Masud Ahmad Khan
It was Muhammad Bin Qasim who entered Sindh in 712 AD and Arab traders also brought Islam to the West coast of India. Mahmood Ghaznavi was the one who paved the way for Islam in India. It was Muhammad Ghori who setup first Islamic dynasty through his slaves and Qutbuddin was the first ruler. It was Muslim sufi saints which influenced the Hindus and enabled millions to convert to Islam.
According to Khushwant Singh, Hindu nationalism took birth during the British raj. The Arya Samaj was the first movement for the unity of Hindus which led to the creation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur. Another leader of RSS, VD Savarkar, was a great admirer of Hitler and Mussolini. His philosophy was that Hindus should rule India and other communities either should be expelled or merged. Hedgewar was not happy with Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and the idea of Hindu-Muslim unity.
The Bible of the RSS declared Muslims to be the number one threat and Christians as the second. Bhartiya Jana Sangh was setup in 1951 under Hindu Mahasabha leader, Shyam Prasad Mookerjee. In 1980 the Bhartiya Jana Sangh morphed into BJP and in 1980 election got two seats only. BJP later joined hands with Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena and started the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
These movements led to an increased support for the BJP and in the 1991 election, it got 120 seats. During election campaigns Modi promised to repel the Article 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution and also promised that he would get the National Register of Citizens (NRC) implemented in Assam to deal with Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. On August 5, 2019, the BJP-RSS government abrogated Article 370 and 35-A of the constitution with the aim of creating a demographic imbalance through ethnic cleansing in IIOJK.
This was followed by the introduction of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) bill aiming at reducing the Muslims status to illegal immigrants. According to the bill Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who entered India illegally could apply for citizenship if they can prove they came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. This sparked wide spread protest and violence across India specially in Delhi where hundreds of Muslim were lynched by a Hindu mob belonging to Sangh Parivar, thousands of Muslims were displaced, their homes burnt and properties looted.
The Hindutva has replaced the age old philosophy of Indian secularism. In India, elections are won by inciting public hatred against Muslims and Pakistan. Muslims are being lynched on allegations of eating beef and for the transportation of cattle for slaughter. The Trinamool Congress has accused the BJP of being a syndicate of fanatics, party of lynching syndicates, torture syndicate and syndicate of agencies.
Gandhi believed in non-violence secularism and trust. On June 30, 1948, Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi. His murderer is now a hero for Sangh Parivar. Akil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is the student wing of the RSS. ABVP is active, advocating for Sangh policies and is also involved in communal riots. The most affected state for anti-Muslims riots are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Paradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujrat, Karnataka and Kerala. The state of Uttar Pradesh is the leading state of communal violence where Muslims constitute as 31 percent of population. In the state of Bihar, the government is searching for suspected Muslim migrants. In the state of Bengal, Muslims are 25 million in number.
India has been declared as the fourth most insecure country on religious grounds, behind Syria, Nigeria and Iraq. According the BJP-RSS leaders, Muslims have two places: one is Pakistan and the second is qabaristan. Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) is funding RSS from across 156 countries globally mainly for inciting communal violence.
During the massacre of Muslims in Gujrat, funds were raised through the UK. Today, the world is discussing Modi’s fascism. One of the Indian ministers said to a foreign journalist that all people are not equal and Muslims are not in equal.
There are increasing cases of lynching, rape and molestation of Muslims, Christians, Dalits as they exist in an atmosphere of fear. All the Seven Sister states in the North East India are struggling for independence. There is a Naxalite movement in 13 out of 29 Indian states, covering 40 percent of the geographical area. The fascist Indian regime is a real threat to peace and stability in South Asia. At the same time, the possibilities of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits revolting against India cannot be ruled out in near future.