Author: Debasish Roy Chowdhury
Affiliation: Journalist/Author (Hong Kong)
Organization/Publisher: Time
Date/Place: October 04, 2021 / Hong Kong
Type of Literature: Independent Reporting/Analysis
Word Count: 1900
Link: 7
Keywords: India, Islamophobia, anti-Muslim program, lynching, Hindutva, Narendra Modi, Assam
Brief:
“Bigotry is now a badge of honor” is what defines India, which takes pride in the so-called “Ahimsa”, or non-violence, of its founding father Mahatma Gandhi. Such bigotry is laced with the “mother of all democracies” rant. The author details two Indias: first, the one which appears pluralistic, hospitable, democratic, non-violent, peaceful, intellectual and hardworking—the India where Indians place Gandhi as their show boy to the outer world “winning hearts and minds”. The second India is the latest terror acts by Indian cops who rain batons on protestors who were evicted from their homes on being termed as non-Indian, illegal, Bengali immigrants. One boy dies in the police action, and his lifeless body is still hit by batons before a Hindu government-affiliated photo journalist jumps on the dead boy, a Muslim of Bengali ethnicity whom the radical Hindu government led by Narendra Modi wants to send back to Bangladesh. Here, the author draws a contrast between the imaginary Gandhi’s India that is quoted in the United Nations and White House, and the reality on the streets where the largest minority—Muslims, over 14% of the 1.3 billion population—has been rendered second class citizens by the Hindus-only India that is purging everyone else as “invaders”. The author searches the trajectory of Modi’s rise to power from his promises to push forward the economy, create jobs, and end corruption. But after seven years in power, the results are not so welcoming as everything is topsy turvy from the rising unemployment, a declining economy, and becoming the world’s second worst pandemic-hit country where the real numbers of the COVID-19 victims are not being revealed. So what keeps Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party winning elections at the national and also provincial levels? The author says that “Modi has weaponized history and valorized and incentivized hate.” For this, he has turned the northeastern province of Assam, home to a huge number of Bengali-ethnic people, into his political laboratory where the dead body of the Muslim boy was being violated.
By: Riyaz ul Khaliq, CIGA Non-Resident Research Associate
