This article has been co-authored by Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh and Dikgaj
Ethnic contempt is recognized as one of the worst forms of stereotypes the targets can be branded with because it is related to birth. One is born into an ethnicity; one cannot choose where he is born, and can do nothing to change that connection either, unlike for example, opinions, ideology, one professes, etc. Closest analogue of ethnic contempt is racist and gender stereotypes which are considered reprehensible for the same reason. Although such malaise is yet to be eradicated from human society, the recognition of its impact has prompted civil and refined society to consciously eschew, at the bare minimum, its articulation. This is particularly true for political parties and their ecosystems in most places as they thrive on large scale social interactions. Racist and sexist stands have for example damaged the progress of many politicians in North America and Europe. India, however, does not seem to abide by this golden rule. We present some evidences from social media interventions of public persona closely associated with the highest and mid-level echelons of the current national party in power, BJP, and its ideological root, the RSS. Given the practices of the high and mighty there, it goes without saying that abominable expressions abound in the discourses of the lower levels, of which we limit ourselves to only a few examples. We draw our evidences of ethnic bias entirely from the public discourse in the ecosystem, which only suggests that the mindset as expressed in private communication is far uglier.
Thus, the malaise of ethnic contempt seems to have infected large parts of the ecosystem of BJP-RSS, spanning from high profile public persona to the rank and file. It is clearly not the case that every single member or even most members of this ecosystem is afflicted, but there are enough number of representatives from each strata.
We point out that up to date historical source based research on roles of particular subgroups of a society or population that, on analysis, appear to have had a negative consequence on the larger population does not fall into the category of ethnic hatred or bias if the causal and representative connection of the subgroup to the negativity can be established through third party, or other sources otherwise vetted in scholarship to have been authentic or contemporary or reliable accounts of historical events. However without presentation of such a solid causal, third party, close-to-source records – any negative labelling of a subgroup based on first person opinions or ascriptions – does amount to ethnic hatred, bias or discrimination.
Among all the ethnicities that are at the receiving end of wrath from the ecosystem, it appears that the Bengalis are at the bottom (excluding the North East, which probably does not even exist in the Right Wing mind). The contempt showered upon Bengalis exceeds by far, both in quality and quantity, those on other ethnicities. Thus we devote the first few articles of the series on ethnic contempt on Bengalis as a whole. We cite public interventions from three categories: 1) August office appointees of the BJP government at centre 2) media organizations, personnel and public intellectuals close to BJP-RSS 3) rank and file. We show that almost every section of the Bengalis, namely the urban poor, the riot-affected rural poor, the educated middle class and higher strata, the riot victim individuals have been targeted. We also show that such offensive acts have been either condoned and their perpetrators actively promoted by the top echelon of the political leadership of BJP, or, worse, have been perpetrated by the constitutional position-appointees of the BJP government.
In subsequent articles we will focus on the contempt showered on particularly reviled sections of the Bengalis. Other than the Bengalis, the Keralites have been institutionally targeted by the ecosystem, which we will document in subsequent pieces. In those articles, we will also document instances of ethnic contempt on some other ethnicities, namely the Kashmiri Pandits and those from the South, which, with the exception of those on Kerala, have mostly been inflicted by the rank and file. Throughout we show that the ethnicities from the Hindi heartland (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana), Gujarat and Maharashtra are rarely, if ever, subjected to similar contempt by the ecosystem; in the rare instances in which the ethnicities from the North and West have been insulted as a whole by members of this ecosystem, the perpetrators have been on the receiving end of severe backlash from other members. The ecosystem is always up in arms to defend ethnic attacks on the above-mentioned ethnicities from outside the ecosystem. This reveals an unstated pecking order among the ethnicities, which closely resembles the birth-based caste system of the Hindu society (which the profession-based Varnashrama had degenerated to).
In subsequent articles we argue that this rank-ordering emanates from the insalubrious trait in the ecosystem of judging populaces based only on whether and how much they facilitate its quest of political power, its organic anti-intellectualism, and its misconceptions of Hinduism. Specifically, the proclivity of the ethnicity to vote BJP, the tendency of the chief ministers of the states associated with them to support the current Prime Minister, their willingness to adopt Hindi, vegetarianism – these are the criteria often employed to establish the Hindu-ness. However, whether an ethnicity has remained loyal to Hinduism and India itself hardly seems to concern the ecosystem. An unwholesome dynamics results from such a rank ordering between the ethnicities which we will dwell on. We conclude by presenting our consistent stand against ethnic contempt regardless of who the perpetrators and targets are.
We now enumerate some adverse consequences of this ethnic pecking order on the Indic society. Quite apart from the unpalatable discourse generated by gross generalisations of ethnicities, one of its most pernicious effects is the self fulfilling prophecy of Hindu disunity. Certain ethnicities are presumed to be disloyal to the Hindu cause, and thus have been `other-ed’ by the BJP-RSS ecosystem. Any `vice’ found in any who belong to the despised ethnicities is often generalised to the whole group.
It is important to observe that this ethnic suspicion and mistrust is precisely one of the major factors that caused the break-up of the erstwhile Soviet Union. From the times of Stalin, some ethno-religious groups (like the Balts, Caucasians, Jews, etc) were treated with suspicion [1]. The suspicions turned into a vicious circle with more and more suspicions cast against `the disloyal minorities’ and they, in turn, walling themselves off from the remainder of the Soviet Union and turning more and more insular and indifferent to the needs of the Soviet Union. The only way ethnic minorities could rise in Soviet (especially Stalinist) times was to disown their own ethnicities. Almost all the ethnic minorities in high positions in Stalinist Soviet Union had a record of acting against their own ethnicities (Beria with Georgians, Yagoda with the Jews, etc) [1]. The pressure to conform to the `majority sentiment of the BJP-RSS ecosystem’ and thus disown their own seems also to be actuating quite a few of its high profile members belonging to the reviled ethnicities to cast aspersions blithely on their own ethnicities for offences, both real and imagined.
Hindus have their religious identity immersed in their ethnicities themselves. For instance, a Kannadiga Hindu is both a Kannadiga AND a Hindu – the twain are inseparable. Indeed, his Hindu-ness is a part of the Kannada culture itself. The same holds true for other ethnicities too. By trying to impose a language and customs alien to him, the ecosystem ends up other-ing the ethnicities, which often become indifferent to Hinduism itself, at worst, or turn them into isolationist and parochial creatures who are led by Hinduphobes, but pretend to champion the languages, at best. The end result of this ethnic contempt is that there is a division of Hindus based on ethnicities. The ones who belong to the ethnicities low in the peck order either are silent spectators or active campaigners against their own and against other ethnicities low down in the peck order. The Hindus of the ethnicities lower in the peck order, are consequently led by people who will espouse (or just pretend to espouse) only the language/culture of the ethnicity, but not the Hindu part. Both the low-ranked ethnicities and Hinduism are the losers, since the language and culture of various regions are themselves part of Hinduism, and lose their vitality, when divested of their Hindu roots. As a result of the ethnic peck order, there is a clear division between the Hindu pride (which, for the current Right Wing, has to be based, quite inappropriately, on voting BJP, being sympathetic to the Prime Minister, and/or speaking Hindi) and ethnic pride (which is based on pride in one’s own customs, traditions, language and culture) of the low-ranked ethnicities. The Hindu and ethnic prides, which constitute the core of self respect in any Hindu, should be mutually reinforcing factors (most of the Indics proud of their own customs, language and culture are also Hindus), but as a result of the peck order, become mutually antagonistic for those low down. Driving away everyone not speaking Hindi, or not voting BJP will end in more Hindu disunity, with possibly disastrous consequences for the integrity of the country.
It is of some interest to observe that all the revolutionaries were connected to their lands and wrote in their mother tongue. It is the ethno-religious identity that predominated, and indeed was a touchstone, because their identities were both national and cultural. For instance, Aurobindo Ghosh, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Barindra Ghosh wrote in Bangla, as did Bhupendranath Dutta, because their identity was both Hindu and Bangla. Subramanya Bharati, VVS Aiyar and Subramanya Siva wrote in Tamizh, because their identity was Hindu and Tamizh. The Punjabi revolutionaries like Bhai Paramanand and other Ghadar Revolutionaries wrote in a mix of Urdu and Punjabi, as their identity was Hindu/Sikh and Punjabi. Indeed, Ghadar di Goonj (Echoes of Mutiny), the collection of revolutionary poems, was published from San Francisco in a mix of Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts. Veer Savarkar wrote in Marathi and about Maratha history, as his identity was both Marathi and Hindu. Ram Prasad Bismil wrote in Hindi and Urdu, since his identity lay in the Hindu and the Hindi. Mysore and Travancore had their own anthems and even today, they evoke a strong sense of pride in the older generation that connect to these songs. These songs reflected their ethos and culture and thus, Indic nationalism is enhanced, not diminished by the connection to the land and the culture. This is only natural, since Indian nationalism is intimately connected with the land and the local culture. Indic nationalism has always risen from the ground up, is intimately connected to the local culture (indeed, Hindu culture itself is a product of the local culture) and has always merged seamlessly into the broader national spirit. To try and curb this natural impulse with an artificially forced language and culture from above will not only be futile, but also highly dangerous and counter-productive to Indic nationalism.
In later pieces, we will also present some examples of ethnic contempt from the other end of the polity, namely Congress and the Left, with the acknowledgement that further study of this end is required to determine if the malaise is endemic across the polity, or it is primarily prevalent only in the BJP-RSS ecosystem. We note that the over representation of the BJP-RSS ecosystem in ethnic hatred may have something to do with their dominance in social media, and their having taken the lead in using it while others entered relatively late and lagged behind.
The question that remains is if the existence of an ethnic pecking order within the BJP-RSS ecosystem somehow reflect on the people of the states where BJP-RSS is strong. More specifically, is there any reason to believe that the ethnic pecking order in BJP is a symptom of the disease of ethnic contempt in those peoples? Our experience from our interaction on social media and our extensive travels across India suggest otherwise. In particular in social media we have come across multiple tweeps from these regions who have shown no ethnic hate, and have in fact explicitly objected to articulation of ethnic contempt on other regions. Our SM timelines would be replete with interactions with them as also plugs of their interventions. It would be more accurate to suggest that the BJP-RSS ecosystem provides a platform, either by design or by accident, to ethnic haters from these regions and self-loathers and self-seekers from the rest. It is perhaps on that account that the ecosystem has not adhered to the genuine Hindu views that emerged from the regions high in their pecking order. It has never paid any heed to Veer Savarkar’s rational and scientific stand on cow protection, his opposition to worship of the cow and his articulation of this worship had led to multiple defeats of the Hindus other than deadening the mind [2-4]. It has also rejected Savarkar’s preference of women actively avenging the defeat of their civilization, to their burning themselves on sacrificial fires [5]. Its acceptance and the exploitation of the caste system is in direct contravention to Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s movement against caste and his enabling of inter-caste marriage. Swami Dayanand Saraswati also articulated his enlightened opposition to underage marriage and his preference for men and women selecting their spouses rather than families deciding the choices. pp. 183-184 [6]. It is quite possible that both these progressive thinkers and revolutionaries were beyond the comprehension of the anti-intellectuals that dominate BJP-RSS.
References
[1] Golfo Alexopoulos, “Stalin’s Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State’’
[3] http://savarkar.org/en//Encyc/2017/5/22/Seven-shackles.html
[4] http://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/23/Cow-protection-and-cow-worship.html
[5] http://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/23/Necessity-Of-Revenge.html