Ponmala
The echo of the Holocaust, which was about the detention, torture and elimination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II, is now being faintly heard in India. There is a history to the hatred of the Jews prevalent then in Germany, which found sadistic expression in the Holocaust. For centuries, Jews had won notoriety in Europe as usurious moneylenders who fleeced the common people. So you have in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice Shylock who demands his ‘pound of flesh’ from Antonio when he defaults on a loan. Caught in the vicious grip of Jewish moneylending banks, a good many Germans harboured hatred for Jews in general during Hitler’s time. And that in a way set the stage for the Holocaust.
Very similar was the background story of the Gujarat riots. Over 2000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, thousands of women raped and around 50,000 people lost their properties. Pointedly, a distinctive aspect of the riots was the attack of Muslims by dalit Hindus, who had until then lived as friendly neighbours. A riot had to happen for it to become know that, beneath the facade of friendliness, hatred for Muslims was brewing in the dalits. The Muslims were mostly itinerant traders who sold kitchen utensils and homewares on hire-purchase in villages. The dalits who purchased the goods got into deep debts, which ballooned on accumulated interest as time passed. In the course of time, the dalits landed in a situation where they sunk deeper into debts even after spending the lion’s share of their earnings to repay hire-purchase loans. And they for their hatred for Muslims who flourished on their economic woes.
The worldwide phenomenon of Islamophobia also has a historical context to it. Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, has been thought of as the fountainhead of global terrorism. It is also believed to be the inspiring ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Al Qaeda. Patronised by the royal family of Saudi Arabia until recently, it acquired a global reach. On its stormy winds, Jihadi terrorism invaded even the quietest corners of the world. Little wonder Islam inspired fear in peace loving people. Even a section of Europeans, who are the most secular minded people in the world, pushed back against Muslim migration from Islamic Middle East.
In India, Jihadi attacks on the Indian Parliament, on Akshardham Temple, on Pathankot Airforce Station, on military convoy in Pulwama, in Bombay, in Hyderabad, in Pune and a few other cities turned people’s sentiments against Muslims in a big way. BJP’s spectacular electoral victories and the consequent rise of Hindutva could be to attributed greatly to this disservice Jihadi terrorists did to Indian Muslims. Although Jihadi terrorists are still active in some hotspots in Africa and the Middle East, Islam across the world finds itself on the back foot. While we strongly argue for inclusiveness, it should apply especially to Muslims, who are generally prisoners of the ghetto mentality: Wherever Muslims are in minority they tend to live in exclusive enclaves where usually their writ prevails.
It is also true that Islam tends to theocratically colonise countries where they become a majority after being generously received by people of other religions. Lebanon is a case in point. That country, which was predominantly Christian until a few decades ago, received Muslims from other parts of the Middle East with open arms. It didn’t take many decades for it to become a Muslim majority country and thereafter the fiefdom of Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah. That has led to fears of Europe’s Islamization, which many believe is a question of when rather than if. These fears have strengthened after Europe, especially Germany, recently received huge numbers of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and in its wake Jihadi terrorists became active out of Belgium’s Muslim majority areas.
Of the names of martyrs of freedom fighters that are inscribed on India Gate, Muslims are 61,398, Hindus 25,895 and Sikhs 8050. Mainstreaming of Muslims in Indian society can only happen by a joint effort by them and the rest of India: Muslims should shed their ghetto mentality (Why have exclusive enclaves and Muslim political parties like the Kerala’s Muslim League, Telangana’s AIMIM and Assam’s Badruddin Ajmal, which should take much of the blame for Assam going saffron) and others should nudge them in that direction by refusing to be led by anti-Muslim prejudices.
India was under Muslim and Christian rulers for nearly equal periods of about four centuries. And yet, Christians are just over 2% of the population and the more aggressively proselytising Muslims are only 15%. And so, the RSS propaganda that India will get Islamized sooner than later if Muslims are not kept in check in every possible way is no more than a red herring.
Every Indian, including seemingly favoured Christians, should join hands now to uphold what Hindu India stood for millennia – tolerance, inclusiveness and plurality. We should not allow the BJP to isolate and quarantine people belonging to any religious community whatsoever as though they were carriers of a deadly virus.
