by M A Hossain 10 July 2021
In 2010, the multi-award-winning Bollywood movie” My name is Khan” where Shahrukh Khan(Rizwan Khan) portrayed the character of a Muslim righteous man with Asperger’s syndrome. This movie scintillatingly showcased a message to the society that terrorism should not be generalised with the Muslim names only. In that movie, the protagonist conveyed a message to the most powerful president, “My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist” who went through racial discrimination and suffered religious bigotry due to his Muslim heritage.
During the last couple of years, while flipping through the Daily Newspapers, I, quite frequently came by a few names, Pehlu Khan(April’17), Akbar Khan(July’18), Faisal Usman Khan (January’19), Junayed Khan(Haryana, 2020), Mudassir Khan(2020), Asif Khan(2021); only to find that these men were lynched by mob in different places just for the sake of their Muslims names; although they were not found to have been imputed with any crime from any corner. These scoops reminded me of the iconic dialogue of Shahrukh Khan in the above-mentioned movie. Unfortunately, the number of people being enlisted in such an ill-fated procession of death, with the name of Khan, is increasing day by day in India.
In my article, I will try to demonstrate how the history of demagoguery of the politicians is repeating to grab power under the facade of religious frenzy in our subcontinent and as to how the Indian religious minority faced systematic discrimination and repression by the right-wing Hindu extremists.
During the British colonial era, being imbued by the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy, East India Company continued subjugating the people of this Subcontinent predicating on the religious and socio-religious difference. The company’s unprecedented success in this regard was largely ascribed to its expertise in pitting Hindus against Muslims. With the advent of ‘Hindu Nationalism’ by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1896, the Hindus of the subcontinent began to be inspired by the religious identity. He organised the ‘ Cow Vigilance Committee’ all over British India and emerged with his ideology with the tales of Shibaji who fought gallantly against the Muslim rulers, especially the Mughal. Swami Shraddanand organised a movement named “Shuddi ovijan (reconversion to Hinduism)” to convert Muslims into Hindu forcibly. This movement was arguably the conspiracy of the East India Company and may have been galvanised by the company in order to thwart the increasing amity between the people of different religions. In 1920, the politician cum author V. D. Savarkar first articulated Hindu nationalism in his book”Hindutva: Who is a Hindu”. In 1925, Hindu nationalist leaders Satya Dev and Lala Har Dayal led the movement ‘Sangathan Andolon’ (organisation movement) and openly declared to convert the Muslims into Hindus lest they would be expelled from the soil of India. A Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteers group, Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925. In 1947, the cataclysmic partition of British India took place on the basis of religion which is undeniably the ‘farce of the century’. The two main political leaders, Nehru and Jinnah were behind this partition, and they were never practitioners of their religion. This division was permitted as a collateral of the avarice of power. Even the father of the Indian nation, secular great leader Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by an RSS member when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the Home Minister. RSS claimed that Gandhi was biased towards Muslims and in 2019, Mr Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) recognised and honoured Sardar Patel by erecting the world’s tallest statue of him. The British departed but their seed of anti-Muslim hatred was grown up to a banyan tree as BJP.
India is diversified with religion, ethnicity and linguistic communities. Though India has a secular Constitution but could not protect the 200 million Muslims from systematic discrimination, prejudice and violence. Even secular Congress leader Indira Gandhi exploited religious division to bring Congress to power in 1980. Her son Rajiv Gandhi further favoured Hindu to stay in power. In 1990, BJP, the political wing of RSS emerged through a series of nationwide “Rath yatras(chariot procession)” as a show-down of Hindu nationalist power. BJP’s Hindu nationalist agenda first surfaced with the destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992. Then their anti-Muslims shows further appalled us in Gujarat riots(2002), Muzaffarnagar riots(2013), Delhi riots(2020).
Mr Narendra Modi brought BJP to power in 2014 only with an anti-Muslim rhetoric. Modi’s BJP made widespread immunity for mob violence targeting Muslims. The atrocities are getting different dimensions in different names like”Love jihad”, “Cow vigilante group”, ” Ghar wapas”. The government has taken a step to stem Muslims access to a political and economic power with the name of Citizens Amendment Act(CAA), and National Register of Citizens(NRC). It is believed that after NRC, Muslims will lose their voting rights and become stateless across the country. Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir was brought under the Central Government repealing Article 370 of autonomous rule. The UN Human Rights Commission termed all Modi’s activities as “fundamental discriminatory”.
BJP government galvanised its administration and judiciary being tilted against Muslim. Law enforcement agencies were seen as reluctant against perpetrators targeting Muslims. The court overturned convictions or quashed the cases of Muslim repression. The BJP leaders, convicted for destroying Babri Masjid, were acquitted. No criminal was convicted or brought under Justice for murdering Muslims in the form of mob lynching. The Hindu -Muslim riot in Delhi ‘2020 caused 60 Muslim death and made 5000 Muslims homeless. Muslim houses, businesses, shops were burnt but interestingly, the administrative fact-finding committee did not find any involvement of Hindu leaders where the whole world could watch the hate and instigated speeches by BJP’s firebrand leaders on YouTube and the Internet.
So, the Indian nationalist chauvinism always starts with the cow vigilante program. Even after 75 years of Independence, the virulent tactics of ethnic cleansing have not changed. Once the secular state of 1.3 billion used to take pride as “Indian”. No caste, ethnicity, linguistic difference tilted its ‘All Indian’ ideology. But today, in the 21st century, a vested Hindu extremist quarter is trying to resurrect virulent bigotry amongst the Indian. If secularism or religious rights are at stake in India, the largest democracy, then it will definitely destabilise regional harmony in South Asia.
M A Hossain, a political and defence analyst writes on diversified topics in Bangladesh and foreign newspapers. His Twitter handle is: @writemah71