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At the very
heart of democracy is respect for and tolerance of difference. This
means that democracy provides space and freedom for the expression of
various points of view. Hundreds of flowers and even weeds bloom and
grow — or should — in a democracy. Indian democracy is witnessing a
shrinking of these spaces and restrictions on the freedom of individuals
to express themselves. The first victims of this are intellectuals,
writers and artists — Arundhati Roy, M.F. Husain, Kamal Haasan, Salman
Rushdie, Ashis Nandy and so on. It is a long list and it does not
include the names of less famous who have also been victims. There is an
alarming growth in intolerance in India. Mr Rushdie has with some
justification described it as a “cultural emergency”. No one has quite
declared this emergency but this does not detract from its presence. On
the contrary, it makes it more dangerous since if it is allowed to
flourish unopposed, it will become part of a manufactured consensus.
That will kill dissent and thereby democracy.
The State is
not the sole source of this intolerance although its arms are often the
agency of implementation. But there are instances when the State is
directly involved, for example, in charging Ms Roy with sedition or
refusing permission to Mr Rushdie to speak in a literary festival. There
are occasions when religious fundamentalism restricts freedom. Husain,
Mr Haasan and Mr Rushdie have in different ways been victims of this
kind of intolerance. The State surrenders meekly to this kind of
fundamentalism because it finds it convenient to do so. Mr Rushdie was
not allowed to visit Calcutta because because the chief minister felt
that this was one way to woo a particular vote bank. There is also the
more straightforward opposition to views that some political and social
groups find unacceptable. Mr Nandy has found himself face to face with
this kind of intolerance. Equally alarming is the imposition of State
terror by a government or an individual running a government: in West
Bengal an academic was arrested because he had circulated a cartoon
making fun of the chief minister. There are thus many facets of the
intolerance that has cast a long and dark shadow on Indian democracy.
One way to
combat the intolerance is to point out over and over again that it is
totally alien to India’s intellectual tradition. But equally important
is to take steps to strengthen the institutions of democracy and to
expose every single act or statement that violates the freedom of
individuals as guaranteed in the Constitution. Democracy is a precious
gift enshrined in the Constitution. The official Emergency in 1970s
briefly subverted this. The unofficial emergency that is now creeping
upon the republic, if unopposed, will also subvert freedom. Apathy is as
dangerous an enemy of democracy and freedom as intolerance. Indeed
apathy allows intolerance to breed.
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