Minorities in India are living in an uncertain era since the independence of India. The reports of international organizations including Genocide Watch, Amnesty International (AI), United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR), and now the New York Times all are indicating the same plight of violation of human rights in India and in Kashmir.
Multiple episodes of violent harassment and hate speech against minorities in India vividly indicate that a self-styled democracy is moving towards genocidal violence under the state patronage of the Hindu nationalist government. The forces that shape the ideology of Modi’s RSS regime have slowly moved to dominate Indian politics. Modi regime has reduced India to a land of intolerance thriving in the cradle of violence by hardliner RSS reign state apparatus.
One can say that this is not a regression or transgression but an evolution for what India always wanted to be as extremists have been looking to form a Hindu Rashtra. India always wanted Hindu supremacy and Hindu majoritarianism to prevail, slogans like inclusivity, composite culture, and coexistence are proving to be mere political rhetoric.
Famous Indian writer Arundhati Roy claims that still, the majority of Indians are living in the twentieth century, they could not exceed the ideals of the 21st century. India is heading to a specific reality where not only Muslims but all the minorities are at the receiving end. The recent incident in Karnataka where a Hijab-wearing Muslim student was vandalized by a Hindu mob is asymptomatic of the fact where India is heading actually.
There are around 200 million Muslims living in India which constitutes a larger chunk of the Indian population, along with this there are Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, etc treatment with them is leading India to an internal self-implosion. The consternation in Northern Indian states, Naxalite movement, Kashmir freedom movement, and Khalistan freedom movement, all of this movement could trigger the breakdown of India. BJP government is definitely playing with the fire because of the kind of diversity India carries and if this structure over which India was elicited, if it disturbs, India won’t be able to sustain but can suffer an internal breakdown.
India while pursuing its revisionist aims wants to alter the realities of the region that is why it is having issues with all of its neighbors. America is raising India as a counterweight to China through their Indo Pacific strategy that would definitely have implications for regional peace.
After the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) Modi government has changed the notion of identity. In the modern Nation-State system identity is a civic concept but the Modi government has turned it into an ethnic construct. It is more paradoxical that Muslims in India are claiming themselves as Indians and the BJP government is asking them to prove their identity that they are Indians. On the other hand, Kashmiri Muslims are adamant about not identifying themselves as Indians whereas Indians are imposing an identity forcefully on Kashmiris that they are Indians.
Over recent time, Indian occupation forces in IIOJK have further intensified human rights violations in IIOJK. Kashmiris definitely deserves the right to self-determination according to the UN resolutions. Resolution 47 of the UNSC is very clear and candid that the plebiscite shall take place according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people, with this, the world community is silent over the atrocities being carried out on the Kashmiris. BJP government after issuing million of domiciles is trying to change the demographic nature of Kashmir.
There are reports of the UN Commission on Kashmir containing details of human rights violations and brutalities that are carried out in IIOJK. These reports are a complete charge sheet against the Modi government. UNGA resolution no.2460 gives rights to the freedom fighters and the World has the obligation to assist them in whatever manner they can, right of self-determination to Kashmiris can be advocated in this context.
BJP government wants all other non-Hindus to be subservient and low-class citizens with the practice of Hindu nationalist ethos. This prevailing system in India and its stance towards the Kashmiris can be referred to through the prism of the classic model of Fascism. This is the time and moral obligation of the world community to come forward and force India to implement UN resolutions on Kashmir after allowing Kashmiris the right of self-determination.
