Religious Discrimination and India

Present India is governed by Nathuram Godse’s legacy. Hatred is its fundamental driving force. The organisation that shaped the thoughts of Godse (and Modi as well) re-emerged on the centre stage since Modi took charge in Delhi eight years ago. That is quite natural; cultures have a tendency to revive themselves more strongly than in the original version.

The New Yorker wrote on 5 Mar 2017 that since Modi became the Prime Minister, “the militant group (RSS) has been legitimized and grown exponentially more powerful.” The article titled ‘The Violent Toll of Hindu Nationalism’ was written three years after Modi strode on the red carpet to Sansad Bhavan, having made a grandiose display of humility that he never had by falling prostrate at the entrance. Three years and “nothing to show in terms of economy and development,” said the New Yorker. Nothing worthwhile to show. So religious nationalism became Modi’s only effective platform.

Modi’s hatred of Muslims was already legendary when he became the Prime Minister. Therefore his followers naturally assumed that attacking the Muslims and their places of worship (and others like the Christians and the Dalits too) was their national obligation and sanatan dharma.

The Muslims in India were attacked systematically ever since Modi became PM. They were lynched on waysides, thrown out of running trains, pulled out of homes and beaten to death. With cries of Jai Sri Ram ringing in the background like the theme music of an endless and bizarre TV serial. Even an MP was not left alone. When Asaduddin Owaisi walked to take oath as MP in 2019, he was heckled by India’s elected parliamentarians who also shouted ‘Jai Sri Ram’.

Modi had allowed a Muslim MP to be hacked limb by limb when he was the Chief Minister of his state and had allegedly lent his consent to a riot against the Muslims after the Godhra train incident. Modi had made umpteen statement in public ridiculing the Muslims and making them appear as mass traitors.

After becoming the PM, Modi apparently handed over certain powers to the Jai Sri Ram (JSR) gangs. Power to decide who will wear what dress (the hijab issue, for instance), what foods are patriotic and what are not (the halal issue), who can pray loud and how loud (loudspeaker issue), etc, the latest being the bulldozer issues.

These people, the JSR gangs, will also draft the archaeological history of the places of worship in the country. The Babri Masjid came down and the Ayodhya Temple went up. The Chief Justice who issued the verdict in favour of the temple was accommodated in the Rajya Sabha after retirement. He had issued many other similar verdicts for the sake of the Big Boss. The Judiciary had stooped to lick the dust on the shoes of the Boss.

Article 370 went. Kashmir became a parade ground of Indian soldiers. The Citizenship Act was passed. Hundreds of thousands of Indian Muslims became citizens of no country. The benign Indian State, under the leadership of Modi, even went to the extent of becoming the guardian angel of the Muslim women by forbidding the triple talaq. (That and many other silly practices have/had to go, no doubt. But how they go does speak volumes about motives.)

Now Gyanvapi will make a ghar vapsi. Then the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura will transmute into Krishna Janmabhoomi. The Teele Wali Masjid is waiting impatiently in Lucknow to become some other Hindu god’s Janmabhoomi. The list is still being made. Some say every mosque in India will be “reclaimed”. Wow!

It is not only Muslims that are under attack. More than 300 cases of anti-Christian violence were reported in the country in 2021 alone, most of them in Yogi’s UP. Since the Christian population in the country is a meagre 2.4%, the attacks are sporadic. The attackers may still be searching for potential victims. It doesn’t take much time to move from Tabrez Ansari to Thomas Abraham.

That is how it happened in Hitler’s Germany. As Martin Niemoller put it: 

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Why do they do this, however? What’s the point of creating a religious nation? There is ample evidence from all around that theocracies are the worst governments. They are primitive in outlook, savage in action, ignorant and superstitious. Do we really want that sort of a nation?

PS. This is the last part of a three-part series on discriminations in India written for Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter.

Part 1: Gender discrimination in the womb

Part 2: Linguistic Discrimination and India