Ved Prakash , July 2003.
How to Eliminate Communal Riots in India
By: Ved Prakash
Recently Mr. Ram Narayanan who is an Indo American political activist sent me an article published in the Foreign Policy magazine published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. This article compares India with China. Here are some of the figures:
Population (2002): China 1.28 billion; India 1.05 billion
Population Growth Rate percent (2002): China 0.87; India 1.51
Infant Mortality per 1,000 live births (2002): China 27; India 61
Average Annual Real GDP Growth Rate percent (1990-2000): China 9.6 : India 5.5
Foreign Direct Investment (2001): China $44.2 billion; India $3.4 billion
Population in Poverty (2002): China 10 percent; India 25 percent
Labor Force (1999): China 706 million; India 406 million
Fixed Lines and Mobile Phones per 1,000 people (2001): China 247.7; India 43.8
Size of Diaspora: China 55 million; India 20 million
It is remarkable how India has 25 percent of its people in poverty while China has only 10 percent.
Some people say that China has made remarkable progress because of its authoritarian form of government while India's rate of growth is sluggish due to its democratic form of government.
But if you compare India and the Unites States, two large democratic countries you will find some stark differences. One of the great difference in my opinion is that while in the U.S. the state is very strong, in India the state or the government is weak and ineffective.
For example after the attack of 9/11/2001, you did not see in the U.S. people taking the law in their own hands and killing innocent Muslims. But we have seen in period following that attack, that the U.S. government has taken some very drastic measures to ensure that such an attacks are not repeated on its soil. The government has deported large numbers of people from Islamic countries who were living in the country illegally. They now require all visitors from many Islamic countries to be photographed and finger printed at the port of entry.
But in India things are very different. In 2002, after some extremists burned to death some 59 Hindus at Godhra, Gujarat, who were returning by train from Ayodhya, the Hindu mobs killed between one thousand and two thousand Muslims.
In the orgy of violence that followed, many innocent Muslims were killed in the most brutal manner. Most of the people killed were poor because it is always the poor who bear the brunt of any such attacks.
I have talked to many Hindu people living in the U.S. as well as in India and they have supported the killing of the Muslims. This shows that Hindus are angry but they do not know which way is best for their country.
These counter attacks by the Hindu mobs have served the purpose of reminding the Muslims that Hindus are not a bunch of cowards but they have done great damage to the unity of the Indian people. These attacks have driven deeper the wedge that already exists between the Hindu and the Muslim populace of India and have thus weakened the nation's unity and sapped its strength.
In my opinion, it was improper for Hindus to take the law in their own hands. It was the duty of the government to find the culprits and punish them. The government should have not only punished the culprits but should also have taken such measures, both short and long term, as are necessary to ensure that such attacks do not get repeated.
The grass roots organizations of Hindus such as RSS, VHP, and Shiva Sena are a vital necessity to serve and defend the interest of the Hindus but they should not be allowed to take the law in their own hands. Their role is to assist the government in protecting the country and its people from internal and external threats.
In the same way when the iron lady of India, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in 1984 by her own Sikh bodyguard, the politicians of her Congress Party organized attacks against innocent Sikhs. In the orgy of violence that followed, hundreds of innocent Sikhs were butchered. The main purpose these attacks served was to intimidate the Sikhs population and to remind them that Hindus were not a bunch of cowards but these attacks did great damage to the unity of the nation.
Many Hindus have told us that the Gujarat violence against the Muslims was justified because Islam is a religion of intolerance. But if you read history you will find that at one time Chrsitianity too was as intolerant as Islam is now. But Christianity has become tolerant. This is evident from the fact that most Western countries that have Chrsitian majority, allow Hindus and Muslims to build their temple and mosques, respectively. Even if you attack Jesus Christ, or the Pope, no Christian leader or government will threaten to kill you. In the West, freedom of expression is not just a hollow slogan but a cherished possession of the people.
In the same way with passage of time, and with the active efforts of people, I am pretty sure Islam too will become tolerant.
But what Indians and the Indian government should have done starting from 1947 is that they should have tried to turn Indian administered Kashmir into a Hindu majority state. But they did not do so. As a result, an insurgency backed by Pakistan, started in 1990 and continues to date in which thousands of people, most of them innocent, have been killed.
But the Indian government did not do so because it was led by saints like Mahatma Gandhi and impractical and indecisive leaders like Nehru. When saints become political leaders, you can not have good results.
Also, the truth of the matter is that the Indian government is rife with corrpution. Government officials from top to bottom are more interested in lining their own pockets than doing their duty. They are more interested in making Number Two Money, i.e. in taking bribes and kickbacks, than in the devotion to the duty with which they have been entrusted.
This is why Pakistan can take advantage of the weakness of the government and send its infilitrators to create trouble in India.
This is why when attacks such as Godhra attacks happen, Hindus take the law in their own hands and seek revenge, knowing that the government is too weak to defend them.
But when Muslim mobs attack innocent Hindus, as they did at Godhra, Gujarat, or when Sikhs attack innocent Hindus as they did for many years during the Khalistan Movement, this only makes matter worse.
In the same way, when Hindu mobs attack innocent Muslims, as they did after Godhra attacks in 2002, or when they attack innocent Sikhs as they did after Indira Gandhi was assassinated, this only makes matter worse.
The solution is to rid the Indian state and government of corruption, make them more efficient and strong so that they can act to defend the country and its people from internal and external attacks.
Some people say that India can not turn Kashmir into a Hindu majority state just like China is trying to turn Tibet into a Chinese majority province, because India is a democracy while China is Communist dictatorship. But this is a false logic. Look at the United States! American democracy did not stop the U.S. from invading Afghanistan or Iraq. When national interest demands, the U.S. democracy allows the government to wage war to defend the national interest, even when the world public opinion is against it.
The reason why the Indian government has not turned Kashmir into a Hindu majority state is that the government officials in India, from top to bottom, are corrupt and are more interested in lining their own pockets and sending money into their Swiss bank accounts than in defending the long term interests of the nation.
When these officials are busy trying to serve their own personal interests they have little time for planning for long term to secure the interests of the nation. Then they blame their own failures on "democracy".
It is because of this corruption that Pakistan's intelligence service sent bombs to India and detonated them in downtown Bombay after the demolition of mosque in Ayodhya, causing much devastation.
If India wants to become a great nation, it must learn from more successful democracies such as the United States.
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