Fifteen years ago we started Communalism Combat
in response to the pogrom against Muslims in a city which until
then had proudly called itself the cosmopolitan capital of India:
Bombay, now Mumbai. We started publishing the journal with the fond hope
that the secular Indian state would soon slay the communal demon that
was stalking the land of a tolerant tradition. Once the traumatic
circumstances that gave birth to a special focus journal no long
existed, CC would have nothing left to say. Sadly, with the
Constitution of India being increasingly undermined by the very
institutions it gave birth to, if anything, the demon now appears more
menacing than ever. And the dawn of vibrant peace is nowhere in sight.
While India enjoyed relative communal peace in the first
decade after independence, the following three decades were marked by
recurring communal riots. The year 1984 marked the transition of India
from the era of riots to that of pogroms and genocidal killings – Delhi
1984, Bhagalpur 1987, Mumbai 1992-93 – where the state was, at best,
mute witness. The last so far, Gujarat 2002, was also the worst. The
report, Crimes Against Humanity, of the Concerned Citizens
Tribunal headed by three retired judges of the Supreme Court and the
Bombay High Court named none less than Gujarat’s chief minister,
Narendra Modi, as "the chief author and architect of the genocidal
action" (CC, Nov-Dec 2002).
Who can be sure that India has now left behind the phase
of mob terror with covert or overt state support, that it is purely a
thing of the past? But bomb terror is certainly a part of our reality
now.
In March 1998 CC separately interviewed
half-a-dozen retired IPS and IAS officers, among the most respected
names from the services, asking each the same question: What do you make
of the bomb blasts in Mumbai (1993) and in Coimbatore (1998) coming so
soon after mob violence and biased police conduct? Their unanimous reply
can be summed up in a single sentence: By abdicating its
responsibility in protecting the life of citizens the state is sowing
the seeds of extremism (CC, March 1998).
Some years ago Irfan Ahmed, an anthropologist from the
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, was in India for research on
the Jamaat-e-Islami and SIMI. Ahmed’s paper based on his research titled
"Erosion of Secularism, Explosion of Jihad: Explaining Islamist
Radicalisation in India" should be compulsory reading for people in the
intelligence and investigation agencies in the country. According to
Ahmed, "Too often the radicalisation of Islamists or jihad has been
explained in terms of sacred beliefs and texts. For instance, it has
been argued that the mind-set of Islamists stems directly from the
readings of the Koranic verses on jihad. This paper calls such a line of
reasoning into question… The radicalisation of SIMI, a young breakaway
group from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, was articulated in the twin calls
for jihad and installation of caliphate. It is my contention that SIMI’s
radicalisation unfolded in direct response to the rise of virulent Hindu
nationalism or ‘Hindutva’… As the assault on secularism by Hindutva
– culminating in the demolition of the Babri mosque and accompanied
with large-scale violence against Muslims – grew fiercer, so did SIMI’s
call for jihad."
SIMI leaders and activists have been implicated by the
police and other investigation agencies in bomb blasts in several
states, including the most recent ones on two successive days in
Bangalore (Karnataka) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat). As we go to press the
Gujarat police claims to have made a breakthrough, accusing and
arresting 10 SIMI activists. It is even claiming that SIMI was also
involved in the earlier blasts in Rajasthan, Karnataka and UP. In most
blast cases pending in Maharashtra and elsewhere the trials are pending
and the prosecution has yet to get a verdict from the courts in their
favour against the accused SIMI activists.
In other words, the accusation of the investigating
agencies that SIMI is not only talking but also walking its version of
"jihad" is yet to be established in a court of law. Given that the
credentials of the Gujarat police are highly suspect, it also remains to
be seen whether they succeed in procuring a conviction. Meanwhile, the
lead story in this special issue of CC provides exclusive and
incontrovertible evidence of the emergence of the "Hindu bomb", made and
blasted by the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu extremist outfits in
different parts of Maharashtra since 2003. If this is scary, scarier
still is the fact that even an agency like the CBI is engaged in a
shocking cover-up of the new face of terrorism in India.
With the emergence of the "Hindu bomb" now, who can be
sure any longer of which Hindu or Muslim extremist "jihadi" is behind
which blast in this or that part of India? But with naked double
standards and discriminatory justice staring us in the face, one fact
can no longer be denied. The real culprits for the "explosion of jihad"
in India are the institutions of state responsible for the "erosion of
secularism" from within.
And though the signs are highly ominous, we continue to
cling to our dream that some day CC will no longer need to be
published.