Revisiting Bhagat Singh view on Communalism

Introduction:

The rising of communalism in India has created a huge divide among the citizen of India. Almost now and then we came across news of violence and clash between two groups of people. The sad reality is that currently almost every incident is painted from a communalistic point. Let’s take an example “Rape” which ought to be condemned by all unequivocally, is often given a communalistic view when the victim and perpetrator are of the different community say religion, caste, region. Often than not some will be defending the perpetrator or even cast doubts over the victim, also media would use headlines mentioning the perpetrator and victim community. Like many other communal riots, in the recent communal riots in Delhi, the triggering point is often attributed to incitement speech by Kapil Mishra. In this sad state of affairs, it is worth revisiting and noting the views expressed by the Legendary Bhagat Singh in “Kriti” magazine in 1927 tittle “Communal Riots and its cure” when he was just 19 years old.

A summary of the article:

In the article, Bhagat Singh lamented the rampant communal riots happening across the country based on one’s religion. He observed that one person began to automatically hate another person from different religion and it became the only necessary reason enough to murder and kill a person. The spread of communalism is that it pitched one community against another community such as Hindus and Sikh against Muslim, Muslim against Hindus and Sikh not because the other person is guilty but being from that community.

Bhagat Singh also lamented and grief over the role of communal politicians and media in instigating and spreading it. He criticizes the politician in that they often use communal riots as a scoring point for their pollical power. He also criticizes the media in that they use “by writing bold headlines” to instigate people to go against another community. He reminded once again that the role of media is to enlighten people, remove fundamentalism and instil fraternity and common nationalism among people.

Bhagat Singh pointed out that economic inequality is the root cause of riots and equality will bring about an end to riots. He also called for class consciousness and the need to overthrow the colonial government to ensure social harmony and economic equality. He expresses hope that the Indian youth are distancing themselves from fanaticism which promises a bright future for India.

Analysis of present situation:

Sadly, all the more the present situation in India is not different from those ages. Politician often uses communal tactics to garner votes and win an election, with the party choosing candidate based on the demography of people of that locality. Today's worlds media and not sparing India media are often accused of working hand in hand with a certain political group and painting the narrative of the political group instead of educating and enlightening the mass. The backlash on Indian media reporting during the 2015 “Nepal Earthquake” is a reminder of how often misinformation and one-sided news are presented. It’s not boner that Indian media still report an event to instigate different group of people to go against each other through malicious, communal and bold headline to boost their readership or viewership.

Though Bhagat Singh expresses hope in that India youth are shunning themselves from fanaticism, despite been nearly a century since he had written the article it continues to haunts India today. As many as 7,484 communal riots have taken place between 2008-2017, stated a report by Lok Sabha. Also, there has been a huge rise in income inequality as well as wealth among Indian citizen, “Oxfam” reported that India's top 10% of the population now holds 77% of the wealth in 2018. A rather sticking observation of Bhagat Singh is that when there is huge income equality, poor people can be easily lured to commit crimes through bribe or payment of money. Thus, the rising economic inequality coupled with a huge unemployment rate and the increase of people in abject poverty could explain the rise of communal riots.

How can we go about?

“Alone we can do little, together we can do so much”- Hellen Keller

Communalism is a multifaceted problem and it’s not the one-man capacity to erase it. As a society, we need to join hand together to crush the spirit of communalism within ourselves. What we need is the awareness of mass and the spread of unity and harmony among the various group. We need to shun those who instigate communal hatred among various groups, be it religious preachers, politician, media and any individuals. Most importantly we need to have a liberal view and test religious dogma against reason, any such discriminative and those which incites hatred for another community should be discarded.

More importantly, the government also need to seriously consider the problem of income inequality, the disparity in the distribution of wealth and unemployment, and take up policies to minimize the problems. The government also needed to examine the “Standard Operating Procedure” of police and armed force in the containment of riots. As often seen in the recent riots police force are not able to effectively control the riots promptly. Moreover, police personnel need to be given special training for dealing such case and ethics class be incorporated such that bias in response during communal riots be eliminated. Also, rules of banning candidates from contesting in an election if they are accused and FIR been registered for their involvement in major communal riots will be a welcome step.

Most importantly media needs to be alert and unbiased while reporting sensitive case such as communal riots. Also, more importantly, media should stop projecting any incident be it murder, rape etc. as a communal incident. The increasing rise in fake news been peddled through social media and communication application should create a sense of urgency among mainstream media to provide unbiased news and counter those false narratives. The role of media in society is more vital than never before.

Also, one of the most important and vital body to counter the growth and eliminate the rising communalism is the Justice system. A judge should be extra alert and conscious while deciding on such a case. The perpetrator should be punished accordingly and the victim is absolved, one’s shouldn’t pronounce judgement due to external pressure. Also, what is needed is the prioritization and timely award of justice as the consequence of communalism spread exponentially with time. Permanent Fastrack Court headed by either judge of Supreme Court or judge of High Court would be a welcoming step, given the huge loads with Supreme Court and High Court and the huge case of communal riots in our Country.

When it comes to communalism or any other events either good or bad, it is the participation of an individual that constitute the event. If all individuals decided to abstain from participation the event wouldn’t happen, so it’s the individual who determines the occurrence of any event. As individuals, we need to steer clear of hatred for another community and base our action base on “Humanistic principle. We all had our role in shaping the mind of those who surround us, as a father, mother, sibling, teacher, elders, friends and colleague. We should instil “fraternity, tolerance and brotherhood and sisterhood” of all individuals, this will go a long way in ensuring peace and harmony in our society. It is encouraging to hear that during the Delhi riots both Muslim and Hindus shielded each other from the rioters, this should set an example in case communal riots occurs in future.

Lastly, we should all re-examine ourselves and change our views so that the hopes of Bhagat Singh on Indian youths (here not excluding present-day adults as accordingly to the timeline of the article all present generation falls in youth) be realized. Also, the ideals of “Unity in Diversity” of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru be upheld with utmost devotion. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas & Sabka Vishwas” should be practice by all section of society either at individual levels, organization, different level of governance etc... This will ensure peace and harmony in our country.

“Peace, Harmony and Prosperity be upon all Indian”