Modi’s talk of ‘inclusive India’ needs to be actualised

The prime minister came out with a statesman-like statement, a rare and unusual one from his side, as a mark of his victory speech on the eve of the commencement of his second tenure stating that he was committed to striving for ‘inclusive India’. Whether his averment is going to be part of a programmatic action plan throughout his second tenure and whether he, by virtue of his affinities with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology that continues to problematise this long-cherished value, would be free enough to take it forward, time alone can answer.

Apprehensions and angsts prevail still despite the Prime Minister’s assurance. Fifty days have already passed, and still a concrete framework to expand and promote a vision of inclusive India is yet to be evolved by the party that has all the wherewithal to do so.

Modi’s call for promoting inclusive India has to be understood and addressed in the backdrop of certain positives, apprehensions, angsts and challenges endured in India today. Among the positives, we could still dare say that this idea, an Indic and Gandhian legacy, would not fade away as long as we believe in Indic values, the essence of which hovers around a compassionate and accommodative worldview discerned by ‘relational striving’ as connoted in Indian poetics, and as long as leaders like - Gandhiji continue to be our perennial inspiration.

Sages and statesmen of India, hailing from varied backgrounds and faith-traditions, have given us enduring pathways towards inclusive India, which have enormous scope for federalism, interactive sharing, inter-faith/ideology dialogues, and interdependent accommodativeness, all converging towards social harmony. Such pathways are prerequisites if India were to progress as ‘one-diverse nation’, to use an oxymoronic phrase.

There are apprehensions and they are grounded on reality checks. TMC member, Mahua Moitra’s recent maiden speech in the Parliament, viewed as ‘the most audacious speech of the year’, which articulates some of these apprehensions, and the recent open letter signed by celebrities from among film fraternity and addressed to the Prime Minister, pointing to the mad heights of intolerance indulged in by fringe elements perpetuating communalism, are an indication of the apprehensions prevailing.

To brand socially conscious cultural leaders behind such articulations as ‘self-proclaiming conscience-keepers with false narratives, tarnishing the image of the Prime Minister or the country’ is a pernicious way of thinking that does enormous harm to the cause of inclusive India.

Apprehensions haunt when cow-vigilantism is taken to the extent of lynching human beings, when minority-bashing is geared towards forcing people to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, when concerned citizens are asked to go and live in another planet when they question the misuse of the name of Shri Ram, when fringe elements with affinities with power centres act with impudence and impunity against innocent citizens, when some politicians in the garb of sannyasins incite violence with venom spread all around, and when responsible political leaders prefer to maintain silence against such senseless misdemeanours, or do not go beyond chiding, nourishing dreams for inclusive India is bound to take a beating.

These happenings give an impression that schadenfreude is tolerated vis-a-vis mental torture and agonies caused to certain sections of the people of India. They encourage confrontational politics paving the way for sustenance of the law of retaliation that perpetuates ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ culture.

One thing is more or less clear. India is no more the India of our past legacies or even our dreams in terms of compassionate worldviews with accommodativeness as their anchor. As a people, we, at this juncture, seem to be drifting from our commitment towards India that is inclusive in spirit and thrust, federal in polity, modern in outlook, critically literate, religiously dialoguing, economically thriving, and socially accommodative and outreaching. We have moved away from promoting social harmony in an ambience of multiculturalism and interdependence which are core values of federal India. It is this India that could facilitate the shining of India a billion or a trillion times with rich rainbow colours and lift the country towards greater strides on varied counts.

Inclusive India becomes a mirage when ritualistic religiosity bordering on superstitious beliefs and customs and caste-ghettoistic mentality continue to corrupt our minds and constrict our thought-processes preventing us from broadening our overall outlook and perspectives. India cannot be a monologic nation with one religion, as the only religion that matters, one language as the only national language, and one party system as the only party as if opposing parties are ‘personae non gratae’, non-entities. Such an attitude and approach, hegemonic in intention and content, is the most disturbing hurdle towards promoting inclusive India.

In other words, cajoling and urging Indian citizenry to subscribe to jingoistic nationalism truncates the pursuit of inclusive India. It would be an angulated misreading if one were to view the mandate, the Prime Minister and the BJP have, as a way forward towards saffronising the country with the tentacles of Hindutva. Such a reading can only be at the cost of true Hinduism which is a great religion despite man-made imperfections which are there in every religion.

The real challenge is whether the Prime Minister, despite the popularity he enjoys, would be free enough to pursue the idea of inclusive India as a priority. The challenge persists because no other leader of stature with RSS affinities or from BJP has come forward to standby Modi’s averment. With the dwarfing of the voice of the Opposition parties by virtue of the drubbing they received in the recent elections, the danger of one party sitting in comfort zones and taking policy decisions harmful to the notion of inclusive India is real. It is already happening in the Parliament with certain Bills being passed aimed at decimating dissent with a provision to treat dissenting individuals, particularly intellectuals and activists, as ‘terrorists’.

This is a dangerous and brute move in the name of brutal majority, a move blinded by power and blurred by one-eyed vision. Such moves may help in promoting the idea of Modi and the TINA factor, certainly not the idea of India as a country committed to federal thinking that accommodates dissents and differences and yet moves towards cherishing social harmony vindicating the principle of diversity in unity and unity in diversity.
A plan for inclusive India

The nation looks up-to Modi to evolve a genuine concrete plan of action for fostering an inclusive India. A programmatic action plan could start, first of all, with ceaselessly recognising and appreciating the cultural diversity of the people, not discriminating or marginalising masses in the name of caste, or linguistic, or religious, or jingoistic prejudices, and not imposing anything repugnant to the soul and spirit of India attuned to questing for a compassionate worldview. The right way to translate ‘sab ka saath’ into action is to opt for federal thinking, listening to sane voices coming from across the spectrum, and valuing relational striving.

Secondly, it is indispensable that inclusive India has an option for the common man living on the borders of poverty. Poverty, as a creation of human greed and corrupt practices, excludes the masses from exercising ‘so many freedoms’ so as to have choices to shape their lives. Addressing agrarian crisis that marginalises the farming community that still continues to feed the elite classes and the masses, minimising bureaucratic hurdles so that benefits could reach the voiceless poor directly, nurturing critical literacy at the grassroots, and generating jobs which could reduce the economic and social status gaps in terms of distributive justice would be a laudable way of ushering in the poor into the mainstream of inclusive India. This is ‘sab ka vikas’ in terms of affirmative action, not appeasement.

And finally, preserving and fostering inclusive India is the responsibility of every citizen of the country. It is a collective responsibility because it is the cultural heritage of India, the core of our psychic wisdom. Its importance and relevance to India cannot be shooed away just because one party, whose hegemony is being built with a number of superstructures, thinks that the idea of inclusive India is no more popular. Such a deliberate neglect of the idea could pave the way for the saffronisation of the whole of India, which seems to be already happening in subtle ways, which could erase the multicultural fabric of India. In such a scenario, the tragic travesty would be that jingoistic Hindutva may survive at the cost of true Hinduism that has a great legacy of standing for inclusive India that is secular by virtue of her birthmarks of multiculturalism.

To conclude, certain sections among the citizenry concerned about inclusive India may still suspect Modi’s credentials to speak of or plead for an inclusive India because of memories of Godhra riots. Let us hope that such apprehensions will gradually fade away when the prime minister outreaches with finer gestures of interacting with the media, with liberal thinkers, activists, and persons who think objectively, sharing his thoughts and feelings vis-a-vis these apprehensions. As a leader committed to self-discipline sustained, probably, because of his yoga practices, he, let us hope, has the tenacity to harness even his critics not by raids by CBI, or ITD, or Enforcement Directorate but by his innate goodness and distinguished leadership qualities. The Coleridgean principle of ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ may help us put our trust in the averment of the Prime Minister without any reservation.

(AS Dasan is professor of English and also actively involved in social outreach for common causes)

(The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH)