of the constitution and all he had to do was pick up the phone and call in the army. Had the bureaucrat’s not been corrupted into submission, none of the three incidents that I have mentioned above would have occurred. Indian history would have been so very different. Each person reading this article must ask the Government whether action was taken against the officers who allowed such a massacre or have they been promoted for allowing Indians to be killed? And if it is found after investigation that the bureaucrat had been compromised by powerful politicians, can we ever expect to find an amicable solution to a complex issue like Kashmir?

Political parties, unable to break away from their fundamental philosophies, need to find a way of overcoming their limitations and do something to change the mindset of our youth. We are most certainly staring at huge challenges if this is not done. For starters lets stop dividing India into Hindu and Muslim. Lets fight as one. let’s be Indian. Jai Hind!

The author, a former cricketer, is a columnist, novelist and conservationist