The Hindu Diaspora and its hostile relationship with ethnic minorities in India
Written By: Franca Colozzo
Lately, looking for news about what has been happening in New Delhi since 26 February 2020 with regard to Muslims, I was struck by reading an article that made me think a lot: “Why Does Hindu Diaspora In Developed Multicultural Countries Hate Minorities Back Home In India?” “The Hindu diaspora has been taking keen interest in electoral politics, supporting and financing the ‘Hindutva’ candidates in elections in India.”, by Ashok Swain, 20 December 2017 and republished by OUTLOOK INDIA March 02, 2020.
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/why-does-hindu-diaspora-in-developed-multicultural-countries-hate-minorities-bac/305758?fbclid=IwAR3qxH9mo6Wmmjns8QuTSJj_9dJWr-jCgxH0PW6isymZAoKLA4e58DfhM1Y
This new witch hunt, which seems to be repeated over time in a large and overcrowded continent like India, composed of a puzzle of cultures, ethnic groups, religions and atavistic cultures, has made me think about how man is always looking for a scapegoat for his frustrations. Whether it is the Coronavirus of these days and the hunt for the sick or healthy bearer, the plague-stricken on duty guilty only of having contracted the virus, or the migrant seen as a burden or burden to unload elsewhere, it seems that this leap year 2020 has not started off on the right foot.
Intolerance, dissatisfaction, frustrations of various kinds, disappointment of the young and not-so-young at working-age groups, incompetence are dragging humanity towards the hellish circle of witch-hunting.
Mindful of the years of the plague in Milan, as expertly recounted by the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni in “I Promessi Sposi” (The Betrothed), a famous historical considered the most famous and the most widely read among those written in the Italian language published in its final version between 1840 and 1842, I dived into the historical setting, between 1628 and 1630, in Lombardy during the Spanish domination.
Now that we are living the contradictions of our overcrowded world, with all the ecological and environmental problems (climatic variations, pollution, deforestation, over-consumption of the soil, etc.) the current pandemic reminds me of the Great Plague in Milan of 1629-1631.
In addition to the economic consequences of so much unjustified alarmism, given the medical knowledge far superior to the past and the use of innovative drugs able to counteract the serious forms of pneumonia, etc. here, as if that were not enough, a strong ostracism against migrants, ethnic and religious minorities reappear on a global level.
But the Indian phenomenon has deeper and more deeply rooted roots than what happens in the world. Shame for what is happening in New Delhi these days, an infamy for human rights.
I’ve been reading articles by senior Indian leaders, now abroad. They point out the dichotomy between their struggle as minorities against the governments of the countries in which they reside and the struggle that they conduct in India the residents against the ethnic minorities.
You can’t ask when you are in the Diaspora that your requests be accepted as belonging to a Hindu minority, when at home you become a cruel and ruthless executor of laws against minorities. There is an underlying contradiction. Double standards. Try to implement human rights in a fair manner, instead of spreading hate messages that fuel further hatred. This is what is happening now in New Delhi, the capital of India, a world shame also condemned by the UN.
Not being in favor of any terrorist groups, I have only photographed the current situation in New Delhi which, condemned by all included UN, should be condemned also by you residents of India. One day you will find yourself as the Germans besieged by Hitler’s SS, then you will understand that India has been torn apart by yourselves.
A brief history of the RSS to understand its historical matrix appears necessary. Why then declare RSS a Terrorist Organisation?
«Founded in 1925, the RSS took direct inspiration from the European fascist movements of the 1920s-1940s, including the Nazi Party. Today, it has metastasised into a 6 million + member uniformed and armed paramilitary. The RSS is responsible for acts of gross violence, including participating in every major pogrom in independent India. We are calling on the US State Department to declare the RSS a terrorist organisation.
The RSS is infamous for its members dressing in uniforms which strongly resemble those worn by members of the Hitler Youth. It was founded in 1925, the same year that the Nazi party was reformulated with Hitler as its leader. In addition to drawing inspiration from the Nazis, the RSS modeled itself after Mussolini’s fascist movement in Italy.
In 1931, RSS co-founder BS Moonje met Mussolini in Rome. After praising the dictator’s fascist youth group, ONB, for its “military regeneration” of Italian youth, Moonje wrote, “India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus.” He claimed that “the idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people” and declared: “Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind.”
The longest-serving RSS chief, M.S. Golwalkar, called it treason for an Indian to convert away from Hinduism or refuse to “glorify the Hindu Race and Nation.” In 1939, he also wrote glowingly in support of Nazi racial policy: “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here.” He called this “a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”
In its June 2019 report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom warned that the RSS’s agenda “to alienate non-Hindus or lower-caste Hindus is a significant contributor to the rise of religious violence and persecution.”
The RSS has been repeatedly accused of instigating violence. It has been banned several times, the first time following the assassination of M.K. Gandhi by a former RSS member.
In 2002, Human Rights Watch named the RSS and its subsidiaries as the groups responsible for an anti-Muslim pogrom that killed 2,000 in the Indian state of Gujarat. In 2012, Swami Aseemanand, a full-time RSS worker, confessed to orchestrating several terrorist bombings which claimed hundreds of lives from 2006 to 2008. Many other instances of bombings, assassinations, and pogroms have been laid at the feet of the RSS.
The RSS (including its many subsidiaries) has been linked to many other major incidents of anti-minority violence all across India. These include the 1947 Jammu Massacre (20,000+ Muslims killed) and the 1969 Gujarat Riots (400+ Muslims killed) — both of which occurred shortly after visit by Golwalkar. Later came the 1970 Bhiwandi Riots in Maharashtra (190+ Muslims killed), the 1983 Nellie Massacre in Assam (2,200+ Bengali Muslims killed), the 1984 Sikh Genocide in Delhi (3,000+ Sikhs killed), the 1985 Gujarat Riots (hundreds of Muslims killed), the 1987 Meerut Riots in Uttar Pradesh (hundreds of Muslims killed), the 1989 Bhagalpur Riots in Bihar (900+ Muslims killed), the 1992 nationwide riots following the Babri Mosque destruction (2,000+ Muslims killed), the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom (2,000+ Muslims killed), the 2008 Odisha Pogrom (100+ Christians killed), and countless other smaller-scale incidents.»
Democracy and freedom are this: to speak aloud without fear, maybe some people have to learn from European history and revolutions to achieve these goals. That’s why Indian diaspora wants to come to Europe, a continent where freedom is the fruit of two cruel World Wars. Freedom is a seed that must be watered every day in order to have fruits of stability and peace, is not a commodity acquired beforehand.
Because men are animated by protagonism and war is one of the most flashy stages. Does this seem strange? But from what world is world nothing has changed if we continue to slaughter each other even for a piece of bread, for a commendation, for a quote. Is this the way to peace? Where are the sleeping heroes of history? I often see them writhing up there in the sky among the wandering clouds of my memory.
The real problem is that Indians in the diaspora (not me, but an eminent Indian PHD who lives in Sweden) want to have minority rights in the other countries where they go to work, but they don’t recognize them to other minorities (especially Muslims and Christians) in India. This is a real paradox!
As is clear from the article that struck me and made me understand the anthropological and sociological matrix of this rampant phenomenon of “Witch Hunt” on the Hindu side.
Livor for the situation of an Indian GDP that is not growing like the Chinese one, for example, shifting American and Arab interests towards India in order to slow down Chinese growth and therefore increase the Indian one? The signals coming from the world are contradictory, but one thing is certain: there is always the imperialist push to shift the world balance towards this or that country according to internal needs. This is how globalization has canned the world, making the peoples servants of the masters!
