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I
recently paid a visit to India, a country I am not
that familiar with although of course I am well aware
of its long history and the titanic struggle its people
conducted to get out from under the heel of the British
Empire and its Raj. Today it is considered by most
as the largest and therefore in many ways the most
successful democracy in the third world if not beyond.
There can be little doubt that the country has made
tremendous strides since it gained independence under
the charismatic leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and the
political leadership of Pandit Nehru and the Congress
Party.
It is a nation that is made up of people from many
races and cultures, speaking a countless number of
different languages and dialects. All of the worlds
major religions plus some less well known in the West
are, or have in the past been practised there. Whilst
tens of millions of India's citizens are members of
the Christian and Muslim faiths, the vast majority
of the population belong to the Hindu religion, indeed
the second national language Hindi is named after
that religion and in English means Indian. This being
so and also taking into account the latter religion
incorporates a ridged caste system, the founders of
the modern Indian State understood if their fellow
countrymen and women were to live in comparative peace,
their new State would have to be built upon strong
secular foundations. Thus they made it illegal to
discriminate against anyone because of their race,
caste or religion. Thus those who belonged to the
lower caste within the Hindu religion, the untouchables
or dalits, who for millennia's had only been allowed
to carry out the most menial tasks, such as cleaning
toilets, were able after independence to play a full
role for the first time within society and the professions.
The same goes for those who belonged to the Muslim
and Christian faiths.
Sadly much of this began to change when Mr Vajpayee,
whose political party is the Bharatiya Janata Party,
was elected India's Prime Minister in 1997. The BJP
is part of the Hindu fundamentalist family of groups,
which are broadly called the Sangha Parivar, the family
of the Rashtriya Syamsevak Sangh, or national volunteer
group. This is an ideological group formed in the
late 1920s, deriving its inspiration and much of its
practice, including having a Brown Shirt type Paramilitary
group (the RSS) from the life and work of Adolf Hitler.
Like Hitler, they believe in racial supremacy, in
treating the Semitic races and all non-Hindu races
as second-class subjugate people with no rights to
citizenship. They believe in a brand of cultural nationalism,
which brooks absolutely no variety, no breadth of
culture, no range of religion, a very monolithic mono-colour
Hindu culture. Thus their slogan is, "one nation,
one culture, one people, one language". Something
that the Indian States founders understood only too
well hardly fits the diverse nature of the Indian
population.
On leaving the airport terminal on my arrival in India,
I experienced the total culture shock that almost
all visitors from the West experience, no matter how
many times they have visited India before. The bright
sun light, unfamiliar smells, some pleasant some less
so, the sheer numbers of people and the hustle and
bustle they create as they go about their tasks, the
high speeds, the traffic whizzes by one, at a rate
of miles per hour more suitable to the outside lane
of a four lane motorway/highway. The number of people
who approach you to offer to carry your bag, find
you a room, taxi, car hire, ask you for a hand out,
sell you any thing from a drink of water to precious
stones, the sudden appearance of a cow, which can
happen almost anywhere from the airport runway, railway
station, city centre, a motorway or at the beach.
All of the aforementioned put together at first makes
you wish to turn and run as quick as possible back
to the comparative safety of the airport terminal.
Finally somehow more by luck and chance, you reach
the peace and quiet of your hotel room in which you
sit and relax for the first time since you got off
the plane, unsure if you would ever get up enough
courage and energy to emerge from its protective walls.
But emerge you do and after a few days find yourself
gradually acclimatising to this beautiful, sometimes
exhilarating, yet infuriating land. I decided to travel
south down the west coast through the states of Maharashtra,
Goa, Kanataka and Kerela, although due to distance
and time I only got to see the first three States.
All four states are regarded as being more western
than most; Maharashtra, the capital of which is Mumbai
(Bombay) -- this city is many westerners' first taste
of India and it overwhelms one.
Goa having been part of the Portuguese empire never
directly experienced the British Raj, although the
majority of its people are Hindus it has a large Christian
population and Roman Catholic churches can be found
all over the State. Its coastal strip makes its main
living from tourism both from overseas and from tourist's
travelling in from other parts of India. Due to this,
unlike almost every other state in India, alcohol
is legally sold thus making it an attractive holiday
destination for Mumbai’s emerging middle classes,
whose younger generation at times would fit perfectly
into any major Irish or English City centre on a Friday
or Saturday night. I.e. they get as drunk as lords
and like much of our own youth, lose their inhibitions
in the process.
Kanataka by Indian standards is regarded as a very
liberal State. Around Bangalore it is emerging as
India's silicone valley. The call centres that have
relocated from Ireland, the UK and other parts of
Western Europe to India have in the main ended up
here. It is a massive State with a population of 50
million plus. Finally Kerela is one of India's success
stories, until very recently and since independence
the Communist Party of India has governed it. It has
the highest literacy rate in India plus some of the
best state funded health care. It goes to show that
to build a successful welfare state with good schooling
and health care is not achieved by pumping cash at
the problem alone. Political commitment and idealism
also helps to oil the wheels of progress. Kerela also
attract tourists from abroad, having some of the most
beautiful coastline and inland waterways in India.
It is also multi cultural, there has been a Jewish
community in Kerela's Cochin City for a thousand years
and more and like Goa there are Christian communities
that go back almost 2000 years. There is also a Chinese
community amongst many others.
In India to travel by road can best be described,
as a bit of a nightmare, the roads surfaces are poor
often being washed out or damaged by the monsoon.
Driving a car there can be death defying; sadly far
too often it is also death inducing, India having
one of the highest rates of fatalities on its roads
in the world. This being so the safest and in many
ways the best way to travel long distances in comfort
and be able to view the countryside as it goes by
is on the excellent Indian Railways. From Mumbai down
the coast to Kerela it is a joy to take the train;
the passing countryside is superb, wide rivers, bright
green paddy fields, jungle and fertile farmlands,
once past northern Goa the Western Ghats mountain
range lays in the distance parallel to the railways.
Plus your fellow passengers are friendly and often
interesting. So I decided to let the train take the
strain and never once regretted it.
Before I left Mumbai I saw an interview aired on TV
with Sonia Gandhi, the Italian born leader of the
Congress Party, in which she said how much she regretted
the growing support the governing party, the Hindu
nationalist BJP is getting, especially from the middle
classes. Indeed only that week two of the younger
members of her own family had deserted Congress to
join this Hindu Party. She went on to say that her
main aim if Congress wins the forthcoming elections
would be to attempt to return the Nation to its secular
roots. This interview disturbed me as I set out on
my travels down the coast, little did I realise how
much what I found was to confirm her viewpoint. I
travelled over night making Goa my first stop. Even
in liberal Goa it soon became clear that the power
of the Hindu temple had greatly increased over recent
years. Temples were packed and as elsewhere on my
travels it was the middle classes who were pulling
the strings. As in the past the Temple provided free
meals for the poor and destitute, however there numbers
seemed to have increased ten fold in recent years.
At first one feels that the Hindu Temples, by feeding
those who cannot provide for themselves are contributing
a necessary service. However if one probes deeper,
like much charitable works in the West there is an
ulterior motive for this largess. The Hindu nationalist
central government has sent the message down the line
that the law that provides equal employment rights
for the lowest caste, the untouchables should be ignored
and the police should not enforce it. Thus millions
of people who could and did once have jobs at all
levels of society, now find themselves and thus their
families destitute. Those who had managed to claw
their way into the professions have found the doors
that had been opened to them by the founders of the
state, now closed. As this is done unofficially they
have no legal recourse to fight their corner. It is
nothing short of a State sponsored blacklist. If one
considers that the upper Hindu castes discriminate
against members of their own faith it does not need
a leap of imagination to understand how they treat
Muslims and Christians.
It is to the political activists who control the Temples
who the newly destitute lower castes must turn for
their only source of subsistence. Thus the BJP and
its Paramilitary organisation the RSS in the process
of providing 'charity' to the ’ poor,’ get
a willing army of people, who in return for a square
meal will be only to often willing to carry out tasks
that the middle classes and their Priests would rather
not dirty their hands with. A tactic that was previously
practised in the late 1920's early 30's by the German
Nazi Party, who in a period of mass unemployment due
to the great depression provided soup kitchens for
the German unemployed, many of whom were then channelled
into the Hitlerite Brown Shirts and SS. Another thing
that struck me as I moved down the coast and into
the State of Kanataka, was the number of newly built
or restored Hindu Temples. A sure signs of a newly
emerging religious fundamentalism, whatever the religious
creed, is the profusion of newly built buildings for
the faithful to worship and socialise in. One sees
the same thing in western Turkey; except there it
is new mosques that are springing up due to the largess
of the 'moderate' Islamic government in Ankara led
by Recep Erdogan. Or in many states in the USA where
the creed is born again Christianity and the signs
are newly built Churches and ‘Cathedrals’.
The fact that throughout my entire period in India,
I did not see a single newly built Mosque or Church
for me emphasised this point about fundamentalist
Hinduism.
As in many third world countries people in India are
often keen to discuss politics and how they impact
upon the international stage. Sadly whilst this still
happens in India, people are far more hesitant to
open up themselves if they feel that a person from
a different religion is present, or even, although
less so a different caste. This is especially true
of the minority communities. Just as people who live
in the north of Ireland can tell persons religion
instinctively, the same is true in India. After all
in both countries at times peoples lives have depended
on being able to do so. I often noticed this hesitancy
to join in on my train journey. Whilst Hindus being
the majority were willing to freely express their
opinions, I often whilst engaged in political chats
caught the eyes of say a Muslim or Christian sitting
near by, eagerly listing to my conversations, seemingly
wanting to join in and put their point of view, but
fearing the consequences, real or imagined if they
were to do so. Like here in the West since the CIA's
one time creation, Bin Laden emerged onto the world's
stage as the US States' very own Frankenstein's monster,
Muslims in India have also come under a crescendo
of abuse and rumour mongering that has often ending
in violence being done to them. There can be little
doubt that much of this anti Islamic sentiment has
unofficial backing from the Indian State and is orchestrated
by the BJP Government both at a national and local
level. After all there stated aim is a Hindu State,
as far as they are concerned non-Hindus should immigrate
to Muslim countries such as Pakistan or if Christians
they should go to the Vatican State in Italy. Indeed
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is regularly told by
the Hindu press to return to Italy and take India's
Christians with her, no matter how nonsensical this
may sound to us in the West it is a sentiment believed
and expressed by Hindus at all levels of Indian society
to day.
Sadly as far as my journey was concerned, time, funds
or lack of them and responsibilities back home had
caught up with me and I was unable to complete my
intended itinerary. Thus I was forced to return northwards
and my flight home. The trip had given me much to
think about but one thing I did conclude. It would
do some good if those who are most vocal in opposing
those who come to our countries in the West to build
a better life for themselves and families, were to
spent some time in Asia, and see how hard life can
be for the overwhelming majority of people there,
and instead of spiting bile, considered what they
would do in similar circumstances. After all, this
does not take much imagination, as it is something
millions of people from the shores of Ireland, Scotland
and Wales have themselves out of necessity done in
the not to distant past. However this would entail
them putting themselves in another's shoes. Something
many of them are not even prepared to do for their
near neighbours.
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