Destroying Symbols

Physical violence is direct violence and most visible. However, less visible and yet something that causes or motivates or contributes to occurrence of physical violence through violent attitudes and violation of symbols held sacred by a community.

Symbolic violence functions as an instrument of social control that tends to maintain the existing social order.

Certain symbols are used in the public discourse to mean something also give legitimacy to a dominant political thought. There is a binary that's constructed by the Hindu supremacists where one set of symbols or names are Muslims and thus necessarily inferior and worthy of being obliterated. And other set of symbols relate to ancient India or its culture which is the standard or goal to uphold. This explains how history of India is explained by the Hindu fanatics who periodise Indian history according to the religion of the rulers and the period of Mughal rule is considered the darkest which spelled an end to the glorious ancient past of India. This thought is reflected today too in the trend of renaming places which is essentially political in nature.

Since 2014, the saffron ruling dispensation has been renaming cities, roads and stations which reflect a historical narrative where Muslims have contributed positively to India. Renaming of a place is not merely an issue of changing a name but an attempt to deny the positive contribution of rulers or personalities due to the bias against their religious identity. The aim is to demonise the Muslim community and stigmatise them, seek to inflict punishment on them for being a member of the community. For instance, in Rajasthan, the name of a village called 'Miyon ko Bora' was officially changed to 'Mahesh Nagar' after residents complained that they are not getting matrimonial matches for their children as the name gave an impression that the village was inhibited by Muslims. It was reported that Rajasthan government had submitted eight proposals to the Home Ministry to change names of places, including changing the name of Ismailpur village to Pichanwa Khurd and Dhani Daroga to Jasawant Pura.

In Uttar Pradesh, the government is on an aggressive spree to rename cities. Allahabad was renamed to Prayagraj after renaming Faizabad district's name to Ayodhya. The name of Mughalserai railway station was changed to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station. There are demands from different BJP legislators to rename some more places. Sangeet Som, Meerut MLA has demanded that Muzaffarnagar be changed to Laxmi-nagar, Jagan Prasad Garg from Agra has demanded that Agra be changed to Agravan or Agrawal claiming that the word Agra was derived from Agarwal community. The argument for the renaming is that it will be keeping with "Indian history and culture". Sangeet Som said, "All I want to say is that Mughals have worked to destroy our culture, especially destroy Hindutva. We are just trying to save the culture. BJP would move forward in this direction".

In Maharashtra too such demands have surfaced. Shiv Sena and BJP legislators are demanding that Aurangabad to be changed to Sambhajinagar, Osmanabad to Dharashiv and Khultabad to Ratnaprabha.

In another instance of symbolic violence, members of Hindu supremacist organisation performed Puja at a 400-year-old Mosque in the Taj Mahal Complex. The women who performed the Puja lit dhoti batti and poured Gangajal inside the premises. This Puja was performed after the demand to change the name of Taj Mahal, the iconic monument of love, to Tejomahalaya. The Muslims have refused to file a complaint in order to maintain peace. This was an attempt to Hinduise the monument and rid it of 'unlndian' influences.

Behind all these demands of renaming is the popular narrative about how ancient India was a golden age where India was thriving and the lament that the Muslim rulers spelled ruin and uprooted India culturally and denigrated it. If anything, this renaming is part of a process of cultural genocide where cultural destruction of a group is designed with meticulous precision.


Vol. 51, No.37, Mar 17 - 23, 2019