Batting for tolerance

A sportsman steps in where politicians fail

The absence of robust condemnation of hate speech and cultural intolerance by India’s current political leadership has had the effect of creating a climate of tacit acceptance of this toxic trend in the public discourse. Ironically, it fell to the captain of India’s cricket team, a man with no noticeable interest in politics, to expose the moral bankruptcy of the country’s elected leadership. This he did through his forthright condemnation of the social media invective heaped on India’s sole Muslim player for the 10-wicket loss to Pakistan recently. Virat Kohli’s spirited defence of Mohammed Shami indirectly offered an encouraging endorsement of the multicultural idea of India that is inexorably being eroded. He made the point that attacking someone over religion was “spineless” and “the most pathetic thing a human being can do” and he pointedly underlined the brotherhood within the team, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Kohli’s own sportsmanship after the defeat — his hearty congratulations offered to the Pakistani batsmen — set the tone but his courage in publicly condemning the trolls should not be discounted. It is encouraging that several cricketers past and present also spoke in defence of Shami. But given Kohli’s huge fan following, the importance of his stance and his message cannot be underplayed. He is a powerful influencer among millions of young people, the cohort that risks being radicalised by the growing currents of polarisation. It is a pity that no one from the ruling dispensation spoke up as eloquently against, say, the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in 2015 or the serial lynching by vigilantes of Muslim cattle owners after 2017.
 

It is a pity, too, that there is no one within the ruling dispensation with Kohli’s sense of ethics to curtail the power vested in the freewheeling unilateral moralism of some local politicians, who have arrogated to themselves the role of custodians of a narrow religio-cultural paradigm. Within a fortnight of social media trolls forcing retail chain FabIndia to change an Urdu tagline for an apparel range, these state-level leaders have managed to censor scenes from a web series and proscribe an advertisement showing a lesbian couple celebrating Karwa Chauth and a designer jewellery line for “inappropriately” portraying the mangalsutra.

In all cases, the claim is that Hindu sentiment was being hurt. Such declarations display an extraordinarily limited understanding both of the religion they purport to defend and of Indian society in general. Lesbianism or displays of sexuality may offend some sensibilities, to be sure, but it is presumptuous on the part of these “cultural custodians” to assume they speak for all Hindus. Besides, in a country as diverse as India it is probable that somebody’s sentiments are being hurt at some time or the other, for which tolerance is the only panacea. Yet, no one from the ruling establishment has cared to defend those threatened by these “cultural custodians” or to urge that as elected representatives in a democracy, they uphold the basic Indian constitutional right to free speech. India, it seems, needs more leaders like the captain of the cricket team.