The bended knee way
In December 1890, the US army sent a unit of its 7 Cavalry to accept the land surrendered to White settlers by the native Sioux Indian chief, Big Foot. Following an altercation between a US trooper and a Sioux brave, 300-odd Sioux men, women and children were massacred at Wounded Knee Creek, prompting American writer Dee Jones to publish a novel, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Many police chiefs disregarded President Trump’s directive to use a heavy hand on rioters across the country and went down on bended knee instead. They accepted collective police guilt and appealed to the rioting mobs to desist from indulging in arson and pillage. The rioters responded, shifted gears and turned to peaceful protest marches and sit-ins. The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement was born, which spread to other countries.
I know of one instance when a police commissioner of Mumbai apologised for the excesses committed by his men and promised the assembled pardanashin women that he would ensure that his men would not react in a partial manner ever.
When I returned home to Mumbai after about eight years, I was approached by the Sheriff, Fakhrudin Khorakiwala, to take over the mohalla committees he had started during the 1992-93 riots. I teamed up with a great worker in the cause of communal harmony, Sushoba Barve. We called on the police chief, Satish Sahney, a remarkable officer steeped in scholarship and free of biases. He told us that he was finding it difficult to police a metropolis with 15 per cent of its inhabitants alienated from the government. The then CM Sharad Pawar had tried to approach Muslim leaders but they categorically refused to meet him. They felt that the Congress had abandoned them to the wolves.
Sushoba managed to get the Muslim leaders to meet Satish and me in a Mahim parish school hall. We talked to them for four hours one evening, followed by another session of three hours the next day. They asked us to meet their womenfolk in a Muslim community hall. The women were very angry. Many instances of bias during the riots were quoted. Moreover, the arrests that followed and the investigation of the registered crimes were also questioned. It was obvious that they were in no mood to forget and forgive.
Satish realised that the usual defence mechanisms of government servants would be of no avail. He apologised on behalf of the force and promised that under his watch, no cause for such complaints would be given. The mohalla committee movement was born. I requested my dear friend BG Deshmukh, former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India, to be the titular head of the movement. He agreed and was with us till his death some years later.
The relations between Hindus and Muslims have improved greatly in the city’s slums because of the tripartite fusion of apolitical Hindu and Muslim local leaders, and the police. The presence of inspectors heading police precincts at mohalla meetings provided the imprimatur for mutual understanding and respect. In 2002, when the Gujarat riots caused tensions to exacerbate in the slums of Mumbai, Hindu and Muslim women came to the fore, held hands and swore to prevent their men from fighting.
Modiji has often spoken of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. He understands that if the country has to advance, it cannot afford to ignore the largest minority group, which is nearly 15 per cent of our population. His strange silence when his fringe followers indulge in lynching can be explained only if it is admitted that he cannot afford to displease his core constituency lest he lose its support at the time of elections.
Even if he needs to tread carefully in reaching out to the Muslims, he can encourage the establishment of mohalla committee movements in the country, mainly in the Hindi-speaking belt. The police should participate in such movements in spirit. Top bosses should lead from the front, like they are doing in Mumbai. To begin with, retired police chiefs, whose word the common man accepts, should be asked to initiate a dialogue with local leaders who do not harbour political ambitions. This is a must for the credibility of the movement. In Mumbai, Satish Sahney, Ronnie Mendonca, and presently KL Prasad, all police chiefs, headed the movement after me.
To start the process of reconciliation, Modiji should pull back on the CAA and the NRC’s application beyond Assam. These are very divisive moves to keep the core constituency in good humour, but sure to arouse the suspicions of the Muslims.
The persecution of the Shaheen Bagh activists should be abandoned and women like Safoora Zargar should be released from custody forthwith. It is outrageous that they were incarcerated in the first place.
The American police chiefs have realised that racial biases, if not kept in check, can only bring grief to them and to their country. Police chiefs in our country should advise their political bosses that actions based on ingrained biases will not help them maintain order on the streets of our cities. On the contrary, they will exacerbate religious and caste divides to the detriment of the country’s economic and social advancement.
The bended knee should prevail over the wounded knee.
