http://www.lisauk.com/hindus_hate_muslims.htm
By Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai, India
After Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's open season on Muslims and
Islam, the first for any leader of any nation in the world in recent
memory, that gets the honour to directly target Muslims and Islam, as
world's pariah number one, Indian Muslims do not need any further
evidence to know that they are a hated lot. It is time for them to
reflect and introspect as to why they became the prime target of
Gujarat mob attacks that took the ominous shape of 'ethnic cleansing'
and genocide in India, widely believed to be under direct state
sponsor****p, as amply proved by the constant defiant and unrepentant
tone of all the officials who were constitutionally bound under their
oath of office to protect the lives and properties of all the citizens
of the country.
However, before we proceed any further, we must define the word
'Hindus'. The word Hindu has acquired a gross representation to mean
all diverse castes and regional groups that are generally and even
legally referred to as 'Hindus'. In fact, different castes, like
Brahmins, Thakurs, Baniyas and the rest have acquired different social
and political equations with Muslims in the aftermath of work of the
Mandal Re****t on reservation in educational and employment
op****tunities for the low castes. However, the predominant ideological
confrontation with Muslims continues to be spearheaded by upper
castes, specially the Brahmins. They see themselves as the leaders of
all non-Muslim communities vis-=E0-vis the Muslims, given the high
status accorded to them by socio-religious order commonly known as
Manuvad.
It would be appropriate to stress that even without Muslims coming
into the picture, the caste hierarchy had remained a source of
constant friction, all through thousands of years of recorded history
in India; mainly due to inherent or assumed injustices meted out to
each other in the name of religiously ordained caste groupings. As
rights and responsibilities of each of such groups and sub-groups were
spelled out by scriptures and underpinned by local traditions and
common practices. The interaction between all such groups, though part
of that greater identification as Hindus vis-=E0-vis Muslims, always
remained controversial and a focal point of politics during the
British Raj.
After independence, the Brahmins emerged as the ruling group, not on
the basis of their numerical strength (they are around 4% of the 85%
non-Muslim population of India), but on the basis of caste
superiority, and =91intellectual and professional merit=92 acquired over a
period of time. Although it is not publicly acknowledged, the Brahmins
consider themselves to be superior being Aryan who came to India
thousands of years back from Central Asia. They are a distinct race as
could be made out by their appearance - light skin and Caucasian
features. They brought with them a language that still shares very
broad but basic similarities with other language groups in north Asia
and Europe. They also brought with them a set of spiritual traditions
that were transformed by the impact of their new abode in the Indian
sub-continent which later crystallised into beliefs and rituals that
had been referred to as Sanatan Dharam until the British Raj called it
the Hindu faith.
There is a new trend born of political considerations of self-
preservation as well as competition with the 'invader Muslims' to
evolve theories that declare Aryan-Brahmins as indigenous people.
Spurious findings and elaborate theorising has not yet established
that they ' belong eternally to India' as one further basis to assume
the role of 'legitimate' rulers of the numerous and diverse
communities and ethnicities. But the campaign borne of deep-rooted
insecurity is even promoted at State level. The revision of the Indian
history that was undertaken again by the BJP Government is a part of
the same obsession. The difficulty in accepting Italian born Sonia
Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India too is directly related to the
constant attempt at reviling Indian Muslims as foreigners and
therefore without any legal rights per se to be counted as Indian
citizen.
Throughout India's 59 years of independence, especially during the
Congress rule, the Muslims have been completely sidelined from the
national mainstream. But they were never-the-less exploited by the
Congress as its captive =91vote bank=92. Congress nourished the Muslim
vote bank, not through any perks of office, employment, economic
uplift or land grants etc; it had its own unique view of secularism
that castigates all those who keep faith with their faiths. Demonising
propaganda combined with occasional crack of the communal whip through
anti-Muslim riots kept the Muslim community in fear and in its
stranglehold. This spurious 'appeasement' ensured that Muslims could
not demand =91rights or reservations=92 which helped the Scheduled Castes
(SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) to get
their share in education and employment. They could not jilt the
Congress because the alternative was to embrace trishul waving parties
whose agenda was Hindutva.
After 40 long years in opposition, Sangh Parivar led by the RSS,
obsessed as they were with their cherished dream of Hindu Rashtra,
realised that they could never come anywhere near the seat of power,
as long as Muslims keep faith with the Congress Party. This long spell
of frustration crystallised a deep hatred for the Muslims, also for
democracy and secularism. They invented =91Hindutva=92 as the new polity
for India to replace both.
It is ironical that both the polities that are competing to put their
stamp on the Indian socio-political structure and the system of
governance, were organised and promoted by Aryan/Brahmins themselves,
as the sole intellectual leaders of the new nation. The only
difference was that Nehruvian democracy and socialism were
'handicapped' as it needed the Muslim votes to prop up its absolute
majority. In the case of Hindutva, they had determined to write off
Muslims altogether; so much so that even Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee did not flinch in throwing an open challenge to Muslim voters
during an assembly elections in the UP that their party will win
without Muslim votes.
The results proved that the vote of the Muslims did make a difference
in the eventual low ranking of the BJP. Many believe that the origin
of Gujarat riots were a revenge for BJP's defeat in UP, which the BJP
considered its fortress. However, the Gujarat riots also exposed a
more sinister long term agenda of the BJP and Sangh Parivar to =91deal
with the Muslim problem=92 by a direct action. They view that the
Muslims are the main cause of their misfortune even after the
partition in 1947. The hate is institutionalised; it the main factor
for uniting ALL Hindus including SCs, STs and OBCs wherever BJP has
influence or power. But the fact cannot be kept hidden forever; the
majority of the =91Hindus=92 are not of Aryan descent and they find the
claims of congenital superiority of Brahmin untenable in this
egalitarian age.
In the wider perspective, Aryan/Brahmins being at the head of caste
hierarchy had appropriated to themselves a host of privileges for
presiding over widely accepted rituals and traditions. All the caste
groups had to abide by the descending order of servility. The shudras,
who are the lowest of the low in the Manu-ordained hierarchy,
outnumber the Brahmins by a ratio of three to one. Any rebellion by
them at any level was immediately put down often by physical violence.
In fact, the preferred mode of telling an uppity group their place was
physical violence. These traditions have a very long history.
In a democratic set-up based on universal adult franchise, the numbers
matter. Though Aryan/Brahmins have been able to conjure up majorities
by marshalling all 'Hindu' castes against the 'foreign invaders', the
Muslims - the progeny of Babar - the attempt requires constant
efforts. The Aryan/Brahmins cannot keep their ruling privileges, if
they relent anytime and let the Muslims consolidate themselves or
unite with other lower caste groups thus threatening their natural
constituencies.
All their attempts to absorb the egalitarian Muslims into their caste
social order have failed. The Muslims are a universal community whose
identity is founded on their religion - Islam - that provides them
worldwide links. In fact, the Muslim identity in India has become
sharper and more distinct as anti-Muslim riots have become more deadly
with genocide as the objective. The heightened tension with Muslims
cannot be sustained without in fact creating more dispersion in their
own caste order.
Muslim Umma
The Muslims constitute a challenge because they cannot accept Aryans/
Brahmins to be naturally or religiously superior according to the
teachings of Islam. Their pride and independence based on rejection of
Manu-order, their own personal law and their preferred associations
with their brothers in Islam across the world, is a permanent problem.
In their frustration, they think of the 'final solution' that Hitler
conceived for the Jews, which led to the destruction of the powerful
Third Reich. Beside being believers of a 'foreign' religion, 'Muslims'
have ruled India for close to a millennium. This history gives the
group a sense of superiority, whether felt or lived at grass-root
level or not, but deeply reacted to by the current ruling class. They
feel that Muslims are still a threat and can always make a come-back.
Despite wholesale migration of the Muslim to Pakistan and the
oppressed social and economic conditions of Muslims, the paranoia
persists.
The gist of Hindutva philosophy that was formulated by Hedgewar and
Golwalker in the dying years of British colonial rule, to forestall
the Muslims coming to power of again, is to divide and destroy Muslims
of the subcontinent in a very sophisticated, multi-pronged and
structured manner to 'liberate' India for the exclusive and
unchallenged rule of Aryans/ Brahmins. Hindutva implies that the
Muslims may live in India, but not as Muslims, or rulers, or high
castes, but as shudras owing allegiance to Aryan/Brahmins and obeying
their diktat owing their very survival to the pleasure of the Aryans/
Brahmin - the unchallenged spokesmen of a contrived majority.
What is ignored generally is the fact that Muslims are not poised to
challenge the supremacy of Aryans/Brahmins in any thought out
strategies. The Muslims are not offering competition in any leader****p
contest, simply because they lack motivations and ambitions; and are
not really the progeny of 'Babar' as is erroneously made out. In fact,
majority of them are the real sons of the soil. However, as Muslims,
they are not prepared to change their religious and psycho-social
sense of identities anytime soon. The more they are subjected to
Gujarat like pogroms, the more they will be forced to mobilise their
faculties to secure a safe place in the polity but that could never be
at the cost of their allegiance to Islam and their aspiration to
remain part of the international brotherhood of Muslim Umma.
The ruling class could have come to terms with the Muslim and could
positively co-opt them. As it did not, the Muslims in India feel
insecure. The tension is palpable; the atmosphere feels like calm
before the storm. The storm could lead to a change in the ruling
class. The new rulers could co-opt the Muslims. But the Muslims are
not holding their breath waiting. Their global lines of communication
in this age of globalisation are an asset.
Being intellectually resilient and flexible, they have not lost hope.
With right leaders, cool heads and wise policies, the Muslims could
help India relieve the debilitating tension that undermines India in
all its endeavours. The Muslims could be India's biggest asset.
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