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As elections approach in several
major states in India the country is again experiencing the
upsurge of some extremist Hindus targeting the Muslim minority by
raising the bogey of 'appeasement of minorities" and special
privileges for the minorities. Day in and day out the “angry
extremist Hindus” charge the power structure in India with the
allegation that the Muslim community is being appeased and the
government is eager to go out of its way to please Muslims. Since
currently it is not possible to blame Muslims for oppressing
Hindus, the attack is launched against the secular parties for
minoritism. The anger of these Hindus is directed at both the
perceived appeaser and perceived appeased. The disregard for truth
is extraordinary indeed.
That an Indian Muslim should be left free to live his life in
accordance with his religious beliefs and customs, strikes these
“angry extremist Hindus” as an act of appeasement, a concession.
But the “angry Hindu” is not angry at similar protection given to
ethnic Hindu groups by letting many Hindus not accept the
provisions of the Hindu Code. They erroneously blame the Muslims
for having more than one wife while the government data base shows
that due to large scale polygamy among tribal Hindus, as a whole,
more Hindus are being found practicing polygamy than Muslims. They
attack the government for letting Muslims follow their own
Personal Laws but completely ignore the 1976 amendment of the
Special Marriage Act that allows Hindu men special privileges of
inheritance under the Hindu United Family Act, that are not
allowed under the secular Indian Succession Act. A gender bias may
exist in the Muslim Personal Law, but so do the separate Personal
laws of the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Buddhists contain
biases favoring men over women.
They are angry at Muslims because Article 30 of the Indian
Constitution allows rights to minorities to establish their own
educational institutions; but they overlook the fact that the Arya
Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission and the institutions of Marwari Hindus
are benefiting similarly from the same Article 30. The “angry
Hindu” is angry at the Indian government for the ban on Salman
Rushdie’s book “Satanic Verses”, but ignores the fact that Dr
Ambedkar’s book, “Riddles of Rama and Krishna”, Aubrey Menon’s
book “Rama Retold”, and Sytanley Wolport’s book, “Nine Hours to
Rama’ have also been similarly proscribed by the Indian
government.
The “angry extremist Hindu’ is angry at Muslims because a sizeable
number of Hindus had to move away from Kashmir due to the large
scale violence there; but he ignores the fact that similarly a
large number of Muslims had to leave for good many villages and
towns in some districts in Gujarat, Bihar and Assam. They had to
leave for good localities in cities in Gujarat (Surat, Ahmedabad,
Naroda-Patia, Baroda, the Panchmahal district), Bihar (Bhagalpur,
Jamshedpur), Maharashtra (Bhivandi, Malegaon), Assam (Berapat,
Nellie). These are the villages and towns where they had lived for
generations, but had to migrate from due to horrendous and
non-stop anti-Muslim violence there. In many cities across India
even well educated Muslims are forced to leave their houses in
mixed population areas and move to Muslim majority localities just
to survive. Despite many promises the government failed to help
them go back to their homes.
The “angry extremist Hindu” is angry that Article 370 of the
Indian Constitution limits rights of ownership of property in
Kashmir to Kashmiris – most of whom are Muslims. But he ignores
the fact that similarly Article 371A provides similar protection
to residents of mostly Hindu population in the states of Himachal
Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
The “angry extremist Hindu” is angry because the Indian state does
not formally embrace the concept of Hindu Rashtra, even though for
all practical purposes it practices most elements of that policy.
All government, private and other public events in India begin
with prayers from Hindu religious scriptures. All national
institutions and awards are named after names from Hindu mythology
and religious scriptures. The media and other cultural organs
constantly borrow from the Hindu religious mythology into their
public programs without batting an eyelash.
He is angry whenever any Muslim, no matter how loyal, meritorious
or diluted-Muslim is elevated to a position of dignity in India.
The “angry extremist Hindu” does not want to even give a hearing
to the Muslim community on their most genuine and well documented
grievances, eg the Sachar Committee report, the Misra Commission
report, that detail the across the board severe impoverishment and
backwardness of the Muslim community. The angry extremist Hindu
lashes out at the attempts of Muslims to form their own secular
political parties and groups but ignores the fact that OBC Hindus,
SC Hindus and Sikhs formed their own parties, won elections on
that platforms, ruled several states (UP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu,
Punjab) for years and gave preferential help to their respective
sub-communities.
If the “angry extremist Hindu” ever does an objective study of the
ground realities he will realize that he has nothing to be angry
about. He should be happy at the near monopoly that he has in the
socio-economic life of India, in employment in the burgeoning
private and multinational corporations, the government
undertakings, the political parties, the better higher education
institutions and the society at large. It is time for the “angry
extremist Hindu” to realize that he is being misled and exploited
by the opportunistic right wing politicians. He should cool his
misplaced anger at the Indian Muslims and find ways to reduce the
heightened tensions in the nation that is hurting India’s
well-being at a critical time.
Kaleem Kawaja is a
Washington based commentator.
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