Metastasis of Binaries

As binaries multiply, pluralism in India is being pushed into precarious terrain

- Tanvir Aeijaz

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Mohan Bhagwat, recently asked his volunteers at Bardhaman, West Bengal, to "make efforts to unite Hindu society", since according to him it is the "Hindus who carry the responsibilities of Bharat". The statement, prima facie, is a generous nudge to the Hindu community to be extra nationalistic-a pretty innocuous statement-but discursively, with a slight deeper probe, the call smacks of what may be called the 'metastasis of binary'. It immediately throws up several binaries. One: us/them or self/other, wherein the Hindus are 'us' or 'self' and the rest of the religious groups are 'them' or 'other'. Two: majority/ minority where, in terms of numbers, the Hindus are imagined as the majority and the other religious groups as minorities. Three: among the real/pseudo nationals, it is the Hindus who are the 'real nationals' carrying the obligation, both political and religious, to shape up India and for the rest, to escape the pseudo-national tag, they must prove their nationalism and nation-building disposition time and again. And also, the unity/diversity binary, which stresses especially on Hindu unity, symbolising the Hindu nation. Against this Hindu unity lies the flourishing of this vast diversity only due to the tolerance of the majority. Such binaries spread from one part of the body politic to another, causing deep polarisation and lends to the crisis of common good.

The Binary