Security and development in doldrums
19 Oct 2012 3:28 AM IST
India is finding itself at the crossroads of internal incohesion. Theoretically, states can legitimise their coercive monopoly on their citizens only when they provide them with two fundamental features – security [both internal and external] and development. In India’s case, unfortunately, both are in doldrums. There is enormous amount of trust deficit in people leading to political violence.
In the past three months the country has seen ethnic, communal and anti-police riots, two of them in the national capital region, setting alarm bells ringing in the Indian polity.
STATE’S DILEMMA
In his recent article in a national daily on 4 October, Harish Khare, who is the former media advisor to PM Manmohan Singh, very aptly incorporated P N Haksar’s opinion on vital link between internal cohesion and our national security: ‘Secularism or its failure affects vitally social cohesion in our society, without which we cannot discuss our security. The fundamental basis for ensuring security of any state is its inner unity, cohesion and coherence of the society.
A society which is torn between conflicting religions is bound to be an easy prey to internal forces of disintegration and external forces of destabilisation.’
Managing internal incohesion is an inherited predicament for the decolonised states. Even though India has accomodated its heterogenity better than its contemporaries, the job is nowhere near done. The claims of the government need to be backed by actions and results, otherwise what is resentment today won’t be stopped from becoming movements tomorrow and lawlessness the day after.
Jurgen Habermas, a renowned German sociologist and philospher, very rightly considered ‘legally mediated solidarity among citizens’ a prerequisite for a modern state. In India’s case, certainly, his argument fits in, for the consequences of spurring violence will soon confront the government with numerous explicable questions.
RECENT INTERNAL VIOLENCE
We surely stand exposed to uncertainties externally in the form of terrorism. The internal dynamic of the country isn’t doing too well either. The recent spate of violent incidents across India and people’s criticism of government succinctly suggest the growing resentment in the Indian society. Political violence has put India’s national cohesiveness to a litmus test. Largely not given the attention they deserved, there has been a sudden increase in instances of violence.
Starting with Assam, where several people were killed in the ethnic riots which erupted between Bodos and migrated Bangladeshi locals in July. Trouble in managing the heterogeneity of the Indian society is evident from such a clash, which eventually also became communal making matters worse. The state should realise how ‘marginalisation’ is hollowing our society and ‘migration’ fracturing its equilibrium. ‘Unity in Diversity’ may have been projected as the fulcrum of our ‘nation-building’ in yesteryears by our polity, but we are way off the path which could lead us there. The nation, ostensibly stands more disintegrated than before. The violence in Assam spilled over to other Indian states when an exodus of India’s northeastern diasporas began as hundreds of people went to their neighboring states following spread of messages through the social media of threat to their lives.
Assam violence acting as a trigger point, eventually, led to Mumbai violence in August this year where two people were killed and 52, including 44 policemen, were injured when a rally called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam turned violent. The protesters went on a rampage, attacking the police, including some women constables, torching media and police vehicles, smashing cameras of photo journalists and damaging buses. It was again the inability of our state to accommodate multiplicity of cultures which contributed to this unrest.
In September, riots in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar locality bordering Uttar Pradesh may well be dismissed as any other routine unrest caused in any big city against coercive state police, but if shown from the prism of cynicism the videos clearly suggest the vociferousness of the growing generation and there animosities towards the state. Those were escapable scenes of lawlessness. This is where a part of our developmental shortcomings come into play. The footages showing how local people robbed shops off their belongings in garb of riots are astonishing.
A few days later in worst communal clashes in the NCR region, six police officers were killed in Ghaziabad when riots broke out after a copy of Holy Quran was found on a railway track. The situation got so worse that the police had to enforce a curfew in the vicinity. Over 5,000 rioters were later booked by the cops, however, lack of police preparedness and absence of communal harmony was evident. This is the outcome of nothing but ascending trust deficit in people against the government.
Delhi Police’s data, which do not show a sharp increase in the number of riot incidents in the capital over the past few years, worryingly, show a movement upwards. Against 34 cases of riots in Delhi in 2011, the city has seen 38 riot incidents for the corresponding period.
The people are begining to discredit the government they choose for themselves and a process of further disintegration is brewing deep down, unannounced but alarming.
Mohit Sharma is principal correspondent at Millennium Post.
In the past three months the country has seen ethnic, communal and anti-police riots, two of them in the national capital region, setting alarm bells ringing in the Indian polity.
STATE’S DILEMMA
In his recent article in a national daily on 4 October, Harish Khare, who is the former media advisor to PM Manmohan Singh, very aptly incorporated P N Haksar’s opinion on vital link between internal cohesion and our national security: ‘Secularism or its failure affects vitally social cohesion in our society, without which we cannot discuss our security. The fundamental basis for ensuring security of any state is its inner unity, cohesion and coherence of the society.
A society which is torn between conflicting religions is bound to be an easy prey to internal forces of disintegration and external forces of destabilisation.’
Managing internal incohesion is an inherited predicament for the decolonised states. Even though India has accomodated its heterogenity better than its contemporaries, the job is nowhere near done. The claims of the government need to be backed by actions and results, otherwise what is resentment today won’t be stopped from becoming movements tomorrow and lawlessness the day after.
Jurgen Habermas, a renowned German sociologist and philospher, very rightly considered ‘legally mediated solidarity among citizens’ a prerequisite for a modern state. In India’s case, certainly, his argument fits in, for the consequences of spurring violence will soon confront the government with numerous explicable questions.
RECENT INTERNAL VIOLENCE
We surely stand exposed to uncertainties externally in the form of terrorism. The internal dynamic of the country isn’t doing too well either. The recent spate of violent incidents across India and people’s criticism of government succinctly suggest the growing resentment in the Indian society. Political violence has put India’s national cohesiveness to a litmus test. Largely not given the attention they deserved, there has been a sudden increase in instances of violence.
Starting with Assam, where several people were killed in the ethnic riots which erupted between Bodos and migrated Bangladeshi locals in July. Trouble in managing the heterogeneity of the Indian society is evident from such a clash, which eventually also became communal making matters worse. The state should realise how ‘marginalisation’ is hollowing our society and ‘migration’ fracturing its equilibrium. ‘Unity in Diversity’ may have been projected as the fulcrum of our ‘nation-building’ in yesteryears by our polity, but we are way off the path which could lead us there. The nation, ostensibly stands more disintegrated than before. The violence in Assam spilled over to other Indian states when an exodus of India’s northeastern diasporas began as hundreds of people went to their neighboring states following spread of messages through the social media of threat to their lives.
Assam violence acting as a trigger point, eventually, led to Mumbai violence in August this year where two people were killed and 52, including 44 policemen, were injured when a rally called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam turned violent. The protesters went on a rampage, attacking the police, including some women constables, torching media and police vehicles, smashing cameras of photo journalists and damaging buses. It was again the inability of our state to accommodate multiplicity of cultures which contributed to this unrest.
In September, riots in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar locality bordering Uttar Pradesh may well be dismissed as any other routine unrest caused in any big city against coercive state police, but if shown from the prism of cynicism the videos clearly suggest the vociferousness of the growing generation and there animosities towards the state. Those were escapable scenes of lawlessness. This is where a part of our developmental shortcomings come into play. The footages showing how local people robbed shops off their belongings in garb of riots are astonishing.
A few days later in worst communal clashes in the NCR region, six police officers were killed in Ghaziabad when riots broke out after a copy of Holy Quran was found on a railway track. The situation got so worse that the police had to enforce a curfew in the vicinity. Over 5,000 rioters were later booked by the cops, however, lack of police preparedness and absence of communal harmony was evident. This is the outcome of nothing but ascending trust deficit in people against the government.
Delhi Police’s data, which do not show a sharp increase in the number of riot incidents in the capital over the past few years, worryingly, show a movement upwards. Against 34 cases of riots in Delhi in 2011, the city has seen 38 riot incidents for the corresponding period.
The people are begining to discredit the government they choose for themselves and a process of further disintegration is brewing deep down, unannounced but alarming.
Mohit Sharma is principal correspondent at Millennium Post.
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