Anam Zakaria - What happens when the state gives moral sanction to violence?
What happens when the
state gives moral sanction to violence? When through its silence, it validates
target killings? When through its actions, it penalizes the victim and pardons
the accused? When instead of outright action against those who lynch, torture
and brutally kill in broad daylight and among dozens of eyewitnesses, it starts
a police or judicial inquiry to question the innocence of the dead? A couple of months
ago, when Mashal Khan was lynched on alleged blasphemy charges in Pakistan’s
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, chief minister Pervez Khattak confidentially issued a
statement saying that a judicial inquiry should be held as there was no
evidence that Khan had committed blasphemy. Perhaps if the
deceased had been found guilty by the inquiry, the actions of the mob that
killed him would have been deemed appropriate. Just like Mumtaz Qadri, the man
who shot Punjab governor Salman Taseer 28 times in 2011, in an upscale
neighbourhood of Islamabad. He was hailed as a ghazi, a Muslim fighter who
fights non-Muslims, by thousands of his supporters, including dozens of
educated lawyers.
Qadri believed that
Taseer’s efforts to amend the controversial blasphemy law in the country were
blasphemous in itself. Today, a shrine built on the outskirts of Islamabad
welcomes his followers and encourages them to seek his blessings and commend
his bravado. Earlier this year, an ‘urs’ to commemorate his death anniversary
was held. After all, he had performed the ultimate selfless act of giving up
his life in the name of Islam.
On the other side of
the border, in India, the story of Mohammad Akhlaq, killed at the hands of a
mob in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh in 2015, still resonates strongly. An FIR was
registered against Akhlaq’s brother and other relatives for cow slaughter. The
meat that was found in Akhlaq’s freezer was sent for testing- to verify whether
it was beef or not; in other words, to verify whether his ruthless murder was
justified or not. According to the
police, ‘The meat was sent for forensic test following the demands of the
agitating villagers,’ many of whom were probably directly responsible for
Akhlaq’s death, marching to his house after hearing rumors of cow-slaughter,
blood-thirsty and seeking vengeance as self-proclaimed vanguards of religious
beliefs.
It is not as if cow
vigilantes and self-proclaimed ghazis need state legitimacy to carry out the
violent actions that they engage in. However, when the state itself remains
silent against such heinous crimes, when the state itself begins to question
whether it was beef in the freezer and whether blasphemy was indeed committed
or not, it sends a clear signal to the public that their acts are justified if
the accused are found guilty, that they can take the law in their hands if
their religious beliefs are offended. In face of this,
isolated statements issued by both prime ministers condemning the acts hold
little value. It is often a case of too little, too late. The nation is already
charged up, the fire for revenge and vengeance ignited and unwilling to be
quenched by grand statements in between the deafening silence exercised by
state representatives.
In an atmosphere where
religious nationalism is on the rise on both sides of the border, a clear line
is drawn between the sacred and the patriotic and the profane and treacherous.
Beefeaters, blasphemers and anti-nationals are becoming synonymous terms. More
often that not, religious minorities find themselves on the wrong end of this
division. In India, 70 years
after Partition, the debate between cow-eaters and the cow-worshippers has once
again emerged. Muslims are being targeted on suspicion of eating or possessing
beef. The latest victim is Alimuddin Ansari of Jharkhand, beaten up by a mob on
the suspicion that he was carrying beef. It is believed that 86% of the victims
since 2010 are Muslim, that 97% of the reported cow-related attacks have taken
place since the Modi government came to power.
History repeating itself? Overcoming the legacy of partition in Pakistan
In Conversation with Anam Zakaria and Haroon Khalid
In Conversation with Anam Zakaria and Haroon Khalid
On this side of the
border, the number of blasphemy accused, both Muslim and non-Muslim have starkly
risen over the past few decades. Religious minorities particularly find
themselves in a precarious position. A couple of years ago
I visited Shanti Nagar in Pakistani Punjab, where a mob burnt hundreds of
Christian homes on blasphemy allegations. An FIR was filed against the
villagers for allegedly tearing up pieces of the Quran. When I visited a
school in the vicinity, one of the Christian teachers who had survived talked
about the horror she had witnessed in 1997 when her own Muslim students charged
towards her and others in the village to burn them alive.
Another Christian man
that I interviewed in Lahore, shook his head at the state of affairs of the
country and remarked, ‘Do you know how much power you wield as a Muslim? If you
go out now and yell in the streets that I have commit blasphemy, a mob will descend
upon my house and I would have no chances of surviving.’ I left his house that
day, embarrassed by the very power that had been thrust upon me at birth, with
no doing of my known, and frightened of the vulnerability he constantly lived
with, simply because he believed in a different faith. Question is, haven’t
these decades of separation taught us anything? The self-righteous vanguards of
patriotism and religious belief have invoked cow slaughter and blasphemy
allegations to bloody the streets and alleys on both sides of the divide.
Religious fanaticism is not limited to any one faith or nationality; it has
become a toxic web devouring both nation-states.
see also
India's ruling party is sponsoring an assault on the Indian state // Tavleen Singh - Is this Hindutva
State protected hooliganism in Ramjas College
State protected hooliganism in Ramjas College
What is to be Undone
The law of killing - a brief history of Indian fascism
The emperor's masks: 'apolitical' RSS calls the shots in Modi sarkar
The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS
The law of killing - a brief history of Indian fascism
The emperor's masks: 'apolitical' RSS calls the shots in Modi sarkar
The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS
