Classically Communal India and Indian Communalism
Q M Jalal Khan: Despite the propaganda that there is something called secularism in India (meaning respect, tolerance and equal rights for all religions), the country has seen and continues to see thousands of communal/sectarian riots against its own Muslim population since its independence in 1947. The following reports, columns and articles contain a documentary evidence of India’s ruthless oppression of the people of other religions, particularly Islam:
ভারতে সাম্প্রদায়িক সহিংসতায় ৩ বছরে নিহতের সংখ্যা প্রায় ৩০০: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ram-navami-clashes-in-bengal-fresh-violence-reported-in-raniganj-bardhaman-5112295/
http://parstoday.com/bn/news/india-i55022
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/sachar_comm.pdf
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ten-years-after-sachar-report-no-major-change-in-the-condition-of-indias-muslims-4444809/
স্বাধীন ভারতে কেমন আছে সংখ্যালঘু মুসলিমরা? www.analysisbd.com/archives/4126
In 2017 alone, India saw 822 communal and religious riots, there having been an increase of 28% during the time of the Modi administration (www.prothomalo.com/international/article/1426306/২০১৭তে-ভারতে-সাম্প্রদায়িক-দাঙ্গা-হয়েছে-৮২২টি; http://bn.southasianmonitor.com/2018/02/11/24110
www.newagebd.net/article/94532/the-two-nation-theory-and-the-present-day-india
Nobel Laureate in Economics Professor Amartya Sen details the appalling condition of Muslims in the Indian state of West Bengal (www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/1/6863/Amartya-Sen-Report-Points-to-Abysmal-Condition-of-Muslims-in-West-Bengal). Its Hindu fundamentalist BJP leaders do not hesitate to express their intention to gun down all Indian Muslims (dainikamadershomoy.com/international/149381/মন্ত্রী-হলে-মুসলমানদের-গুলি-করে-মারতাম–বিজেপি-নেতা). When the BJP-led Hindu fundamentalists tear down the statues (of Lenin in Tripura, Gandhi in Kerala, Ambedkar in UP, Shyamaprasad in Kolkata, and Periyar Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu) and break them into pieces, there is all silence in India, but the Bangladeshi fanatical and near-atheist Awami secularists cry foul when there is even a slight resentment against only a certain statue, among hundreds, in Muslim Bangladesh! (http://noyonchatterjee5.blogspot.com/2018/03/blog-post_8.html; https://www.facebook.com/noyonchatterjee5/posts/505950473139954).
India is a violently communal, sectarian, class-ridden, and deeply anti-democratic country like no other in the world (see the note below for the communal and sectarian India). Its Hindus, by nature fanatical and fundamentalist, are exercising their tyranny of the majority not only upon its Muslim minority, but also upon the Bengali origin people in its seven sisters states, such as Assam, Tripura, and Nagaland (ভারতের আসাম থেকে ৪০ লাখ অবৈধ বিদেশি এখন কোথায় যাবে?
https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-45007893; বাংলাদেশীদের ঠেকানোর ডাক ভারতের নাগাল্যান্ডের নেতার; যে কারণে নাগরিকত্ব নিয়ে শঙ্কায় আছে আসামের বাংলাভাষীরা; ভারতের আসাম রাজ্যের নাগরিক তালিকা থেকে বাদ পড়েছে ৪০ লাখ মানুষ; www.jugantor.com/todays-paper/sub-editorial/91545/আসামে-বিজেপির-বিষাক্ত-সাম্প্রদায়িক-নীতি; ওড়িশার ভোটার তালিকা থেকে বাদ যাচ্ছেন কথিত বাংলাদেশিরা www.mzamin.com/article.php?mzamin=136119; www.bbc.com/bengali/news-45483286?ocid=socialflow_facebook; যে কারণে নাগরিকত্ব নিয়ে শঙ্কায় আছে আসামের বাংলাভাষীরা; আসামে নাগরিক তালিকা থেকে বাদ ৪০ লাখ মানুষ; কেমন আছেন আসামের বাংলাভাষী মুসলমানেরা?; বাংলাদেশিদের ‘উইপোকা’ বললেন বিজেপি সভাপতি Amit Shah: www.ittefaq.com.bd/world-news/2018/09/22/171914.html).
Prof Badruddin Umar of Dhaka University and Prof Nirmalangshu Mukherji of the University of Delhi discuss the rise and growth of Indian fascism and its different forms, including the one called Hindutva fascism (www.epw.in/journal/2018/28/special-articles/ghost-fascism-haunting-p
olitical-thought.html; www.amarboi.com/2017/05/bharoter-rajnitite-hinduttobader-ulomfoner-oitihasik-potobhumi-badruddin-omar.html). India has made its fanatical and extremist inroads everywhere in Bangladesh, from politics to social life to intelligence to security to stock markets—all under the neo-Lhendup Dorji of Bangladesh—Sheikh Hasina. While other small neighboring countries (Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Maldives) possess the courage and confidence to stand up on their own feet and not to give in to undue Indian pressure and influence (https://bn.southasianmonitor.com/2017/12/11/20066;www.dailynayadiganta.com/opinion/351024/নেপালের-পর-এবার-ভুটান-হাতছাড়া). Hasina is an all-giving loony lackey and hers is an all-yielding vassal government to the feudal and hegemonic India.
While Sheikh Hasina is violently confrontational at home in Bangladesh, she is a mew mew kitten friend of the similarly violently communal India (see my Appendix D, “Hindu fundamentalist India’s hegemonic aggression in Muslim Bangladesh and Sheikh Hasina’s doll-dance surrender and digestion of Indian Lhendup Dorji-brand pills and potions,” pp. 243-260, in Balland, ed, Bangladesh: A Suffering People Under State Terrorism). “We utterly condemn the barbaric religious persecution in India,” writes Zoglul Husain of the UK (in a group email of 30 July 2019) in reference to the waves of violent killing of Muslims in India, who are burnt and axed to death. “BJP-RSS and their likes,” continues Husain,
[…] instigated thousands of communal riots, in which hundreds of thousands of non-Hindus were killed. India’s socio-economic system is at the root of religious persecutions. India’s Dalit system is a slavery, even worse than slavery in that a slave can be bought and freed, but a Dalit cannot be freed, he/she remains a Dalit for generations, as long as a Dalit remains within the fold of Hinduism. Slavery is one of the worst systems in human society; it still exists in India in the form of Dalits and semi-Dalits, as apartheid also exists in India in the form of Caste system. These must be banned and abolished. Emancipation of humans should be an urgent agenda throughout the world, in particular, of the UN.
In terms of the corrupt and inhuman Indian caste system of India, the Dalits and semi-Dalits, [that is, harijans or untouchables, who do the job of garbage collecting and leather dying] are classed as Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). They constitute about 75% of Indian population. Hence, 75% of Indian population are under a slavery system. The remaining 25% are under an apartheid system of 4 castes, or tiers of supremacy: Brahmins [priests and scholars], Kshatriyas [rulers, warriors, and large owners of property], Vaishyas [merchants and traders], and Shudras [servants and chauffeurs, who wait on the members of the other three classes]. According to Sachar Committee report, the status of Muslims in India is below the status of the Dalits. The caste or class system was officially outlawed in 1949 but it persists in one form or another, more in the country than in the city (www.newsclick.in/A-Crime-Pure-Indifference-Dehumanizes-Dalits. also see: B R Ambedkar, The Untouchables: Who were they and why they Become Untouchables (1948) and The Shudras: Who they were and How they came to be the Fourth Varna of the Indo-Aryan Society, 1946).
Modi’s India is communally bloody and violent. It persecutes its Muslim population and other minorities (www.muldharabd.com/?p=548). According to a report, it shows the signs of fascism in terms of “controlling mass media,” holding “fraudulent elections,” “promoting the image and legend of Hindu figures,” “rewarding the loyal,” “rampant cronyism and sexism,” “distorting and erasing historical facts,” “arbitrary and unaccountable decisions,” “protecting the corporate power,” and disdain for human rights (https://saafbaat.com/bjpsangh-parivar/india-modi-fascism). Dominated and dictated by Modi’s India, Hasina’s Bangladesh is already walking far ahead of India along those oppressive and opprobrious lines.
Notes: Communal and Sectarian India
India had 58 communal incidents per month in the last 5 years & 85% of these incidents occurred in just 8 states: https://factly.in/communal-incidents-in-india-statistics-57-communal-incidents-per-month-last-4-years-85-these-incidents-happen-in-8-states/amp/
https://factly.in/communal-incidents-in-india-statistics-57-communal-incidents-per-month-last-4-years-85-these-incidents-happen-in-8-states/amp/?fbclid=IwAR0GS950XqBEFfrCF2EGZbPcXOn3G_6ScE5I-TemDR6YGKJvvWxRUW0KefY
Communalization of Politics in West Bengal: Religion and the Public Sphere www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2018_53/16/CM_LIII_16_210418_Anindya_Sekhar_Purakayastha.pdf;
Barbara Crossette, “The biggest Pain in Asia isn’t the country you’d think”: www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/04/the_elephant_in_the_room.
Among the thousands of examples of its deadly hatred of Muslims, see, for example: http://www.tdnbangla.com/news/national/8-year-old-asif-sang-jai-sriram-gang-raped-hindutva-organization-procured-to-save-rape/
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/dont-allow-muslims-into-your-houses-rajasthan-bjp-mla/articleshow/63690296.cms
India has a background of radical and terrorist Hindu influences under (1) Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharastra; (2) Shatish Chandra Bose and his ‘অনুশীলন সমিতি,’ the term ‘Anushilon’ (meaning ‘practice’) taken from Bankim Chandra’s sectarian novel আনন্দমঠ/Anandamath; (3) another fundamentalist group ‘যুগান্তর’/Jugantor; (4) Indian Republican Army of Hindu revolutionaries (such as Masterda Surya Sen, Ambika Chakroborty, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpona Dutt, Tarakeshwar Dastidar, Brojen Sen and many others); (5) Shyamaprasad Mukherjee and his ‘ভারতীয় জনসংঘ’/Bharatiyo Janashangha; and (6) ‘হিন্দু মহাসভা’/Hindu Mahashava; (7) RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh); and (8) Narendra Modi’s BJP, among others.
monitorbd.news/2018/01/18/বাঙালি-মুসলমানের-অপূরণীয়/; প্রণব মুখোপাধ্যায়ের চট্টগ্রাম দর্শন by Ebne Golam Samad: www.dailynayadiganta.com/detail/news/286385; www.dailynayadiganta.com/sub-editorial/354625/বঙ্কিমচন্দ্রের-দৃষ্টিতে-বাঙালি-মুসলমান by Ebne Golam Samad; www.anandabazar.com/national/murder-and-attack-of-dalits-for-sitting-cross-legged-1.809260; https://sputniknews.com/…/201806021065024287-Dalits-Murdered-for-Crossing-Leg;
গো-রক্ষার নামে হিংসা ৪১৫০% বেড়েছে মোদী জমানায়!
www.anandabazar.com/national/incidents-of-hate-crime-are-increasing-unprecedented-disturbance-in-the-country-dgtl-1.840970?ref=hm-ft-stry-left-1
India’s gross violation of human rights in Kashmir: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2124530387858019&set=a.1417329838578081&type=3&theater
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/oic-rights-body-urges-india-to-halt-abuses-in-kashmir/1887746
www.dailynayadiganta.com/diplomacy/350889/ভারতে-গরু-রক্ষার-নাম-করে-মুসলিমদের-হত্যা-
www.ntvbd.com/world/চীন-ও-ইতালির-চেয়ে-ভারতীয়-ভাইরাস-বেশি-প্রাণঘাতী-নেপালের-প্রধানমন্ত্রী-748333
https://viewsweek.com/india-bangladesh-relations/ Why India Wants to ‘Impose’ a Military Partnership on Bangladesh?
https://youtu.be/NpTOK1qn7lA বাংলাদেশ ভাঙ্গার ষড়যন্ত্রে ভারত, রক্তাক্ত পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম
www.academia.edu/8299967/Chronology_of_Events_Conflict_in_the_Chittagong_Hill_Tracts?email_work_card=view-paper
https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/disasters-of-neoliberalism-and-hindutva-fascism-in-india
www.bbc.com/bengali/news-48935484 ‘জয় শ্রীরাম’: হিন্দু দেবতার জয়ধ্বনি যেভাবে পরিণত হলো মুসলিম হত্যার হুংকারে
www.bbc.com/bengali/news-49138379 ভারতে মুসলিম বিধায়ককে ‘জয় শ্রীরাম’ বলানোর চেষ্টা বিজেপি মন্ত্রীর
www.facebook.com/107707274228356/videos/629060607992893রামের মন্দির তৈরি হচ্ছে, কে এই রাম, কোথায় থেকে এলো রাম
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMObiHi99Q&feature=share&fbclid হিন্দু পন্ডিত রাম মন্দিরের গোপন তথ্য ফাঁস করলো হিন্দুদের মাথায় হাত | Ram mondir purohit & babri masjid
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY3uxI8ko0k হিন্দু পণ্ডিত ইসলাম ধর্ম নিয়ে যা বললো হিন্দুদের মাথায় হাত | Hindu pandit very good speech of Islam
Curses of the Caste System – Iowa Department of Human Rights
https://humanrights.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/media/The%20Curse%20of%20the%20Caste%20System_final_7.pdf
www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/us/caste-discrimination-us-trnd/index.html
*Q M Jalal Khan is author of Bangladesh: Political and Literary Reflections on a Divided Country (Peter Lang, 2018) and Bangladesh Divided: Political and Literary Reflections on a Corrupt Police and Prison State (Peter Lang, 2019). Those are in addition to American-educated Dr Khan’s numerous other publications in political commentary and literary criticism. After disengaging from many years of full-time teaching abroad, he is currently on the adjunct faculty at an institution of higher learning in North America. His work, “Sheikh Hasina’s Brutal BNP-Phobia and Her Scandalous ‘Midnight’ Power Grab Through Vampire Vote Dacoity and Villainous ‘S/Election’ Rigging With an All-Time High Record of Humongous White-Collar Corruption” has appeared in Sabria Chowdhury Balland (ed), Bangladesh: A Suffering People Under State Terrorism (Peter Lang, 2020).
