Hindutva Pressing Forward A New Jinnah As Its Funeral Director

By Dr. Abdul Ahad

05 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

RSS is unwittingly forcing India to eat up the opium to an early grave and press forward a new Jinnah as its funeral director

That Modi's India is being systematically changed into a Hindu Rashtra goes without saying. The change is glaringly manifesting itself in the resurgence of old Muslim bashing and hatred that, once upon a time, paved the way for the formation of Pakistan by splitting India into two parts, and recently helped RSS to consolidate its position and usurp mirth at Delhi and seek to redeem the Hindu ethos from the ineffectuality and debris it had fallen into in the wake of the emergence of Maleechas on its soil in middle ages. The most cherished dream of RSS is to take India back to Vedic Age through the route of terror and bigotry, and fully awash it with all that is required to purify its Ganga and Yamuna of impurities heaped on them by the Muslim Invaders who exploited their pious waters as rulers for a pretty long time. The frequency with which a virulent hate campaign and a high proportion hate crime against Muslims and members of other ethnic minorities are perpetrated day in and day out to raise the pyramid of Hindutva is reminiscent of the hateful polarization, communal frenzy and caste antagonisms of Partition days. Much akin to Hitler's Nazism and very near to Halaku's untamed savagery and barbarism the persecution of Muslims and other minorities is based on the notion that India being the birth place of Hinduism is a Hindu Rashtra wherein there is no place for Islam and Christianity and their followers. And if at all they choose to stay here they have to : behave in a manner prescribed by the RSS, the spiritual mentor of Naredara Modi; subordinate their religion, culture and mode of living to the majority opinion and ethos; and live like second class citizens with no rights whatsoever. They are also required to abide by the Diktats of Hindutva ideologues and, thus, give up beef eating; respect “mother cow”; perform Surya Namakar; practice Yoga; and observe Havana etc.

The Hindu archaic belief system is vigorously imposed by the fringe elements that, with a tacit approval of Prime Minister Modi, enjoy solid support of Government of India which seems in no mood to relent in its endeavours to popularize it openly and aggressively through none other than its senior Ministers and a huge platoon of diehard MP's who don't shy away even from instigating Hindu youth to lynch Muslims and believing that lynching is the only means to suppress, subjugate or drive them away. Even a mere rumour can cost a Muslim his precious life ; an obnoxious trend that amply exposes the impotency of Indian secularism whose existence in books denotes nothing but a mere camouflage for concealing the true nature of the Indian State which has now become too bold to allow Hindutva terrorists not only to brandish swords and firearms in rallies with a police escort. This is not to demean BJP for intolerance and commend Congress for secular dispensations; the later was even more dangerous than the former; a master of disguise and apt in covering up its real Hindu credentials under the cloak of secularism. Since its inception the Congress exploited secularism as a mask to deceive, disillusion and ensnare Muslims like Sheikh Sahib but failed to entrap Iqbal and Jinaah who found an answer to the hollowness of this devious device in a separate dominion for their brethren.

Only a naïve will overlook, dismiss or ignore the sordid details of prevailing Hindu jingoism and hooliganism which resort to assassination and lynching to subdue and stamp down Muslims and silence those who dare oppose intolerance. It is not at all a trifle, temporary, inconsequential event of Indian history. It is indubitably a very critical phase of Indian polity with a shady bearing on its general health and future. It is all set to disturb and disintegrate the social ecology of India beyond repair and, thereby, provide a historical opportunity to minorities, more particularly to Muslims of all shades and opinions and hitherto widely unorganized and disunited, to unite for an assertion of their collective personality and identity.

Pregnant with all the ingredients of bringing the poor Muslims together and pushing them towards do-or-die situation the RSS is unwittingly forcing India to eat up the opium to an early grave and press forward a new Jinnah as its funeral director. The way the Hindus are conducting themselves vis-à-vis Muslims and other minorities and the trend of violence is spiraling out of control the likelihood of disintegration becomes too evident and significant. The more they escalate this process and suffuse terror the more imminent becomes the ideological, philosophical and civilizational fragmentation of India into congeries of conflicting social ecologies. Nehru too located this impending disaster in Hindutva which, he predicted: “could potentially become expansionist and communally belligerent” enough to crumble the very idea of India into fragments; a threatening eventuality to stall which the Indian writers have started returning their awards; an unprecedented way of protest against centrifugal stress and looming menace of disintegration rather than the lynching of the likes of Ikhlaqs, Zahids and others.

Looking from this perspective Hindutva seems an antidote to many problems the teeming millions of minorities are confronted with; a tectonic shift that is bound to motivate them to find ways and means to fight their tormentors; also a golden opportunity and a moment of introspection history has provided to the people of Kashmir. It is fully loaded with what they need to reignite their interest in refurbishing their struggle nurtured by their forefathers with blood and sweat. To expect freedom to come on a platter and feel smug glow of self-congratulation and watch the unfolding situation as mute spectators and wait idly to expect it to resolve their angst ideally, magically and automatically is a raw thought wholly devoid of any sense. The prevailing scenario has the potential of recreating a prefect analogue device of pre & post Partition days with an output proportional to input that is ideally tilted towards Kashmir and the resolution of its dispute. The incitement stemming essentially from the RSS's idea of Hindu Rashtra is too hot to turn India red and fuel the process of its degeneration and sharpen the demand for separate arrangements for protection, conservation and growth of its disparate and conflicting identities, their rights, their culture, their religion and their cultural stocks. The people antagonistic to Hindutva's insidious campaign against all that is rationale have started consolidating their efforts to resist the growing onslaught on their religion and way of living. Kashmir is no exception; it has even more potent reason to unite and accelerate its struggle for emancipation owing to its disputed nature. The hot fuel rod of Hindutva is destined to come across an unprecedented Kashmiri’s challenge; even more vociferous than witnessed during 2008/ 2010. They can even enforce social boycott to resist RSS intrusion; a boycott their leaders put in place when Congress began making inroads in Kashmir with the help of late Sadiq Sahib; when anti movement elements were ostracized and even refused burial for their dead; when collaborators were detested and declined entry into mosques.

[Dr. Ahad is author of Kashmir to Frankfurt; Kashmir Rediscovered; Kashmir: Triumphs &Tragedies. His forthcoming book is Legends of Unsung Heroes]