As India and the world focused on the bizarre political developments over the sedition charges leveled against JNU students, the silent enemy against a socialist secular and democratic Indian Republic was simultaneously at work to replace the name ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’. For many citizens this name change game may seem too trivial an issue for attention when compared to a fascist like attempt to curb free speech in the universities. It is this inability, or perhaps even apathy, of citizens to comprehend the multi-faceted Hindutva fascism at work in this country. Hindutva is definitely not the same as Hinduism which according to Gandhiji “had absorbed the best of all the faiths of the world and in that sense Hinduism was not an exclusive religion.” Similarly, we make the mistake of assuming the name ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ to mean the same for all citizens when actually it is not the case. There are those citizens who find unacceptable the idea of an ‘India’ as defined by the Indian Constitution. They advocate a ‘Bharat’ on the lines of Hindu nationhood as propagated by V D Savarkar and others. In such a restricted sense, there are many citizens in this country who have strong reservations to the slogan “Bharat mata ki Jai” which according to them is an endorsement of the ideology for a theocratic Bharat which is in opposition to an inclusive and liberal India. It is a devious ploy of Hindutva fanatics who do not accept the Preamble and tenets of the Constitution of India to confuse and mislead the nation by demonizing those who actually abide by the values in the Indian Constitution as being the anti-nationals.
It does not need rocket science to understand how the fraternity wedded to a religious fundamentalism attempts to camouflage their single agenda of destroying this idea of India and replacing it with ‘Bharat’ by proclaiming themselves to be the real patriots and others to be traitors. The discomfort and inability of the Hindutva brigade to cope with liberal thinking of young Indians becomes evident when a Union Minister recently appealed to the media to fall back on conservative methods of reporting. In other words, conservative reporting in the Indian political context could well mean ‘show no evils, speak of no evils and let not anyone hear about the evils.’ It is similar to singing ‘Konkani Kantaram’ in praise of the government. The line between conservatism and fascism in India is very fine in the backdrop of a one nation, one religion, one language and one culture theory being forcibly driven by the right-wing groups. The obsession with Hindutva for the Government is so glaring that another Union Minister equated the opposition to the environmental destruction of the Yamuna flood plains for organizing the World Culture Festival as an offensive against anything Hindu and Bharat. He even publicly professes his Government’s commitment to the ideology of Hindutva. It is for this section of religious conservatives and fanatics that Kanhaiya’s views, though nothing different from the global views on State repression and inequality, become highly threatening and offensive.
With Christians in this country and across the world set to commemorate ‘Good Friday’ the unrest witnessed in India’s universities is a stark reminder that those oppressive and exploitative forces which put Jesus to death are still at work even in this 21st century. The enemies of Jesus could not find any cause to legally implicate and silence Him.
They then deliberately misinterpreted Jesus’ mission of Azaadi to constitute sedition and made it to stick by getting a motley crowd to scream ‘crucify him’ and prejudiced the authorities into proclaiming the penalty of death on the cross. Similarly, young leaders like Kanhaiya and his comrades from JNU have also become a threat to the centuries old oppressive and exploitative system in this country. Such liberal views are seen as contagious even by a section of the judiciary which hints that such students be quarantined and rehabilitated. Such young liberal voices face a threat to their life from state supported hooligans. But these young warriors from universities have emerged as harbingers of political hope to a disillusioned secular Indian society. On that midnight in JNU, behind the call for real Azaadi by Kanhaiya which went viral across the world, the nation saw a belief and conviction in the students that from every trial and tribulation in the struggle for justice and truth there has to come a day of triumph which is symbolized by an Easter Sunday.
