Circumstances are reflecting the fact that the seeds of communal hate sowed by the Modi-Yogi conspiratorial bonds have started yielding very distraughtly. The symptoms of disgust are now clearly noticeable in the younger generation even in the educational institutions exposing the veracity of widening religious susceptibilities that have been prevailed in Indian society. Ongoing Hijab row is just another illustration of a mortifying society destined for obliteration.
A few days ago, a video of a Muslim girl from Karnataka, Muskan Khan went viral during a collision course with a religiously motivated crowd of Hindu students hurling saffron hand scarfs at her and shouting “Jay Shri Ram”. The crowd seemed livid and wanted to stop her from entering the institute with Hijab. In response, Muskan Khan fearlessly shouted back with the slogans of “Allah O Akbar”. She was lone and single-handedly impinged with a flock of radicals who could have lynched her ruthlessly, as lynching a member of a minority group is no longer considered criminality in Modi’s India and is practiced as a sacred service to Hindutva ideology.
Reportedly the incident took place after Karnataka authorities have banned Hijab in educational institutions. However, Muskan along with her fellow Muslim students insisted to be allowed to practice their basic religious and democratic rights and to attend the classes when she had an encounter with those religious fanatics encouraged by prejudiced policies of BJP rulers against the Muslims.
Muskan’s immediate and valiant retort has been praised worldwide and is seen as a pictogram of courage. Her heroic act has also provided an inspiration for many to fight for the acquisition of fundamental rights in stereotyped societies like India. She has also ignited a wave of religious sentiment among long-troubled religious minorities and upraised them against Hindu extremism.
Ironically, Karnataka’s education minister BC Dogesh has shamelessly put the entire blame on the girl Muskan for shouting “Allah o Akbar” while confronting an outrageous mob of Hindutva devotees. The Karnataka High Court has also barred all types of religious clothes in educational bodies amid protests that have spread across India.
The politics of ensuing hate has dragged India to another point in time where once again Muslims of India are feeling alienated completely, while a notion of scission among Muslims is breezing all over again, Muskan’s episode was just a teaser.
Perhaps, it is not just about Hijab versus Saffron or implementing uniforms in the educational institutions, but Muslims versus Hindus, the ideology of Hindutva that needs to be uniformed, that has brought India to the similar crossroads which lead to the division in 1947 on the basis of “Two Nation Theory”. The current Hijab row along with hundreds of Islamophobic incidents in India has reinstated the validity of the Two-Nation Theory even after 7 decades. It has been again proved that Hindus and Muslims with conflicting cultures and beliefs cannot live together. In the wake of the current Muslim uprising in India, the debate of the establishment of “Urduistan” has emerged within the intellectual circles of India.
The “Urduistan” would be comprised of Muslim majority regions of India. The idea suggests that, following the footprints of the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) referendum for Khalistan, Muslims in India must also stand up for their democratic right of selfhood. A similar referendum may be convoked by Indian Muslims in near future to express their opinion in favor of a separate demographic entity where they can practice their religious and cultural customs without any intrusion.
Modi-Yogi confederacy undoubtedly exposed the perilous design of Hindutva ideologists coming after Muslims to grind them. The hate is sowed so masterly that even the publicists are unable to perceive the impending peril. The adherents of Hindutva are impulsively obeying the orders without grasping that they are actually playing with the spark that would ultimately set their own house afire. The government’s attempt to manipulate core Islamic values is very much obvious since BJP took over the podium. The Hindu-Muslim spat has amplified with cumulative incidents of hate speeches, lynching, and ridicule against Muslims.
The urge of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra is so disparaging that it has put a population of 30 crores Muslims under the threat of extinction. Apostles of Hindutva organizations like Bajrang Dall emboldened by incumbent BJP rule and inspired by RSS’s radicalized version of nationalism are designating Muslims as the sole threat in the way of Hindu Rashtra. Such organizations have been alleging Muslims of Love Jihad, a concocted idea in which Hindu girls are allegedly trapped by Muslim men, then converted to Islam to increase the Muslim population with the intent of making India wholly an Islamic state by 2050. Such ridiculous self-conceived concepts with no logical base are being used consciously to ignite Islamophobia in the country.
In the era of space exploration and technological revolutions when the human race is looking to inhabit other planets, humanity in one of the largest democracies is on the verge of extermination. People are still striving to get their basic human rights of self-determination and religious freedom. Girls like Muskan are victims of hate and calling global champions of Human Rights to intervene, to save them from shackles of Hindutva extremism.
Its high time for the international community to reevaluate India’s global civic standing and compel the Indian government to abandon such a totalitarian demeanor through economic sanctions. As religious freedom conditions in India have shown a drastic downhill turn under the Modi regime and by reviewing the state of growing violence, intolerance, and harassment against the Muslims, the United States must also reconsider the recommendation of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to add India on its list of countries designated as nastiest religious freedom violators.
