The Hypocrisy Of The Indian Left

There has been a great deal of discussion around the issue of a temple in Ayodhya over the last few days. While a bulk of people across the country hailed the historic day of 5 August 2020 and celebrated it as Diwali, there were several who disregarded the judgement of the court. Leading the pack were woke liberals and those who have historically leaned towards the left of the spectrum.

The irony, could not have been missed as the same left which hailed the movement not just against contemporary racism but also against historical icons from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson was the one which was against the construction of a temple on the birthplace of one of the most revered Hindu deities.

That there was a temple that existed before and was destroyed by those who unleashed a relentless assault against a particular religious group for centuries was ignored as the left conveniently looked against the historical injustices faced by a religious community just because they happen to be a majority.

That there have been historical injustices is well known, well recorded, yet India’s left fails to talk about these social injustices as it attempts to divide the country on the lines of caste and other such social constructs.

There are parallels between what happened in 1992 and what happened in 2020 with the statues of confederate leaders during the civil war, Jefferson Davis and Robert Lee being brought down.

Both were an attempt to take down symbols of oppression and force the society to look inwards at the lack of compassion for having such symbols in public places for decades. It sparked a discussion around an important issue of whether to have such symbols at display at a constant reminder of the historical injustice or to remove them and allow the society to heal and move ahead.

The process of construction of a temple post the unanimous verdict by the Supreme Court was one such moment for India as it paved the way for old wounds to be healed and truly create a society united by a national identity based on citizenship.

In contrast, what we witnessed over the last few days was a successive attempt to disregard the verdict which included threats of erecting a similar mosque in the future. That such statements were being made shows the complete lack of empathy towards a religious community. More importantly, it reflects the sense of conviction in their ability to subvert the constitution through illegitimate means and illustrates a disregard for the judgement.

The irony is that those who were making such statements are often the first to talk about the attack on the constitution, and on freedom of expression or social justice.

The disconnect between the stance taken by the Indian left on global issues and on domestic conflict respects a sense of growing confusion within their ranks regarding their social, economic and political agenda. It is this confusion that is responsible for their hypocrisy which is far too apparent making them lose their relevance in a rapidly evolving world.

As the left falters, it is important to recognise the problem even within ourselves as several of the young folks continue to deny the existence of injustice faced by the people of India by the hands of invaders. The convenience of omission of key historical facts has presented a skewed picture of India’s civilisation history which is responsible for a systematic disconnect with our core value systems. It was our core value systems that enabled us to think outside the box and be at the forefront of discovery, whether in terms of science, maths, or spirituality.

The developments over the last few days have reaffirmed the view that India faces a big challenge in terms of the rapid decay of our cultural ethos over the last 70 years making it important to accelerate the process of reviewing the curriculum irrespective of any protests and fostering a temperament for critical thinking and authentic creativity.

While the left is confused, it has nothing to offer to our country which makes it important for the non-left to step up and create a framework to help us create the right balance between a modern nation state and our deep cultural and civilisational roots.