From violence to dialogue: Jalgaon shows the way

Jalgaon, a district in North Maharashtra notorious for social unrest over the past few decades, including the sex scandal of the eighties that led to violent communal clashes, recently saw a month-long campaign aimed at public discourses and questions and answers on emotive issues such as patriotism, nationalism and secularism. Over 30 days from August 23 to September 23, the Sadbhavna and Jaatiya Salokha Abhiyaan (Campaign for Communal Harmony and Understanding) visited 90 villages and towns in Jalgaon, raising consciousness on issues concerning social justice and communal harmony as artistes and speakers, activists used poetry and music to raise key issues through lively public dialogue.

A local effort organised through close collaboration between the citizenry and the police, the campaign was spearheaded by the Nashik division DIG, Ankush Dhanvijay Vasantaro Koregaonkar and Chandrakant Bankar, and social activist Khalil Deshmukh, along with a band of creative artistes, Narayan Lohar Takarkheda, Vithal Dhobi Vaghari, Hari Lohar Takarkheda, Ramesh Nahvi Panacha, Deepak Lohar Takarkheda and Bandu Sonav. This troupe of committed activists devoted much energy and more than a month of their time to raise public awareness on sensitive questions.

For instance: Kai ahe re hee Bharatmata? (‘What do we mean by the term Bharatmata?’) The reply: Bharatmata does not mean the image of the goddess, nor does it mean the graphic depicted on a map of India. No, Bharatmata does not imply inanimate concepts or images… Bharatmata actually means each of the 102 crore living beings that make up this nation – child and adult, young and old, Hindu and Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Sikh, the over 350 castes and sub-castes that make up this land. To work towards a fulfilled and meaningful life for each of the 102 crore living beings that belong to this land is to worship Bharatmata, to worship this land…

A poignant short story, one that Maharashtrians are familiar with, was retold. Before the curriculum and the textbook became a breeding ground for sectarian politics, seven or eight-year-old children in Maharashtra enjoyed this narrative by Acharya Dada Dharmadhikari: One day a school inspector on his rounds at school entered a classroom and held up a chart depicting a sketch of the map of India. He asked students in the classroom what he had drawn. "The map of India," was the unanimous reply. He then proceeded to cut up the chart into 20-25 pieces, which he placed on the table.

The inspector then asked students to try and reassemble the map in two minutes flat. A bright, intelligent child tried but gave up in four or five minutes’ time. Many other students volunteered but they too just could not put the jigsaw together.

Suddenly, one boy came forward and to everyone’s surprise, joined the severed pieces of the map in about half a minute. The inspector asked the boy how he managed to accomplish in 30 seconds what others before him had not managed over a much longer time. The boy said, "Saheb, when I started to reassemble the pieces I did not know where Kashmir is, where West Bengal is, nor where Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Orissa are. Neither did I know where Maharashtra, Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh are." "Then how did you put the map together in half a minute?" "Saheb, when you showed us the map I saw pictures of the men and women who figured on the map of India. I simply joined the heads, hands, their bodies, the legs… once I had joined the men and women together, Bharat (India) automatically got joined!" This story was received with thunderous applause wherever it was told and a slogan emerged spontaneously from the gatherings: "Ikde Manoos Jodla! Tikde Bharat Joodla!" (‘Once men and women are united, then Bharat is united!’)

The larger purpose of this creative local effort was to reunite the myriad sections of our people, Indians, who have been divided by sectarian politics. That such an effort should originate and gain resonance in Jalgaon district, an area synonymous with bitter communal and gender driven violence, is what makes it even more special. Severe economic and social discrimination has marred Jalgaon’s social landscape and within such a socio-political milieu, sustained public initiatives of this nature, which deal with issues of justice, dialogue and harmony, can have long-lasting consequences and impact.

However, the campaign’s zealous organisers do not make large claims that this month-long event will change perceptions forever. Says Khalil Deshmukh, "It is a simple but creative beginning… Our intense village-to-village processions, accompanied by music and drama, narratives that helped to further thought and questions on emotive issues, was the method we used to take these issues to the people, right into the heart of the public domain… After each performance by this unusual group of creative and social activists, the audience raised questions and had discussions on inter-caste relations, religious fundamentalism and intolerance."

A verse from their songs will undoubtedly find an echo in every secular heart:

(This temple of ours is open to all/ Forget all differences at this temple of ours/ Come ye of all sects, come ye of all faiths/ Countrymen and foreigners alike, to this temple of ours.)