I think the time is absolutely right to connect my real life politics with my passion for blogging. This is the 6th article in my series where I want to include a local case study in my thesis on the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls. The purpose of choosing this topic is that I can draw a clear-cut picture of the state-of-affairs and its ripple effects. Some people will get astonished with the fact that an issue of such a small stature can be viewed with the frame of reference of state or even national politics.
I live in Basant Nagar area of Amritsar which has around 600 families residing in it. Though this area is scattered over several acres and has approximately 4-5 streets and a beautiful park which is in the proximity of almost every resident. This park used to be a garbage dump almost 20 years back and has been rehabilitated and destroyed from time to time, sometimes by the government and sometimes by the residents.
Now the present state of this park has been out of an unsaid "PPP" i.e. Public-Private Partnership agreement. There has been some sort of help from the govt. and the residents are bearing the monthly cost of maintenance of the park. At one corner of the park is temple which is an illegal construction as per the municipal corporation norms. Though the history of this temple is very interesting in a sense that, almost 2 decades back when there used to be a garbage dump in the park, some residents made a small sacred chamber here with the photos of demigods and goddesses in it, so that people refrain from dumping the garbage in it.
Though the Basant Nagar demography is very much like the Indian demography with Hindu majority, the person who took initiative for constructing this temple was a sikh. Then around 9 years back there was complete "Hindu-Sikh" riot like situation in the area for renovation and extension of the temple into a full fledged religious construction that it is today. Now this area, though located in Amritsar which is known as the hub of Sikhism, has over 80% Hindu population and around 20% sikh population. It doesn't have any Mohammedan, Christian, Jain or Buddhist family settled in it as per my knowledge.
The issue that is resonating the area these days is of a "Jaagran" that is scheduled to be held in Basant Nagar area where many Hindu fundamentalists are residing.
These Hindu fundamentalists want to organize the "Jaagran" in the park and using the "Jaagran" as a religious tool, they want to capture the space of the park and use it for their ulterior motives. They want to destroy the park and make this place as a full-fledged community center where they can organize their social gatherings like- marriage and other functions. Hence their destructive and malicious intentions are very clear from this initiative. Though there are many educated and liberal Hindus against this move and fully support the idea of not organizing any sort of religious or social function in the park.
Now if we look at ripple effects of this seemingly small issue, they're immense in real life. The "Basant Nagar Residents Welfare Association" has already shot-off official letters stating the anticipated communal tension in the area to the MLA of the constituency (also the Cabinet Minister), A very prominent Akali leader of the state (off the record), Councillor of this ward, Commissioner of Police Amritsar, Sub-Divisional Officer and Station House Officer of the related police station but these Hindu fundamentalists are not ready to back-off from their stand and expecting some financial compensation for their retreat. Now, whatever be the outcome of this issue, we need to look at larger picture of this scenario.
There is no doubting the fact that as soon as Modi came to power, radical Hindu outfits like RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal got emboldened to assert their will in the political space. Punjab is a state where these outfits are very active and some analysts even say that RSS clearly dictates terms to SAD as SAD also needs Hindu votes. The local case study that I've mentioned hasn't got much political mileage yet because the intentions and the outcomes of political intervention can be well-predicted as no political party would like to let go off the majority community vote-bank and take a rational and an unbiased stand. Another social-media source that is worth sharing here is a youtube video of Arundhati Roy and I strongly recommend the readers to watch it:
Now this video would give any civilized person some goose-bumps and the sense of insecurity is bound to get inculcated in all the minority communities. Now many readers may not be aware of the fact that constitutionally, all the minority communities of India except Muslims and Christians are recognized as Hindus, be it Jains, Buddhists or even Sikhs. This analogy perfectly fit the hegemonic framework of Hinduism that the Hindu fundamentalist want to make for all the Indians. They want to rob-off their originality, personal identity and individuality by labeling all the people of minority communities as Hindus without realizing the historical context of the term. The term "Hindu" is actually a geographical term as implied by the history of it origin. The river Indus is called "Sindhu" in Sanskrit and Arabic and the Turks and Afghans of the olden time had a hard time pronouncing "Sa" and they repeatedly called it "Ha". Hence, the term "Hindu" got originated which means that people living on the other (eastern) side of river Indus. And some ignorant, illiterate Indians still think that "Hindu" is a religious term and sikhism is an off-shoot of Hinduism which actually is "Sanatan Dharam." I have touched this topic of Hinduism and Sikhism in my article "Hindus and Sikhs- Oneness and infighting" and the link is:
http://mysikhism.blogspot.in/2015/04/hindus-and-sikhs-oneness-and-infighting.html
Now considering the present political scenario of the country, I think the issue of sikh-identity crisis is likely to get exaggerated and the so called PANTHIC party in Punjab, currently ruling the state, has miserably failed to get the sikh identity established as independent and second to none. Hence, sikhs need to make a better choice for securing their identity which is under constant threat of forcible extermination or cultural assimilation.
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