The Hindutva Fascists & the Malice

Like a virus, toxic ideologies never remain confined within the geographical or political borders. It quickly spreads and gets followers beyond the border. The same is exactly true for India’s Hindutva fascism. Fascism has its robust diagnostic symptoms. The fascists keep a constant watch on their ideological enemies and show the virulence. If anyone tells anything against Pakistan, the USA or China, nobody starts barking. But if anybody criticizes the Indian atrocities against the minorities, some people instantly get furious, abusive and homicidal. In Bangladesh, Abrar Fahad –a brilliant student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was beaten to death for criticizing the Indian policy of hegemony against Bangladesh. Nurul Haq –the Vice President of Dhaka University Students’ Union was badly bitten and hospitalized for the same reason. So the RSS fascists work as attack dogs not only inside India but also beyond the borders. These thugs entered into the student hostel of Jawaharlal Nehru University of Delhi (JNU) with arms and badly injured dozens of students. Among the injured was Awishy Ghosh –the President of the JNU’s Student Union. She needed many stitches for her injured forehead. The same thugs showed their abusive anger and atrocities against the students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jame Milli, Delhi. One such goon even fired a bullet in broad daylight against the protesting students of Jame Milli with barking malice: “You want Azadi (freedom), this (the bullet) is Azadi”. The police of the fascist government of Modi standing behind stayed unmoved.

Recently I received some abusive rancour through emails from two of such Hindutva RSS thugs who live outside India. The cause of their anger is understandable. Recently I was invited to present a research paper in an international seminar in France organised by Paris University and the University of Le Havre of Normandy. My topic was: “Political, religious and demographic dynamics in South Asia and the threatened co-existence of people with a plurality”. Since my paper exposed some aspects of the appalling evils of the current Hindutva regime, they got infuriated. I am accused of putting lies against the Hindutva government in my paper. Whereas my every argument is supported by well researched and well-documented references. One of them ridiculed my narrative “threated co-existence of people with a plurality”. My core Islamic beliefs also became an issue for him and mockingly questioned: do the Muslims believe in plurality? These fascist thugs do not bother to read history. Hence, I need to focus on some of the historical facts to help discover their lies.

In world history, the Muslims are the people who practised the peaceful co-existence of a plurality of religion, culture, and ethnicity in every continent and every country they ruled. Cleansing of people of other races and religions has been the political norm of the Hindus and also of the Europeans. So, the Buddhists –though their religion originated in India, were almost fully cleansed out of India by the Hindu rulers in the past. It was indeed the worst genocidal massacre in Indian history. The Buddhists fled to the south-eastern corner of Bangladesh (Chittagong), Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan for survival. Their religious institutions stood in tatters. Now one needs to go to Nepal or other Buddhist sanctuaries –far away from their birthplace to find the heritage of these ancient Indians.

Now the Hindutva forces want to do the same against the Muslims as they did against the Buddhists. Such an intention of the Hindutva forces gets robustly expressed through their political slogans. They shout in the street: “Muslims have only two destinations: either to Pakistan or Kabaristan (graveyard)”. So, it implies, the Muslims have no place in India. Even a ruling BJP’s MP shouted in the street of Delhi “guli maro shalleko” (shoot these evil elements). These are all published in the Indian press. A few days ago, Arundhati Roy gave a very vivid description of such Hindutva atrocities in her speech at Cambridge University and London School of Economics. Such Hindutva motive has prompted the Indian Muslim men, women and children to come out of their homes to the street to engage in a battle for their own citizenship rights as well for the survival. So hundreds of thousands of people show their presence in Shahin Bag in Delhi, Park Circus in Kolkata and hundreds of other places in other cities.  

To annihilate the plurality of religions and culture, the history of the European Christians doesn’t present any different picture either. When the Roman King Constantine converted to Christianity, he forcefully converted all of his subjects to Christianity. As a result, a non-Christian became extinct in Europe. The Russian monarch didn’t behave differently when he became a Christian. More awfully, while these European Christians went to America, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, they caused genocidal cleansing of the native people like Red Indians, Aborigines and Maoris. Whereas the history of Muslim rule presents a different picture. Islam emphasises on peaceful preaching, but detests forceful conversion. As a result, even in Islam’s heartland like Lebanon, about 30% of people remain Christian. In Egypt, about 15% of people are Christian. Muslims ruled about 6 hundred years in Spain and Portugal but never forced them to convert to Islam. Hence the Muslims remained the minority. Muslims ruled over Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Crimea, and southern Russia for many hundred years, but they didn’t force them to Islam either. 

The Muslims ruled over India for more than six hundred years but still preferred to stay as the minority rather than forcing Hindus to accept Islam. The minority status of the Indian Muslims itself stands as proof that they didn’t force people to convert to Islam. In fact, during their rule, the plurality of culture, religion, and ethnicity prevailed. Like the Muslims, the Hindus too got access to the city and the military institutions of the state under the Muslim rulers. Many of the top Army generals of the Moghuls like Man Singh were Hindu.

The RSS fascists complain that Hindus are uprooted from Bangladesh and Pakistan. This is a blatant lie. Such made-up stories serve a political purpose: feed the Hindutva’s objective of the anti-Muslim pogrom. In India, since 1947, hundreds of anti-Muslims riots were organised to destroy the Muslim population, their houses, and businesses. Minorities also live in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but such riots didn’t take place there. The anti-Hindu riot that took place in Noakhali in 1946 has nothing to do with the Pakistani or Bangladeshi governments; it happened during the British rule. It was indeed a reaction to the huge massacre of Muslims in Kolkata in August 1946.

It is true that the Hindu population gradually diminished in East and West Pakistan since 1947. But that doesn’t owe to any anti-Hindu riots. It happened because of their voluntary migration to India. People migrate for economic and psychological reasons. It is a historical fact that not a single Muslim opposed the creation of an independent India. And, it is also a historical fact that the Hindus didn’t want the creation of Pakistan. Therefore, after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Hindus felt moral guilt to stay in Pakistan. They thought it a huge disgrace to stay in a country they vehemently opposed. Creation of Pakistan was indeed a huge political defeat of the Hindus that they were not ready to swallow; hence migrated to the country they wanted from their heart. Therefore, blaming the Muslims for the declining number of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh feeds only the Hindutva falsehood; it has nothing to do with the truth. But awfully fascism doesn’t need any truth, it only needs myth and sensational propaganda to electrify the people. Therefore, whoever reveals the historical truth and dismantles their castles of lies becomes the target of the Hindutva fascists. 23/02/2020