The Caravan: From Cradle to Grave

“According to the Article 50 (Bakshi, 2009) of the Indian Constitution, Judiciary is a part of the State. So, it has certain responsibilities to run the government. But, sometimes it put forward such judgments that those fulfill the communal agenda of the ruling party.” 

To address the issue, we shall first focus on the terminology of ‘Communalism’ and ‘Love Jihad’ and to address ‘Love Jihad’, we should also clarify the term ‘Jihad’. In a book, India’s Struggle for Independence, Bipan Chandra et al. have quoted that Communalism (Chandra, Mukherjee, Mukherjee, Mahajan, & Panikkar, 2000) has three elements to be carefully looked upon. First, it is the belief that people who follow same religion have common secular interests, that is, common political, social and cultural interests. Second component of communal ideology rests on the notion that in a multi-religious society like India, the secular interests that are the social, cultural, economic and political interests of the followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion. These are the liberal communalists. The third stage of communalism is reached when the interests of the followers of divergent religion or the different ‘communities’ are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile. Thus, the communalist asserts this stage that Hindus and Muslims cannot have common secular interests, that their secular interests are bound to be opposed to each other.

 Rise of Communalism:

There is a continuum among the three forms of communalism. First element fed the liberal and extreme form. Similarly, liberal communalist found it difficult to prevent their transition to extreme communalism. So, it is plausible to say that someone cannot prevent his/her transition from liberal to extreme communalism if that person is in the trap of communalism. Now, extreme communalism with fascist syndrome is based on hate, anger, fear and use of violence language. The Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha after 1937 veered towards extreme form of fascist communalism.

Ideologically, the economic and political interest of Hindus, Muslims and others were more or less the same till the late nineteenth century. In that sense they did not even constitute separate communities. The communal consciousness arose as a result of the transformation of the society under the impact of colonialism and the need to struggle against it. If there was no such interest of the ‘community’ to be served, the communalists started to serve some other interests in the name of serving the community. Thus, communalism became an alternate form of seeing one’s own common interests after the formation of modern social classes and after developing contradiction between colonialism and Indian people. Some modern ideologies like Nationalism and Socialism also put some fuel to burn the prevailing communal ideology as both of these concepts are based on the sense of ‘community’ (Chandra, Mukherjee, Mukherjee, Mahajan, & Panikkar, 2000).

The growth of communalism in the 20th century is not only the manifestation of mere power-hungry politicians and crafty administrators, but it also had socio-economic and political roots. The crisis of colonial economy, supplemented by The Great Depression (Chandra, Mukherjee, Mukherjee, Mahajan, & Panikkar, 2000) after 1928 marred by large scale unemployment, constantly generated two sets of ideologies and political tendencies among the middle classes who got benefitted from communal reservations in the form of caste or religion based favoritism. Apart from this, C.G. Shah (cross-cited from India’s Struggle for Independence) had quoted, “under the pressure of communal propaganda, the masses are unable to locate the real causes of their exploitation, oppression and suffering and imagine a fictitious communal source of their origin.”

Even, the class struggle of that time had also been given the shape of communal by putting the views forward among the Muslim peasants and debtors by expressing the views that they were exploited only because they were Muslims. Moreover, this kind of interpretation very often came from the observers, journalists, politicians and finally by the historians too. On the other hand, many authors like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Chandra, Mukherjee, Mukherjee, Mahajan, & Panikkar, 2000) and other Hindi and Urdu writers portrayed the Muslims as foreigners. These circumstances brought into the Muslims the feeling of political and social alienation.

Banaras as a Centre of Hindu Identity:

In the early 18th Century, Banaras was a ‘Mughalizing City (Casolari, 2002)’. However, the Mughal’s attempt to transform Banaras into a Muslim city of Muhammadabad did not succeed. But, in the early 19th Century, the three power holding groups (Rajput dynasty, the merchant bankers etc.) of Banaras played an important role in inventing a Hindu tradition which could cope in their own interests. Rajas of contemporary times also had been a precious ally to the British, because of their anti-Congress attitude. This situation seems to be similar to that generated at the nationwide level in the 1930s, which Hindu nationalism diverted its target from the British to the Muslims and the Congress.

Usually, Muslims, especially lower caste Muslims of Banaras had some economic role, hence acting as a pressure group. ‘Julahas’ (lower caste Muslims) were the main weavers of the then silk factories running in Banaras. However, after the decline of Mughals, Muslim population was permanently confined to a subaltern role – a situation lasting up to the present day. In 19th Century, riots were a common event in Banaras. So, after the riot of Oct. 1809, which was culminated over the controversy of the construction of a Hanuman temple on the Muslim area surrounding the Lat Bhairava, there was also a riot in 1977 during Durga Puja celebrations over a territorial conflict between some students of the Anglo-Bengali College and some Muslim weavers extending their yarns into the school ground for taking up space for playing. Actually, Hindu businessmen wanted to limit the role of Muslim businessmen (Sari dealers) to their subaltern role. For that, Hindus even sometimes funded riot against Muslims. Moreover, tourist taken around the silk factories, nobody provides any information about the identity of Banaras silk weavers who are mostly the lower caste Muslims.

Meanwhile, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) started functioning from April 1st, 1916. Initially, emphasize was on teaching traditional subjects with Hindi as official language but British forced it to incorporate English as official language. Malaviya, was among the proponents of Hindi language and Hindu education, had the belief that without the teaching of Hindu culture, Sanskrit language, the population of Hindus (which was decreasing for the abandonment of religion) would not come to proportion. From similar premises, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) was founded in 1925 by the patronage of Shyama Prasad Mukherji. So, Malaviya also allowed RSS to thrive into the campus. Marzia Casolari quoted, “I think the BHU was the result of the increasing sense of militancy in the Hindu segment of Indian society (Casolari, 2002).”

Moreover, the issue of Kashi Vishvanath Temple is not new and it goes back to the mid-17th Century. The controversy started after the death of Aurangazeb in 1707. As to who destroyed and why, and regarding the existence of the temple, there is a certain amount of controversy. According to one of the most detailed investigations, carried out with scientific accuracy, apart from the dominant version according to which Aurangazev was the ‘destroyer’, there are at least three variants. These variants reflect less prevalent views as to the existence of the temple and its destruction. None of these variants refer to the existence of any old and important Hindu temple in the center of the city. Even, qualified historians like Bhatnagar of BHU disapproved of the claim. Apart from this, in the 20th Century, Babri Masjid issue and Vishvanath Temple issue played a key role in the construction of ‘Hindu political mythology’, Casolari noted (Casolari, 2002).

Communalism as a State Power: 

According to the Article 50 (Bakshi, 2009) of the Indian Constitution, Judiciary is a part of the State. So, it has certain responsibilities to run the government. But, sometimes it put forward such judgments that those fulfill the communal agenda of the ruling party. According to the 1995 judgment (PTI Agency, 2014) by three judges’ bench, headed by Justice JS Verma, had held that "Hindutva/Hinduism is a way of life of the people in the sub-continent" and "is a state of mind." Citing this judgment, RSS is trying to justify its ‘Hindutva’ theory (PTI Agency, Hinduism a way of life, charge of extremism only to tarnish RSS' image: Ram Madhav, 2014). It said that the term ‘Hindu Terrorism’ is frequently being coined to tarnish the image of RSS. According to RSS spokesman Ram Madhav, "to call Hindu a terrorist is a glaring contradiction. This term is floated only to malign this organization.”

Again, few political scientists from the Yale University (Bhattacharya, 2014) in their paper titled "Do parties matter for ethnic violence? Evidence from India", have maintained that "the election of a single Congress MLA in a district brought about a 32% reduction in the probability of a riot breaking out prior to the next election. Simulations reveal that had Congress candidates lost all close elections in our dataset, India would have faced 10% more riots and thousands more. Analyzing the effect of riots on the vote share of "Hindu nationalist parties", the paper notes that "the BJS/BJP saw a 0.8 percentage point increase in their vote share following a riot in the year prior to an election”. That means, the communal agenda as a State power certainly makes some sense.

‘Jihad’, ‘Love Jihad’ and Communal Agenda:

Contrary to common belief, the word “jihad” does not necessarily imply any violent effort, let alone “war” and such instances of extreme violence. It is a general term that can mean violent as well as peaceful actions, depending on the context in which it is used, as we shall indeed see later. Similarly, “jihad” as a generic word can be used even when the sought goals are not Islamic, i.e. in non-religious contexts (Fatoohi, 2009).

Now, Hindutva protagonists are alleging that Muslims are doing a conspiracy against the Hindu culture and Hinduness of India by luring the Hindu girls to elope with a Muslim man to increase Muslim population. Charu Gupta had said that “the latest constructs by the Hindu right is the alleged “love Jihad” or “Romeo Jihad” organization, supposed to have been launched by Muslim fundamentalists and youthful Muslim men to convert Hindu and Christian women to Islam through trickery and expression of false love (Gupta, 2009)”. So, there is no relation ‘Jihad’ and ‘Love Jihad’ and clearly it can be noticed that this is only a political manifestation.

Alteration of Facts:

Jacques Derrida had said, 

“There is no political power without control of the archive, if not memory. Effective democratization interpretation can always be measured with this essential criterion: the participation in and access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation.”

A beginning to alter the facts and histories were made in early 19th Century by the British historians like James Mills, who described the ancient period of Indian history as the ‘Hindu Period’ and the medieval period as the ‘Muslim Period’. Though Muslims were as poor as Hindus, and Hindu Zamindars, nobles and rulers of Muslims ruled, but few historians who followed British historians, deliberately misinterpreted that in medieval India Muslims were the rulers and the Hindus were the ruled. ‘Thousands years of slavery’ and ‘foreign rule’ was the common rhetoric, sometimes used by nationalists also to communalize the medieval history.

Hindu communalists believed that the Indian culture which reached a great height during ancient ‘Hindu period’ started decaying during medieval ‘Muslim Period’ by denying the achievement in developing Indian economy, technology, religion and philosophy, art, literature, culture and science. So, now again to justify the notion that ‘Hindu Period’ had remarkable achievement in Science, a paper presented by Capt. Anand J. Bodas in the Indian Science Congress (Lakshmi, 2015) in Mumbai in Jan. 2015, stated that the ancient Vedas had planes which could fly across the planets. These kinds of statements are the ploy to polarize the mass on Hindu-Muslim line.

Recently RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat (Angre & Sanyal, 2014) termed India as a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ to justify the ideology of S. D. Savarkar, who also had propagated the concepts among the mass that all those living in India are Hindus by nature. But, throughout India's ancient history, the word Hindu was never meant to denote religion. It was a geographic and cultural term used by the Greeks, Persians and Arabs, derived from the Sanskrit Sindhu, to describe the people living by and beyond the river Sindhu (Jethmalani, 2013). The Greeks modified Sindhu to Indos, and it is said that ancient Persian explorers because of their pronunciation rules dropped the letter S from Sindhu, and called the people living around the Sindhu River as Hindus.

The appointment of Y. Sudarshan Rao as the Chairperson of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) had also brought some debate that it was a tactics of saffronization of the History, Romila Thaper and D.N. Jha had alleged (Joshua, 2014). Rao said in a blog-article titled, 'Indian Caste System: A Reappraisal', he wrote: "The (caste) system was working well in ancient times and we do not find any complaint from any quarters against it. It is often misinterpreted as an exploitative social system for retaining economic and social status of certain vested interests of the ruling class (Mukul, 2014)". This may be the agenda of the RSS backed government to give prominence to the so-called ancient ‘Hindu Period’ as casteism is deep-rooted in the Brahminical Hindu society.

Conclusion:

Apart from the above discussion, we could also say that sometimes media’s wrong reporting is also responsible for spreading communal sentiments. One such reporting was that “No women or dogs allowed in library: Aligarh Muslim University ban on girl students is a shame (Dasgupta, 2014)”.

In fact the issue was, as it should have been reported, that undergraduate girl students from non-professional fields were not allowed to sit in the library and rest of the girls are not prevented from sitting in the library. The reason for not allowing the aforementioned students as given by the Aligarh Muslim University administration is that there is a well-maintained library within the Abdullah Women’s College, the under-graduate college for the women. If the reason is justified or not that should come under scrutiny and not the false issue to make it unnecessarily viral. These kinds of repeated misinterpretations will lead the common mass to feel the ‘wrong interpretations’ as ‘truth’ and later it will become a ‘common sense’.

References     

Angre, K., & Sanyal, A. (2014,  December 22). RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat's Hindu Rashtra Comment Draws  Opposition Ire. Retrieved from NDTV:  http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rss-chief-mohan-bhagwats-hindu-rashtra-comment-draws-opposition-ire-716202 

Bakshi, P. (2009). The Constitution of  India. New Delhi: Universal Law Publishinh Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Bhattacharya, D. (2014, December 5). BJP  gains in polls after every riot, says Yale study. Retrieved from The  Economic Times:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bjp-gains-in-polls-after-every-riot-says-yale-study/articleshow/45378840.cms 

Casolari, M. (2002, April 13). Role of  Benaras in Constructing Political Hindu Identity, (Economic and Political  Weekly. Economic and Political Weekly, pp. 1413-1420.

Chandra, B., Mukherjee, M., Mukherjee,  A., Mahajan, S., & Panikkar, K. (2000). The Rise and Growth of  Communalism. In B. Chandra, M. Mukherjee, A. Mukherjee, S. Mahajan, & K.  Panikkar, India's Struggle for Independence (pp. 398-413). Gurgaon:  Penguin Publishing Group.

Dasgupta, P. (2014, November 12). No  women or dogs allowed in library: Aligarh Muslim Univ ban on girl students is  a shame. Retrieved from Firstpost:  http://www.firstpost.com/living/no-women-or-dogs-allowed-in-library-aligarh-muslim-univ-ban-on-girl-students-is-a-shame-1797129.html 

Fatoohi, L. (2009). Jihad in the  Qur’an: The Truth from the Source. UK: Luna Plena Publishing.

Gupta, C. (2009, December 19-25). Hindu  Women, Muslim Men: Love Jihad and Conversions. Economic and Political  Weekly, pp. 13-15.

Jethmalani, R. (2013, June 29). Hindutva  is a secular way of life. Retrieved from The Sunday Guardian:  http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/hindutva-is-a-secular-way-of-life 

Joshua, A. (2014, July 16). Choice of  ICHR chief reignites saffronisation debate. Retrieved from The Hindu:  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/choice-of-ichr-chief-reignites-saffronisation-debate/article6214483.ece 

Lakshmi, R. (2015, January 4). Indians  invented planes 7,000 years ago — and other startling claims at the Science  Congress. Retrieved from The Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/04/indians-invented-planes-7000-years-ago-and-other-startling-claims-at-the-science-congress/ 

Mukul, A. (2014, July 15). Ancient  caste system worked well, ICHR head says. Retrieved from The Times of  India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ancient-caste-system-worked-well-ICHR-head-says/articleshow/38401312.cms 

PTI Agency. (2014, February 13). Hinduism  a way of life, charge of extremism only to tarnish RSS' image: Ram Madhav.  Retrieved from Daily News Analysis (DNA): http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-hinduism-a-way-of-life-charge-of-extremism-only-to-tarnish-rss-image-ram-madhav-1961754 

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, has been very authoritative and eloquent since she entered the Writers’ Building. However, in the aftermath of Narendra Modi’s surging victory in the general elections, Banerjee will have to rethink her strategies on the Teesta River water sharing, and border disputes (the Land Boundary Agreement or LBA), with Bangladesh. Similarly, her hard-line stand towards the central government affects West Bengal’s interests too.

                                                                            Photo Credit: Google

In West Bengal, Banerjee’s attitude towards policy formation is questionable, based on the decisions she has made so far. For instance, recently, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is under Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, vouched for a tax waiver for those who paint their buildings white and blue, her favorite color. As such, the connection between tax waiver and painting of buildings with white and blue is unclear.

The Mamata-Modi ‘rivalry’

Banerjee expressed her disapproval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he began campaigning for the general elections. She also called him a ‘gadha’ (donkey) in response to his statements about the ‘illegal infiltrators’ from Bangladesh. Banerjee recently had the option to attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony held at the forecourt of the President’s house (Rashtrapati Bhavan) on May 26. This was an excellent opportunity for her to improve her relations with Modi and the central government. But she skipped the ceremony and even banned other TMC members from attending. This proves how rigid and authoritative she is with respect to her own party. Taking a hard-line stand could prove detrimental to her and the TMC.

                                                                             Photo Credit: Google

She often engaged in political brinkmanship because of her authoritativeness. In September 2011, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited Bangladesh for strategic dialog and to rejuvenate bilateral ties. Singh wanted Banerjee to accompany him, but she turned him down. She opposed the move to share the Teesta River water with Bangladesh and that left Dhaka displeased. Singh also did not discuss the issue with Bangladesh’s Prime Minister because the TMC threatened to pull out of the UPA.

Now, in this year’s general election, the TMC won 34 out of the 42 seats in West Bengal, but her capacity to influence the central government’s policies will be her litmus test. Banerjee may not be able to engage in brinkmanship as she did with the UPA. This is chiefly because Narendra Modi got an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections. He and his government do not have to depend on the TMC to introduce and pass the policies they deem fit in the Lok Sabha. The BJP, however, is in minority in the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of Parliament. It may turn to Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK party, led by Jayalalitha, to pass legislations in the Upper House. It is unlikely that Modi will turn to the TMC because of Banerjee’s hard-line stand.

Modi also signaled his intent by inviting heads of member-states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for his swearing-in ceremony. He wants to improve relations with India’s neighbours. A case in point is Bangladesh. The Awami League was re-elected to power in Dhaka in January this year. As international observers predicted that the Awami League government may engage in talks with BJP government. It is widely believed that the Awami League is pro-India as India liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971. Sushma Swaraj, the External Affairs Minister of India visited Dhaka for her first foreign visit and had talks on water sharing and multiple-entry visa for the citizens of Bangladesh aged below 13 and over 65. Modi also invited his counterpart at Dhaka through Swaraj to visit India. In this instance too, Modi extended an invitation to Banerjee before Swaraj’s visit to Dhaka as a gesture of goodwill to the TMC. Despite her long opposition to have talks with Dhaka on Teesta and the LBA, she is unable to influence the policies of government at centre. The central government is also likely to hamper Banerjee’s ‘vote bank’ politics over the ‘infiltrators’ from Bangladesh.

Problems within West Bengal

Let us talk about the problems within the state of West Bengal. The citizens gave Banerjee and the TMC the mandate to govern three years ago. They voted out the Communist Party of India (Marxist) out of power after 34 years. Among other things, Banerjee promised employment for the youngsters in the state. According to an official statement, the government of West Bengal, under TMC, created more than 2 lakh new jobs to the youth since it assumed power. However, the recruitment process has been obstructed for dubious reasons. On an average, teaching in primary and high schools is the preferred profession of the youth in Bengal, but their wait to get jobs becomes indefinite.

Administratively, West Bengal is divided into three parts: Bardhaman (seven districts), Presidency (six districts) and Jalpaiguri (six districts). The first two divisions represent South Bengal, which is a developed region. The Jalpaiguri division with Malda, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar districts represent North Bengal, which has been on the verge of a struggle and has remained largely underdeveloped since the Linguistic Reorganization of Indian states in 1956. In response to the forceful land acquisition and underdevelopment, the Naxalite movement began in 1967 at Naxalbari, a village in the Darjeeling district. Even the region comprising northern Malda, bordering areas of North Dinajpur and some parts of South Dinajpur have continuously been facing a crisis of ‘identity’. The people of this region want their unique culture intermingled with the surrounding areas, as their regional dialect is quite mixed with Hindi, to be recognized. Neither the TMC nor the Left government ever attempted to integrate this region.

The demand for Gorkhaland

The Darjeeling Hills pose serious challenges to the TMC government. There is a strong demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. Banerjee astutely formed the autonomous Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) so that the residents could manage their own affairs. However, the demand for Gorkhaland has gained impetus after the creation of Telanagna from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

                                                                               Photo Credit: Google

The BJP secured its victory from Darjeeling in the general elections. Pro-Gorkhaland leaders like Bimal Gurung, the president of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), see an opportunity to persuade the Modi to form Gorkhaland. The BJP promised to consider the Gorkhaland issue during his election campaigning. The UPA, despite internal opposition, created Telangana and Seemandhra. The Modi government, having secured absolute majority, will not need the TMC’s support to form Gorkhaland. So, the possibility of Darjeeling being taken away from West Bengal is high, Banerjee’s opposition  notwithstanding. She cannot afford to lose Darjeeling for economic reasons. Banerjee and TMC’s image will take a beating if Darjeeling is split from West Bengal. The public might blame Banerjee and her stance against Modi. If she tries to ease tensions, the creation of Gorkhaland may go on the backburner for the time being.

Conclusion

Although Modi praised Banerjee for her achievement in developing West Bengal, her continued anti-Modi stand will create more difficulties for her and the state in future. The earlier Left government already had left the Writers’ Building in a huge debt of over Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Mamata Banerjee must address the debt repayment problem, but she is distancing herself from the central government. She has little choice but to work out her issues with New Delhi to improve West Bengal’s condition.

  Academically, the political scientists define politics as an act of an individual or a group, which impacts the lives of others. It means, politics does not mean mere contesting elections but any act of an individual or any organisation, which has bearing on public life. For example, if a person shouts out inside the four walls of his/her house, it has nothing to do with politics, but if he/she does the same on the road then it is a kind of politics. Here, we will be concerned with political activities done by nation-states, its political parties and its leaders. What is their role to politics? How do they see politics?

                                                                             Photo Credit: Google

In the historical past of the world, politics was only confined to war, aggression, annexation etc. But, the connotation of the same is changing on each passing day. Now, politics is not only concentrated to ‘hard power’ (military power) but also to the capabilities of ‘soft power’ (capacity to influence the culture of others). Now in politics nothing is good or bad, as the realist school of thought of international relation (IR) says. The only thing guides the principle of action is the ‘interest’ of an individual or a nation and the definition of that interest varies differently from state to state and from individual to individual. Here, I will present some instances about the framing of policies and actions for the sake of interest of political parties and nation-states while acting in the public domain.

Politics of Violence and Conflicts:

Violence, whether that is on the basis of communalism, casteism or ethnic, we started to believe that those are happening spontaneously and automatically. But, I am not ready to accept the dictum of spontaneity. To my understanding, those are not accidents rather incidents (accidents with intentions) and also are well orchestrated misfortune to the society. The recent ethnic violence in Assam centered on the refugees and so-called ‘infiltrators’ of Bangladeshis with the native ‘Bodo’ inhabitants of Assam, in which, mostly the deceased were Muslims. It is also a well known fact that Muslims are in minority in India along with other minorities and our society tend to believe that minorities living anywhere in this world subjected to violence and persecution, as those are their fate. That violence against the Muslims was instigated by communal speeches by the leaders of fascist parties. My point here is to mention the cheap politics of interest. In the era of 21st century, where we can locate an object as small as few centimeters on the ground through satellite imagery, where we can tap the communications at the mass-level (NSA’s operation ‘Prism’), where the intelligences (domestic or international) of every nation-state is getting more and more sophisticated by the advancement of technology, can we afford to believe that violence is spontaneous and government or state agencies are unable to contain those?

These are well orchestrated incidents to have an issue to fight elections. For example, Muzaffarnagar riot and Assam ethnic violence in India happened ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election to polarise the mass. This is not a unique case to India only, but if we analyse the history of elections of nations we will find that every election was preceeded by an event of interest to consolidate the mass. United States of America’s President Barrack Obama’s ‘operation geronimo’ in Abbottabad in Pakistan to kill Osama-bin-Laden exactly a year ago of the scheduled Presidential election is an example. People of US wanted the Obama administration to hunt for Osama and Obama waited for the right time to act. Sources said that Washington had already located the late Al-Qaeda chief few times before the killing. Leaders use their power to execute operations for their interest , so these are only ‘games’ to them. They know the timing to play those games.

Politics of Culture:

Since the beginning of the human history, human beings has been very conscious about their history, culture and ethnicity. They were very emotional to their cultures. But, since the ‘globalization’ has taken place, human beings are exposed to different cultures and they also have enough choices to adopt. They are continuously losing the bond to their cultures. Now, in this century of technology, culture also plays an important role to establish ‘hegemony’. Here, ‘soft power’- the capability to influence the cultures of other nation-state, is as important as ‘hard power’- the militiry power. To establish the hegemony, the hegemonic countries try to promote ‘soft power’ to other nation-states and their promotions are very attractive to adopt. For example, the kind of spices Hollywood  is providing to the mass through it’s movies and the kind of life-style the West is portraying are highly volatile to the young mass of any nation. India is the youngest nation of the world. So, it attracts most of the features from western cultures to create demand for the exclusive products of those nations. Youngstars celebrate late-night parties at discos and bars in the metro-cities of India, having drinks (both soft and hard), celebrating birthdays, christmas and new year etc. All these are the effect of the promotion of ‘soft power’ with delicate attractiveness.

The motive behind this is to crete demand for those products used and manufactured in and by those nations, which promote their lifestyles to the territory of others to be consumed. Only for this reason, globalization has opened the doors of developing and underdeveloped countries to big multi-national corporations like Walmart, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Mc Donald’s etc to name a few. The outcome of this tool is manifold. First, a system of cultural hegemony will remain intact. It will give the hegemonic nations to feel like a dominant player in the international politics. Second, without economic hegemony political hegemony can not be imagined. So, nation-states, anyhow, must thrive to boost it’s economy and the hegemonic nation is perfectly following this path. Third, the receiving nations will have to be dependent on the facilitating nations and we know that ‘dependency’ in international politics is a kind of exploitation. Every sovereign state wants to exploite the states inferior to them.

Politics of Gesture:

Gesture of a nation or it’s leaders is an important tool of politics. Gesture of nation-states changes according to their  interest. For example, before the general election of 2014 in India, and during the election campaigning, the stand of BJP’s policy towards Pakistan was a kind of antagonism to polarise the mass of India, as it was evident by the speeches by the leaders of the same during the campaigning.  Now, the PM of India, Mr. Narendra Damodar Das Modi had invited the heads of SAARC to attend his swearing-in ceremony is a kind of message to the world about the foreign policy of India towards her neighbours. In both the cases the actions of the party were guided by it’s interest. In the first case, they did that to win the election by polarising the mass but in the case of latter, they acted in the interset of the nation to have better ties among the neighbouring nations.

Again, when BJP was in opposition in the Parliament during the tenure of Indian National Congress (INC) led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), they continuously opposed similar activitie of the then PM of India - Mr. Manmohan Singh to term that as ‘biryani diplomacy’ (N.B: biryani is a kind of special cuisine in India served ocassionally to the guests). It means that inviting the delegations of those nations, which are killing the armymen of India at the borders to them is a sign of inaction and incompetance of a government to handle the situation. But BJP is also doing the same so-called ‘biryani diplomacy’. Here, we can say that whatever be the philosophy of a party, when it entrusted with responsibility and authority, the same is bound to act according to the interest of the nation.

If we look at the international level, the ‘gesture’ politics is quite significant there too. Islamabad and Colombo have released some fishermen of India ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of Modi to present a goodwill gesture to New Delhi, after Raisina Hills have invited them to attend the same. In return, they also hope some actions of reciprocity from Indian government. Again, Washington has put some sanctions to Moscow over the action of Russia in Crimea-Donestk-Luhansk region in Ukraine. In response, Russia signed a deal with China to bypass US dollar to show it’s gesture of reciprocity.

Very often the present superpower of the world, i.e; USA plays the trump card of giving ‘permanent seat’ to India in the Security Council of the UN. The prerequisite condition to have the same is that a country should be a great power in terms of arms and ammunition, economy and population. India is going with a good speed to achieve those criterion. According to the UK think tank, India to be world’s 3rd-largest economy by 2028. Also she has a huge population with large workforce. The only interest of Washington is to force India to quest for more power, i.e; importing arms and ammunition from US to claim as a superpower. It is Washington’s virtual persuation to New Delhi and US does not actually want to give the permanent seat to India at this juncture. By this the purpose of USA to sell it’s manufactured heavy weapons to India get fulfilled quite easily.

Conclusion:

Finally, we can say that these things are inevitable in politics. This is the heart and soul of politics. By the above discussions we realised that action in politics is dictated by the ‘interest’ and these kinds of ‘game of interest’ in politics will continue to be till the existence of nation-states.

Ending India's rape culture Naomi Wolf, aljazeera.com

Women and men who support freedom of movement and safety from sex crimes are being forced to "refight that battle".

In India, the law seems firmly on the side of the rapist Kishwar Desai, guardian.co.uk

A young woman's brutal rape is shocking, but not unexpected. Indian women endure a highly insecure environment

imbiswanath, wordpress.com