Hindutva: Its past and present

On Aug 5, 2019, the world's largest democracy quartered, murdered and buried its democratic ideals in its only Muslim majority state. I am talking about the removal of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As a result of removing the said articles, the state of Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status within the Indian Union. Of course, such an action is simply an internal matter of India. However, the world's largest democracy simply ignored the democratic views and rights of the people of Kashmir while going about it. It was actually a move of extreme political convenience for the Modi-Shah-led BJP.

This is not the first time the BJP has been involved in such acts for their own political convenience. For us to understand the current government of India we must get to its history, present day actions and its future plan.

The BJP was founded by former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime minister of India LK Advani on Apr 6, 1980. The Ideology of BJP is Hindutva, which is in a nutshell Hindu nationalism, was popularised by Vinayak Damodar Savakar in the year 1923 (How Did Savarkar, a Staunch Supporter of British Colonialism, Come to Be Known as 'Veer'? — Pavan Kulkarni, The Wire, May 28, 2019).

Savakar and Dr KB Hedgewar was the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organisation of present day BJP. Savakar, proclaimed "Veer" (brave) by the RSS, wrote no less than six mercy petitions to the British government from his prison in the Andaman Islands while leaders like Mahatma Ghandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, AK Fazlul Huq, Bhagat Singh fought for the Independence of South Asia from the British rule, which was called "Quit India movement" (Know India.GOV.IN). In a letter dated November 14, 1913, Savarkar said: "…if the (British) government in their manifold beneficence and mercy release me, I for one cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty to the English government which is the foremost condition of that progress" (Bhagat Singh and Savarkar, Two Petitions that Tell Us the Difference Between Hind and Hindutva – The Wire Staff, Mar 23, 2018). While MS Golwalker, another RSS ideologue, was quoted to have said: "Hindus, don't waste your energy fighting the British; save your energy to fight our internal enemies that are Muslims, Christians and Communists" ('Oppression for the sake of the country is oppression of the country' —  Pushparaj Deshpande, The Indian Express, Feb 24, 2016). Clearly, the RSS has always been against the independence and freedom loving people and has always fostered communal disharmony.

To drive home the point, the BJP has always been in the forefront of instigating violence against the Muslim minorities of India. In 2002, the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, deliberately allowed the butchering of 1000 Muslims by Hindu extremists in his state as stated by Sanjiv Bhatt, a senior police officer in the then Gujarat intelligence bureau (Narendra Modi 'allowed' Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim riots — Sanjoy Majumder, BBC News, Apr 22, 2011).  For his actions during the Gujarat riots, Modi was given the nickname "Butcher of Gujarat" (Mamata Banerjee's party calls Narendra Modi 'butcher of Gujarat' –NDTV, Apr 28, 2014).

As the current Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi has turned a blind eye to the lynching and murdering of Muslims in his nation.  He has been overtly and covertly supporting the members of his party (BJP) and its ideological cousins like the RSS and many other organisations which are part of the "Hindu Mahashabha" in the murder, torture and maiming of Muslims.

Shambulal Regar, who murdered a Bengali Muslim labourer with a machete and set his body on fire while streaming live on Facebook, was allowed to contest the Lok Sabha election in 2019 from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh (Shambhulal Lal Regar set to contest from Rampur against Azam Khan — The Times of India, Mar 27, 2019).

Pragya Thakur, a terror accused by the Indian courts, for causing the 2008 Malegoan blast- bombing of Muslim neighbourhood that killed 6 people, received nomination from the BJP to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal and won (Pragya Thakur and BJP's Mockery of the Legal System — Sarim Naved, The Wire, Apr 21, 2019).

The current Home Minister and President of BJP Amit Shah referred to Bengali speaking Muslims in Indian north east as termites. Amit Shah is the man who has been responsible for the stripping of Indian citizenship of 4 million Assamese, mainly from the Bengali speaking Muslims of Assam. An Indian army veteran Mohammad Sanal Ullah, who served in the Indian army for 30 years, is among those who have been stripped of their citizenship. Is it their crime that they are Bengali Muslims who are living in India? Some of them have been living in India for generations! Most of them are now in limbo about their future.

The current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has always referred to Muslims as the "Green Virus" during 2019 Lok Sabha elections (Illegal immigrants are like termites, will throw them out if BJP comes back to power: Amit Shah – India Today, Apr 11, 2019).

One of the key parts of the ideology of the RSS is "Akand Bharat" or undivided India (Savarkar wanted one god, one nation, one goal. Modi has fulfilled his dream with Kashmir move – Vikram Sampath, The Print, Aug 7, 2019). The aim of the ideology is to take back the former parts of India that "broke away" during the 1947 partition after the end of British rule. Presently, one of these "broken away" parts is Bangladesh that BJP leaders, such as Subramanian Swamy, have repeatedly called for annexation of.

Based on their recent actions, we can term the BJP one of the few political parties in South Asia that do what they say. Besides, when the BJP carries out its malicious actions against Muslims, it does not find any difference between their country of origin or political party allegiance. Probably, it is about time the Muslims learn from the followers of Hindutva ideology and stop seeing such difference among themselves as well.