Saturday, March 27, 2021

Hindu Rashtra: Will Modi's Hindutva Lead to Multiple Partitions of India?

Sheikh Alam, a Muslim leader of Mamta Banerjee's Trinamool Congress Party, has recently been quoted in the Indian media as saying: "We  (Muslims)  are 30% and they (Hindus) are 70% They will come to power with the support of the 70%, they should be ashamed. If our Muslim population moves to one side then we can create four new Pakistans. Where will 70% of the population go?"  

Quaid-e-Azam's Demand For Pakistan: 

TMC leader Sheikh Alam's words today are a reminder of the demand for Pakistan in 1940s. It arose from the majoritarian tyranny of the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress after 1937 elections in India. Speaking in Lucknow in October 1937, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah said the following: 

"The present leadership of the Congress, especially during the last ten years, has been responsible for alienating the Musalmans of lndia more and more, by pursuing a policy which is exclusively Hindu; and since they have formed the Governments in six provinces where they are in a majority they have by their words, deeds, and programme shown more and more that the Musalmans cannot expect any justice or fair play at their hands. Whenever they are in majority and wherever it suited them, they refused to co-operate with the Muslim League Parties and demanded unconditional surrender and signing of their pledges."

Ex PM Manmohan Singh's Fears:

Former India Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh's fears of India's disintegration are much more tangible now than ever before. In an interview on BBC's Hard Talk with Indian journalist Karan Thapar in 1999, Mr. Singh: "Great Nations like the Soviet Union have perished. If we continue to mis-manage our economy and continue to divide our country on the basis of religion, caste or other sectarian issues there is a danger of that sort of thing happening".  

Today, the rise of Hindutva forces is tearing India apart along caste and religious lines as the country celebrates its Republic Day.  Hindu mobs are lynching Muslims and Dalits. A  Pew Research report confirms that the level of hostility against religious minorities in India is "very high", giving India a score of 9.5 on a scale from 0 to 10. Pakistan's score on this scale is 7 while Bangladesh's is 7.5.

Chart Courtesy of Bloomberg

Will India Break Up? 

In a book entitled "The Raisina Model",  British-Indian author Lord Meghnad Desai asks: "A country of many nations, will India break up?" The Hindu Nationalists who are blamed for deepening divisions are themselves divided on the key questions of caste, religion and trade.  Professor Walter Anderson, co-author of "The RSS: The View to the Inside" raises the specter of "a battle between Hindutva and Hinduism".



The Raisina Model:

In "The Raisina Model", Lord Meghand Desai says that India's breakup can not be ruled out. Specifically, he points to three issues that could lead to it:

1.  Cow protection squads are killing Muslims and jeopardizing their livelihoods.  The current agitation about beef eating and gau raksha is in the Hindi belt just an excuse for attacking Muslims blatantly. As most slaughterhouses in UP are Muslim-owned, owners and employees of these places are prime targets.

2. India has still not fashioned a narrative about its nationhood which can satisfy all. The two rival narratives—secular and Hindu nation—are both centred in the Hindi belt extending to Gujarat and Maharashtra at the most. This area comprises 51% of the total population and around 45% of the Muslims in India.

3. India has avoided equal treatment of unequal units. Representation in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) is proportional to population size. If anything, it is the smaller states that may complain about being marginalized, though so far none has. The larger states thus dominate both Houses of Parliament. It would be difficult for small states to object, much less initiate reform. In future, small states could unite to present their case for better treatment. Except for Punjab and Nagaland, there has been no attempt to challenge the status quo.


Map of India(s) on the eve of British conquest in 1764



Hindutva vs Hinduism:

In  "The RSS: The View to the Inside", the author Walter Anderson brings out several areas which could lead to a split within the Hindu Nationalists. These disagreements have to do with low caste Hindus, Muslims and  foreign trade and investment policies.

1. The leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is drawn entirely from the upper caste Brahmins. The RSS founder Golwalkar never spoke against the caste system. The RSS opposes affirmative action, called reservations, to benefit low caste Hindus. At the same time, they want to integrate Dalits and OBCs (Other backward classes of which Prime Minister Modi is a member) into the organization to promote Hindu unity.

Anderson believes that it will be extremely difficult to reconcile Hindutva embrace of lower castes with the entrenched Hindu caste system. He says the following:

"..there will eventually be a battle between Hindutva and Hinduism. Hindutva emphasizes the oneness of Hindus, whereas ground realities are very different. Let me give an example. Following the egalitarian ideology, Tarun Vijay, an RSS ideologue and former editor of Panchjanya and Organiser, once led some Dalits into a temple in central India, where they had not been before. He was beaten up, but few in the RSS family vocally supported him. They kept mostly quiet. As one important RSS functionary put it to me, the key question is: how do we keep our organisation intact if we do move towards an egalitarian Hindu society?"

2. When RSS leader MD Deoras invited Indian Muslims to join the RSS, he argued that Muslims were mostly India-born, and therefore Indian. But he made the Muslim entry into the RSS conditional upon accepting India’s “historic culture”.  RSS leaders argue that South Indian Muslims, or Indonesian Muslims are ideal Muslims. South Indian Muslims speak the regional languages; and Indonesia, a primarily Muslim country, has the Ramayana as its national epic.

3. Many RSS ideologues oppose Prime Minister Modi's policies of promoting foreign trade and investment. They view Modi's economic policies with great skepticism.


Summary:

Sheikh Alam's talk of carving "four Pakistans" out of India is a reminder of Quaid-e-Azam's words after 1937 elections during the British Raj. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's fears of War on Indian Muslims are also becoming reality. Former India PM Manmohan Singh has warned: "Great Nations like the Soviet Union have perished. If we continue to mis-manage our economy and continue to divide our country on the basis of religion, caste or other sectarian issues there is a danger of that sort of thing happening". The rise of RSS and its affiliates in India is deepening divisions in the country along multiple fault lines, the most important being caste and religion. The RSS leadership itself is not unified on how to deal with the divisions they have created and promoted. This situation has raised the social hostilities in India to very high levels. Pew scores social hostilities against minorities in India at 9.5 on a scale from 0 to 10.  Professor Walter Anderson, co-author of "The RSS: The View to the Inside" has raised the specter of "a battle between Hindutva and Hinduism". And it has caused Lord Meghnad Desai, author of The Raisina Model, to ask the question: Will India break up?

Here's ex PM Manmohan Singh on Hard Talk with Karan Thapar: 




64 comments:

Riaz Haq said...

Holy Cow a Myth? An Indian Finds The Kick Is Real


https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/books/holy-cow-a-myth-an-indian-finds-the-kick-is-real.html

''Holy Cow: Beef in Indian Dietary Traditions,'' is a dry work of historiography buttressed by a 24-page bibliography and hundreds of footnotes citing ancient Sanskrit texts. It's the sort of book, in other words, that typically is read by a handful of specialists and winds up forgotten on a library shelf.

But when its author, Dwijendra Narayan Jha, a historian at the University of Delhi, tried to publish the book in India a year ago, he unleashed a furor of a kind not seen there since 1989, when the release of ''Satanic Verses,'' Salman Rushdie's novel satirizing Islam, provoked rioting and earned him a fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

As Mr. Jha's book was going to press last August, excerpts were posted on the Internet and picked up by newspapers. Within days the book had been canceled by Mr. Jha's academic publisher, burned outside his home by religious activists and -- after a second publisher tried to print it -- banned by a Hyderabad civil court. A spokesman for the World Hindu Council called it ''sheer blasphemy.'' A former member of Parliament petitioned the government for Mr. Jha's arrest. Anonymous callers made death threats. And for 10 months Mr. Jha was obliged to travel to and from campus under police escort.

After months of legal wrangling, Mr. Jha's lawyers succeeded in having the ban lifted this spring. And now his book has been published in Britain and the United States by Verso, with a new preface and a more provocative title: ''The Myth of the Holy Cow.'' But though copies have been shipped to India, few bookstores there are likely to stock it.

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In this context, even food has become politicized as Hindu nationalists use their vegetarianism to distinguish themselves from the nation's beef-eating and implicitly immoral Muslim minority.

Mr. Jha's book, Ms. Doniger wrote in her review, ''contradicts the party line, which is that we Hindus have always been here in India and have Never Eaten Cow; those Muslims have come in, and Kill and Eat Cows, and therefore must be destroyed.''

From a scholarly point of view, she said, what's shocking about ancient Indian history is not that some people ate meat but that some did not: ''Since the human species is by nature carnivorous, what is surprising is that there ever were vegetarians.''

Beginning around A.D. 500, Mr. Jha writes, killing cows became increasingly taboo -- according to the religious texts, a sinful practice associated with the lowest social order, the untouchables. In part, he speculates, the change in official attitude may have coincided with the explosion of agriculture. The cow, on whose strength (for plowing), dung (for fuel) and milk the community depended, was just too valuable to slaughter.

Other scholars, however, say the taboo probably owed more to factors increasingly integral to Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist thought: the belief in reincarnation, which blurred the lines between humans and animals, and the doctrine of ahimsa, or nonviolence.

''The feeling that people have about killing animals and taking lives, that's the basis of it,'' Ms. Doniger said. ''Obviously, people were feeling guilty. Anytime you eat beef, that meant someone had slaughtered a cow.''

Riaz Haq said...

Modi’s party seeks big win as 2 key Indian states (Assam and West Bengal) vote

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/modis-party-seeks-big-win-as-2-key-indian-states-vote/2021/03/27/37e25b20-8eb2-11eb-a33e-da28941cb9ac_story.html

"The BJP’s success depends on if it is able to polarize Hindu votes to a huge extent, and get half of the 70% of Hindu votes (in West Bengal and Assam),” said Subir Bhowmik, a political analyst.

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In West Bengal and Assam, the BJP is banking on its strong Hindu nationalist ideology to draw votes. The party is trying to galvanize Hindu support by promising to deport hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims who fled their homes decades ago. In 2018, Home Minister Amit Shah described them as “termites” eating into India’s resources.

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Two Indian states with sizeable Muslim populations began voting in local elections Saturday in a test of strength for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist agenda is being challenged by months of farmer protests and a fresh wave of the pandemic.

Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Modi, have campaigned heavily to win West Bengal for the first time and dislodge the state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, as well as retain power in northeastern Assam state.

The BJP has for years been accused of stoking religious polarization and discriminating against minorities, and faces stiff challenges in both states with populations that are nearly 30% Muslim. Nationwide, Muslims comprise nearly 14% of the 1.4 billion people, while Hindus make up 80%.

Riaz Haq said...

The rise of the Muslim middle class — and the challenges


https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/read/the-rise-of-the-muslim-middle-class/article34182230.ece


The emergence of a substantive number of educated and professional Muslims has contributed to the small measure of assertiveness visible among the members of the community today
* Muslims going on holiday is part of the change that has been underway

* Until a few years ago, Indian Muslims were either very rich or very poor

* When I was in school, for several years, I was the only Muslim in my class

* With the increasing visibility of Muslims, especially in urban areas, a perception has grown that economic liberalisation and the growth of the Indian private sector have opened doors to educated Muslim youth

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As a result, even in the private sector, among middle level to senior employees (from senior executives to director), only 2.67 per cent are Muslims. According to the ET Intelligence Group Analysis of 2015, of 2,324 senior executives in BSE-500 listed companies, only 62 were Muslims. Even more worrying was the finding that in places where Muslims were employed in very senior positions, their remuneration was comparatively lower than that of their peers.

Riaz Haq said...

nearly 8 million Muslims crossed over to Pakistan during and immediately after Partition;19 a sizeable proportion of these migrants comprised the elite or the educated class of Indian Muslim society. In a paper for Yale University, scholars Prashant Bharadwaj, Asim Khwaja, and Atif Mian have offered a very interesting statistic. Exploring the changing demographic profile of India and Pakistan, they write that the outflow of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and the inflow of Muslims from India only marginally affected the literacy ratio of Pakistan because even though the migrating Hindus and Sikhs were far more literate than the resident Muslims of Pakistan, this deficiency was offset by the emigrating Muslims from India who were also highly literate. Using Karachi as an example, they write: The district of Karachi received a large influx of migrants—in 1951, nearly 28 per cent of the population population was migrant…. Hindus and Sikhs in Karachi in 1931 were also much more literate than the resident Muslims—21 per cent as opposed to just 3.7 per cent. After partition, nearly all Hindus and Sikhs left Karachi (only 1.5 per cent of the population in 1951 was composed of minorities). Yet, the aggregate effect on Karachi’s literacy is very small—this was due to the highly literate migrants who moved into Karachi. In the city of Karachi, 91 per cent of the literate population were migrants! What is important here is while overall literacy rates remained largely unchanged, who the literate population was composed of certainly changed. Partition thus replaced existing minority-majority literacy differences with within majority literacy differences.20

This wasn’t simply a case of brain drain from India. This created an intellectual deficit which continues to have a cascading effect on the community. education is not about literacy alone. It’s about exposure to diverse ideas, being challenged by new concepts, and learning to go beyond inherited wisdom. Above all, education adds to confidence and encourages people to overcome insecurities.

Wahab, Ghazala. BORN A MUSLIM: Some Truths About Islam in India (pp. 60-61). Kindle Edition.

samir sardana said...

The 3 points of the Raisina Model ignore the Dalits and Tribals.Lack of education,health care,self esteem and political representation has ENSURED THEIR DOOM

The GOI is privatising everything - which means no quotas,less govtt jobs, no skills for private jobs, no free schools,no free heath care.dindooohindoo

In addition,the OBCs are the New age Mafia - and the Bania Brahmin RSS will pit the Dalits against the OBCs and that will nail the grave of the Dalits

The Dalits have 1 mantra - Ambedkar - but he is dead - and will NOT resurrect ! Even Jesus did NOT resurrect as per the Islam - only Dionysus did - but that was in Greece !

The 2nd mantra of the Dalits is the "Constitution" a utopian relic of the fantasy mind of Ambedkar !

The 3 rd mantra is Hindoo Mythical Fantasy tales of Dalit Kings like the Nandas and Ashoka .... and Shivaji ! Shivaji himself had a Dalit complex and claimed that he was a Kshatriya!

Some people think that the lower castes of Hindooland – called Dalits,are a man made creation,which origined as a necessity,derived from the laws of economics and division of labour – id.est., the laws of economics,as they existed 5000 years ago.

Sadly,that is NOT true – but it is a convenient excuse,used by Hindoos in the USA, embarrassed by the depravity and inequity,of Hindooism.The White man and Muslims,do not probe further,as they know NOT, the bottomless pit of Hindooism.The logic appeals to the white man as it is an inferential,obverse deductive logic – akin to the economic logic,of the slave trade,by St Paul.

WHAT WOULD BE THE PLIGHT OF THE DALITS – HAD THE MUGHALS NOT COME TO HINDOOSTHAN.It is the NOBLE DEED,of Converting 220 million Dalits, to Islam – which explains the Divine success of the Mughals in India – inspite of ALL ODDS.

Islam gave the Dalits empowerment,emancipation,security,redemption and salvation.

The Creation,Permanence,Sustainance, Genocide and Degradation of the lower castes,is ORDAINED by an INJUNCTION,in the GITA.The Gita is not some OBSCURE or OBVERSE citation,in some archaic corner,of the Hebrew Bible,or a part of the NT fables.The Gita is the CORE of Hindooism – like the TORAH.

The concept of classes of humans,ordained as such, EVEN BEFORE THEY ARE BORN, for the current birth and the next birth,wherein redemption is obtained,by perpetual misery and suffering of the lower classes,due to their sins,in the PREVIOUS births,would be the crowning glory,of Jon Stewart’s acerbic wit – were it not for the absolute genocide,of the lower castes.

No religion preaches such a diabolical abhorrence,and even the Babylonian and Jersualem Talmud – treat Non-Jews as Goyim or Filth – but within their own – there are no classes or castes.

samir sardana said...

What Walter Anderson and Raisina Model have missed - Part 1

There are 130 crore Indians.Out of which,60 crores live on farming,DIRECTLY.

GOI is bankrupt,Banks are bankrupt.Therefore,the GOI HAS TO privatise and outsource - NOT TO RAISE CAPITAL - but to DOWNSIZE STAFF FOREVER.Those Jobs will go forever.dindooohindoo

The Methodology is Simple - Take Banks,ports,Hotels ... of GOI.`1st the GOI destroys these PSUs,by corruption and mismanagement and overstaffing - and then PAID NEWS IN THE BANIA MEDIA - HIGHLIGHTS THE "OPPORTUNITY" to PRIVATISE, and that the savings will be used for GAU MATA.Then comes in the "INDIAN CONSULTANT", who is paid a bribe to make a PRIVATISATION RECOMMENDATION.

Then ANOTHER CONSULTANT IS HIRED,FOR RFQ/RFI/RFP,to rig the tender in favour of the pets of Chaiwala and Fat Pancho - Amit Shah.

Another SOP of Chaiwala ! Set up a sea port where there is NO SEA or an AIRPORT where a plane CANNOT LAND.So it will make losses. Losses are good,as it ENSURES THAT NO STAFF IS HIRED (which is a good excuse NOT TO HIRE).Then privatise - FOR THE REAL ESTATE.

FOR THE PSUs which are NOT privatised,the GOI INCREASES THE QUOTAS,BUT ALSO THE QUALIFICATIONS,AND THESE JOBS ARE NEVER FILLED (as the Dalits have no education and cannot pass or meet the standards). Total Job Destruction !

Then we come to the Banks,which are bust.What does the GOI do ? Demonetisation of deposits - through sleight of hand. 1st,REDUCE SAVINGS BANKS INTEREST RATES,so the BANKS GET RECAPITALISED BY PROFITS,and the POOR DEPOSITOR GETS NIL REAL INTEREST,AS THE "TINA" OPTION comes in.The Option is the DISASTER OF CHIT FUNDS AND CO-OPERATIVE !

By lowering bank savings interest,the govtt and corporate borrowing costs ALSO REDUCE.Corporate profits rise and the tax thereon,FLOWS TO THE GOI

SME and SME jobs ARE DESTROYED by GST and DEMO - as a part of a plan.EVEN COVID is AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE STATE TO DESTROY SME.SME ARE A BURDEN ON POWER INFRA AND TAX INFRA.They pay No tax (GST and Profit Tax),No power,No PF,No ESI and deal in cash.All the SME business has gone to TYCOOONS,AND they are NOW PAYING TAX ON INCREMENTAL PROFITS.In the next BUDGET the TAX RATES ON THESE TYCOONS WILL BE LOWERED ! The Stock prices of these Tycoons has gone up and so has the STT earned by the GOI.SO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SME HAS MET THE PURPOSE.

Agriculture is doomed.All inputs rate are up and farm gate prices are the same or lower.There is NO MSP in India.THE GOI HAS NO MONEY.THE GOI finds ingenious ways to,NOT PAY MSP.AI and Farm tebchology will DESTROY 90% OF INDIAN FARMERS.THEY ARE NOT REQUIRED ! ALL THAT THEY PRODUCE,CAN BE IMPORTED,AT HALF THE COST.THERE ARE NO JOBS FOR FARMERS - AS THEY HAVE NO EDUCATION OR SKILLS.THIS HUGE DISASTER WILL LOWER LABOUR COSTS (FOR THE BENEFIT OF TYCOONS)

Because of the LOOT of the BANIAS and MARWARIS over 70 years, EDIBLE OIL IS IMPORTED AT 100% DUTY,AND THERE IS A 200% TAX ON DIESEL ! And that is Y the savings banks rates,will go to NEAR ZERO - as the GOI needs the DUMB INDIANS,TO LEND MONEY AT ZERO RATES OR NEGATIVE REAL INTEREST RATES.

The RBI model is simple ! Con the DUMB INDIANS to put the money in banks (at close to zero rates),tax the interest,AND THEN LET THE BANIA COMPANY LOOT THE BANKS VIA LOANS AND PAY OFF THE NETAS.Y do the DUMB INDIANS put the money into banks ? Simple ! RBI has ensured that ALL OTHER OPTIONS ARE EITHER DISASTER (FRAUD) OR NO SECURED BENEFITS OR MUCH LOWER RATES.

The Last STEP of Chaiwala will be RETAIL.That will WIPE OUT THE BANIA SHOPKEEPERS AND BRING THE RETAIL PROFIT IN THE TAX NET !The excuse will be,that IT WILL RAISE FARM GATE PRICES !

NET CONCLUSION - THERE WILL BE NO GOVTT JOBS AND THERE WILL NO PRIVATE JOBS FOR THE SEMI SKILLED AND LOWER SKILLED PERSONS.

samir sardana said...

What Walter Anderson and Raisina Model have missed - Part 2

I do not blame Chaiwala - He has NO CHOICE ! And nor does Rakesh Tikait - except that Tikait does NOT REALISE that MSP is NOT the solution ! AGRI IS DOOMED - BY AI AND TECHNOLOGY - SOLUTION IS PARTITION !

If farmers get higher rates and higher yield,the GOI takes it back in the form of fertiliser and other prices (which lowers the subsidy bill).OUT OF ALL THE MONEY SAVED BY THE CHAIWALA - by KILLING THE JOBS,the farmers are paid a monthly dole of Rs 1000,AND THE FARMERS ARE MIGHTY THRILLED.dindooohindoo

THE CLIMAX ! AND SO,1 DAY WILL COME A DEMAGOGUE LIKE ALFIE IN BERLIN - AND EDUCATE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA ABOUT THE ABOVE AND THEN THE PHOENIX WILL TEAR INDIA TO PIECES ! 1ST THEY WILL TARGET THE INDIAN SEMITES - BANIAS AND BRAHMINS - THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL EVIL IN INDIA

IT IS ALL IN THE NUMBERS OF INDIA.ITS POPULATION AND THE DNA OF CORRUPTION IS THE DOOM OF INDIA !

NUMBERS ! NUMBERS ! NUMBERS

samir sardana said...

AN EXAMPLE OF THE NUMERICAL DOOM OF INDIA - via FARMING !

The Impending Demagogue in the Indian Agri sector - which will then lead to the RISING OF THE DALITS AND MJSLIMS ! dindooohindoo

Some facts about Indian Agri - which the Indian Duds do NOT get !

GOI is bankrupt !
The GOI will NOT pay MSP for any crop
The GOI CANNOT pay MSP for any crop
The GOI staffing will be CUT by 50% in the next 5 years
Even Internal Security like CRPF ..... will be CUT (Like with the Blackwater Model and AI/Drones and Technology)
AI and Nano will make farmers OBSOLETE,as 5 nations in Africa will be able to feed the world
All Farm Subsidies will BE CUT – by MAKING FARMING UNVIABLE
Farm subsidies (Fertiliser,Insecticides,Seeds,MSP,Mandi Infrastructure,Capital Goods,Fuel Subsidy,Power Subsidy,Pollution,Declinng Water table,Urea Poisoning and impact on health etc.) will be MORE THAN USD 300 BILLION,WHICH IN 2 YEARS WILL WIPE OUT ALL THE BANK NPAs.THAT SOLVES THE INDIAN BANKING CRISIS !
GOI and Bania need land – so by MAKING FARMING UNVIABLE – large land tracts will be freed and land rates will fall
GOI and Bania need WATER – (as China and Pakistan will take over KASHMIR,AND SO INDIA WILL HAVE NO WATER IN THE WEST,AND CHINA WILL BLOCK THE BRAHMAPUTRA IN THE EAST),so killing farming releases water for Industry.
Industry and IT and services and the Middle class trash need gazillion litres of water – which will COME BY KILLING AGRICULTURE !
Then the GOI will use the Israelis to destroy Indian Farming by a Man made virus,to kill the crops and also to kill off the farmers (so the virus will be customised to the weedicides …etc used by the farmers)

GOI feels FARMERS ARE A DEAD WEIGHT AND A BURDEN ! dindooohindoo

Basically all FARMERS IN THE WORLD WILL BE OBSOLETE – But they will be absorbed – BUT IN INDIA,800 MILLION PEOPLE,CANNOT BE ABSORBED.Either you kill them - and so,you need a VIRUS, or you give them DOLES - which will come OUT OF THE BILLIONS OF USD,SAVED ON SUBSIDIES !

So,if Rice is sold by FARMERS at 10/kg,and the user pays Rs 100/kg,THERE IS ONLY 1 OPTION !

ELIMINATE THE BANIA,MARWARI,GUJARATI,JAIN.KAYASTHA FILTH in the retail chain ! They are the shopkeepers and the marketing supply chain.THERE IS NO OTHER WAY WHICH WILL BE THE SOP OF THE DEMAGOGUES).

If u raise the MSP for farmers ,the agri processing and retail and entertainment ector,will die – and they PAY LARGE INDIRECT AND DIRECT TAXES,TO THE GOI !So you bring in WALMART,AND PIT THE FARMERS AGAINST THE BANIA SHOPKEEPERS AND TAX WALMART !

What the Indian DUD Farmers DO NOT get,is that CORPORATE INDIA MAKES A PROFIT,DUE TO THE MISERY OF THE FARMERS.SINCE GOVTT AND BANIAS ARE CORRUPT - SO THE TAX REGIME IN INDIA IS HIGH ! TAXES FOR GOI,COME FROM GST AND PROFIT,WHICH IS "ONLY FROM" THE ORGANISED INDUSTRY ! ORGANISED INDUSTRY MAKES PROFIT,BY KEEPING RAW MATERIAL AND LABOUR COSTS,AS LOW AS POSSIBLE.

SO AGRI FARM GATE RATES HAVE TO BE,AS LOW AS POSSIBLE - SO THAT INDUSTRY INPUT COSTS ARE AS LOW AS POSSIBLE ! THIS ALSO LOWERS FOOD PRICES AND FOOD INFLATION - AND REDUCES LABOUR COSTS. BY ENSURING THAT FARM PRICES ARE LOW AND FARMING IS UNVIABLE - THE SUPPLY IN THE LABOUR MARKET RISES - AND LABOUR RATES ARE LOW ! SO THE CORPORATE PROFITS = SWEAT,TEARS AND BLOOD OF FARMERS !

AGRI IS TAX EXEMPT FOR FARMERS - SO BY LOWERING FARM PRICES - THE PROFIT IN THE FORM OF LOWER COSTS,TO INDUSTRY IS TAXED BY THE GOI,IN THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY.THAT IS WHY THE GOI HAS RUINED INDIAN AGRI - AS A MATTER OF STRATEGY !

1 LAST POINT - WHERE GOES THE TAX ? BANK CAPITALISATION ... NEW PSUs ..... LARGE INFRA - which is a proxy for the BANIA (MARWARI AND GUJARATI) to loot vide NPAs and cost/time overruns,project over invoicing ................

It is all TRANSFER PRICING SYSTEM !

NOW,SUPPOSE A DEMAGOGUE COMES IN - AND EDUCATES THE INIAN FARMERS - ABOUT ALL THE BOVE,THEN WHAT WILL BE THE OUTCOME ? AND SO,COMES IN KHALISTAN !

Riaz Haq said...

Characters in a Sartre play
Jawed Naqvi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1615434/characters-in-a-sartre-play

"THE search for petty advantages has been the bane of larger quests — as true of politics as of any other public sphere. The Nazis, as everyone knows, rose on the rubble of a small-minded opposition, be they social democrats, socialists or communists fixated on a delusional tiny gain that may have seemed critical to them at the time but proved to be the collective undoing of German democracy and at what cost. Pakistan clearly lost its eastern half to personal squabbling at the cost of the big picture. India’s fractious opposition criminally created the ground for Narendra Modi to sidle close to seizing absolute power"


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"Neither the left nor Kejriwal has formally identified the crisis facing India as resembling fascism, something writer Khushwant Singh had noted in 2003 in a small book called End of India.

“Those of us today who feel secure because we are not Muslims or Christians are living in a fool’s paradise. The Sangh is already targeting the leftist historians and ‘Westernised’ youth. Tomorrow it will turn its hate on women who wear skirts, people who eat meat … prefer allopathic doctors to vaids, kiss or shake hands in greeting instead of shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. No one is safe. We must realise this if we hope to keep India alive.” Are Garcin, Inez and Estelle listening?"


samir sardana said...

The North-South Divide of the Raisina Theory,is also,not complete.South Indians are Sudroids lineaged from the Negroids of Africa - this is science.

South Indians KNOW,that North Indians consider the South Indians,as Demons,Demonic and Black skinned.This is also in the Mahabharata.

So there NEVER WAS,and NEVER will be,a NATIONAL IDENTITY.That is NOT the reason for the impending break up of India.This also is NOT the lever for a SOUTH INDIAN DEMAGOGUE/ IDEOLOGUE, like Periyar.

At the time of Periyar,the need was to expose Rama and North Indian/Brahmin Culture.In 2021,it is time to partition India

The Reasoning is in the Numbers !

South Indian states have a lower population per se,a lower population per acre of arable land and a smaller family size per family.In addition,the education and health care infra, is far ahead of North India.Lastly,the industrial infra,id.est.,roads,rail and power,is also better than in the North

Therefore,it is the right base for Industries,and the state finances are economically viable (due to low population,skilled population and fundamentally strong industrial infra).In addition,it is NEXT To the SEA,so it can export all its output - agri to industry.

The Argument for Partition

Take North India (UP/Bihar/Kashmir/MP/UKD/North East).It is a burden on the GOI finances. There is no or low industrial revenue.These states,besides MP,can NEVER be economically viable,and their population demographics,are out of control.

Assume that South India has 90% of the Industries of India - and so,90% of the GST.However, South India,will NOT get more than 35-40% of the GST,from the state - as the money has to go the Dead North Indian States,and Defense and Baboodom.

If South Indians,were a separate nation - FDI will come IN DIRECTLY,in banking,industry, power,roads and rails.This will easily raise the per capita,to at least 60%,of that of Thailand.

GOI has NO money to spend on GOI infra,in South India.Even the Private sector funding,is limited. 90% of Indian NPA and Frauds,are North Indian owned.All the money is saved by SOUTH INDIANS and stolen by the North Indians.That imperils the banking system,lowers credit availability, raises cost of credit,lowers bank profits and lower bank savings rates.

India spends USD 50-100 USD Billion per annum,on the ENTIRE DEFENSE SUPPLY AND VALUE CHAIN (Military,Nuclear Power,ISRO,DRDO,Military Ordinance ..........).In addition,the CAPF is used for NORTH INDIAN INSURGENCIES AND CLASS STRUGGLE (Naxals .. Riots).All this COST IS ALSO BORNE,BY THE SOUTH INDIANS !

Y should the South Indians suffer,for the FALSE EGOS,of North Indians

India is doing a genocide in Kashmir and North East and on Tribals.Should South Indians be a part of this ? Y ? What is the Dravidian war with PRC or Pakistan ? If South India secedes from India - CHINESE INVESTMENT WILL FLOOD IN - AS IT WILL GET THE ACCESS TO THE SEA AND PORTS ! THEY MIGHT SET UP SOFT AND HARD INFRA,FREE OF COST ! CHINESE ARE A THREAT TO NORTH INDIA,AND THE NORTH INDIAN EGO ! THE CHINESE CAN MAKE A CANAL FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST COAST OF INDIA TO BYPASS COLUMBO AS A TRANSHIPMENT PORT.

Indian FBR and Nuke Reactors are mainly based in South India.So are Naval bases which host N-Subs for the 2nd strike.The Indian Nuclear Power Chain,is a DIVERSION TO MAKE WEAPONS GRADE URANIUM AND PLUTONIUM.PAKISTAN AND CHINA,ARE CERTAIN TO STRIKE SOUTH INDIA - AND PAKISTAN MIGHT ALSO MAKE A 1ST STRIKE,AS THEY DO NOT HAVE A 2ND STRIKE OPTION.

Y should the South Indians be exterminated,for the FALSE EGOS of North Indians

So SOUTH INDIA needs a NEW PERIYAR,who can FUSE CULTURE AND RELIGION with the ECONOMIC INJUSTICE AND VIABILITY OF THE DRAVIDIAN NATION.

What does the world or what do Indians know about Dravidian history,poets,culture,religion, philosophy,architecture,science,evolution of thought,impact on world history .............

These people have a right to evolve and their own nation - which is CURRENTLY swamped by Hindoosthan - a dubious and bogus entity.dindooohindoo

Riaz Haq said...

Narendra Modi is everything apart from what he seems
Hologram and holy man, sectarian and seer, the Indian prime minister is a trick of the light

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/narendra-modi-is-everything-apart-from-what-he-seems

By Andrew Adonis

Modi knows India, socially and geographically, better than perhaps any other Indian alive, and from the bottom up. He has mastered modern democratic arts and his ubiquitous social media presence includes a Modi app, flashing up every speech, event and opinion to millions with a professionalism that leaves Trump in the gutter. “India saved itself with a timely lockdown, travel restrictions, shows recent study. Read more here!” runs the latest notification on my phone, the fourth of today.

“Speaking in Hindi, Modi is the finest speaker I have ever heard; his oratory is mesmerising,” one opponent who does not wish to be named tells me. To my surprise, given his dictatorial reputation, he is a considerable parliamentarian, capable of graceful tributes to opponents, albeit only when they are retiring or have been defeated. “We stand for those who trusted us and also those whose trust we have to win over,” he declared after his 2019 landslide. His bitterest political critics typically pay tribute to his skill and crave his attention even as they attack him.

Each day features another socially distanced mass Modi event, typically in a different state. Whether launching a toy festival in Delhi or a railway scheme in West Bengal, the white-bearded sage declaims an impassioned homily combining a political message with spiritual guidance and lifestyle advice. Addressing newly graduating doctors, after thanking them for their efforts in the pandemic, he urges them to “keep a sense of humour, do yoga, meditation, running, cycling and some fitness regime that helps your own wellbeing,” and invokes Hindu saint Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s mantra that “serving people is the same as serving God.” “In your long careers, grow professionally and at the same time, never forget your own growth. Rise above self-interest. Doing so will make you fearless,” he preaches.

“Modernisation not westernisation” is another Modi slogan—he has a slogan for everything—yet his political packaging, including that hologram, is done with the help of slick BJP professionals trained in Britain and the US. He plays the west, using the right language and commandeering the wealthy and influential Hindu diaspora like an army. Britain’s populist Home Secretary Priti Patel, a fellow Gujarati, jokes with her friend “Narendra” in Gujarati. He calls virtually every western leader “my friend,” and they reciprocate. Whatever their concerns about sectarianism, western leaders desperately want the Indian leader onside. After his inauguration, Biden called Modi before Xi Jinping: escalating crises in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea give the prime minister leverage, which he shrewdly exploits.

But is Modi within or beyond the pale? In his personal language generally within—although under his rule an anti-Muslim and anti-secular culture war has been stoked, amplified by Amit Shah and BJP activists. Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest cloaked in saffron robes and the BJP chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, infamously proclaimed: “If Muslims kill one Hindu man, then we will kill 100 Muslim men.” Modi himself doesn’t go there: modernisation and Hindu ancestor worship are his public rhetoric, and he rarely attacks opponents for much more than being divisive and unpatriotic, which is pretty much what British Tories have been doing for two centuries. And yet, in front of parliament in February, Modi called the farmers encamped in Delhi protesting the new laws “people who cannot live without protests,” and—more chillingly—“parasites.”

samir sardana said...

the Saga of Sheikh Alam - Part 1

The Likes of Sheikh Alam appear in every election,and make such statements - at least for the last 3-4 decades.All Talk and No Action.

It is a symbol of the "SIEGE MENTALITY" of the Indian Muslims,Unlike Gaza,the Indians are weasels.Even the talk,is just during polls ! They are incapable of doing anything - as the core DNA,is defective.

They are happy being butchers,craftsmen,cobblers,tailors,farmers,spinners ... and some are into the mafia supply chain.Over the last 74 years,Osmosis has taken its toll on the "Indian" Muslims. Now these "Indian Muslims" pray to Rama,partake in Diwali,and even pray at Temples ! What is their evolution,in the last 1300 years ? And what is the cause - it is that they are in a nation,FULL OF HINDOOS - and that is the TRUTH.

Are these Muslims ? Is this Islam ? They also claim that they are the sons of RAMA,and that RAMA IS A GOD,or better still,A PROPHET ! These weasels EQUATE Rama with ALLAH,and THE PROPHET !They claim that Shiva was a Muslim ! They find ingenious interpretations of the Quran and the Hadeeth,to justify their actions ! They claim that the Prophet (PBUH) called Krishna,a PROPHET !

The latest is a SHIA in India - Mr Rizvi,who has filed a PIL in the SC,to ERASE 27 VERSES FROM THE KORAN,FOR TEACHING IN MADRASAS ! And the PIL is admitted ! It started with the Babri Masjid Judgement !

Then there are Sunnis like Asad Owaisi - who THINK THE CONSTITUTION WILL SAVE THE INDIAN MUSLIMS ? What is the syndrome here ? When all hope is lost,the Indian Muslims believe a UTOPIAN RELIC, written by a man,who when it came to the CRUNCH,did not stand up to Gandhi ! These people THINK THAT THE VOTING BUTTON WILL "EMPOWER THEM" !!

A separate nation of the Dalits and Muslims,was POSSIBLE,only in 1947 - and Ambedkar did not have the guts to act. He was sent on a UK education by a bania and was conned by a Gujarati Bania (Which is Gandhi!)

What about the CAA/NRC ? It will restart soon ! It is a progression of shockwaves by the Chaiwala Brigade,to innure and numb the Muslims to shock ! The Nazi Methodology ! The fools are still dreaming of a SECULAR INDIA !

Rewind to Nehru,Rajiv and Indira Gandhi - and then juxtapose with Bhagalpur and Nellie and ....STILL, no one thought that the Chaiwala Brigade will rule India - and it has happened !

BUT 1 MAN SAW IT IN THE 1930s - and the name of that GENIUS was JINNAH,as DID not have the Core Indian DNA - which is Y he did not even marry an Indian (as in an Indian DNA).Indian Muslims being mostly.Dalit converts - are still slaves,and the Brahmin Converts,are weasels and easily corrupted by the Chaiwala Brigade.They talk and talk and do nothing ! Even in Kashimir,did the state assembly pass or even move a resolution for independence ? The Fools actually believed that Art 370 will last forever ! A Sign of an Indian on a paper,is not worth TP ! dindooohindoo

samir sardana said...

The Saga of Sheikh Alam - Part 2

Right Wing Hindooism,is the DNA of the Hindoo nation.Only a fool would think otherwise ! Every 5 years,Chaiwala will find some new drama,to con the 100 crore Hindoos and Quasi Hindoos !

Lastly,all these "INDIAN" Muslims who died for Bharat Mata ! For what ? Should a "MUSLIM" die for the Indian Constitution or shoot down Indian civilians or kill soldiers of ANOTHER NATION - due to the mistakes of THE INDIAN LEADERS.BABOOS AND MILITARY LEADERS ? Y ? What Islam is that ?

Indian Muslims are surrounded from all sides - except Kashmir,Bengal and the North East and Kerala - and these are the potential Islamic nation states.The rest are doomed ! They will be wiped out !

Allah will NOT save them - because they CANNOT SAVE THEMSELVES.Many centuries ago,a man called Salahuddun,said the same thing,about the state and fate of Arabs.

The Genius of the Brahmin and the lunacy of the Indian Race,is that - the BRAHMINS INVITED THE HUNS,MONGOLS,SCYTHIANS TO INDIA - CONVERTED THEM TO SAIVISM (like Mihirgula etc),and then used these races,to EXTERMINATE BUDDHISTS,VAISHNAVITES AND JAIN ..... and then CONCOCTED THE AGNIKULA RAJPUT TRASH,TO BE CANNON FODDER,AGAINST THE MUGHALS - AND THE BRAHMINS STILL RULE - AND THERE MILLIONS OF THESE JAT,SIKHS AND RAJPUT FILTH AND EVEN INDIAN MUSLIMS,WHO WANT TO DIE FOR HINDOOSTHAN !

Hope ? It ain't there,my man ! Only doom lies ahead !

samir sardana said...

As I said on March 30, 2021 at 6:41 AM,as under

Then we come to the Banks,which are bust.What does the GOI do ? Demonetisation of deposits - through sleight of hand. 1st,REDUCE SAVINGS BANKS INTEREST RATES,so the BANKS GET RECAPITALISED BY PROFITS,and the POOR DEPOSITOR GETS NIL REAL INTEREST,AS THE "TINA" OPTION comes in.The Option is the DISASTER OF CHIT FUNDS AND CO-OPERATIVE !

And what did Chaiwala do on APRIL FOOLs DAY FOR THE INDIAN FOOLS !?

LIKE I SAID ABOVE,HE SLASHED INTEREST RATES ! AM I DIVINE OR WHAT ?

https://indianexpress.com/article/business/govt-slashes-rates-on-small-savings-schemes-by-up-to-1-1-pc-7253332/

AIN'T NO MONEY IN THE MINT !

IF THERE IS 1 NATION IN THE WORLD WHICH WILL GAIN BY COVID - IT IS INDIA AND CHAIWALA !

Chaiwlaa has increased the rates of petrol,diesel,palm oil ......... and people are upset ! Now he will slash ROI on savings (EVEN MORE) to take away the EARNINGS ! So Dual attack ! Chaiwala will say.DO NOT SAVE,SPEND OR BORROW AT LOW RATES !

He wants people to get RESTIVE AND HIT THE STREETS !

People say Y,and the media is asleep !

THE REAL CHAIWALA PLAN IS TO MAKE THE "PEOPLE OF INDIA", WANT THE FOLLOWING :

CUT GOVERNMENT SALARIES
SLASH PENSIONS
OUTSOURCE

HE wants the PEOPLE OF INDIA TO DEMAND THE ABOVE,so that there will be NO POLITICAL OPPOSITION !

Privatisation will not be an option !

AFTER HE DOES THE ABOVE,THEN HE WILL TARGET SUBSIDIES ! 1st he will target farm subsidies, then logistics subsidies and then the middle class subsidies !

WHICH IS WHAT HE IS PAID FOR AND Y HE WAS MADE THE PM !

And the Indian Fools DO NOT GET IT - EVEN ON APRIL FOOL DAY - EVEN AFTER THE GOI WITHDREW THE INTEREST RATE CUT ! dindooohindoo !

This is the Rs 15 lacs crowd !

samir sardana said...

People do NOT understand,HOW the Chaiwala has emasculated,the Indian Muslims ! It is not the love jehad,cow lynchings,Triple Talaq,CAA or MRC.These are minor issues.Millions of Indians,die an unnatural death, every year.

Step 1 - Is to get the UAE Sheikh,to say "Jai Shri Ram"

https://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/news/NRG-MIDE-abu-dhabi-sheikh-says-jai-shree-ram-in-morari-bapu-katha-gujarati-news-5428529-PHO.html

But in REALITY,the Sheikh,PROBABLY DID NOT SAY IT !

https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/abu-dhabi-crown-prince-did-not-say-jai-siya-ram

SO FOR THE INDIAN MUSLIM,IF A ARAB SHEIKH can make a salutation to Rama - then why not the Indian Muslims ?

Step 2 - Make Temples in UAE AND SAUDIA

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/talks-on-for-pm-modi-to-open-temple-in-uae-on-april-20/articleshow/68680149.cms?from=mdr

This is also a sign of Victory for the RSS,and raises the level of despondence of the Indian Muslims - as they see the plight of their peers and role models.

Step 3 - Use The RSS Muslims

These are the Quasi Muslims,with or w/o Hindoo wives,who pray to Lord Rama and Bharat Mata, and say,that they are Hindoos by Culture.They claim that their soul is in Bharat Mata and NOT in the Arab lands,and they also,support the Rama Temple.Of Course,they are the foremost in abusing Pakistan,and radical Islam and Islamic Orthodoxy.

This provides a sense of ACHIEVEMENT,to the Hindoos,in having REFORMED AND CURATED THE INDIAN MUSLIM,INTO A HINDUTVA MUSLIM ! This also has a Osmotic effect,on MANY Muslims of the same sect,AND SOME Muslims,of the other sects.

This is all a part of the Info war strategy,of the Chaiwala Brigade.BUT THE FACT IS THAT ALL THESE QUASI MUSLIMS,ARE SHIAS - something which no one wants to admit.

Step 4 - Bring in MBS

Then comes in MBS,and places his stamp of approval,on the Indian Muslims - as the role model for the world - and completely FORGETS KASHMIR AND CAA/NRC.This basically places the Indian Muslims,on the "MUTE" button.

Basically,Indian Muslims are in the siege zone.In Kashmir,there is a physical siege zone, and in the rest of Bharat Mata,it is a social and psychological siege.

Kerala has the Gulf Supply Chain,and the North East,has a IB.In addition,Chaiwala has no role in Kerala,as the Hindoos are in a minority.

BUT I AM SCEPTICAL ABOUT THE ABILITY OF "INDIAN MUSLIMS",TO INSURRECT,LET ALONEE,DO A HAMAS STYLE LIBERATION.IT IS THE DNA AND GENE CODE, AND THEY HAVE NO CRITCAL MASS.Barring 2 states,the Indian Muslims are completely surrounded,and can be easily choked off.

To make a Pakistan - you need a Jinnah to dream and envision,AND A QUANTUM LEAPER like AQK. Jinnah had doubts towards the end of his lfe,but not AQK.W/o Jinnah,there would have been NO Pakistan,and W/O AQK,Pakistan would NOT have survived.

Bharat Mata's Muslims, have NO Jinnah and NO AQK.HENCE,KASHMIR IS THE BEST BET -with the aid of Pakistan,and perhaps,the Taliban and PRC,in the future.

Riaz Haq said...

“What our (#Indian) textbooks don't tell us: Why the #Rajputs failed miserably in battle for centuries. They were defeated by Ghazni, Gloria, Khilji, Babur, Akbar (#Mughals) the #Marathas and the #British”. #Hindutva #Modi #BJP #India http://scroll.in/article/728636/what-our-textbooks-dont-tell-us-why-the-rajputs-failed-miserably-in-battle-for-centuries


Girish Shahane

What’s astonishing is that centuries of being out-thought and out-manoeuvred had no impact on the Rajput approach to war. Rana Pratap used precisely the same full frontal attack at Haldighati in 1576 that had failed so often before. Haldighati was a minor clash by the standards of Tarain and Khanua. Pratap was at the head of perhaps 3,000 men and faced about 5,000 Mughal troops. The encounter was far from the Hindu Rajput versus Muslim confrontation it is often made out to be. Rana Pratap had on his side a force of Bhil archers, as well as the assistance of Hakim Shah of the Sur clan, which had ruled North India before Akbar’s rise to power. Man Singh, a Rajput who had accepted Akbar’s suzerainty and adopted the Turko-Mongol battle plan led the Mughal troops. Though Pratap’s continued rebellion following his defeat at Haldighati was admirable in many ways, he was never anything more than an annoyance to the Mughal army. That he is now placed, in the minds of many Indians, on par with Akbar or on a higher plane says much about the twisted communal politics of the subcontinent.

There’s one other factor that contributed substantially to Rajput defeats: the opium habit. Taking opium was established practice among Rajputs in any case, but they considerably upped the quantity they consumed when going into battle. They ended up stoned out of their minds and in no fit state to process any instruction beyond, “kill or be killed”. Opium contributed considerably to the fearlessness of Rajputs in the arena, but also rendered them incapable of coordinating complex manoeuvres. There’s an apt warning for school kids: don’t do drugs, or you’ll squander an empire.

samir sardana said...

Opium made the Rajpoots MILITARILY incompetent,and so,the CONCEPT OF THE HARAKIRI Model of war,which requires NO innovation.But Opium also made the Rajputs IMPOTENT.

The Definition of "Rajputs"

"The word "Rajput" is used in certain parts of Rajasthan to denote the illegitimate sons of a Kshatriya chief or Jagirdar." [Mahajan Vidya Dhar,"Ancient India", Fifth Edition, Reprint 1972, Chand and Co., New Delhi. p. 550 ff.])

Let us take 1 more step back ! Where did these weasels come from ? The Agnikula, Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi ......

This is also all COCK and BULL.After the plunder and rape of The Hindoos by the Sakas, Scythians,Huns ........,the Brahmins needed a force to stand up,to the invaders and boost the shattered ego and confidence,of these Indian Weasels.

So they concocted the BULL,about the Agnikula, Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi .......Each of these BULL shit lies,were concocted by a new series of Brahmins,at different points of time, as the earlier breed REFUSED TO FIGHT !

That is the ORIGIN OF SPECIES ! But that is NOT ALL ! These people are origined from the Kshatriyas - who ARE,AS PER THE MAHABHARATA,a "BASTARD RACE".

SECTION LXIV – Mahbharata - Adivansavatarana Parva

The son of Jamadagni (Parasurama), after twenty-one times making the earth bereft of Kshatriyas wended to that best of mountains Mahendra and there began his ascetic penances.

And at that time when the earth was bereft of Kshatriyas, the Kshatriya ladies, “desirous of offspring”, used to come, O monarch, to the Brahmanas and Brahmanas of rigid vows had connection with them during the womanly season alone, but never, O king, lustfully and out of season.

And Kshatriya ladies by “thousands conceived from such connection” with Brahmanas.

RANA PRATAP WAS ALSO A COWARD AND A WEASEL,WHO DID NOT HAVE THE GUTS,TO FIGHT AKBAR ON THE BATTLEFIELD.HE WAS LIVING LIKE A RAT IN THE JUNGLES.A MAN WITH AN INFLATED EGO WITH NO STRENGTH OR COURAGE OR INTELLECT OR INNOVATION.

There is no need to STUDY RAJPUT WAR STRATEGIES.Just read BERUNI,AS UNDER:

The Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs.
They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited, and stolid.
This wrong estimate of themselves blinded the Hindus and they assumed a false sense of superiority which ultimately proved their ruin.

BERUNI HAS CAPTURED THE CORE DNA OF INDIANS ! As far as the lies spread about the Rajput weasel - Rana Pratap - this is 1 more gem - That Chaiwala went to jail, for the Bangla independence !

https://scroll.in/latest/990670/modi-says-he-was-jailed-for-protest-to-support-bangladesh-independence

THESE COWARDS ARE A MERCENARY RACE,WHO VENTED THEIR DISGRACE AND FRUSTRATION,ON THE HAPLESS DALITS AND LOWER CASTES.THESE VERMIN RUINED INDIA,AS THEY OVERESTIMATED THEIR SKILLS, PROVOKED INVADERS,AND THEN GOT PLASTERED.THAT IS INDIAN HISTORY ! dindooohindoo

The Brits saw the POTENTIAL OF THESE VERMIN "AS MERCENARIES" and used them TO THEIR BEST POTENTIAL IN SUPPRESSING REBELLIONS AND ACTING AS SPIES.THAT IS THE TRUTH !

samir sardana said...

The PROOF of the GENIUS OF BERUNI's PROGNOSIS OF THE HINDOO-DOOM !

There is a TOP SECRET REPORT of HENDERSON BROOKS with Brigadier Prem Bhagat which details
the cowardice of the Indian weasels – Rajpoots,Goo-r-khas,Jats,Punjabis … etc., who RAN AWAY and DESERTED their posts !

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TopSecretdocuments2.pdf

The Indian weasels are in a world OF THEIR OWN JUST LIKE THEIR CHAIWALA) .As per Para 38 on Page 17 of the HENDERSON BROOKS report,an Indian Army Lt Gen, LP Sen said that,IF WE FIRE A FEW ROUNDS IN THE AIR – THE PLA WILL RUN AWAY !

Some GEMS OF COWARDICE OF THE INDIAN WEASELS AND COWARDS – FROM THE DECLASSIFIED HENDERSON
REPORT !

Para 10 on page 160 – Massacre of the Indian weasels
Para 15 on page 160 – 1 Rajpoot wiped out
Para 16 on page 161 – 1/9 Gooorkha wiped out
Para 20 on page 161 – Entire brigade “RUBBED” out
Para 41 on Page 164 – Gadwalis panicked and started “running back”
Para 74d on Page 173 – 1 Sikh ran off and “abandoned” their posts
Para 76b on Page 174 – Sikhs get the jitters
Para 76c on Page 174 – Abandonment of posts
Para 76d on Page 174 – Stragglers of the Indian Army running from the PLA
Para 76e on Page 174 – Punjabis on verge of desertion
Para 76f on Page 174 – Chinese firing from all directins
Para 76g on Page 175 – Punjabis looking to run at the smallest pretext
Para 76h on Page 174 – Entire batallion runs away
Para 76b on Page 174 – Disintegration of Batallion
Para 105 of Page 180 – Indian army FLED
Para 108 on Page 180 – Entire Army DESTROYED

Is anyone left ? Just 2 M's - Madrasis and Marathas ! The Marathas are Dalits and the Madrasis are Dravidians - Not Indians ! dindooohindoo

samir sardana said...

The Henderson Report excluded the Madrasis,Marathas,Jats and Yadavs.Let us nail these 4 clown Martial races also

Madrasis and Marathas,CANNOT survive the cold, especially in 1962 ! And then we come to the Jats and Yadavs !

Jats

The Hindoo Bindoo claim that Jats are born from the “Jata of Shankar”

Jats are proven to be of “Central Asian/Scythian Origin”, and were “basically pirates, bandits and mercenaries”.

Their only claim to fame is the “sacking of the TajMahal”, which they looted and pillaged, and made their own Jai Mahal, and their “digging up and defiling” of the “grave and bones”, of Akbar (by dragging the bones out)

Yadavs

As per the Gita, Lord Krishna considered Yadav’s to be “a curse on the planet and tried to exterminate all the Yadavs”.THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THE PAKISANI SSG,CAN ALSO KEEP IN MIND.THERE IS NO SIN,IN CHOPPING THESE VERMIN !

When Krsna had killed the demons, and thus relieved the burden of the earth, he thought, ‘The earth is stilloverburdened by the unbearably burdensome race of the Yadus. No one else can overcome them, since theyare under my protection.’ … Deluded by Krsna’s power of delusion, and cursed by the Brahmins, they were all destroyed, and when his entire family had been destroyed, Krsna said, ‘The burden has been removed.’ ” — Srimad Bhagavatam 10:90:27-44; 11:1:1-4; 11:30:1-25

As per the Mahabharata, after Krishna was killed, “his wives were raped and molested by Robbers”, and the “offspring so born”, were called Yadavs

Mahabharata, Book 16: Mausala Parva: Section 7

The concourse was very large. The robbers assailed it at different points. Arjuna tried his best to protect it, “but could not succeed”. In the very sight of all the warriors, many “foremost of ladies were dragged away, while others went away with the robbers of their own accord” .

Those Mlecchas, however, O Janamejaya, in the very sight of Partha, retreated,”taking away” with them, many “foremost ladies” of the Vrishnis and Andhakas

This explains Yadav history – QED ! MR ARJUNA THE WEASEL COUKD NOT SAVE HIS MASTERS WIVES ! THERE GOES THE ARJUN MAIN BATTLE TANK 1

Riaz Haq said...

India’s Muslims: An Increasingly Marginalized Population
India’s Muslim communities have faced decades of discrimination, which experts say has worsened under the Hindu nationalist BJP’s government.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi

Summary
Some two hundred million Muslims live in India, making up the predominantly Hindu country’s largest minority group.

For decades, Muslim communities have faced discrimination in employment and education and encountered barriers to achieving wealth and political power. They are disproportionately the victims of communal violence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party have moved to limit Muslims’ rights, particularly through the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows fast-tracked citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from nearby countries.

“The longer Hindu nationalists are in power, the greater the change will be to Muslims’ status and the harder it will be to reverse such changes,” says Ashutosh Varshney, an expert on Indian intercommunal conflict at Brown University.

Riaz Haq said...

#Indian auditors are asking #NGOs about their #Muslim beneficiaries. They're targeting money disbursed to Muslim or #Dalit groups, or those that supported #FarmersProtest, or to those that supported protests against #CAA_NRC. #Modi #Islamophobia https://qz.com/2029699/ via @qz


At least since January, government auditors have been paying visits to NGO offices, staying 10-14 days on each occasion to comb through financial records. In several cases, according to interviews with executives and accountants in the non-profit sector, the visiting auditors also asked pointed questions about Muslim employees and beneficiaries, and about the political allegiances of NGO staff.

Roughly 22,000 NGOs are currently licensed to receive foreign donations. Later this year, most of these NGOs have to apply to renew their licenses under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), a clunky and often ambiguous piece of legislation. “Naturally there’s a huge amount of anxiety across the sector that, at the moment of renewal, these audits could be used in some kind of vendetta,” said Amitabh Behar, the CEO of Oxfam India.

In 2018-19, Indian NGOs received 163 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) in foreign donations. Last September, the Modi government, forever suspicious of “foreign hands” meddling in Indian affairs, amended the FCRA law to restrict how NGOs could use their foreign funds. The amendments introduced more red tape into NGO operations. NGOs are finding it so difficult to function, in fact, that a coalition of 43 NGOs wrote to the home ministry in May, urging the relaxation of these new amendments in order to speed up Covid-19 relief work in the middle of the crisis.

The ministry, which oversees FCRA licensing, did not respond to Quartz’s requests for comment. Accountants and NGO officials asked to speak anonymously, for fear that their comments will be used against their organizations.

How the Indian government is targeting NGOs for audits
Such government audits are not common. As in most countries, Indian NGOs file their accounts and financial reports regularly, and their books can come under the state’s scrutiny only if someone has raised a specific complaint about the NGO’s finances. This year, though, around 300 NGOs have received letters from the home ministry to announce an audit. (The number is an estimate based on numerous conversations with non-profit accountants and NGOs.) The form letter merely states that, “after a preliminary scrutiny of the Annual Returns submitted online,” the government “has reasonable cause to believe” that some FCRA rules are being broken.

What auditors are looking for in the books of NGOs
Before the auditors arrived, the executive director had made a small bet with his colleague: that he could pick out a dozen of their beneficiaries whom the auditors would certainly ask about. He compiled his dozen: organizations that benefited Muslims, or the lowest Hindu castes known as Dalits, or groups that supported independent journalism. The auditors asked for files on nine of the 12 he’d predicted and asked questions about them: why they were given money, how much money they got, what they spent it on.


In total, the auditors asked for files on around 100 beneficiaries. The auditors told him, the executive director said, that they’d been asked to look for evidence of money disbursed to Muslim or Dalit groups, or to groups that supported the farmers’ protests earlier this year, or to those that supported protests against India’s controversial citizenship bill in 2019.

A founder of another Delhi-based NGO, which works in the field of human rights and labor law, said that auditors asked him about his Muslim field workers. “Out of all our 280 or so employees, they singled out one Abdul Jabbar and said: ‘Show me the expenses he has filed,'” he said. “And they would look at the vouchers of his lunch, for instance: 2 rotis and daal.” Then they asked about another employee, a woman from Kashmir. “What is the message we’re getting here? That we shouldn’t employ Muslims?”

SAMIR SARDANA said...

Like I said in my post at April 1, 2021 at 10:20 AM,as under :

"Bharat Mata's Muslims, have NO Jinnah and NO AQK.HENCE,KASHMIR IS THE BEST BET -with the aid of Pakistan,and perhaps,the Taliban and PRC,in the future"

Tha Taliban are weeks from a Complete Takeover !

Perhaps Mullah Baradar can make me the sole selling agent of the rare earths !

Riaz Haq said...

#India Border Clash Between #Assam and #Mizoram Leaves at Least 5 Dead. The states were created by late PM Rajiv Gandhi in an attempt to broker a solution to years of rebel insurgency by groups seeking independence from India. #BJP #AssamMizoramBorder https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/world/asia/india-assam-mizoram-border.html?smid=tw-share

Two Indian states have been arguing since the 1980s over where exactly the line falls on a 193-square-mile strip of land dividing them. On Monday, guns and hand grenades came out.

Gunfire and grenades exploded along a stretch of dense tropical forest in India’s northeast on Monday in a standoff involving hundreds of police and civilians over a long-disputed state border crossing.

At least five police officers from the state of Assam were killed and dozens of officers and civilians were injured in the melee, which took place in the small village of Vairengte in the Kolasib district of the far northeastern state of Mizoram.

Mizoram and Assam officials quickly blamed each other for the bloodshed.

The flare-up over the disputed territory was the first involving casualties in decades, experts said, and raised broader questions about India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.

The clash occurred two days after Amit Shah, India’s powerful home minister, and a member of the party, held a meeting with state leaders meant to resolve the border dispute there and some elsewhere in India’s northeast.

Though Assam is led by the B.J.P. and Mizoram by a regional party in coalition with the B.J.P., the talks with Mr. Shah appeared not to defuse tensions, as the fighting Monday made all too clear.

Leaders of the Congress party, the main opposition to the B.J.P., pointed to the government’s failure to negotiate a peaceful solution as evidence of its ineffectiveness.

Even observers outside the political fray said two state police forces shooting at one another raised serious issues.

“This should have been sorted out much before by the home ministry, but somehow it has not happened — and this is the repercussion,” said Bhagat Oinam, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Boundary disputes between Mizoram and Assam are not new. The two sides have argued where exactly the line falls on a 193-square-mile strip of land since the 1980s, when Mizoram and three other Indian states were carved out of Assam, a sprawling state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi opposes #caste census in #India. A caste count could cause fissures in the #Hindu vote, which the #BJP has managed to consolidate in recent years, despite deep divisions that underpin the party's plank of Hindu unity. #Islamophobia_in_india https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58141993

Major opposition and regional leaders have met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to argue in favour of counting caste in the country's census.

"A caste census will be a historic, pro-poor measure," Tejashwi Yadav, a leader of the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party's decision not to do so has sparked a political maelstrom.

Hinduism's deeply hierarchical and oppressive caste system, which dates back some 2,000 years, puts Brahmins or priests at the top, and Dalits (formerly untouchables) and Adivasis (tribespeople) at the bottom.

In between are a multitude of castes - it's hard to even say how many because there is no list that has enumerated them all.

But there is a swathe of lower and intermediate castes, which are roughly believed to constitute about 52% of the population, that are recognised as Other Backward Classes or OBCs.

While India's census, which happens every 10 years, has always recorded the population of Dalits and Adivasis, it has never counted OBCs.

Now, several political parties, including BJP's allies, are demanding a caste census - essentially a count of OBCs. However, the government has refused.


------------------

Caste is a crucial factor in every Indian election, from the village council to the parliament. More so in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP's power and popularity rest on a delicately forged alliance of castes, and especially those in the OBC category.

A caste count could cause fissures in the Hindu vote, which the BJP has managed to consolidate in recent years, despite deep divisions that underpin the party's plank of Hindu unity.

The government has also argued that it would lead to the perpetuation of caste identities - but lower castes say that identity is a reality they grapple with everyday and only the privileged can afford to overlook caste.

Critics say there's another reason for the BJP's reluctance. Counting OBCs would reveal what a large proportion of the population they make up, but how little of it comprises upper castes, who nevertheless dominate politics and bureaucracy, because of centuries of privilege afforded by wealth and education.

Riaz Haq said...

Unmasking Hindutva - Frontline
Inbox

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/unmasking-hindutva-looking-back-on-dismantling-global-hindutva-online-conference-september-2021/article36628499.ece

SOCIAL science academics associated with American and European universities organised a three-day online conference titled “Dismantling Global Hindutva” from September 10 to 12 with the stated aim of bringing together “scholars of South Asia specialising in gender, economics, political science, caste, religion, health care, and media in order to try to understand the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of Hindutva”. The conference was co-sponsored by academic units of more than 50 universities worldwide.

As soon as the announcement pertaining to the conference was made sometime in August, the organisers and the invited speakers were threatened, trolled and intimidated on social media. Hindu groups based in the United States such as the Hindu Mandir Executives Conference, which describes itself as an initiative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America, the Coalition of Hindus of North America and the Hindu American Foundation pressured participating universities to withdraw their support for the event. Niraj Antani, a Republican State Senator from Ohio, condemned the conference, terming it as “Hinduphobia”. In India, the event attracted massive opposition, with several media outlets taking the lead in campaigning against it.

The speakers acknowledged the “bravery” and “fortitude” of the organisers in staying the course and proceeding with the conference. The conference had nine thematic sessions with 45 speakers (including the moderators) presenting their ideas and analyses. While the participating scholars (the majority of them were of Indian heritage) were mainly from the U.S., there were speakers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany as well. A handful of Indian activists, who were subjected to virulent online attacks, including death threats, also spoke at the conference. The organisers deserve to be congratulated because it is hard to imagine an academic event that rigorously interrogates the idea of Hindutva taking place in India with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in government at the Centre.

Also read: Sangh Parivar’s U.S. funds trail

The historian Gyan Prakash, in his opening statement, said Hindutva, which he characterised as “anti-democratic and anti-intellectual”, was the “de facto ideology of the ruling regime in India” and that it “seeks to alter the constitutional order”. Prakash stated that the concerted attacks in the U.S. and India on the basis of “false characterisation of the conference as anti-Hindu” was because “the Hindutva ego is fragile”.

Paradox of global Hindutva
The first session was titled “What is Global Hindutva?”. The political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, the film-maker Anand Patwardhan and the poet and author Meena Kandaswamy spoke in this session. Jaffrelot sought to explain the paradox of a global Hindutva movement because Hindutva is linked to a “sacred territory” (the Indian subcontinent in this case) as expounded by V.D. Savarkar in his pamphlet Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Since the 1990s, Jaffrelot explained, a transformation has happened, with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) expanding its organisational base tremendously beyond India. The RSS invests heavily in the diaspora because of its “wealth”, “the concept of Western ethnic nationalisms of the early 20th century movements” and with the hope that it can act as an “ethnic lobby” the way Israel has done.

Riaz Haq said...

Unmasking Hindutva - Frontline
Inbox

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/unmasking-hindutva-looking-back-on-dismantling-global-hindutva-online-conference-september-2021/article36628499.ece

In a session on “Gender and Sexual Politics of Hindutva”, the film-maker Leena Manimekalai showed a clip from her incomplete film Rape Nation, which partially looks at the stories of survivors of sexual violence during the communal carnages that took place in Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar in 2002 and 2013 respectively. Arguing that sexual violence is at the core of Hindutva, Leena Manimekalai said: “Hindutva has redefined nationalism as a genocidal impulse to rape and murder non-Hindu women. It is a celebration of toxic masculinity.”

The transgender studies scholar Aniruddha Dutta showed in his presentation how the BJP’s rise had even affected the Hijra tradition where there has been a transformation from a “syncretic Indo-Islamic tradition to a more orthodox version of Hinduism”. The Dalit feminist P. Sivakami critiqued Hindutva as having “no vision for Hindu women except that it intends to prepare and reorient them against their imaginary enemy, i.e., the Muslim man, thus diverting her from her real struggles”. The feminist scholar Akanksha Mehta segued from this presentation, stating that “notions of gender and sexuality rooted in caste and race are crucial to the Hindutva project” even as she compared the analogous role of women among savarna (caste) Hindus and Zionists.

Hindutva and its relationship to nationalism was the theme of the session titled “Contours of the Nation”. The focus was on the operation of Hindutva in Kashmir, the north-eastern region and the Adivasi-inhabited areas of central India. The anthropologist Mohamad Junaid examined the “spectacle of domination” of the Hindutva state, characterising it as “primarily an anti-Muslim state”. He also spoke about the long history of Hindutva in Kashmir, tracing it to the land reforms of the 1950s, which were a challenge to “Hindu sovereignty”.

The anthropologist Arkotong Longkumer looked at the operation of Hindutva in the north-eastern States, arguing that “Hindutva’s spread is not restricted to the politics of the north-east but also extends to the cultural and social spheres of the region”. The sociologist Nandini Sundar’s presentation dwelt on four arenas through which the “supremacist projects of the RSS have received state support” in the Adivasi regions of central India; one of these arenas was the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams, which she discussed in detail. Yasmin Saikia, a historian of Assam, spoke about how millions of Muslims in Assam “are facing the threat of denationalisation and statelessness” because of the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. She stated: “The transformation of Muslims [in Assam] from migrants to immigrants to infiltrators to illegal Bangladeshis is the product of Hindutva, although the Congress party too enabled this process by its failure in developing a well-measured and humane minority policy.”

Riaz Haq said...

Unmasking Hindutva - Frontline
Inbox

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/unmasking-hindutva-looking-back-on-dismantling-global-hindutva-online-conference-september-2021/article36628499.ece


Two scholars from the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamuti, asserted that “not all Hinduism is Hindutva but Hindutva is, in fact, Hinduism…. Hindutva is a powerful, vocal, insidious form of Hinduism.” In a powerful presentation, Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, spoke about her engagement with a more casteless and inclusive form of Hinduism. Identifying herself as a practising Hindu who “loves Sita and Ram”, she decried how “Jai Shri Ram has become a murder slogan”. The geographer Brij Maharaj argued how the RSS and its ideology of Hindutva had found it difficult to pervade Indian diasporas in South Africa, Mauritius, Guyana and Fiji because of their origins as indentured labour.

In the last session, on “Islamophobia, Hindutva and White Supremacy”, the historians Anupama Rao and Anjali Arondekar and the media studies scholar Deepa Kumar shared their perspectives. Deepa Kumar commented on the shrinking academic space in Indian universities, quoting her own experience: In May 2021, her talk on Islamophobia at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education was cancelled following protests by Hindu right-wing activists. Deepa Kumar drew on her past work to show the commonality of “tactics, strategies and rhetoric” among white supremacists, Zionists and espousers of Hindutva.

Riaz Haq said...

Is #India Headed for Anti-Muslim Genocide? #Modi’s #BJP has created a deep sense of #Hindu victimhood, stoking the othering of #Muslims via #disinformation, #hatespeech, silencing progressives, and empowering Hindu supremacist vigilante groups. #HIndutva https://time.com/6103284/india-hindu-supremacy-extremism-genocide-bjp-modi/


Indian leaders love to talk up Mahatma Gandhi when they travel abroad. It plays well to the popular notion of India as a land of peace and love, and boosts its moral authority as a responsible democracy on the world stage. So, Gandhi and his ideas came up a lot as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped out of India recently for the first time in about one and a half years.

Meeting Modi at the White House on Sept. 24, President Joe Biden said Gandhi’s “message of non-violence, respect, and tolerance matters today maybe more than it ever has.” In his own speech to the United Nations, Modi rued that “the world faces the threat of regressive thinking and extremism,” and underlined his country’s democratic credentials. To reinforce his point, he even coined a new sobriquet for India: “the mother of all democracies.”

No one knows what that means, least of all one Indian mother still trying to make sense of the death of her 12-year-old boy. He was felled by a stray police bullet in the northeastern state of Assam at the same time as Modi was pontificating in America.


“They killed my son,” a dazed Hasina Bano kept repeating between sobs when journalists visited her at a remote village on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. The boy, Sheikh Farid, was hit when police opened fire at Bengali Muslim villagers protesting the forced eviction from their land that the government now wants to give to Assamese Hindus, whom it calls the “indigenous community.” Ironically, moments before Farid died, he had collected from the post office a national biometric identification card establishing his own indigeneity.

The death of a child in such a manner should be the stuff of national disgrace. But the same eviction drive resulted in even more horror when a neighbor of Farid charged at the police with a stick, in a blind rage after they dismantled his home along with those of 5,000 others. The heavily armed policemen, who far outnumbered Moinul Hoque and could have easily subdued him, instead shot him dead at point blank range.

It was all captured on a widely circulated video [Warning: Graphic and distressing scenes]. The images show police raining baton blows on him even as he collapsed, taking turns with Bijoy Baniya, a Hindu photographer accompanying the police team. As Hoque’s life ebbs away, Baniya fiendishly jumps and stomps on his motionless body in an “act of performative depravity.”

Baniya is merely the latest face of India’s state-driven Hindu radicalization. In a country where 84% of the population is Hindu, and just 14% Muslim, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has achieved the astonishing feat of creating a deep sense of Hindu victimhood, stoking the othering of Muslims via disinformation, hate speech, opening old religious wounds, manipulating a servile media, silencing progressive voices, and empowering Hindu supremacist vigilante groups. “Hindu khatre mein hain” (Hindus are in danger) is a right-wing refrain that resonates deeply today.


As a result, many Hindus have now been persuaded to believe that India’s biggest problem is its Muslims. Before Modi took over in 2014, most citizens thought their chief concerns were poverty, insufficient economic growth and corruption. He rode to power on the promise to fix all that. But as the economy has continued to worsen, and unemployment and poverty have risen under him, the BJP has increasingly fallen back on supremacist politics to deflect attention and evade responsibility. To keep winning elections, it needs to keep polarizing Hindu voters against Muslims, and spinning ever more outrageous campaigns to demonize Muslims.

Riaz Haq said...

Is #India Headed for Anti-Muslim Genocide? #Modi’s #BJP has created a deep sense of #Hindu victimhood, stoking the othering of #Muslims via #disinformation, #hatespeech, silencing progressives, and empowering Hindu supremacist vigilante groups. #HIndutva https://time.com/6103284/india-hindu-supremacy-extremism-genocide-bjp-modi/

Muslims apparently lust after Hindu women, procreating rapidly with the aim of overtaking the Hindu population and establishing an Islamic state, and necessitating new laws against “love jihad.” Similar regulations against religious conversions and the slaughter of cows, which are sacred to Hindus, have encouraged vigilantism. Muslim hawkers and workers have come under increasing attack from Hindu supremacist groups calling for a boycott of Muslim businesses.

Indian social media today is filled with videos of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism calling for the lynching of Muslims—an act so common that it hardly makes news anymore. High-profile Hindu supremacists are seldom booked for hate speech. Muslims routinely face random attacks for such “crimes” as transporting cattle or being in the company of Hindu women. Sometimes, the provocation is simply that somebody is visibly Muslim. As Modi himself has told election rallies, people “creating violence” can be “identified by their clothes.”

The persecution of Muslims in Assam is just the beginning
But Baniya’s malevolence has a history longer than India’s descent into the abyss of hate. Assam, the setting for his ghoulish death dance on the body of a Muslim, is where this construct of the Muslim as the unwanted, dangerous outsider has been honed and mainstreamed. The fear of being overrun by “outsiders” has almost been genetically encoded there over centuries, dating back to the time the British started clearing the state’s lush forests for tea and other plantations. The clearances triggered the inward migration of Bengali peasants from densely populated adjoining regions in search of easily obtainable fertile lands.

Much to the discontent of the ethnic Assamese, the migrations have continued in recent decades as a result of the violent partition of the subcontinent, economic hardship, political instability and wars in what is now known as Bangladesh. Climate-related factors have also driven a steady exodus out of flood-prone, deltaic Bangladesh into Assam.

With the rise of Modi, historical Assamese resentment towards non-Assamese speakers has mixed with the politics of Hindu nationalism in a dangerous brew of xenophobia and patriotism. Stomping on a Muslim corpse now has a gloss of patriotic righteousness to it, which is why it is flaunted on camera. Bigotry is now a badge of honor. In his head, Baniya was protecting India and policemen are seen hugging him in the video after Hoque’s death. His behavior says much about the way Modi has weaponized history and valorized and incentivized hate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally for the West Bengal Assembly Election on April 12, 2021 in the North 24 Parganas district, India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally for the West Bengal Assembly Election on April 12, 2021 in the North 24 Parganas district, India. Samir Jana/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Assam is Modi’s grand laboratory, where he is putting Muslims to the litmus test of a citizen verification drive—separating the trueborn from the chaff—before taking it national. The BJP says it simply wants India to be rid of “Bangladeshi migrants”, but it uses it as a code for Indian Muslims. Nearly two million people have been disenfranchised in the state, with no clarity as to what is to happen to them. The closest regional parallel to such large-scale, government-dictated statelessness in recent times was the 1982 mass disenfranchisement of the Rohingya in Myanmar, before the massacres and exodus years later.

Riaz Haq said...

Book Excerpt (Aakar Patel's Price of the Modi Years): The Many Anti-Muslim Laws Brought in By the Modi Government
While the Citizenship Amendment Act rightly was criticised around the world for specifically targeting Muslims along with the NRC pincer, other laws India has passed since 2014 have not received as much notice.

https://thewire.in/politics/price-of-the-modi-years-book-excerpt


These are those laws the Modi years have given us:

1. The Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2015


Under this law anyone found in possession of beef would be jailed for up to five years. It also banned the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and calves in addition to the existing ban on cow slaughter.

2. The Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015

Possession of beef punishable by up to five years in jail. Sale of cows for slaughter to another state punishable by seven years in jail. Cow slaughter would attract jail of up to 10 years. The burden of proof would be on the accused.

3. The Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2017

This law extended the punishment for cow slaughter from seven years to life. It allows permanent forfeiture of vehicles transporting animals except under prescribed conditions. It also increased the fine from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja said the logic was to equal cow slaughter with murder.

4. The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Ordinance, 2020 repealed the 1964 law which allowed the slaughter of bullocks.

It made cow slaughter punishable by up to seven years. Purchase, sale, disposal or transport of cattle outside the state except in prescribed manner would be punishable by five years in jail. Fines of up to Rs 10 lakh are also imposed.

The Maharashtra law has this clause: “9B. Burden of proof on accused. In any trial … the burden of proving that the slaughter, transport, export outside the State, sale, purchase or possession of flesh of cow, bull or bullock was not in contravention of the provisions of this Act shall be on the accused.”

Meaning that you are guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent. If you are found with a bloody knife next to a corpse, you are presumed innocent. It is the State that has to demonstrate that you committed murder. But if you are found with or found near meat and accused of possessing beef you are presumed guilty of possessing beef till you disprove this to the satisfaction of the State. This is an invitation to violence. Two weeks after Maharashtra, on 17 March 2015, Haryana under the BJP passed its law criminalising possession of beef. The law has this section: ‘No person shall directly or indirectly sell, keep, store, transport or offer for sale or cause to be sold beef or beef products.’ Burden of proof was reversed here also. Punishment is up to five years.

While the Citizenship Amendment Act rightly was criticised around the world for specifically targeting Muslims along with the NRC pincer, other laws India has passed since 2014 have not received as much notice. The judiciary has been supine and allowed a de facto Hindu Rashtra to emerge through legislation. These laws have been written and passed and are being applied across India, targeting Indian Muslims, brutalising them constantly, while a demented media and a bored public have looked away.

Aakar Patel is Chair of Amnesty International India and author of Our Hindu Rashtra. His Price of the Modi Years will be released on November 14.

Riaz Haq said...

Solution to pain of Partition is undoing it: Mohan Bhagwat
🔴 The book, ‘Vibhajan Kalin Bharat ke Sakshi’ (The Witnesses of Partition-era India), has been written by Krishnanand Sagar. “The RSS chief also said this is India of 2021 and not of 1947.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/solution-to-pain-of-partition-is-undoing-it-mohan-bhagwat-7641842/

The only solution to the pain of Partition lies in undoing it, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Thursday.

“If we want to become a strong nation and contribute in the world’s welfare, the Hindu society will have to become capable. Bharat ke vibhajan ki peeda ka samadhan, vibhajan ko nirast karne mein hi hai (the solution to the pain of Partition is in undoing it),” the RSS quoted Bhagwat as saying at a book launch event in Noida.

The book, ‘Vibhajan Kalin Bharat ke Sakshi’ (The Witnesses of Partition-era India), has been written by Krishnanand Sagar.

“The RSS chief also said this is India of 2021 and not of 1947. Partition has happened once, it won’t happen again. Those who think that way will face partition themselves,” the RSS statement said. Bhagwat said all should read history and accept its truth, according to the statement.

“Indian ideology is about taking everyone along. It is not about claiming to be right and proving others wrong,” he said. “Contrary to this, the thought process of Islamic extremists is to prove others wrong and claim themselves to be right. This was the main reason for struggle in the past.”

The programme was presided over by retired judge of Allahabad High Court Shambhu Nath Srivastav. The RSS statement said he discussed the genocide of the Hindus till date.

Riaz Haq said...

Ram temple movement bigger than our freedom struggle: VHP joint general secretary

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ram-temple-movement-bigger-than-freedom-struggle-vhp-7669357/

Meanwhile, RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar said that the Ram Temple movement “awakened” the Hindu society and “became a moment of self-realisation for the Hindus”.


VHP’s joint general secretary Surendra Jain courted controversy on Sunday saying that the Ram temple movement was “bigger than the freedom struggle”.

“In 1947, India got its political freedom. But through the movement for the Ram Temple, we got our religious and cultural freedom. This was an even bigger movement than the freedom struggle,” a statement from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) quoted Jain as saying.

He further claimed that the Ram temple had “begun the journey to an era of Ram Rajya” and India’s fortunes would change for the better once the temple was constructed. “The present century belongs to that of Ram…The donation campaign became a bridge to unite the whole nation. It proved only Ram can unite the nation. Secular politics has only divided the nation,” Jain added.

Meanwhile, speaking at the launch of a book titled Sab Ke Ram, RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar said on Sunday that the Ram temple movement “awakened” the Hindu society and “became a moment of self-realisation for the Hindus”.

The event was organised by the VHP.

“Those who were saying the sentiment of Hindutva is on the wane have had their doubts answered by the tide of donations received for the Ram temple. The Ram temple movement is Hindu society’s self-realisation. It awakened the Hindu society…The movement was not a result of a reaction but of the commitment of the Hindus,” a VHP statement quoted Kumar as having said.

He added, “Our dream is of a harmonious society. Our tolerance is not because of our cowardice, but because of our courage and enterprise.”

The Ram temple movement, involving leaders of the VHP, RSS and the BJP, had led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Hindus and granted the disputed site to them even as those accused of the Babri Masjid demolition were acquitted.

The construction of Ram Temple, which is being carried out by the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, is at an advanced stage. It is expected to open to the public by December, 2023, just ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Riaz Haq said...

Tilak-Jinnah #Lucknow pact of 1916 embodied #interfaith harmony that is much needed in modern-day #India. Initially, #Jinnah was a member of both Congress & #Muslim League. He was popularly known as an “ambassador of #Hindu-Muslim unity”. https://scroll.in/article/968926/the-tilak-jinnah-pact-embodied-communal-harmony-that-is-much-needed-in-modern-day-india via @scroll_in


The 1916 Lucknow pact
Around the same time, in 1913, Jinnah had finally joined the Muslim League. Remarkably, he continued to be a member, simultaneously, of the Congress, which he had joined in 1906. He was held in high esteem in both Congress and Muslim League circles, and was popularly known as an “ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”. Tilak and Jinnah had already worked together in the previous decade. Hence, a confluence of India’s two main political streams led to the historic Lucknow Pact in 1916.

------------

When we look back at India’s freedom movement, we see two milestones when Hindu-Muslim cooperation reached its zenith. One was the 1857 War of Independence, when the two groups fought shoulder to shoulder against “Company rule” – the colonial advancements of the East India Company – from Peshawar to Dhaka. The other was the Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the Muslim League in December 1916, whose principal architects were Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

How did such a remarkable pact between two apparently dissimilar parties, which would be unthinkable in today’s highly-polarised and intolerant atmosphere, happen? For any major breakthrough to happen in politics, two propitious developments, one objective and the other subjective, have to come together. There has to be a turn in the external circumstance conducive for a bold move to be made. There also has to be an internal resolve among leaders to conduct a new experiment.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 created such a situation, which made the British government seek cooperation of Indian public and political parties in its war effort. This naturally entailed a willingness to give some concessions in the form of constitutional reforms.

Around the same time, a few highly significant changes had taken place in the political situation in India. Tilak had been released in 1914 after he completed his six-year imprisonment in Mandalay, Burma, after being convicted in a sedition case in 1908. The following year, he was re-admitted into the Congress.

Thus, the bitterness of the split in the Congress between the “extremists” and “moderates” at its 1907 session in Surat was now a thing of the past. Tilak had emerged as an even more popular and respected leader of the Congress because of his imprisonment. The prolonged prison experience had further steeled his belief that Hindu-Muslim unity was a pre-requisite for the advancement of the Indian demand for Swaraj. He also concluded that Britain’s deep involvement in the First World War had opened a new window of opportunity to seek constitutional reforms for self-rule.

Riaz Haq said...

Hindu bigots are openly urging Indians to murder Muslims
And the ruling party does nothing to stop them

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/01/15/hindu-bigots-are-openly-urging-indians-to-murder-muslims

The Indian government should realise that by pumping up the ridiculous notion that India’s 300m or so non-Hindus represent a threat to the 1.1bn majority, it is unleashing forces that may become uncontrollable. Sectarian bloodshed can generate a momentum of its own. India has suffered enough in the past for the risks to be obvious: hundreds of thousands died during its post-colonial partition, possibly more. Subsequent decades have seen episodic pogroms. But until recently, although rogue politicians often stirred up hatred for electoral advantage, the secular state mostly acted as a restraint. No longer.

The West, distracted by Russia and China, has paid little attention. Yet a stable, democratic India would be a counterweight to authoritarian China. A Hindu chauvinist India would not only be nastier for its inhabitants; it could also spread instability, prone to even worse relations with its Muslim neighbours. India’s friends, starting with America, should use their influence to persuade Mr Modi and his acolytes to check the spread of hate before it explodes into widespread violence. Mr Modi should want to prevent such a calamity, too. Does he? ■

Riaz Haq said...

#Hindutva could devour both #India and the #BJP. In a formally secular India, #Hindu religion indeed seems to have become the opium of the people, a mass distraction from the transformative social agenda that the country needs. #Modi #Islamophobia https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/autonomous-hindtuva-could-devour-both-india-and-the-bharatiya-janata-party-122052300133_1.html

With the rapid radicalisation of sections of Hindu society, the Hindutva project has become dangerously autonomous. It is no longer possible to see it only as an electoral strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Today one does not need to even presume the direct hand of the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh behind Hindutva’s every move.

Its exponential social growth may have placed it beyond their control. In a formally secular India, religion indeed seems to have become the opium of the people. When Marx described religion as “the sigh of the oppressed ...

Riaz Haq said...

The biggest crisis that India is facing today is the “possible collapse of the Indian nation”, Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen said recently in Kolkata. https://youtu.be/IqKVHVpgXJI

He paraphrased American poet Ogden Nash who said any schoolboy can love like a fool but hate is an art that has to be cultivated. Without naming Modi or BJP, he said some people have cultivated hate in India to serve their own interests.

"I think if someone asks me if I'm scared of something, I would say ‘yes’. There is a reason to be afraid now. The current situation in the country has become a cause for fear," the well-known economist said.

"I want the country to be united. I don't want division in a country that was historically liberal. We have to work together," Sen added.

“The world came to know of Upanishads because of a Muslim Prince. Dara Sikhoh, Shah Jahan's son, learnt Sanskrit and translated some of the Upanishads into Persian", he added.

Asserting that India cannot belong only to the Hindus or to the Muslims, Sen stressed on the need to stay united in line with the country’s traditions.

"India cannot be (a country) of Hindus only. Again, Muslims alone cannot make India. Everyone has to work together," Sen added.

Riaz Haq said...

#India: Narratives of division & #hate. A documentary looks at rising intolerance & xenophobia in India. #Toxic narratives flood the airwaves and the #internet. #Hindutva – #Hindu supremacy – ascending, spreading division and hate speech.

https://aje.io/791j8a via @AJEnglish

Riaz Haq said...

#IndiaAt75: #Modi is Proving #Pakistan's Case For #Partition1947. 75 years after #India split apart, the nation’s beleaguered #Muslims increasingly face the marginalization and brutal prejudice that Pakistan’s founder #QuaideAzam predicted. #PakistanAt75 https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-08-14/india-s-75th-anniversary-modi-is-proving-pakistan-s-case-for-partition

Opinion by Nisid Hajari

Jinnah’s main fear was how little power Muslims would wield in a united India. That’s what drove the initial break with his former allies in the Indian National Congress party — including Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister— a decade before independence. And it’s why Jinnah retracted his support for a last-minute compromise brokered by the British in 1946, after Nehru intimated that the Congress would not honor the agreement once the British were gone.

Partition very nearly proved Jinnah’s case. Somewhere between 200,000 and two million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were killed within a few short weeks of independence; 14 million were uprooted from their homes. The biggest massacres arguably began with attacks on Muslim villages on the Indian side of the new border.

India’s founding fathers, however, risked their lives to undercut Jinnah’s argument. When riots spread to the Indian capital Delhi and police and petty government officials joined in pogroms targeting Muslims, Nehru took to the streets, remonstrating with mobs and giving public speeches promoting communal harmony while only lightly guarded. He insisted the government machinery exert itself to protect Muslims as well as Hindus.

With even members of his cabinet convinced that India would be better off without tens of millions of citizens suspected of split loyalties, Nehru barely prevailed. The pressure to expel Muslims only really subsided months later after a Hindu fanatic assassinated the revered Gandhi, shocking the cabinet into unity and prompting public revulsion against Hindu bigotry.

That consensus and the rights enshrined in India’s secular constitution largely preserved religious harmony in India for more than seven decades. Al-Qaeda and other transnational terrorist groups made few inroads among Indian Muslims, even as jihadists flourished in nearby countries. While sectarian riots have repeatedly broken out, especially after provocations such as the 1992 demolition of a mosque in Ayodhya to make way for a Hindu temple, tensions have for the most part remained local and limited. And even if Indian Muslims faced discrimination and were on average poorer and less well-educated than Hindus, few doubted that they were full citizens — especially when their votes were needed at election time.

What makes the changes that have proliferated under Modi so dispiriting and dangerous is their corrosive impact on those feelings of belonging. The problem isn’t even so much the most horrific cases of bigotry, including dozens of lynchings of Muslims around the country. Those at least still draw outrage in some quarters, as well as international attention.

What’s worse is the steady and widely accepted marginalization of India’s nearly 200 million Muslims. An overheated and jingoistic media portrays them as potential fifth columnists, who should “go back” to a Pakistan most have never visited if they don’t like the new India. (Pakistani sponsorship of extremist groups that have carried out brutal attacks in India has exacerbated fears of an internal threat.) There’s widespread acceptance of hate speech, including open calls to exterminate Muslims. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has pursued laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of them.

Riaz Haq said...

Dr. Audrey Truschke
@AudreyTruschke
Replying to
@woke_enigma
"For assailing a Brahmin, a Kshatriya ought to be fined 100, and a Vaishya 150 or 200; but a Shudra ought to suffer corporal punishment."

Manu’s Code of Law 8.267 (Olivelle trans).

https://twitter.com/AudreyTruschke/status/1560294331092987904?s=20&t=7i4WJZXQAT_ykd_sP_Diog

Riaz Haq said...

Former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's Tweet on Hindu Nationalists' reaction to India's loss to Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022:

Dr Manamohan Singh 💙
@Mr_ManmohanSing
·
12h
Muslim player's bad_day = gaddar deshdrohi

Sikh player's bad_day = #khalistani

Hindu player's bad_day = out of form today.
It is a mistake that's it,

How long is the discrimination?

https://twitter.com/Mr_ManmohanSing/status/1566634780443156480?s=20&t=Cx2gHLz30PVFMD-yv37RRw

Riaz Haq said...

The World Ignored Russia’s Delusions. It Shouldn’t Make the Same Mistake With India.
Hindu nationalist ideologues in New Delhi are flirting with a dangerous revisionist history of South Asia.


https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/08/india-akhand-bharat-hindu-nationalist-rss-bjp/

By Sushant Singh, a senior fellow with the Centre for Policy Research in India.
Leaders have long relied on manufactured history to justify invasions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the existence of an independent Ukrainian state in his bid to take over the country and restore Russia’s perceived greatness. Chinese President Xi Jinping argues that the state must recover what his party sees as historical territory to overcome its so-called century of humiliation. Neither leader seems to care that Russia and China were never previously politically contiguous states.

Others around the world harbor similar irredentist dreams that are sometimes mocked by observers. We ignore these ambitions at our own peril. For decades, India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—the Hindu nationalist organization with close links to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—has put forward the idea of Akhand Bharat or an “unbroken India.” The proposed entity stretches from Afghanistan on India’s western flank all the way to Myanmar to the east of India as well as encompassing all of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has mentioned the idea: In a 2012 interview, when he was still the chief minister of Gujarat, he argued that Akhand Bharat referred to cultural unity.

Last month, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told a public gathering that India will become Akhand Bharat in 10 to 15 years, providing the first timeline for a Hindu nationalist pipe dream. Besides heading the RSS, Bhagwat is a very powerful figure in today’s India because of his personal relationship with Modi. The BJP is one of a few dozen institutions that comes under the direct control of the RSS, which now holds the most power since it was founded in 1925. Modi was a full-time RSS campaigner before it assigned him to the BJP, and he considers Bhagwat’s late father to be a mentor. Indian corporate leaders and foreign diplomats recognize Bhagwat’s clout, visiting him at RSS headquarters in Nagpur, India. His words must be engaged with seriously, not dismissed offhand as the fantasies of an old man.

Riaz Haq said...

India arrests dozens after nationwide raids on Muslim group PFI (Popular Front of India)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/22/nationwide-raids-on-muslim-group-pfi-in-india-over-100-arrested


India’s top investigation agencies arrest 45 Popular Front of India members for alleged terror links after simultaneous raids in 15 states.

Officials at India’s top investigation agencies say they have conducted nationwide raids and arrested 45 people associated with a prominent Muslim organisation for alleged terror links.

The simultaneous raids on the offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and homes of its members were conducted by the federally controlled National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at 93 locations in 15 Indian states, the NIA said in a statement on Thursday evening.

NIA said the searches were conducted at the houses and offices of top PFI leaders and members in connection with five cases related to “funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations”.

“As on date, the NIA is investigating a total of 19 PFI-related cases,” said the statement.

Most of the arrests were made in the southern states. In Kerala, where PFI enjoys considerable influence in Muslim-majority areas, 19 people were arrested, the NIA said in its statement.

Arrests were also made in Tamil Nadu (11), Karnataka (7), Andhra Pradesh (4), Rajasthan (2) and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, according to the statement.

Earlier, Indian media reports said more than 100 PFI leaders and members were arrested in the raids.

The PFI was established in 2007 after the merger of three Muslim groups – the National Democratic Front in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity in Karnataka, and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu.

In 2009, the organisation formed its political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), to contest elections.

PFI says it works for the rights of Muslims and other marginalised communities in India. But right-wing Hindu groups, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuses the group of violent attacks on its members.


‘Totalitarian regime using agencies as puppets’
Federal minister Giriraj Singh accused PFI of “working against India” and his counterpart Ramdas Athawale said the group was “linked to terror organisations”.

“We don’t have problems with running an organisation or bringing together Muslim community. But taking the name of this country and spreading terrorism, then there is a need to take action. I welcome the NIA and ED raids,” Athawale told reporters.

“PFI should change itself if they want to live in India … They should stand with India.”

But the PFI called the NIA and ED raids a “witch hunt” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

“Popular Front will never ever surrender on any scary action by a totalitarian regime using the central agencies as its puppets and will stand firm on its will for recovering the democratic system and spirit of the constitution of our beloved country,” it said in the statement shared with Al Jazeera.

The raids sparked protests in several parts of Kerala, where the PFI has called for a strike on Friday. Similar protests were also reported from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states.

Rights activists have accused the government of using investigative agencies to harass and intimidate groups critical of its policies. Muslim organisations have particularly come under attack and are often accused of terror links, they said.

“There are Hindu supremacist organisations and their leaders who are regularly giving calls of violence against Muslims. How come their organisations face no scrutiny whatsoever, let alone raids and all? Those people are allowed to go free, they are not punished,” activist Kavita Krishnan told Al Jazeera.

Riaz Haq said...

#Meta execs told #HumanRights groups they wouldn’t release full #India #HateSpeech study for their own security. An earlier 2020 study concluded that #Hindutva groups support violence against #Muslims, #minorities & should be banned from #Facebook https://www.wsj.com/articles/meta-officials-cite-security-concerns-for-failing-to-release-details-of-india-hate-speech-study-11664370857?st=h010tutay1jsf5g via @WSJ

Executives at Meta Platforms Inc. META 5.36%▲ privately told rights groups that security concerns prevented them from releasing details of its investigation into hate speech on its services in India, according to audio recordings heard by The Wall Street Journal.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in July released a four-page summary of a human-rights impact assessment on India, its biggest market by users, where it has faced accusations of failing to adequately police hate speech against religious minorities. The India summary was part of the company’s first global human-rights report. The 83-page global report offers detailed findings of some previous investigations; it included only general descriptions of its India assessment, which disappointed some rights advocates.

“This is not the report that the human-rights team at Meta wanted to publish, we wanted to be able to publish more,” Iain Levine, a Meta senior human-rights adviser, said during private online briefings with rights groups in late July after the summary was released, according to the recordings.

“A decision was made at the highest levels of the company based upon both internal and external advice that it was not possible to do so for security reasons,” he said.

The company said at the time of the report’s release that it wouldn’t publish the full India assessment. It also said United Nations guidelines for companies reporting on human-rights issues caution against releasing details that could imperil stakeholders, a term that generally refers to people such as staff and external researchers involved in the reporting process.

Representatives from the rights groups contended in their meeting with Meta executives that the company wasn’t being transparent in its human-rights efforts, that it appeared not to take the undertaking seriously and that the groups had participated in good faith only to see Meta bury the findings, according to the recordings.

The fact that Meta isn’t releasing the full assessment is “a slap in my face and my people’s face who have endured so much hate speech on this platform,” said a person in the briefing who identified herself as an Indian Muslim researcher, according to the recordings. “We want a release of this report—now,” she said.

Mr. Levine and Miranda Sissons, Meta’s human-rights director, said they understood those complaints and wished they had been able to release more details, according to the recordings.

The executives said during the briefings that the effort represented an important first step in Meta addressing human-rights concerns. They said the summary was written after consulting the guidance on human-rights impact assessments for digital companies from the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

“This is the beginning of a reporting process where I think no activist, no human-rights defender of any kind would ever think that any of the work any company, or probably any entity, that is done is good enough and this team would agree,” Ms. Sissons said in one briefing, the recordings show.

Mr. Levine, who worked for more than three decades for global human-rights groups before joining Meta in 2020, told attendees of the briefings that 120 people at Meta reviewed the report, and that it was approved by president of global affairs Nick Clegg and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead.

Riaz Haq said...

Only 3% Muslims are in Indian national media

https://muslimmirror.com/eng/muslims-are-only-3-in-indian-national-media/


Recently, Oxfam India released a report titled “Who Tells Our Stories Matters: Representation of Marginalised Caste Groups in Indian Media.” It says; 90% of leadership positions in Indian media are occupied by Upper Caste groups with not even a single Dalit or Adivasi heading Indian mainstream media.

Exactly the same findings were made by the social activist and psephologist, Yogendra Yadav in 2006 who did a similar survey about the social profile of the national media professionals in India.

Yadav recalls the days of the Mandal II agitation in 2006 when he did this survey; “It was more a rudimentary headcount than a scientific survey but it confirmed our worst suspicions about caste, gender, and religion across Indian media.”

“We drew up a list of 40 national media outlets (Hindi and English TV channels and newspapers) and requested someone there to draw a list of their top 10 editor-level decision-makers. Then we recorded information on the gender, religion, and caste against each name. We had shortlisted 400 persons but were able to collect information on 315 only” he recalls.

Our findings were; “A staggering 88 percent of this elite list were upper-caste Hindus, a social group that cannot possibly exceed 20 percent of India’s population. Brahmins alone, no more than 2-3 percent of the population, occupied 49 percent of positions. Not even a single person in this list turned out to be from Dalit or Adivasi background. More relevant to the case in point, the OBCs, whose population is estimated to be around 45 percent, was merely 4 percent among the top media professionals. Women accounted for only 16 percent.

Yadav says that “the representation of the 14 percent Muslims was only 3 percent in the national media. He adds that brazen anti-minority headlines get routinely generated in media and the communal flare-up gets 9 times more coverage than caste conflict in India.”

Yadav says what we summarized in 2006 that India’s ‘national’ media lacks social diversity; it does not reflect the country’s social profile comes true with findings of the Oxfam report on media in India. The big picture that remains the same even after 15 years is that 20 percent of the country gets 80 percent voice in the media and the remaining 80 percent is limited to 20 percent media space.

Yogendra Yadav’s writeup “Hindu upper-caste Indian media is a lot like White-dominated South Africa” can be accessed in The Print, October 27, 2022.


---------------

Media has been perceived by the masses as a sacrosanct institution but how these are governed is a matter of mystery. While a wide range of issues are discussed, covered and aired both in print as well as on news channels, caste disparity within media houses has hardly ever been a topic of serious discussion. The deliberate ignorance of the issues that affect marginalised communities has led them to come up with their own channels.

This study is an attempt to find out the status of representation among SC, ST, OBC & DNT in different media outlets. The research team has explored the challenges faced by newsrooms, looked for existing best practices that different countries have adopted and also provided suggestions to make newsrooms more inclusive.


https://www.oxfamindia.org/knowledgehub/workingpaper/who-tells-our-stories-matters-representation-marginalised-caste-groups-indian-media

Riaz Haq said...

Assassination of Gandhi and Rise of Hindu Supremacy in India

Mahatma Gandhi's assassin and some of India's current leaders are influenced by a similar ideology. This is how Hindutva became a thing in India 96 years ago.

Hindutva: The idea that the character and culture of India is exclusively Hindu, and that India should be a great Hindu nation.

https://youtu.be/2oFbEm44j-M

Riaz Haq said...

‘A threat to unity’: anger over push to make Hindi national language of India | India | The Guardian

‘A threat to unity’: anger over push to make #Hindi national language of #India. Tensions are rising in India over prime minister Narendra #Modi’s push to make Hindi the country’s dominant language. #BJP #Hindutva | India | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/threat-unity-anger-over-push-make-hindi-national-language-of-india

Tensions are rising in India over prime minister Narendra Modi’s push to make Hindi the country’s dominant language.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janaya party (BJP) government has been accused of an agenda of “Hindi imposition” and “Hindi imperialism” and non-Hindi speaking states in south and east India have been fighting back.

One morning in November, MV Thangavel, an 85-year-old farmer from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, stood outside a local political party office and held a banner aloft, addressing Modi. “Modi government, central government, we don’t want Hindi … get rid of Hindi,” it read. Then he doused himself in paraffin and set himself alight. Thangavel did not survive.

“The BJP is trying to destroy other languages by trying to impose Hindi and make it one language on the basis of its ‘One Nation, One everything’ policy,” said MK Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, in a recent speech.

In India, one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, language has long been a contentious issue. But under Modi, there has been a tangible push for Hindi to be the country’s dominant language, be it through an attempt to impose mandatory Hindi in schools across the country to conducting matters of government entirely in the language. Modi’s speeches are given exclusively in Hindi and over 70% of cabinet papers are now prepared in Hindi. “If there is one language that has the ability to string the nation together in unity, it is the Hindi language,” said Amit Shah, the powerful home minister and Modi’s closest ally, in 2019.

According to Ganesh Narayan Devy, one of India’s most renowned linguists who dedicated his life to recording India’s over 700 languages and thousands of dialects, the recent attempts to impose Hindi were both “laughable and dangerous”.

“It’s not one language but the multiplicity of languages that has united India throughout history. India cannot be India unless it accommodates all native languages,” said Devy.

According to the most recent census in 2011, 44% of Indians speak Hindi. However, 53 native languages, some of which are entirely distinct from Hindi and have millions of speakers, are also classed under the banner of Hindi. Removing all the other languages would shrink the number of Hindi speakers to about 27%, meaning almost three-quarters of the country is not fluent.


Devy said being multilingual was at the heart of being Indian. “You will find people use Sanskrit for their prayers, Hindi for films and affairs of the heart, their mother tongue for their families and private thoughts, and English for their careers,” he said. “It’s hard to find a monolingual Indian. That should be celebrated, not threatened.”

‘Our language is who we are’
The debate over Hindi’s prominence has raged since before India’s independence. Though there are more Hindi speakers than those of any other native language in India, they are largely concentrated in the populous, politically powerful states in the north known as the Hindi belt. Hindi traditionally has very little presence in southern states such as Tamil-speaking Tamil Nadu and Malayalam-speaking Kerala, and eastern states such as West Bengal, home to 78 million Bengali speakers.

When the constitution was drawn up in 1949 it was decided that India should have no one national language. Instead 14 languages – a list which eventually grew to 22 – were formally recognised in the constitution, though Hindi and English were declared to be the “official languages” in which matters of national government and administration would be communicated.

Riaz Haq said...

‘A threat to unity’: anger over push to make Hindi national language of India | India | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/threat-unity-anger-over-push-make-hindi-national-language-of-india

Attempts were made to designate Hindi the single dominant language but were all met with protest, mostly from the south. In the 1960s, after the government declared that Hindi would be the only “official language” and English phased out, there was a violent uprising in Tamil Nadu where several people set themselves on fire and dozens died in the brutal crackdown on the protests. The government backtracked. To this day, only Tamil and English are taught in state schools in Tamil Nadu.

But it was after the election of the BJP government in 2014, whose Hindu nationalist agenda has included a tangible push for the promotion of Hindi, that the issue resurfaced again, and the government was accused of imposing cultural hegemony over non-Hindi-speaking states.

“Under Modi, language has become a heavily politicised issue,” said Papia Sen Gupta, a professor in the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “The narrative being projected is that India must be reimagined as Hindu state and that in order to be a true Hindu and a true Indian, you must speak Hindi. They are becoming more and more successful in implementing it.”

The idea of Hindi as India’s national language has its roots in the writings of VD Savarkar, the father of hardline Hindu nationalism and an icon of the BJP, who first articulated the slogan “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan”, conflating nationalism with both religion and language, a phrase which is still commonly used by the right wing today.

There was such a backlash to the BJP’s attempts to introduce mandatory Hindi in schools nationally that they were later withdrawn. In October, Shah had non-Hindi states up in arms again, this time with a recommendation that that central universities and institutes of national importance should carry out teaching and exams only in Hindi, rather than English. The rule would only apply for institutions in Hindi-speaking states. But as many pointed out, students from across the country attend these schools, including from the south and east where Hindi is not part of the curriculum.

In response to Shah’s recommendation, in Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin tabled a state parliamentary resolution against any “imposition of a dominant language” and alleged that the BJP was attempting to make “Hindi the language that symbolises power”. He is also pushing for Tamil to be designated an official language, equal in status to Hindi. In Kerala and Karnataka, groups and political parties also raised concern over the “Hindi imposition”.

Some have warned of the bloody history that language imposition has triggered in the region. Sri Lanka descended into 26-year civil war after Sinhalese nationalists tried to foist their language on the island’s minority Tamils, and it was the oppression of the Bengali language in east Pakistan that led to the 1971 war and the establishment of Bangladesh.

The BJP government says it is not using Hindi to replace other native languages, but only English, the western language of India’s colonisers. But with English so deeply engrained in the Indian system, used across everything from the courts to the job market, and the proliferation of English seen to give India an advantage in a globalised world, there is little sign of it realistically being phased out in favour of Hindi.

In response to the policies seen to promote Hindi, multiple nationalist language movements have now emerged across India, from Rajasthan to West Bengal. In West Bengal, where the Bengali language is seen as a very fundamental part of people’s cultural identity, there has been a growing Bengali nationalist movement over the past two years.

Riaz Haq said...

‘A threat to unity’: anger over push to make Hindi national language of India | India | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/threat-unity-anger-over-push-make-hindi-national-language-of-india

In response to the policies seen to promote Hindi, multiple nationalist language movements have now emerged across India, from Rajasthan to West Bengal. In West Bengal, where the Bengali language is seen as a very fundamental part of people’s cultural identity, there has been a growing Bengali nationalist movement over the past two years.

“It’s Hindi imperialism,” said Garga Chatterjee, general secretary of Bangla Pokkho, a Bengali nationalist group established in 2018. “They want to transform India from a union of diverse states to one a nation state, where people who speak Hindi are treated as first-class citizens while we non-Hindi people, including Bengalis, are second-class citizens.”

Chatterjee said that, despite Bengali being the second most spoken language in India, he could not get a copy of the Indian constitution, open a bank account, book a railway ticket or a fill out tax return in his mother tongue.

“They are making Hindi the face of India and this is a direct threat to the unity of India,” he said. “We Bengalis are being talked down to in Hindi but now we are pushing back. Our language is who we are and we will die for it.”


Riaz Haq said...

Three decades ago, the razing by a Hindu mob of a 16th-century mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, which Hindus believe is the birthplace of the god Ram, led to the death of 2,000 people and propelled the rise of Mr. Modi’s party.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/world/asia/india-ukraine-russia.html

A temple is now being built there. Mr. Modi, who presided over the groundbreaking in 2020, has called it “the modern symbol of our traditions.”

Faced by such moves, Ms. Roy, the novelist, voiced a common concern. “You know, the Varanasi sari, worn by Hindus, woven by Muslims, was a symbol of everything that was so interwoven and is now being ripped apart,” she said. “A threat of violence hangs over the city.”

I found Syed Mohammed Yaseen, a leader of the Varanasi Muslim community, which makes up close to a third of the city’s population of roughly 1.2 million, at his timber store. “The situation is not good,” Mr. Yaseen, 75, said. “We are dealing with 18 lawsuits relating to the old mosque. The Hindus want to demolish it indirectly by starting their own worship there.” Increasingly, he said, Muslims felt like second-class citizens.

“Every day, we are feeling all kinds of attacks, and our identity is being diminished,” he said. “India’s secular character is being dented. It still exists in our Constitution, but in practice, it is dented, and the government is silent.”

This denting has taken several forms under Mr. Modi. Shashi Tharoor, a leading member of the opposition Congress Party that ruled India for most of the time since independence, suggested to me that “institutionalized bigotry” had taken hold.

A number of lynchings and demolitions of Muslim homes, the imprisonment of Muslim and other journalists critical of Mr. Modi, and the emasculation of independent courts have fanned fears of what Mr. Raghavan, the historian, called “a truly discriminatory regime, with its risk of radicalization.”

--------------

With inequality worsening, food security worsening, energy security worsening, and climate change accelerating, more countries are asking what answers the post-1945 Western-dominated order can provide. India, it seems, believes it can be a broker, bridging East-West and North-South divisions.

----------

At the end of my stay, I traveled down to Chennai on the southeastern coast.

The atmosphere is softer there. The economy is booming. The electronics manufacturer Foxconn is rapidly expanding production capacity for Apple devices, building a hostel for 60,000 workers on a 20-acre site near the city.

“The great mass of Indians are awakening to the fact that they don’t need the ideology of the West and that we can set our own path — and Modi deserves credit for that,” Venky Naik, a retired businessman, said.

I went to a concert where a musician played haunting songs and spoke of “renewing your auspiciousness every day.” There I ran into Mukund Padmanabhan, a former editor of The Hindu newspaper and now a professor of public practice at the newly established Krea University, north of Chennai.

“I do not believe Modi can marshal Hinduism into a monolithic nationalist force,” he said. “There are thousands of Gods, and you don’t have to believe in any of them. There is no single or unique way.”

He gestured toward the mixed crowd of Hindus and Muslims at the concert. “People don’t like to talk about the project of Gandhi and Nehru, which was to bring everyone along and go forward, but it happened, and it is part of our truth, part of the indelible Indian palimpsest.”

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi-loving #Hindu Nationalists spew the usual Hindutva #Islamophobic tropes about #India's #Muslims. Here's the growing gap between Hindus and Muslim populations: 1951 Census: 269 million more Hindus than Muslims. 2011 Census: 794 million more Hindus https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/09/21/population-growth-and-religious-composition/

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1612881554174529537?s=20&t=3DgccaesALoJlvs2903mhg

1. Population growth and religious composition
BY STEPHANIE KRAMER
India’s population has more than tripled in the six decades following Partition, from 361 million (36.1 crore) people in the 1951 census to more than 1.2 billion (120 crore) in 2011. As of 2020, India gains roughly 1 million (10 lakh) inhabitants each month, putting it on course to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2030, according to the United Nations Population Division.
Though religious groups grew at uneven rates between 1951 and 2011, every major religion in India saw its numbers rise. For example, Hindus increased from 304 million (30.4 crore) to 966 million (96.6 crore), Muslims grew from 35 million (3.5 crore) to 172 million (17.2 crore), and the number of Indians who say they are Christian rose from 8 million (0.8 crore) to 28 million (2.8 crore).

However, there is some evidence that Christians may be undercounted. People who indicate that they are Christian on the census are not able to also identify as belonging to Scheduled Castes (historically known as Dalits, or by the pejorative term “untouchables”). Members of Scheduled Castes are eligible for government benefits, reportedly prompting some people in that category to identify as Hindu when completing official forms such as the census.4 In the 2015 National Family Health Survey – a large, high-quality household survey that does not exclude Christians from Scheduled Castes – 21% of Christians interviewed said that they belonged to Scheduled Castes.

Riaz Haq said...

Did you know that the composition of Mahmood Ghaznavi's army when he raided the Somnath temple in 1025 was, solely not a Muslim Army. Out of 12 Generals, 5 were Hindus. Their names are:1. Tilak2. Rai3. Sondhi4. Hazran5. Not knownAfter the battle, Mahmood issued coins in his name with inscriptions in Sanskrit. He appointed a Hindu Raja as his representative in Somnath. Arab traders who had settled in Gujarat during the 8th and 9th century died to protect the Somnath temple against Ghaznavi's Army.

Just three years before Ghaznavi's raid on Somnath in 1022, a general acting on the authority of Rajendra I, Maharaja of the Chola empire (848–1279) had marched 1,600 kilometres north from the Cholas’ royal capital of Tanjavur. After subduing kings in Orissa, Chola warriors defeated Mahipala, maharaja of the Pala empire (c.750–1161), who was the dominant power in India’s easternmost region of Bengal. The Chola's crowned their victory by carrying off a bronze image of the deity Åšiva, which they seized from a royal temple that Mahipala had patronized. In the course of this long campaign, the invaders also took from the Kalinga Raja of Orissa images of Bhairava, Bhairavi and Kali. These, together with precious gems looted from the Pala king, were taken down to the Chola capital as war booty.
The question arises why is Mahmud Ghaznavi demonized but not Rajendra Chola's plunder of Hindu temples?In fact, the demonization of Mahmud and the portrayal of his raid on Somnath as an assault on Hinduism by Muslim invaders dates only from the early 1840s.

In 1842, the British East India Company suffered the annihilation of an entire army of some 16,000 in the First Afghan War (1839–42). Seeking to regain face among their Hindu subjects after this humiliating defeat, the British contrived a bit of self-serving fiction, namely...that Mahmud, after sacking the temple of Somnath, carried off a pair of the temple’s gates on his way back to Afghanistan.
By ‘discovering’ these fictitious gates in Mahmud’s former capital of Ghazni, and by ‘restoring’ them to their rightful owners in India, British officials hoped to be admired for heroically rectifying what they construed heinous wrongs that had caused centuries of distress among Hindus. Though intended to win the letters' gratitude while distracting the locals from Britain’s catastrophic defeat just beyond the Khyber, this bit of colonial mischief has stoked Hindus’ ill-feeling towards Muslims ever since.By contrast, Rajendra Chola’s raid on Bengal remained largely forgotten outside the Chola country.12 years after the attack, a king from the Goa region recorded performing a pilgrimage to the temple, but he failed to mention Mahmud’s raid. Another inscription dated 1169 mentioned repairs made to the temple owing to normal deterioration, but again without mentioning Mahmud’s raid. In 1216 Somnath’s overlords fortified the temple to protect it not from attacks by invaders from beyond the Khyber Pass, but from those by Hindu rulers in neighbouring Malwa; apparently, such attacks were so frequent as to require precautionary measures; apparently, such attacks were so frequent as to require precautionary measures.
The silence of contemporary Hindu sources regarding Mahmud’s raid suggests that in Somnath itself it was either forgotten altogether or viewed as just another unfortunate attack by an outsider, and hence unremarkable.

1. “India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765” by Richard M. Eaton2. “Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History” by Romila Thapar

Riaz Haq said...

The fertility rate in India is higher than in China and the U.S., but it has declined rapidly in recent decades. Today, the average Indian woman is expected to have 2.0 children in her lifetime, a fertility rate that is higher than China’s (1.2) or the United States’ (1.6), but much lower than India’s in 1992 (3.4) or 1950 (5.9). Every religious group in the country has seen its fertility rate fall, including the majority Hindu population and the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain minority groups. Among Indian Muslims, for example, the total fertility rate has declined dramatically from 4.4 children per woman in 1992 to 2.4 children in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available from India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Muslims still have the highest fertility rate among India’s major religious groups, but the gaps in childbearing among India’s religious groups are generally much smaller than they used to be.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/02/09/key-facts-as-india-surpasses-china-as-the-worlds-most-populous-country/

Riaz Haq said...

Is Manusmriti Back With a Bang?
Subhash Gatade |


https://www.newsclick.in/manusmriti-back-bang

How to walk backwards and claim we are a world leader.

In recent weeks, a debate has raged about 17th-century poet-saint Tulsidas’s epic poem Ramcharitmanas and its’ allegedly unfair and humiliating treatment of women and so-called lower castes. Voices to edit such books and scriptures or scrap them have grown louder. Yet, the Banaras Hindu University, a premier central university in Uttar Pradesh, has proposed something that, instead of settling the controversy, muddies the waters more.

The university’s Department of Dharmashastra and Mimansa, whose curriculum already includes studying the Manusmriti among ancient Indian scriptures, has proposed researching the “applicability” of Manusmriti in Indian society. It plans to use the funds received under the Centre’s Institutes of Eminence scheme, which provides research and development grants of up to Rs 1,000 crore each to ten select public-funded institutions.

The BHU’s proposal seems anachronous—and not just because it involves spending money on an esoteric subject, while public universities face a severe fund crunch forcing them to cut down even on essential expenses.

Nearly a century ago, during the first Dalit revolt of its kind in modern times, Dr BR Ambedkar, the legendary leader of the oppressed, symbolically burnt the Manusmriti in a public programme held at Mahad. On 25 December 1927, at the Mahad Satyagraha, he said in the presence of thousands of people from different parts of the Bombay province, as it was then known, that the text was a “gospel of counter-revolution”.

The resolution read out during the symbolic public “cremation” of the Manusmriti, proposed by Ambedkar’s associate Gangadhar Neelkanth Sahasrabuddhe, emphasised the intent of the organisers of the conference. After considering the verses of the Manusmriti, it said, the conference had formed the “firm opinion” that it “undermined the Shudra caste, thwarted their progress, and made their social, political and economic slavery permanent”. The resolution said the context of the text is unworthy of a religious or sacred book. That is why participants performed the “cremation” rites of the book at the conference. The resolution even described the book as “divisive” and a “destroyer of humanity”. All these facts are recorded in public intellectual Anand Teltumbde’s book, Mahad: The Making of the First Dalit Revolt, published by Navayana in 2017.

Nearly a quarter-century later, while dedicating the Constitution to the nation, Ambedkar, who headed its drafting committee, famously declared that the Constitution had “ended the rule by Manu”.

However, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) never saw eye-to-eye with a modern Constitution for India. Their leaders made their objections to modernising Indian tradition clear as their fascination for the Manusmriti. In the late sixties, Maharashtra witnessed a massive movement of Dalits and other democratic sections to protest the RSS supremo’s comments praising the Manusmriti in an interview with the Marathi newspaper, Nava Kaal.

Yet last year, Justice Pratibha Singh of the Delhi High Court spoke of the Manusmriti in glowing terms at a programme held under the auspices of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry or FICCI. She said scriptures like Manusmriti give women “a very respectable position”, a remark that created a furore, earning her much criticism for promoting regressive ideas filled with “casteism and classism”.

Riaz Haq said...

Has Modi Pushed Indian Democracy Past Its Breaking Point?
With the media and judiciary already under attack, the Prime Minister’s main opponent was just banned from Parliament.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/has-modi-pushed-indian-democracy-past-its-breaking-point

New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner: Modi is probably the most popular leader in the world. His party has amassed incredible power to a degree not seen in India in many decades. Yet, at the state level, especially in the south, you see regional parties keeping the B.J.P. out of power. How has this been possible?

Christophe Jaffrelot: He’s not as popular as he claims. The B.J.P. never got more than thirty-seven per cent of the vote nationally. They control half a dozen big states, and most of them are in the Hindi Heartland. [These are states in the northern and central parts of the country.] If you look at the periphery, if you look at the states which are outside the Hindi Heartland—they do not control Tamil Nadu and they will never control Tamil Nadu. They do not control Kerala and they will never control Kerala. Look at West Bengal and Punjab, and even Maharashtra, which is not a finished story. There is a kind of exaggeration of the control they exert. And they exert control not because of the popularity of the B.J.P.; they exert control largely because Modi gets the B.J.P. elected every five years, which means that, after him, the B.J.P. may be in trouble. They have so much power because of their totalitarian modus vivendi, not because of their popularity.

NY: I’m looking at Morning Consult’s global approval-rating tracker for world leaders. Modi is currently at seventy-six-per-cent approval. That is fifteen percentage points higher than any other world leader.

CJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you go by the voting patterns of Indians, which is for me the real measure of popularity, Indians in more than half of the country’s states do not vote for the B.J.P. and for Modi when he is the candidate.

In that case, how do you understand this dynamic, where Modi himself is personally popular but he can’t yet lead the B.J.P. to take control of a majority of states?

There are very strong regional identities that are not represented by the B.J.P. The B.J.P. is seen as a North Indian, Hindi-speaking party. It’s also seen as an upper-caste party. So those who are not Hindus—in Kashmir, of course, and Sikh people in Punjab—do not vote for the B.J.P. And those who are not Hindi speakers in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala cannot share this ideology of the B.J.P.’s.

Riaz Haq said...

#Jews and #Christians attacked by #Hindu Nationalists in #Manipur, #India. Tensions have been exacerbated by the political influence of the Hindu nationalist organizations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (#RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (#BJP). #Modi https://www.timesofisrael.com/bnei-menashe-community-member-killed-2-synagogues-torched-in-northeast-india-violence/

Bnei Menashe community member killed, 2 synagogues torched in India violence
Foreign Ministry says Israel watching events closely after ethnic clashes erupt in northeast state of Manipur between religious, tribal communities; MK appeals for coalition’s help


---------------

Rioting mobs have taken the lives of at least six people and destroyed or burned down 25 churches in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Since May 3, thousands of victims, the majority of them Christians, have fled as their homes and businesses have gone up in flames.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/may/manipur-violence-churches-india-tribals-meite.html

While tensions over property rights and economic interests have existed between the state’s ethnic groups for decades, local leaders told CT that church burnings are the result of the growth of Hindu nationalism among the dominant Meite community.


------

Manipur borders Myanmar and is home to a diverse range of ethnic groups, including Meiteis, who are a numerical majority in the state and are predominantly Hindu, and various tribal communities, who are largely Christian.


Primarily based in Imphal Valley, a region which includes Manipur’s capital, the Meiteis have long dominated the state's political and economic landscape. Meanwhile, tribal communities make up around a third of the population (35.4%) and are mainly concentrated in the hills surrounding the valley, 90 percent of the state’s geographical area.

For decades, the issue of land ownership and control has been a source of conflict between the two groups. But in recent years, these tensions have been exacerbated by the political influence of the Hindu nationalist organizations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have sought to promote their faith as the dominant religion in India and have used the Meitei community to advance their political agenda in the state.

Riaz Haq said...

A Republic of South India is not entirely unthinkable | Mint

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/a-republic-of-south-india-is-not-entirely-unthinkable-11682879902820.html

There can be an argument that no matter what the circumstances, nothing can take on the idea of India. But the fact is no one knows what keeps India together. The quickest way to get Indian intellectuals to bloviate is to ask them what keeps India together. I have heard “English", “cricket’ and “Bollywood". I think there are no reasons. A nation is simply a habit. As time goes by, it becomes a stronger habit that is harder to break. But then South India, too, is a habit.

-----------

The political swag of the south ensures that there may be no such being as the ‘Indian nationalist’, there is only the North Indian nationalist.

--------------

The five southern states, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, have a vague sameness about them and a clear distinction from the north. They have their own riparian, lingual and ethnic discords, and within these states, there are caste and religious divisions, but they have always had a collective grouse—the north’s political domination of India. This wariness is a reason why when Modi visits Tamil Nadu, he needs to speak in English, even to the poor who come to see him. It may sound odd for a nationalistic prime minister to speak in English to Indians, but he has to endure it. Hindi remains a symbol of the north, and the conceit of the south is that it finds English more palatable. This has no emotional basis anymore, but the south is not going to make things easy for the north.


Traditionally, South Indian politicians have disliked the powers of the central government, especially when a single party has controlled it. Like the Congress, the BJP too has harassed states. Recently, Tamil Nadu passed a resolution against its governor for stalling bills passed by the state’s legislature. The state’s chief minister, M.K. Stalin has spoken out against the BJP’s ways. A few days ago, he wrote a letter asking all states that are not governed by the BJP to pass similar resolutions against their governors, the appointees accused by BJP rivals of frustrating states that do not toe the Centre’s policies.



In 2022, when the Centre questioned the habit of some states to give away freebies to people, Tamil Nadu finance minister, Palanivel Thiagarajan told a magazine, “Either you must have a constitutional basis to say what you are saying, in which case we all listen, or you must have special expertise… or you must have a Nobel Prize or something that tells us you know better than us. Or, you must have a performance track record…"

A few days ago, when Modi visited Telangana, the state’s Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao did not attend Modi’s public events. They insulted each other. Major politicians from Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka, too, have expressed their dislike for the Centre’s muscle-flexing.

But no one of any significance in the south has, in recent times, talked of seceding from India. And that is not only because it might be a crime. There is no emotional support for the idea. But that could change if three things happen. One, the BJP grows stronger and stronger in the north, continuing to repress other political parties and the states it does not govern. The second factor is a major economic shock that could be attributed to the central government, something like ‘demonetization’ or even a major recession. The third is the rise of a South Indian strongman who could use these factors to ask a disturbing question: What does the south lose by leaving the north?

Riaz Haq said...

‘Everything is gone’: entire #Indian villages burned in ethnic violence. About 1,700 houses in #Manipur have been destroyed in clashes between Meiteis, who are mostly #Hindus, and mainly #Christian Kuki tribe. #Hindutva #BJP #RSS #Modi #ManipurOnFire https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/indian-villages-burned-ethnic-violence?CMP=share_btn_tw

Manipur state’s chief minister, N Biren Singh, has said about 230 people were injured and 1,700 houses were burned in clashes between the majority Meitei people, who are mostly Hindus, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe.

Thousands of troops have been deployed to restore order, while about 35,000 residents have fled their homes for the safety of ad-hoc army-run camps for the displaced.

Sanatomba’s sibling is among them. They are Kuki, and he is sure she and her family will never be able to return. “She told me to come here and look for anything I can find,” he said, his hands and feet covered in soot.

The rest of the village suffered a similar fate, its three settlements littered with broken doors, burnt-out water tanks, and forced-open metal trunks.

The towering village church, a school building and even a jackfruit tree were set on fire by the attackers.

The raiders stole residents’ cattle and poultry, Sanatomba said. “Those animals they couldn’t take alive, they killed and took away as meat. I am afraid of Meitei people.”

The far-flung states of north-east India – sandwiched between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar – have long been a tinderbox of tensions between different ethnic groups.

The spark for the latest ethnic clash was a protest about plans to give the Meitei “scheduled tribe” status. A form of affirmative action to combat structural inequality and discrimination, that classification would give them guaranteed quotas of government jobs and college admissions.

Minority hill community leaders say the Meitei community is comparatively well-off and that granting them more privileges would be unfair. The Meiteis say employment quotas and other benefits for the tribespeople would be protected.

Violence erupted in the regional capital, Imphal, and elsewhere, with protesters setting fire to vehicles and buildings. According to villagers, Meitei mobs armed with guns and petrol cans then attacked Kuki settlements in the hills.

Authorities are concerned there could be more reprisal attacks “as both communities have accumulated weapons”, according to an army officer.


“Are you sure that none of you have any weapons that you would like to surrender?” a senior officer asked a Kuki gathering at a village outside Imphal on Monday.


“The other community has promised to surrender their weapons if you do too,” he added. “I want you to consider this as it doesn’t help either community to have these weapons in circulation.”

None of the mostly male audience did so.

Thanglallem Kuki, 32, a teacher at a private school, watched from a hilltop as his village of Kamuching was attacked and burned to the ground, spending two nights in the jungle before being rescued and taken to an army camp.

He said the Meitei mob went from house to house, retrieving valuables, electronic gadgets, cooking gas cylinders, and even mattresses, loading their loot into vehicles.

“After that they burned the houses and they were burning one house to another house. For the first time when they burned the houses, they left some houses unburnt and they stormed in after two days again and they completely burnt it.”

He had been left with nothing, he said. “We were looking and crying with broken hearts and we looked down on our houses being burnt to ashes with helplessness and without hope.”

Riaz Haq said...

‘Separation is the only answer’: #Manipur violence fuels calls for separate state in #India. Leaders of the mainly #Christian hill tribes say that living alongside the mostly #Hindu Meitei people is ‘as good as death for our people’ #Hindutva #Modi
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/16/separation-is-the-only-answer-manipur-violence-fuels-calls-for-separate-state-in-india?CMP=share_btn_tw

Leaders of the mainly Christian hill tribes say that living alongside the mostly Hindu Meitei people is ‘as good as death for our people’

Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi
Mon 15 May 2023 22.23 EDT
In towns and villages across India’s north-eastern state of Manipur, some houses have been reduced to ashes while neighbouring properties stand untouched, after an eruption of ethnic violence in which more than 70 were murdered and 30,000 forced to flee.

The bloodshed which began on 3 May has mostly abated, but there is little hope of a swift return to normality.

Food is scarce; a curfew is still enforced by the army and paramilitary troops; the internet remains suspended; shops, schools and offices are closed; thousands of people remain stranded in crowded and unsanitary refugee camps. And reports of fresh violence over the weekend prompted fresh displacements.

“This is a civil war situation,” said John Mamang, a lawyer and relief volunteer in the town of Churachandpur.

A villager inspects the debris of a ransacked church that was set alight during ethnic violence in Heirokland.
‘Everything is gone’: entire Indian villages burned in ethnic violence
Read more
Shortages of food and medicine are becoming acute, said Mamang, who on Monday was unable to even find rice to donate to a nearby camp.

“People are beginning to starve. Some haven’t eaten for two to three days. When I reached the camp, a woman had just delivered a baby, with no medicines or medical help and in the clothes she’d been wearing for five days,” he said.

Most of the victims were from the mainly Christian hill tribes such as the Kukis, but members of the mostly Hindu Meitei people were also targeted.


And in towns where the two communities once lived warily alongside each other, the idea of a return to such uneasy harmony seems unthinkable after so much violence – when friends and neighbours stood by as men, women and children were killed.

“It’s impossible. They can never be our neighbours. Not after what’s happened,” said Alun Singh, a Meitei in Imphal.

Moses Varte, a Kuki in Churachandpur, said “separation is the only answer”, adding “This was ethnic cleansing of the hill people. Now we can only feel safe as a minority if we have our own state.”

Debory Fimsangpui’s home in the region’s capital, Imphal, was burned down by a mob, and she and her family survived only because they happened to be away at the time.

“If we had been there, we would not be alive today. But we will not forget those who died, the elderly, those who could not run away,” said Fimsangpui, a college lecturer.

The fact that Kukis were targeted in the city – despite the presence of security forces – has for many hill tribe members underlined a sense that they cannot be safe anywhere in the state.

“Before, Kukis used to send their children to Imphal for higher studies,” said Fimsangpui. “I have one son, Daleed who is 24. Do you think I would ever send him to Imphal now? We can never trust the Manipur government or the police again.”


The spark for the fuse
The states of north-east India – wedged between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar – are a patchwork of ethnic groups, many of them shot through with longstanding enmities.

The spark for the latest outbreak of violence in Manipur was a plan to grant the majority Meitei the status of a “scheduled tribe” which would give them access to quotas in government jobs and colleges under India’s affirmative action policy.


Riaz Haq said...

The Education Ministry data showed that the number of Muslim students decreased to 19.21 lakh in 2020-21 from 21 lakh in 2019-20.

https://indianexpress.com/article/education/enrolment-of-muslim-students-for-higher-education-dips-to-4-6-aishe-2020-21-8413124/



AISHE 2020-21: Enrolment of Muslim students for higher education decreases to 4.6%
The Education Ministry data showed that the number of Muslim students decreased to 19.21 lakh in 2020-21 from 21 lakh in 2019-20.

The number of Muslim students enrolling for higher education in India has dropped in the 2020-21 academic year compared to the previous year, according to a report by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-21.

Riaz Haq said...

#Indian Consulate in #SanFrancisco Set on Fire.
#Khalistan supporters linked to the attack. #Sikhs #US #California

https://www.mirchi9.com/usa-news/indian-consulate-in-san-francisco-was-set-on-fire/

The Indian consulate in San Francisco was set on fire early Sunday morning, as reported by a local U.S. channel. The incident has been verified by the Consulate General of India in San Francisco. Fortunately, the fire was quickly suppressed by the San Francisco Department, resulting in limited damage and no harm to the staff. Local, state, and federal authorities have been informed. According to the channel, Khalistan supporters have been linked to this act of violence. Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, strongly condemned the reported vandalism and attempted arson, stating that such acts against diplomatic facilities or foreign diplomats in the U.S. are criminal offenses.

Riaz Haq said...

Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, used to say: “India is not a real country. Instead it is thirty-two separate nations that happen to be arrayed along the British rail line"


https://www.thequint.com/news/world/what-lee-kuan-yew-had-to-say-about-india

Riaz Haq said...

Sex scene with Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh in ‘Oppenheimer’ becomes latest target of India’s Hindu nationalists

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/media/india-oppenheimer-backlash-hindu-right-intl-hnk/index.html

New Delhi
CNN

Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” has sparked controversy among the Hindu-right in India, with some calling for a boycott and demanding the removal of a sex scene in which the titular character utters a famous line from the religion’s holy scripture.

The film tells the story of the atomic bomb through the lens of its creator, Robert Oppenheimer, and the scene in question depicts actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role, having sex with Florence Pugh, who plays his lover Jean Tatlock.

Pugh stops during intercourse and picks up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s holiest scriptures, and asks Murphy to read from it.

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” Oppenheimer’s character says, as they resume intercourse.

The scene has caused outrage among some right-wing groups, with a politician from India’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling the film a “disturbing attack on Hinduism” and accusing it of being “part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces.”

In a statement Saturday, India’s Information Commissioner, Uday Mahurkar, said the scene was “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus,” likening it to “waging a war on the Hindu community.”

He added: “We believe that if you remove this scene and do the needful to win hearts of Hindus, it will go a long way to establish your credentials as a sensitized human being and gift you friendship of billions of nice people.”

The film has been received well in most quarters in India, which conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, with critics giving it rave reviews and people flocking to cinemas to watch it.

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in "Barbie"
The 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' double feature shouldn't be a one-off


“Oppenheimer” grossed more than $3 million in its opening weekend in the country, according to local reports, higher than filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated “Barbie,” which released on the same day and grossed just over $1 million.

India’s film board gave “Oppenheimer” a U/A rating, which is reserved for movies that contain moderate adult themes and can be watched by children under 12 with parental guidance. There are so far no bans on the film in any of the country’s states and union territories.

This isn’t the first time that the Hindu-right has taken offense to films, television shows or commercials for its portrayal of Hinduism. Some have been boycotted or even forced off air following outcry from conservative and radical groups.

In 2020, Netflix (NFLX) received significant backlash in India for a scene in the series “A Suitable Boy” that depicted a Hindu woman and Muslim man kissing at a Hindu temple. That same year, Indian jewelry brand Tanishq withdrew an advert featuring an interfaith couple following online criticism.

Meanwhile, analysts and film critics say there has been a shift in the tone of some Indian films, with nationalist and Islamophobic narratives gaining support from many within India, as well as the BJP.

Last year, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s box office smash “The Kashmir Files,” based on the mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus as they fled violent Islamic militants in the 1990s, polarized India, with some hailing the film as “gut-wrenching” and “truthful,” while others criticized it for being Islamophobic and inaccurate.

Similarly, the release this year of “The Kerala Story,” about a Hindu girl who is lured into joining ISIS, angered critics who called it a propaganda film that demonized Muslims.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi's #Hindutva politics is pushing #India to the brink. World’s most populous country is degenerating into a conflict zone of sectarian violence. #BJP pumping out a steady stream of #Islamophobia & vile dog whistles. #Manipur #Haryana @Planet_Deb
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/opinion/india-modi-conflict-zone.html

Indian social media is a brutal place, a window on the everyday hatred and violence that has come to colonize the country in the nine years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government came to power. But the images from the northeastern state of Manipur that began circulating in July were shocking even by those low standards.

A video clip showed two women being sexually assaulted as they were paraded, naked, by a crowd of men who later gang-raped one of them, according to a police complaint. The horrific scene was part of an explosion of ethnic violence since May that has turned the small state into a war zone, killing more than 150 people and displacing tens of thousands.

The state has a long history of ethnic animosities that predate Mr. Modi’s rise. But the fuse for the current unrest in Manipur was lit by the politics of Hindu supremacy, xenophobia and religious polarization championed by his Bharatiya Janata Party.


India is a diverse nation, crisscrossed by religious, ethnic, caste, regional and political fault lines. Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, his ruling party has torn those asunder with dangerous exclusionary politics intended to charge up the party’s base and advance its goal of remaking India’s secular republic into a majoritarian Hindu state. The repugnant nature of this brand of politics has been clear for some time, but the situation in Manipur shows what’s ahead for India: The world’s most populous country is slowly degenerating into a conflict zone of sectarian violence.

Under Mr. Modi’s government, the state monopoly on violence is being surrendered to extremists and vigilantes. Those targeted by the kind of mob violence that we are seeing in India may conclude that equal rights are no longer guaranteed, that political differences can no longer be peacefully reconciled or fairly mediated and that violence is the only way for them to resist.

The targeting of minorities — particularly Muslims — by right-wing Hindu extremists is now a way of life in many states. Vigilante mobs, who often assemble provocatively in front of mosques, regularly assault Muslims as understaffed and underequipped police fail to intervene. Lynchings and open calls for genocide are common. India now ranks among the top 10 countries at the highest risk of mass killings, according to Early Warning Project, which assesses such risks around the world.

In Manipur, Christians are bearing the brunt as the state’s B.J.P. government stokes the insecurities of the majority ethnic Meitei, who are predominantly Hindu. State leaders have branded the Kuki tribes who populate the hill districts, and who are mostly Christian, as infiltrators from Myanmar, have blamed them for poppy cultivation intended for the drug trade and evicted some of them from their forest habitats. The specific trigger for the current violence was a court ruling in the state in favor of granting the Meitei affirmative action provisions and other benefits that have long been enjoyed by the Kuki and other tribes, which sparked a protest by tribal communities opposed to the ruling. The Manipur government this year also began a citizenship verification drive that infringes on the privacy of Kuki. A similar drive in neighboring Assam state targeting Muslims has already reportedly disenfranchised nearly two million people.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi's #Hindutva politics is pushing #India to the brink. World’s most populous country is degenerating into a conflict zone of sectarian violence. #BJP pumping out a steady stream of #Islamophobia & vile dog whistles. #Manipur #Haryana @Planet_Deb
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/opinion/india-modi-conflict-zone.html



Emboldened by the state government’s rhetoric, Meitei militias in Manipur have gone on a rampage of raping, pillaging, looting police armories and burning villages. More than 250 churches have been burned down. Those were Meitei men in the horrific 26-second video, sexually assaulting two Kuki women. (The video was shot in early May but came to light only in July, possibly delayed by a government internet ban imposed in the state in response to the violence.) Many similar attacks on Kuki women have been reported. Mr. Modi has called the rape incident “shameful” but has otherwise said little about the chaos in Manipur.
The violent impact of his party’s polarizing politics is acutely felt in India’s heartland, too. The area near a tech and finance hub on the outskirts of New Delhi was rocked by violence last week as Hindu supremacists staging a religious procession clashed with Muslims. Mosques were attacked, an imam was killed, businesses were burned and looted, and hundreds of Muslims have fled.

In tandem with the B.J.P.’s demonizing of India’s nearly 200 million Muslims, television, cinema and social media are deployed to radicalize the Hindu majority, pumping out a steady stream of Islamophobia and vile dog whistles. Extremist groups, at least one of which appears to have received the public support of the prime minister, run amok. Muslims have been arrested for praying, had their livelihoods and businesses destroyed and their homes razed. Bulldozers, used to demolish homes, have become an anti-Muslim symbol, proudly paraded by B.J.P. supporters at political rallies.

As John Keane and I argue in our book “To Kill a Democracy: India’s Passage to Despotism,” it’s a signature tactic of modern-day despots: tightening their grip on power by redefining who belongs to the polity and ostracizing others. In the ultimate subversion of democracy, the government chooses the people, rather than the people choosing the government.

India is already a complex federation of regional identities, many of which consider themselves distinct from Hindi-speaking north India, the power base of Mr. Modi’s party. This federal structure is held together by delicate bonds of social and political accommodation. But they are fraying fast under Mr. Modi, who has no appetite for either, shrinking the space for nonviolent political contestation. Some regional political parties see the Bharatiya Janata Party’s centralizing and homogenizing Hindu-first thrust as a cultural imposition from outside and are assailing it with the same divisive us-versus-them vocabulary.