Opinion The gatekeepers of garba: Self-appointed guardians of Hinduism are being allowed to perform the role of judge, jury and executioner

They bypass the local organisers/sponsoring agencies of the functions and decide, of their own accord, who can participate and who cannot in the publicly organised garba events. Such gatekeepers had emerged in the late 1980s during the VHP-BJP campaigns and mobilisations for arousing and stoking Hindu sentiments against “others” for their politics of Hindutva. That helped the BJP, besides other factors, in making its way in electoral politics and eventually paved its path to power. To consolidate and expand this power, the VHP, BD and other outfits of the Parivar intensified their hate campaign against the minorities, that is, Muslims and Christians. This involved taking the law into their own hands to “teach lessons” to minority communities in general and also to target those among Hindus who expressed a critical or different perspective of Indian culture, Hinduism and society than the fanatics on the fringe.

There were cases in which some Dalit youths were punished by these gangs when the former tried to participate in a village or locality garba. That occasionally led to clashes between caste Hindus and Dalits. Such instances continue in some villages. But in urban areas, as the numbers of middle-class Dalits have increased, Dalits organise garbas of their own to avoid clashes. In fact, now some Ambedkarite Dalit youths have started organising “Bhim garba” not only to spread Babasaheb Ambedkar’s ideology but also to protest against the attempts by some to hijack the festival and project it as belonging exclusively to the savarna Hindu domain. They invite all — irrespective of caste, religion or gender — to participate in the Bhim Garba.

There was a period of lull in the VHP and BD militant activities between 2003 and 2012. In fact, there was even an attempt by some Sangh Parivar leaders to “discipline” the BD. In Gujarat, post-2004 Lok Sabha elections, in the run-up to the ascendancy of Narendra Modi in national politics, the BJP appeared to have realised that mere Hindutva sentiments could not sustain the political mobilisation for long. Under Modi, it then prioritised economic growth along with building Hindu cultural infrastructure for its notion of the Hindu rashtra. With this agenda, Modi had transformed the Gujarat BJP into a “model” version of the party. In the process, Sangh outfits, including the RSS, were cut down to size. That was possibly one reason why these outfits did not participate quite as actively in the 2007, 2009 (Lok Sabha) and 2012 elections in Gujarat for Modi.

However, by all accounts, things began changing ahead of Modi throwing his hat in the prime ministerial ring in the 2014 elections. The Modi-BJP began negotiating with the RSS. As reported in a section of the media, a pact was sealed in early 2013: The BJP government would not restrain activities of outfits such as the VHP, BD, BMS, BKS, SJM etc and the BJP leadership would not betray RSS ideals as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani were alleged, in RSS eyes, to have done. Following this, these outfits were seen to have gained a freer hand.

Moreover, new organisations like the Ram Sena, Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad etc have cropped up in Gujarat, and they are competing with each other to prove their anti-minority credentials. Instances of lynching and flogging of Muslims and Dalits (as in Una in Gujarat) by these outfits have increased since 2015. Self-appointed gatekeepers of garba festivals took the law into their own hands and punished Muslim youths who wished to participate in the programme, accusing them of doing so as a part of a larger conspiracy of “love jihad”, for luring Hindu girls into their fold.

Now, not only these self-appointed guardians of Hindu culture but also the policemen in plain clothes follow these outfits, performing the role of judge, jury and executioner. They recently publicly flogged four-five Muslim men who allegedly pelted stones at a garba event. More importantly, and disturbingly, a minister in the Gujarat government seems to have justified the police act, legitimising the law of the jungle. Such an act by those who hold public office, needless to say, not only marginalises minorities further but also intensifies their insecurity.

Legitimisation of such acts may help the BJP win elections. But, if Bhagwat and other RSS functionaries like Ram Madhav (‘The Spectre Peddlers’, IE, October 8) are serious in their assurances to minorities, they should at least publicly reprimand BJP lawmakers who apparently support the rule of the jungle, violating the rule of law and perpetuating a sense of anxiety among the minority communities.

The writer is a political sociologist