Source: The post Citizen dialogue rebuilds trust and strengthens India’s plural coexistence has been created, based on the article “The necessity of bridges” published in “Indian Express” on 23rd August 2025. Citizen dialogue rebuilds trust and strengthens India’s plural coexistence.
UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 1-Indian society
Context: Four years ago, amid rising communal polarisation, five friends began a citizen dialogue with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Seeing Muslim alienation and fearing hardened divisions, they tested whether frank engagement with the BJP’s ideological mentor could reduce mistrust and prompt corrective action.
Origins and Intent
- Personal initiative, not representation: They met Bhagwat as concerned citizens, not Muslim delegates, because targeted policies and rhetoric had left many feeling cornered.
- Why engage the RSS: Despite claims of BJP-RSS separation, the RSS remains the ideological mother body with policy influence.
- Early reactions and outreach: The step drew cautious support and criticism. They then met clerics, priests, activists, and educators; lack of conversation was deepening mistrust.
Nature of Dialogue
- A fraught history: RSS literature has included anti-Muslim and anti-Christian rhetoric, casting minorities as outsiders to a Hindu Rashtra vision.
- Direct but honest exchanges: Bhagwat expressed Hindu anxieties; the group aired Muslim concerns.
- Signals from Bhagwat: He pledged to reduce differences and has at times urged unity, less hate, and tolerance.
Practical Recommendations
- Sustained dialogue platforms: Create regular forums, local and national, for scholars, clerics, leaders, and activists to address misconceptions quickly.
- Joint social and cultural action: Collaborate on relief, literacy, and health drives. Update madrasa syllabi with shared histories; hold joint festivals and celebrate major occasions together.
- Sensitivities and public order: Limit loudspeakers for daily azans; run visible campaigns against cow slaughter; manage Friday prayers to avoid road blockages; promote civic responsibility among youth; avoid derogatory labels like “kafir” and “jihadis.”
- Engagement with laws and policy: Consider a Uniform Civil Code if the government publishes a draft and seeks genuine feedback. Imposition without consultation, as with the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, invites resistance.
Reform and Reciprocity
- Comparative Muslim reforms. Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Algeria have adapted family, education, and public laws.
- Scope for Indian Muslim reform: Indian Muslims can pursue faith-consistent reforms that suit a plural nation.
- Need for reciprocity: Such reforms will fail without reciprocal respect from Hindus and the state. Trust cannot be one-sided.
State, Trust, and the Path Ahead
- Eroding confidence in institutions: Many minorities distrust executive and judiciary due to discriminatory laws, selective justice, and majoritarian rhetoric. Policing often appears partial, seen in Kanwar festival courtesies like flowers, feet-touching, and aerial flower showers.
- Equal application of law: Confidence-building needs depolarised politics, equal enforcement, and action against hate speech—shown in deeds, not words.
- A choice before India: India’s strength is complex coexistence. The balance is strained; the choice is division or the harder path of conversation, reform, and mutual respect.
- Scaling the initiative: The dialogue may be a drop in the ocean. More citizens and institutions must sustain engagement. Trust takes time, but small bridges matter.
Question for practice:
Discuss how sustained dialogue between communities, joint social action, and equal enforcement of laws can rebuild communal trust in India.
