The Indian War on Muslims
Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal
The Hindutva war
The worst devastation’s in human history are not caused by earthquakes, cyclones or tsunamis. These owe to wars -the crimes exclusively done by the humans. Only in two World Wars 75 million people are killed. After the two World Wars, millions are killed in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; and the killing continues. The destructiveness of any war entirely depends on the toxicity of the ideologies of the warmongers. A virulent killer bug always causes killer disease. Likewise, a killer ideology always causes deaths, rapes and destruction’s. Only a stupid man can be dubious about it. All worst war-crimes are indeed the works of the people adherent to the toxic ideologies. In fact, ideologies like fascism, racism, nationalism, supremacism, imperialism, communism and religious fanaticism never passed any segment of history without making bloodbath. Ethnic cleansing, genocidal massacre, wars of occupation, regional wars, domestic wars and the World Wars indeed owe to these ideologies. Therefore, wherever these ideologies show their tide, one can be sure that some worst genocide is looming. In India, such a war has already been started since its inception; and it is against the Muslims with the embedded Hindutva fascism in its making.
War has its distinctive and defining markers; it brings gang rapes, genocidal killings, arsons, occupations, deprivation of human rights and mass-scale torture in the lives of the stipulated enemies. The Indian Muslims pass every day and every night amidst such war-crimes. The ongoing war against the Muslims doesn’t run in the territorial frontiers; rather in every Muslim enclaves. Any doubt on deadliness of a killer bug only brings more deaths. Similarly, doubt on dreadfulness of the toxic ideologies like Hindutva fascism, only exacerbate the genocide. Fascism has already shown its true face in Europe. The Muslims in India are now facing the same fate. The Hindutva fascists formed the world’s largest NGO called Rastriya Shevok Sangha (RSS) not to share goodwill with the minority compatriots; but to impart ideological militancy among its members. It was created with the sole objective to make India a Hindu state. (Andersen, Walter; Damla, Shridhar, 1987). When M.S Golwalker became the RSS President in 1940, he set it a goal not to fight against the British. (M.S Golwalker, 1974); and was made war-ready to fight the Muslims.
From day one of its inception in 1925, RSS was focussed on mobilising and strengthening the Hindutva recruits to fight against the Muslims. In 1927, within two years of its creation, the RSS launched its first Muslim cleansing operation in its birth place in Nagpur in Maharashtra. Its militants launched an organised attack against the local Muslims and the campaign went on for 3 days and forced the Muslims to leave the city. The creation of Pakistan in 1947 infuriated the RSS cadres; as if they have cut into pieces their mother India. Now they take the fight against the captivated Indian Muslims. They consider every Indian Muslim a traitor cum termite and a Pakistani inside. (Ashish Nandi, 2002). For its terrorist activities, the RSS was banned 4 times: in 1947, 1948, 1975-77 and 1992. During British raj, it was banned for its communal terrorism by the provincial government of Punjab in 1947. In 1948, it was banned for killing Gandhi. In 1992, it had banned for destroying the historic Babri Mosque. Since Narendra Modi -a lifelong member of RSS, became the Prime Minister, everything changed. The RSS is no more alone in its mission. Along with this non-state fascist outfit, the whole state apparatus, the media, the police and the army are now working hand in hand to attain the Hindutva objective.
The cross-party epidemic
War is fought not only in the battle fields; but also fought on ideological, cultural and economic premises. Hindutva literature tells about such an inclusive war against the Muslims. All RSS compounds all over India indeed work as mini cantonment to train fighters for such a war. In fact, such a war has already been imposed on all the sectors of the Muslim life in India. They want not only the full surrender of the Muslims, but also the full decimation, demoralisation and de-Islamisation of the Muslims. For that, they have even deployed violent criminals as fighters to lynch, rape, torture and kill Muslims even on local streets and domestic premises. Thus, the Hindutva war has entered into the Muslim homes and impacted every aspects of the Muslim lives.
Malaria in India doesn’t differ from malaria in Europe; the same is true for an ideological disease. Therefore, whatever the German fascists did against the Jews in Europe, the Hindutva fascists are doing the same against the Indian Muslims. Like a virus, a toxic ideology too, never stays confined within the premise of a single political, religious or terrorist outfit. It shows a cross-party, cross-country and cross-border epidemic. India is a classic example. Therefore, its Hindutva epidemic has overwhelmed not only its culture, politics, media and education; but also the whole spectrum of life. Hence, the anti-Muslim hatred in Indian politics is not the monopoly of the RSS-BJP axis, the parties like the Indian National Congress and many others have also been infected with the same toxicity. Following examples may help understand the gravity of the issue.
The spell of the Hindutva venom on the Congress politics was fully exposed during the election campaign of 1989. To appease the Hindu voters, Rajiv Gandhi –the Congress Party’s sitting Prime Minister attempted to snatch the Hindutva mantra from RSS-BJP family by outplaying the issue. For that, he borrowed the Hindutva strategy of L.K. Advani –the BJP leader. He started his campaign from the district of Faizabad –known for its historic Babri Mosque. Dispelling the previous secular stand of the Congress, Rajiv Gandhi took the banner of Hindutva agenda in his own hand. He promised to inaugurate Rama Rajya –the rule and the kingdom of Rama, in India. (Pradeep Nayak, 1993). It was a clear departure from the declared political ideology of the Congress. He even opened the door of the Babri Mosque for the Hindu worshippers –which was strategically avoided by every Congress and non-Congress government in the past. But Rajiv Gandhi displayed his sheer lack of political wisdom and foresightedness. He gave preference to getting more votes over esteemed values, justice and respect for minority rights. Such siding with the Hindu majority and robust Hindutva radicalization of the Congress by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi prompted the Muslims to quickly leave the Congress. However, in the election, his trick to amass Hindu votes didn’t work. He failed to defeat the old vanguards of the Hindutva like BJP. As a result of losing the Muslim votes, the Congress ceased to exist anymore as an electable contender of power in Indian national politics. It could only show up as insignificant regional party in some smaller states.
However, Rajiv Gandhi is not the only Congress leader to embrace the Hindutva ideology. It indeed runs through the veins of many of the prominent Hindu leaders. Even, Mr. Nehru -the first Prime Minister of independent India didn’t prove different from any other Hindutva communal leader. Only a thief can embrace a thief. Likewise, only a communal leader can embrace another communal leader. So, Nehru showed his Hindutva color by embracing Mr. Samya Prasad Mukherjee as a member of his first post-independence cabinet. Mr. Mukherjee was known as one of the most original gurus of Hindutva radicalization of Indian politics. He was the former President of Hindu Mahashava and the founder of Jana Sangha –the mother organizations of today’s BJP. Embracing him in the cabinet tells a lot; it in fact means embracing his ideology.
Mr. Narasima Rao -another Congress Prime Minister of India, also showed a very high level of anti-Muslim venom in his psyche. He joined politics as an armed terrorist against the Muslim rule in Hyderabad. (K.S. Komireddi, 2019). While he was the Prime Minister, he allowed the destruction of Babri Mosque by his premeditated malign inaction. As a Prime Minister, he had the full power to stop the day-long crime that was being committed in broad day light. But he preferred to stay silent. For a man in power, such deliberate silence only proves complicity in the crime. Another anti-Muslim Hindutva radical in the Congress and in the highest echelon of India’s power structure was Mr. Pronab Mukherjee. He was the former President of India. He visited Nagpur to pay his deep homage to the RSS founder Mr. Hedgewar in 2018. The issue didn’t stop at his homage; Mr. Mukherjee went further. He exulted the RSS founder a “great son of Mother India” in the visitor’s book. Only a man with full endorsement Mr. Hedgewar’s ideology could write such a high eulogy. On behalf of the RSS, it was acknowledged that after the visit of Mr. Pronab Mukherjee, the membership of RSS went high.
Mr. Hedgewar’s ideology and his political objective were never hidden. Mr. Pronab Mukherjee must be knowing that. Mr. Hedgewar proclaimed that India was a land only of the Hindus and consistently loathed the Muslims. He could never swallow the Muslims’ rule and their existence in India. He considered Muslims’ rule in India as a disgrace for the Hindus. His obsession to take the revenge from the Muslims prompted him to form the RSS. His successor, Golwalkar, was an admirer of Hitler and his policies towards the Jews. He even wrote that Nazi Germany was a “good lesson for use in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.” In such writings of Mr. Golwalkar, the implied message is very clear. The Germans had the Jews and the Indians have the Muslims. Hitler had nothing to teach Indians on Hindutva. But he had a lot to teach the Hindus how he could spread the supremacist politics of hatred against the minorities like Jews. He could also teach how he mobilised and motivated the Germans to take millions of Jews to the genocidal gas chambers. Mr. Golwalkar was highly impressed by Hitler’s quick success in exterminating the Jews; hence asked his Hindu compatriots to apply the same politics of hatred and the genocidal methodology against the Indian Muslims. Can a man with an iota of morality endorse such a toxic ideology? But Mr. Pronab Mukharjee travelled to Nagpur to pay homage to an icon of such ideology. A Muslim can easily understand how dreadful to live amidst hordes of such indoctrinated people. In a conventional war, fear of death runs only through those who are in the battlefield. But for Muslims, the whole India had turned into a battlefield. Hence all-time fear of death runs through every Muslim man, woman and children.
In 1954, a Congress MP named Seth Govind Das moved a resolution in the Indian parliament for imposing a total ban on cow slaughter. Mr Vasan Sathe -another leading Hindutva fan in Congress, threatened to resign from the party if the party opposes the installation of a portrait of Mr. Savarkar –the original guru of Hindutva politics in India, in the parliament. (Naqvi, 2019). Moreover, the first post-independence genocidal massacre of the Muslims that took place in Hyderabad in 1948, wasn’t the work of RSS-BJP thugs. It happened under the watch of Congress Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. More than 100 thousands Muslims were killed in that pogrom; and thousands of Muslim women were raped. Even in Jummu –a southern region in united Kashmir, a massive genocide took place while the Congress and its leader Nehru were in the helm of affairs. Prior to Indian occupation in 1947, Jammu had 60 percent Muslim population. But by a planned pogrom in 1948, it was brought down to 30 percent. The genocide was carried out under the direct command of Dogra king Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir -as a part of the desperate move in his last days of rule to make Kashmir a Hindu majority state. Prime Minister Nehru not only kept silence on such heinous massacre; rather gave safe sanctuary to Hari Singh in Mumbai.
A mass murderer as a ruler
Political appointments made by a ruling party always reflect its embedded ideology. Modi played a key role in mobilizing the cadres to destroy Babri mosque. In early October 2001, the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee summoned Norendra Modi to his residence and offered him the chief minister’s job of Gujrat. (K.S. Komireddi, 2019). A party like BJP or RSS are always run by a co-operative of leaders with strong ideological and cultural match. This is why a Muslim, a secularist or communist is fully incompatible in BJP or RSS outfits. Mr. Vajpayee is usually projected as moderate in the RSS-BJP camp. But how a moderate man can match with an extremist killer? How can he appoint such a killer as a chief minister? Later on, Modi as a chief minister not only showed his own color, but also revealed Mr. Vajpayee’s color as well. A leader is rightly known by his close friends and the political decision. Modi’s intention, ideology and motive was not unknown to Mr. Vajpayee. Therefore, his appointment as the chief minister of Gujrat tells a lot about Mr. Vajpayee’s own ideology and motive. It indeed exposed Mr. Vajpayee’s own Hindutva indoctrination.
Within 4 months of the appointment as the chief minister of Gujrat, Modi showed his real color. In 2002, a train carrying Hindu extremists returning from the site of demolished Babri mosque got fire. Fifty-eight people burned to death. Mr. Norendra Modi didn’t wait for the enquiry, rather grab it as a great opportunity to do what he wanted to do. He instantly called it the work of the Islamic extremists. Modi’s announcement was enough to incite genocidal massacre against the Muslims in Gujrat. In one Muslim neighborhood, a mob of about five-thousands Hindus made their way through a slum and hacked ninety-seven Muslims to death and a mosque was blown up with liquefied petroleum. Across the road from the scene of carnage, stood a reserve police quarters. But no one from there lifted a finger. (Human Rights Watch, 2002). Thus, as a chief minister, Modi showed his own complicity in the crime. He need not kill or rape anybody himself; but his robust inaction worked as huge encouragement for the killers, the rapists and the arsonists to commit such crimes in thousands.
In an anti-Muslim pogrom, a Muslim of any rank doesn’t make any difference to be the worst victim. Former MP Ehsan Jafri was a very prominent Muslim leader of Gujarat. He had close acquaintance with Sonia Gandhi –the leader of Congress and personally known to Mr. Vajpayee -the sitting Prime Minister. Despite all such acquaintance, he was brutally tortured and slaughtered. Mr. Jafri was sheltering about 250 helpless Muslims in his residence. He spent hours making desperate calls to Modi’s office, but received no help. Modi turned deaf. At the end he urged the attackers, “Whatever you want do with me, do it; but please don’t kill those who have taken shelter in my house.” But his appeal felt on deaf ears. Mr. Jafri was dragged out of his house by the Hindu mob, tortured with all possible cruelty and sliced open with swords. At the end, he was burnt alive. Sixty-nine people seeking refuge inside Jafri’s house were killed in broad daylight over seven hours. In a civilized country, the police usually reach at the crime scene within five to ten minutes. But during the long period of seven hours, the state police didn’t bother to show up in the scene to stop this preventable massacre. (Vinod Jose, 2012).
Under Modi’s supervision, more than three thousand Muslims (in some estimate it is more than five thousands) were butchered, thousands of women were raped and more than hundred thousand Muslims were made homeless. Only a deliberate and premeditated inaction can justify such a crime. After such a criminal inaction, how can Modi deny his complicity in the genocidal massacre? But still, he didn’t lose the job. Not a single police officer was sacked or punished for such a criminal negligence. It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Vajpayee and the Home Minister Mr. Advani –god fathers of Mr. Modi, didn’t express any displeasure in public on such carnage. Instead, whatever carnage they could procure from this protégée, made them happy to hold the ladder at his footsteps to help him climb up to the Prime Ministerial post.
Modi: a psychopath
A man of morality usually resigns from his ministerial post for failing to prevent even a railway accident. But Mr. Modi never showed an iota repentance or remorse on heinous massacre of thousands of defenseless people in Gujrat, let alone resigning from the post. Rather, while responding to a reporter on his failure, he only lamented on the failure to control the media. As if, the genocidal pogrom against the Muslims itself wasn’t any crime, rather a big success! He blamed the unfettered media for giving publicity to that crime. (K.S. Komireddi, 2019). He would have been very happy if this carnage had gone unnoticed. Ashish Nandi –a distinguished social theorist and a clinical psychologist had an opportunity to take interview from Modi. Mr. Nandi gives a diagnosis on Modi’s psychiatric ill health based on some explicit and pathognomonic symptoms. Mr. Nandi wrote, “I still remember the cool, measured tone in which he (Mr. Modi) elaborated a theory of cosmic conspiracy against India that painted every Muslim as a suspected traitor and potential terrorist”. From the interview Nandi emerged ‘shaken’. As if, “he has met a textbook case of a fascist and prospective killer and perhaps even a future mass murderer.”–(Ashish Nandi, 2002).
Modi’s role, through commission and deliberate omission, in anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujrat in 2002, indeed gives enough evidences to prove the accuracy of Nandi’s diagnosis. Modi ’-as the chief minister of Gujrat, has the necessary power, police forces and other security apparatus under his command to quickly control the carnage. When the people are being killed, the women are being raped and the houses are being blazed, the government must show its quick and decisive action. This is indeed the norm of civilized governance. In such a critical situation, the government’s inaction for few moments means more deaths, more rapes and more arson. A single command of the chief minister was enough to bring all the security forces to the crime scenes and stop the genocide. But Mr. Modi preferred to stay silent. His silence worked as an implied message for the killers, the rapists and the arsonists. They took it as a full license to continue their crimes for weeks. Only a complicit criminal chief minister of a state can show such a role at a time when the anti-Muslim pogrom was going with the full swing. Because of his role, thousands of Muslims were killed, thousands of Muslim women were raped and more than hundred thousand people were made homeless destitute. All these crimes were done with a full jubilation on the street by the Hindutva forces. It is difficult to disbelieve that the sadistic Modi will not be celebrating his own contribution in the carnage in private.
The genocidal war
Now the same Modi is the Prime Minister of India. When such a psychopathic Muslim-hater becomes the Prime Minister of a country with 200 million Muslims, the country is bound to enter into a bloodbath. A genocidal war then enters into its cities, villages, streets, mosques, markets and households to kill the so-called enemies. Modi’s home minister Mr. Amit Shah called the Muslims as termite. How can Mr. Modi, Mr. Shah and the alike sleep in night with 200 million termite in their midst? Such sleeplessness will surely make them more delusive and mad. So, Mr. Ashish Nandi’s diagnosis stands accurate not only for Mr. Modi, but also for thousands of his Hindutva comrades. Because of such madness, they enjoy cow urine as holy drink; but can’t drink water from the fellow humans of so-called lower caste.
India stands as a textbook case of a war-infested country. India doesn’t have a war on its border against any foreign power. But it has deployed 800 hundred thousand soldiers to fight a war against an unarmed civilian population within its own border. It is unprecedented in human history. India has made a small valley of Kashmir the most militarized area in the world. Afghanistan is at least ten times bigger than Kashmir. But the USA never deployed more than 150 thousands soldiers in Afghanistan. Whereas, the USA has to fight a terrible war against the war-hardened and death defying mujahids. Even the Soviet troops in Afghanistan was never that high either. The same is true for the USA army deployment in Iraq. Kashmir has a total population of about 9 million. In 1971, East Pakistan had 75 million population. In 1971, the Pakistan Army had to fight a war in its eastern province against half a million strong Indian Army, Navy and Air Force and the India-trained Bengali insurgents. But in East Pakistan, the Pakistan Army didn’t have even one-fifteenth portion of the Indian soldiers that are now deployed in Kashmir! It beggars belief! About the army deployment in East Pakistan, Lt. General A.A.K. Niazi –the Commander of Pakistan Army’s Eastern Command in 1971 wrote: “The total fighting strength available to me was forty-five thousand -34,000 from the army, plus 11,000 from CAF (Civil Armed Forces) and West Pakistan civilian police and armed non-combatants.” (A.A.K Niazi, 1998).
The fascists are always obsessed with the elimination of those who are dissimilar to their faith, race, color and ideology. So, their war strategy is totally different from other countries. They need all-time war in all cities, all villages, all bazars, and all residential enclaves and even in all forests. Because they see enemies (termites) everywhere. Therefore, to sustain the war, they need more soldiers in Kashmir. They also need curfew for an endless period. It is also true that under the occupation of the Hindutva fascists, the Muslims are not the only victims. A relentless war also continues against the Maoists, the Adivasi, the Naga, the Mizo, the Christians, the Sikhs and many others. And, every war has its huge collateral costs, deaths and damages. Therefore, with such warmongering madness, these Hindutva supremacists are killing their own people. They are destroying their own environment and economy. If 800 thousands soldiers stay in Kashmir for another ten years and another 400 thousands in north-east India and in other parts, the Indian economy will collapse automatically. Then, Pakistan or any proscribed enemy will seldom need to engage in any combat with India.
So India stands as the worst enemy of its own people. Along with the unending internal war, worshipping and protecting cows are the two other most important political agendas of the Hindutva leaders. Billions of dollars are being spent to build world’s largest sculpture to glorify their Hindutva icons –as one built in Gujrat for Sarder Ballav Bhai Patel. As a result, they do not have enough money to look after their own poverty-stricken people. Therefore, India possesses not only the largest number of poor people on earth, but also gets the largest number of the suicidal deaths.
The culture of war-crimes
The Hindutva ideology has given birth to a strong culture of war crimes. Hence, India doesn’t need a full-fledged war on its border to have the wartime crimes of genocide, rape and arson; the Indian Muslim men, women and children have already become the victim of such crimes even without a war. Inner belief or ideology become visible through morality, culture and politics. Hence the people of same ideology show the similar morality, culture and politics almost everywhere. Therefore, the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee –the so-called moderate face of RSS-BJP family, didn’t show any discernable difference from Mr. Modi. Like Modi, he too, showed moral inability to condemn the bloodbath in Gujrat. While Gujrat was experiencing its most awful carnage in the history, Mr. Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of a coalition of about two dozen political parties. He was under tremendous pressure by those parties to sack Modi from the chief minister post. Bur he didn’t listen to them. (K.S. Komireddi, 2019). Instead of sacking or rebuking Modi, he lashed out at the Muslim victims. While addressing a meeting in Goa, he told that the Muslims “are not interested in living in peace”. (Vinod Jose, 2012). What did he mean by “living in peace”? Probably, Mr. Vajpayee had a different connotation of “living in peace” for the Muslims. Is it living in graveyards with absolute peace? Or, did he want a very peaceful submission of the Muslims to rape, arson and massacre?
In a corruptive cultural cum educational milieu, even a man with the highest university degree turns out to be the worst killer, rapist or arsonist. In such a situation, ideological sermons, political lectures, class room teachings and media reports work as powerful tools to kill people’s morality, humanity and ethical values. Such corruptive and corrosive endeavours –both by the Hindutva government and the NGOs, have badly impacted India. As a result, the moral ill health or death is huge. Because of that, even acts of raping, lynching, killing and even throwing children into fire have become an acceptable ethical, political or cultural norm in the society. Therefore, those who are complicit in such crimes get elected by a huge margin to the parliament. For the same reason, the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and many top ranking Indian political leaders and intellectuals failed to condemn rape, arson and genocide committed against the Muslims in Gujrat in 2002. Because of the same moral death, most of the political parties in India could endorse not only the annexation of Kashmir but also support the Army’s barbaric atrocities there.
War brings war crimes. And fascism creates a permissive culture for the war crimes. Because of that, the German fascists could procure the necessary manpower to run their politics, administration, genocidal war, gas chambers and anti-Jews pogrom. In India, the Hindutva fascists have also been very successful to create such a conducive culture to run their Hindutva war and the anti-Muslim genocide. This is why, they could easily find a complicit media, Army, intellectuals to support endless curfew and war crimes in Kashmir. Under the fascists’ rule, the whole Germany turned out to be a warzone for a Jew. The same has happened for a Muslim in India, too: the war has engulfed the Muslim life everywhere.
Visibly, the psyche of the ruling Hindutva elite is now inundated with an intense form of immorality, inhumanity and savagery. The Muslims now face a culture of deaths, rapes, tortures, destructions and other horrors of collateral war crimes. In such an awful situation, peaceful survival for the Indian Muslims stands impossible. Establishing the rule of law and punishing the worst criminals like killers, rapists and arsonists no more exists as the priority of the government. Neither the police, nor the judiciary shows any interest in such things. As if, the Muslims have are no entitlement for these! So, the killers could kill more than three to five thousands Muslims and rape thousands in broad day light in Gujrat in 2002 without an iota of prohibition. The criminals didn’t face any police arrest or judicial prosecution. The same happened in Nellie in Assam, in 1983. There, the killers could kill about 10 thousands Muslims in 14 villages, but not a single killer was prosecuted and punished. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made a pact with the political patrons of the killers and pardoned the perpetrators. The police, the law and the judiciary were kept defunct by the government only to appease the killers. Thus, the Hindu supremacist thugs are given the full licence to do all heinous crimes on the Muslims. In this regard, the Congress seldom makes any discernible difference from the BJP. Hitler gave similar impunity to the German fascists to kill Jews. So it appears, the Hindu supremacists have taken lessons from Hitler –as was advised by their guru Mr. Golwalkar.
Kashmir is now Gujrat
The anti-Muslim war has attained a new intensity in Kashmir. What happened in Gujrat under chief minister Modi’s direct watch in 2002, is now happening under Prime Minister Modi’s watch in Kashmir. But there is a difference. In Gujrat, the carnage was carried out by the Hindutva thugs, the police and the provincial administration. In Kashmir, it is being carried out by the more powerful Indian Army and the central government. In war zone, the common people are not allowed to come to the streets. The streets are usually taken over by the Army. Eight hundred thousand soldiers of the Indian Army are doing the same in Kashmir by enforcing more than 60 days’ curfew in Kashmir. Such an act of barbarity has never happened against any civilian people in the whole human history. As a result, the parents can’t go to the shops for buying milk. The kidney dialysis patients can’t go to the hospital for dialysis. The diabetic patients can’t go to the pharmacy for insulin. The injured patients can’t be taken to the hospital emergencies. The people are strictly prohibited to do any work, run any business, earn any money or buy any food. Even in wartime, people are not deprived of such indispensable liberties. Even in prison, people are not subjugated with such barbarity.
Mr. Modi and his Hindutva cronies in media, administration and politics call such subjugation of the Kashmiri people by force as progression of peace. They call it a route to economic progress. And they deliberately hide the fact that along with 800,000 soldiers, the imposed curfew has become a powerful tool to torment the Kashmiri civilians. In reality, the truth is more awful. What the Hindutva killers and rapists commit during anti-Muslim riots in other parts of India, has become every day’s riot in Kashmir. The whole Kashmir has been turned to genocidal Gujrat. The killing, rape and arson in Gujrat have taken a pause; but such pause doesn’t exist in Kashmir. The barbarity is going relentlessly. Therefore, the Muslim men and women that are killed or raped in Gujrat, Kashmir has at least fifty times more than that.
The war of terror
War starts and survives on vitriolic hatred against the enemies. For the Hindutva radicals of India, the perceived enemies are the Muslims. India has three wars against Pakistan. Every war against Pakistan was in fact anti-Muslim war. The war against Pakistan has now a pause; but it continues against the Muslims inside India. War brings not only deaths, destructions and pain, but also a weaponised propaganda against the perceived enemies. India is inundated with such propaganda and war crimes. So, a war of terror has come to the Muslims at their doorsteps, streets and businesses. On 28 September 2015, Mohammad Akhlaq, a fifty-year old farm worker, was dragged out of his house in the town of Dadri, an hour drive from Delhi, by a violent crowd of young Hindu men incensed by the rumor that he had slaughtered a calf. They killed Mr. Akhlaq by striking him repeatedly by bricks. They beat his son to within an inch of his life, assaulted his elderly mother, and attempted to molest his younger daughter. (Indian Express, 26 December 2015).
Like the party thugs, the Hindutva leaders proved no less heartless. They displayed their moral inability to condemn such a heinous crime. Instead, the top-tier leader of the BJP issued posthumous condemnation of Mr. Akhlaq for wounding the feelings of Hindu by eating beef. He also threatened that the Hindus should not be expected to remain silent when a cow is killed. So, the implied message for a Muslim is very clear: the Hindus have every right to break their silence by killing Muslims whenever they believe that a cow has been killed. They need not wait for a probe to establish the allegation –as happened with Mr. Akhlaq. One BJP MP Mr Shakhi Maharaj announced that he is ready to kill and get killed for mother (cow).” (News18, 6 October 2015). Similar statement came from the home minister of Gujrat; he equaled killing of cow or cow progeny with the killing of a human. (Human Rights Watch, 2019)
But the Hindutva leaders conveniently forget the other side of the reality. India is the number one exporter of beef in the world. As a result, millions of Indian cows –worshipped as goddess, turn into kebab worldwide. Since the agenda is to bring foreign currency, mass slaughtering of their mother goddess becomes lawful and acceptable business activity. Using hides of these mothers to make shoes also becomes the part of their economics. Such acts don’t touch the religious or emotional fibers of the people like Mr. Shakhi Maharaj. Nor did Mr. Maharaj get killed for saving mother cow from becoming kebab. But while politically needed to target the Muslims for torturing, raping and killing, the narratives on cows take a 180 degree shift. Then, protecting cow becomes a religious duty of a Hindu and killing a Muslim for eating beef becomes a holy act. In such politicized context, any police arrest or probe against the perpetrators of crimes turn hugely unwelcome. This is why, the BJP leaders could even intimidate the police to leave the perpetrators of murders alone. They could also tell that the Hindus are not in a mood to tolerate any harassment by the investigating police authorities. Then, the police enquiry and judicial probe –parts of the civilized norms, are labelled as harassment! One of the legislator even blamed the family for the death of Mr. Akhlaq. The crime of the family was none else but eating beef. (Indian Express, 2 October 2015).
The weaponized propaganda has other horrendous dimensions. It is aimed at putting tag of Islamic terrorism on the Muslims and justify brutal police torture and long detention against them. Here is an example. In the summer of 2007, in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, an improvised explosive device went off in the ablution area and killed 11 people. About ten thousand people were praying in the mosque at the time of the incidence. The authority instantly blamed Islamic extremists coming from Bangladesh and Pakistan. They were also linked with a Pakistani outfit. Immediately after the incident, 200 Muslims were arrested. After one year of nerve-wracking detention, 21 people were charged for prosecution. But all these initiatives were proved fake. The truth came to the surface only when a repentant Hindu priest -arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency, confessed that the explosion in Mecca Masjid was one of the many similar staged explosions by a militant Hindu group. He also told that the group is intimately connected with RSS -the parent body of BJP. The priest also acknowledged the involvement an of an Indian Army officer. (Swami’s confession, Frontline, Vol 28, 3 Jan 29 Feb 2011). But in most of the cases, none of the Hindu priests come forward to tell the truth, hence the anti-Muslim barbarity continues without any pause. The Hindutva war thus continues. 06/10/2019.
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22. Stanley, Jason (2018). How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. New York: Random House. pp.14-15.
23. Pradeep Nayak, 1993. The Politics of the Ayodhya Dispute, Commonwealth Publishers, New Delhi, p.120.
