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By:Basharat Hussain Qizilbash 11 hrs ago | Comments (8)
Ominous for Pakistan and Muslims in India
A few weeks ago, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) elected Narendra Modi as the chief of its election campaign for the May/June 2014 general elections. Should the BJP win, he would be the prime minister of India. His rise is not a good omen for the Muslims of India in general and Pakistan in particular. There are reasons for this pessimism.
Although the prime ministerial position has its own priorities and considerations, yet he is expected to rule India the way he has governed the province of Gujarat for the last so many years. Under him, the economic development of Gujarat is touted as a role model for the rest of India. He is looked upon as a ‘visionary’ and an ‘efficient administrator’ who does not tolerate nonsense and knows ‘how to get things done’. His economic and industrial achievements may be laudable. However, one should not forget the horrendous treatment meted out to the Muslim minority during the Gujarat riots under his watch.
The rioting that continued from 28 February to July 2000 engulfed twenty out of twenty-five districts of the province including 151 towns and 991 villages, caused demolition of 230 mosques and shrines, death of 2000 people, displacement of more than one hundred thousand and an economic loss of almost Indian Rs110 billion, according to an estimate of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The reaction of Modi and his fellow ruling BJP politicians to this Hindu carnage against the Muslims is quite indicative of their inner thought processes. Modi termed the riots as a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to the burning of a coach of the ‘Sabermati Express’ at the train station in Godhra about two days earlier that was carrying workers/members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in which about 58 people died notwithstanding the fact that it remains disputed whether the fire was caused from inside or outside the compartment. Instead of allowing the law to identify the culprits of this dastardly act which took away precious and innocent lives, the VHP secretary general Pravin Togadia instigated the Hindus by stating, “Hindu society will avenge the Godhra killings. Muslims should accept that Hindus are not wearing bangles.” The BJP politicians also blamed the Muslims for the tragedy.
Modi’s ‘Newtonian logic’ to the subsequent Hindu attacks on the Muslims with the argument that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ was a blatant lie in the light of a research conducted by Ward Berenschot for his book “Riot politics: Hindu-Muslim violence and the Indian state”, for which he stayed in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat for fifteen months to collect first hand evidence. The fact of the matter is that most of the anti-Muslim riots were planned and executed by leaders and members of the Hindu-nationalist organisations such as the BJP, the VHP, the RSS and the Bajrang Dal often in collaboration with the local ‘goondas’ and with the complicity of police. This revelation is corroborated by a series of secretly videotaped interviews conducted by the Indian investigative magazine ‘Tehelka’ in which the perpetrators of violence exposed the hideous hand of the state and the politicians: “It was [Chief Minister Modi] who gave all signals in favour of Hindus… if the ruler is hard, then things can start happening.” How deeply the Modi government connived in the death of Muslims and the destruction of their livelihoods can be imagined from the fact that the Hindu rioters often carried the voters’ lists and sales tax details of those Muslims which were to be targeted.
One wonders how secular India can produce such communalist-minded and militant leaders. Isn’t Gujarat the birthplace of ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, who spent his whole life preaching the gospel of non-violence? Despite Gandhi’s message of peace and love towards all humans, Gujarat has remained a ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ ideology, which claims that India belongs to Hindus only and looks upon Muslims as outsiders, who, if they wish to live in India must submit to the diktat of the Hindu majority. So, the Indian Muslims have two stark choices: either to get out of India or live as second class citizens. The ‘Hindutva’ as a political ideology was first propagated by the RSS in 1925 and over the decades its call for the revival of Hinduism has gained wide currency to the extent that now it boasts of a whole ‘family’ of violent Hindu-nationalist organisations, which combine together are called the ‘Sangh Parivar’ – all committed to turn India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ i.e. a society and a polity based solely on Hindu values.
It is a systematically organised ‘family’ in which the RSS works as the ‘social wing’ (running more than 5000 schools, hospitals and charity institutions); the VHP acts as the ‘religious wing’ to promote Hinduism inside and outside India; the BJP represents its political face whereas its youth force is groomed by Bajrang Dal. This growth of the ‘Sangh Pariwar’ has been phenomenal in the last quarter of a century because from a meager tally of four parliamentary seats in 1980, the BJP first won the general elections in 1996 and afterwards ruled the country from 1998 to 2004. Due to the two lackluster electoral terms of the Congress party marred by rampant corruption, dormant leadership and indecisive management, the BJP is well poised to hold the reins of the country, once again next year under the swashbuckling Narendra Modi.
Communal riots are not new to India. They date back to the pre-British times. However, what is quite intriguing is that the increase in their number and intensity coincide with the rise of Hindu-nationalists with the BJP at the forefront. Scholars offer different explanations in this regard. One can be the economic competition such as the Jabalpur riots after partition between the Hindu and the Muslim manufacturers of ‘beeri’ (cigarettes). The other can be that the riots serve as a political strategy of the politicians whereby mobs are mobilised through inflammatory speeches, organisation of religious processions, distribution of money, etc. The third is the division of society on religious basis. Although all religions preach peace and harmony, the mere fact that one group of people has a different outlook of and about life divides peoples into ‘us’ and ‘them’ i.e. Hindus and Muslims, respectively. Those who advocated communal harmony such as Emperor Akbar through his policy of Sulh-e-Kul’, the Bhakti Movement and the Sufi syncretism are either ignored, overlooked or totally forgotten whereas those who caused or nurtured divisiveness or hatred in the society are often revered and idolised.
In this way, ‘them’ (Muslims) becomes the ‘other’ and thus its violation, desecration and persecution becomes acceptable. The injured self-esteem of the ‘us’ (Hindus) as a result of the subjugation at the hands of ‘them’ (Muslims) in the past centuries is being recovered by repeatedly inflicting violence on the ‘other’ because the very act of violence is looked upon as a mean to establish ‘superiority’ over those who were once considered ‘superior’ (Muslims) in the past. And if violence can be committed against the bodies of the women of the ‘other’ (Muslims) then not only it shames ‘their’ men but is viewed as a proof of ‘maleness’ of the perpetrators (Hindus). The Gujarat violence is an undeniable testimony of how the ‘other’ can be named, shamed and killed in the name of ‘pride’ and ‘honour’. Berenschot has brought on record how whole families were electrocuted; people were burned alive; women were gang raped; fetuses were ripped out of women’s bellies; metal rods and pins were inserted into their private parts and they were burned alive after being covered in wax. Even kids were not spared as the one who had begged for water was forced to drink kerosene oil and then a match was thrown into his mouth which exploded his head. ‘Violence for the Sangh Parivar,’ writes Tanika Sarkar “is both source and proof of maleness.”
And Modi has worked as a ‘pracharak’ (organiser) of this Sangh Parivar, precisely of the RSS. This is his track record in Gujarat; one wonders how differently will he rule the whole of India? His party has a tendency to engineer communal violence to win the Hindu votes and an analysis of riots throughout India indicates a trend that they “occur significantly more often in the six months before or after elections.” It will be interesting to see how this correlation between riots and the BJP works in the upcoming elections. As his party’s ‘Hindutva’ ideology brands the Muslims as ‘violent’, ‘criminal’ and a ‘threat’ to Hindus; not only the Indian Muslims but the Pakistanis as well will anxiously watch how the election drama unfolds the fate of Narendra Modi.
writer is an academic and journalist. He can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com
- See more at: The rise and rise of Narendra Modi | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia
Ominous for Pakistan and Muslims in India
A few weeks ago, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) elected Narendra Modi as the chief of its election campaign for the May/June 2014 general elections. Should the BJP win, he would be the prime minister of India. His rise is not a good omen for the Muslims of India in general and Pakistan in particular. There are reasons for this pessimism.
Although the prime ministerial position has its own priorities and considerations, yet he is expected to rule India the way he has governed the province of Gujarat for the last so many years. Under him, the economic development of Gujarat is touted as a role model for the rest of India. He is looked upon as a ‘visionary’ and an ‘efficient administrator’ who does not tolerate nonsense and knows ‘how to get things done’. His economic and industrial achievements may be laudable. However, one should not forget the horrendous treatment meted out to the Muslim minority during the Gujarat riots under his watch.
The rioting that continued from 28 February to July 2000 engulfed twenty out of twenty-five districts of the province including 151 towns and 991 villages, caused demolition of 230 mosques and shrines, death of 2000 people, displacement of more than one hundred thousand and an economic loss of almost Indian Rs110 billion, according to an estimate of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The reaction of Modi and his fellow ruling BJP politicians to this Hindu carnage against the Muslims is quite indicative of their inner thought processes. Modi termed the riots as a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to the burning of a coach of the ‘Sabermati Express’ at the train station in Godhra about two days earlier that was carrying workers/members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in which about 58 people died notwithstanding the fact that it remains disputed whether the fire was caused from inside or outside the compartment. Instead of allowing the law to identify the culprits of this dastardly act which took away precious and innocent lives, the VHP secretary general Pravin Togadia instigated the Hindus by stating, “Hindu society will avenge the Godhra killings. Muslims should accept that Hindus are not wearing bangles.” The BJP politicians also blamed the Muslims for the tragedy.
Modi’s ‘Newtonian logic’ to the subsequent Hindu attacks on the Muslims with the argument that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ was a blatant lie in the light of a research conducted by Ward Berenschot for his book “Riot politics: Hindu-Muslim violence and the Indian state”, for which he stayed in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat for fifteen months to collect first hand evidence. The fact of the matter is that most of the anti-Muslim riots were planned and executed by leaders and members of the Hindu-nationalist organisations such as the BJP, the VHP, the RSS and the Bajrang Dal often in collaboration with the local ‘goondas’ and with the complicity of police. This revelation is corroborated by a series of secretly videotaped interviews conducted by the Indian investigative magazine ‘Tehelka’ in which the perpetrators of violence exposed the hideous hand of the state and the politicians: “It was [Chief Minister Modi] who gave all signals in favour of Hindus… if the ruler is hard, then things can start happening.” How deeply the Modi government connived in the death of Muslims and the destruction of their livelihoods can be imagined from the fact that the Hindu rioters often carried the voters’ lists and sales tax details of those Muslims which were to be targeted.
One wonders how secular India can produce such communalist-minded and militant leaders. Isn’t Gujarat the birthplace of ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, who spent his whole life preaching the gospel of non-violence? Despite Gandhi’s message of peace and love towards all humans, Gujarat has remained a ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ ideology, which claims that India belongs to Hindus only and looks upon Muslims as outsiders, who, if they wish to live in India must submit to the diktat of the Hindu majority. So, the Indian Muslims have two stark choices: either to get out of India or live as second class citizens. The ‘Hindutva’ as a political ideology was first propagated by the RSS in 1925 and over the decades its call for the revival of Hinduism has gained wide currency to the extent that now it boasts of a whole ‘family’ of violent Hindu-nationalist organisations, which combine together are called the ‘Sangh Parivar’ – all committed to turn India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ i.e. a society and a polity based solely on Hindu values.
It is a systematically organised ‘family’ in which the RSS works as the ‘social wing’ (running more than 5000 schools, hospitals and charity institutions); the VHP acts as the ‘religious wing’ to promote Hinduism inside and outside India; the BJP represents its political face whereas its youth force is groomed by Bajrang Dal. This growth of the ‘Sangh Pariwar’ has been phenomenal in the last quarter of a century because from a meager tally of four parliamentary seats in 1980, the BJP first won the general elections in 1996 and afterwards ruled the country from 1998 to 2004. Due to the two lackluster electoral terms of the Congress party marred by rampant corruption, dormant leadership and indecisive management, the BJP is well poised to hold the reins of the country, once again next year under the swashbuckling Narendra Modi.
Communal riots are not new to India. They date back to the pre-British times. However, what is quite intriguing is that the increase in their number and intensity coincide with the rise of Hindu-nationalists with the BJP at the forefront. Scholars offer different explanations in this regard. One can be the economic competition such as the Jabalpur riots after partition between the Hindu and the Muslim manufacturers of ‘beeri’ (cigarettes). The other can be that the riots serve as a political strategy of the politicians whereby mobs are mobilised through inflammatory speeches, organisation of religious processions, distribution of money, etc. The third is the division of society on religious basis. Although all religions preach peace and harmony, the mere fact that one group of people has a different outlook of and about life divides peoples into ‘us’ and ‘them’ i.e. Hindus and Muslims, respectively. Those who advocated communal harmony such as Emperor Akbar through his policy of Sulh-e-Kul’, the Bhakti Movement and the Sufi syncretism are either ignored, overlooked or totally forgotten whereas those who caused or nurtured divisiveness or hatred in the society are often revered and idolised.
In this way, ‘them’ (Muslims) becomes the ‘other’ and thus its violation, desecration and persecution becomes acceptable. The injured self-esteem of the ‘us’ (Hindus) as a result of the subjugation at the hands of ‘them’ (Muslims) in the past centuries is being recovered by repeatedly inflicting violence on the ‘other’ because the very act of violence is looked upon as a mean to establish ‘superiority’ over those who were once considered ‘superior’ (Muslims) in the past. And if violence can be committed against the bodies of the women of the ‘other’ (Muslims) then not only it shames ‘their’ men but is viewed as a proof of ‘maleness’ of the perpetrators (Hindus). The Gujarat violence is an undeniable testimony of how the ‘other’ can be named, shamed and killed in the name of ‘pride’ and ‘honour’. Berenschot has brought on record how whole families were electrocuted; people were burned alive; women were gang raped; fetuses were ripped out of women’s bellies; metal rods and pins were inserted into their private parts and they were burned alive after being covered in wax. Even kids were not spared as the one who had begged for water was forced to drink kerosene oil and then a match was thrown into his mouth which exploded his head. ‘Violence for the Sangh Parivar,’ writes Tanika Sarkar “is both source and proof of maleness.”
And Modi has worked as a ‘pracharak’ (organiser) of this Sangh Parivar, precisely of the RSS. This is his track record in Gujarat; one wonders how differently will he rule the whole of India? His party has a tendency to engineer communal violence to win the Hindu votes and an analysis of riots throughout India indicates a trend that they “occur significantly more often in the six months before or after elections.” It will be interesting to see how this correlation between riots and the BJP works in the upcoming elections. As his party’s ‘Hindutva’ ideology brands the Muslims as ‘violent’, ‘criminal’ and a ‘threat’ to Hindus; not only the Indian Muslims but the Pakistanis as well will anxiously watch how the election drama unfolds the fate of Narendra Modi.
writer is an academic and journalist. He can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com
- See more at: The rise and rise of Narendra Modi | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia
