Burden of history
Consciousness is the sum total of anxieties, fears, insecurities, desires and psychological wounds. It can also be an interest, concern or awareness shown about social or political issues. Communal consciousness is the manifestation of the above stated traits by a large number of members of a community or “qaum” or nation. It not only involves a sense of identification with one’s “qaum” but also one “qaum’s” perceptions about other “qaums” and particularly one “qaum’s” struggle against other “qaums” for political and economic dominance. In the subcontinental context, communalism meant that not only the Hindus and the Muslims were two totally different communities, their interests also clashed with one another.
Generally, communalism thrives on contentious issues of religion, language and ethnicity. That is why communal politicians not only use religious symbols and legends to boost their communities and whenever situations demand they invent them to glorify their community and castigate the rival “qaum.” More often, they harp upon the past greatness of their community, the great role it played in the progress of world civilisation and make a promise of shining future. In addition, communalists not only brag about the exaggerated or false greatness of their community; with great conviction they blame other “qaums” for their own failures and term other communities as inferior, oppressive and evil that have to be fought and obliterated.
The Hindu communal consciousness thus means that all Hindus are one community, which had a glorious past but was wronged and oppressed by the “evil” Muslim community. That is why the Muslims have to be fought and defeated. Once the “Muslim menace” is successfully dealt with, the Hindu communalists bleat that their community will rise and shine again in future. Since the assumption of political power in secular India by the Hindu communalists of Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) under Narendra Modi, the Hindu communal consciousness has exerted itself in a crude and unbridled manner. The point that needs to be looked into is whether this expression of blatant Hindu communal consciousness is unique to the present-day India because Hindu communalists have possessed political power, now, and can therefore get away with whatever they do in the name of Hinduism or is this Hindu communal consciousness existed in the past as well. We do know that Hindu communalism was a potent force when communal Hindu organisations such as Hindu Mahasabha and Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were founded in the first half of the twentieth century but the point to probe is whether this bigotry also existed or not before the establishment of these religio-political organisations in the subcontinent and if it did then what were its contours and who were its proponents.
Historically, Hindu communal bigotry predates the political parties in India. Its proponents were Hindu poets, writers, playwrights, journalists and religious revivalists. The fields of art, literature and journalism are not only a depiction of everyday life, they are also the medium to convey the thoughts of writers and artistes to form and transform public opinion on sensitive issues such as communalism. One such litterateur who could be called a representative of the Hindu communal consciousness in the pre-Indian National Congress period was Harishchandra Bharatendu. In a short life of thirty-five years, he created such powerful works in art and literature that earned him the title of “Bharatendu” which means the “Moon of India” as well as the honorific of “Father of modern Hindi and theatre.” So influential were his writings that his period has been categorised as the “Bharatendu Yug” in Hindi literature. In addition, he acted as the editor of two magazines “Kavi Vachan Sudha” and “Harishchandra Chandrika.” Being well-versed in Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Bengali and English, Harishchandra could shape the public opinion of a very large cross-section of the educated as well as the uneducated Indians. So significant was his contribution in shaping the Hindu consciousness that he is revered even today in India which is evident from the fact that the Indian government first launched the “Bharatendu Harishchandra Awards” to original writers in Hindi mass communication in 1983 and later on issued a commemorative postal stamp in his honour on his 126th birth anniversary. He is a “living legend” and not an ordinary writer who was forgotten after his death. His thought is as potent today as it was yesterday.
What was Bharatendu’s thought and how did it shape the Hindu communal consciousness? He was a devout idol-worshipping Hindu who hated the “idol-breaking” and “temple-plundering” Muslims. The inability of the Hindus to defeat the Muslims and kick them out of “Mother India” deeply hurt them and created such “wounds in the heart” which remained green whenever a mosque was sighted with a “mandir”(temple). Bharatendu expressed his grief in a couplet: “Jahan Bisesar Somnath Madhav ke Mandir, Tehan masjid bun gayi hota ab Allah Akbar.”
For Bharatendu, the starting point of enmity with the Muslims was the defeat of Prithviraj because he thought that before this landmark defeat the Hindus lived happily and this happiness deserted them after his defeat and had not returned to them till the time of his writings. To him, the defeat of Prithviraj opened the floodgates that ushered a train of Muslim conquerors, who were accompanied by Muslim hordes that “harassed” and “harried” Hindus, destroyed their religion and ravaged their “holy land.” In another poem, he moves beyond religion and accuses the Muslims of snatching from the Hindus their women and wealth. While the secular Hindus praise Mughal Emperor Akbar for tolerance and finding a common ground with the Hindus, the communal minded Hindus like Bharatendu are as critical of Akbar as they are of Emperor Aurangzeb. To Bharatendu, Akbar was an “enemy” and not a friend, the only difference being that he was an “intelligent enemy”, who won over the Hindus to his side by befooling them the way the cunning British did. Despite the fact that the Muslims had made Hindustan their permanent abode for centuries, “the Hindu community could never look upon them as its own.” That is why in one of his lectures, he declared that “He who inhabits Hindustan, whatever be his colour or caste, is a Hindu.”
Bharatendu could say all this about the Muslim “invaders” but could not dare to say so about his new British masters. In fact, in an 1875 poem that welcomed the Prince of Wales to India, he thanked him for ending the centuries of oppressive Muslim rule. In his enmity towards the Muslims and to curry favour with the British, he publicly expressed grief at the assassination of Lord Mayo, commemorated the British victory in Egypt, celebrated the birthday of Queen Victoria every year and organised the Pandits of Benaras to pay homage to the visiting Duke of Edinburgh for which the British awarded him the honoray magistracy and Municipal Commissionership. Those who only accuse the Muslims of collaboration with the Raj should not forget that the Hindu communalists were equally complicit in this “crime.”
The seeds of communal hatred and bigotry sowed by the Hindu communalists in the post-1857 period are having a flourishing harvest in today’s India. Modi and Co are the inheritors of this poisonous legacy passed on by communalists such as Harishchandra Bharatendu. The burden of history is too heavy to be shaken off lightly.
