Opinion Divide and unite
Rahul Gandhi recently articulated his primal fear a premature violent death by assassination.
Sachin will retire after a lifetime of giving the nation his best and there is no doubt about how much he is loved. Manna Dey has died after a lifetime of entertaining us with his beautiful voice. I first heard him when I was six years old,in Vijay Bhatts classic film Ram Rajya,singing the final song Gayee Tu Gayee as Sita was swallowed by mother Earth. His life will be remembered and mourned by many,even those who never met him in flesh.
Rahul Gandhi recently articulated his primal fear which is also his familys fear a premature violent death by assassination. At a public meeting in Rajasthan,he recalled how his father and grandmother died a violent death and how he fears for his own life. He then went on to blame the BJP for spreading hatred. But he needs to admit that both his father and grandmother did not die at the hands of any saffron or even jehadist fanatic. Rajiv Gandhi died at the hands of Tamil Eelam terrorists. Though Hindu,they were not Hindutva followers. In the Sri Lankan context,it was the Sinhala majority which tried to impose a single majoritarian rule by declaring Sinhala to be the official language and Buddhism the state religion. The LTTE was against this; perhaps they were asserting Tamilatva. His grandmother died at the hands of Khalistan supporters pursuing a much more strident nationalism which was incompatible with any idea of India secular or Hindu.
Indians find a variety of reasons for killing their political leaders. And not just Indians. All of South Asia is beset by political violence. Buddhists are supposed to be non-violent,but in Sri Lanka Solomon Bandaranaike died at the hands of a Buddhist monk. Sri Lanka declared itself a Buddhist republic but has been the most violent in South Asia. President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated and President Chandrika Kumaratunga was blinded in one eye by an attack at an election rally. In Pakistan,Liaqat Ali Khan,the first prime minister,was assassinated and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Bangladesh saw the grisly murder of founder Mujibur Rahman.
Politics divides while sports and cinema unite. Even though cricket is accompanied by ferocious competition,it still unites India and Pakistan. Mughal-e-Azam and Pakeeza unite our two countries as does the singing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Jayalalithaa threw a tantrum about Sri Lankan players participating in the IPL,but Indians love watching Sri Lankan players.
As far I can see,the reason for the divisiveness of politics is the fragility of the idea of nationhood across South Asia. The four nations of South Asia are in one way or another not natural,but are accidents of history. They are products of Western contact,which began with the arrival of Vasco da Gama. Nations were first created in Europe based on the idea of territory,language and ethnicity. The people of Austria or Hungary claim to be ancient,but they became nations only after the First World War destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Similarly in the Middle East,all nations were once provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
The same goes for the nations of South Asia. They are artificial constructs,though each claims a long history. India became a single entity only because one major European power the British survived the contest between rival powers who fought each other on Indian soil and on European soil. India could easily have been divided into Portuguese,French,Danish and English territories. When India became independent,the nation was divided into two. Then Pakistan got divided into two. Sri Lanka could have been Dutch,Portuguese and English territories. It was only united because the English defeated the rest.
This is why the basis of nationhood is contested in India as in Pakistan or Sri Lanka. These nations Bangladesh apart do not have one language nor a single religion to unite them. Their religions fight with each other and among themselves as well. The fight over rival ideas of nationhood religion or syncretism,one language or many is what makes politics lethal.
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