Urgent need to nip in the bud the attempted social engineering by communal forces using pigs to further divide the Hindu and Muslim communities
THE close affinity once enjoyed by different communities in the country’s composite culture is rapidly vanishing. Through the use of pigs, an attempt is being made to ensure that Hindus and Muslims cannot live as good neighbours.
Some Hindu families residing in Delhi’s Tri Nagar have invented a new method of worship. One benefit of this is that it troubles their Muslim neighbours. These days, some families in this area are keeping pigs in cages outside their homes and putting up posters of a deity with a pig-like face wearing jewellery on their outer walls.
All this is happening in settlements located near Muslim habitations. The pigs kept in cages are named Abdul or Rahman or something similar, and whenever a Muslim passes by, they are called loudly by these names. Along with this is the decorated, ornamented picture of Lord Varaha, considered the third, boar-headed incarnation of Vishnu.
Some claim this trend started a year ago. Others say the practice is only a few months old. The dislike Muslims have for pigs is well-known. Clearly, this is a new way to provoke Muslims. Such tactics are often employed to build walls of hatred between communities.
We do not know which fertile and hate-filled mind came up with this trick, nor do we know whether this is confined only to one locality in Delhi or is happening elsewhere too. But there is a very real danger that this fresh tool to divide society will be used in new areas and will be included as a new weapon in the arsenal of those who spread hatred and, through it, violence.
Interestingly, Islamophobia has become a dominant global phenomenon after 9/11, propagated by the US media by coining the phrase “Islamic terrorism”. So, it was eye-opening and interesting to find that a similar thing took place in New York, in front of the house of its mayor, Zohran Mamdani. “Last month, MAGA supporters in New York organised a pig roast in front of Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office. But the funniest part about such incidents is that these are based on a misunderstanding rooted in ignorance. Hindus and Christians can eat all the pork they want and keep pigs as pets — that does not bother Muslims,” said a news report.
Over the past few years, the use of pigs to vitiate the atmosphere had declined somewhat. The cow had remained the main issue. Communal forces used the pig during the freedom struggle. At that time, both cows and pigs were used extensively to incite violence. We remember Govind Nihalani’s serial Tamas, based on Bhishma Sahni’s book. In it, an untouchable, Nathu, is given money by a Muslim politician and assigned the task of killing a pig and throwing it into a mosque. This communal leader is fully confident that this will result in violence and increase his social-political stature.
In the present era, such isolated incidents keep happening, in which beef is placed in a temple to incite violence. In most of these cases, it is ultimately found that the people who placed the beef were associated with the Bajrang Dal. Police arrested four people, including Bajrang Dal’s Moradabad district president Monu Vishnoi, on charges of slaughtering a cow and trying to frame a Muslim man by falsely implicating him. They were also charged with conspiring against the police.
Several cases have come to light of the arrest of Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes) guilty of attacking people transporting cattle. There is a long chain of such groups who are making money and enjoying themselves in the name of opposing cow slaughter.
Lynchings in the country started over the issue of the cow. Over 100 lynchings have occurred in the past 10 years. Starting with the incident involving Pehlu Khan in Dadri, the heart-wrenching incidents have reached a horrific level. Among them, Junaid’s case is particularly painful. Junaid Khan, 16, was aboard a train with his brother. He was asked to give up his seat to an elderly person, and he immediately did. But after this, a mob of about 25 people surrounded him and started shouting slogans like ‘beef eater’ and ‘Pakistani’. And then Junaid was stabbed to death.
The most disturbing aspect of all this is how communal forces keep discovering new ways to spread hatred, which later becomes the cause of violence. Much has already been written about the hate speeches of those who practice communal politics. Starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, new hateful slogans are coined and then repeated at every level. Field workers take them to every home and make the lives of Hindus and Muslims even more difficult and miserable. Living like good neighbours becomes very difficult for them.
Two famous slogans given by our prime minister are ‘Hum paanch, hamare pachees’ (We five, our 25) and ‘They can be identified by their clothes’. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath gave the slogan ‘Batenge toh katenge’ (If we divide, we will be cut down). Elements like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi are also saying equally dangerous things. In a highly controversial speech given in Adilabad in December 2012, he said that “if the police were removed for 15 minutes, then his community (i.e., 250 million Muslims) would show their strength to 1 billion Hindus.”
The most disturbing aspect of the entry of the pig into the battlefield of communalism is that it shows how much capacity divisive forces have to invent new tactics. The closeness between different communities in our Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb is rapidly ending. Through the use of pigs, an attempt is being made to ensure that Hindus and Muslims cannot live as neighbours. Muslims have already been forced to confine themselves to their own localities. In such a situation, this new chapter of social engineering will further widen the gulf between Hindus and Muslims.
This can only be stopped if we bury the practice in its early stages and discourage the trend of Hindus keeping pigs as pets. People are free to choose their pets and deities, but this freedom is not for insulting other communities. It is worth remembering here that Lord Varaha incarnated to play the role of a protector. But the trend of keeping pigs as pets will have destructive consequences.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor of IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
