Another Holi has come and gone, revealing in its wake – once again – the deepening wounds of a society and State in crisis.
Hindu festivals once celebrated the colours of the world’s original rainbow nation, although aspects of this rose-tinted view were always contentious (many Dalits point out that the celebration marking the burning of Holika, an asura king’s sister, legitimises violence against women from marginalised communities). Never without blemishes, the nation’s festive seasons were, still, a reasonable example of multicultural coexistence.
India’s festivals now squarely reflect the ever-deepening radicalisation of the majority, the protection and empowerment of Hindutva goons trying to terrorise Muslims and other minorities and separate Hindu and Muslim, and the abandonment of the rule of law.
Last week, I wrote about the gradual slide of the police in some northern cities into vigilantism –beating and parading Muslims, forcing them to chant slogans praising the cow and the supposed guardians of the law. This week, I’d like to address the pressure on the police from down below and up high, from the masses and the people they elect, to follow a bullying, majoritarian agenda that effectively discards the requirements of the law and the Constitution and intends to cleave Hindu from Muslim.
To me, the most vivid video of India’s breakdown this past week came from the mob trying to use a traditional shimga – a tree trunk with a bulbous head – as a battering ram against the gates of a mosque in Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra, a state rapidly descending from progressiveness and a general congeniality into anti-Muslim ferment. The tradition is that the trunk is laid at the steps of the mosque, but that, from all accounts, escalated into an attack this year.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.