Watch out for the “Civil Society”

This is an appeal to the real civil society to watch against the “Civil Society” of the media now planting opinions and stances against the Allahabad HC’s judgment on the Ayodhya dispute.

Usually this "civil society" consists of a Professor of History from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi (preferably an atheist), a parsi aunty (at one that looks like one), a SenGupta or some similar intellectual sounding (named) third person, of course a member of the minority community (who will wake up intermittently and say “can we all just get along ?”). This "civil society" will be invited for forums and lectures by several NGOs in various cities. Their presentations are liberally (pun intended) punctuated with “How can we have a new interpretation”, “faith has been made permanent”, “medieval”, “Hinduism is sanctified”, “How can god be a party to legislation”.

There will be stage managed questions, answers nauseatingly predictable and this "civil society" will get its moment of glory in the local media (the Hindu/NDTV kind) often by inviting the editor/owner of the media as the “moderator”.

There is a section of media and several NGOs are upset that now there is legal recognition that “Hinduism was the default religion of India, for some time in the past”. This recognition if you think about is just stating the obvious and has no implications whatsoever on the secular India of today. For some reason this is anathema to the “civil society”. They are concerned that the “English speaking, pseudo intellectuals” have been totally ignored by this judgment, this is something they can’t live with.

In fact, the ridiculous extent to which history is presented in the textbooks of the government, where in the fact that ancient Hindu sites were demolished by invaders is ignored meticulously. There is plenty of evidence both material and historical fact, in terms of ruins of somnath, Krishna janmabhoomi, Ram Janmabhoomi, Vijayanagaram (on the material side) and even in Babar Nama glorifying the emperor for destroying and building “Masjid-e-jamnasthan”(historical records). Yet, the real civil society has to move heaven and earth and wait for 63 years of legal proceedings to get recognition.

So more than fundamentalists and politicians this “pseudo civil society” that is doing the lecture circuit in the country is the real threat.

There can be no better security in a society than your own neighbors rallying to protect you in times of trouble. For a person of “Minority” it is a relationship which results in a “Majority” that stands by their side. The real civil society will see reason in this statement, the “pseudo civil society” will see a threat to minority from the majority.

Watch out….