S R H Hashmi
LIFE for Muslims in occupied Kashmir and many regions of India has become difficult and unsafe and that is putting it mildly. However, it has not always been like this. For centuries, Muslims and Hindus had lived peacefully alongside. Having spent my childhood in a peaceful part of India, I remember spending my happy childhood together with Hindus. We played Holi with Hindu boys, while Muslim boys used to be given front seats during Ram Leela Nataks. If a Muslim died, Hindu trader would sell cloth for shroud at cost, while in case of a Hindu dying, Muslim trader won’t charge any profit on burial goods sold. However, near about the partition time, Hindu-Muslim riots flared in many regions of both India and Pakistan. For no apparent reason, human beings seemed to have turned into the worst of animals, on both sides of the border.
But only a few years after partition, when restrictions at Wahga border near Lahore were temporarily relaxed to let Indians from nearby towns to come to Lahore to watch cricket matches, Hindus and Sikhs came to Lahore in large number and Lahorites gave them a wonderful welcome. The visitors even went to their former homes in Lahore and were treated with respect and offered refreshments. All the bitterness, even massacres, of only a few years back were all forgiven and forgotten. So, if Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs could do it back then, there is no reason why they can’t do it now, more so when there have not been any massacres of the magnitude that occurred back in 1947. Some of my friends who visited Delhi before Modi era claimed that out there, they felt like they were in Karachi, with the only difference being that Indian auto rickshaws were less noisy and far more comfortable. And even when politicians from Pakistan and India were at each other’s throats, people-to-people relations had remained cordial. However, coming to power in India of Narendra Damodardas Modi in 2001 as Chief Minister of Gujarat saw the start of an officially organized campaign against Muslims, starting with unprovoked attacks in which close to a thousand Muslims died. A senior police officer’s sworn statement to India’s Supreme Court alleges that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi deliberately allowed anti-Muslim riots in the State. And it was because of direct part of Narendra Modi in the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat that the United States government had banned his entry into the country.
And then, with the Bharatiya Janata Party winning national election in 2014, Narendra Modi became the country’s prime minister, and an organized campaign at state level started against minorities all over India, which got into the top gear during the second term of Narendra Modi, with 200 million Muslims being the prime target. Also, on 5 August 2019, India revoked Article 370 and thereby stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy that they had enjoyed for seven decades. India also imposed a security and communications clampdown, which essentially continues till this day. India unleashed a reign of terror on Kashmir during which prominent Kashmiri leaders and elected representatives were arrested, while other Kashmiris were detained, even killed on various pretexts. As for Muslims elsewhere in India, they are being harassed through the Citizenship Amendment Act and the All-India National Register of Citizens which requires them to prove their citizenship by producing requisite documents, which many of them do not have. And in case of failing to prove Indian citizenship, they may either be deported or else treated as refugees and placed in detention centres that are being established across the country. While taking these brutal, illegal and immoral steps, Narendra Modi had probably hoped that developing a good rapport with US President Donald Trump, as well as with some Muslim states, he would be able to get away with all his crimes, like Israel does. However, things have not turned out the way he expected.
In fact nearly the whole world, including the US, influential European countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation representing 57 member states as well as many Muslim states have condemned Indian brutality in their individual capacity. And while Modi’s acts have received support from Hindu extremists, the majority of Indians still remains opposed to such divisive measures. Moreover, Coronavirus has badly damaged the economies of the whole world, including India. As such, the rich middle-eastern states would not be able to invest billions of dollars in India as planned. And Indian economy is in its worst condition in the last 42 years, with no hope of recovery anytime soon. Through his illegal and immoral anti-Muslim policies, and also because of the whole world battered by Coronavirus, Narendra Modi has landed himself and his country in a desperate situation. The only way out for Modi is to drop his needless animosity of Muslims and behave like a human being instead. After all, it is the same India which saw no problem in having Muslims as presidents of the country and even as an Air Force Commander-in-Chief. Also, Modi can’t expel 200 million Muslims from India or put them all in refugee camps. And it is much the same with Muslims in occupied Kashmir. Also, the recent skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani Air Force did not go well for India, which proves India could hardly fight a two-front war with both Pakistan and China, while a full-scale war between India and Pakistan could turn nuclear and devastate both. So, with aggression benefiting no one, why not opt for peaceful coexistence, with India, Pakistan and China living like decent neighbours and solving their problems amicably. Remember, the European countries, once bitter enemies, finally got over it. So, why can’t we emulate their example?
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in Karachi.
