Ram Puniyani

India has been ruled by Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for the last one decade. BJP in turn is progeny of RSS, which has a goal of Hindu Rashtra. It has many progeny, hundreds of associated organizations with lakhs of volunteers (Swayamsevaks) and thousands of senior workers called Pracharaks (Propagators). It has been pursuing its agenda of Hindu Nation with double the speed since BJP came to power at the center. Rise of BJP on electoral battlefield is due to intensifying of communal issues, Ram Temple, Cow-Beef, and Love- Jihad among others. Communal violence has been a major factor increasing its electoral strength. The violence in turn is founded on the ‘Hate minorities’. There are well placed mechanisms to create Hate; hate speech against minorities, the chain of shakhas; Schools, Godi media, social media and IT cell among others. Hate speech, which is a punishable offense, is used with gay abandon, more so when BJP is in power in states and also in Center. Those indulging in Hate speech do know that they enjoy a sort of impunity.

All this becomes ratified in the latest report released by ‘India Hate Lab’, a Washington DC-based group that documents hate speech against India’s religious minorities. The report with title ‘Hate Speech Events in India’, notes that while 255 events took place in the first half of 2023, “the number rose to 413 in the second half of the year, a 62% increase. The details are very revealing. As per the report nearly 75% of the events of the total (498), took place in BJP-ruled States, Union Territories (administered by the BJP-led Central government), and Delhi (here police and public order comes under the Union government’s purview). While 36% (239) of the events “included a direct call of violence against Muslims” and 63% (420) of incidents include references to “conspiracy theories, primarily involving love jihad, land jihad, and population jihad”. About 25% (169) featured speeches calling for targeting Muslim places of worship.”

The resulting events are very well known by now. We remember the addition of use of bulldozers and demolitions by BJP ruled states. These are done mainly against prosperities of Muslims. The demolition of the Mosque here and there is no more a big deal. Boycotting the Muslim hawkers and traders are occasionally propped up. Partiality done by the motivated administrative machinery is the order of the day. The impact on the Muslim community is an increasing sense of insecurity and ghettoization. The walls of Hatred are becoming stronger by the day. The Hate speech signals begin from the top when the Prime Minister, lately being called as the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, when he gives these hints like, they can be identified with their clothes, Shamshan-Kabristan and Pink revolution. The next layer of Hate spreaders further intensifies the language and when it comes to Dharma Sansads, the Holy one’s; like Yati Narsinghnand, the message of violence becomes more direct and very despicable.

One of the peaks of this was witnessed in the Parliament itself when Ramesh Bidhudi used expletives of the worst kind against Danish Ali,  ‘Mullah’, ‘terrorist’, ‘anti-national’, ‘pimp’ and ‘katwa’ (a Hindi slur against Muslims). Ramesh Bidhudi in turn was given additional promotion-responsibility. This makes it clear the way of going in the upward direction of hierarchy in the BJP-RSS combine is Hate speech. As Ramesh Bidhudi was let off by the Lok Sabha Speaker by saying that if he repeats it again, action will be contemplated.

We have seen the horrific Bulli Bai and Sulli deals to humiliate prominent Muslim women, celebrities. The culprits went away without any serious punishments. Lately the Haldwani mosque issue also disturbed the peace at the ground level. The absence of an impartial media is the worst thing in the present scenario. The anchors of the big channels find the ways to blame the Muslims for every insinuation against them.

Apart from leading to acts of violence against Muslim community the present trajectory of events is leading to gradually intensifying Islamophobia. We can see a teacher Tripta Tyagi asking the class students to slap a Muslim boy one by one for not doing homework. Another teacher Manjula Devi told two Muslim students, who were bickering over a minor issue, that this is not ‘their country’. We also witnessed a bus conductor Mohan Yadav being sacked as he stopped the bus for a brief while during which some passengers eased and few Muslims offered Namaz during that time.

Hate speech was identified by our leaders as a curse for our society. In the aftermath of murder of Swami Sahajanand by a Muslim, Gandhi correctly identified the problem when he wrote in Young India, calling for “…purging the atmosphere of mutual hatred and calumny”, by “boycotting papers which foment hatred and spread misrepresentation”. Here Gandhi is talking about the negative role of Newspapers at that time. Later Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the aftermath of murder of Mahatma Gandhi in a letter to Golwalkar directly indicted RSS for spreading hatred, “All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison and enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the valuable life of Gandhi. “

The clock has moved full circle. The same RSS has created layers and layers of Hate creating mechanisms. Apart from its own vast army of swayamsevaks, Pracharak and network of schools, the large section of media has totally surrendered to those in power and unabashedly using their influence to intensify Hate. The social common sense created through these mechanisms leads to Bulli Bai and Sulli deals. It is this which creates Trupta Tyagi and Manjula Devi who take it to the young children. Things are becoming difficult for Muslim children in mixed schools.

Today the Hate other has become the very antithesis of our Constitution’s value of Fraternity. It is also against the tolerance of the values of morality of Hinduism as practiced by the likes of Gandhi. This is the very aggressive attack on the dictum of Vedas, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam’ (World is a family), this is not only intimidating the religious minorities it is an attack on the values of our Constitution. To combat hate speech, Gandhi’s Hinduism, Vasudhaiva Kutumbaka and Fraternity of Indian Constitution are needed more than before.

Ram Puniyani

The recent (22 January 2024) Pran Pratishtha (consecration) of Lord Ram in Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been a major spectacle. This has accompanied promotion of the mass display of religiosity in most parts of the country, more so in Northern India. This also saw the fusion of roles ‘chief of religion’ and ‘chief of political power’ into a single person, the Prime Minister. It was immediately followed by Mr. Modi inaugurating another big temple (Shri Swaminayan) in Abu Dhabi with gaiety and publicity. And lo and behold foundation for another temple in Chambal, Kalki Dham, was also done by Mr. Modi a couple of days ago. Impressed by the serial temple events many Right wing ideologues are claiming that Mr. Modi is the first statesman from post colonial societies to move towards decolonization of cultures in post colonial societies.

How did colonialism affect South Asia in particular? South Asia was predominantly a feudal type society, ruled by the landlord-Kings legitimized by the clergy. The British succeeded in colonizing most parts of South Asia, Indian subcontinent in particular. Their primary focus was on plundering its wealth and creating markets for its goods being produced in England. It had to lay the structure of a colonial state in which transport, education and foundations of modern administration were laid down. Incidentally they also supported eradication of some of the ghastly practices like Sati. For other reforms the likes of Jotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Ambedakr and Gandhi moved the mountains to bring in reforms and cultural changes.

The culture of society is not a static thing. It did start changing in multiple ways during the colonial period. While a blind aping of the West was a small part of cultural change, the major accompanying part was for the journey towards a society with equality. These were baby steps towards the culture of industrial-modern society in India. This was looked down by the conservative political forces like Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, the communalists, as being Western values. They were essentially piqued by the journey towards equality of the downtrodden, they were opposed to it and they labeled it as being ‘Western’.

On these lines they called the Indian Constitution, embodiment of India’s political culture, as being based on Western values. One recalls that the ideologues of Hindu right were totally opposed to the ideology which talks of equality. In opposition to this they harp on Holy books like Manu Smriti, which were talking of inequality of caste and gender. Interestingly those social forces which had roots in feudal power structure stuck to the ‘anti-Western narrative’. At the same time they collaborated with the colonial rulers. Interestingly the National movement was shaping the culture and also opposing colonial rulers.

One recalls the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ (West Asia) at this point as yet another example. It also calls the democratic culture and values as Western import and tries to impose dictatorial norms and social inequality in the name of Islam. In India Hindu right wing seeks to oppose equality as being a Western import. The opposition to the values of Indian Constitution is also couched in the garb of opposition to Colonial culture and is propagated as glorification of ‘Indian Culture’.

So what is being called as opposing colonial culture at times is the culture which bases itself to oppose fraternity and justice. Justice for all, irrespective of caste and gender, has been the goal of emerging Indian democracy; this gives space to pluralism and diversity. Amongst the post colonial states India had the best political journey till a few decades ago. This was also accompanied by a culture, which had continuity and change. This was reflected in the life patterns promoted by the likes of Gandhi and Nehru, Subhash Bose and Maulana Azad, to name a few. This was an attempt to tune the culture which is compatible with democratic values.

The spree of temple related events is accompanied by the assertion that this is the decolonization of culture! Also the impression being created that the inauguration of the temple in Abu Dhabi is the first one in the ‘Muslim countries’ of West Asia is totally false. One knows there are many temples in the region, UAE, Muscat, Bahrain and Oman to name the few. As the global migrations; economic in this case, of Indians are accompanied by the temples in the region. We also recall there are many temples in our neighboring Muslim countries. Dhakeshwwari temple in BanglaDesh is well known and we also recall that apart from other existing temples in Pakistan, Lal Krishna Advani had visited Pakistan to inaugurate renovated Katasraj Temple.

Glorification of Modi for ensuring a Hindu temple is unwarranted. To assert that by inaugurating temples in India and in Abu Dhabi, Modi is showing the conviction to bring in decolonization is totally misplaced. In India the colonial impact was undone during the freedom movement itself, as the roots of progressive social steps and progressive writings, theatre also ran parallel with national movement. Post Independence the process continued with Nehru’s encouragement of scientific temper and Ambedkar’s well drafted Indian constitution.

India did not get subdued by colonial culture in totality. What we are facing today is the promotion of religiosity and conservatism during the last few decades. Since politics is stalking the streets in the garb of religion, our culture is coming under the attack from conservative and orthodox values. The hilarious example of this is the opposition by BJP associate VHP and company legally challenging the forest department to let the lion Akbar cohabit the lioness Sita.

As far as Abu Dhabi is concerned, not only Abu Dhabi but the whole of West Asia has suffered the onslaught of orthodox values due to promotion of Islamic fundamentalism by the United States of America. In pursuit of its control over oil resources, it had overthrown the democratically elected Government of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 paving the way for fundamentalist regime in due course. Later it was instrumental in propping up Madrassas in Pakistan to train Mujahedeen, Al Qaeda with huge funding and also supplying them with armaments. This whole American intervention shifted the West Asian culture towards a retrograde one. The inauguration of the temple in Abu Dhabi in no way can undo the cultural damage done to West Asia by the global forces with infinite ‘hunger for oil’.

Temples are one part of the culture. The definition of culture has to be much broader than just temple related events.

Ram Puniyani

As the 2024 General Elections are looming on the horizon some Muslim elite are appealing to Muslim community to give a relook at BJP They claim that Indian Muslims are not being discriminated against. Such intellectuals also argue that BJP is giving special attention to Pasmanda Muslims and the Sufi Muslims. They also argue that Muslims are beneficiaries of BJP’s schemes for social welfare: food; housing; gas; water among others and lastly that there has been no major communal violence since 2014 and that India has been most peaceful during the last fifty years.

Such appeals are based on half truths and ignore the core problem which shapes the lives of Muslims in India. True, some elite Muslims may not be facing the problems so severely but overall the central issue of insecurity, marginalization and ghettoization as a whole is not accounted for in such appeals. The point that there is no major violence against Muslims since 2014 is a blatant lie. The horrific Delhi violence in the aftermath of massive Shaheen Baugh movement, instigated by BJP worthies, (Goli Maro, and ‘we will get them removed from the place of Dharna’) led to the death of 51 people, 37 of those being Muslims.

Day in and day out bulldozers are on the streets to target the Muslim properties, on one or the other pretexts. In BJP ruled states there seems to be a competition as to who can inflict more damage to Muslim properties. AP Shah, a retired chief justice of the Delhi High Court, affirmed to the news portal Coda, “Mere alleged involvement in criminal activity cannot ever be grounds for demolition of property.” While the cow beef politics has led to stray animals causing accidents on roads and in attacks on the standing crops on one hand on the other it has led to initiation of a new phenomenon of lynching on Indian streets. Starting from Mohammad Akhlaq there are many cases where Muslims (and also dalits) have been the target of the incited mobs.

The case of Monu Manesar who was part of the crime of Nasir and Junaid is most frightening. Harsh Mander who visited victims’ families wrote “I am profoundly chilled as I scan social media pages of Monu Manesar. He and members of his gang live stream as they openly brandish sophisticated firearms, sound sirens mimicking police jeeps, shoot at vehicles, and brutally thrash the men they catch.” The proper data of bovine related violence is not available as the state wants to hide it, but it has created a fear among large sections of Muslims. In Mewat in particular where Muslims deal with dairy business face a tough time. Just a couple of horrific incidents which give us chills in our spine are when Shambhulal Regar not only killed but videotaped brutal killing of Afrazul in Rajasthan. We saw those accused of murdering Kalimuddin Ansari feted by Jayant Sinha, a Union Minister at the time. Such incidents have now become ‘new normal’.

We also saw the scare created around Love Jihad and then types of Jihad were tabulated, UPSC, Land Jihad among others. The amusing one was Corona Jihad, where the Tablighi Jamaat meeting was blamed for the spread of Corona, the Muslims hawkers were denied entry into societies.

Islamophobia is reaching new heights by the day. This intimidatory atmosphere is leading the rise in the process of ghettoisation of Muslims in the cities. Muslims are being denied housing in the mixed localities in most places. This is accompanied by the decline in their educational and economic status. One example of this is the scrapping of Maulana Azad Fellowship, the major beneficiaries of which have been the Muslim students trying to pursue higher education. The economic climb-down of the community continues in recent years. Gallup data shows that, “For both groups, (Hindus and Muslims) perceptions that standards of living were worsening shot up between 2018 and 2019, as the Indian economy entered a deep slowdown. Among Muslim Indians, the percentage jumped to 45% in 2019, up from 25% the previous year. And among Hindu Indians, the percentage saying the same hit 37% in 2019, an increase of 19 percentage points from 2018.”

The threat of disenfranchising the Muslims through exercise of NRC, CAA is very much there. The Assam exercise showed that among the 19 Lakh people who did not have proper papers the majority were Hindus. For Hindus the safety clause of CAA is in place and for Muslims, detention centers are coming up.

The present show of sympathy for Pasmanda Muslims is a mere eye wash. We understand the majority of victims of violence inspired by majoritarian politics are Pasmanda Muslims. The Muslim Ashrafs do need to ensure better treatment of the Pasmandas, but the bigger threat for the community as a whole is the insecurity, which affects them both and makes a fertile ground for orthodox elements to flourish. Reform amongst Muslim community is a must, however the point is reforms remain in the backyard till the community feels the threat to their existence and to their citizenship.

The BJP Government in different states is now planning things which are further discriminatory against Muslims. With Ram Temple inaugurated the RSS-BJP’s majoritarian politics may become more assertive. Already Muslims have been losing representation in the political institutions. We remember that in this Hindu nationalist party not a single MP is a Muslim.

Even earlier governments could not alleviate the suffering of this community. The major obstacle in this direction has been the opposition from RSS-BJP. Sachar Committee has been an example of how any affirmative action for this deprived community is marred. In the aftermath of this report, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that deprived and marginalized communities have the first right on national resources. That was propagated as if Singh is saying that Muslims have the first right on national resources. And then there was a brake in any initiative to alleviate the miseries of this community.

BJP’s claim that its free rations etc. are reaching all sections of society. Such schemes and the very concept of Labharthis is so much against the democratic ‘Rights based approach’. We do need to introspect about electoral choices in general for all the communities, and of course the luring of Muslim community is a hollow drum bereft of any substance.