Jawaid Quddus
Posted on May 11, 2000

  Just as the Minority Commission's report was released (on the attacks on the Christian Schools, Churches and other institutions), news of other such attacks on a Jhansi Convent,(May 2, 2000), in Dang (May 3, 2000), and then in Ahmedabad, (May 6, 2000), Nasik (May 10), and Indore (May11-12), came as no surprise.  The Government and the Minority Commission may whitewash these incidents as common robberies, but even a nincompoop will not  have a hard time in rejecting such logic!   All peace-loving citizens of character are, however, not at all surprised. People who have sold their souls to the devil cannot be expected to be just or truthful! When the law makers are the law breakers, it would be absurd to contemplate otherwise.

  Infiltration of the Sangh Parivar's storm troopers into our relatively secular institutions, including the police, is almost complete. The results we have witnessed repeatedly be it the Shibli College, the Jamia Millia, (The Secular Minority Institutions are the latest targets, http:www.truthindia.com), the murder of  Colonel Pratap Save, harassment and attacks on minorities all across the nation, arrests, detentions on one false pretext or the other, condemnation of an entire community as ISI agents, Pakistanis, anti-nationals and foreigners, uprooting of minority families from their homes and exiling them to the slums and ghettos as has been done in Gujrat, U.P. and elsewhere, including our Capital New Delhi.

  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to discern what the pattern is and has been over these many years !  First, the RSS, Bajrang Dal and the other Sangh Parivar units indulge in violence against minorities.  The Government categorically denies the involvement of these units. The police arrest and torment the victims and justify the incidents as a consequence of the victims' behaviour, ( be it conversion, or collaboration with ISI or other such nonsense), or simply blame such incidents on common robberies!  Then, they, the State Ministry and the Central Government give a clean chit to all those involved in such crimes!  This has been the strategy of the Sangh Parivar all along.  The modus operandi is: attack, kill, maim, destroy, burn, rape, loot and then get a clean chit from the Masters. For example, the Bajrang Dal was completely absolved for the murder of Graham Staines and his two sons although the association of Dara Singh with the Bajrang Dal is irrefutable (Pro-Dara Singh outfit plans to go political. Times Of India, May 4, 2000 ). The Home Ministry preempted even the police investigation by claiming that the Bajrang Dal was not involved! The Home Minister even went to the extent of saying that the members of the Dal were good people! The recent report by the Minority Commission on the numerous attacks on Christian schools and institutions as not being communal in nature, and the statement by our Prime Minister (Vested Interests at work, The Hindu, May 10, 2000) are other examples which fly in the face of overwhelming evidence!  The attacks on Shibli College, arrests of the students who where later sodomized in jail and tortured and made to repeat ' Hanuman Ji Ki jai' and 'Hum Pakistani hain', the police attack on the Jamia students where the police, while beating these innocent students, told them that they were ISI agents, or Pakistanis or anti-nationals or other words too obscene to be  published here or anywhere!  Hindu students were given even worse treatment for 'studying' in a Muslim Institution.  The Imam of the Masjid was beaten up and sniffer dogs were taken inside the Masjid, in complete disregard of  Islamic beliefs.  Of course no one will be punished!  We have all seen this before, and many times!  This pattern of intimidation should not surprise anyone in view of the 'secret document' of the RSS which has recently been published on this site ( RSS secret document , http://www.truthindia.com) and else where (Face to Face with Fascism , Communalism Combat, April 2000).  My prediction is that attacks on Christians and other minorities including the Dalits, and minority institutions will continue unabated and with impunity. This is because the Government, either by actual intent or by its refusal to acknowledge and punish the criminals, have  given the green signal to these goons to carry out the well proclaimed Hindutva  policy of 'one culture, one religion, one country'. The attacks on Christian schools are particularly virulent because the Sangh Parivar intends to discredit these  in order to advance itsnetwork of over 20,000 schools that it has set up to brain wash young minds with the Hindutva ideology. Christians schools, with their  secular teachings, do not fallinto the scheme of the Sangh Parivar and must be destroyed!

Where are we heading to?  The concept of 'one culture, one religion, one country' is alien to our collective history and notion of nationhood.  But it is history that the Sangh Parivar is hell bent on rewriting and redefining and destroying!  However,  in a multicultural, multilinguistic and multireligious society that India is, they will only succeed in what our enemies have been trying to do all these years- create chaos, hatred and  blood-letting which will eventually lead to the destruction of the India that we know of, and many patriots have died for!  The signs are there for all to see, but will we?

  Recently in Punjab the RSS Chief  issued his proclaimation that Khalsa Panth is part of Hinduism. That is, in other words, the Sikhs must live in accordance to the dictates of the Hindutva Brigade or face the consequences of being treated as a pariah!  After years of turmoil, Punjab has been much too peaceful for the Sangh Parivar to accept, hence the seeds of discord has been planted there once again. The Sikh community will never accept the imposition of the Hindutva philosophy on their population. To suggest that the Khalsa Panth is a part of Hinduism, is one ploy among many others, in the journey towards the saffronising and of India and the subjugation of those who do not subscribe to the Sangh Parivar's concept of what constitutes an Indian.  No wonder, the  Sikhs have indicated that they will drive the RSS out of Punjab,  if the Sangh Parivar tried to enforce its construct of Hindutva on them. (Leaders of 3 Sikh bodies ready to 'throw out' RSS from Punjab , Hindustan Times, May 4, 2000 ). The Sikhs are a proud people with a culture very distinct from those of the Hindus, a culture that has evolved from and is an amalgamation of the best, derived from the cultural melting pot that India is.  Forcing cultural and religious hegemony on them is not only anti-Indian but is a violation of their human rights and a sure means of alieniating them.  It will force them into the arms of the 'Khalistanis' with dire consequences for the unity of India.  The 'Khalistanis', just like the millitants in Kashmir or Assam, don't need the ISI.   They have the BJP, the RSS, the VHP, the BD, the SS and the AVBP.  This is what the politics of this mind-set  has accomplished in Assam and Kashmir, and now it is going to be Punjab!

  Sikhs are not the only ones being subjected to this form of Hindutva .  Several years ago I recall one of the Gurus of the Sangh Parivar demanding that Indian Muslims should have Hindu names and call themselves Hindu Muslims, or some such nonsense!  Very recently  (  We aren't Hindus, assert Gujrat tribals , Hindustan Times, May 6, 2000) the Sangh Parivar has declared that the tribals who they call 'Vanvasi' are also Hindus, a claim that has been rejected by the 'Vanvasis' vehemently.  In a published circular (distributed recently in Gujrat)  titled  "Ame vanvasi nathi " (we are not vanvasi), the tribals who claim to be adivasis have advised their people not to list themselves as Hindus "We are Adivasi and we are proud of that," the leaflet has asked of the Sangh Parivar "you call us Hindus, then tell us in which caste do you classify us? Shudras, Vaishyas, Kshatriyas or Brahmins?"  Then further it asks "would you allow your daughter or son to marry us?"  It  also indicates that they understand the motives for the Sangh Parivar declaring them as Hindus.  By calling them Vanvasi (and  thus Hindus), the Sangh Parivar can also lay claim to the vast resources of the forests, the natural habitat of these people.  The leaflet reminds every one, and rightly so, that "we were the first to live in the jungles.  Everything of the jungle - its trees, rivers, streams, water, land, hills and grass — belong to us".  Explicit in this warning that no one can take what they own without their (the adivasi's) permission.

  The saffronization of India grows apace!  For all those who cannot see this and who are complacent about it have a false perception that saffronization will materialize overnight and manifest itself out of the blue!  It won't!   Although the signs are everywhere for them to see, their mental sluggishness  fails to accept it. The silent majority, if they don't recover from this stupor, it  will cost them the country!   Saffronization is creeping in very slowly but surely.  This saffronization has permeated every aspect of our cultural and political thought.  Most disturbing is the finding that even our most prestigious and secular institutions have fallen  prey to this.  The recent honorary doctorate given to Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi by the Benaras Hindu Universsity  (BHU) is a prime example. The BHU cites Dr. Joshi for  being ``a crusader for cultural nationalism and national pride,'' the original citation said: ``Dr Joshi has been consistently active for the construction of a grand temple at the birth place of Ram, a place of paramount significance in the context of our  religious tradition and social icons of dignity, representing lofty human and superhuman values".  The BHU conviently forgot that the CBI in an FIR dated October 5, 1993 had accused Dr. Joshi along with others for conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid. Recently Dr. Joshi has issued a statement regarding this honor as "There is no controversy over it. It was given to me for my scientific achievements. All that is being published in the Press is wrong," (The Pioneer, May 13, 2000).  What scientific achievements?  How many scientific papers has Dr. Joshi published in the past years? How many papers has he presented at National and International  Meetings? Why did the original citation from the BHU say what it did before public furor forced them to change the text? Whom will the BHU honor next?  L.K. Advani and Uma Bharti for their role in the destruction of Babri Masjid ( Both charge-sheeted along with Dr. Joshi), former Shiv Sena MP Maddhukar Sarpotdar? former Shiv Sena legislator Grunath Desai?, both for having helped  Silva Maria Devendra, (charged with assault and robbery) obtain Rs. 15,000 from the Chief Minister's fund and Rs. 30,000 from the Prime Minister's fund for a heart operation?( Sena leaders 'advised' funds for criminal , Times Of India, May 4, 2000 ).  Who else? K.S. Sudarshan ? Bal Thackarey? Dara Singh? Dawood Ibrahim?  Shame on BHU for desecrating and destroying an institution most Indians were proud of!

  The Saga continues.  The concept of 'one nation, one culture, one religion' is slowly being implemented.  Recently about 30 acres of prime land on the banks of the Yamuna river was allocated for a temple complex of the Swami Narayan Sect, courtesy of Mr. L.K. Advani ( Saffronising the Yamuna Bank , Hindustan Times, April 30, 2000 ).  A large portion of this land had been given to the now displaced people by Jawaharlal Nehru, under the Grow More Scheme.  This land now has been appropriated for the construction of this temple and has been specifically incorporated by the Delhi Development Authority in its Master Plan for the development of Delhi!  If this is not another example of saffronization, it certainly is not secularism!  And what about those Highway and village signs in Gujrat proclaiming 'Welcome to Hindu Rashtra', the ghettoization of Ahmedabad and other cities? (In the Ghettoes of Ahmedabad ,  Humanscape, April 2000 issue).   Add to that the distortions in the history books being  introduced in Gujrat and elsewhere, imparting of this distortion to young minds, telling them among other things that Muslims and Christians are foreigners, that they the Hindus, the Aryans, are the indigenous people of India (see article by Nalini Taneja and the Frontline article by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan both available at (South Asia Documents    ), the constant harassment of Muslims on the false pretext of being ISI agents or Pakistanis, the harassment of legal Pakistani visitors or journalists, (The myth of 'tolerant' India, Praful Bidwai , Mid-Day, Mumbai, May 4, 2000  ), attacks on Christians, killing of Dalits, police raids on Muslim Madarsa's, introduction of draconian bills such as the Regulation of Public Religious Buildings and Places Bill, the Regulations Bill on Conversion, all point in the direction of the establishment of a theocratic state, with little or no regard for individual freedom and human rights.The revamping of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the withdrawal the of two volumes on the Freedom Struggle in India by world- renowned Indian historians, probably an attempt to hide the truth about the Sangh Parivar's role (no role) in the freedom struggle, the review of the Constitution, the strident call of Mr.Sudarshan, the RSS chief, that the Constitution should be scrapped, and his admonition for the Indian Muslims to Indianize, his prediction about a Dharma Yudh between Hindus and anti-Hindus, does provide a clear view of what the Sangh Parivar has in mind.

  The tentacles of fascism are invisible to only those who have their eyes shut and ears sealed. Perhaps complacency is another word for cowardice. This fear, although justified, (as evidenced by the death and destruction the Hindutva Brigade can cause), however, should not paralyze the silent majority into inaction..  The fact is that  these people who are trying to impose their doctrine upon all of us Indians, including all those Hindus who do not subscribe to the Sangh Parivar's concept of Hindutva. They must be stopped or forced to mend their ways!  They must be confronted by People Power, both visibly and physically but non-violently.

  There is nothing wrong with the establishing of a Hindu Rashtra.  We have a Hindu Rashtra in Nepal, and there is no problem with that.  But this is not the option for India.  This option was never even considered at the time of partition!  Our forefathers were wise enough to realize that a pluralistic society like India cannot be sustained as one entity if only one group was given priority over others.  Indian Muslims who chose to stay in India by choice were guaranteed security, dignity of life and full citizenship rights, and so were the other minorities.  The minorities in India will not only stay in India, but will stay there with their dignity intact!  These Indian Muslims, who refused to migrate to an 'Islamic State', will certainly choose not to stay in a Hindu State either!  Should we then divide India into a Secular State and a Hindu Rashtra?  Or should we devise other sinister means to get rid of this population?  I think not!  My faith in the wisdom of the Indian people, my people, is unwavering!  And although some of them may be misled or confused by propaganda some of the times, their good nature, sense of justice, belief in humanity and their commitment to secularism will triumph.  The India of Gandhi, Nehru, Azad, Tagore, Netaji and countless other patriots who have fought and died for upholding the principles of liberty, equality, justice and diversity, will not perish from the face of this Earth.

  Nehruji once said  ' India is in peril, defend it with all your might'.  Well that time is now!  Defend it with all your might so that we can sing, in unison, loud and clear, for the whole world to hear:

Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,
Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.

If there is a paradise on earth,
It is this, it is this, it is this (India).
                                   Amir Khusro