India is no stranger to what are peculiarly called ‘communal’ riots. Be it the anti Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the pogroms against Muslims in 1992 and later in 2002 where the state was complicit , India has historically been gripped by inter religious and ethnic conflict. The goriest instance of this was the violence that followed the partition and division of the Indian subcontinent. In different permutations and combinations, riots have been an indelible feature of both the pre and post independence India. This violence has reared its head again in Assam. According to official figures, these have till now consumed 45 lives. While this is really besides the point, the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh has offered a generous financial package to the people hit by the these riots. And it is hoped that the riots do not have spillover and a ‘domino’effect in India.
‘Communal’ riots in India had, of late, been subsumed by concerns about/over terrorism. However, they are now back on the radar. These riots lead to a set of questions that the Indian political must answer and have a solid response to. The salient of these are: what accounts for these riots? Do these riots validate the two nation theory? Can multiculturalism obviate these? Or is multiculturalism in non western societies a non starter? Does the skewed economic growth and regional imbalances feed these riots? And, last but not the least, do these riots warrant a revisit of the idea of India? Is this idea, in the final analysis, a feeble and a precarious one?
The riots in contention may not accrue or stem from the generic reason for riots in India. That is, the animus and hostility between Muslims ad Hindus. Assam has a long history of illegal immigration and politics of secession by its tribals. The source of this illegal immigration is Bangladesh which has a long border with Assam. This illegal immigration into Assam and the settling down of these immigrants in Assam raised the hackles and ire of natives and culminated into a violent movement in the eighties. This changed the political coloration of the state. Fuelling this xenophobia was the economic backwardness of the state and it was complemented by the secessionist demands of its tribal community called the Bodo’s. Both issues were somewhat resolved. However, as the current riots demonstrate, not to everyone’s satisfaction. Dissatisfaction, frustration and discontent apparently simmered underneath the patina of calm, peace and amity. This latent anger and rage has now spilt out in the open and the result is rioting and violence. This then cannot held to be similar or in the same category of riots that usually stalk and bedevil India. As such they cannot really be held to be invalidating the Idea of India and validating the two nation theory.
What these riots do is call into the question the nature of multi culturalism in non western societies. It is often held and alleged that non western societies like India have enjoyed amicable and friendly inter ethnic and religious relations between different groups forming its mosaic and firmament. This , it is said, accrues from the philosophy that permeates and defines India. The riots that have been a defining feature of India and the riot in contention demonstrates this historiography is patently false. Inter group amity can perhaps , in the final analysis be upheld and maintained only by a liberal state that enjoins and upholds the rights of individuals. And this is a western concept and construct. This has implications on multiculturalism in non western societies. If these societies are to maintain inter group amity and peace, they may have to correspond to the notion and practice of multiculturalism as practiced in some western countries. Non western multi culturalism is then a chimera and a figment of the imagination of nativist and nationalist intellectuals.
This multiculturalism will come to naught if it is not buttressed and complemented by broad based and balanced economic growth and a reasonably equitable redistribution of resources and income. While India is stuck in its third generation economic reforms and much energy is dissipated over agonizing debates on this, it is curious that very little attention is paid to making this economic growth real for the teeming masses of India and its deprived regions. It is only balanced and equitable growth that can accord flesh to the notion and practice of multiculturalism in India and redeem the idea of India.
Till then, the idea of India will be a sophisticated academic construct and concept developed in safe and cozy confines of the western academy and validated by academics and intellectuals in the west. This is not to demean or discredit the idea of India. This idea is real and has withstood the test of time against the alarmist prognostications of India’s disintegration and demise as a coherent entity. It is about time then that substance be added to the layers that constitute the Idea of India and riots like the one in contention be pre-empted. The teeming , poor and underfed masses of India deserve this.
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