Less
than a decade after the guns fell silent in Nepal, rumblings are once
again being heard from the Himalayan kingdom. What these disturbances
would translate into is still being debated in various quarters. But
there is a strong possibility that their impact would be felt not only
in Nepal but in the region, and especially in India, a democratic
secular republic that is entering its 69th year of independence.
Nepal’s 11-year-old Maoist insurgency ended in 2006 when the rebels
joined the political mainstream to continue their struggle through
democracy. Once they seized power through the ballot, they overthrew
the monarchy, junked its ‘Hindu rashtra’ and turned Nepal into a
“secular, democratic republic”.
But
the cheering crowds that thronged the streets of Kathmandu to welcome
the Maoists are once again out in large numbers, staging demonstrations
in the capital and other towns. This time around, slogans are being
raised against the Maoists; the demand is for reinstating the words
‘Hindu rashtra’ in the Nepalese constitution—something that is in the
process of being written—to restore Nepal as the world’s only Hindu
nation.
“There is a growing feeling among the people that secularism was
brought in to destabilise Nepal and divide its people,” says political
commentator Yubaraj Ghimire. “Much of this, they feel, was done without
their consent or a debate.”
The popular mood in Nepal, therefore, will have to be seen both in
terms of developments within it and also how the issue of secularism has
been playing out in South Asia as a whole.
Nowhere is this issue more relevant than in India. It is not only
the biggest nation in the region, but also has a Hindu majority and a
sizeable Muslim population (the third largest in the world), along with
other religious minorities. How India, especially the ruling BJP and its
other affiliates in the Sangh parivar, reacts to the ongoing efforts by
sections of Nepalese to throw out ‘secularism’ from its constitution is
of considerable importance to many Indians.
“This is a welcome move. The RSS supports and welcomes it,” says
Rajiv Tulsi, the RSS’s media head in Delhi. “Probably the Nepalese
realise their culture is set in Hinduism and it’s in their blood, and
so they should be a Hindu nation. It is a good step,” he adds.
Three religions—Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism—dominate South Asia.
Nepal, like India, is Hindu majority, while Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Maldives have an overwhelming Muslim majority. Sri Lanka and Bhutan have
a Buddhist majority. However, all seven nations have various other
religious minorities (
see graphic) within their countries.
Seven decades earlier, leaders of most South Asian countries took a
more tolerant view of their own religious minorities.The trauma of
Partition notwithstanding and despite Pakistan being created on
the basis of religion, its founding fathers—Mohammed Ali Jinnah and
Liaquat Ali—both had liberal views about religion and religious
minorities. That attitude changed in subsequent years. The pandering to
the religious majority and hardliners that began with Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto’s regime was formalised and consolidated further when his
nemesis, military dictator Muhammad Zia ul-Haq took over. Today,
Pakistan not only wears its Islamic republic badge with pride, but also
leaves very little space for its religious minorities—not only
Christians and Hindus, but non-Sunni communities like the Ahmadiyas and
Shias too.
Neighbouring Bangladesh, since it broke away from Pakistan in 1971,
gave particular emphasis on its linguistic identity, Bengali, and
initially tried to make space for other religious minorities. But a
series of military rulers and civilian leaders fell back on the
country’s religious identity to consolidate individual political power.
In a landmark judgment, the country’s Supreme Court brought back
“secularism” along with “nationalism, democracy and socialism” in the
constitution in 2010. However, the Sheikh Hasina government has done
very little since then to dilute provisions that continue to proclaim
Islam as Bangladesh’s guiding religion. The series of murderous attacks
on secular bloggers in Bangladesh in recent years is a crude reminder
of how intolerant the once-liberal Bangladeshi society has become.
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| The murders of several secular bloggers in Bangladesh are a reminder of how intolerant its once-liberal society has become. |
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Sri
Lanka, where Buddhism is the dominant religion, hardly fares better.
During its long ethnic war with the Tamil Tigers, Sinhalese leaders in
Colombo did not hesitate to recruit the militant Buddhist clergy to
isolate the Tamil minority in the north and the Muslim minority in the
east. The consolidation of Buddhist power went on even after the bloody
ethnic war ended, when former president Mahinda Rajapakse blatantly used
stormtroopers of the Buddhist Bodu Bala Sena to entrench himself in
power and silence Muslims and other minorities. There are indications
that in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, he may
again seek the consolidated support of the Buddhist majority to become
the country’s next PM.
In Maldives, where a non-Muslim is neither given nationality nor
voting rights, recent events suggest the assertion of Islamic
fundamentalist groups. Attempts by its democratically elected
president Mohammed Nasheed to take on these sections led to his ouster
in 2012.
In this prevailing regional scenario, the developments in Nepal have
gathered more salience for India. However, sceptics are not taking the
demand for restoring Nepal as a ‘Hindu’ nation seriously.
“At this stage, sentiment for a Hindu rashtra is not that
overwhelming,” says Rakesh Sood, former Indian ambassador to Nepal.
“Also,” he adds, “those supporting it are aligned to the erstwhile
monarchy and that linkage does not generate much resonance.”
But there are others with reasons to worry. CPI leader Pallab
Sengupta, whose party, along with other Indian leftist parties, took the
initiative of bringing the Maoists and other democratic forces in Nepal
together, sees the development there as “extremely disturbing”. Though
he hopes that attempts to do away with secularism would face stiff
resistance from liberal quarters there, his concern also stems from its
possible fallout on India under the present BJP leadership.
“Being the only Hindu state in the world, Hindu Nepal had a great
symbolic value and the monarch was a great Hindu icon for the Sangh
parivar,” says political scientist Pralay Kanungo of Delhi’s jnu. “The
loss was significant for them.”
But the political uncertainty in Nepal—the inter-party bickering over
a constitution has continued for years—and erosion of the Maoists’
credibility has also negatively impacted secularism. Many observers
feel that the RSS, which has had influence over large sections of
Nepalis, may now try to take advantage of the troubled situation. “There
is no doubt that if Nepal reverts to being a Hindu state, it will be a
huge victory for the Sangh parivar,” says Kanungo.
While that could be seen as an predictable reaction of the RSS, it’s
unclear how saffron groups will act here if such an event comes to pass.
Can it trigger attempts to revive a similar movement in the country to
do away with secularism from our Constitution?
The word ‘secularism’ was incorporated in the Indian constitution in
the 1970s by Indira Gandhi. Though it wasn’t there initially, the fact
that the founding fathers did not want to designate any particular state
religion clearly showed that secularism would be a guiding principle of
free India.
By incorporating the word, Indira Gandhi, in a way, only stated what
was all along obvious to most. Moreover, when the Janata Party
government came to power, in which both Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K.
Advani were ministers, no attempt was made to amend the word
‘secularism’, put in Indira’s time.
Nevertheless, a feeble attempt to drop the word was made earlier this
year when copies of the Constitution which did not contain the word
were displayed in the government’s advertisements during the Republic
Day celebrations. The widespread protest it sparked off had forced a
hurried retreat. Given that, right-wingers within India—emboldened by
the growing mood against secularism in Nepal—might just stop in their
tracks. The secular nation’s well-being can depend on the strength of
their misgivings and doubts about their success.
