The ultimate political righteous response that a strange species of imperial creature

called the Delhi liberal can muster against open Hindu communalism is basically
pointing fingers at what it thinks are slightly more unwashed co-citizens and try
faux-shaming them by saying “Do you want India to turn into a Hindu Pakistan”?
There are certain assumptions in that question. They are India, Hindu and Pakistan.
If this species believes that whatever this “Hindu” thing is, is not what constitutes
India, then from 1947 to now, it has singularly failed to supply an alternative theory
of unity except infantile geography – the “natural” “barrier” of the Himalayas in the
North (across which Bengal and China had multiple diplomatic missions as far back
as the 15th century and across which 6 trans-Himalayan highways are being build
between China and Nepal as I type) and the Ocean in the South (whose only real
dominators from the subcontinent have been the Tamils whose concerns now long
been sidelined by Delhi when it deals with Colombo, even in case of the Tamil Eelam
genocide). It dare not say that the British rule is the alternative theory. Neither does
Pakistan admit it as such and prefers a curious fantasy theory of itself of a spatially
and temporally displaced Mughal Empire without the Mughals, but with some
flatulent descendants of their hanger-ons and free-loaders in some charge. Some of
the quasi-geographical Indus-centric theories that some PPP intelligentsia loves in
an off-hand way have not cut much ice beyond their own circles. The reasons that
hasn’t work are numerous – Sindhis may “own” the name but they have long lost the
game and in any case, this Western South Asia smelling idea doesn’t sit well with
Eastern Middle-East type of ideas, which have only gained currency, surely and
steadily. British have not tried to hide much – that is precisely what it thinks and is
well contained in the real characterization of the administrative events of August
1947. Its called “Transfer of Power”. Neither does Pakistan have a theory as such – it
has been flogging Sunni Islam to provide it, but with limited success at a very, very
high human cost.

The problem in both these cases are that they both are in perpetual anxious denial
mode, trying to work out theories of identity by working around the commonest, the
most natural and the most obvious marker of nationhood. It is called language. It is
that which undoes the projected unity of Hinduism and Islam. It is due to identity
largely defined by language that the modern-day “Hindu” emperor of Delhi is
vegetarian and wont touch the prasad (food blessed by gods) of Goddess of Kali of
my Bengal - in our case Prasad being mutton curry from a freshly sacrificed goat.
The miniscule to the point of non-existent percentage of Hindu Marwaris living in
Bengal who gave their daughter in marriage to Hindu Bengalis or vice versa in the
85% Bengali state of West Bengal will give you the reality of linguistic national
unity running much deeper than this Hindu-unity business. So much for the make-
believe mid-19th century Westernized concept of “Hindu unity”. And even when one
looks at so-called “Hindu unity”, best exemplified by the swathe of territory that the
BJP won in 2014 under Narendra Modi’s leadership, what emerges is language.
More than 70% of the seats that BJP won in 2014 parliamentary elections of the
Indian Union came from states where Hindi is the primary official language. Hindi is
the mother tongue of less than 30% of the population of the Indian Union. I think
you get the picture. No wonder the “Hindu nationalist” forces understand that too
and hence their slogan Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan, for they believe that Hindi can
deliver by forceful imposition the “unity” that “Hinduism” can’t, precisely because of
its confederation religious system status with the characteristics and concerns of
the parts largely determined by language.

Thus the glib and rootless Delhi liberal’s scare technique of warning that India might
become a “Hindu Pakistan” is a projection of its self-anxiety. It wants its own Hindi
linguistic Hindu-ness but doesn’t want to stress it beyond a point because it is not
the natural party of Hindi nationalism but that of the Anglicized client-patron
network nationalism of the brown class to whom the Whites transferred power. It
has always been on thin ice. Having Pakistan as a bogey helps their rhetoric – it
gives an impression of “rootedness” based on shared Pakistan hate with more
unwashed Hindi-Hindu nationalists. Now even that card is slipping, as the recent
conniving-with-Pakistan type of canard by the BJP against the Congress top brass
(the grand old Anglo-Delhi club). Incredible as it may seem from a distance away
from Delhi media, in the narrative generated by “national” media, that is Delhi
ideology Anglo-Hindi media, it stuck. If the theory of unity of a state is so dependent
on attitudes towards a “foreign” state (though a greater percentage of Pakistani
citizens understand Modi’s Hindi speeches compared to the percentage of Indian
Union citizens who do), it should concern everyone. This typically is a prelude to
fascism or as some way; the signs of actually existing fascism now making itself
known in the BJP ruled states. Thankfully, I don’t live in one. I live in West Bengal.
The other and bigger eastern part of the Bengali linguistic homeland got liberated in
1971. As it did so, it disproved the two-nation theory (much to Delhi’s glee) but
didn’t confirm the one-nation theory either (something that Delhi evades). It
demonstrated the power of the poly-national theory, something that was all but
buried with the collapse of the 1946 Cabinet Mission plan. Delhi and Islamabad dare
not discuss the implications of the continued existence of Bangladesh to their
respective self-identities. I can understand why. I would have kept mum too and
acted as if Bangladesh was simply a reaction to oppression, not an action towards
self-actualization. When theories of self-identity are so fragile and speech so
dangerous, is it any surprising that the names of both Mumtaz Qadri and
Shambhulal Regar might outlive the names of the people they killed? This slide
towards fascism never ends well, never has.