Source: Mainstream, August 16, 2003

Book Review

 
Dissecting the Shame of Gujarat and Disseminating Truth for Reconciliation
Subhoranjan Dasgupta

Communal Rage in Secular India by Rafiq Zakaria; Foreword by Amartya Sen; Popular Prakashan, Mumbai; 2003; Rs 350.


Even if one goes through the titles of Rafiq Zakaria’s book—A Study of Nehru, The Struggle within Islam, Price of Partition, Jinnah: The Man who divided India—one realises that the author has a mission to fulfil. An implacable foe of fundamentalism of all hues and a dedicated humanist, Zakaria’s mission is to bring the two communities close to each other. In fact, he aspires for a closeness that precludes suspicion, distrust and enmity. That is why he ends this book by recalling Iqbal’s Naya Shawala/New Shrine which says:
Let the temple bells mingle with the muezzin’s call.
Let us erase every trace of alienation
And break the barriers of separation.
No wonder, a man and writer like Rafiq Zakaria “could not help writing this book” especially after Godhra and Gujarat. At one level, which is basic, this book is an indispensable part of our ‘Gujarat Literature’ which has dissected the massacre and nailed the devils after the journalists did their magnificent reportage. Yet, at another level, this book journeys beyond the genocide and opens a space promising reconciliation. This resolute optimism of the author is desperately needed at this hour when everything seems to fall apart. He appeals fervently to members of both communities to ‘Awake, whatever the odds/And row on, undaunted/Until you reach the shores.’
Any genuine reconciliation has to be based on a dispassionate examination and dissemination of truth. Rafiq Zakaria has accomplished this crucial task in the last six chapters for which he deserves a special accolade. For example, in Chapter 6 ‘Historical Distortions’, he has rubbished the myth which insists on painting the periods of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal dynasty in jet black colour. By quoting extensively from the renowned historian, Jadunath Sarkar, who was not a myopic Marxist, he has reasserted the truth under siege that these phases of our history were also grand and glorious in many aspects. It is high time that we emphasise that all Muslim monarchs were not Aurangzeb. From this book I have learnt that Ziauddin Barani, a Muslim zealot, was shocked by the indulgence shown towards the Hindus by Muslim rulers. Barani lamented by saying: ‘The desire for overthrowing infidels and knocking down idolators and polytheists does not fill the hearts of the Muslim kings.’
Similarly, the author has torn apart those distortions which try to project Shivaji, Vivekananda, Sardar Patel as torchbearers of Hindutva. Of course, Sardar Patel was neither Nehru nor Gandhi. His mould was different but this difference does not bring him an inch closer to Golwalkar, Savarkar, Modi and Singhal. While Patel castigated and condemned the RSS and Savarkar for their dubious, if not nefarious, role in carrying out the assassination of Gandhi; the BJP and its followers swear by the RSS and Savarkar. In point of fact, even the most intense colouring would fail to tinge Patel and Vivekananda with the saffron of the RSS’s choice. Prof Tapan Raychaudhuri has described the attempt to coopt Vivekananda as the most brazen bit of audacity, because this Hindu saint, in the words of the Professor, “was among the earliest nationalist thinkers to claim the Indo-Islamic past as part of the Indian heritage”.
The author’s sketch of Shivaji is simply superb. After reading it, one really wonders why the followers of Bal Thackeray are still clinging to the false name ‘Shiv Sena’. They should re-christen themselves immediately. How can they worship a hero who admonished Aurangzeb thus: “Verily, Islam and Hinduism are terms of contrast. They are used by the true Divine Painter for blending the colours and filling in the outlines. If it is a mosque, the call to prayer is chanted in remembrance of him. If it is a temple, the bells are rung in yearning for him alone.” I have quoted Shivaji’s faith in full with the hope that Shivsainiks will read it and then opt for a metamorphosis: If they refuse, they should at least select another name for their outfit.

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When one reads the second section of the book first, from Chapters 6 to 10, as an attentive student of history, and then goes to the first part which begins with the Godhra massacre and ends with ‘Fascist Trends’, one confronts the sheer, unfathomable depth of our present beastly degeneration. We simply repeat the question ‘Why?’ in sheer despair as the words of Professor Amartya Sen (he wrote the Foreword) ring in our ears:
The Gujarat massacre, unrestrained by a State Government that proved to be, at best, grossly incompetent but very likely a great deal worse, is a manifestation of vicious sectarian politics that is doing its best to turn India into a barbaric country of which every citizen has reason to be ashamed.
The reasons for this stinging shame have been elaborated in the first section with unfailing honesty. We tend to agree with Zakaria when he says after analysing almost all available reports that while the Godhra massacre was an act of spontaneous crime—certainly despicable in spite of the provocations that led to it—what followed were acts of mathematical brutality. This element of hellish calculation is still persisting, as is evident from the farce that is being enacted in the name of trials in the courtrooms of Gujarat. Till date not one Saffron leader, not even the moderate Prime Minister, has uttered one word to console Zahira Sheik though the same PM did not hesitate to raise queries like ‘who lit the fire?’ to smudge the hues of the holocaust.
I do not know if our memories have blurred with the treacherous flow of time. If they have, the chapter on genocide brings everything back again. Zakaria helps us to reconstruct those days and nights which constitute the benchmark of our agony. On the one hand, we hear again the ravings of the VHP who clamour: “They do not consider Bharat as their motherland. Hindu-Muslim unity is a farce”; on the other we hear the impassioned denunciation of Mallika Sarabhai: “I accuse, for they have turned us all into puppets... into a voiceless, gutless race.” In between, Naroda Patya burns in the hell fire of murderous hate.
What marks out Gujarat’s inferno as something separate from, say, the carnage in Bhagalpur or Nellie? The one and only answer to this question is provided in the chapter ‘Fascist Trends’ where the criminal connivance of the state apparatus in Gujarat and the Hitlerite apotheosis of Narendra Modi are explained in terms of Saffron Fascism, carefully nurtured for over five decades. To be candid, Narendra Modi has followed the rules of the prescribed book. He engineered what his ‘Guru’ Golwalkar had demanded. The precise words of the master were,
Race pride at its highest has been manifested here (Nazi Germans). Germany has also shown how wellnigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.
Isn’t it highly ironic that this book should end with the chapter titled ‘What should Muslims do?’ No doubt, the Muslims have to do a lot, fundamentalists in particular, who have still not grasped the essence of Koran. They, along with ignorant Hindus, should read the chapter ‘Religious Misconceptions’. But even after saying this, we should ask the much more important question ‘What should the Hindus do?’ Very simple, exercise that heaven or hell choice once and for all which will cement the majority once again with Gandhi and his All-Merciful Ram. If this redemptive link is forged there will be neither provocation nor Godhra, neither reaction nor Best Bakery. We shall be essentially human once again.