Hijaab... hahaha! What next Turban or Tilak/Bindi
It is not difficult to judge Hijab row consistent with
the elections in the three states in India. But what raises our eyebrows is how
again so-called liberals aren’t occupying the spaces they left to prove their
‘ego’ or ‘intellectuality’. Following events in the past week in Karnataka like
encouraging or influencing school going children to wear saffron muffler and
tilak against the hijab wearing girls haunting number of questions from the past
and has potential to create mayhem in the future a
Turban, Crucifixion... what next? Bindi/ Tilak... Ohh...! They are Cultural Symbols
Unlike Europe, historically a monotheistic society has
seen deaths and blood spilled in the name of god, for ex. Blood bath done by Christian
crusaders, until politics over religion has been countered by the modern
thinkers. Whereas, India which is naturally a pluralistic society hasn’t seen many
such things happened here only on religious grounds, the reason most of the
scholars has observed is ‘Tolerance among its people’. What is ‘Tolerance’? The
idea Gandhi propagated throughout his life, against dystopia, but how come the
practice of ‘Tolerance’ hasn’t been followed thereafter/ or how or why it has
been discontinued with the time? Is a question that is needed to be debated. These questions speaks in volume and in a diverse
country like India, which is immersed deeply into the blend of religion (of its
own type) and culture, policies like banning Hijab or turban are prone to face
devastating consequences if categorical approach isn’t followed while dealing
with the issues like Religion and Secularism.
Since, the inception of India as a republic, there has
been a confusion over the idea of religion and the interpretation of the idea
of ‘Secularism’, how it could be implemented in India, the idea is great, but
due to absence of discourses on this idea at the ground created unfavorable
consequences on its implementation. This lacuna creates space for the rise of
Fascism. Not just in India, this lack of space for the democratic discussions
on the ground are the major reasons for all major political turbulences that we
as a civil society are facing.
However, would France moment happen if all religious
symbols are banned in India? Would the same ban in the educational institutions
get extended to bindi/tilak for hindu students or teachers? How it would impact
the social fabric of India? Or whether our current task of achieving a lurid
society would be successful?
Secularism in India
There has been a long standing campaign in India
against the idea of secularism, which is being considered as an attempt by the
Communists/ Christians/ Islamists to transform the world into the communist
states/ Church state/ Taliban state. They portray this movement preposterously
in a way where they claim it would diminish the stature of Hinduism as a Pagan
religion.
But conveniently, they don’t argue over reasons, why
those Pagan religions overpowered or lost their importance in the society the
major one among them are like, first, the reasons why those conversions
happened? Second, what advantages were given by these religions/ ideas? Third,
what was/ is the problem in the existing religions, today or at that time? What
is the problem with the rectification or reformation in the religion? How the
idea of Hinduism, which has been interpreted multiple times over the thousand
years isn’t flexible enough today to take questions from within the community,
leave aside the rational interpretations from the people who are alien to the
very idea. Most significant reasons (especially in Hinduism), which made people
to jump to other options are like rigidity in its structure, like caste system
(vertical power structure based on purity and impurity), gender biased, skewed
opportunities to gather resources and etc.
Apart from the core idea of secularism, i.e. the
separation of church and state, India had/ has challenges to adopt or adjust
that alien idea, as here it is difficult to completely separate the religion and
the state, as here our social practice is highly intertwined with the religious
practice, and on some instances it is difficult to segregate religion and
culture. So, in this kind of diverse complex society, it is important to talk,
teach, debate over the religious ideas and the practice of Tolerance should
also prevail over the society with the help of culture, traditional festivals,
competitions, all these practices bind masses with activities like folklores,
story-telling, drama, music, arts and etc. and it can be used to democratize
the idea of secularism and can help in prevailing the practice of ‘Tolerance’.
Creating these pockets of democratic platforms are essentially required in
today’s situation.
Global Exposure
India is among the rarest of countries which is
naturally diverse and it is the very reason that it has never faced situations
like existential crises on a global platform. Recent sociological research has
given a groundbreaking explanation on the problem of uniform society. They
observed that over a period of time uniform society become obsolete, people in
those societies are more hostile than the habitants who have lived in diverse
neighborhood, and even economically diverse communities creates more
opportunities and etc., resultantly we can observe that most countries like
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and etc. are encouraging immigration and making
their society ethno-culturally sound.
This can also be seen as a contemplation of the very
idea of ‘modernity’ by the west. The problem is, today both are approaching in
the opposite direction, western countries who have attained saturated position both
economically and socially are moving towards the east, to quench their cultural
thirst, where as the eastern countries are moving toward the western model,
which is more greyish in their taste and choices, which lead us to nowhere.
Way Forward
My simple take over this issue is not an alien or a
westernized thought. Today, as always stated, we need to focus and democratize the
idea of Toleration among the society and most importantly in virtue of that we
need to learn to celebrate our culture, music, arts, literature along with the
global works. This exercise wouldn’t make people who are emotionally connected
to this land and cultural, and can be protected from getting influenced by the
fringe groups. And also, this approach can be used to counter the unsustainable
model of growth/ development by the west under the garb of ‘modernity’. Something,
sadly, we are approaching ferociously, despite getting fatal responses from
nature, society and economics.
In that India, WE as a children of this beautiful nation want to live...
