Skip to main content

'Painfully' applicable to India today: UN-declared Day for Countering Hate Speech

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* 

On all counts, the decision by the United Nations General Assembly to declare June 18 as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech (beginning this year 2022) is significant. It comes at a special moment of world history, when hate speech in several parts of the globe seem to have become the order of the day – leading to xenophobia, jingoism, exclusivism and ultimately to unbridled violence.
For India particularly, it comes at a time when ‘hate speech’ is not merely mainstreamed but those who indulge in hate speech do so with impunity – since they are guaranteed with immunity by a regime which provides legitimacy to an agenda which is divisive, discriminatory and which has no qualms of conscience in denigrating the ‘other’!
Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, officials of the BJP, are classic examples, in recent weeks, of how they have used hate speech to the hilt and of the law-and- order mechanism does not do anything about to them!
Three years ago, in May 2019, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement said:
“Around the world, we are seeing a disturbing groundswell of xenophobia, racism and intolerance – including rising anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and persecution of Christians. Social media and other forms of communication are being exploited as platforms for bigotry.
“Neo-Nazi and white supremacy movements are on the march. Public discourse is being weaponized for political gain with incendiary rhetoric that stigmatizes and dehumanizes minorities, migrants, refugees, women and any so-called ‘other’. This is not an isolated phenomenon or the loud voices of a few people on the fringe of society.
“Hate is moving into the mainstream – in liberal democracies and authoritarian systems alike. And with each broken norm, the pillars of our common humanity are weakened. Hate speech is a menace to democratic values, social stability and peace. As a matter of principle, the United Nations must confront hate speech at every turn.
“Silence can signal indifference to bigotry and intolerance, even as a situation escalates and the vulnerable become victims. Tackling hate speech is also crucial to deepen progress across the United Nations agenda by helping to prevent armed conflict, atrocity crimes and terrorism, end violence against women and other serious violations of human rights, and promote peaceful, inclusive and just societies.”
What Guterres said two years ago is painfully applicable to India today! One does not have to be a rocket scientist today to realise that hate speech is on the rise in India, with the potential to incite violence, undermine social cohesion and tolerance, and cause psychological, emotional, and physical harm to those affected.
The nation has witnessed all of it, these past weeks – in the wake of Sharma’s obnoxious outburst! Hate speech not only affects the specific individuals and groups targeted, but societies at large. In several parts of India today communities which lived in harmony and unity for years – are violently divided!
In a backgrounder for the ‘International Day for Countering Hate Speech’ the UN states, ‘the devastating effect of hatred is sadly nothing new. However, its scale and impact are amplified today by new technologies of communication, so much so that hate speech, has become one of the most frequent methods for spreading divisive rhetoric and ideologies on a global scale. If left unchecked, hate speech can even harm peace and development, as it lays the ground for conflicts and tensions, wide scale human rights violations.
Hate speech is not only a denial of the essential values of the Organization, but it also undermines the UN Charter's very core principles and objectives, such as respect for human dignity, equality, and peace. Advancing human rights and fighting hate are at the heart of the Organization’s mission and the United Nations has the duty to confront the global issue of hate speech at every turn.
The impact of hate speech cuts across numerous existing UN areas of focus, from human rights protection and prevention of atrocity crimes to sustaining peace and achieving gender equality and supporting children and youth.
‘The International Day of Countering Hate Speech’ is an initiative that builds on the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech launched on June 18, 2019. This first UN system-wide initiative designed to tackle hate speech provides an essential framework for how the Organization can support and complement States' efforts.
The strategy emphasizes the need to counter hate holistically and with full respect for freedom of opinion and expression, while working in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, media outlets, tech companies and social media platforms. Hate speech is a menace to democratic values, social stability and peace.
As a matter of principle, hate speech must be confronted at every turn and be tackled in order to prevent armed conflict, atrocity crimes and terrorism, end violence against women and other serious violations of human rights, and promote peaceful, inclusive and just societies. India will not take this seriously!
In India, we have mainstreamed violence ‘in the name of religion’. The violence against Muslims and Christians have been given a legitimacy unheard of, in any democracy all over the world. This violence, the UN emphasizes, is often manifested through targeted attacks on individuals or communities, acts of extremism, communal violence, bulldozing houses of those involved in anti-government campaigns, discriminative policies or legislation (like the anti-conversion laws, use of hijab etc.) and other types of embedded structural violence.
Incidents involving hate speech, negative stereotyping, and advocacy of religious or national hatred have resulted in killings of innocent people, attacks on places of worship and calls for reprisals. Such violence also disproportionately targets religious dissidents, members of religious minorities, converts or non-believers. We see this happening today with frightening regularity!
On July 1, 1946, just a year before India got her independence, Ahmedabad was on the boil with the traditional rath yatra taking place. Unfortunately, instead of it being a day of bonding and harmony the day flared into communal violence as both Hindus and Muslims went for the jugular: in a rioting spree and murdering one another.
Vasant Rao Hegishte and Rajab Ali Lakhani were good friends and also volunteers with the Seva Dal. Deeply disturbed with what was happening in the city, they were determined to do all they could to stop the venom, the fire and the killing from spreading. They jumped into the midst of the violence begging those involved on both sides to cry halt immediately; many did listen and relented.
There is recorded evidence which shows that their heroics helped save a Muslim driver from a Hindu mob and a Hindu who owned a washing company from a Muslim mob. Their acts of valour seemed to have temporarily quelled the violence. Late that day, they returned very exhausted to the Congress Office at Khand-ni-Sheri, when they received news that a group of Dalit families in the Jamalpur area were surrounded by a very violent mob. They immediately ran back and tried to pacify the mob.
Their entreaties were in vain. The crowd warned them to stay away; but Vasant and Rajab lay down on the road in order to prevent the Dalit families from being touched. The blood-thirsty mob did not spare them and brutally murdered them: two young men who had the courage to lay down their lives for the cause of communal harmony and peace!
In an India today, rife with hate and violence, Vasant and Rajab have much to teach us: the country thanks to machinations of the fascists is deeply polarized and divided on communal lines. Manipulative politicians and other vested interests leave no stone unturned in dividing and instigating people in the name of religion. A great shame but a painful reality!
‘The International Day of Countering Hate Speech’ and the anniversary of the martyrdom of Vasant and Rajab, less than a fortnight away, are reminders to all, that our great country is about pluralism and diversity; about respect and tolerance of all religions and ideologies and above all, about justice and equity for all. The preamble to our Constitution embodies these!
A National Campaign Against Hate, in a draft statement says:
“The goal is to strive for fraternity which is the only way to robustly strengthen the other pillars of our democracy, namely justice, liberty and equality. We need to perforce formulate evidence-based collective responses that resist all forms of discrimination, as well as attacks and atrocities on all oppressed communities, whether marginalised due to caste, religion, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality or ability, as well as those who organise as workers, civil rights activists, and also individuals who raise their voices. 
"We seek to:
1. Build harmony and solidarity at every level from grassroots to international within a framework of justice
2. Strive to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms and resist draconian laws and measures
3. Educate ourselves about syncretic pluralistic cultures, traditions and sub-altern histories country-wide
4. Build upon these traditions to strengthen fraternity within and across communities’ country-wide
5. Stem all Hindutva-driven attempts to dilute or replace our constitution
6. Seek justice for victims of communal, casteist and misogynist hatred and discrimination
7. Be alive to India’s heritage of casteism and patriarchy in order to strengthen our democratic ethos within
8. Comprehend and support ‘Not in My Name’ campaigns and all local resistance against fascism.”

There is hope, as long as there are committed citizens, who have the courage to address the hate-spree and to stop the rot. The regime must be held accountable and there has to be a people’s movement that is visible and vocal in saying, “enough is enough”! Today, the first ‘International Day of Countering Hate Speech’ is a beginning, the journey ahead will be tough!
The words from the Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’ could help sustain one in the journey:
“Obstinate are the trammels,
but my heart aches when I try to break them.
Freedom is all I want,
but to hope for it I feel ashamed.
I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee,
and that thou art my best friend,
but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room.
The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death;
I hate it, yet hug it in love.
My debts are large, my failures great, 
my shame secret and heavy;
yet when I come to ask for my good,
I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted”.

---
*Human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/writer

Comments

Anonymous said…
promoters of hate speech and acts are really never bothered by words - unless reinforced by economic pain or physical pain. unfortunately the current political story is replete with bigotry by all . the UN is an impotent voice.

TRENDING

Gujarat's high profile GIFT city 'fails to attract' funds, India's FinTech investment dips

By Rajiv Shah  While the Narendra Modi government may have gone out of the way to promote the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), sought to be developed as India’s formidable financial technology hub off the state capital Gandhinagar, just 20 km from Ahmedabad, a recent report , prepared by Tracxn Technologies suggests that neither of the two cities figure in the list of top FinTech funding receiving centres.

Why Ramdev, vaccine producing pharma companies and government are all at fault

By Colin Gonsalves*  It was perhaps Ramdev’s closeness to government which made him over-confident. According to reports he promoted a cure for Covid, thus directly contravening various provisions of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. Persons convicted of such offences may not get away with a mere apology and would suffer imprisonment.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Decade long Modi rule 'undermines' people's welfare and democracy

By Ram Puniyani*  Modi has many ploys up his sleeves when it comes to propaganda. On one hand he is turning many a pronouncements of Congress in the communal direction, on the other he is claiming that whatever has been achieved during last ten years of his rule is phenomenal, but it is still a ‘trailer’ and the bigger things are in the offing as he claims to be coming to power yet again in 2024. While his admirers are ga ga about his achievements, the truth lies somewhere else.

Malayalam movie Aadujeevitham: Unrealistic, disservice to pastoralists

By Rosamma Thomas*  The Malayalam movie 'Aadujeevitham' (Goat Life), currently screening in movie theatres in Kerala, has received positive reviews and was featured also on the website of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The story is based on a 2008 novel by Benyamin, and relates the real-life story of a job-seeker from Kerala tricked into working in slave conditions in a goat farm in Saudi Arabia.

Plagued by opportunism, adventurism, tailism, Left 'doesn't matter' in India

By Harsh Thakor*  2024 elections are starting when India appears to be on the verge of turning proto-fascist. The Hindutva saffron brigade has penetrated in every sphere of Indian life, every social order, destroying and undermining the very fabric of the Constitution.

Belgian report alleges MNC Etex responsible for asbestos pollution in Madhya Pradesh town Kymore: COP's Geneva meet

By Our Representative A comprehensive Belgian report has held MNC Etex , into construction business and one of the richest, responsible for asbestos pollution in Kymore, an industrial town in in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh. The report provides evidence from the ground on how Kymore’s dust even today is “annoying… it creeps into your clothes, you have to cough it”, saying “It can be deadly.”

Can universal basic income help usher in sustainable egalitarianism in India?

By Prof RR Prasad*  The ongoing debate on application of Article 39(b) in the Supreme Court on redistribution of community material resources to subserve common good and for ushering in an egalitarian society has opened new vistas wherein possible available alternative solutions could be explored.

Press freedom? 28 journalists killed since 2014, nine currently in jail

By Kirity Roy*  On the eve of the Press Freedom Day on 3rd of May, the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) shared its anxiety with the broader civil society platforms as the situation of freedom of any form of expression became grimmer in India day by day. This day was intended to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of press and to pay tribute to pressmen who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Ahmedabad's Muslim ghetto voters 'denied' right to exercise franchise?

By Tanushree Gangopadhyay*  Sections of Gujarat Muslims, with a population of 10 per cent of the State, have been allegedly denied their rights to exercise their franchise in the Juhapura area of Ahmedabad.