An educational illustrated comic on communalism in India

Source URL


Business Standard

Communalism in comic relief

Rajeev Anantaram | 2011-04-15 00:32:00


My introduction to Indian history and mythology was through illustrated comics sold under the brand name Amar Chitra Katha. Written mostly for the uninitiated, the presentation was unassuming to the point of occasional oversimplification, as I learnt when I graduated to more serious discourses. However, their contribution towards inculcating an interest in Indian history and mythology in multitudes of Indians is invaluable.

Communalism Explained! A Graphic Account attempts something similar, without ever attempting to trivialise what is arguably the most daunting social challenge confronting India today. This issue has attracted some of the finest minds in the social sciences working on India. To name just two, Bipan Chandra’s 1984 opus Communalism in Modern India or Ashutosh Varshney’s more recent work on ethnic conflict have explored the nature of inter-religious strife in India with remarkable insight. Despite the corpus of work that precedes it, the attempt by the present authors to clearly delineate the issues and point to the danger of pervasive myths is commendable.

It was never going to be easy to reintegrate a syncretic society that had been arbitrarily cleaved apart through Partition in 1947. What was the status of Muslims who chose to remain in India expected to be? While India has remained (largely) true to the secular vision of the founding fathers, the nagging question of the largely incomplete assimilation of the largest minority in the country continues to roil the waters. The portents for the future are deeply disturbing.

The point of departure of the book is the Babri Masjid demolition of December 1992 and the riots that followed, soon thereafter. The choice of episode is more than symbolic. To many observers, it was probably the event that led to the parting of ways between Hindus and Muslims in India, irrevocably destroying the latter’s faith in the secular experiment.

The authors approach the subject with a single-mindedness which enhances the book’s consistency. In doing so, they do not wander from the task they have set to achieve — highlighting the plight of the Muslims in India, complicated by global developments following 9/11. For example, the section on the history of Islam in India attempts to debunk the notion of Muslims as “outsiders” and points to innumerable examples of cultural cross-pollination, an idea that is under steady assault by the Hindu right wing. The feverish attempt at cultural exclusivity, often based on dubious “scholarship”, is what makes this campaign even more sinister. More valuable is the authors’ attempt to bust widely pervasive myths, some of which are culture-specific (“Many Muslims have more than one wife”) and others increasingly gaining an international flavour (“Islam is a terrorist religion”). There is no more effective way to demonise a group than by perpetuating a vicious myth, which snowballs in the absence of sustained efforts to counter it. If anti-Semitic myths are embedded even in otherwise liberal sections of European societies, a campaign of organised falsification, masquerading as history is to blame. Anti-Islamic groups the world over have taken their cue from the original masters.

Strength of belief often hinders objectivity, either in interpretation or by way of selective collation. This is a shortcoming of the book. While the authors are within their right to highlight the positives of the socio-cultural interface between Hindus and Muslims in India for over a millennium, a comprehensive study would be expected to include areas of conflict, which are also numerous. Thus, while the arrival of the Arabs on the west coast was by and large peaceful, the arrival of the early Afghans and Turks in the 10th to 12th century was often marked by grotesque violence. As an example, was the repeated sacking of the Somnath temple by Mahmud of Ghazni merely a violent act driven by the lure of loot or did it have religious connotations as well? The history of forced conversions and breaking of temples is well-documented, even by Muslim historians of the era. Did these actions reflect the tenets of Islam or merely the individual beliefs of the rulers? An analysis of these issues would in no way detract from the book’s central thesis.

If the success of a book is judged by the number it converts, this book will win few prizes, given that it will be restricted to an English-speaking readership. That would be unfair to the authors, who are swimming against a tide of hostility or sheer indifference. Above all, the authors’ commitment shines through and for such efforts, we need to be grateful.

COMMUNALISM EXPLAINED! A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT
Ram Puniyani and Sharad Sharma
Vani Prakashan
231 pages, Rs 250