Fighting Darkness with Darkness?

December 16 has become a significant date in the annals of Pakistan, especially its military establishment. On this day in 1971 the Pakistan Army’s General AAK Niazi, along with his more than 90,000 troops, surrendered to the Indian Army’s General Jagjit Singh Aurora on the Ramna Grounds (now Suhrawardy Udyan), thus putting the stamp on the victory of the combined forces of Bangladesh’s Mukti Bahini and the Indian Armed Forces. This tragedy would not have taken place had Pakistan’s military establishment allowed the due processes of democracy in that country. But, its sheer arrogance and supremacism – so typical of dictators and oligarchical ruling elites the world over – inexorably led to bloodbath that eventually sundered the country, imploding its Islamic ballast that was cemented by the two-nation theory. Whatever the other reasons for the birth of Bangladesh, one factor stood out – myopic resort to military solution to what was essentially a political poser to the delicate, nascent democratic polity. Pakistan’s military establishment has a deep-seated contempt for democratic norms, which kept on manifesting unrelentingly even after the 1971 mortification.

Obviously, the lessons were not learnt. In fact, Zia-ul-Haq went quite a few steps further when he initiated the process of radicalization of not just the Pakistan Military Establishment but the entire civil society too. Today, we are told that this happened because the United States of America needed Pakistan as an ally and as a frontline state in its war against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. But this is only partly true, at best. The intention to radicalize was always there, and Saudi Arabia was pumping in huge funds to finance fundamentalism in Pakistan. In fact, the Indian subcontinent had become a battleground of sorts between the Iranian and Saudi governments. The two countries, locked in Shia versus Sunni rivalry in West Asia, were now reaching out to the two Muslim denominations in India and Pakistan. While in India the radicalization efforts could not succeed to any significant extent, it found a fertile ground in Pakistan, and to some extent in Bangladesh. Various madrasas and seminaries in Pakistan graduated from the stages of fundamentalism and fanaticism to militarization of its youth. The Taliban (literally seekers or students), thus, were readily available as gun fodder in the war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

The supply of sophisticated weaponry from the NATO countries, especially the USA, came in handy for Pakistan’s military establishment to prepare mercenaries for carrying out terror acts in Jammu & Kashmir and other places in India. The most glaring were the attack on India’s Parliament and then the carnage in Mumbai. Even though regimes changed in Pakistan, its policy of encouraging depredations in India through non-state actors continued unabated. Eventually, Hillary Clinton’s snake analogy began to prove ominously apposite when a significant section of such non-state actors began to attack Pakistan’s military and civilian assets, eventually resulting in the killing of innocent children on December 16 2014. These children were students of the Army Public School in Peshawar and their only fault was that majority of them were born to Pakistan Army officers. Thus, the dangerous dalliance with fanatics boomeranged in the most tragic manner.

Will the powers that be in Pakistan derive the right lessons from this tragedy, or will they conveniently take recourse to blaming India (as is being done by some in Pakistan) and return to business as usual?

More importantly, there are lessons for Indian political establishment too. Of late, we are noticing that the BJP top brass is turning a blind eye to the Indian version of non-state actors. No, these do not have the resources to carry out terror acts in other countries, but they satisfy their macabre cravings by terrorizing fellow Indians. When they claim that India’s Muslims and Christians are children of Hindus, then where is the need for strong arm tactics to reconvert them or to hate them? They are our own. The aim should be to assimilate them into the mainstream. But, sadly, the zealots’ tactics are only alienating the minorities, which could prove extremely harmful to the country in the long run. Worse, they are now embarrassing the vast majority of Hindus too. On the one hand PM Modi swears by Mahatma Gandhi, while on the other some Hindu organizations are trying to iconize Nathuram Godse, without even a whimper of protest from the Government of India or Maharashtra. 

Instead of allowing legal and democratic processes to ensure protection of all citizens in the country there are attempts to set up parallel and extra-constitutional centers to rectify “historical wrongs.” There is certainly truth in what was done in the past, but that is history. Sooner or later, this will result in retaliatory action from the minority groups. Let us not forget the lessons from Lebanon. Do we want chaos in the country or do we want peace and progress? There is no way one can fight the forces of darkness by spreading our version of darkness. It will only deepen the murk. The best way is to light a lamp of enlightenment. We may have to resort to armed conflict but let it be done by the Indian State, which is the best judge in such matters. Let us not complicate things by allowing uneducated zealots to have a free run of the country. 

Our epics – Ramayan and Mahabharat – repeatedly drive home the message that no war should ever be fought out of blind hatred. Even your worst enemy deserves due respect. Resort to violence should be the culmination of deep thought and analyses – which should be best left to those who have been entrusted with running the affairs of our country. Extra constitutional elements should be firmly reined in.

Hinduism stands for positive, constructive worldview and action. We have hoary and rich traditions in the field of education and constructive activities. We need to draw from such traditions. The Hindutva forces will do well to concentrate their energies towards contributing to constructive and developmental efforts. Let them build schools and colleges that would provide world-class education to all and thus improve the lot of the average Indian. Let them run well-equipped hospitals that would contribute towards raising the population’s health quotient. Let the Hindu forces build institutions that would look after the growing elderly population of the country. Let them come up with schemes to enable the disabled, to provide security to the vulnerable and make us all feel proud of them. Instead of harking back to our past glories – real or imaginary – let us prove that Hindus can build modern institutions of science and technology; that they can provide top class medical facilities to every citizen in the country; that they  envisage and implement liberal social concepts; and that they can excel in diverse fields of human endeavor. We want to be proud of our Hindu heritage. 

Will the various Hindutva organizations oblige us?