Politics of Ethnic and Communal Identities

Author(s): Balraj Puri

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 14 (Apr. 7, 1990), pp. 703-705
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 REPORTS

tional unity of the country by satisfying one

Politics of Ethnic and Communal of the most powerful human urges and sub-
limating secessionist sentiments like those of
Identities Tamil nationalism. Growth of regional
languages released enormous latent creative
Balraj Puri energy and enriched the literary and cultural
heritage of the country.
On the whole India has achieved outstan
A better understanding of the realities and complexities of the ding success in accommodating and inte-
Indian heritage should help the country's intellectual and political grating territory-based identities within a
democratic system. Many multi-ethnic coun-
leadership to outgrow its obsession with the Eurocentric concept
tries, including those of the Soviet bioc,
of,nationalism that can ensure neither the unity of. the' nation nor could draw appropriate lessons from the in-
its adequate material and spiritual growth. dian experience. Valdimir Luken, head of the
Supreme Soviet's brains trust, for instance,
MUCH scholarly work has been done on the in 1975, it lost even its identity which it neversays, "actually we take heart when we look
study of universal resurgence of identity con- recovered. De-intellectualisation of politics, at India which is a multi-ethnic, multi-
sciousness in recent years. However, certain for various reasons, further enlarged the religious, multi-linguistic and multi-national
peculiar features of the phenomenon in ideological vacuum.of Indian politics. society like ours". Echoing the same views
India merit further attention. As upsurge of sub-national identities, due Eric Komorov, head of the lndian history
Processes of modernisation, politicisa- to causes other than the erosion of parties and political science section at the Institute
tion, participation, d,velopment, expandingand ideologies too had its effect on the pro- of Oriental Studies, Moscow, says, "India
education and rnedia explosion, within a cess of their erosion. In some cases these is an even more multi-national society than
democratic framework, created a sense of identities became vehicles of some ideologies outs but India has not disintegrated despite
self-awareness and sharpened urge for iden- or ideologies rationalised the urge of these all that the doomsayers have predicted"
tities based on race, language, tribe, caste, identities. The most sophisticated interaction (Quoted in India Today, February 15, 1990).
religion, etc, in India also. But these sub- of ideology and regional nationalism was However, all identities in India are yet not
national identities acquired an added impor- achieved by the left partiesin West Bengal fully satisfied and some of them are seeking
tance as they filled a vacuum created by under the leadership of Jyoti Basu. extra-institutional avenues of satisfying their
decline of institutions, above all of the party In several cases, tribal urges-are-seeking urges. Jharkhand, Uttarkhand, Bodoland,
system. Modern technology and knowledge expression through the CPI(ML), while Vidarbha, Saurashtra and all the three
had, in any case, increased the mobilisa- scheduled castes are becoming instruments regions in Jammu and Kashmir are some
of class war between landless labourer and
tional potential of the traditional identities notable instances.
faster than that of the political parties andlandholders. In some cases, non-recognition or delayed
other modern institutions. Ethnic mobilisation has become the prin- recognition of regional identities caused ten-
Major credit for erosion of moral legiti- cipal instrument of grassroots political sions. In other cases the logic of linguistic
macy and intellectual respectability of the activity, reallocation and redistribution of states was not extended to regions within the
party system should go to M N Roy and resources and share in and access to political states. Some of the problems of regional
Jayaprakash Narayan. But the task might power. In many cases, intermediary identities discontent could be solved by creating more
act as emotional bridges between anony- states. In any case, the principle of sub-states
not have been fully accomplished if Indira
or regional autonomy needs to be incor-
Gandhi had not collaborated with the latter mous individuals and a distant intangible
in the seventies. There was a remarkable con- national identity. porated in the Constitution and applied to
vergence of their political philosophy. Both As India is virtually the richest country many states which have distinct regional
had an aversion to ideology, institutions and in terms of variety and diversity of its iden-
what they called eastern representative tities, which cut across one another, its large New Release
democracy. If JP asserted that the verdictpopulation is covered by such emotional
of the crowd in Ram Lila Maidan of Delhi bridges and exclusiveness and parochialism Modern Nepal
on June 25, 1975 had greater legitimacy than of one is checked by the other. In fact the A Political History
that of the institution of Parliament, Indira unity of the country is directly proportional
1769-1955
Gandhi declared that the verdict of a larger to the number of diversities. During the
crowd at the Boat Club, a few days later, had freedom movement, for instance, all diver- (2 Vols.)
more legitimacy than the judgment of the sities were overshadowed by only one kind
Supreme Court. Both divided politics on the of diversity, namely, of religion which
basis of pro- and anti-power rather on resulted in the partition of the country.
Rishikesh Shaha
ideology. Of course, Indira Gandhi had When only one kind of diversity based on
authoritarian tendencies whereas JP tended language became most pronounced in
towards anarchism. But isn't anarchism justPakistan, it also split. Demy 8vo. Vol. I 318p.
a step short of authoritarianism and does If these diversities did not exist or were Vol. II 364p.
it not prepare the ground for it? not recognised, the unity of the country
Set Price Rs. 550
would have been less secure and the drift
JP contributed to the de-ideologisation of
Indian politics in another significant way. towards anarchy or regimentation could have
His abdication of leadership of the socialist been easier. MANOHAR PUBLICATIONS
movement at a crucial juncture left a vital The recognition of linguistic identities 2/6, Ansari Road, Daryaganj
ideological movement directionless and con- through the reorganisation of states on their New Delhi - 110002
fused. After its merger into the Janata Party basis, for instance, strengthened the emo-

Economic and Pblitical Weekly April 7, 1990 703

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identities within them, as was belatedly done
in West Bengal in the case of Gorkhaland.
But regional identities and urges need not
wait recognition till they assume a violent
form.
Again, alienation of some of the regions
has its origin in the lack of reconciliation
of their urges with those of some other
regions or of intra-regional communities and
not with the requirements of Indian nationa-
lism as such. In the case of Punjab, the lack
of an arrangement for sharing of power bet-
ween its two principal communities of
Hindus and Sikhs eventually led to the
alienation of the latter. Similarly, the origin
of the alienation of Kashmir could be tracecd
to a large extent to tensions between the three
regions of the state.
While most of the ethnic identities have
proved tractable and are on the whole play-
ing a positive role in promoting democracy,
development and national unity, the same
cannot be said of communal identities. Not-
withstanding many common features bet-
ween ethnic and communal identities, there
is some sense, for diagnostic and prescrip-
tive reasons, in treating them as distinct
categories.
The problem of communalism has not
merely a way of worship. It also consists of Again, unlike in the West where religious
a set of theological beliefs, rituals, and prac- and denominational wars were waged for
tices. But more than anything, it is a cultural ages, in India religious harmony-has been
and social entity of which even non-believers the order of the day. After the advent of
are a part. Indeed, religion cannot be con- Islam, the Bhakti saints and Sufies had
ceived of without a community-and there worked out a high degree of religious
cannbt be a community without socio- tolerance and understanding at the popular
political urges. Referring to the growing level. Even in recent years of communal
importance of religion in a modern society, strife, religious issues are rarely involved. The
Robert Booth Fowler observes: "A crucial most burning communal problem of the day,
motivating factor leading people to any viz, the Ayodhya dispute, merely relates to
church, indeed the most common factor, is a piece of land and has not provoked
desire for more community... The longing disrespect to any religion from either side.
for community in this sense is more powerful
And as far as Hindu-Sikh relations are con-
where human relations are casual and spon- cerned, there is still perfect respect for the
taneous, utilitarian and affective rather than scriptures and religious personalities of each
formal, binding and long term". Religion other.
still performs a very useful and necessary
Instead of harping on the essential unity
role, not the least of which, according to
of all religions, it would have been more
Fowler, "are a sense of certainty and com-
useful to know how Hinduism is different
munity within the larger society's insecuri-
from other religions. Unlike any other
ty and impersonality" Religion in American
religion, the most important deity of the
Politics, Washington, 1989, pp 37-42).
Hindus is Bharat Mata. Loyalty to her is
It is the identity-formation role of religion
more important than faith in god. National
that has eluded the attention of the secu-
epics are its sacred scriptures, epic heroes are
larists who have been concentrating on esta-
its.gods and national rivers and mountains
blishing doctrinal harmony between
are its places of pilgrimage.
different faiths. Much scholarship has also
been devoted to proving the essential unity Hinduism thus meets other religions not

only defied a solution but also a diagnosis
and even a precise definition. Before in-
dependence, communalism used to be con-
trasted with nationalism. Thus terms like
nationalist Muslims and nationalist Sikhs
came in vogue. It is the post-independence
use of the term which conItrasts it with
secularism that started confusion. For the
of all religions. But the limitation of what as another religion but as a representative
may be called the Ram-Rahim approach of the ancient and native heritage of the na-
tion and has, in that capacity, apart from
in resolv ing the communal tangle was ex-
posed during the time of its pioneering ex- by virtue of its numerical strength, acquired
ponents,, Gandhi and Azad, who had also the de facto right to set the requirements and
succeeded in rallying around them almost ideals of Indian nationalism. Hinduism is
the entire class of ulama. Jinnah, who did very tolerant about beliefs and practices of
not use any religious sanction and other religions because there is room for all

two terms are not conmparable. While com- th.eological arguments, won the day by of them in its fold. But as a religionised ver-
munalism implies an identity based on a taking up the cause of the Muslim iden- sion of Indian nationalism, it is as intolerant
tity and its secular problems like share in of deviations from its standards of nationa-
religious community, secularism itself is not
an identity. It is a quality of a number of political power and the economic cake. lism as it is tolerant at the theological level.
identities that are not communal, e g, ethnic No secular society can afford to refuse to It is thus not the communalism of dif-
identities and national, professional and take cognisance of the socio-political urges ferent communities that causes tension
class identities. or religious identities. The real issue is not
among them. It is essentially a problem of
Again, while legitimacy of religion-based whether religion and politics should be adjustmnent of minorities with the majority's
identities is not totally rejected, it is mixing separated or related but what is and should concept of nationalism. Jinnah and the
of religion with politics which most secu- Muslim League had reacted to Gandhi, sym-
be the appropriate form of their relationship,
larists regard as the most pernicious bane as part of a common society. bol of Indian nationalism, and not to
of India's public life. Ironically, Gandhi and In fact the Eurocentric concept of Golwalkar and Savarkar, who were non-
Azad who led the Indian nation's fight secularism is not entirely relevant to India. entities at that time. Since then Indian
against the forces of communalism based For most of the European countries are not nationalism has moved further away from
their politics on religion. Those who argue only unireligious with a theocratic past but Gandhian humanitarianism and tolerance
that religion and politics should not be even now have Christian political parties. while Golwalkar and Savarkar are no more
mixed, Gandhi said, did not know what India, on the other hand, is not only multi- non-entities.
religion was. religious but has never been theocratic. In The recent fundamentalist tendencies in
Similarly, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah ancient India, raja and rishi represented two the communalism of all communities and
fought his decisive battles against the distinct traditions, who were neither auto- the semitisation trends (more of the Islamic
Muslim League and its slogan of Pakistan gonistic nor usurped each other's domain. brand) in Hinduism would further adversely
from the mosques and shrines of Kashmir. During Muslim rule, badshah and ulama affect inter-community relations.
And the anti-British Sikh movement, also had autonomous roles. In Sikh tradition, the The basic issue is not whether community
an ally of the national movement, was based concept of peeri (religions) and meeri identities should exist or not-they cannot
in gurdwaras. Can the secular India of today (politics) and the two fora of Harminder be eliminated-but what should be their
throw away this heritage? Sahib and Akal Takhat respectively for themlegitimate form and field and what should
Many secular liberals further argue that clearly implied duality. After the gurus, the be the nature and extent of their autonomy.
religion should be a matter between an in- two roles were represented by different per- This basic question was brought to a sharp
dividual and his maker. Its proper place is sons and institutions. Unlike the West, focus by the emotional storm created by the
either the solitude of the house or the religion and politics were neither mixed nor issuie of Muslim personal law. The entire
church2. To quote Gandhi again, theydivorced
do notin India but were related in an spectrum of Hindu opinion, including the
know what religion is. For religion is not autonomous manner. RSS, the liberals and the left, showed a rare

704 Economic and Political Weekly April 7, 1990

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unanimity in demanding imposition of a The Kashmiri identity is a classical in- violent assertions. It lacks empathy for them
unifoxm personal law on"ttlie Muslims. On stance of how under different conditions the and sweepingly condemns all of them as
the other hand, the Muslims were almost role of an ethnic identity undergoes change. separatist, using derogatory terms for them
equally unanimous in treating a separate law It showed remarkable potential for a libera- like regionalism, linguism, casteism,
as a symbol of autonomy of their identity. ting role and became the citadel of forces tribalism and communalism. When Rajiv
It is clear that more autonomy is conceded of democracy, secularism and socialism. The Gandhi, for instance, condemned linguistic
to a territory-based identity, including its same identity, under changed conditions, has states as the greatest blunder of free India,
right to frame laws on the State List of sub- now become a base for fundamentalism and nobody contradicted him r.
jects, than is conceded to a religion-based terrorism. A better knowledge of the realities and
identity. It is also easy to work out constitu- complexities of the Indian heritage and post-
tional and institutional arrangements for The national elite, in general, has scarce- modern thinking in the rest of the world
sharing of power and economic resources ly appreciated the potential energy of ethnic should help the intellectual and political
between the centre and the states. But it is and communal identities and has therefore leadership of the country to outgrow its
difficult to work out such arrangements not been able to harness it for building a obsession with the Eurocentric concept of
between religious communities. Moreover harmonious and great nation. It recognises nationalism that can ensure neither the unity
unresolved disputes between regions can be them as a necessary evil only when they com-of the nation nor its adequate material and
endlessly - debated through respective pel recognition through aggressive and oftenspiritual growth.
legislatures and commissions and the points
of physical conflict between them are few. MAHARASHTRA
In case of religious communities such in-
stitutions for debating disputes do not exist Congress(I) Support Base Holds
and points of physical conflict exist in every
town and village. In short India is a federa- J V Deshpande
tion of territory-based identites but not of
religious communities.
The urge for identity and some degree of
In the assembly elections the Congress (I) in Maharashtra faced,
autonomy for religious communities is as for the first time,, a serious challenge to its political hegemony;
legitimate as that for ethnic identities. As also, the challenge was qualitatively different from those the party
long as a community perceives a threat to has had to face in the past. In the end, however, the party's
its identity and suffers from a siege mentali-control over the rural centres of power, established by Y B Chavan
ty, it would tend to become monolithic and
ancd consolidated by V P Naik and Vasantdada Patil, proved
exclusive and acquire what are called fun-
decisive.
damentalist characteristics. But if its urge for
identity is conceded and it gets a sense of
participatioth through appropriate conven-IN the recent assembly elections in Compared to the abysmal performance of
tions and institutions, it is bound to revert Maharashtra, the Congress(I) could win the party in the neighbouring states of
to a normal and healthy state and become only 141 seats out of 288, failing by a few Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the results
diversified. Members of every commun,ity votes to secure a simple majority. Despite in Maharashtra must look rosy to the sup-
also belong to secular ethnic identities, this, the leader of ,he state Congress, porters of the Congress(I). The other
ideology, class and profession. Recognition Sharad Pawar, has been exuding confi- reason is despite earlier fears, the party
dence about his ability to provide a stable did manage to thwart the determined bid
of these identities and satisfaction of their
government for the next five years. Many by the BJP-Shiv Sena combination to gain
urges, as observed above, pose no insur-
observers also concur with Pawar's assess- a majority in the assembly.
mountable problem.
ment of the post-election scene. The com- The Congress Party in Maharashtra not
If the ethnic dimensions of religious com-
parative ease with which the Congress(I) only faced a serious challenge to its political
munities were kept in view, their urges could
candidate, Madhukarrao Chaudhary, was hegemony: perhaps for the first time, but
have been better satisfied. Kashmir is a
elected speaker of the assembly only but- also a challenge that was qualitatively dif-
Muslim problem as well as a Kashmiri pro-
tresses this view. ferent from earlier ones. On earlier occa-
blem. Punjab is a Punjabi problem as well
Even with a massive majority in the pre- sions, the threat to the party's pre-eminent
as a Sikh problem. Urdu speaking Muslims,
vious assembly, where Congress(I) had 216 position came either as a result of some
whose urge for identity was the root cause
seats, Maharashtra saw five chief ministers special circumstances (like the Samyukta
of the partition of the sub-continent and in five years. Against this background and Maharashtra movement in 1957 or the
who are its worst victims, have linguistic as Emergency twenty years afterwards) or
lacking even a bare majority this time,
well as Muslim urges. In all cases, if the from a splinter of the party itself. The last
Sharad Pawar's claim would appear some-
ethnic and communal dimensions of the what preposterous. But a closer look at such serious challenge was ironically pro-
respective identities could be separately the results of the last elections would ex- vided by Sharad Pawar himself. Other-
treated, the problem would be cut to size. plain not only this apparent contradiction, wise, the cosy coalition of ruling interests,
It should be readily conceded that all but also a few other facets of the political put together first by Y B Chavan. and hon-
manifestations of all identities are not always
scene in the state today. ed further by V P Naik and Vasantdada
healthy. But the national identity may not Though the Congress(I) failed to win Patil, has comfortably ruled the state. This
always be the best judge in this matter. For even 50 per cent of the seats, the electionincludes not only the sugar lobby and the
its own manifestations may not always be result has been hailed in some quarters well-off farmers but also other groups
healthy. However, every identity must satisfy (including by Pawar) as a great victory forwhich control the levers of power and
three conditions for its self-expression. the parly.To have the party's strength in patronage in the rural areas, such as the
Firstly, it must not hurt the interests of the assembly cut by 35 per cent (from thecredit societies and the co-operatives,
another identity. Secondly, it must not en- earlier 216 to 141 now) and lose its ma- banking and trade, even educational in-
danger the most sacred identity of an in- jority in the process should ordinarily stitutions. Lately, the urban builders'
dividual. Thirdly, it must be guided by some have been regarded as nothing short of a lobby also seems to have become a part
values, i e, must have some ideological major defeat. That it can be presented as of the same coalition. The fact that most
groundings. a victory is due to two principal reasons. of the partners in this coalition belong to

Economic and Political Weekly April 7, 1990 705

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