Rajiandai Bariam
When tribalism and nationalism marries God ordained superiority, it becomes obnoxious explosive. The Jews had for centuries been a stink to the empire of Rome. The Israelites have always been taught to regard themselves as higher beings or God's favored people. But the book of Acts shatters the community centric outlook of the people and debunks all such understandings. Apostle Peter was one who grew up as a devout Jew looking for Israel’s salvation from the gentiles. He wanted nothing with the Romans. But later in life he came to the understanding that God has no favorites when he was sent to Cornelius the Gentile centurion and saw the spirit of God descended on the Gentiles. Every community grew up with community centric worldviews. Social pressure can lean hard on the individual and collective level, nullifying the understanding of God's grace and favor to all. At one instance, the Apostle Peter declined from the Gentiles' table when he was sitting with the Jewish elders. But Paul came heavily rebuking him to his face openly.
In the book of Galatians, Paul deconstructed the age old understanding of the Torah. It wasn't the observation of the laws- rituals and traditions that can redeem humanity but the grace of God alone. It is the power of the gospel that bring different ethnic communities under one roof. The power of the gospel is responsible for the rise of the business ethics and culture of the west. It shattered the long held power of kinship, and established trust towards one another. All of these including Paul's edict to be hospitable to a complete stranger drives the new economic revolution of the west. The business world is holding onto more transparency and trust worthiness as the edge in an over competitive environment. The gospel transforms the social strata and status quo. The letter of Paul that attracts the women and the slaves was the reason of the rise of Christianity rather than the ill explained conversions to Christianity under the sword of Constantine. The gospel is such an untenable force which empowered the weakest sections of the community. The Apostles and Christians, although they only came to be known as such in Antioch, were convicted, highly motivated and propelled unlike the propagation of nationalistic ideals that often accompanies hate mongering speeches and lies. They were doing at the cost of their lives for no favor except that the peaceful gospel that uplifts and accommodates every community and every nationality be preached in the name of Jesus.
We can appreciate the beauty of the gospels and the efforts of Paul when it’s juxtaposed with the complexities of behaviors our leaders exhibited during India's Partition. The Partition had caused so much bloodshed among three major communities- Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who were so identical than any other communities. But why did the Partition happen and even if, why is there so much bloodshed? There was only one India and never did the idea of Pakistan exist among the Leaders in the early twentieth century. Muhammad Ali Jinnah who is quite responsible for the partition was an active member of the congress who became famous for the Lucknow Pact of 1916 which brought the Muslims separatist group- The Muslim League and the Congress together. Jinnah always believed that the Hindus and the Muslims had always coexisted together and will continue to do so peacefully. In the view of Muslims minority, he demanded his 'Fourteen Points' demanding reservation for the minority community.
There were different set of understandings between Jinnah and the Congress leaders. Jinnah's proposal for coalition of the two parties was also rejected. They failed to understand the Muslims leader’s fears and downplayed him. The Congress Leaders had always believed that Congress alone represents all communities and thus hold that the Muslims don’t need a separate representation. The Congress was unwilling to understand Jinnah and his league and the latter too doesn't bend from their stand.
So the Quaid or the Muslim Leader mustered political power by mainly communal means. He revoked his previously unifying initiatives and turn completely wild resorting to segregating and divisive politics by the start of 1937 election campaigns.
Though Nehru was non-communal in his speech and actions, he is short tempered and subjective often unwilling to reproach his stand. In the Bihar killings, he put his life to risk when he head straight towards the Hindu armed fanatics and broke them off. He seemed more compassionate to the Muslims as doubted by Patel. But being fearless in what one believes is no more important than learning to be accommodating and understanding. He misunderstood Jinnah and failed to accommodate him through diplomatic ways.
The Quaid's fears also came true when after the 1937 elections, the Hindus who won the office started favoring their own communities. His insistence for a separate representative party even became more convincing. In the entire process of India's Independence, the bloodshed was unnecessary. Jinnah resorted to mob inflammation and mob violence. In 1946 when the Quaid was informed by Lt Gen Sir Arthur that the idea of Pakistan isn't a feasibility with a divided Punjab and Bengal, the Quaid wanted to turn back but he soon realized that it was too late. He hadn't taught the mob how to reconcile or compromise. He quietly admits the mob taking over his lead. There was no going back. Jinnah was all in for a Pakistan no matter what the cost is. The way to birth Pakistan is to excite the mob and allow them to fight it out. When one of his commanders informed him about the arrest of Muslim protesters in the Punjab province by the Khizar's government, the Quaid's response was blunt and decisive, 'Go and get yourself arrested'. After the killings of some hundreds of Hindus by the Muslims in Naokhali, there were floods of over hyped stories from the aggrieved party. The RSS comrades took a survey and reported that thousands of women and children were raped and defiled too. But the actual evidences of raping were as meager as two women.
Besides, Gandhiji with all his good intentions for non-violence spill ghee on fire. He told the Hindu women to be fearless and allowed them to be killed instead of being defiled. Instead of soothing the wound, it rubbed salt on the hurting wound. Many blood thirsty mobs started to roam the roads of Bihar. Various strange stories, overhyped statistics, and rumors spread and two months later, resulted in the Bihar killings of thousands of Muslims. Everywhere, every leader started to use the same elements of fear tactics to mobilize and excite the mob. All the three communities started to stock pile arms and ammunitions. In Punjab too, the retired army officer Tara Singh tried to launch a Sikh offensive in their region by mobilizing Sikh forces. There was rumor, fear, arson, sword and death all around. No one ever thought that their dream of the golden rivers would turn into blood so soon. This wasn’t the independence they actually thought they’d inherit.
In the midst of the killings and violence, the Leaders were bad shepherds who hide in safe bungalows and even meet each other. It was the lowly uneducated masses who were being used by the people they looked up to, do the dirty work. They became too excited with totally biased and baseless stories, heaping the toll of conflict and suffering on them. The language of fear, hate mongering speeches and communal biases were responsible for the pain India went through during the time of Partition. Until the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where the Hutus and Tutsis called each other cockroaches eliminating one another, the Partition of India was the bloodiest communal cleansing in history. Although the legacy of the Partition remains ugly as it had been, India during that time wasn’t deprived of people who sow the seed to harmony resisting the communal senses. A Sikh captain and a railway employee saved the future President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain from a gang at Ambala Railway Station. A group of righteous Muslims saved some Hindu families at Civil Lines from the Muslim mob putting their lives at risk. These subversive stories need to be told again and again in order to disarm the fanatical inclinations of the people and help them rise to their senses.
"Do not fear", Jesus said, 'of those who can only kill the body, but fear him who can kill both the soul and body'. He isn't inciting fear but of course telling people to submit to the True authority. Don't multiply violence by responding with violence. If one cheek is beaten, turn the other cheek.
Communal hatred always rest on victimizing our community and portraying the other as the victimizer. It is a policy that rest on half-truths and most often lies. In Romans 8:37, Paul encouraged the church to think differently in the face of trials and tortures, 'We are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us'. It gives them the confidence of a conqueror even as they actually went through suffering.
The words of Paul had been lived by the early Christians who were fearless to death. Under the lies and rumors spread by Nero blaming Christians for setting the city on fire, they faced unduly biases, fear, shame and torture. But they didn't victimize themselves nor stock piled arms and never did they resort to arms. But their fearlessness and all conquering confidence and peace in the midst of turmoil won the empire of Rome to Christ.
Also, there was a beacon of light during the darkest era of Aparthied in South Africa. When his mother and son died, he wasn’t allowed to visit them. The colonialist tried their best to drain him mentally, physically and emotionally. But the leader of the resistance movement Nelson Mandela emerged out of imprisonment, unbittered by any of his experiences. Instead of a full assault on the Whites which many of his followers wanted, he was able to reconcile the torturer and the tortured, the victim and the victimizer. He was really the architect who saved South Africa from the madness that could've engulfed the subcontinent. The world over, the uniting power of the gospel over different ethnicities, races and communities continue to create stories as subversive as it had been. Every province, every nation and every organization is hunting for a magic pill that can unite the people for the good of all. But in order to achieve a result as subversive and powerful as they wanted, they needed a story as subversive as the Gospel. Jesus said to his disciples,' In my name, you'll do greater things than I'. We are called to get busy. The world is waiting, broken and hungry.
Bariam is a Naga student from Manipur who graduated in B.com (Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University.
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