Masculine public space and the rise of 'sena culture'

The terror unleashed by the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, is symptomatic of a larger malaise which has been building up in India for decades together, particularly since the 1990s.

While parties like the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have been in the mainstream and visible - both of them having interestingly made their beginnings and early forays around similar personality cults, cocking a snook at the law of the land - of late it is the mushrooming of more localised smaller senas, around the axis of a cult figure or an ideology, which has hogged the limelight.

The 1990s saw the public being disillusioned by the the discourse of development that had promised them the moon.

If the first two decades after independence were those of reconstruction, public participation and to demonstrate altruistic patience towards the state and its policies, the decades that followed conjured up an image of developing India with the coming up of industry, dams and revolutions of all kinds, green and white and what not.

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The 1990s, however, turned out to be a watershed: a phase of economic overhaul and its resultant social and political upheaval created a new discourse. It also happened to be the phase when religion showed its most monstrous, law-defying face, in connivance with identity politics.

Ironically, the era, which came to be popularly known as the phase of globalisation and liberalisation, also spawned religious fundamentalism, marking the return of the appeal of religion in popular politics.

More significantly, in a sense, it exposed the vast reservoir of political capital that this cocktail of religion and politics could command and exploit, if executed with resoluteness and design of a pathological nature, in utter disregard to the law of the land. The proximity of most senas to one or the other religious cults only establishes this connection.

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In case of the recent violence in Mathura too, the group Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, accused of violence, though had all the secular trappings, in the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the Azad Hind Fauj, it was actually its leader Ram Vriksh Yadav’s association and the Jai Gurudev cult provided it with a larger, broader appeal and fellowship.

There are many akharas, ashrams and deras which are rumoured to be managed by their own senas or trained personal security staff. Rising unemployment and disillusionment with the system provide the most fertile grounds for gullible, misguided youths to get attracted towards such unlawful congregations and groups.

The mushrooming of such cults and senas most unambiguously reflects the audacity of such groups to consider themselves above the law of the land.

Their strength comes from two sources - one, from the huge fan following that they gradually cultivate invoking all kinds of tricks, and second, and which is a function of the first, the resultant political patronage that they receive from the powers that be, who see in these groups a potent vote bank.

A similar situation prevailed in Haryana some months back at the ashram of Sant Rampal who is languishing in jail now. A massive cache of arms and weapons were recovered from the highly fortified ashram which almost functioned as an independent island, with its own band of a trained army, very similar to that in the Mathura case.

At another level, if one were to create a list of some of these groups, and especially their fascination for the word sena, it makes for a dreadful reading, indicating a rising masculinity in our public life. There are inumerable independent groups with the suffix sena, who draw their sustenance, directly or indirectly, from one or the other mainstream political outfits.

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Such is the attraction and the appeal of the word “sena” among the youths that sometimes even groups with democratic and rather peaceful objectives tend to assume it. In Punjab, for instance, there are now groups like Begumpura Tiger Force, group showing allegiance to Sant Ravidas.

What could be more ironic and oxymoronic when the sacred word Begumpura, a term coined by Bhakti poet Sant Ravidas to denote a world full of peace and without any sorrow and suffering, is linked to words such as "tiger" and "force"? The existence of groups such as Ambedkar Sena and now Kejriwal/AAP online sena too reflect the similar trend.

The ever-increasing number of senas and the rising trend of private bodyguards and security agencies should alarm us about its genesis and its implications. This is a sign of anomie and lawlessness on the one hand and the rise of macho, aggressive content in our public life on the other.

That annual university events, in many parts of our country, are now fashionably called "Cyanide", "Poison", "Danger" and "Killer Instinct", should shake us out of our deep slumber and take note of the larger psycho-social upheaval that the youths of this country are undergoing.

The Mathura case is an example of political patronage to the criminal/caste elements leading to death and violence. But the sena culture is much more deep and dangerous, which the state agencies and policy groups must be extra vigilant about.

The rise of senas symbolise the growing legitimacy of the cult of violence in public spaces and the diminishing fear of the state machinery such as the police among the rogue elements.

The scale of loss, violence and casualty in Mathura, points towards a lack of proper assessment of the situation on the ground, but more than anything, it most certainly shows that the police and the administration clearly underestimated Subhash Sena’s military prowess and preparedness.

Had the lessons been learnt from Haryana’s Rampal incident, the lives of two brave policemen could have been saved. Till the political masters can't look beyond the petty gains of vote bank politics, the phenomena of schizophrenic cult leaders will continue to prosper and flourish.