R.M. Pal

The rape of four nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, is a criminal and inhumane act - it is a blot on our culture. What is equally criminal and disgusting is its justification - unspeakably obnoxious - by Hindutvavadi [a Hindu nationalist ideology] leaders who maintain that Christian missionaries represent "anti-national forces working against Hindu interests in the country" and that the gang-rape was "a reaction to these anti-national activities." That means, plain and simple, if those who are not "patriotic" from the point of view of Hindutvavadis, it is perfectly permissible to rape their women. (It is high time patriotism is defined - a civilised nation cannot permit criminal acts in the name of "patriotism." It is also time to remember Dr. Johnson who said, "Patriotism is the last resort of scoundrel.")

This justification reminds one of what happened in Surat during the communal riots after the demolition of the Babri Masjid - large number of Muslim women were raped.

Many like us expected the de facto ruler of the country and the most important Hindutvavadi ideologue, Mr. L.K. Advani, to condemn this justification in a forthright manner. Instead, he has tried to wriggle out of this justification by saying that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) section of the Hindutvavadis are not involved in this justification. This is quibbling, to put it mildly. As is well known, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sainiks are all integral parts of the family, the Sangha Parivar, and Mr. Advani presides over its political wing.

Mr. Advani did the same with regard to the Shiv Sena-BJP government’s rejection of the Srikrishna Commission Report on the 1992-93 communal riots in Bombay. It is the prerogative of the Maharashtra government to reject the report, he said. Doesn’t this statement amount to endorsing the action of the state government? And, is it a responsible view?

The justification referred to above reflects the Hindutvavadis’ intolerance towards minorities, their political reaction and social/religious barbarism - all these directly related to the philosophy and practice of fascism.

The gang-rape of the nuns in Jhabua, it appears, is part of a larger plan to terrorise the Christian minority all over the country - attack on schools run by Christians and burning of copies of the Bible in Gujarat; attack in a convent in Jhabua; looting of a convent in Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh (UP); attack and desecration of a church in Meerut in UP; rape of a woman in a convent in Bandal in West Bengal. (Also, it may be recalled in this context that the killers of Sister Maria of Dewas in 1996 have gone scot-free - the state government did not go in for an appeal against the release of the accused.)

To give a couple of instances of this philosophy and mindset: The other day the führer of Maharashtra, Mr. Bal Thackeray, who has been indicted by the Srikrishnan Commission, thundered while addressing a Dussehra rally in Bombay, "Dare arrest me and the entire city will be in flames." When the Hindutvavadis came to power in Maharashtra in 1995, the führer’s first fatwa was that the "foreign nationals," Pakistanis and Bangladeshis be identified. "These 42,000 managed to have voting rights in the last elections, but this will not do," he had thundered then. The reference was to the Supreme Court judgement restoring the rights of Muslims to vote whose names were arbitrarily removed from the electoral rolls. This mindset is built on their being intolerant of minorities - the sole objective is being destruction of the weak and assertion of the strong; this is exactly what the practitioners of fascism in Germany and Italy did.

Hindutvavadis need to be told about the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of the Rights of Minorities, Resolution 47/135 on 11 December 1992. The declaration prescribes that States shall protect the cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities, who have the right to maintain contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties, and that States shall ensure that minorities exercise fully and effectively all their human rights as fundamental freedom.

The culture and climate of anti-minoritism, resulting in increasing intolerance, appears to have found a fertile soil in our country, and that those who plant the seeds of this culture couldn’t care less about their fruits for the country. They are also sowing the seeds of disintegration by giving rise to dissension and divisiveness.

Human rights groups and activists must stand up and wage war on this culture of intolerance and practices of societal tyranny and oppression.

(Source: PUCL Bulletin, November 1998.)