Hindutvaisation of India

 

Hindutvaisation of India

The year 2021 ended against the backdrop of hate, prejudice and the growing legitimization of communal poison that is spreading like a wild fire.  The three-day-long Dharma Sansad in Haridwar held between December 17-19 last year where a call for genocide against Muslims in India was given.  

 

At the religious congregation, organised by Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the head priest of the Desna Devi temple and a high-ranking officer of the Juna Akhara -a sect of Hindu seers-many speakers had raised the bogey of an Islamic threat to India and Hindus.  Swami Prabhodhanand Giri said,” There is no more time, the case now is that either you prepare to die now, or get ready to kill, there is no other way. This is way, like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up weapons and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive. There is no solution apart from this.” Yati Narasinghanand even offered Rs.1 crore to any youth who would rise up to be a ‘Hindu Prabhakaran’, in clear incitement to violence.  These hate speeches sound like the call of the Taliban. We have seen the radical Hindu elements disrupting Friday prayers in Gurugram, with chants of Jai Shri Ram.  The Muslims shop keepers were beaten up with chants of Jai Shri Ram. The Haryana government, succumbing to the pressure from the Hindu fanatic groups, banned the prayers by Muslims in the open places, for which the permission was given earlier.

 

It is a matter of serious concern that repetitive hate speech and fear against minority groups by Hindutva ideologues is resulting in a mass cult like indoctrination, making Hindus believe that they are under immediate threat by those who are not exactly like them. A non-existent threat is manufactured and presented.  The speakers at the Haridwar event, painted a picture of an India which is under threat of being taken over by Islamists, and therefore they reasoned, all Muslims must be treated with hate and suspicion.  The purveyors of the hate speech offered a shocking solution- Hindus must take up weapons against Muslims in acts of self-preservation, outlying a fictious reason to engage in the geocide of Muslims. This is a very dangerous extreme right-right ideology. 

 

The Christians are also the target of the militant Hindu organisations. A life -size statue of Jesus Christ at the British era Holy Redeemer Church in the cantonment area of Ambala in Haryana was vandalized.  A group of boys claiming to be members of the Bajrang Dal had stopped Hindus from celebrating Christmas in Silcar of South Assam on December 25. The militant Hindutavadis   broke into schools where Christian Carols were being practiced asking them to shout Jai Shri Ram. All this is, well orchestrated and preceded, for the past seven years, by   the violent mob attacks in the name of cow vigilantism, gharwapsi, love-jihad with impunity. In Karnataka churches are attacked regularly.  The government of Karnataka, a state where some 42 attacks on Christians were recorded last year, has now come out with a draconian anti-conversation Bill, that will inevitably encourage the Hindu vigilantism.

 

Expressing concern about the development in Haridwar, Delhi and elsewhere opening calling for a ‘genocide of Indian Muslims and the targeting of other minorities’, some 200 spirited citizens of India, including five former Service Chiefs, in an open letter dated 31 December, to President Ram Nth Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urged them to condemn and take immediate steps to curb such attempts. The letter reads, “In view of the current situation on our borders any breach of peace and harmony within the nation will embolden inimical external forces. The unity and cohesiveness of our men and women in uniform, including the Central Armed Police Forces and police forces, will be seriously affected by allowing such blatant calls for violence against one or the other community in our diverse and plural society.”

 

 On 9 January, 76 Supreme Court layers wrote to Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to take suo motu cognizance of the Haridwar event and direct that action be taken against the guilty persons under Sections 120B,121A.153A.153B.295A and 298 of the IPC. And a group of 183 students and faculty members from the Indian Institutes of Management at Bengaluru and Ahmedabad flagged hate speech and attacks on minorities in a letter dated 7 January to Narendra Modi, saying his silence ‘emboldens’ the voices of hate: “Your silence on the rising intolerance in our country Honorable Prime Minister is disheartening to all of us who value the multicultural fabric of our country.  Your silence…emboldens the hate -filled voices and threatens the unity and integrity of our country”, urging him to steer the country away from ‘forces that seek to divide us.’ Former Patna High Court Judge Anjana Prakash and the journalist Qurban Ali have filled PIL in the apex count, seeking the Court intervention. It is argued that “we are living in different times where the slogan has changed from Satyameva Jayate to Sashastrameva Jayate.” The Supreme Court has since served the notice to Uttarakhand government and the Union government.  

 

The interview of Karan Thapar for ‘The Wire’ titled ‘Attempts at Genocide Could Lead to Civil War’ with Naseeruddin Shah recently is a warning of the things to come. To hold the present Muslim community in India responsible for alleged atrocities against Indians in the past is atrocious. While students, comedians, and  civil rights activists are  booked under sedition law, there is reluctance  on the part of authorities to book people who are giving hate speeches and bloodcurdling calls for Muslims genocide and ethnic cleansing. The PM’s silence is deafening, sending a message that he doesn’t care about what happened at the ‘Dharma Sansad.’  His silence is morally unjustified, it sounds that, in fact, he endorses the hate speeches and encourages the militant Hindutavadis, because he reaps political dividends. The Muslims are being sought to be reduced to second class citizens in their own country.  It is an attempt to develop a phobia among Muslims. It is frightening.  Yogi Adityanath, with the election in UP announced, now speaks of 80% Vs20 %, implying that he has the support of 80% Hindus and doesn’t care 20% Muslims in his state.  The venom of hatred is spreading that the Muslims would out-umber the Hindus. The NDTV in its programme; ‘Reality Check’ on 11 January, reported that there is staggering 1130% spike in hate speeches since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

 

And unless we stamp out the religious bigotry and arrest the process of Hindutvaisation of India, our democracy and secular constitution will not survive. The Muslims in India under the present dispensation are angry and resentful.  The hate-mongers and the younger generation who are fed on intolerance and hatred against the minorities, will eventually find it difficult to adjust in society and live in communal harmony.  Gandhiji warned,” the minorities must be made to realise that they are as much valued citizens of the State they live in as the majority of the State.”  The opposition needs a coherent national narrative to mobilize public opinion.