Behind observing the 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day'
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Governor of Kerala Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekkar, who is also the chancellor of universities, directed the state's university vice-chancellors in a letter to observe tomorrow, August 14, as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day'. They are directed to organize special commemorative programs including exhibitions and drama performances in universities and colleges. In his Independence Day speech in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself declared August 14 as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. For somebody who is hundred percent loyal to Hindutva brigade such as Arlekkar who has been expressing his mind since taking office as the Kerala Governor, there is nothing unusual about it. The truth that the Modi government is imposing Sangh Parivar agenda through Raj Bhavans in states where the BJP is not in power does not call for any evidence. But it is clear that the Left Front government, voted to power by the people of Kerala which believes in secular democracy, cannot accommodate the Hindutva agenda of the RSS-leaning governor. Hence, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly criticized the celebration of 'Partition Horror Remembrance Day' and the Governor's actions. He alleges that those who served the British Raj without taking part in the freedom struggle are belittling Independence Day. The Chief Minister points out that those who lavished their energy fighting against internal enemies rather than taking on foreign powers during the freedom struggle are calling for the celebration of the Partition Horror Day to diminish the importance of Independence Day. He sees the Governor's action objectionable. Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan also points out that the Governor, who holds a constitutional position, is shouting out to Kerala that he is still an RSS man advocating divisive politics.
India is a land of religious, linguistic and cultural diversity. The confluence of these diversities is the beauty, strength and tradition of the country. It is however evident that the Sangh Parivar is engaged in a violent attempt to completely reject this truth to transform the country into a monolithic upper-caste culture. In over a decade of being in power the saffron party has been engaged in a fierce effort to consolidate the Hindutva rule in the country. The celebration of 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' is nothing less than a smokescreen to hide the planned efforts to estrange the Indian people through social division. Alongside distancing themselves from the long-drawn freedom struggle and shooting to death Mahatma Gandhi, who led the struggle, Hindutvists have glorified the assassin of the Father of the Nation as a great soul.
The relevant question is why a racist movement that reveres those who supported the unfortunate partition feels the need to observe Partition Horrors Day. The 'great act' of the Sangh Parivar soon after coming to power was to display a portrait of V.D. Savarkar in the Parliament Hall. The remainder of Savarkar’s life after securing release from jail writing an apology to the British Imperialism, was not to pursue the cause of freedom struggle; history testifies that he aimed to establish a Hindutva state in the remaining territory after the country was divided. 'Strange as it may seem, Mr. Savarkar and Mr. Jinnah, despite being opponents of each other, were in complete agreement on the issue of a two-nation system instead of a one-nation system,' wrote Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was also the architect of the Indian Constitution. MS Golwalkar, the architect of the RSS ideology, also theorized that Hindus and Muslims could not co-exist in one nation. The only freedom fighter accepted by Hindutva brigade is Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who strongly supported the two-nation theory in the Congress Working Committee meeting that eventually approved the partition of the country. Modi has installed Patel's statue in Gujarat splurging several billions. Even the name of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who strongly opposed the partition of the country until the last moment in the crucial meeting, is a thorn in the side of the Sangh Parivar! Hence, he was removed from the CBSE textbook. The Modi government's motive behind abolishing educational scholarships given by previous governments in the name of the first education minister of independent India, Azad, cannot be of anything else. If secular democratic India is to not be further divided on religious lines, the RSS must abandon its Hindu-Muslim-Christian communal polarization agenda, and not revive the horror of Partition among Indians on Pakistan's birth anniversary.
