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Hassan Cheruppa
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – Two prominent Indian left front leaders called on secular forces and peace loving people to stand united and isolate those who disturb core values of tolerance and diversity so as to safeguard the country’s democratic and secular fabric from the onslaught of communal forces.
“India, the world’s largest democracy, is on the brink of a big disaster as a result of premeditated attempts by these forces to sow seeds of intolerance and religious tension with an eye on achieving communal polarization of some 1.2 billion people in the country,” said Binoy Viswam, and K.E. Ismail, national leaders of CPI and former ministers of the southern state of Kerala.
They were addressing a seminar with the theme of “Gun pointed to word: From Gandhi to Kalburgi,” organized by the New Age India Forum here recently. P.P.A. Raheem, president of the Jeddah Central Committee of the Forum, presided over the function, which was attended by several prominent leaders and members of the Keralite community.
Delivering the keynote speech, Viswam, a well-known writer and thinker, cited several instances of growing intolerance among the peace-loving people of India recently. “It is high time to have a broad alliance of all strata of people, especially writers and academics, to foil the attempts to create communal tension in the land of Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. There should be all-out vigil and concerted efforts to safeguard India’s pluralism and communal amity. Irrespective of religious, political and other considerations, all peace loving and secular minded people should break their silence and rise to occasion in confronting the dangers posing to the very fabric of the country,” he said.
Viswam cited the assassinations of writer and leader of CPI in Maharashtra Govind Pansare, and rationalist and renowned Kannada writer M.M. Kalburgi, as well as the Dadri lynching as some of the examples of this growing intolerance and perceived threat to free speech. He commended renowned writers like Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpeyi, former Sahitya Akademi Secretary and poet K. Satchidanandan, and noted Malayalam novelist Sarah Joseph for returning their literary and national awards and resigning their posts in protest against the Indian government’s failure in upholding citizens’ right to life and of protecting an artists’ right to creativity.
“Their bold steps come in the midst of controversial and irresponsible remarks being made by India’s Minister of Culture Mahesh Sharma, who represents parliament from the constituency where a man was lynched over beef-eating rumors. It is alarming that the state is indifferent when dissenters are murdered and innocent citizens killed on the mere suspicion of cooking beef,” he said.
Viswam said India’s strength is its unity in diversity. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, reminded the people of India that the country will live if secularism lives and that the weakening of secularism would lead the country towards death. He accused the Sangh Parivar, which refers to the family of Hindu nationalist forces, of trying to divide people through triggering religious hysteria and fanaticism, and that the power is being misused for the same.
According to Viswam, the parivar’s ideology took its origin from the Fascist tenets. He claimed that the origin of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of the parivar, is not based on India’s traditions and values but from an ideology alien to India’s rich traditions and cultures based on pluralism, reciprocal respect and tolerance. Viswam cited quoting from books of RSS founder leaders Hedgewar and Golwalkar to prove that their ideas had their origin from Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
“Mussolini established Fascist party in Italy and Hitler formed Nazi party in Germany and both the parties are based on hostility to other religions and rejecting other faiths. These fanatic tyrants tried to arouse extreme nationalist and racist hegemony and create hatred against Jews and other minorities. Similarly, Golwalkar says in his book “Bunch of Thoughts” that India’s internal enemies are Muslims, Christians and Communists,” he said, adding that Sangh Parivar adopted ‘Cultural Nationalism in the place of National Socialism of Hitler’.
Refuting the Parivar’s claim of following India’s traditions, Viswam said India’s rich traditions are based on tolerance, mutual respect, and broad dialogues between followers of various religions. “There were great wars of ideological exchanges in India in the past. The bright future of the country lies on this tradition of peaceful coexistence of followers of various religions and cultures with mutual respect, harmony and tolerance,” he said, adding that the comparison between Hindutva’s ‘Cultural Nationalism’ and the religion of Hinduism is like the comparison between Hitler’s ‘National Socialism’ and the religion of Christianity.
Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, Ismail emphasized that there should be vigilance and alertness to contain the growing trends of communalism in the Indian society. “Even in Kerala, which is a bastion of left secular forces, there are attempts being made to sow seeds of communal hatred and polarization with an eye on the coming elections.” Ismail noted that even those writers and cultural figures, who came forward to react on even silly matters are now scared of responding to even grave issues. They are all in the grip of fear, and people are scared of a grim future for India, he said while calling for strong response and vigilance on the part of expatriate Indians in this regard.
New Age India Forum Riyadh Secretary Sakeer Vadakkumthala also spoke. Forum Jeddah Chapter Secretary Babu Puthur welcomed the gathering and Treasurer Latief Malappuram proposed a vote of thanks. Viswam and Ismail earlier attended similar seminars in Riyadh, Dammam and Jubail.
