October  2004 
Year 11    No.102

Editorial


Slow poison

Until recent years it was commonly assumed that communal violence
was largely an urban phenomenon and rural India was thankfully free
of the malaise. But Genocide, Gujarat 2002 has violently ruptured the
image of the peaceful countryside. What was even more disturbing was
the obvious communalisation of a section of the Dalits and an even
more significant layer of Adivasis.

Even outside Gujarat, it is evident from recent electoral results as much as from the continued targeting of minorities against their alleged agenda of ‘forced conversions’ that more and more tribal belts across the country have been brought under the saffron sway.

Why the BJP and the sangh parivar should be so keen to wean away this traditional Congress vote bank hardly needs explanation. But, journalistic contribution apart, there has been little attempt so far to understand what it is in Hindutva that the Adivasis find attractive. Towards this end, Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt. Ltd. and the Xaviers Institute of Communications, Mumbai, jointly decided to sponsor a research project proposed by journalist, DK Singh. Our cover story this month is the initial outcome of that ongoing research endeavour.

The picture that emerges from Singh’s study of tribal Rajasthan is deeply disturbing, to say the least. Convincing Adivasis that they are an integral part of Hindu society goes hand in hand with malicious and sustained propaganda against religious minorities. With such solid groundwork already in place and with the BJP in power in the state, and given its highly questionable conduct in the past year of its rule, the simple question is whether Rajasthan is heading in the direction of Gujarat 2002. For those who might find this alarmist, we would only like to draw their attention to the four cover and special stories we published between 1998 and early 2002 as warning signals to where that state (Gujarat) was headed. We can only hope that the Congress party, the only political opposition of consequence is Rajasthan, is not found wanting yet again, though Singh’s report leaves little scope for such optimism.

While he rightly opposed communalism of all hues, Jawaharlal Nehru always maintained that majority communalism is always more dangerous because it masquerades as ‘nationalism’. It has been our sad experience over the years that the same national English media, both print and electronic, which has by and large distinguished itself with its unbiased reporting in the context of communal violence, also puts on blinkers when it comes to the question of ‘national interest’. Our special report in this issue on even the English media’s coverage following the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 is a damning expose of how, succumbing to general hysteria about perceived threats to national security, the media played judge and jury, citing the ‘official’ version of events as independent reportage and condemning innocents without a fair hearing.

We are also including in this issue the recent convocation address delivered by the Human Resource Development minister, Arjun Singh, at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad. This is almost certainly the first occasion in CC’s eleven-year history that we are publishing the speech of a minister. And we are more than happy to do so because the minister’s evocative call to our youth to learn and remember Mahatma Gandhi’s contribution to the shaping of modern India and beware the sangh parivar’s attempts to obliterate his memory and rewrite Indian history, is worthy of widespread circulation.

— EDITORS

 


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