The perils of tracking extremists in India

The arrest of Sameer Gaekwad, a self-confessed activist of Sanatana Sanstha, an extremist Hindu organisation, in connection with the murder of communist leader and rationalist activist Govind Pansare, has strengthened the suspicion that organisations like the Sanstha are perpetrating violence on whoever criticises superstitious practises and the social evils associated with them. There is, of course, the need to substantiate the charges against Gaekwad and against the Sanstha, of which he is a member. It has to be proved that Gaekwad had attacked Pansare because the organisation he belongs to sanctions means of violence to punish those who do not subscribe to its ideology — or practice a contrary ideology. 

The challenges posed by groups like the Sanstha are only partially political and administrative. Of course, the law must scrupulously be enforced, without partisanship or prejudice, against those who are guilty. But it must be recognised that the Sanstha cannot be banned for holding the beliefs it does — however offensive, even dangerous, they may be. The ideological battle to marginalise such organisations needs to be fought at multiple levels of society as well as within assemblies and Parliament. It is a battle that must endure and not degenerate into retaliatory violence or administrative fiats.

By now we should know that banning pernicious ideologies simply drives them underground, and helps the means of violence to become even more extreme. In a democracy, all kinds of ideas, including the most unpalatable ones, must be expressed freely through debate and discourse rather than through violent strategies. 

There is reason to suspect that governments, whether of the Congress, BJP or other parties, act promptly against extremist Muslim groups, but tend to drag their feet on moving against Hindu organisations that manifest similar extremist tendencies. Governments have consistently gone after the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and banned the organisation for holding extremist views. The SIMI has legally challenged the ban. 

The Sanstha is not a lone Hindu extremist organisation — in terms of its ideas and practices. Consider, for instance, the case of the Sri Ram Sene, which operates in Karnataka. In scores of instances, its volunteers have intimidated and assaulted young women for going to bars in Mangalore. The Sene leader Pramod Muthalik, accused of masterminding these attacks, now faces legal action. 

There is suspicion that the recent killing of another rationalist activist, MM Kalburgi, in Dharwad, too, could be the handiwork of a fanatical group. Though Muthalik has denied Sene’s involvement in Kalburgi’s death, Sene’s Raichur district leaders have threatened to raze the houses of two writers, Channaveera Kanavi and Giraddi Govindaraj, for signing a petition which implicated the fringe organisation in the Kalburgi assassination. The two writers have since backed off saying they had not read the memorandum fully before putting their signatures to it; and that as yet there has been no evidence to implicate Sene in Kalburgi’s murder. The intimidating tactics adopted by the Sene’s Raichur leaders do raise serious questions about the organisation and the threat it poses to society at large — particularly to those opposing their ideas and actions. 

In the end, governments across-the-board will have to reckon with the phenomenon of Hindutva organisations subscribing to extremist views. Alarmingly, in the changed political climate since May 2014, these elements have become more vocal and aggressive in harassing their detractors. These organisations — even in the past — have been known to adopt the same violent means that other fundamentalist religious organisations prescribe. The recent spate of attacks on writers and rationalists should indeed be a wake-up call for other Hindu religious and social leaders. They can no more deny that Hindu society has no place for the existence of extremist groups.

Hindus, who have been preaching to Muslims, and urging them to counter the extremist elements within their community, should now do what they have so long preached: combat the extremists within their own fold.