(November 04, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Terrorist violence is on the rise in India, as a week coalition government preferred to place vote bank politics above national security concerns. The hand of Hindu extremism in the Malegaon blast is perhaps the first signs of Hindu backlash against the unchecked rise in Jihadi terrorist acts. The Kashmir issue is dragging and the armed forces are weary at the never ending situation there. The recent serial blasts in Assam believed to be controlled by the masters in Bangladesh and Pakistan has touched off strong reaction from the public. Once again the question of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh infiltrating across the borders often with the connivance of local politicians is a continuing matter of concern.
I am reproducing here a paper 'Dimensions of democracy, demography and national security' presented at a seminar on ‘Relevance of Hinduism in Understanding India’ was jointly organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Rashtriya Jagriti Sansthan, at New Delhi on Feb 4 & 5, 2005. The paper examines the dynamics of Indian social perceptions as a result of demographic changes due to illegal immigration and issues of national security concerns thereof. The situation is now worse and perhaps issues raised in this paper are more relevant than ever before.
DIMENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY, DEMOGRAPHY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
"Cheshire puss," she began rather timidly... "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat. - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
PREAMBLE
At the face of it the appropriateness of the theme ‘dimensions of democracy, demography and national security’ to a conference on ‘Relevance of Hinduism to Understanding India’ may appear facile and far-fetched. In democracies, freedom breeds desires and articulation resulting in conflict.[1] Thus modern democracies, particularly those with multi cultural societies like India, have to manage social conflict as part of their existence. Conflicts by themselves are not bad because they bring issues that cause social friction to the fore and often help in resolving them. Civilized societies cement cracks in the social framework through the mechanism of democracy. But drastic social changes, violent or otherwise, can breed potential issues that can endanger both exercising the democratic rights as well as national security. As many countries in Europe and the U.S. are discovering, a feeling insecurity is created in societies by entry of large bodies of alien population across the frontiers, whether legally or illegally. This is due to reasons of perceived threat national identity as well as cultural traditions apart from territorial integrity. As long as the country can manage these potential conflict situations through a well-organised mechanism, it does not affect its national security.
In India, over a thousand years this mechanism has been helped by the evolution of a composite Indian culture. This has enabled the peoples of diverse religions and ethnicities to practice democracy with notable success. The partition of the country in 1947 and its aftermath brought about demographic changes as well as loss of territorial integrity, creating insecurity among communities in the sub continent. While India managed to recover from this trauma slowly and build a functional democracy, the fresh burden imposed by drastic demographic changes through illegal immigration has rekindled the feeling of insecurity. This feeling of insecurity among the population if unchecked can have a collateral impact on their democratic functioning and as a corollary on national security. In this backdrop, this paper proposes to -
I am reproducing here a paper 'Dimensions of democracy, demography and national security' presented at a seminar on ‘Relevance of Hinduism in Understanding India’ was jointly organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Rashtriya Jagriti Sansthan, at New Delhi on Feb 4 & 5, 2005. The paper examines the dynamics of Indian social perceptions as a result of demographic changes due to illegal immigration and issues of national security concerns thereof. The situation is now worse and perhaps issues raised in this paper are more relevant than ever before.
DIMENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY, DEMOGRAPHY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
"Cheshire puss," she began rather timidly... "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat. - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
PREAMBLE
At the face of it the appropriateness of the theme ‘dimensions of democracy, demography and national security’ to a conference on ‘Relevance of Hinduism to Understanding India’ may appear facile and far-fetched. In democracies, freedom breeds desires and articulation resulting in conflict.[1] Thus modern democracies, particularly those with multi cultural societies like India, have to manage social conflict as part of their existence. Conflicts by themselves are not bad because they bring issues that cause social friction to the fore and often help in resolving them. Civilized societies cement cracks in the social framework through the mechanism of democracy. But drastic social changes, violent or otherwise, can breed potential issues that can endanger both exercising the democratic rights as well as national security. As many countries in Europe and the U.S. are discovering, a feeling insecurity is created in societies by entry of large bodies of alien population across the frontiers, whether legally or illegally. This is due to reasons of perceived threat national identity as well as cultural traditions apart from territorial integrity. As long as the country can manage these potential conflict situations through a well-organised mechanism, it does not affect its national security.
In India, over a thousand years this mechanism has been helped by the evolution of a composite Indian culture. This has enabled the peoples of diverse religions and ethnicities to practice democracy with notable success. The partition of the country in 1947 and its aftermath brought about demographic changes as well as loss of territorial integrity, creating insecurity among communities in the sub continent. While India managed to recover from this trauma slowly and build a functional democracy, the fresh burden imposed by drastic demographic changes through illegal immigration has rekindled the feeling of insecurity. This feeling of insecurity among the population if unchecked can have a collateral impact on their democratic functioning and as a corollary on national security. In this backdrop, this paper proposes to -
a. Explore aspects of Hindu ethos that has influenced the evolution of a composite Indian culture, which in turn manifests in ‘Indian way’ of doing things.
b. Indian democracy and how it copes with confrontational issues between religions.
c. Study unnatural demographic change and how it affects the country’s democratic institutions and as a threat to national security. To explain this within the scope of the theme of this conference issues arising out of unnatural demographic changes in Assam due to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is presented as a brief case because it has affected the social and political life of the people in Assam with serious implications for national security.
The background note to this seminar observed: “Any meaningful debate on any aspect of Hindu identity or Hinduism runs the risk of either being perceived as a rightist Hindutva propaganda or a liberal secular attempt to dilute the core values of Hinduism and its understanding.”[2] This remark is more relevant now than ever before because in India Hinduism and Islam have become political flash points from being religious and cultural identities. In an era when it is fashionable to talk of clash of civilizations, any discussion of the issues of religion (in the present political context Hinduism and Islam), and its triangular relationship to demography and national security runs the risk of being slotted into one of the two antipodes - Hindutva protagonism and its diehard opposite liberal-secularism. Objective analysis of all national issues has been a casualty due to this political polarization. As a result anyone who attempts to do so is likely to be accused of subjective criticism. The author has kept in mind this risk in the background while writing this paper.
The entire paper has been done from a contemporary post-1971 standpoint [3], with references given only in the modern idiom avoiding religious texts or their interpretations. This has been done to understand the issues from a realistic, non-religious and practical plane.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
As any paper of this nature is subject to reinterpretation, the author has to clarify the following terms of reference he has set in writing this paper:
The background note to this seminar observed: “Any meaningful debate on any aspect of Hindu identity or Hinduism runs the risk of either being perceived as a rightist Hindutva propaganda or a liberal secular attempt to dilute the core values of Hinduism and its understanding.”[2] This remark is more relevant now than ever before because in India Hinduism and Islam have become political flash points from being religious and cultural identities. In an era when it is fashionable to talk of clash of civilizations, any discussion of the issues of religion (in the present political context Hinduism and Islam), and its triangular relationship to demography and national security runs the risk of being slotted into one of the two antipodes - Hindutva protagonism and its diehard opposite liberal-secularism. Objective analysis of all national issues has been a casualty due to this political polarization. As a result anyone who attempts to do so is likely to be accused of subjective criticism. The author has kept in mind this risk in the background while writing this paper.
The entire paper has been done from a contemporary post-1971 standpoint [3], with references given only in the modern idiom avoiding religious texts or their interpretations. This has been done to understand the issues from a realistic, non-religious and practical plane.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
As any paper of this nature is subject to reinterpretation, the author has to clarify the following terms of reference he has set in writing this paper:
a. The word Hindu has been interpreted in many ways. Thanks to the religious colouring politics has undergone in recent years, the author feels it necessary to explain that the word Hindu in this paper is used to mean only the followers of Hinduism as a religion. [4] Though the author is a non practising Hindu (and not very proud of it), he is conditioned by the Hindu value system, learnt in the nurseries of an extended family, the essence of which is a friendly attitude to all religions. Some sections may find this a limitation to objective analysis.
b. Similarly some may find the issues of Hindu-Muslim relations have not been treated in sufficient detail. This paper does not claim to be a study of Hindu-Muslim relations as this subject is the theme of a separate session. In order to ensure objectivity, the author as a security analyst has steered clear of religious dogma, touching upon only aspects of Hindu-Muslim relations that have impact on strategic issues of national security.
c. This paper avoids the commonly misused word ‘fundamentalism’ to describe manifestation of extreme religious beliefs in social conduct. Instead the word ‘obscurantism’ is used to indicate this behaviour, because the word ‘fundamentalism’ actually means belief in basic articles of faith of a religion. Similarly this paper also avoids the use of the description ‘Islamic terrorism’, a common media usage, to indicate the practices of terrorists of the ilk of Osama bin Laden.
Instead ‘Jihadi terrorism’ is used, as it does not brand all Muslims as terrorists. [5] ‘Secularism’ is another word much misused in this country; in the context of this paper it means what the dictionary says: ‘the view or belief that society’s values and standards should not be influenced or controlled by religion or church.’[6]
PRESENTATION
This paper is presented in three parts:
PRESENTATION
This paper is presented in three parts:
• Part 1 – Dimensions of Indian composite culture and its relation to functional democracy: This part explores the evolution of the composite Indian culture that has a strong base in Hindu ethos with influences from Islam and Christianity. This has helped in evolving an ‘Indian way’ of doing things, common to all religionists in India
• Part 2 – Indian democracy and coping with social confrontations: This part studies some aspects of the complex nature of Hindu-Muslim relations and how Indian democracy copes with it.
• Part 3 – Population changes and national security concerns: This part presents an analysis of how illegal immigration from Bangladesh in states bordering eastern and northeastern India has impacted democratic governance, precipitating national security concerns.
To Be Continued....
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