Communal harmony and brotherhood between Hindus, Muslims, and other religious communities define the synchronised secular culture of Cuttack as a city in Odisha. From Dargah Bazar and Pir Hat to Idgah Maidan, people have been witnesses to the making of the history of independent Odisha and India. People from all religious walks of life participated in shaping the secular culture during and before the anti-colonial struggles in the city. These places define secularism and communal harmony in the city and the state.Similarly, across the state, from the Rath Jatra (Car Festival) of Lord Jagannath in Puri to the Durga, Kali, Ganesh, Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Mangala Pujas in different parts of Odisha, one witnesses the participation of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and other religious minority groups as if these festivals were their own. Muslims often organise Hindu religious festivals, and Hindus often support Muslims in their religious celebrations and festivals.
Historically, such an organic religious bond has continued in Odisha, defining its multicultural and secular ethos — which is under threat today due to the Hindutva political patronage of religious conflicts and riots. After the rise of Hindutva politics, Odisha has been witnessing different forms of riots that tear apart the brotherhood and the social and religious harmony between different communities in the state. The Cuttack riot is not an accident, it is an well organised riot that defines the core of Hindutva politics, which is incompatible with the interactions between secular culture and multi-religious traditions in the state. As a result, cow vigilantes attack Muslims, Christians face assaults, a nun has been pulled out of a train and harassed, and such violent events are increasing — raising questions about the BJP government’s ability to maintain law and order in the state, or whether it is the government’s strategy to allow Hindutva violence to become normal, effectively making governance based on fear.
The BJP-led state government has failed miserably even to protect state police officers from the attack of Hindutva rioters. As they say, when rioters run the state and the government, riots become normal modes of governance. The BJP in Odisha continues to provide indirect or direct political patronage to religious conflicts in different parts of the state. From Graham Staines’ murder to the riots in Bhadrak and Cuttack, various Hindutva groups have organised and led these riots. Violence is integral to Hindutva politics. Hindutva politics and its ideology of hate manufactures communal violence. The creation of fear and instability in society, and the normalisation of religious conflict, form the core of Hindutva’s political strategy. Such strategies not only weaken the multicultural and secular ethos of Cuttack and Odisha but also undermine constitutional democracy in the country.
The BJP came to power in the state in the name of upholding Odia Asmita (Odia dignity) but has destroyed the foundation of that very dignity by undermining the culture of coexistence, which is foundational to the syncretic Odia culture and its people. Cuttack, as an Odia city, reflects the fraternal and historic bond that exists between different religious groups living side by side and standing with each other in celebrating one another’s religious festivals and traditions. The classical Odia language, its history and culture bind them within such a fraternal framework. Hindutva rioters are not only threatening lives but also destroying the multicultural values of peaceful coexistence in Odisha.
The Cuttack riot is not an aberration caused by a few individual criminals or reactionary groups; it is a well-planned political strategy to undermine secular politics, society, and culture in the city. The Cuttack riot is a wake-up call to people across the state and the country to understand the dangers of Hindutva politics and its fascist character in the long run. Let us not allow rioters to run the country or normalise a culture of rioting as a form of politics — a path that Hindutva forces seek to pursue and promote at the cost of the peace and prosperity of the people. Hindutva riot in Cuttack is a warning to the people of Odisha and India to end Hindutva politics or face violence in everyday life, where fear becomes a tool of governance and the domestication of citizenship rights becomes normal. Such undemocratic and anti-constitutional politics, pursued by Hindutva or any other political group, must be defeated for the survival of the people and their secular culture of coexistence, which is based on religious fraternity.