Recently concluded general elections
practically made the two major parties polarized so much to the extent that the
BJP has casted itself in Hindutva in an iron mould; whereas the Indian National
congress party literally was made a party of the Muslims. While this type of
polarization at the level of the religion is not only detrimental to democracy
but also the development of the nation.
The political leadership should have no role in
promoting or even supporting a religious identity. It must be made clear that
religion as is manifest in rituals and place of worship must be set aside from
the high ideals that come out of the grand Indian ethos and culture. It is a
fact that all citizens irrespective of the religious affiliation are part of Indian
culture and ethos and it is not feasible and also not warranted to
differentiate between them.
Muslim mind set, however, still in the realm of
protecting themselves and their identity. Their vision that Indian is a
democracy and that their presence and democratic participation must herald a
comfortable and respectable aura to others is not yet fully articulated and
understood. It is hard to find a
political leader at any level of governance, especially at the national scene
who could present the positive side of the Muslim community and their
contribution to the nation building during the recent past.
Many believe that the ten years of UPA rule
failed in promoting and sustaining economic development of the nation. While
India was until recently at the incipient stage of ‘development threshold’ and
that it has been crossed over only recently; the exogenous external factors
have impacted India’s economic development during 5-6 years. Yet it is a feat
of a sort that India could maintain a 6-7 per cent annual growth average during
the difficult period of global recovery.
What is relevant, however, is as to how such a growth has impacted the
psyche of the electorate.
Sociological and applied economic analysis has
supported a trend that religious assertion and glorification of social identity
increases as the income levels increase. This is neither good nor bad in
itself. Households with money to spare do perform religious rituals as well
self-assert themselves in the local environment. The cumulative effect of such social
and economic interaction is a concoction for social segregation and competitive
religious assertion. Yet a country as diverse and as large as India has to deal
with this situation with great care so as to ensure a peaceful coexistence of
people professing varied religions and multiple social classes as expressed in the
Indian caste system. It is also hypothesised that this intricate relationship
between household income and social assertion will change for better as
economic transformation continues and sustains itself for a longer period of
time. The relationship can be described as an inverted U shaped curve – that is
the religious assertion which increases as income increase and reaches a peak
and then declines before normalizing itself at a certain lower level.
Essentially continued economic development will be the driving force for
secularization of communities since not only will the competition for resources
are subdued but also that the labour market gets harmonized based on the
transformations of the skill sets that will evolve over time and some of them
could become essential and therefore subject to no competition.
The unfortunate situation however is when
politically and electorally the voters are charged in directions which polarize
communities and then supported by the new found income growth the dominant view
not only prevails but also damages the ethos of the Indian culture and society. Let us recollect that it is the modern
education, and associate technological and scientific skill sets which led to
modernization and secularization of the developed world as we know today.
During this process of transformation the religion got separated out from civic
and public life and governance became independent of the religious influences. On the other hand, it appears that in India,
the electoral democracy in fact is pushing communities in the direction of religious
confrontation and the mechanism of education and scientific temper can wield only
limited impact thus leading to a situation of chaos and annihilation. This
situation can snowball in geometric proportion at various lower levels of
governance and electoral process such as the elections of the States,
panchayats and municipalities, community participation in program
implementation and civil society formations.
It is therefore, the responsibility of the new
government to understand this unique and intricate relationship and ensure that
the future social and economic transformation must happen through the process
of education and cultural change. In this context two noteworthy situations that
inevitably evolve needs to be highlighted. Sectoral (economic) imbalances
favouring the modern technology-based and large manufacturing will receive a
much needed boost. Yet what may happen is that millions of workforce trapped in
low productive sectors such as farming, traditional artisanship, small business
and manual labour would face an extraordinary risk, should the new government
ignore their plight in its immediate policy formulation. Secondly, the fiscal
pressure and also some ideological difference may promote frugality of social
services and social subsidies. This will be an immediate threat to millions of
the vulnerable and deprived communities who will face increase in hunger,
deepening of poverty amongst selected social groups and geographic areas as
well as continued health vulnerabilities. After all the so called Gujarat model
of development could not deal with such issues to the satisfaction of the
electorate either.