International Political Will

Racism and hate find devious ways to hide amongst logic and common sense. They wiggle their way deep into our subconscious and look for reasons to justify inhuman acts. They try to convince us that they are not a wolf with lamb’s blood dripping from its teeth, but a shepherd with wolf’s blood on its staff. Hatred never calls itself hatred. It uses euphemisms like “defenders of marriage,” the war on terror, “the one true religion,” Zionism, the Minuteman Project, Al Qaeda, or the Third Reich.

But hatred and racism is a parasite; it needs to devour people around it in order to grow. Without a willing host, it cannot thrive.

The western Indian state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai (Bombay), has a long, proud history. It was one of the last remaining areas that stood against the Mugal emperors. The Marathi King Shivaji was a daring warrior who defied the great Mugal armies and still today is a venerated icon of Marathi culture.

Yet the modern incarnation of Marathi pride has an ugly face in the secular democracy of India. Shiv Sena is part of the Hindutva nationalist movement and also has a long history, but it is only within the last 20 years that they having succeeded in impacting the tolerant origins of modern India. The Hindu tenants of non-violence and acceptance, long promoted by great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, are ignored and discarded. Shiv Sena is the extremist wing of Hinduism: and similar with other extremisms around the world, they are growing in numbers and power.

Shiv Sena participated, though not “officially,” in the 1992 Bombay riots that killed more than 900 and coincided with the Hindutva destruction of a Muslim mosque in Ayodhya (the mosque was allegedly built on the site of an ancient temple to the Hindu deity Lord Ram).

Shiv Sena claims to want to keep Mumbai (and Maharashtra) for Marathis; Indian laborers from the north, south, and east are not wanted. Shiv Sena chief Raj Thackeray makes speeches that often incite his followers to aggressive protests and violence.

Thackeray was arrested in February for “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot, promoting enmity between groups on the basis of places of birth, residence, etc., and making assertions prejudicial to national integration.” Fearing a public revolt over his arrest, the courts granted bail.

But the citizens of Mumbai were already braced for impact. Stores were closed, shuttered and bolted to prevent vandalism and looting. People went home early and stayed off the streets. Many taxi drivers refused to work. A city of 17+ million cowered underneath the hatred of one man and his blind followers.

Thackeray was only released to do more damage. Last week, police “asked” Thackeray to refrain from making speeches that could create “a law and order problem.” Thackeray’s response: he refused to accept the letter from police and instead made a speech in which he goaded his followers to “be ready to check the infiltration of outsiders.”

Shiv Sena masks their hate and racism with claims of equality and fairness. Thackeray says he wants jobs reserved for native Marathis; he claims “desperate migrants work for less than half of minimum wage. Industries are exploiting them to the hilt.” But concern for exploited migrant workers apparently doesn’t extend to protecting them from violence at the hands of his own party. In Shiv Sena’s eyes, it is better to be beaten, stoned, and even killed than have to work for less than minimum wage (over the last few months, there have been several murders of North Indian migrants in the city, typically by angry mobs of Shiv Sena supporters).

Thackeray seeks respect of the affluent by pointing to the financial cost to locals; he says no state can deal with “uncontrolled immigration.” Shiv Sena’s political rhetoric manipulates logic into an excuse for violence and a camouflage for hate. They don’t have to say they hate non-Marathis; they just have to find logical reasons to justify their actions.

It is the ugly side of India’s pluralism. And it seems all too familiar.

Thackeray’s call for locals to “check the infiltration” of migrants has its sister program on the southern United States border in the Minuteman Project. Armed American vigilantes are portrayed as patriots instead of the reality: criminals given a green light to play Rambo for the day.

Thackeray’s claim of the “cost to locals” is oft-repeated by those who advocate building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as a way to cut medical, schooling, and welfare costs. The billions spent on prioritizing the military-industrial complex are not even debated as a possibility of why hospitals and schools are unaffordable for an increasing number of Americans.

Shiv Sena’s concern for the low wages migrants receive is echoed in arguments that Mexican labor brings down wages for all Americans. Largely ignored are the corporations that refuse to increase wages - even adjusted for inflation. Why blame big business when you can blame the “other?”

Thackeray’s hate speech is tacitly condoned by a government too afraid they may lose votes if they take action against him. Meanwhile, fundamentalist Islamo-phobes who actively seek the apocalypse, like Reverend John Hagee, are defended as necessary supporters if one is to win the right-wing Christian vote in presidential elections.

Hate finds ways to appear logical. It finds ways to dig into our brains and masquerade as common sense. But the result of allowing hate to penetrate our way of life is always ugly. And humankind always suffers.

India and America are both democracies that encompass a wide range of ethnicities, religions, and people. India first divided itself along national lines with the formation of Pakistan. But this was not enough for Shiv Sena. Now they wish to draw another line in the sand. Hate will always find another division to exploit.

Connecting people for a common goal is the biggest challenge of pluralistic democracies. But it also offers the biggest reward - a free and tolerant society in which people can flourish.

The first step to finding a solution is to identify and define the problem.

We need to recognize that Thackeray, and people like him who prey upon others who look, speak, or worship differently than ourselves, are wolves.

Wolves are only strong in a pack. Isolate them and they will tuck their tails and run like the cowardly dogs they are.

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