Living in an illiberal Indian Society

There have been a number of reasons that have directed me into the line of thinking that is indicated by the title of the post.  Some of the most recent concerns have stemmed out of the fact that Indian society is increasingly showing two contradictory tendencies; indifference to others lives at one level and intrusion into the lives of others, unnecessarily, at another level.  It seems somehow that every individual is somehow trying to influence society into thinking in his/her way and this desire to influence is based in a delusional belief that the system of beliefs that he/she holds are universally and morally superior to those whose systems of belief may not correspond with his/hers.  Urban areas are concrete jungles, with open spaces and small houses that housed a handful of people being replaced by gargantuan apartment blocks that are not only an eyesore but also impediments to healthy and convenient living.  I shall not talk about this aspect in this post because that is not the concern of the post.  Nevertheless the reason why I invoke this category is that apartments are congested spaces where hundreds and in some instances thousands of people living in extremely close proximity without knowing who their neighbours are or caring for the problems that the other people in the building maybe facing and in the process requiring some help.  We have learnt to live by conveniently ignoring other people's problems and by dissolving social solidarity at the inter-personal and inter-family levels.

On the other hand however there is this phenomenon of moral posturing and policing where usually the lumpen elements of society make the most intimate of a person's concerns their own and interfere in ways which are not only embarrassing and irritating but criminally reprehensible as well.  This is a fascist tendency that has crept into Indian society with various self proclaimed individuals and groups taking up cudgels on behalf of a "perceived" culture and trying to protect it from its enemies.  The enemy is the cultural other who is defined by the religious community that s/he belongs to.  While I have consistently held the belief that in India there is no such thing as Hinduism (for me various cosmologies that have some points of intersection based in concurrence have been clubbed together to create a neologism called Hinduism) culturally speaking, political developments in the country have used this neologism to try and satisfy some political expediencies that relate to the capture and retention of power.  What is important is that here power is not a means to an end but an end in itself.  The attempt to create a fache out of a synecdoche has unleashed the illiberalism that has now become the norm of Indian society.  Despite there being many disadvantages with the cosmology based system of life which was manipulated by the Brahmins to their advantage there is still was a possibility of people living some aspects of their lives, mainly the intimate ones, by determining them the way they wanted to.  This is what Gandhi called individual autonomy in a system of social solidarity and the cosmologies that have been brought together to create a fache today have become monstrosities that destroy not only individual autonomy but social solidarity as well.

This neologism called Hinduism which manifests itself as this fache is always trying to control members of its own denomination by "protecting" them from the perceived other which is the other religious groupings.  Here in lies a tragedy of epic proportions.  While what have been designated as "Abrahamic Religions" have always tried to create a monolithic structure with an unambiguous and singular God and therefore qualify to be classified as religions because of this monotheistic aspect, what was caste cosmology did not have this feature of monotheism.  In fact, with good reason the Adi Shankaracharya has been called an atheist simply because for him there is no entity that is singular and different from the human spirit. One could argue that caste cosmologies if at all they are theistic, are either pan-theistic or poly theistic, an aspect of Indian society that has amused Westerners so much that they have lampooned the existence of so many Gods.  The ideal course of action would have been to ignore these illiterate comments and concentrated on reform in the caste system.  Instead of doing that, the neologism called Hinduism became a fache which became reactionary and revivalist and in doing so unleashed newer forms of discrimination and illiberalism while maintaining the other  traditional schisms that have been part of Indian society for centuries.  While more people from the discriminated sections fight to break the fache, the reactionary elements meet those attempts with bigotry that tries to strengthen the fache.  So reform and revival clash, not in the rational and deliberative phase, but in the actual physical realm.  This clash does not involve the majority of people, it is among the lumpen elements of that claim to side reform or revival that the clash takes place.

A reactionary and belligerent fache is kept alive despite the internal clash between reform and revival by always taking attentions to other easily available options of exclusion from the fache.  The other is members of other religions and to show the differences between religious practices is a fairly simple and straightforward process.  But the highlighting of differences in religious practices is not sufficient enough in strength to keep the fache tight and unified.  It is for that reason that religious practices spill out into the open, into the cultural space which at one level is a physical space that has people who are engaged in various forms of social transaction.  It is by disturbing this transaction by highlighting difference that what should otherwise be a matter of individual preference becomes the concern of many.  The best example of spilling over into real time cultural space is taking religious practices onto the street where they are bound to disturb normal life.  Bal Gangadhar Tilak may have created the now infamous Ganesh processions that dote Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad to bring together members from various castes onto one platform to unite against the British. His choice of Ganesh or Ganapati as the God had to do with the fact that this God figured in all the various pantheons of Gods that different castes had.  By making Ganesh Chaturthi a festival that would be celebrated in public over a period of nine days, Tilak was trying to bring some unity in the area that was under the hegemony of the very orthodox Chitpavan Brahmins. Nearly a century after the practice was begun by Tilak it is impossible for me to actually evaluate if this particular practice contributed to any nationalism and unity but it is very clear that this practice has now entered the space of social disharmony.  The festival is controlled by the politicians and their henchmen who ensure that even those who do not want to be a part of this process at best can spectate silently.

These attempts from one fache are countered by others by adopting similar tactics.  Since religion is sacred anything done in its name cannot be questioned.  So in cities like Hyderabad newer processions were created by those in charge of the Islamic fache and one of them is a "pankha juloos" or procession of fans.  Ceiling fans are used in this procession for reasons that are completely incomprehensible to me.  Now the Christians have started an Easter procession carrying flags saying "Run for Jesus" while they are actually riding motorcycles or driving cars.  Newer processions have come into being in the Hindu fache where people now celebrate Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of God Hanuman.  Interestingly the choice of Hanuman has everything to do with the fact that he too figures in all the pantheons of Gods that exist among various caste groupings. Interestingly enough another procession that is now a regular phenomenon is the Dussehra procession involving the female deity Durga.  I say this is interesting because in all pantheons of Gods there are various female deities who are generically called "Amma" or "Ma" which simply means mother.  Durga is Ma Durga and therefore involving everyone.  Islam has countered this with various processions on Milad un Nabi the birthday of Prophet Mohammed, where Muslim youth drive around on motorcycles with green flags in hand.  

The contradiction here is that the sacred is invoked in order to perpetuate most unsacred and politically divisive agendas.  However, what concerns me here is the fact that this tendency of illiberalism is growing and restricting the freedoms and autonomy that various people are entitled to constitutionally and civilisationally.  An illiberal society that is tending to become fascist is also uncivil and unconstitutional apart from being an affront on the sensibilities of rational and sensible people. While it is not really possible to predict the exact consequences of this illiberalism, what can definitely be prognosticated is a society and nation that will be increasingly burdened with violence and lack of peace.

I will now conclude this piece by grinding one of my favourite axes. People who designate themselves as intellectuals and teaching professionals talk of the ills of Indian society as being a result of liberalism.  In doing so they are unwittingly strengthening the hands of the conservative fascists who use the idea of liberalism as being an enemy of the people.  I am not defending liberalism here, but the critique of society cannot just concentrate on the economic damages brought out by a liberalized economy, but should penetrate into those socio-cultural spaces that have started harbouring anti social elements who want to create religion based faches.  If intellectuals and teachers subscribe to the minimal doctrine of being "politically right" and therefore not engage in discourse about the illiberalism of Indian society, then their conversations are very much in the domain of the imaginary and they will be conversations that have no bearing on society and therefore just another drain on the country's resources.