India: Back to the 1930s:
Modi’s myopia
by Ayaz Ahmed
Under the sway of some right-wing Hindu organizations doggedly
espousing Hindutva, the Modi administration has menacingly brought India
to the verge of complete de-secularisation, Hindu extremism and
intolerance.
Alarmingly, the BJP’s ongoing anti-Muslim politics is completely
reminiscent of the Congress’ strategies against the Muslims in the
post-1936 –37 election period during the British Raj.
Presumably, if the BJP does not learn any lessons from the history of
the Subcontinent, India’s socio-economic and communal situations would
worsen at an alarming rate, and push the country towards a pre-
independence like situation.
Soon after winning the elections of 1936 –37, the Congress grabbed
the unfolding situation by both hands as an opportunity to impose Hindu
raj on the Muslims.
In the two and half years of the Congress’ tyrannical rule, Muslims
were selectively excluded from politics; even then they were strictly
forbidden to eat beef. Moreover, the azan (call to prayer) was forbidden
in many places and organized attacks were made on Muslim worshippers at
mosques.
Disregard
Through the ‘Vande Matram Scheme, ‘young Hindus were brainwashed to
fight Muslims. Attempts were also made under the Widdia Mandir Scheme to
convert Muslim students to Hinduism by forcing them to bow their heads
before Gandhi’s portrait installed on the walls of all schools. The
Congress also strove to deprive Muslims of their businesses.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emulated the 1936 –40 anti-Muslim
strategies of the Congress.
The BJP is intimately tied to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, and functions as the Sangh
Parivar’s political wing. Its policies are based on RSS’ ideology of
Hindutva or Hindu nationalism with the aim to form Akhand Bharat, or an
undivided Indian State, which is believed to be the genuine
representative of Hindu culture and religion. The BJP’s extremist
actions and prejudiced policies can be traced back to its first term
when watershed events such as the 1998 nuclear explosions, hostility
against Christians, the Gujarat Muslim massacre and intensification of
Indo-Israel ties took place.
Now, during its second term in the saddle, the BJP Government has
manipulated anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim sentiments as a means to
increase its vote bank.
According to the Economic Times, incidents of communal violence in
India have risen by nearly a quarter in the first five months of 2015.
Hindutva is calculated to ensure the preponderance of Hinduism in
Indian society, politics and culture which it promotes through tactics
that include violence and terror. Muslims and Christians constitute 17 %
of the Indian population.
The BJP’s agenda is to drive out Muslims and Christians. The Sangh
Parivar’s central idea is that those who do not consider India as both
fatherland and holy land are not true Indians and must be banished from
the country.
Under the BJP administration, Muslims and other religious minorities
are threatened as RSS and Dharm Jagran Samiti (DSJ) plan to conduct an
ethnic cleansing of Muslims – and even some non-Muslims – before the
2021 census. In this context, sudden murders and violent attacks are
carried out against Muslims, low-caste Hindus and Christians to
eliminate them from India while Hindus are asked to increase their birth
rates to protect the Hindu religion and identity of India.
The RSS and the VHP have frenetically launched the Ghar Wapsi and
Bahu Lao Beti Bachao campaigns all across India. These organizations are
brainwashing the young through tactics such as making the education of
the Gita, the Mahabharat and other Hindu literature for Muslims in
educational institutes.
Schools like Vidya Bharati distribute booklets containing a map of
India that encompasses not only Pakistan and Bangladesh but also the
entire region of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet and parts of Myanmar all under the
heading of Punya Bhoomi Bharat (the Indian Holy Land.)
Curricula change
Modi’s government has also made changes in the curriculum, showing
Pakistan as a part of India.
Moreover, the government has also placed a ban on cow slaughter and
consuming beef in Maharashtra, killing Muslims in the name of religion
and on the false allegations of eating beef.
On September 28, Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob in Dadri, Uttar
Pradesh. The lynching happened because the local temple let loose a
rumour that he had killed and eaten a cow. As it turned out, Akhlaq did
not have any form of beef in his house. Only mutton was found in his
home. Two months ago, three Muslim men were attacked with petrol bombs
while allegedly transporting cattle when they were actually carrying
potatoes.
The Shiv Sena has been behind this recent violence and threats. It
has been strident on the issue of cricket matches and cultural exchanges
with Pakistan for decades. The organization is a potent force that
adheres to regional chauvinism with anti-Muslim sentiment.
On October 12, its extremists poured black paint over the organizer
of a book launch in Mumbai of a book written by Pakistan’s former
foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. After the ‘black paint’ drama,
the Sainiks stormed into a meeting of Indian and Pakistani cricket
officials in Mumbai who were discussing future matches.
Apart from Muslims, Hindu intellectuals are also being brutally
attacked in India in the ongoing wave of intolerance.
In late August, M M Kalburgi (76), a renowned writer and prominent
scholar in the Karnataka State, was shot dead allegedly by right-wing
extremists who objected to his views on rituals and idol worship.
In August 2013, Narendra Dabholkar, a known anti-superstition
activist, was shot dead in Pune. In February, Govind Pansare, a social
activist from the Communist Party of India, was shot dead in Kolhapur.
Due to growing Hindu extremism and rising intolerance being created
by the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal – with the Modi government’s all-out
support – a large number of Indian intellectuals are anxious about their
safety and are thinking of leaving the country.
About 40 Indian writers, poets, playwrights have returned their
prizes to the National Academy of Letters in protest against violent
Hindu nationalism.
This growing Hindu extremism has also affected India’s ties with its
neighbouring countries.
RSS connection
After establishing a pro-Indian government in Sri Lanka, India is now
pressuring the Maldives for its larger hegemonic influence in the
region. It has imposed an economic blockade on Nepal just because Nepal
declared its constitution secular against the BJP’s demand of a Hindu
constitution.
Likewise, Indian relations with Pakistan have also strained further
under the BJP government.
Indian leaders have been using harsh and threatening language against
Pakistan such as the Indian army chief’s warning of ‘limited war’ in the
backdrop of Line of Control (LoC) violations and threat of attack on
Pakistan after the June 9 attack on Myanmar. Modi also brazenly admitted
to India’s central role in the separation of Bangladesh during his visit
to Dhaka in June 2015. India has also increased LoCl and working
boundary violations.
If the Modi administration continues with these extremist and myopic
policies, India’s already unsatisfactory socio-economic issues,
political instability and communal predicament will increase and the
country will remain at loggerheads with all its neighbours. The world’s
biggest democracy should shun anti-Muslim violence and meticulously
focus on invigorating the deteriorating plight of millions of Indians
living in abject poverty.
- News International
About the author:
The writer is a Karachi-based independent researcher, blogger and
columnist
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