Gentle reader, you would have noticed that I have described the time of my childhood without a religious marker, without telling you what religion we belonged to. Such was the time. My parents didn’t care much for religion either. My father never participated in the somewhat perfunctory pujas offered by mother—without the aid of a priest—to the goddess of learning Saraswati and to her older sister Laxmi, the deity of wealth, once a year. Besides, every Thursday, Ma would read a hymn before the framed picture of Laxmi. (The picture was a bit worn out, like the financial state of our family.) But I believe these acts were less about religion and more about culture, like the community Durga pujas, or making pithe with powdered rice, jaggery, and cocoanut, a practice that continues to this day as a trace of the harvesting festival in the distant past when most people depended directly on farming.
The Hindu religion played little role in our life. Religion was never discussed at home. However, my parents were not irreligious. In fact, both of them deeply believed in, ignoring every evidence to the contrary, a supreme power somewhere above that worked relentlessly for the good of humanity. Anyway, the bottom line was that our religious identity didn’t matter.
Also, although my parents had lived through the violent Hindu-Muslim riots of 1946, never ever did I hear them say a word against Muslims. They knew neither community was holier than the other, and more importantly, an-eye-for-an-eye could only lead us to a kingdom of the blind.
Seventy years later, I am not only being constantly reminded that I am a Hindu, I am also told that “my” religion is in danger: “Hindu khatre me hai.” Hindus of India, 80% of the population, are destined to be overwhelmed by the other 20%, in particular, by Muslims who are under 15% of the population.
Looking around, I don’t see any truth in the bizarre yarn. No Muslim has attacked another community in recent memory, barring isolated incidents like the Mumbai train bombings in 2006 in which 209 innocent people were killed in a most brutal manner. (What happened in the same city on 26/11/08 was a barefaced undercover operation by the Pakistani state; it had nothing to do with Indian Muslims.) Secondly, there is absolutely no evidence that the Muslim population has been increasing as percentage of the population of India. Finally, in every significant profession under the sky, from the judiciary to the academia, from the armed forces to the medical profession, clearly there are very few Muslims. Far fewer than the percentage of the community in India.
How on earth are the 15% threatening the 80%? I would request you to stop and ponder over the question. And there are other questions too.
Since the BJP government came to power in 2014, there have been relentless attacks on Muslims, both physically and otherwise. The Wikipedia lists 22 incidents across North India between 2015 and June 2017 in which 28 Muslims were lynched by cow vigilante mobs. The situation continued to worsen. On 2 September 2021, the BBC summed up a report* with these words: “Unprovoked attacks on Muslims by Hindu mobs have become routine in India, but they seem to evoke little condemnation from the government.”
Since then, the process has taken a more insidious turn as the entire Muslim community is targeted through a range of laws and communal messaging that spread like wildfire in the time of a cholera called the social media. For example, it is bizarre to contemplate that Indian Muslims have collectively decided to somehow make Hindu girls fall in love with Muslim boys, but our ruling dispensation would like us to believe so through the “Love Jihad Laws” passed by several BJP state governments. The powers that be do not want Muslim vendors to come anywhere near Hindu festivals or temples. As the discourse in TV channels revolve around hijab and halal, communal riots are planned meticulously, intensifying the relentless effort to corner and marginalise the Muslim community both socially and economically.
In April 2022, there have been multiple communal clashes in mostly BJP ruled states like Delhi, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. These riots followed an exact template. On the festival of Ram Navami, processions led by Hindutwawadis would pass by mosques and through Muslim areas. There would be aggressive slogans and abuses against Muslims until there was protest or retaliation from the other side. Then the Muslims would be beaten up and their homes and businesses would be burned.
The central government and BJP-ruled states used to be silent spectators to similar violence in the past, but now, the state has become a major actor in the hate project. Destroying Muslim lives and livelihood is no longer left only to the indoctrinated thugs. Following the violence, the state sends bulldozers as in Jahangirpuri in Delhi to Khargaon in Madhya Pradesh, to demolish homes and businesses in Muslim areas giving no notice, claiming those were “unauthorised structures”.
While this goes on unchecked, there is carpet bombing of anti-Muslim propaganda. BJP leaders, including ministers, publicly call to shoot Muslims. The most widely articulated political sentence since 2020 is possibly “Deshki gaddaro ko, goli maaro saloko.” A bunch of saints—rather, thugs in saffron—believe India is an Islamic state and call for “genocide against Muslims and other minorities in the name of name of protecting Hinduism.” [Wikipedia, accessed on 30 April 2022] The government cares not, the courts turn their head away, and the media spreads the lies peddled the government and ruling party.
All this is bound to have an impact. Many Hindus, who were impeccably balanced and open minded all these years are nowadays heard to say, “I agree, but about Muslims, …”
That brings us to the second question. What does India gain through this insane project to marginalise and torment a section of our own citizens?
The third and final question that comes to my mind is: Can you name a country that has progressed by attacking and marginalising its own citizens? If you need any clue, please think of Pakistan in 1971 and Sri Lanka between 1983 and 2009.
* https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58406194
