musings on migrants and bengali identity

I think its accurate to say that in Calcutta, you see the chauvinism of the Bengali intelligentsia, but it doesn't have overt political manifestations like it does in Mumbai. One of the questions that I hope to get a handle on while I'm here is why this is the case. Why don't political parties in West Bengal exploit the migrant/native cleavage?

I think the first part of the answer is that they do, but more subtly than in Bombay.  In Calcutta, it seems politically incorrect to speak out against migrants. Maybe it has to do with the way the city's political language was formed, with its historical roots in the Bengali enlightenment as well as the last 3 decades of Communist Party rule.

On that front, I've been thinking that maybe the relative religious tolerance in West Bengal is one route to understanding its migrant politcs as well? Communal politics (Hindu-Muslim competition) isn't a stark aspect of politics in West Bengal like it is in other parts of India. The BJP, for example, has almost no presence here. This is typically explained by the two trends I mentioned above:

1. The Bengali literary and philosophical enlightenment period of the late 1800's has enabled Bengalis to form a Bengali identity over a primarily Hindu or Muslim one, and so to rise above the communal divide

2. The Left Front government, stable in power for 3 decades, has managed to maintain power because it stands for all workers and does not exploit Hindu-Muslim tensions

And yet, there are religious divisions that are quite apparent in Calcutta, even if they don't manifest themselves in political rhetoric. For example, it seems to be a more segregated city than Mumbai. There are some areas, like Raja Bazaar, where there are concentrations of Muslims.  And a few pockets of the city that are like Muslim ghettos (and you see very few Muslim women, in hijab, elsewhere in the city).  Another indication is that Muslim Bihari migrants tend to be significantly poorer than Hindu ones. So the two reasons for the lack of religious tensions that I listed in some ways hide the communal divides in Calcutta.

Similarly, there is definitely an undercurrent of anti-migrant thinking here, even if it is politically incorrect for a mainstream politician to say that migrants should not be welcome.  I found an organization called Amra Bangali, which is kind of a fringe Bengali chauvanist political pressure group.  Among their demands is a Bengali regiment in the Indian army, job reservations for Bengalis in both public and private service in West Bengal, and no land transfers to people outside of Bengal. They claim that as you move from downtown Calcutta to the outer areas of the city, the population of Bengalis gets higher, which indicates that natives are being pushed out of downtown and into the suburbs (by migrants). So while their platform sounds similar (yet more extreme) than Mumbai's anti-migrant party (the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), they actually don't have anywhere near the infamy or political following that the MNS does. Its more... sub-culture. Still, Dr. Das at the University of Calcutta said he has a strong feeling that there is an underlying anxiety, even among mainstream parties and the general population, that newcomers from Bihar have cut into local jobs and culture.  And maybe these things are also masked by the strong strain of enlightened, leftist thought in Bengali culture.

So another thing I have to find out is whether the outcomes for migrants into this city--like their ability to get idenitity documents, how they are treated in bureacratic settings like rationing offices, their ability to vote-- whether these experiences are similar to those of rural migrants from West Bengal, or native Calcuttans, or whether there is a marked difference that seems to stem from other prejudices.

striking picture

This Associated Press picture really made an impression on me-- it was the last one in "Day in Pictures" on the BBC News site.

The caption:

Muslim children in India shout anti-Pakistan slogans as they burn an effigy of Pakistan's spy service, the ISI, during a protest against last week’s Mumbai attacks.

The main reason this picture struck me is that I'm always disconcerted by little kids getting riled up about politics and identity issues.  Its like they're pawns of the adults in their lives, not even given the chance to develop the experience/ maturity to make up their own minds on an issue.  In this case, they (and their parents) have a right to be angry, of course... but that's really besides the point.  I read an article once about the ludic (playful, fun) aspect of protest and even violence, especially among young men. Maybe that rings even truer for kids-- maybe its fun to protest.  You get to make a lot of noise.

The picture also reminded me that I hung out with lots of impoverished Indian Muslims in Mumbai, and they had universally positive reactions upon learning that I was from Pakistan-- I remember being surprised by that.  Maybe these attacks will change that... does it mean I should be more discreet when I go back to India next month?

Article: The President-elect and India

This was a great article about future U.S. relations with India. Martha Nussbaum, the author, is a renowned scholar of Indian soceity and politics, and she's particularly attuned to minority rights and religious violence. Its nice to see those topics addressed in the context of U.S. policy toward India.

The article brings up the issue of NRIs and how they affect US-India policies. (NRI = Non Resident Indian, the Indian government's term for Indians who live abroad). I am, of course, really interested in the political activism of immigrant groups, and I think NRIs in the United States are a particularly interesting community. The 2000 Census counts about 1.6 million Indians in the United States. Its by and large a professional and affluent immigrant group. Nussbaum writes that the NRI community is active on issues like business and entrepreneurship and the US-India nuclear deal. And, her article recognizes that they are an interesting piece of the Hindu-Muslim political picture. But she doesn't go into it in too much detail, so here's my snippet of thoughts on the matter.

Its not unusual for immigrants to be involved in home-country politics, and sometimes, for them to have more hard-line political views than people in the country itself. For example, a friend of mine who lived in Israel for years says that American Jews tend to be more hawkish than most Jews he knew in Israel... maybe simply because the American media doesn't offer the spectrum of views about the Israel-Palestine conflict that are available to Israelis through what my friend describes as a very vibrant and thoughtful Israeli press.  Another example:  Cubans in the United States are known for their hard-line views on the Castro regime and US-Cuba relations as compared to Cubans in Cuba (although that is starting to change).

A similar dynamic might apply to Indians. Its possible that the beliefs of Hindu nationalists in the United States are actually more hardened and polarized than those of many of their counterparts in India because they are further removed from the complexities of Hindu-Muslim politics and interactions.  Since they don't actually live in that society, maybe they have fewer personal reasons to compromise.

To give a very stark example: In 1994, the Federation of Hindu Associations of Los Angeles awarded its “Hindu of the Year” title to Bal Thackeray. Thackeray is the leader of the Shiv Sena, and is a total extremist. He has advocated violence against Muslims, praised Hitler and incited riots in Mumbai. This award for Thackeray in the United States came at a time when the BJP, a mainstream nationalist party with strong links to extremist elements, was quickly toning down its nationalist rhetoric because so many Indians in India were shocked by the destruction of the Babri mosque and were pretty disenchanted with militant nationalism. So the political views of this Indian-American umbrella association were out of sync with the spirit of Indian politics at the time. Another example: a year after the destruction of the mosque, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (an American offshoot of a Hindu extremist group) raised over $1 million.

For more on this, see Vinay Lal's essay about the Indian diaspora in the United States. Its also worth mentioning that according to Lal, the BJP has more support among Indians in the United States than any other party.

caste and religion stories

As people often note about Indian society, caste and religion are very intricately mixed up.  I had two experiences recently that highlighted this point.

The first was on the train today.  Seating on trains is arranged in benches that face each other on either side of the aisle.  Which means that you can easily size up or talk to the six to eight people that are sitting in your immediate vicinity.  Today, a somewhat elderly woman across from me asked if I had any water for her grandson (a side point:  people often ask each other for water on the train; its no big deal to ask or share).  She had to ask me several times because I didn't understand her particular dialect, so everyone around us knew exactly what she wanted.  I didn't have any, but the girl next to me asked a woman across the aisle if she had some.  

That woman was wearing a black burqa, so it was obvious that she was Muslim.  The elderly woman muttered, "I can't take water from her."  Another woman near us told her, "What does it matter, for your grandson?  Just give the child some water."  The elderly woman relented but she did ask the Muslim lady if the water was clean.  The Muslim woman thought that was pretty funny.  She rolled her eyes and shared generously and everyone seated around me discussed this little exchange.  I quietly asked the girl next to me why the elderly lady refused the water.  She just sort of shook her head. Then I said, "Its because she's Muslim, right?"  And she nodded.  So I said, "But I'm Muslim too."  The girl thought that was amusing... she shook her head, and whispered it to her companion, and they both giggled.    (I should clarify that all of this took place in the women's compartment of the train... every train has two or three designated women-only cars, and there is normally a lot of conversation and comraderie that I don't think would be there if men were also present).

Anyway, this mentality of thinking that food or water from certain other people is "dirty" is definitely a caste thing, but socially, there is so much overlap between religion and caste that it becomes a religion thing too.  For example, a lot of the women in the labor union I am researching are cooks and maids in other people's homes, and many of the Hindu women won't work in Muslim houses, and vice versa.  For the Muslim women, especially, this makes it harder to find work, because there are many more well-off Hindu homes than Muslim ones in Mumbai.   But the same prejudice also goes for the employers and who they will hire.  Even among my family here, some of the people in the older generation won't eat Hindu-made food... though none of the kids bother with that restriction.  

My other story related to this stuff took place yesterday.  A woman I was interviewing, in the slum in Cuff Parade, asked me my caste.  It was the first time I had been asked this question and I didn't know what to answer.  I told her I didn't really think I had a caste, and said that I was Muslim, and Bohra.  She didn't know what Bohra meant, but figured it out after I described the clothing.  For her, those two identifications were enough to get a handle on my caste.  She informed me what the hierarchy was:  First Sunnis, then Syeds, then Shias, then Bohras (she threw this one in for my benefit... I don't think Bohras would have come into her calculations otherwise), then she named some other groups of Muslims that I don't remember.  It was nice of her to put me toward the top, right next to Shias.  

For those who aren't familiar with the various groups of people I just named, the categories in her hiearchy don't make much sense... for one thing, they're not even discrete groups.  But these were her impressions of the layout of Muslim communities.

One last thing that comes to mind on this topic:  one of my standard interview questions is "What do you like about living in Mumbai?"  Many many people have answered something along the lines of:  there are people from everywhere here, you can be friends with anybody, caste doesn't matter.  They contrast it to their villages, where it really structures their work and social life.

bohras and politics

Rashida Aunty talked a bit more about bohras and political involvement.  She said Bohras vote for Congress because the BJP (which they pronounce as Bhaajap in Gujarati) wants India to be only a Hindu country, just as Pakistan is a Muslim one.  Congress, on the other hand, advocates equally for all religions.  She said that while Shiv Sena (a Hindu nationalist party in the state of Maharashtra; wants to keep outsiders ouf of the state) is ostensibly a different party than the BJP, everyone knows it is closely allied with them, and recognizes that the only reason BJP leaders don't outwardly support the Sena is that it would be bad for their public image.  She was explaining all this to me, and its all stuff I have read and know about, but it was good to hear the same kinds of views from a regular person, and not just an editorial page or academic article.  She also talked at length about the Sena's Marathi only campaign... now, the younger children all learn Marathi in school because its compulsory and government applications and documents are only written in Marathi and English, despite the vast presence of Hindi and even Gujarati in Bombay.  Interestingly, while she vehemently disagrees with the Sena's Marathi-only push, she sympathizes with their stance against migrants because the city is so overcrowded.

As far as Bohras go, she said Sayedna (TUS) goes out of his way to keep neutral in politics and to have good relations with all political leaders, regardless of party.  Once, during a broadcast of a vaaz (sermon) out of Ahmadabad, after it was over but the camera was still recording, the audience heard Sayedna ask someone close to him if a car had arrived.  It turned out to be Gujarat Chief Minister Modi's car, and she explained that while neither Sayedna nor Modi were visible to them, they all heard a very cordial and respectful exchange between them.  She said Modi was extremely reverent.  (Modi is a BJP leader, very Hindu nationalist).

Bohras, she said, don't get involved in Hindu- Muslim politics, and as a result, no one really bothers them when religious tensions materialize.  I asked how they can remain uninvolved, considering they're Muslim, and she replied that the Muslim masses (her term, not mine) in Bombay are very politicized, and in her opinion, do things to provoke conflict.  For example, young men tear down Shiv Sena posters that have Bal Thackeray's face on them.  So when they take such actions, she said, of course they provoke the Sena further.  (On the other hand though, the Shiv Sena message is so chauvinistic, that maybe you can't really blame those men for tearing down posters).  

Then she told me about the time of the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Aydodhya (1992- 1993)... there was violence all over India, including Bombay.  She said that they didn't leave the house at all because there was so much rioting on the streets.  At that time, she and her family lived in a heavily Shiv Sena dominated area, and they all temporarily left to go stay with a relative in a part of the city that was safer for them.  But her father was the head of a mosque in that area and he refused to leave his responsibility.  He didn't want to leave an empty mosque at the hands of people who would destroy it.   He was basically the only Muslim there.  She said, however, that the bohras had enough of a reputation for being unpoliticized that the Sena didn't disturb him or the mosque at all.  They dealt with each respectfully, and even cooperated on a couple of things, like water access from a particular hose inside the mosque.  Her point was that bohras stay out of politics, and don't face the same anti-Muslim backlash as a result.  When I asked about voting, she said that everyone definitely votes, and they vote for Congress.  But when there's a contentious election on the horizon in Bombay, Sayedna (TUS) tends to leave town to stay totally out of the fray.