THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - March 31, 2018 - Topic 2

Exposing fault lines

The violence over Ram Navami processions

It has taken a voice of humanity to call out the manufactured nature of the political blame game around the communal clashes over Ram Navami processions in West Bengal and Bihar. In Asansol, the imam of a mosque who lost his teenage son to the clashes this week announced that should anyone carry out a retaliatory attack, he would leave town. At least four persons have died in the Raniganj-Asansol belt in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district after a procession turned violent. 

The area remains tense, Internet services are limited and prohibitory orders are in place. It is a shame that a sitting Union Minister, Babul Supriyo, who represents Asansol in the Lok Sabha, not just tried to defy the local administration, but also uttered inflammatory comments. Accounts about what ignited the clashes vary, and it would be best to await the findings of the official inquiry. But it is a reason for disquiet that ‘religious’ processions are becoming a pretext to force communal polarisation in many States. In Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district, a tableau was taken out on Ram Navami glorifying Shambhu Lal Raigar, currently in jail for hacking a man to death and videographing the violence along with an anti-Muslim rant. In Bhagalpur in Bihar this month, a religious procession organised by Sangh Parivar groups provoked communal clashes — there is an FIR against Arijit Shashwat, son of Union Minister Ashwini Choubey, for inciting violence. After Ram Navami, communal tension has spread to more areas of the State, including Aurangabad, Samastipur and Nawada.

In all such situations, the responsibility of isolating areas and causes of violence and tension is best assigned to the local administration, instead of State-level and national politicians weighing in. However, the violence suggests a pattern that is worrying. While the Raniganj-Asansol industrial belt is surprising territory for such clashes, the number of incidents of communal violence in West Bengal has increased sharply over the past three years. The violence in Bihar comes soon after the setback to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the recent by-elections, with some party leaders giving the result a sectarian spin. Across swathes of north India, daily interactions between the majority and minority communities have been rendered fraught with the probability of violence. The majoritarian persuasion is carried out at the grassroots level, but the Sangh Parivar cannot plead plausible deniability. In this context, the increasingly assertive Ram Navami and other religious processions are drawing new fault lines. As the air gets politically charged in the lead-up to the 2019 general elections, the burden on the law and order machinery becomes that much more heavy — to pursue every incident of violence and incitement in order to limit its potential to be used for further polarisation.

Vocabulary

Humanity: humaneness; benevolence.

Example: He praised them for their standards of humanity, care, and dignity

Synonyms: compassion, brotherly love, fraternity, fellow feeling, philanthropy

Blame: assign responsibility for a fault or wrong.

Example: The inquiry blamed the engineer for the accident

Synonyms: hold responsible, hold accountable, condemn, accuse

Retaliatory: characterized by a desire for revenge.

Example: Fears of a retaliatory attack by the victim's friends

Violent: using or involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.

Example: A violent confrontation with riot police

Synonyms: brutal, vicious, savage, rough, aggressive, abusive, physically abusive

Inflammatory: relating to or causing inflammation of a part of the body.

Example: Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are idiopathic inflammatory disorders of unknown aetiology.

Synonyms: provocative, incendiary, inflaming, inciting, agitating, stirring

Await:  wait for an event

Example: We await the proposals with impatience

Synonyms: wait for, expect, anticipate

Provoke: stimulate or give rise to (a reaction or emotion, typically a strong or unwelcome one) in someone.

Example: The decision provoked a storm of protest from civil rights organizations

Synonyms: arouse, produce, evoke, cause, give rise to, occasion, call forth

Clash: a mismatch of colors.

Example: A clash of tweeds and a striped shirt

Synonyms: mismatch, discordance, discord, lack of harmony

Incident: an event or occurrence.

Example: Several amusing incidents

Synonyms: event, occurrence, episode, experience, happening, occasion

Swathe: wrap in several layers of fabric.

Example: His hands were swathed in bandages

Synonyms: wrap, envelop, bind, swaddle, bandage, cover, shroud, drape

Assertive: having or showing a confident and forceful personality.

Example: Patients should be more assertive with their doctors

Synonyms: confident, self-confident, bold, decisive, assured, self-assured

Incitement: the action of provoking unlawful behavior or urging someone to behave unlawfully.

Example: This amounted to an incitement to commit murder