UNDER the cover of secularism, India has been exploiting its minorities throughout the post-colonial period. Through a well-planned strategy, the areas inhabited with people other than Hindu majority were kept backward and deprived of basic facilities of life. The worst among all was the economic deprivation and providing no facilities for the basic education for these poor minority masses. Among Hindu even, the low class Dalits were discriminated alongside the minorities. These Dalits are indeed, “Untouchables” and constitute about 17% of India’s total population. They too face all sorts of violence, discrimination and humiliation at the hands of upper class Hindus. They are tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human.
Sikhs forming less than 2% of the total Indian population are being discriminated and relegated in all spheres of life in Hindu-dominated India. In the post 1980s campaign, the Sikhs are looked down and considered as anti-state and anti-India. Today, Indian Government, its agencies and RSS are directly targeting the Sikh community in India and elsewhere in the world. Sikh community leaders are showing grave resentment and anger over RSS and wicked designs of Hindutva, aimed at establishing hegemony of Hindus over India. Sikhs in India are under suppression; however, voices have been raised by large Sikhs community leaders in America, Australia, Europe and Canada. Prime Minister Modi, a well-known RSS representative, is the flag bearer of the Hindutva ideology of RSS. Indeed, RSS is acting as the militant wing of BJP against Sikhs and all other minorities.
Christians forming almost 2.3% of Indian population are equally discriminated and humiliated in India. They are also facing the fanatic onslaught of the Hindutva and RSS for conversion into Hinduism. In the last two years, there have been huge and unprecedented exploitation of Christians in India. Manipur communal riots are an overt form of Indian state sponsor exploitation and terrorism against Christians in India. Through a massive campaign against Muslims, the major minority group in India, forming over 16% of total population, Indian Muslims are discriminated, humiliated and forced to convert into Hinduism or else leave India. On June 27, 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Mr Blinken said in a statement, “In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolition of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities,” In 2017, The New York Times wrote an article, entitled, “India’s Muslims and the Price of Partition”. The prestigious newspaper mentioned salient features of the Indian policies towards Indian Muslims. As per the contents of this article, the Modi’s India demands Muslims that, “They should reconvert to Hinduism” this is a unanimous call from the Hindus, the BJP and its militant wing, the RSS in particular.
The logic, Hindu majority has, since Indian Muslims were converted from Hinduism during Muslims rule in India, therefore, they have to reconvert into Hinduism. Besides, the Muslims in India must sing, “Vande Mataram,” the national song of the Hindu, which would prove Muslims’ loyalties with India. Yet another demand from the children of Muslims is to ‘perform yoga in schools to show respect for Indian culture.’ It is a pity that Muslims are barred from eating the beef and slaughtering of cow is totally prohibited, being the mother of Hindus. The punishment for cow slaughtering includes five years sentencing to life imprisonment. Today, Muslims feel totally insure in India; “The idea was that if you were a Muslim, you were liable to be attacked anywhere, anytime.”
A fanatic Hindu group, known as, “Hindu Jagran Manch” indeed an offshoot of the RSS, has started a campaign to marry the Muslim girls with Hindu boys. The basic theme of this group is to ‘reverse love jihad’. Love Jihad is a mythical story, in which Muslim men love the non-Muslim women for converting them into Islam. Just imagine how the suppressed Muslims in India can launch such a campaign of love Jihad? Taking this self-made postulation as an excuse, ‘Hindu Jagran Manch’ has started to haunt for Muslim girls who would be asked to marry the Hindu boys. The beginning of this campaign will be from Uttar Pradesh (UP), the biggest Indian State where a hard liner RSS Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has made the lives of minorities miserable. According to BBC News, March 29, 2017, Yogi is a ‘saffron-robed Hindu priest, highly controversial figure’ in India. Critics describe him as India’s most divisive and abusive politician who used his election rallies to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria and upon becoming Chief Minister; he unleashed a reign of terror against Muslims. He is Chief Minister of UP since 2017 and constantly targeting Muslims in the biggest state of Indian Union.
According to Catholic World Report, “thousands of Christians and Muslims were subjected to attacks and intimidation in 2023 while hundreds of churches and mosques were destroyed.” As per Pew Research Center analysis, out of 198 countries, India ranked as fourth worst in the world for religious intolerance. It is to be mentioned that, “Pew analyzed cases that involved hate crimes, mob violence, communal violence, religion-related terror, the use of force to prevent religious practice, the harassment of women for not conforming to religious dress codes and violence over conversion or proselytizing.” International community and United Nations should not allow exploitation of minorities in India. Exploitation of minorities and Indian secularism are anti-thesis to each other. Whereas Muslims in India are facing all sorts of discrimination, alienation and humiliation besides being killed and converted into Hinduism, other minorities are equally being endangered and oppressed.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
