Fundamentalism vs Nationalism

The most dangerous part of Fundamentalism is that they try to associate it with nationalism at a perverse level. And nationalism, for India always comes down to the British rule, and the memories of an oppressive outsider, ingrained in memories, less by first-hand experience and more by the images prescribed to us by word of mouth, tales of terror and history books. And that, irrespective of the fact that the average Indian has really moved away from that sense of antagonism against the British.

Fundamentalists try and shift this latent antagonism like a transferred epithet towards the outsiders of a state. And then they try and link this picture with that of the aggressive colonizer who usurped our rights, means of livelihood and independence. Thus, they will have you believe that the reason you, the Marathi Manush of Mumbai don’t have jobs is because the evil Muslim or ‘North Indian’ came down to the land that doesn’t belong to them and took them away! See, the Punjabis, Biharis and others drive the fiat taxis of Mumbai, they’ll point out. Their anger even extends to the Parsis at times, that community who we cannot think of in isolation to Mumbai.

The most dangerous part is the way in which they manage to convince people. If the Mumbai riots, and the fanatic blind faith of the Nava Nirman Sena, are anything to go by, one wonders what level of eyewash can lead to such suspension of common sense.

Such faith and sense of righteousness can come only when you believe is something so strongly. It’s the same sentiment that freedom fighters of the pre-independent era used to mobilize the masses against the British. They would tell the people of India why they need to fight and made them believe that fighting the British was the purpose of their lives. Without this absolute convincing, it is not possible to shape the opinion of an entire population towards a revolution. And that holds true for every freedom movement in the world.

Same weapon, but a perverted usage. That’s what fundamentalists and communal fanatics use. A convincing job so absolute that you think it’s the purpose of your life.

A questioning, rational man cannot fight in a revolution. He is bound to think of family, right and wrong, are all outsiders bad or is the system bad? Basically, a mind that constantly questions, and such a mind can never be convinced absolutely.

The mind that in pre-Independence India would have been a freedom fighter is today, a misguided, brainwashed fanatic.