The Final Elegy on Civilizational Crisis
In the previous four episodes, ample evidence and illustrations were provided to sustain the truth how the consecutive Islamic invaders and settlers starting from the Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century onwards brutally and systematically attempted to destroy the thousands of years old Sanatana culture and religion of the Indian sub-continent and this ghastly and shameful saga continued for about eight hundred years in the larger part of the Indian subcontinent. Of course, Hindus and other followers of the Indian religions too shall be blamed for their disunity and weaknesses despite individual valour and courage. In the process, tens of thousands Hindu temples and shrines were demolished, educational institutions and libraries destroyed by burning/demolishing, and subdued Indians (mostly Hindus and Sikhs) killed, their women enslaved, many others converted or migrated elsewhere. Islamic period was followed by another nearly two hundred years of British colonial rule supplemented with the Macaulay system of education and missionaries’ activities which almost rendered ancient Indian languages and associated literature redundant or critically chipped away largely replacing the traditional Indian education system, besides paving way for the spread of Christianity undermining the Indian culture and religion. While the early history of the Christianity too is full of violence and forced conversion mostly in Europe and two Americas, it became more tolerant resorting to evangelic and enticing measures and tactics to achieve same objectives in the Indian sub-continent.
The Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) traditionally held respect for all world religions upholding that only means are different but the destination (Brahman or God) is same for the entire mankind irrespective of region, colour, ethnicity, creed, caste, or other variables. As against this, of the two Abrahamic religions dealt with here, each individually claim to be only true religion with the faithful being dear to God and all others depicted or declared as sinners or kafirs. While the Christian missionaries have been active in India in conversion in the name of welfare and upliftment of the poor and underprivileged, the Islamic history of conversion in India boasts of gory details of the centuries of atrocities and even genocidal incidents on many occasions. Some of the gruesome massacres of Hindus observed in the later medieval history as committed by the Islamic invaders, Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal emperors as also similar communal flare ups and bloodbath in Kashmir, Noakhali, Moplah in Kerala and 1971 Pakistani army genocide in Bangladesh are some illustrations of the gruesome saga in the modern age. Even in the independent India, the same unpleasant story has been repeated albeit using rather covert and illegal means such as the migration from neighbouring countries, conversion rackets, love jihad and terrorism as standard tools. Such details with illustrations with evidences have been explained in the previous parts. In this last and final episode, the author proposes to analyze reasons, mindset of people indulging in such gory acts and future forecast, if any.
The following two maps depict the area of geographical spread and influence of the Sanatana (Hindu) culture and religion at the time of Emperor Ashoka and the present position after constant disintegration into several states owing to Islamic invasion/misrule and British colonization.
Political Appeasement of Minorities Pre- and Post-Independence
The British rulers had understood the dynamics and intricacies of the mixed Indian communities as well as the history of religious and communal conflicts, particularly between the majority Hindu vis-à-vis a relative minority Muslim population in India, and they fully exploited to retain their own supremacy, consolidation of power and sustained stay in India as rulers. This could easily be understood by their appeasement tactics and the continued mass support of Muslims to British rule, barring exceptions, after the successful suppression of the Indian uprisings and Rebellion of 1857 against the rule of the British East India Company, then functioning as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. While putting forth the concept of “Two Nations”, the position of Muslims could be best illustrated with the views of Syed Ahmad Taqvi bin Syed Muhammad Muttaqi, better known as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, during his discourse addressing the Indian Muslims in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh in 1888, who is often remembered and revered as an Islamic pragmatist, reformer, philosopher and educationist in the modern India.
“Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be rulers of India? Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations (quoms) — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power? Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could remain equal is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable. At the same time you must remember that although the number of Mahomedans is less than that of the Hindus, and although they contain far fewer people who have received a high English education, yet they must not be thought insignificant or weak. Probably they would be by themselves enough to maintain their own position. But suppose they were not. [[38]] Then our Mussalman brothers, the Pathans, would come out as a swarm of locusts from their mountain valleys, and make rivers of blood to flow from their frontier in the north to the extreme end of Bengal. This thing — who, after the departure of the English, would be conquerors — would rest on the will of God. But until one nation had conquered the other and made it obedient, peace could not reign in the land. This conclusion is based on proofs so absolute that no one can deny it.”
“…It is, therefore, necessary that for the peace of India and for the progress of everything in India, the English Government should remain for many years — in fact forever!”
In the later years, the Indian Muslim League leaders like Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and others constantly worked and escalated the aforesaid dictum or principle laid out by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The title of “Sir” was thrust upon many Indian leaders in lieu of services rendered to the British Empire. However, it is the irony of present political dispensation claiming the legacy of the Indian National Congress (INC) associated with the Indian freedom struggle as also some self-proclaimed intellectual-liberals, who blame Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a Hindu nationalist leader and activist of twentieth century for the “Two Nation Theory” suggesting the cause of communal divide and conflicts in India. What British rulers did to woo Muslim population by accepting them as separate electorate and such other privileges in their socio-religious matters was due to their own long term selfish interests and unwritten “divide and rule” policy but one wonders what compulsions the prominent Congress leaders associated with freedom struggle had in perpetuating similar mistakes later on. Let’s briefly talk about three leaders of the INC, namely Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, had emerged as three most prominent leaders towards the end of the British rule.
MK Gandhi returned to India in 1915 from South Africa at the age of 46 years, joined the INC and gradually assumed its formal leadership by 1920. For many years, he was in favour of independence but against any confrontation with the British. Perhaps, this was the reason why he recruited volunteers to join the Ambulance Corps to serve British during the Zulu War in 1906 in Africa and made appeal to Indians to join British army during the 1st World War (1914-18). His constant appeasement of Muslims has still remained an enigma for many scholars and analysts even today. He fully committed the support of the INC to the Khilafat Movement started by the Indian Muslims in favour of the caliphate of Ottoman Empire in Turkey against Western powers and ongoing reformist movement under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. On many occasions, he preached Hindus to follow the policy of ‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah’ even against violent and barbaric acts of Muslims. In the same context, he is even known to have advised Hindus at occasions not to harbor any ill will or anger against Muslims so much so that even if they kill, they (Hindus) should accept death courageously. Staunch nationalist and competent leader Subhash Chandra Bose had to quit Congress president-ship and party due to his differences with Gandhi Ji, who later constituted Indian National Army to Challenge British rule in India.
MK Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have been constantly quoted by many writers, politicians and scholars for their undue appeasement that only compromised and harmed the long term interests, progress and welfare of the majority Hindu community. Jawaharlal Nehru has been cited by many sources to have proudly announced once, “I’m English by education, a Muslim by culture, and Hindu by accident”. Whether the two leaders said or did it or not, many pre- and post-independence events and developments provide ample evidence that the democratic and secular India under Nehru and his dynastic legacy rule has constantly suffered so far as the welfare and interests of its majority Hindu community is concerned. The saga started with the arbitrary selection of the Congress President in 1946 when it was almost certain that British would soon grant freedom and most likely invite the Congress Party President to form the provisional government of the independent India. During the 2nd World War, most political activities had remained suspended with Abul Kalam Azad working as the Congress President. Despite Sardar Patel’s seniority and proven competence, Azad was apprehensive about him (as he himself admitted in his autobiographical book “India Wins Freedom”) surmising that he may not do much for the Indian Muslims.
Consequently, despite Gandhi’s choice known to the majority Congress men across the country, the 12 out of 15 Provincial Congress Committees as the only legitimate bodies to nominate and elect the Party President had nominated Sardar Patel. However, in Congress Central Committee, Gandhi Ji persuaded Sardar Patel to withdraw his nomination to pave way for Jawaharlal Nehru to lead the Party. Rest of the history including the coronation of Pt. Nehru to form the first government in free India as the Prime Minister and the Congress becoming the legacy of the Nehru/Gandhi family in the following years and its current nemesis is largely known to every reasonably knowledgeable and aware Indian citizen. Sardar Patel had accepted to work as deputy to Jawaharlal Nehru and as Home Minister he faced a challenge of integrating over 500 princely states with India that included reluctant and hostile ones like Hyderabad, Junagarh and Jodhpur, but he meticulously completed the task without any failure. On the other hand, Jawaharlal Nehru decided to personally deal with the integration of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir and gifted a cancer which is still bleeding and posing the biggest threat to the integrity of India.
In Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet, Maulana Azad became education minister and in the following decades, the successive Congress governments had five Muslim education ministers for a long period, the impact of which is clearly visible the way left-leaning historians and scholars have undermined the ancient Indian history and constantly distorted, even fudged, the medieval history and institutions representing the Sanatana culture while glorifying Islamic period and Mughal dynasty. Jawaharlal Nehru is lauded by many historians, political analysts and intellectuals of the time as true secularist, humanist and statesman yet under his premiership, the Personal Laws of only Hindu community were framed and Hindu Code bill passed by the Parliament while he avoided taking similar action for the Muslim community as if the age old retrogressive customs of multiple marriages, triple talaq, practice of Halala, and so on do not need any revision and change. The fact that the Muslim League led by the ilk of Muhammad Ali Jinnah et al had sought division of the country seeking a separate homeland for Muslims because the Muslim majority was unwilling to live with Hindus’ supposed dominance in independent India. Now what was rationale for treating Muslims as a special community in secular India ignoring even the Constitutional provisions where the need of time was that all communities must be given equal treatment and opportunities to live and prosper? Notwithstanding, Jawaharlal Nehru did it, leader and minister like Syama Prasad Mukherjee who opposed it had to quit (later died in a Kashmir jail in suspicious circumstances), and his successors further escalated it in the following decades for own selfish interests to eternally stay in power.
Then in the Jawaharlal Nehru regime only, the legislation was brought for the administration and acquiring the immovable properties of the Hindu temples and Mutts but similar action was not taken for the Muslim and Christian shrines; instead, they were funded and allowed complete freedom to run it. He was instrumental in Haj subsidy for the minority community; while he more often criticized many Hindu practices and rituals citing it as superstitions of a backward community. The government aid was granted to minority institutions and Madrassas which are known more to radicalize education among Muslims rather than to expose them to modern science and technical education, barring exceptions. This trend of special treatment to the Muslim community was continued after Nehru by his successors. For instance, ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi, instead of taking progressive reforms in the community, used his overwhelming mandate in the Parliament to please the orthodox Muslims and radicals in community to make legislation overturning the Supreme Court judgment asking the estranged husband to pay subsistence allowance to the divorced wife Shah Bano. Another ex-PM Manmohan Singh of the same legacy is known to have spoken before the Parliamentary forum that the minorities, especially Muslims, have first claim on the national resources without explaining WHY. All such measures and special treatment of one community by the Indian politicians of a particular ilk only increasingly put the majority Hindu community at disadvantage and defensive and the minority communities claiming special treatment as right with a sense of pride besides predicating the Indian secularism on the certification of the minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians.
Some Impending Reasons and Causes for Current Nemesis
1. False Sense of Superiority Complex
Ever since the human evolution began on earth, the history of the human civilization is full of constant tussles and conflicts between kind and evil people, the latter proclaiming superiority based on ethnicity, race, religion, region, colour, creed, and so on but largely at the strength of their muscle power and subversive potential and tactics. Here the basic point is; do the negative attributes like barbarism, greed, avarice, deception, and hatred, etc., make a man or race superior or the positive traits like universal knowledge, kindness, candour, generosity and ascetics make it. The author does not want to clutter the discourse by citing umpteen illustrations or historical accounts to keep it short; instead, the extract taken from the discourse of the so esteemed Islamic scholar and educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (cited in preceding paragraphs) makes it lucid and clear. According to him, Hindus and Muslims in India could not live together without one conquering the other and, therefore, the British rule must continue in India preferably forever for the peace and progress of everything in India; perhaps, also a well deserved statement for the conferment of the title of “Sir” too on him by the British for this visionary thinking and ideology.
Let’s also talk about one negative attribute, say “hatred”, with an illustration here. Zahir ud-Din Muhammad alias Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan from his father and mother side respectively, was the founder of the Mughal Empire as also the first Mughal emperor (1526-30 CE) in India. He is also credited with the demolition of Ram Janmbhumi Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh through his commander Mir Baqi and erection of a Mosque in his name at the same site; needless to mention, Sri Ramchandra is the highest symbol of Hindu faith in the larger part of India even today. Babur died in Agra at the age of 47 but despite being emperor of India, he chose Kabul as the place of his peaceful burial for his strong aversion to the very land he ruled for years. As Sri Ramchandra is an iconic idol and symbol of Hindu faith; consequently, it took more than 150 years of struggle and legal battle for Hindus to reclaim the piece of the holy land where Sri Ram Temple is under construction now. Pakistan has adopted the name of ‘Babur’ for the nomenclature of its several deadly cruise missiles intended for the use against India and many Indian Muslims too feel proud in remembering him as conqueror and heroic idol.
Even take the British rule in India which not only enslaved and destroyed the traditional Sanatana culture, languages and education system but also systematically exploited and looted natural resources and wealth of the country. When we talk about the civilizational attributes, the Indian civilization is more than ten thousand years old going by its traditional knowledge and Vedic culture. Even by the accounts of the distorted Indian history by the Western and Indian left historians, the Vedic culture is at least four thousand years old. As against this, England and much of the Western Europe’s civilizational history comprises of a span not more than a thousand years, till then the region was mostly inhabited by Anglo-saxon nomadic and barbarians tribes, followed by the arrival of the Vikings from Scandinavia from 8th to late 11th century in these areas, who were basically pirates, raiders and traders gradually settled in these areas. So ignoring the knowledge, wisdom and achievements of an age old prospering civilization, if the legacy of marauders, conquerors, looters and rapists become the criteria of racial and cultural superiority, the communities or people claiming the legacy of Islamic invaders and British colonizers can indeed be treated superior in the democratic and secular India.
2. Religious Dictum and Ruling of Holy Books
In sharp contrast to Hinduism which has traditional respect for all cultures and religions of the world and upholds that only means are different but destination (i.e., Brahman or God) is same for all, the dominant Abrahamic religions of the age have altogether a different perspective, principle and approach. The Christianity upholds itself as the only true religion, God and Jesus Christ as only saviour of the mankind and Bible an immutable holy book, rejecting all other creedal and religious beliefs. Similarly, Islam only recognizes Allah, Prophet Muhammad as His messenger and the Quran as the unaltered and final revelation of God (Allah). Those who worship Allah and follow the teachings of Quran are faithful while others are so often categorized as kafirs (sinners). Arguably, driven by desire to work for the welfare and upliftment of the poor and underprivileged, the Christian missionaries undertake such service in the name of God but, in turn, also resort to mass conversion of the target population to Christianity. Many north-eastern Indian states have been converted to the states with overwhelming Christian majority in this manner only before and after Indian independence. Under Sharia Law in Islam, the conversion of Muslims to other faiths is forbidden and such converts are declared apostates but conversion of non-Muslims to Islam is permitted. The clergy and radical elements take this provision as mandate aggressively employing methods referred to in the previous parts to bring people of other faiths under the fold of Islam.
It is also beyond comprehension defying all logic or rationale why the particular God would inspire or ask faithful to engage in coercive or evangelic measures to pressurize other people to follow a particular creedal and dogmatic religion. On the other hand, the Hindu Vedas had already talked about Brahman (God) as omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent “Supreme Entity” who is also transcendent and immanent , infinite in existence, source of all creation, and without beginning and end, thousands of years ago. This definition and description of God as propounded in the Vedas appears perfect and flawless, with all other later religion’s description appear to have been inspired by it in some or the other way. But the God referred to in Hindu Vedas neither threatens inculcating fear among mortals nor it mandates or binds them to follow a particular creedal or dogmatic path. The crux is – GOD is universal and does not belong to any particular religion or communities which are manmade; instead, He belongs to everybody and all living beings, and everything in the universe belongs to Him.
Even the much criticized and debated concept in Hinduism by the followers of the two Abrahamic religions, viz. idol worship, can be so easily explained and understood by learning the concept of Sadhya (deity), Sadhak (devotee), Sadhan (medium) and Sadhana (devotion). For the common people with ordinary intellect, it is difficult to concentrate on an abstract entity or thought, hence their job becomes easier with the aforesaid concept where the idol becomes merely a medium of conveying prayer to God. Hence the concept of any dogmatic religions or their clergy as “my God vs your God” appears utterly flawed and erroneous. The differences on account of religion, region, colour, caste and creed are manmade and the universal and true God will never identify His subjects on these discriminatory attributes. Also, God will neither force anyone to worship and fear Him, nor tell anyone to kill those who do not subscribe to a particular religious dictum or philosophy. Consequently, when the author observes certain clerics, scholars, politicians, and even professionals like scientists/technocrats from the neighbouring Pakistan giving the call of Gazwa-e-Hind, he finds it as very frightening and insecure not only for Hindus in the Indian sub-continent but also the mankind at large world over, wherever people value and affirm the ideals of freedom of the religion, culture, education, speech, equality, and so on.
In fact, several well known Muslim scholars/writers/leaders/ professionals in neighbouring Islamic countries as well as in other countries of the Islamic world too have realized this truth and raised their sane voices from time to time but most of them were stigmatized and some even forced to leave their country for the fear of life. Only recently in India, Syed Waseem Rizvi, the former member and chairman of the Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh, India, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court of India seeking the removal of 26 verses from the Quran because he felt that these verses are used by the Islamic terrorist groups as justification for attacks on people of other faiths (kafirs) but PIL was dismissed at the admission stage itself. This issue about the interpretation of some Quranic verses and controversies associated with it not new and have been delved upon by scholars and common people in past on many occasions. Even judiciary avoids interference on sensitive religious matters of the minorities in India; for instance, the Indian courts took nearly seven decades to decide the Ram Janmbhumi – Babari Masjid dispute and even the final apex court judgment was more like a settlement rather than a clear verdict based on the hard evidentiary value. Under constant threat from clergy and radical elements, Rizvi has recently converted to Hinduism while it would have been better if he stayed in the fold and continued his reformist endeavour with the reasonable tolerance exercised by the clergy and community. However, the history of such nemesis of liberal Muslims is pretty old; even Dara Shikoh, the eldest son and legal heir of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was killed by his younger brother Aurangzeb to succeed throne with the backing of orthodox and radical Muslim nobles and clergy who were unhappy with the former because the liberal Mughal prince was under the Sufi influence and favoured Hindu-Muslim unity and peaceful co-existence, something unacceptable to hardliners.
Various holy books including Bible and Quran have laid a solid foundation for the adherents with a lot moral and ethical concepts and dictums. For instance, the (Sunni) Islam talks about five pillars or tenets, namely Shahada (Declaration of Faith), Salah (Prayer), Zakat (Alms giving), Sawm (Fasting) and Hajj (Pilgrimage). Similarly, Christianity refers to Ten Commandments, which essentially glorify and upheld the authority of God, ask people to respect parents, forbid false witness against neighbour or coveting his wife and goods, forbid the acts of killing, stealing, adultery, and so on. Thus as such, it is not a problem with the concepts but with their interpretation and implementation through the clergy and wise men in the communities. For instance, Islam lays a high emphasis for Zakat (alms or donation) and even as the author is writing these lines, the country is reeling under the health and economic crisis owing to the pandemic Covid-19 for over two years now. When the crisis started in February 2020, the Prime Minister of country gave a call to all capable people to contribute in the “PM Cares fund” to the extent feasible for the better care and assistance of severely affected people. Out of sheer curiosity, this author had reviewed the list of significant donors to the fund by May 2020 among the corporate, celebrities, politicians and common people, and found that organizations and people from all walks had liberally responded to PM’s appeal with Tatas (Parsis) committing as much as 15,000 million but list significantly lacked the prominent names from the most significant minority community sans a few.
3. Nationalism versus Religion
Indian Muslims have a long history of seeking inspiration and solace from Turkey and Arab world in social and religious matters, and almost everyone in the community aspire to visit Mecca at least once during the lifetime. There is nothing wrong in this and, in fact, the successive Indian governments have offered many facilities including financial assistance since independence. Ordinarily, the term “Quam” refers to a community or ethnic group bound by common language and/or culture but in Arabic it also literally means “nation”. The fact that the majority Indian Muslims, instead of integrating themselves with the culture and languages of the Indian sub-continent, have constantly chosen the Persian, Arabian and allied cultures and languages for own life style including attire and attributes, thereby they so often represent remarkable oddity and glaring contrast in the context of Indian socio-political and religious traditions. So it is not surprising that the term “two quams” used by leaders like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan or Sir Muhammad Iqbal in their discourses and averments with reference to Hindus and Muslims have been translated and interpreted as “two nations”. Consequently, the Indian concept of nationalism and even significant national symbols such as the National Emblem, National Anthem and “Bharat Mata” are not recognized by many Indian Muslims.
This tendency and practice of treating “quom as nation” has led to serious anomalies and problems for the traditionally secular India. The Khilafat Movement of 1920s is a classic case where Indian Muslims were in no way affected by the developments in Turkey yet the entire nation was compulsively dragged in a foreign issue. The stark tragedy of the Judaism is that the entire Jews population faced the danger of genocide and mass extinction at a time in West Asia and Europe and elsewhere, and the left over Jews are still fighting from their homeland Israel for their survival in the Arab world. Without any harm caused by Israel to Indians or Pakistanis, Muslims in both countries still consider it as their biggest enemy. Even back home, a minor incident of violence takes place in Tripura state with the alleged vandalisation of a mosque which is promptly controlled by the police but a violent backlash takes place nearly 3,000 km away in Maharashtra. This and many other similar incidents suggest that many Indian Muslims indeed recognize the quom (community) anywhere in the world as nation rather than treating only India as nation. Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities have constantly faced persecution in the neighbouring Islamic countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, but the legislation passed by the Indian parliament in 2019 to grant citizenship and rehabilitate refugees from these countries has been violently opposed lock, stock and barrel by Muslims disrupting peace of the country for the months together. Any effort to introduce a system ensuring the proper identity of the Indian nationals is vehemently opposed by the Muslim clergy, political leaders, intelligentsia and common people. Like the aforesaid illustrations, it is also true that if some people or community prefer their religion or ethnic identity over the motherland (nation), they would never be able to forge a peace and kinship with the self and other communities of the land.
4. Orthodox Customs and Rituals
In various parts of the globe, the humans have a long history of civilization of different cultural and religious attributes, both common and unique as well. In past, people of nearly all cultures had retrograde and evil social practices like polygamy, purdah system, child marriage, denial of education to women, treatment of women as inferior sex, and so on. Currently, Christian (31.11%), Muslims (24.9%) and Hindus (15.16%) constitute three largest populations groups in the world, the others being Buddhist (5%), Chinese traditional religion (5%) and the rest 19% represented by the agnostic/atheist/other miscellaneous religions. During the course of evolution and with the introduction of modern education, these evil practices have been lawfully abolished in many communities by many countries. However, in the Muslims world, especially in South Asian countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, they still strongly favour the Sharia laws of the 7th/8th century vintage with the orthodox practices such as polygamy (up to 4 wives), Halala, triple talaq, compulsory burka and hizab for women, and so on. According to a PEW Research Centre report in 2013, Muslims in South Asia are the most fervent supporters of strict Sharia based Islamic rule: Afghanistan (99%), Pakistan (84%), Bangladesh (82%) and Indian Muslims (74%). It’s obvious that the orthodox Muslims and radical elements in the community continue to favour and defend these retrograde practices to maintain their separate socio-religious identity.
The Christians, Hindus and agnostic/atheist communities have been open to the modern education and scientific temperament, and have, accordingly, adopted worldwide to the commensurate sociopolitical, economic and religious changes in society for the modern living. The other smaller and miscellaneous ethnic or religious communities too have not offered much resistance to these changes. In the Muslim world, although some Islamic countries have discontinued and even passed legislation to abolish some of such inconvenient, or even obnoxious practices like Halala, but the clergy and orthodox Indian Muslims still resist any change in the age old Sharia laws. A significant noteworthy point in this regard is that when India was partitioned in 1947 to meet the demands of Muslims for a separate homeland, Pakistan emerged as an Islamic country while India adopted to remain a democratic and secular nation. While the Indian Constitution provided for a uniform civil code, Jawaharlal Nehru led government implemented it for Hindus but avoided similar action for the Muslim community. In a democratic and secular country where the Constitution is upheld supreme by law, any social or religious laws cannot supersede or overrule the Constitutional provisions. Many scholars and analysts have opined this and many other socio-religious concessions granted to Muslims as the appeasement of the minority that has proved detrimental to Muslims own progress as a community in the long run besides hindering their integration with the mainstream Indian society owing to constant social and religious conflicts.
5. Terrorism and Gazwa-e-Hind
This needs no fresh discussion or any more evidence that neighbouring Pakistan is a safe haven for umpteen terrorist groups including dreaded Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Omar, Hizb-ul-Mujahedeen, ISIS, and many more under the patronage of Pakistani ISI and army with political endorsement. Many masterminds and wanted criminals of the terror attacks in Kashmir and other parts of India such as Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar live, prosper and freely move in Pakistan often under protection of the military and police establishment there. They heavily resort to misinformation to create communal tensions and riots in India, brainwash and recruit gullible Indian Muslim youth to train as terrorist, attack Indian military and civil establishment and indulge in many other subversive and obnoxious activities to destabilize India and harm Hindus and Sikh population. The Pakistani ISI and army, on their part, continue to recruit, train, arrange funds, supply arms and ammunition, and provide backup cover to inflict as much damage as possible to India as a nation and Hindus as the main target community of kafirs. The gullible Muslim youth are brainwashed by the vested interests and terror masterminds that waging the war against India and Hindus is part of the holy jihad and if died in the process, they will be entitled to many more privileges including the pleasurable company of 72 hurs (beautiful maiden) in the paradise.
There is yet another reason why Pakistan and many Islamists continue their jihadi aggression against India and Hindus. Majority people in India and elsewhere may not even be aware that many Pakistani Ulema, Clerics, army personnel, defence experts and other professionals including scientists and technocrats, citing a Hadith, are actively engaged for years in constantly promoting the ideology of “Ghazwa-e-Hind”, which means the conquest of India. In literal sense, Ghazwa means a war to kill Kafirs and Hind is the land of Kafirs (India) supposedly yet to be conquered. According to this ideology, when the Idolaters of the Hind (Hindus) will be conquered and wiped out from the face of the Indian subcontinent, the final victory of Islam would stand accomplished. Progenitors of this ideology quote some hadiths supposedly a prophecy by the Prophet Muhammad suggesting that a war will take place between Muslims and non-Muslims in the Indian sub-continent leading to a final victory of the former. Even a casual search on internet or YouTube would reveal ulemas and moulvis spewing hateful speeches against India and Hindus. Within India too, there is considerable number of people with anti-India sentiments and a handful men with this ideology, though most of them avoid coming out in open for the fear of sedition laws.
6. Other Miscellaneous Causes
Following independence, the minorities were allowed to freely run their religious and educational institutions with substantial government funding and other support. In the thousands of Madrassas spread over different states, the basic literacy is offered usually free of cost to millions of the Muslim children and youth on subjects like elementary arithmetic, language, history, grammar, etc., with emphasis on the religious teaching of Quran, Sunnah/Hadith and Sharia laws. While such education system constantly rolls out orthodox and devout Muslims but lacks potential to provide better opportunities and respectable position/job in the society. Thus there is hardly any directional path for the pupils to grow from the Madrassa education which at best gives them low-paid living with limited opportunities like Imam, deputy imam, muezzin or as an Arabic tutor. On the contrary, many instances have been reported where Madrassas and religious institutions have been misused for the terror activities, hoarding of illegal weapons and inciting communal bigotry and tension. Only some time back, many Uttar Pradesh Madrassas were found defying government instructions by refusing to hoist National Flag and recite National Anthem. This goes without saying that such activities and actions are hurdles in national integration and communal harmony; instead, escalate social tension and conflicts.
While many Muslim clergy and politicians aggressively talk about the evils of caste system and discrimination with scheduled and other backward classes in the Hindu society, but in fact similar division on religious and social considerations are even more critical and pronounced within the minority community where the dominant Sunni Muslims not only discriminate against Shia and other sects but also often indulge in war against them in many parts of the world. Such discrimination and recurring conflicts are even more pronounced in the Indian sub-continent including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. During the partition of India, a large number of Muslim families had migrated to Pakistan by choice; they are now called Muhajirs in Pakistan and are still discriminated in the Islamic society and employment opportunities. Such social stigma and discrimination is often a cause for social unrest and communal tension, and it actually led to the alienation of Muslims in the East Pakistan leading to a further division of Pakistan, out of which Bangladesh emerged as new nation after a prolonged sectarian bloodshed and genocide of Hindus by the Pakistan military and radical Muslims and consequent India-Pakistan war in 1971.
After painful partition on religion basis, the independent India is now facing multiple threats of various kinds raising questions about the very survival of the nation and Hindus (original inhabitants of the land). Firstly, through its porous border with the neighbouring countries there has been a constant illegal immigration particularly from the countries like Bangladesh (earlier East Pakistan) and Burma. While many of these immigrants are persecuted Hindu families in Bangladesh, but the actual number of illegal Muslims immigrants is even larger, some for seeking better living opportunities but a large number of others for many dubious reasons too. The basic problem is that these immigrants with dubious loyalties have not only caused serious demographical changes but also a burden on the economy, peace and prosperity of the people in the Indian Border States like Assam and West Bengal. Besides, the love jihad relatively a more recent phenomenon has been observed with the Muslim men targeting women of other communities, mainly Hindus, by feigning love with an aim of converting them to Islam. Starting with Kerala, several concrete cases have been reported in various parts of the country, wherein the instruments of seduction, deception and pretension for love was applied leading to marriage and conversion to Islam. In addition, many rackets have been busted during the last 2-3 years where the Muslim clergy or the Christian missionaries were found engaged in religious conversion through the coercion or enticement.
India is already facing a serious problem of the population explosion further aggravated with allied issues of poverty, quality education and scarcity of employment opportunities. While Hindus and other communities are receptive to population control through small family norms, the Muslim clergy and political leaders continue to resist and even vehemently oppose implementation of such family norms citing Sharia laws. The decadal population growth in India since 1951 and population share of various communities up to 2011 clearly suggest relatively a much higher birth rate of Muslims compared to Hindus and other minorities as also a constantly dwindling percentage share of the total population of Hindus vis-à-vis Muslims. Besides, due to non-cooperation of many Muslims families in census and periodical conflicting higher claims of some Muslim leaders and clerics, the official figures on Muslim demography appear under-pitched and questionable. Recently in July 2021, the Kerala Catholic Diocese too has announced a welfare scheme to promote large Christian families with 5 or more children with a monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per month probably alarmed by their declining population share vis-à-vis Muslims in the state.
End Note
To some people, this essay might appear as an epical elegy but this is the stark reality too of the nation “Bharat” that we know as India or Hindustan in the modern age, thanks to the Islamic invaders and British colonizers from the West. Even the western world has now accepted that the Hinduism is the oldest surviving culture and religion today. The Hindu civilization had to face the brunt of constant invasions and colonization for over a millennium, which not only involved India’s plunder of wealth but also purported destruction of its culture and religion yet the nation was never under such a grave threat as in the current times. Such a situation precipitating an existential crisis for the oldest civilization is chiefly an outcome of the new strategy of simply overwhelming it through sheer numbers (population growth) applying various covert tools. Macaulay’s education has already served well in creating a significant pseudo-liberal-intellectual class in the Hindu society itself, which is knowingly or unknowingly responsible for facilitating the process. Consequently, a powerful sociopolitical ecology has been created within the nation during the last seven decades whereby a large number of Hindus themselves find the use of terms “Hindutva or Hinduism” offending and detrimental for the interests of minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians. The same people find nothing wrong with the corresponding terms identifying the Abrahamic religions and have evolved their own definition of the secularism too whereby a person speaking for the rights of Hindus or equal treatment of all communities including Hindus is outrightly stamped “communal” but the one who speaks only for the aforesaid two minorities is glorified as truly “secular”.
The causes and reasons briefly illustrated in the foregoing paragraphs encompass some of the more important issues causing constant communal tension and conflicts in the modern India. Many national heroes who actually sacrificed their whole lives in freedom struggle during the pre-independence era were denied their rightful place while writing Indian modern history in the post-independence era. The INC which was initially created as an elite group by some moderate British men to act as the buffer between the British Empire and common Indians was handed over the charge of the independent India, and rightly so considering their efforts in freedom struggle and comfort level with the outgoing foreign rulers, but the new native regime under Jawaharlal Nehru opted for continuing more or less the same British legacy so far as their policy and approach in dealing with various Indian communities was concerned. Of course, none of them are now around to explain their real objective or motives for pursuance of this appeasement towards certain minorities in a secular nation but its long term consequences and ill effects in the form of social and religious tensions and conflicts as well as alienation of at least a section of people driven by religious ideologies is clearly visible in the country after seven decades. The states like Kerala, West Bengal and Punjab dominated by certain minorities population have already shown open defiance against the authority of the federal government in New Delhi on many occasions. It won’t be exaggeration if it is said that India is passing through a grave existential crisis facing challenges to keep its communities and territories intact together as an integrated nation.
The constant appeasement policies and undue privileges granted particularly to the Muslim and Christian minorities undermining the Constitutional provisions have also generated a sense of entitlement craving for the special treatment among many in these communities which is so visible from their vehement opposition and open defiance of the political authority at the centre. We have experienced this at the time of abolition of the discriminatory Article 370 of the Constitution, enactment of the law (CAA) for rehabilitation of the refugees of persecuted minority communities (mainly Hindu & Sikh) from the neighbouring Islamic countries and the government’s recent endeavour of undertaking the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) & the revised format of the Census 2021. The present ruling dispensation at the centre is simply disliked by many communally charged people because it bids for offering equal opportunities and welfare of all communities including the Hindu majority, which was all along ignored and taken for granted in the past. With the advent of the social and electronic media, it has become increasingly difficult to hide things for long. The in-camera admission and desire expressed by some communal minded leaders and clerics of capturing power directly or through proxy to suit their long term vision and goal is well known. The conversion of the members of other communities to own fold employing tactics like illegal immigration, covert conversion operation, producing many children, love jihad, and so on, are only different war tools of the modern age that boasts of being more civilized. The existing ruling dispensation at centre in New Delhi is posed with such grave challenges to overcome or face more disintegration of India as a nation in future not too far now.
Map Courtesy: Worldhistory.org
Concluded
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