INDIA: A DANGEROUS COUNTRY FOR MINORITIES

FOR the last few months, the north-eastern Indian State of Manipur has been under the grip of ethnic clashes. During these clashes, over 100 people have been killed and thousands have sustained injuries. The Indian Army has been deployed in the State for controlling violence. Nevertheless, the situation is deteriorating with each passing day. The Indian Government has asked the Indian Army and paramilitary troops for shoot-at-sight to anyone who protests in the State. The Hindu-nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ruling the State and has found wanting in controlling the situation. The violence erupted between Meitei and Naga as well as Kuki tribes over special status under India’s “Scheduled Tribe”. Manipur was the Princely State in British India. It was forcefully invaded and occupied by India in 1949, two years after the birth of Modern India. The local populace didn’t accept Indian rule and its Constitution since 1949 and has been constantly fighting for their independence from India.

It is worth mentioning that insurgency had been at its peak in the State during the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century. Besides, there have been insurgent movements in almost 7-8 Indian states, demanding independence or autonomy. Indeed, Indian history is full of communal violence, ethnic conflicts and exploitation of minorities. Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jain and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities in India. From the point of view of minorities, there is a growing sense of insecurity and fear among the non-Hindu minorities of India. This sense has a history of Indian official and non-official attitude towards its minorities.

Indian Discrimination, persecution, exploitation and mass killings of the non-Hindu minorities has been a routine matter in the Republic of India for the last many decades. All these despotic acts of India are well documented and known to everyone in India and at global level. The media and human rights organizations have documented all these Indian activities and have been highlighting them in their reports covertly as well as overtly. Nevertheless, the international power centres have not paid attention towards massive human rights violations and Indian oppression against its minorities. Indeed, they are doing so deliberately, since the western world has many stakes in India ranging from economic to strategic.

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report-2020, declared India as the most dangerous country for religious minorities. The Commission also recommended the US to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). CPC countries are the ones where the states and the governments engage themselves in targeting the minorities through religious victimization and severe violations of religious freedom.

The same Commission also demanded the US Government and the State Department to place India on the Special Watch List (SWL). The countries placed on SWL are found involved in severe violations of religious freedom, thus need to be put under economic and financial sanctions including ban on the visas and travel abroad of key persons involved in the violations. The US State Department, the President and its powerful Congress ignored this report as well as thousands of such reports since Western world has their political, economic and strategic interests in India.

Though the ruling BJP has been officially following Hindutva as its ideology for decades, however, the majority of the upper Hindu class have conceded this ideology as their religious, nationalistic, cultural and political philosophy. The famous Palampur Resolution-1989 set the formal agenda against the major religious minority (Muslims) in India. The Resolution decided the decisive phase of Hindu unity against Muslims and announced the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

Post-colonial India has been hiding itself behind the mantra of secularism and world’s biggest democracy. Whereas the facts on ground are: the successive Indian governments and their militant wings have been exploiting the Indian minorities throughout; thus negating both – secularism and democracy. 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 religious minorities.

Sikhs, who constitute 1.8% of the Indian total population, are being discriminated against and relegated in all spheres of life in Hindu-dominated India. In the post-1980s campaign, the Sikhs are looked down upon and considered as anti-state and anti-India. Today, RSS is directly targeting the Sikh community in India. Christians forming less than 3% of the Indian population are equally discriminated against and humiliated in India. They are also facing the fanatic onslaught of the RSS for conversion into Hinduism.

Through a massive campaign against Muslims, the main minority group in India, forming over 17% of total population is the main target of the Indian Government. Muslim are being discriminated against, humiliated and forced to convert into Hinduism or else leave India. In one of its opinion pages, the New York Times published 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, Modi’s India demands Muslims, “They should convert to Hinduism” this is a unanimous call from the Hindus, the BJP and its militant wing, the RSS in particular. 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.

Regretfully, Indian MPs, its government officials, its military and intelligence and security agencies have been found officially involved in the persecution of minorities to the level of killings, torture, rapes and alienation of the minorities. India has a history of religious intolerance and violations on account of belief and caste system. Owing to its narrow-minded Hindu majority, India has become a very dangerous country for other religious minorities. The Hindus of India even claim that being “Hindu” they have exclusive right over the land known as Hindustan and minorities must convert to Hinduism or leave India.

— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.

Email: drmkedu@gmail.com