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A seminar was held here on December 30, 2007 to discuss the twin menace of communalism and terrorism afflicting India under the aegis of M. S. Krishnan Memorial Trust. Views of the speakers are presented below:
Prof. Supriya Roy Choudhury
Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore
Terror may be an outcome of specific policy, diplomacy. The United States tried to cultivate terrorism against Soviet Union by encouraging Islamic extremist groups which later became full-fledged practitioners of terrorism. Foisting of nation-state structure on basically tribal societies has also espoused terrorism. Time has come for thinking beyond nation-state. The project of nation-state has to be modified and deal with multicultural state. Suicide-bombing is a phenomenon which defies any punishment as suicide-bombers are ready to embrace death, which is the ultimate punishment for any act of terror. It is why terrorist has a cause for being heard. It cannot be met only militarily.
Prof. K. N. Panikker
Historian and former Vice chancellor, Sanskrit University, Kallady, Kerala
There is a difference between communalism of Congress and the BJP. Congress uses communalism for its benefit but the communalism is the goal and objective of the BJP. Middle class is currently the basis of communalism. But they use the lower strata of people as communal fodder against the Muslims. Communalism is often seen as an essentially political phenomenon, and cobating communalism as a political act. But the groundswell in communalism has been possible because of sustained cultural and social activities undertaken by these forces across the country and the creation of a communal social consciousness. The recent electoral success of communal forces in Gujarat despite their violence being exposed, is an important indicator of how political and social consciousness has been communalized. In the last five years the number of educational institutions controlled by the RSS has increased dramatically. Also, new social groups are being inducted into the communal fold and the cultural life of tribal people being ‘Hinduised’. I expect a surge of communalism in the next two years. The intensifying of communal violence reflects the failure of secular forces in resisting communalism. There has not been a strong attempt to retrieve secularism and communal forces have been allowed to occupy positions of power. It becomes necessary to identify an enemy for communal forces to make advances in society. The perpetration of violence has a larger agenda, which is to create a perpetual sense of fear and insecurity in people’s mind.
Praful Bidwai
Columnist
If one takes a hard look at the last 15 years, there seems to be a cogent strategy to demonise Islam and Muslims. Fact is that Israel is the most accomplished practitioner of sustained and indiscriminate terrorism against hapless Palestinians. But Judaic terrorism does not fit the transnational media’s bill for terrorism. Earlier to this, terrorism was applied to Basques in Spain, PLO, Irish Republican Army. Israeli prime minister Perez was a terrorist. Another Israeli prime minister Ishak Rabin is on record to have said there was no way Israel can be established without practicing terrorism. Most brutal form of terrorism has been practiced by the LTTE. But counter-terrorism experts of the US State Department have through manipulation associated terrorism with Islamic suicide bombers.
Academic studies have established that more than 60 per cent of the suicide bombers have rise from the ranks of secular groups. Only in less than 40 per cent cases, they were motivated by religion.
One atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima killed 30 times more number of people who died at the hand of terrorists. More than six lakh people have died in Iraq due to the US aggression and occupation. US record of lethality and brutality is many times worse than the terrorists’ actions.
Good amount of careful homework goes into the multinational media’s definition of terrorism. It defines terrorism in purely Islamophobic terms. The US State Department lists 36 organisation in its list of terrorists. Of these 29 groups are Islamic.
Why Islam is being demonized? Because two-thirds of the world’s oil lies in land where Muslims live. Had this been the case with Buddhists, perhaps the Buddhists would have been the ‘worst terrorists’ on the US list today.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently spoke about naxal violence and urged for ‘Leftist extremism’ to be a scourge to be stamped out. He did not utter a word about how the rightist forces are damaging the country.
The Congress could have been excused if it had fought against the communal forces and lost. But it did not take up the battle. Congress ducks the issue of communalism. Only in one case of prosecution of criminals of 2002 post-Godhra riots, 11 Hindus were convicted in Gujarat. But the local Congress chief expressed his solidarity with the criminals. The fact that there is no remorse against what happened in 2002 in the majority community in Gujarat is an index that the BJP now has a solid votebank of communalized majority.
The need of the hour is to join the people’s initiative on socio-economic issues. So much is being said about Gujarat being the most developed state. But let us be reminded that socio-economic inequalities are the highest in Gujarat. Privatised highways now extract so much toll on farm tractors, that farmers now used camel ride to avoid paying exorbitant charges. The most sustained violence against the OBC and the Dalits was perpetrated in Gujarat during 80s and Narendra Modi spearheaded this campaign.
Lingadevaru Halemane
Linguist and Playwright
Terrorism is international anarchy while communalism is a national anarchy. Even the Leftist Government in West Bengal succumbed to the threat of Muslim fundamentalists with regard to Taslima Nasrin. Political parties have become wiser than the people in using caste and communal card. Even intellectuals have now started becoming fence-sitters. Communalism has somehow got reduced to binary division of Hindus versus Muslims. LTTE terrorism does not bother us as much as the Muslim terrorism in Kashmir. US aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan have hurt the sentiments of Muslims, hence the terrorism in Islamic countries.
Values have degenerated. Societies have become so decadent that we cannot stop assassination of a person of the caliber of Benazir Bhutto or demolition of Babri Masjid despite early and clear warning. The remedy lies in undertaking people’s initiative to create communal harmony and combat the twin menace of communalism and terrorism.
(This report has been compiled by M. A. Siraj)
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