Post of Mr Vijay Chawla on 26th September 2021

दंगे भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था पर बार-बार घातक वार करते हैं.

परन्तु दंगों के इस खतरनाक आर्थिक पहलु का विश्लेषण करने से बुद्धिजीवी और अर्थशास्त्री कतराते रहें हैं. इस पहलु पर मैंने कई बार लिखा है.

आज एक दोस्त की टाइमलाइन पर इसी विषय पर Mohammed Seemab Zaman का गंभीर चिन्तन पढ़ने को मिला. प्रस्तुत है इस चिंतन का एक अंश –

Why India was/is doomed to lose… to China? (भारत चीन से पिछड़ने को क्यों अभिशप्त था और है?)

1935 मे भागलपुर मे दंगा करा कर मुस्लिम कारोबार को ख़त्म किया गया। फिर बटवारा कराया गया और आज़दी मिली! 72 साल तक मुस्लिम व्यवसाय को जमशेदपुर, अलीगढ, मुरादाबाद, सूरत, अहमदाबाद, दिल्ली, हरियाणा वगैरह मे जला कर ताला, पीतल, हथकरघा, चूड़ी, मोटर पार्टस, चमड़ा उद्योग के छोटे और मझौले बिजनेस को ख़त्म कर देश की सैकडो प्रतिशत GDP को #जला दिया गया मगर #गर्व किया गया।

72 साल से दंगों द्वारा देश की GDP को समय-समय पर जलाया गया मगर कोई प्रघानमंत्री, मुख्यमंत्री या अर्थशास्त्री आज तक यह बात नही बोला. मगर साऊथ अफ्रिका मे चार दिन दंगा हुआ तो राष्ट्रपति रामापोज़ा ने कहा कि उनके देश की GDP 3-4% जल कर ख़त्म हो गई।

हम लोग भारत मे मुस्लिम नफरत फैला कर GDP जलाते रहे और गर्व करते रहे, उधर चीन 1965 से 5-6% GDP growth करता रहा और 1989 से 10-12% GDP growth कर के 2019 तक 130 करोड आबादी को ग़रीबी से निकाल कर आज सुपर पावर हो गया…
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मैंने खुद दो साल पहले Quint संस्थापक Raghav Bahl की एक किताब के विमोचन के youtube विडियो पर दंगों के कारण भारत के चीन से पिछड़ने पर लेखा-नुमा एक लम्बा कमेंट लिखा था. यह कमेंट आज भी इस विडियो के नीचे highlighted है. Raghav के youtube विडियो के लिंक और अपने कमेंट को मैंने नीचे कमेंट बॉक्स में भी लगा दिया है.
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Vijay Chawla Raghav के youtube विडियो पर मेरा कमेंट–

Dear Mr. Raghav, I wish you and all other intellectuals, expert economists and social scientists had given due importance to the deleterious effects on the Indian economy of communal riots and the Sangh Parivar’s tireless efforts for realizing the Hindu Rashtra after Independence. Isn’t it surprising that no intellectual gives even a cursory look to this aspect while writing tomes after tomes on the Indian economy? While listing the criteria for a super economy, we must separate India from the USA and China because in the latter countries nobody harbors a Hindu Rashtra-like dream or wants to effect foundational social and cultural changes to achieve this dream.

Some food for thought: FM Manmohan Singh began the process of pulling India from the economic abyss in 1991. The next year the Sangh Parivar despite the no-harm-to-Babri Masjid assurance to the Supreme Court by its representative Kalyan Singh, the then CM of UP, demolished the Babri Masjid. The widespread riots that erupted after the demolition cost the country billions of rupees in the loss of human lives and property. Then few months after the Babri demolition, Dawood Ibrahmin took revenge by engineering the Mumbai bomb blasts. Again a heavy loss was inflicted on the country’s economy by the loss of precious human resource and property.

Remember, this was the crucial time for India that was treading on the path of liberalization for the first time after Independence. India needed to save its resources and spend its time and energy to derive the desired benefits from liberalization or be ready to face its adverse consequences. But we made a bonfire of our precious resources in the communal conflagration.

You say that in the early 1990s India and China had similar GDPs and their economic status was the same. How the economic paths of India and China diverged after the early nineties, a true analysis of it can’t be carried out without giving due consideration to the communalism that is cancer in India’s body politic; but for China, it seems as if the word communalism does not exist in their dictionary.

The Khalistan militancy in Punjab, 1984 riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the Gujarat 2002 riots, the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, and lots of other big and small riots since Independence — all have been a big drain on the Indian economy. But no intellectual is ready to analyze the effect of communalism on the Indian economy. One can blame Indira Gandhi’s inaction for the rise of Bhindranwale, but the problem is when religion will be a means to gain power for some political parties, the other apparently secular parties will also willy-nilly make religion a part of their political strategy.

Long back, Mani Shankar Aiyyar had quoted an Oxford research in his article, which found that after communal riots, BJP’s vote share had risen in the riots-affected areas. So, it should be clear who benefits politically from the riots. I feel raising any hopes of India emerging as a superpower is a futile exercise unless we recognize communalism as an economic roadblock and all political parties join hands to exorcise it from Indian politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbtIsOg-hjw…
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