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COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND MY RESPONSE TO IT

                                                                                   -  S.ARUL RAYAN, SJ

 

Violence is the exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse, such as the forceful human destruction of property or injury to persons, usually intentional, and the forceful verbal and emotional abuse that harms others. Communal violence refers to a situation where violence is perpetrated across religious, caste and ethnic lines. The term communal violence  is commonly used to describe those incidents where conflict between the ethnic, religious and caste communities results in large scale massacres.

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Kanpur riots (1932), point out that the British organized communal violence. It provided them an apt pretext to further suppress the people and declare that it was not the colonial rule that was the cause of the problems of the Indians, but that religion was the problem. They blamed the victims and their religions for the situation created by the colonial rule.

In today’s independent India too, communal violence has been motivated for political gains. I was in Gujarat when it was dreadfully burning with communal hatred in the year 2002, after the infamous Godhra carnage. Gujarat gave me a bitter taste of communal violence. One afternoon, I  witnessed from my terrace, the selected houses, the shops and the restaurants being ruthlessly ransacked and  set on fire. Later, I came to know that those burnt establishments belonged to the Muslims. Most NGOs and the human right activists claim that the Government was behind  these brutal riots.

The involvement of the state police is not new, not just in Gujarat but elsewhere in the country too, raising key questions about  police recruitment and training. The most shocking case was evident at Hatkeshwar circle. Three houses in a row were in flames and at 100 feet away, the policemen, including an ACP rank officer, sat in chairs taken out from a nearby shop. When asked, one of them said, “Let them do something also”.   

 The Modi Government came to power soon after the vicious 2002 riots. There had been concerted attempts to get a list of the Muslim business establishments from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The manner in which the minority community, irrespective of their economic status, was attacked, first raised suspicions about the systematic misuse of the voters’ list to identify and target them. The unofficial sources point out that four to five thousand people may have been massacred in the communal violence in Gujarat. These cold-blooded massacres were meticulously organized and did not evolve  spontaneously.

Why are the ruling state governments organizing communal violence today? Whose interest does the “Divide and Rule” policy serve? Whom are they trying to divide? These are some of the questions that need to be answered.

A policeman said, “In the Indian system where orders from above are the keystone around which the structure revolves, for a full two days after the Godhra incident there were no clear instructions on what to do next”. The situation was aggravated when the state BJP declared its support for the VHP-sponsored bandh on February 28. Most accounts agree that violence really escalated after this resolution and from then on, it was a signal for the state agencies to take it easy or even look the other way, which is the way things were ultimately played out! 

Political parties use communal violence to divert people’s attention  from their basic problems.  As one worker in Ayodhya said," Mahengai Dekhen ki Mandir Dekhen?"(Shall we worry about increasing prices or temples?). The politics of assassination, communal violence, anarchy and criminalization helps the ruling circles to create an atmosphere of anxiety, tension and diversion. It creates fear and cynicism. Under such conditions, the illusions about various institutions of the States are created, as if some are good and the others are bad. Once people are brainwashed, the ruling parties can do whatever they wish. This deliberately charged atmosphere then, is used to instigate attacks and unleash terror.

Let us consider the recent attacks in Mumbai(26/11). The top officials like the ATS chief and the ACP who were investigating  communal terror have been murdered. The siege of the Taj, the Oberoi hotels and the other establishments, only adds fuel to the burning fire of communal violence. The alleged terror link with Pakistan automatically brings in the communal aspect to the terror. It is also an attempt to develop further the tension between the two major communities in our country. 

 

In Orissa, Fr. Bernard Digal, 48, was attacked by a violent mob, and he succumbed to his injuries. When I read the heart-rending confession of the nun who was raped, a lot of questions arose in my mind. Where is the law? Where is justice? Where is democracy? Where are the guilty? Where is human dignity? What is my response? Communalism, violence and terror are the result of an obstinate refusal to find political solutions. The sole aim of the political parties is to come to power, or preserve power by hook or by crook.

These attacks may go on and on, endlessly. It is time now to move beyond pointing fingers at one another.  The political bickering on this issue is divisive.  The demand of the officials’ resignations by the political parties only politicizes the issue. It can take us nowhere!  Let us look beyond religion, caste, class and nationality and fight communal violence and terror positively. What our world needs now is unity.  Violence or terror of any kind can have no religion, caste, class or nationality.

 I believe that a true forgiving love can make a difference to our world. Violence needs to be eliminated, and love ought to be instituted. The “Ahimsa” of Gandhi, the “non-violence” of Buddha, and “the unconditional love” of Jesus are badly needed today.

A majority of uneducated youth generally lack the sense of belonging  to society. They feel insecure when they are rejected and detested. These youth become ripe material for the brainwashing centres of fundamentalists. Hence I will educate the children of today. Let them not  fall prey to the evil designs of the boorish approach of violence.

I will write to national leaders expressing  my feelings about brutal violence.    share my views and concerns for peace and harmony with the local newspapers. However, in these horrifying circumstances of atrocities and  bloodshed, above all, I will pray for the intervention of the almighty god. Only HE can motivate the multitude of people and work wonders.

When  communal Orissa burnt Graham Staines and his two sons, his daughter Esther Staines could say, “ I praise God because my father and brothers were found worthy to suffer for Christ”. Jesus went around doing good. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, forgave miserable sinners, and loved everyone even from the cross.

Church history shows that the universal Church has suffered great persecutions. Has she perished? No, she has, on the contrary, flourished. Persecutions have dogged Christianity from time immemorial and that tradition still continues. It all began with Jesus, our Lord himself, who was persecuted and sentenced to death. When Jesus is my model, the centre of my life, let me imitate Him. I strongly believe that when I become like Christ, my love for God can bring about the changes in the petty lives of the people, and especially in the lives of the perpetrators. “Nothing is impossible with God.”

God has created our world, so beautiful a place to live in. However, some people are fighting and killing each other, and are bent on destruction. If the fundamentalists burn the hospitals, let me treat them with love. If they destroy the schools, let me teach them with tender care the lessons of life. If they slap me on one cheek, let me show them the other, too. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51) Rev Fr. Joseph Neuner S.J., a centenarian and a great theologian, interprets it. “Such words sound hard and seem to belie the Christmas message of peace. The peace of Christmas, and once more the peace of Easter is not capitulation before the power of darkness. Christian peace doesn’t avoid conflict. It is not pacifism at any price. It is the divine assurance of final victory over all evil, not a victory by power but a victory by love.”

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta brought a sea of change, keeping the love of Jesus as the source of her life. she was all alone when she began, so shall each one of us be. we can, indeed, make the world a loving place, when we live as symbols of love. Let us show the world that God is love. For my part, I am determined to make a beginning by stretching out to all in my community and neighbourhood.  My prayer will be:

“Lord make me the means of your peace,

where there is hatred let me bring your love.”