Repressed sexuality as a trigger for violence (Rakesh Shukla)

by Rakesh Shukla
[The Times of India - April 16, 2005]

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) decision at a recent conclave in Delhi to return to an agenda of Hindutva points to the deep roots of fascism and its dangers as a social phenomenon. The ideology uses the institutions of parliamentary democracy to grow, often being disturbingly successful in its efforts. But it would be a mistake to equate the scope and dangers of fascism to processes in the political realm alone.

Fascism would not be such a threat if it were confined to groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP. It is more worrying when a sizeable section of people starts subscribing to this agenda. This was amply demonstrated by the involvement of large mobs in the killing and raping of

Muslims in Gujarat amidst widespread approval of the Hindu community in the state.

A construct which posits the 'sangh parivar' as 'fascists' and refuses to see the support of common people to the ideology cannot take us forward in understanding fascism. Wilhelm Reich's interconnections between daily life, sexuality, family, workplace and the growth of fascism in the 1920s in Germany seems relevant to the spread of the ideology in India.

The success of communal propaganda is not based on an appeal to the rational mind or establishment of facts through scientific data. A sizeable section of the Hindu community is convinced that 'Hindus are being persecuted in their own country', although that has little basis in fact. The erroneous belief of an overwhelming majority of Hindus in Gujarat that in all prior riots more Hindus were killed, played a crucial role in the 2002 assembly elections.

About half-a-century after Marx, Freud articulated the 'unconscious', dissociating sexuality from procreation and laying stress on repression of childhood sexuality. In the process, he created analytical tools to explore the irrational mind. It is, therefore, possible to establish connections between the suppression of sexuality and the role of familial processes on the one hand and the psychology of fascism, war hysteria and communal frenzy on the other. The creation of the 'other' as enemy is often the culmi- nation of this interplay of processes.

The suppression of sexuality in Indian society is an accepted fact. Along with disapproval of sexual activity, the valorisation of brahmacharya is taken to incredible heights in Hindu religion. Highly sexualised adole-scents have no outlet, literally speaking, for their lust. The revering of brahmacharya and beliefs about loss of semen leading to weakness of the body, mind and spirit act as a block to healthy masturbation. Even when "indulged" in, it is ridden with guilt, anxieties and fears about the consequences.

Violence is often held in check by a construct that broadly comprises morality, thoughts of 'mother' and 'sister' and societal disapproval. But in a situation of Hindu-Muslim antagonism, where fallacies are reinforced and a perception is created of the majority community being under threat, that construct of restraint comes apart and an 'othering' takes place. 'Muslim' girls and women can never even be imagined as 'mothers and sisters' of our 'Hindu' boys. Sexual violence against Muslim girls and women becomes a righteous moral act to save the "honour" of your own mothers and sisters, seemingly emasculating Muslim males and "dishonouring" the entire community.

In Gujarat, long before any killings began, women's bodies were used to successfully polarise the two communities. The rallying cry for large-scale mobilisation of Hindus and adivasis was, "They (Muslims) despoil our women!" In Sanjeli village not a single out of the 500 houses of Muslims remains in the village. The "credit" for mobilising about 25-30,000 adivasis goes to Dilsukh Maharaj, a Bhil, who runs a hostel for children. Dilsukhji claimed that Muslims have "violated" at least 100 Bhil women in Sanjeli alone.

Grotesque sexual imagery was doing the rounds even before the Godhra train incident. The sangh parivar used public meetings, pamphlets, schools and ashrams to demonise Muslims. After the Godhra incident, stories of Hindu women being violated and killed, carried as headlines by leading Gujarati dailies, played a crucial role in the anti-Muslim mobilisation.

It is no coincidence that Hindutva is being propagated as "cultural nationalism" - a not-too-distant cousin of the "National Socialism" of the Nazi Party. The attempts to demonise the Muslim community sound astoundingly similar to Goebbels' propaganda against the Jews, "If someone cracks a whip across your mother's face, would you say to him, Thank you! How many worse things has the Jew inflicted upon our mother Germany and still inflicts upon her! He has debauched our race, sapped our energy, undermined our customs and broken our strength".

Women as 'mothers' play a crucial role in shaping a psyche which snugly fits into fascist ideology and participates in the violence against Muslims. There are many other areas that deserve greater attention: The typically cloying mother-son relationship, the impact of role models like Shravan Kumar, extreme suppression of sexuality, celibacy as a virtue, the Indian males' obsession with virginity, concepts of filial duty, honour of the family and interconnections with anxieties, neuroses, frustrations and sexual insecurities.

It is only with a more sophisticated understanding of these dimensions that we can engage meaningfully with fascism.

The author is a Supreme Court advocate.