Category: On National Affairs

Pluralism is India’s strength – Let’s not fritter it away

By H K Dua

The Idea of Pluralism has a symbiotic relationship with the Idea of India. Neither can survive without the other.  Unless the two streams of thought flow together and at some point down the line embrace each other, this nation of over a billion people will be in trouble.

Those who fought for freedom under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership and many others understood the importance of pluralism for national unity which was badly needed after the British raj ended. It was essential for building a new India. It is still needed.

The Constitution our Founding fathers came out with represented a kind of national consensus that underlined the importance of a plural society and a plural polity for an independent India.

Most debates in the Constituent Assembly reflected this national consensus, notwithstanding widespread communal riots and travails of the Partition.  The Indian National Congress and most other parties underlined the importance of the idea of a plural and democratic society and polity. The consensus, with various ups and down, has come to grow during nearly seven decades since Independence and after the adoption of the Constitution.

Lately, voices, however, are being raised by influential people in different parts of the country questioning this consensus. Not only these voices are in effect questioning this national consensus but these are even challenging the basis of the Constitution. This is unfortunate and risky in the long run.

Critics of the constitutional scheme point out that the world “secular” was inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution only in 1976 during the Emergency. Their argument is flawed and does not shake the basis on which the entire constitutional scheme has evolved.       

Not only in the Preamble, but elsewhere also the Constitution underlines the principle of secularism in one form or another, and what secularism, or pluralism really mean in the Indian context.  Challenging the constitutional scheme on the ground that the word “secularism” was added later does not invalidate the entire constitutional scheme which stands on secular and democratic principle.

India is a diverse country, yet over the centuries it has survived as a nation, if not as a nation-State which is of a recent origin in political and territorial terms.

The essence of Indian nation incorporates the idea of oneness of India, despite the diversity of the social, cultural and political fabric of India encompassing hundreds of castes, several religions, languages, and regional variations.These divisions in the Indian mosaic is viewed by positive and forward-looking thinkers as a sort of unity in diversity.

Looked otherwise, these have often proved divisive.  Lately, the concept of unity in diversity is being challenged by those who tend to believe that India belongs to one dominant majority religion, which at best may or may not accommodate those who are minorities in their reckoning.  This kind of thinking is retrograde and certainly does not reflect a forward-looking mindset.

Justifying caste divides as our heritage to be proud of is unhealthy, and perhaps meant to serve the interest of dominant upper caste.  Also, sharp is the gender divide. Regarding women as weaker sex and not as equal citizens of the land reflects discriminatory and archaic thinking, meant to prevent half of our population from contributing to nation-building. Looking selectively back into history and destroying a mosque has not strengthened the idea of a tolerant India but worked against the very concept.  The Khap Panchayats’ sitting in judgement on the rights of young men and women, as also the so-called honour killings, is against the Rule of Law, and abhorent. Discrimination against Dalits is still continuing in many parts of the land  despite constitutional guarantees. The anger of the Tribals who are eight per cent of the population, is leading to Maoist insurgency in Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh and several other areas. The policy-makers need to remember that  social, political and economic tensions that are developing under the surface and above have to be managed urgently.

Alienation of the various sections of the society, whatever the factors like – religion, region, language and caste or gender — from the mainstream leads to anger and in turn to socio-politico disaffection.  Whatever the deeper causes, sectoral alienation and anger sharpen social and political divide  – pushing back the idea of oneness.

Intolerance to dissent also slows down the evolution of a plural polity.  Every citizen or a section of society has the right to free expression and the majority have a duty to listen. Tolerance, a spirit of accommodation, listening to inconvenient truths and a spirit of reconciliation are important for creating a new India – a liberal, inclusive and  plural democracy where the “loneliest and the lost” can hold his or her head high.

India has to be strong — and would require collective will and effort to be so —  where every citizen, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, man or woman, rich or poor, will have to  lend shoulder to the building of a new India,  This would also require broader mindsets, capacity to listen to others’ opinion, even if it is contrarian or a dissenting view.  Dissenting opinion is in nation’s interest. It should not be drowned out, branding it as anti-nation.

A plural polity requires a liberal and plural approach to governance. The executive’s administration should not be encouraged to be partial towards the majority, but be neutral while discharging its legitimate duty. The people’s faith in the administration will grow if it can earn the trust of the entire people, particularly of those who are often ignored and kept out of the pale.  Alienation of a section of people causes heart-burning and anger and encourages a non-participative climate further weakening harmony and national unity. The ”They-and-us” approach will always work against liberal, pluralistic and democratic India.  Unchecked, the socio-political divides will further corrode unity and national harmony.

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*Dua has been editor of several national dailies, ambassador, media adviser to the prime minister, and a nominated member of Parliament. He recently joined the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.

Ring-bound legacy

The Eighth Ring — An Autobiography by K M Mathew, Published by Penguin-Viking, New Delhi, Price Rs 699/-, pages 391.

By H K Dua :  The Eighth Ring is not just the life-story of Mr K M Mathew — it is much more. It is the story of birth, and rebirth, of Malayalam Manorama, one of the best papers of modern India; of the last days of the Travancore State, of Kerala in all its hues; and of Malayalam Manorama’s symbiotic relationship with its people. They seem to be made for each other.

Kerala and the people, their hopes and despair ooze out of K M Mathew’s autobiography as also of the pages of Malayalam Manorama. Across this fairly detailed personal story, there also runs the story of his family, his father, fondly called Appachen, and mother Ammachi, and of the well-knit clan which came to grow around the beautiful backwaters of Kerala. From the small beginning the family came to set up a major bank, an insurance giant of company with its wings spread across the country, plantations and rubber industry beginning with making rubber balloons in Bombay leading to the making of MRF tyres. It was an early instance of a Make-in-India mission.

The dearest child of the family was Malayalam Manorama which began its long journey with just six pages, printed on a handset press, with no idea of lay-out of design, but equipped with the desire to play a role in the social and political growth of the people of Travancore and after its merger with the state of Kerala. The founder, grandfather — Kandathil Verghese Mappillai ( KM Mathew’s grandfather) established the paper way back in 1888, around the time Indian National Congress was born.) Little did he knew then that the seed he was sowing would become a major force in Kerala one day, and also emerge in his grandson’s time as one of the most important newspapers of not only Kerala but of the country.

Newspapers grow at appropriate time on congenial soil and in a favourable social and political millieu. Kerala was going through vast social and economic changes in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Education was spreading in many parts of the country, but the people of Kerala took to it like the delicious Karimeen fish in its backwaters.

Kerala was to lead the nation by leagues, particularly in women’s education. Social churning was going on. There were agitations over Vaikom temple being thrown open to lower castes. Narayan Guru, one of the greatest sons of Kerala, was campaigning for ending untouchbility. The freedom struggle had also crept into Kerala. It came naturally for Malayalam Manorama to support the social, political education movements and campaign for abolishing untouchbility in Kerala’s cast-ridden society. History was taking turn for the better in Kerala and Malayalam Manorama was on the right side of history.

Not all was going honky-dory for Malayalam Manorama and the family. As the family business grew, its bank, its insurance company and other businesses grew, at a time when Malayalam Manorama had over the years became a powerful presence in Travancore. Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer happened to be its Dewan. CP wanted to emerge as a powerful figure in the State of Travancore and had come to acquire enormous power. The wealth of the family coupled with popularity of Malayalam Manorama was blocking CP’s designs for grabbing more power. K M Mathew’s father, Appachen who had taken over as Chief Editor would not bend before CP’s authoritarian ambitions.

K M Mathew’s book is full of gratitude for most people, big and small for little things they did for the family and Malayalam Manorma. Only one person earns the title “villain” in K M Mathew’s story –- Sir, C P Ramaswamy Iyer. Mathew has described in details how C P was given to megalomania, and how he tried to crush the paper and the family’s business empire.

C P chose to launch a severe attack on the paper and the businesses which backedd its growing clout. Through intrigue, unsavoury moves and enormous power at his command he brought about the collapse of the bank, forced change in ownership of its insurance business. The worst blow was Appachen’s arrest and the imposition of censorship and the closing of the paper, all to satisfy CP’s sadistic pleasure. In a way Malayalam Manorama was to experience Emergency, before the country was to taste much later in 1975.

Appachen who had emerged as a maor figure on Kerala’s socio, political landscape was put behind the bars like an ordinary criminal. Malayalam Manorama closed, and with wealth gone, the family was in ruins. K M Mathew says it was not only his father in prison, so was Malayalam Manorama. In jail for nine long years K M Mathew’s own education was interrupted as the shocking news came to him at Tambaram railway station that his father had been arrested. The comfortable world around the happy-go-lucky young man had collapsed.

Appachan and Malayalam Manorma’s troubles lasted nine long years and ended about three months after India became free and the paper had gone through a sort of baptism of fire.

It turned out to be K M Mathew’s responsibility to lead the paper and make it a major daily. Speaking not only for Kerala, but also for the country. K M Mathew’s success lay in his vision and capacity to build brick-by-brick by encouraging team work and being ahead of other papers in using modern technology. His basic plus point remained in the bonds he had with the people of Kerala, and with a forward-looking approach on national issues. No wonder, when he passed away five years ago, millions turned up at his funeral. They thought it was their personal loss.

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H K Dua has been Editor of several National Dailies, Ambassador, Media Advisor to PM, and a nominated Member of Parliament. He has recently joined ORF, a prominent New Delhi think tank.