The genesis of politics of religion and the question of reservation.

Politics is the power game that decides the distribution of resources whereas religion refers to the belief system held by an individual. When politics is used to perpetuate ones religious interests, it gives rise to communalism. Communalism refers to the feeling of antagonism against people of other religiosity as their socio-economic and political interests are said to be different.

Therefore, it would be prudent to argue that politics of religion divides people as it gives rise to feeling of insecurity and thus compels people belonging to a particular religious group to unite to fight for their own very existence in terms of space, freedom, speech and movement.

The rise of communal feelings propels the community to grab political power so as to benefit it’s own kind. Can division of resources be justified on grounds of religion? Is a Hindu man in any way different from a Muslim man, or are his needs different? Both require shelter, food and clothing. Both pray to the supreme being, but call him by different names - Bhagwan and Allah. Christians know him as Jesus. Can there be more than one supreme being. The answer is a certain ‘No’. Then, where in the course of Indian history did communal feelings become so strong so as to divide the nation and incite feelings of hatred that eventually led to division of the country in three parts – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In ancient India, there is no mention of different religious communities inhabiting Bharatvarsha. In the Indus Valley civilization, class system did prevail as is evident from the layout of towns and style of burial. Mauryas, Guptas, Harsha and even Akbar were known to be preach and practice religious tolerance but that does not deny the prevalence of caste system in society and subjugation of women. Over years kinship had evolved into kingship where class and gender differences prevailed. The grounds of discrimination were therefore wealth and gender. The size of population was not much and inhabitants of a kingdom usually belonged to one particular community.

As the concept of nation state evolved as a precondition to better and expensive means of warfare requiring gun powder, people of different communities came together thus acquiring the identity of their nation-state as a distinguishing feature. However class differences in terms of wealth accumulation still prevailed. Religion never became the basis of discrimination. Even during Mughal era, poor Muslims and Hindus were equally ill treated. Akbar followed the policy of Sulh-e-Kul that meant peace for all. He even tried to imbibe the best of all religions in a new religion known as Tauhid-e-Ilhai. Such hatred on grounds of religion was unheard-off till British colonial rule, which implies that communalism was a British invention as per their policy of divide and rule to prevent the rise of India as a nation state.

Communalism can be said to have taken birth after the revolt of 1857. The British considered the Muslims as a direct threat to their rule in India and thus hung 27000 Muslims till death all over India. However their view soon changed with the birth of nationalist feelings propagated mostly by Hindu intellectuals. The British soon realised that the growth of nationalist feelings in India can be stemmed by weakening the patriotic feelings and thus they placated the Muslims via the partition of Bengal and supported the formation of Muslim League in 1906. Muslims were late to rise as a political force for they had heeded to their rich Muslim landlord brethrens’ calls that British rule was beneficial for them. It was only when they failed to get gainful government employment and felt that their Hindu compatriots who were early to capitalize on the available government jobs, had prospered in material terms that they rose as a political force under the banner of Muslim league. Aligarh School propounded by Sayyid Ahmad Khan preached conservative values to the Muslims that gave rise to communal feelings and thus the need to carve out a separate political identity.

It was not just the Muslims who were late to realise the implications of participating late in socio-economic and cultural advancements being witnessed by India on account of modern western sciences that Britisher’s had introduced in India, but many other sections of Indian society had also been left behind and thus considered as backward community.

Though the seeds of communalism had been sowed by the British policy of divide and rule, birth of India as a secular- democratic nation state made it essential to provide for positive discrimination, else perpetuation of India as a Union would have been threatened by the many diverse communal groups pulling in different directions with the intention to etch a separate political identity of their own.

Though Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and the later State Reorganisation commissions attempted to strengthen the process of national integration, rampant poverty and deprivation have kept the communal forces alive which manifest in form of politics of religion.

Even after seven decades of independence, politics of religion is the cause of perpetuation of reservation, and only with the elimination of vote bank politics will India emerge as a nation state with true secular credentials. It is in this noble endeavour that implementation of Uniform Civil Code will go a long way in strengthening the creed of secularism and pushing in hindsight the issue of reservation, for reservation in itself is merely a means to establish egalitarian society.
 

By: Abhinav