Communal sabre-rattling loses sheen as mature India takes charge

Anger, fear, a sense of hopelessness and that simmering, silent fury at being taken by surprise again — the triple blasts in Mumbai evoked the predictable range of emotional reactions. But conspicuous by its absence was the communal spin to the developments. The general public was largely confined to blaming the government. Even the usual political rabble-rousers were not ratcheting up the communal rhetoric. BJP leaders blamed the government and directed most of their ire at Pakistan; the Shiv Sena, the more aggressive among the advocates of macho Hindutva, has not launched into a blame game; other Hindutva outfits have been largely subdued in their remarks. Compare this situation to that of two decades ago or earlier, the period where every incident took on a sharp communal overtone, leading to open hate-mongering. The difference is striking. [caption id=“attachment_42361” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Terror has lost its communal character in all these years. PTI”] [/caption] Terror has lost its communal character in all these years. It was amply evident in the public and political responses to the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai; it has been evident in several other terror attacks in other parts of the country in recent years. The country seems to have agreed on and accepted that terror incidents are the handiwork individual deviants or groups comprising them; their communal identity is incidental. Thus, in the public perception, outfits like the Indian Mujahideen and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) no more remain strictly rooted in their Muslim identity. They have assumed an identity which is no longer linkable to the community at large; they are free-floating independent entities sustaining on support from anti-India elements elsewhere. The change in the air is perceptible. And it is a welcome development. But what caused the change? It could be the fatigue. Historically, communal incidents have been a constant in the Indian society. But they have been mostly localised and temporary affairs with the conflicting groups settling down to periods of peace after each show of strength. However, since the days of the Ayodhya Ram temple movement through the Gujarat riots to the July 2007 train blasts in Mumbai, it has been a rather long phase of heightened tension. Fanned by the politics of the day, communal passions also reached deeper and wider. It had gone on for far too long and had to lose steam at some point. The radical Hindu outfits, which hogged the limelight for a considerable length of time after the demolition of the Babri Masjid and helped vitiate the already aggravated communal environment, have gradually been marginalised. They have lost favour with the RSS and the BJP is no more keen on entertaining them. They had turned into an embarrassment for both and had to be relegated to the sidelines. Their absence has brought down the communal temperature significantly. On its part, the Muslim community appears to have distanced itself from the radical elements which later developed into organisations with terrorist intentions. These elements used the community for their limited ends and landed it in larger, avoidable conflicts with other communities and in a hostile environment. Moreover, the community seems to have understood the cynical political games being played over them by the so-called secular and right-wing parties and learnt to be wary of both. The recommendation of the Sachar Committee, which recommends a series of measures for the development of the community, addresses the deprivation complex in the community. It may not have delivered much in actual terms for the average Muslim, but its very existence has built up hope. To sum up, the inter-community tension has dissipated to a large extent over time. It could be because of the fact that the culture of provocation has lost currency or the general attitude towards communal equations has gone more mature. Whatever it is, it augurs well for the country.