Sometime in January 2005, the BBC World, while broadcasting a three-part documentary "The Power of Nightmares" by Adam Curtis wrote something very striking about terror and politics that I had to revisit it last evening because of the uncanny similarity to the present day context.
The documentary which covered the formation of Al Qaeda, radicalism and political myth-making post 9/11, received rave reviews across the world with this description that summarised it "Should we be worried about the threat from organised terrorism or is it simply a phantom menace being used to stop society from falling apart? In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares."
Two weeks ago, as the world witnessed one of the worst terror attacks in the last few years in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on an official visit to the United Kingdom at the time, offered his condolences about Paris and reiterated later at the G-20 summit held in Turkey: "The world must speak in one voice and act in unison against terrorism, without any political considerations, we must isolate those who support and sponsor terrorism and stand with those who share our values of humanism."
ISIS is the modern-day nightmare for the world and it was only pertinent that PM Modi, like most of his contemporaries across the world, spoke for the need to eradicate radicalism.
Back home in India, lead stories of ISIS and its possible radicalisation of Indian Muslims was discussed at great lengths by writers, political outfits, some of which bordered on Islamophobia, making it sound like an ''us versus them'' battle yet again.
While PM Modi spoke of the need to delink religion from terror, somebody in the Ministry of Home Affairs and his efficient team must have surely briefed him about the domestic terror back home. That innocent dalits, tribals and other minorities were killed in the name of faith, that writers, rationalists were silenced, that those who dared to speak against the system were being threatened. This culture of intolerance and bigotry which had been seen in previous regimes was now assuming much dangerous proportions than the ISIS; a terror organisation which did not find any takers in India.
It was then very unfortunate that writers like Chetan Bhagat used the Paris attack and ISIS to mock the prevalent dialogue on intolerance. In a tweet that by his own confession got Chetan Bhagat the maximum retweets of his career, he posted: "Ok, wrong to label Islam as violent after stray terror attack, But why did you label my entire country intolerant after a few stray incidents?"
While I and many countrymen do not take the view of a self-confessed intellectual as the voice of the country and consider his bigoted view an aberration, it gave voice to what I believe is a paranoia that the country is being fueled with so as to drown the voices that have been speaking of an increasing intolerance. It is in this context that statements by senior leaders affiliated to the BJP asking Muslims to go to Pakistan should be seen and dreaded, and is for this very reason that one must give a patient and serious ear to the concern voiced by two of the country's most loved superstars, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
Both actors within the last one month have expressed concern over the increasing intolerance that has vitiated the secular fabric of the country; both belong to families that have played a significant role in the freedom struggle of India and are shining examples of pluralism. Yet, the two have had to face the humiliating experience of not being judged as icons and ambassadors of culture but merely as Muslim surnames.
Shah Rukh's
Swades,
Chak De India and Aamir's
Lagaan and
Mangal Pandey were a fitting tribute to the idea of India they believe in, for in India, films are one of the most important tools of shaping public opinion and discourse.
Shah Rukh has in various interviews fondly talked of his children reciting the Gayatri mantra while Aamir has in his avatar as an informed activist reiterated the need to place social justice over religion. The Khans, like many of India's biggest stars and national icons, are one of the reasons why the idea of India has continued to flourish post-independence.
India, unlike other countries, based its idea of nationhood on plurality as opposed to homogeneity. From a feudal, colonised society which had been fragmented and torn with the sword of religion, the country took giant leaps into transforming itself as a liberal, modern, progressive nation that promised equal rights and respect to all its citizens.
Aamir Khan, who was quoted at the Ramnath Goenka Awards as saying that his wife had suggested the idea of leaving the country, was using that very democratic right as a son of the soil to express his increasing apprehension about the communal colour that most sensitive issues in the country have begun to assume. Why then have we wronged Aamir Khan as a traitor when we paid glorious tributes to his award-winning film
Lagaan which was based on the idea of unity in diversity while defending the British? Aamir named his son with Kiran Rao after his great grand uncle Maulana Abul Kalam Azad who was one of the shining lights in the freedom movement.
One must laud Aamir for a very sensitive and emotional message he sent to the nation after charges of sedition were filed against him in a court and FIR's lodged against him accusing him of spreading intolerance. Aamir gave a fitting reply to his detractors when he said: "First let me state categorically that neither I, nor my wife Kiran, have any intention of leaving the country. We never did, and nor would we like to in the future.
To all those people who are calling me anti-national, I would like to say that I am proud to be Indian, and I do not need anyone's permission nor endorsement for that.
To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point". He ended his statement with Rabindranath Tagore's awe-inspiring poem "Where the mind is without fear", a choice that most nationalists and patriots of the country should see as a clear message from the actor.
Aamir's colleague, Shah Rukh Khan, who is India's cultural ambassador to most countries across the world and one of India's most-loved stars, has had to face the humiliating experience of being asked by a seven-time BJP MP to relocate to Pakistan after he spoke of feeling an increasing sense of religious intolerance in the country. By attempting to stifle the voices of the two Khans, we are only giving fodder to the cynicism that many like me in the past accused the film fraternity of - that of not standing up to injustice and protecting the idea of India. Like many of my colleagues and fellow Indians, I have on many occasions called the film industry a spineless entity which refuses to stick its neck out in calling out the injustice inflicted upon those without a voice.
The idea of India propagated by those who led us to freedom needs to be reiterated and reinforced, and the prevalent culture of intolerance is proof of how urgently this is required. Toxic armies of trolls who have invaded the social media and other spaces who claim to owe allegiance to Modi, the BJP, Hindutva and a non-inclusive India are only intensifying this culture of intolerance with unreasonable accusations, misogyny, atavistic hate and religious abuse.
Prime Minister Modi is rightly concerned about the radicalisation and extremism across the world, but the domestic terror back home cannot be submerged and camouflaged using the fear of terror that has engulfed the world. While the PM must light a candle for the victims of terror attacks in Paris, he could have done his own nation a huge service by lighting a diya of tolerance this Diwali, by giving not just its eminent citizens but also the common man the right and the assurance to ask for a plural society based on the fundamentals of equality and secularism.
Let us not silence and demonise the Khans. Mr. Prime Minister, remember what you said, sir, at the press conference in London with your British counterpart David Cameron. India, you said, was the land of Buddha and Gandhi and would never accept anything that went against its basic values. It is time, sir, that we fight for those very basic values that bind and project us a nation to reckon with across the world.
(
Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is working on a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which will be published later this year.)
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