In his Memoirs of a Revolutionist, Peter Kropotkin writes (about the fourth estate, the press): "I thought that a revolutionary newspaper must be, above all, a record of those symptoms which everywhere announce the coming of a new era, the germination of new forms of social life, the growing revolt against antiquated institutions" (Housman’s Peace Diary, 1988). A worthwhile quote with which to assess the press today, when India is in deep crisis!

The Indian experiment as a ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic’ to secure for all citizens Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, is in jeopardy. It is being re-oriented. Subversion of the spirit, and even the letter of the Constitution, is being engineered by the organised resurgence of the very force that kept large sections of the Indian people captive, purblind and submissive for millennia.

Just as rabies invades the body and contaminates the entire system with its toxic malignancy, this virus has become pervasive in all aspects of society and the nation. ‘Gujarat 2002’ and Savarkar’s entry into the central hall of the Indian Parliament, confronting the Father of the Nation, is the climax. VD Savarkar is In; MK Gandhi is Out. Evidence? The government at the Centre was totally silent and did nothing to prevent the erosion of democratic institutions over a period of time in Gujarat, and which climaxed in the Godhra and post-Godhra carnage.

It was virtually a demolition of the Indian Constitution through the actual demolition, even extermination, of a significant minority of the Indian nation in that state. Provisions of the Indian Constitution crumbled, as bricks fall from crumbling buildings. Thousands of members of a minority community were burnt or slaughtered, their homes demolished and their sources of livelihood systematically destroyed, their sacred places desecrated and razed to the ground.

Many an ancient and precious cultural heritage vanished, victims’ efforts towards recourse to legal procedure were thwarted, ignored, delayed or misguided, and their refugee camps totally neglected by condemning them to suffer. The state of Gujarat rejoiced in its success!

The nation has to constitute a people’s court to try the killers, the administrators that supported the carnage, the state government and its role in the episode, the Union government that was silent, and the ideology and organisations that caused this national shame! Communalism Combat has been assembling that people’s court all these years!

The same state had already dealt with another minority community in a like manner, though with less bestiality and barbarism. Over 40 recorded incidents of assault on Christian prayer halls and churches were recorded from November 13, 1997 to August 1998. In December 1998, in Dangs district, churches and prayer halls were extensively damaged or destroyed. Neither the state nor the Union of India was of any help.

A survey of Christian institutions and their financial resources was the next step. The state of Gujarat has demonstrated that in Hindu Rashtra, governance is for Hindus alone (as signboards in village after village proclaim!).

Like some others in the field, Communalism Combat has been exercising its responsibilities during these critical times, as an alert, mature and faithful watchdog of the Constitution and its commitments.

Will India’s ‘tryst with destiny’ materialise? This is the question many raise, as they watch the unhindered growth of Hindutva. For, democratic India’s governance is steered by upholders of an undemocratic ideology, one that is professedly fascist. Steps like POTA, alleged state connivance in Gujarat, the freedom granted to Praveen Togadia and the like to disseminate hate, the distribution of questionable symbols such as Hindutva’s version of the trishul, are all symbols of the spread of fascist ideology and action, and the consequent erosion of the freedom and rights of the citizen.

We are witnessing simultaneous national and international curbs on democratic rights and culture: erosion due to globalisation, and demands by financial institutions. Those who fought for and secured freedom are no more on the scene, a major reason for the current decline. To restore this imperilled freedom, every citizen has to awake, organise and act. Communalism Combat’s laudable contribution to this merits supportive and collaborative action all over the land.

Rationalism, the ‘scientific temper’, was the dream of India’s founding days, to rid society of archaism, atavism and superstition, and to modernise all aspects of life. But with the return of astrology, karamkand, ‘temple’ and ‘faith’, a dangerous lapse into the unenviable past is under way. Frozen fundamentalism, rabid communalism and sectarianism fed on superstition and obscurantism are invading textbooks that will eventually melt away values that were once expected to bring about national integration. Along with other resisters, Communalism Combat has been systematically resisting the outdated adventurism that is Hindutva, which has been dissipating the spirit of the Preamble.

A nation’s experiment in multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious living and governance can be protected, and results achieved, only by developing a healthy scientific and critical consciousness. Such a consciousness affirms and promotes diversity as a supreme value. Irrespective of denomination, personages or authority, Combat has been highlighting trends that are creative, to support them, and critical, to weaken and eliminate them. It has also been exposing reactionary and fundamentalist trends or persons in order to counteract disintegration. One can recall the stupendous efforts made by Communalism Combat to scrutinise poisoned textbooks in schools across states.

Growing human consciousness imparts an abundance of dynamism and impulse to society to constantly move forward. The progressive journey of human civilisation requires that many insights, rituals, customs, values and traditions, once normative for a society or age, be left behind when new ones appropriate to the spirit of contemporary consciousness, appear. The advocacy of new proponents of an advancing culture is a service to the increasing vitality of a culture. India needs this service and assistance at this critical time. To rescue the invaluable spirit and insights of a Tagore or Phule, Ambedkar or Nehru, of Gandhi or Periyar from the onslaught of Hindutva, Communalism Combat has been striving with commendable commitment. This service needs to be multiplied, considering the growth of the forces at work.

India’s version of ‘secularism’ has already been experimented with successfully, by Asoka the Great. "All religious sects should live harmoniously in all parts of my dominions" (Rock Edict VII), declared this great son of India, centuries ago. Again, "People should learn and respect the fundamentals of one another’s Dharma" (Rock Edict XII). Legislators, judges, administrators, and politicians of the rabble-rousing category need once again to drink from these wellsprings. They need once again to be tutored by the rock-like conviction of that ancient ruler. It is gladdening to note that Communalism Combat has been putting us in touch with the unique heritage that has been absent from many a brain for want of use!

The ‘Akhand Bharat’ formula, with the kind of geographic boundaries set by its proponents a century ago has been heard repeated like a namjap. Yet, they seem blind to the reality today. Meanwhile, Rath Yatras that disseminate divisive ideologies far and wide, the indoctrination of innocent minds, and the take-over and conversion of prestigious national socio-cultural and historico-philosophical research institutions into gymnasia for the promotion of exclusionist and fascist ideologies, have been tearing to pieces the composite culture of the nation. Combat’s own initiative, and the support and collaboration it has extended to every similar initiative to check the inroads into the unity, integrity and diversity of the Indian nation, is instructive for all of us.

Majority-minority status is a component of parliamentary democracy. In India, the majority community has been forced/veered into a communal component due to sustained poisoning on the one hand, and a fascist, undemocratic culture on the other. This, with a view to establish mono-cultural hegemonic governance primarily for the Hindus, over the minorities, which, by the reckoning of their ideologues, need to be disfranchised since they do not comply with their criteria for citizens of a ‘restored Hindu nation’.

This is aberration. This is what professor Arnold J Toynbee, philosopher of history, calls the Schism of the Soul. A more apt phrase may be collective psychic disorder. Combat has been alerting the nation agonisingly about the inroads of the disease at work, exposing the persons involved to the glare of civil society and those still not poisoned in administration, inviting timely corrective action to prevent further damage to the democratic culture under experimentation. Their crab-like walk, with one eye on theocracies in the neighbourhood and the other on the pre-Mughal Hindu kingdoms for a model, goes against the spirit of the Constitution. The March-April 2002 issue of Communalism Combat, ‘Genocide — Gujarat 2002’, is a monument of supreme value to every effort to counter this downward trend.

Abiding by the rule of law is accepted as an indicator of the maturity of a culture. Only rarely and only when the law was seen as unjust did the Mahatma venture into Civil Disobedience. Heralds of disintegration in society, prescribing and enforcing codes in dress, sports, culture etc. are on the increase. The lenses of Communalism Combat and its pen have been used quite effectively to frame these perpetrators and expose the hidden agenda of the parivar.