The Great Intolerance Debate

If one follows the high decibel debate on Indian primetime TV news these days, one can’t help but infer that India is in serious crisis for its ideological intolerance

Awards are being returned by the prominent intellectuals, historians, filmmakers, scientists and who not. Some have even been blamed to return the awards that did not genuinely belong to them. It is has been a chain reaction in response to some reprehensible acts of violence and killings. I am sure there are intellectuals who are genuinely feeling outraged and there are ones who are questioning the timing and calling it a selective outrage.

Why now, why only now? What has changed so drastically? When exactly that change happened? The political dispensation changed 17 months back. “Tell me the exact date and time that India became intolerant” – the anchor kept harping during one of his debate. He did not get the reply on timing but the respondent finally summarized it “the space for certain ideologies have been shrinking and it is reaching a break point”. It could be an accurate explanation. So what are these ideologies and why they think they are under attack?

1.      The “Invasion Theory” of Nation building

I was watching a video from Jaipur literary fest – “We as a country have been invaded, colonized but we have always embraced them. Thank god that Mughals came to India and we got Chicken Tikka. Thank god that the British came to India and we got the railways. And the speaker goes on”. This summarizes the invasion theory of development and there are many eminent takers for the ideology. This fundamentally relies on the self-deprecating view while looking at the invaders as their benefactors. The proponents of this ideology have been at the helm of affairs at various academic universities. They proudly called themselves as the Marxist/socialist historians and claimed disproportionately larger intellectual space, more than their political firepower. As per a prominent historian “In the 1980s Marxism occupied a dominant place in the best institutes of historical research in India” It was true for larger part of Indian history post-independence – a historian meant a Marxist.

So what has changed?

ICHR dissolves advisory panel comprising Romila Thapar & Irfan Habib

There are many data points like above across various cultural and academic organizations.

The esteemed ideologues of the Indian histories are under attack. Their invasion theory is under scrutiny; their self-deprecating view is being questioned. There are alternate ideologies jostling for the public space, the audience and the sponsorship. So some historians are under increasing pressure, they are being blamed (rightly or wrongly) for endorsing the history to suite their ideologies.

2.      Strong nation state = weak democracy

India as a country has always been celebrated for its “soft power”. On the other hand, the stronger state has always been feared as a danger to democratic liberal values. They will become fascist, it will be bad for the citizens and diversity will be under threat. There has been fear for a strong nation that can muzzle the voices of its citizen. This also partly stems from the Marxist ideology and related to the first point above. This has given rise to a battery of ideologues that openly challenge the nation state under the garb of freedom of expression, communal harmony, diverse values or whatever. This has also given rise to a large number of NGOs that started playing active roles in the ideological space. These non-state actors with time started playing bigger roles in setting the agenda at the national level. The media “as a pillar of democracy” makes sure that the Govt. is within its limited boundaries. A strong state is feared by all the ideologues.

So what has changed?

Well the state is asserting more. The changed dispensation has opened a direct attack on the NGOs it thinks inimical. Thousands of licenses have been cancelled and many of the prominent ones who could once influence the policies and direction (for right or the wrong reasons) are without any sponsorship. Many are targeted as being called anti-nationals and forced to shut their shop. This is also building up the intolerance debate.

If one has to conclude – after 17 months of change in political dispensation, it is an overdue tectonic adjustment in the ideological space in India. Along with the rights and lefts there is an emergence of a nationalist ideology that is pushing the Rights to more right and Lefts to more left. When the dust will settle hopefully the tolerance and intolerance will be re-defined in Indian cultural context and most will tolerate them.