Once again, India, which claims to be the world’s largest democracy, has been exposed. The historic Bilal Mosque in the state of Haryana has been demolished in an unjust and forced manner by declaring it illegal. Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called itself a secular government that has so far killed thousands of people over beef.
Since Narendra Modi came to power, violent Hindu organizations like RSS and VHP have become more active than ever to build a Ram temple in place of the Babri Masjid. The fanatical Hindu extremists have pinned their hopes on the present Indian government for the construction of the Ram Temple because it was the BJP that took power in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 1991 and demolished the Babri Masjid.
Similarly, in 2002, in the state of Gujarat, 5,000 armed Hindus attacked the Muslim population and inflicted heavy casualties on them. At that time, then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (the current Indian Prime Minister) had said that the massacre of Muslims was a natural reaction to the Godhra incident.
The history of extremism in India is very old. The RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was founded in 1925. The organization is determined to bring back person, who leaves his ‘Dharam’ or he/she will be killed, and whatever happens in India will be under Hinduism.
After the partition of India, Hindu leaders in India temporarily raised the slogan of sympathy for minorities that India would have no official religion but a secular state where Hindus, Muslims, Christians and followers of other religions would have equal rights.
Its secularism was exposed the day the extremist assassinated one of its own great leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, on January 30, 1948, for promoting secular India and raising a small voice against the organization.
History shows that the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi was Nathu Ram, a representative of the RSS, who was later sentenced to death and the RSS was banned in the same year, but the ban increased the number of RSS goons and fanaticism. That also gave rise to extremist organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Siam Sewak and Bharatiya Janata Party
If we look at the long history of extremism in India, 38 attacks on Christians were reported from 1964 to 1996 but since 1998, the attacks increased. In 1997, 22 churches were burnt in Gujarat. In 98, Christians were attacked 90 times. In 2008, 20 churches were destroyed in Karnataka.
In June 1984, on the orders of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Golden Temple, a major Sikh shrine in Amritsar, was attacked by the Indian Army and demolished. The temple was demolished on the grounds that the building housed separatist Sikh youth, who want to establish an independent government and state of Khalistan.
Later, in October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Payant Singh after which India became a murder ground for Sikhs. It is also a fact that most of the politicians in India’s current political leadership are trained by the RSS.
On August 5, 2019, India started a new beginning of oppression on the Muslims in occupied Jammu and Kashmir by ending its special status to suppress the movement. A few days ago, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that India be blacklisted, calling it a dangerous country for minorities.
The report described the Modi government’s amendment to the Citizenship Amendment Act as dangerous for other minorities, including Muslims, and said that millions of Indian Muslims would be affected by India’s four-year national registration program. The report recommends travel bans on Indian institutions and officials violating religious freedom and the confiscation of their assets in the United States.
The real face of India is now visible to the whole world, but the question arises as what path should be taken to protect the minorities from the extremists present there. In any nation-state, citizens of more than one religion and of different races may have equal rights, but not in India.
Today, if we want to end hatred, tension and murder in the name of religion, we have to turn to Sufism with ideas and thoughts that can create love in the minds of extremists. This is very important for extremists in India. It has been the practice of the Sufis to be tolerant and kind to all. It was these Sufis who preached peace by easing tensions between religions in their respective times.
Today, the campaign to eradicate the traces of Sufism has become a favorite pastime of Indian extremists, while India has a living history of more than a thousand years of Sufism. The hatred that is being spread against religions, especially Muslims, can be eradicated under the same ideology of Sufism.
