We become like our enemies

Neeti Nair

Book Discussion

The epigraph of Neeti Nair’s book, Hurt Sentiment [see previous two posts for more on the book, links below], is a quote from Pakistani poet Fahmida Riaz (1946-2018).

            In the past I used to think with sadness

            today I laughed a lot as I thought

            you turned out exactly like us

            we were not two nations, brother!

‘We’ refer to Pakistan and India. India has now become a Hindu Pakistan with a Hindu Jinnah as prime minister. It is said that we tend to become like our enemies. The Hindu Jinnah’s India has proved that even nations can become like their enemies.

Neeti Nair’s book has only four chapters plus an introduction and an epilogue. I discussed the first two chapters in the last two posts. This post concludes the book discussion looking at the last two chapters.

Has India really become like Pakistan?

Pakistan defined itself as an Islamic Republic in its Constitution, an Islamic state that would enable the citizens to order their lives “in accord with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunna.” Is India going that way when it wants to draft a new Constitution for itself defining the country as a Hindu Rashtra with Manu Smriti as its guiding light and the Gita as its official scripture?

To be secular is to belong to a country or society fearlessly. And to be religious is to divide people in the name of gods. Is India now a country where people of other religions feel a sense of belonging at all? Is India now dividing its citizens in the name of gods?

I’m not going to answer those questions. The answers are obvious, aren’t’ they?

Bangladesh, originally part of Pakistan, sought freedom when it was fed up of the narrowmindedness of the Pakistani religious leaders who governed the country in reality. Bangladesh didn’t define itself as an Islamic republic. Its Constitution says Bangladesh is a “sovereign people’s republic.” There was no mention of Islam or secularism in Bangladesh’s draft-constitution when the country declared independence from Pakistan. But when the Constitution was finalised, Article 12 defined secularism as the absence of:

a)     Communalism in all its forms;

b)     The granting by the state of political status in favour of any religion;

c)      The abuse of religion for political purpose;

d)     Any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practising a particular religion.

Bangladesh, a country of Muslims, went beyond what India had thought of vis-à-vis secularism. But, now, religion has corroded that country too. Religion seems to be a contagious disease.

The other Islamic countries were not chuffed with Bangladesh’s secularism. It took quite a bit of diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to provide Visas for Bangladeshis for the Hajj pilgrimage.

Neeti Nair also tells us about the immense irony about Bangladesh’s national anthem being a poem composed by Rabindranath Tagore whose works were banned by Pakistan. Even more ironically, Pakistan has had to play that anthem whenever situations demanded it.

By the way, Fahmida Riaz, whose lines are quoted above, was arrested by Zia-ul-Haq for her outspokenness. Religions don’t like individual truths. Dictators don’t, either. Riaz escaped to India and returned to Pakistan only when Zia perished in a plane crash. The poem from which the above lines are quoted was written on 14 March 2014 against the backdrop of the rising intolerance in India. A couple of months after those lines were written, Narendra Modi was catapulted to the PM’s chair in Delhi. The rest is what prompted the title of this post. 

PS. This is the third and final part of a series on Neeti Nair’s book. The other two parts are:

1.     The Triumph of Godse

2.     Was India tolerant before Modi?