Some or all of the 12 cartoons of the prophet of
Islam that were first published in a right wing Danish newspaper,
Jyllands-Posten, in end September 2005, have since been republished
by newspapers in over 50 countries and telecast all over the world. This
unprecedented show of media solidarity, ostensibly in defence of the
freedom of expression, is certainly an example of rank hypocrisy. As
more than one article in this issue points out, there are any number of
instances of the same media voluntarily exercising self-censorship or
otherwise drawing a Laxman-rekha around their freedom to express.
As other articles in this issue point out, the
cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad as a woman-enslaver and a terrorist
have less to do with the freedom of expression and much more to do with
racism and growing Islamophobia in the West. In his response to the
"outrageous" cartoons, former US president Bill Clinton issued a timely
warning to the West which, having spent the last 50 years purging itself
of "anti-Jewish prejudice", now seems to be easy prey to "anti-Islam
prejudice".
If the freedom to express means the right to write or
draw, it also means the equal right of those who feel hurt or offended
to take to the streets. But while no one denies Muslims their right to
protest, locally or globally, questions must be asked of those who seem
to think that provocative words or images are enough justification for
them to react with violence or incitement to kill. How is this any
different from Narendra Modi’s murderous "action-reaction" theory?
Besides, don’t such inciters and perpetrators of violence reinforce the
very image of their community and faith that the Danish cartoons
portray?
In India, certain Muslim outfits committed a huge
tactical blunder, hitching their protest against the offending cartoons
to the protest against President Bush, creating the impression, in the
process, that only Muslims have a problem with US warmongering.
Within days of the countrywide and overwhelmingly
Muslim protest came the bomb blasts targeting innocent citizens at an
ancient temple and at a railway station in Varanasi, the cultural heart
of India. If the Danish cartoons hurt Muslim religious sentiments, the
bombs, obviously aimed at Hindus, killed and maimed innocent people,
many of them inside a Hindu place of worship. If the cartoons were a
provocation, surely the bomb blasts on the eve of Holi festivities were
provocation of an extreme kind? Taken together, the two incidents offer
dramatically different examples of provocation and response.
If the cartoon controversy sharply divided Muslims
between the moderates and the extremists, Varanasi provided an
extraordinary example of how Dr Veer Bhadra Mishra, the Hindu mahant of
this 400 year old temple, nixed any efforts to reap vengeful benefit
from this tragedy and sent out, instead, a message of deep restraint and
calm. What followed from this were unique and healing images, and
messages of Hindu-Muslim unity that effectively frustrated the designs
of those hoping to precipitate a communal bloodbath.
Kashi, on the banks of the holy Ganga, the ancient
Indian town synonymous with Hindu scriptures and religiosity, is also
home to the best of the syncretic culture that has seeped into the
consciousness of Indians. If Kashi’s Krishna Maharaj, maestro of tabla
rhythm, is the proud guru of Zakir Hussain, Bismillah Khan, whose
haunting shehnai melodies make every Indian proud, cannot perform
without paying obeisance to the rituals and culture of this city. This
is the lived syncretism of this part of the world that has made
secularism, as we articulate it, and democracy, its ally, the natural
option of governance. Within hours of the acts of terror at the temple
town, led by the courageous mahant, the people of Kashi – burkha-clad
women, Hindu traders, Muslim clerics, youth, doctors, academics – all
chipped in to actively prevent one terror tragedy becoming the excuse
for spiralling violence.
This month’s special issue of Communalism Combat,
while offering extensive reportage and commentary on the cartoon
controversy, pays tribute to the active intervention of citizens of
Kashi, all of whom have offered hope and healing to those of us
grappling for alternatives to hatred, terror and violence. Kashi
tujhe salaam!