From Hindu Paani Muslim Paani to religious identity of Coronavirus, the divided discourse

At the time when other countries in the world are frantically trying to find anti-dote to the deadly Coronavirus that has posed the worst challenge to humanity since the Second World War, the bigots have a ‘spectacular’ achievement to their credit.

They have succeeded in providing religious identity to Coronavirus.

The body that supplemented the efforts of these bigots is the Tablighi Jamaat.

The Jamaat committed a crime by ignoring the warning signals and went ahead with the conclave that had been planned much earlier. But that is no excuse. The same could have been postponed even at the last minute.

The Indian society that after years seemed to be totally united in this fight against this calamity that is Covid-19 has reverted to the pre-Coronavirus communal discourse. This discourse is as deadlier as the Coronavirus.

History has lessons to draw provided one wants to learn.

In case establishing religious identity of the Coronavirus is the latest achievement of the communal political discourse, a similar achievement is on the record from the pre-1947 religio-political communal discourse whose results are too well-known to all.

What had never been done in human history was ‘achieved’ during that period. Water was given religious identy. Perhaps it is not commonly known that there used to be ‘Hindu Paani’ and ‘Muslim Paani’. This was especially so on the railway stations.

It is a different matter that under the Indian hierarchical caste system, the Dalits were not allowed to directly draw water from the common source. However, water was never provided any caste identity even during that period.

Communal tendencies based upon religion supplement each other. These tendencies need an enemy. Creating an enemy is at the root of the prevalent dominant discourse. This tendency yields results in the short run but is ruinous at the other level.

The Indians must unitedly fight the common enemy.

The communalists must know that the Coronavirus is not selecting its victims on the basis of their religious identity.

The bigots should also know that the world might not be the same in the coming period; such is going to be the long term impact of this calamity. It may produce a new world order. The situation is going to dictate new relationships at not only the geo-political level but also change the current internal political discourses of the countries.

In India where dissent is already being resisted by the state agencies, the stronger state might further come down heavily to crush democratic tendencies. Dissent is at the root of democracy. Democracy just can’t survive without dissent. Debate has already triggered on this impact of Coronavirus as stronger centre is needed to deal with it and the concentration of power has the tendencies to be authoritarian.

It is pertinent to mention that while the Tablighi Jamaat blundered while going ahead with this conclave, the violations of social distancing have been reported all over the country. Pictures have appeared on the social media of even the ministers violating the norms even today. One need not go back to the swearing in ceremony of BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. 

Pictures have also appeared of such violations in the wholesale vegetable markets, including  in Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi.

The issue is more than that of violating the social distance norm.

The bigots from every religion must realise that these calamities recognise no religion.

They should learn from the example of Bhai Ghanaiya.

He used to serve water to the injured soldiers in the battles that Guru Gobind Singh fought against his adversaries. The Sikh soldiers complained to the Guru that he was serving water to the injured enemy soldiers too. Guru Gobind Singh blessed him.

That should be the spirit. This is the basic teaching of Sikhism.