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Stereotyping Muslim, India
style
WSN Bureau
 India is hardly taking note
of its growing, educated, and politically aware Muslim middle class and is
continuously trying to paint the Muslim with jihadi brush. There is an effort to
portray that the community has succumbed to the virus of global jihadi
fanaticism. All talk of India being built on tolerance , secularism and
multi-ethnic balance becomes unapplicable to Muslims, thanks to the success of
the brahmanical forces' propaganda.
It is now understood that
the home-grown jihadi-ism is a reaction to the way the community has been
treated over the years, exploited as a vote bank, suspected as fifth columnists,
discriminated against, and intimidated by Hindu militants. Anti-Muslim bias and
Hindu communalism go hand in hand.
On this count, India has largely escaped
international scrutiny whereas other countries are routinely censured for lesser
crimes.
“Had recent protests in
Indian Kashmir occurred in a former Soviet Republic, they would
have been hailed by the world as a new Orange Revolution and had they occurred
in Tibet they would have resulted in calls for international pressure on
Beijing. Similarly, the tensions in India’s north-east, the armed Naxalite
movement, and the slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat all run counter to the half
truth of ‘India-shining’,” Mohsin Hamid, an expatriate Pakistani writer, wrote
in The Guardian.
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What is
happening in the Muslim mind is hardly surprising given the sense of Muslim
grievance. Pakistani involvement notwithstanding, the chief recruiting
officer of Muslim terrorists is often the Indian State |
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BJP's candidate for Prime
Ministership is the same man who led the inflammatory campaign on Ayodhya
resulting in the demolition of Babri Masjid and the mayhem that followed. The
party’s next big star is Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat
in 2002 when the riots took place.
Where is the will to move
towards secularism?
What is happening in the
Muslim mind is hardly surprising given the sense of Muslim grievance. Pakistani
involvement notwithstanding, the chief recruiting officer of Muslim terrorists
is often the Indian
State.
.jpg) Hindu political interests
have captured power levers at regional and state levels and not only are Muslims
discriminated against but are subject to hideous communal slaughter.
The sense of injustice that
this bred among Muslims made them a sitting duck for jihadi propaganda.
Read the Left-leaning
Observer: The “vast majority” of Muslims had been excluded from the economic
boom and though this was a fate they shared with “millions of poor Hindus” there
were additional factors that militated against Muslims such as the fact that
“they have also been subject to terror at the hands of ultra-nationalist Hindus
and have had little or no state protection.”
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Had recent
protests in Indian Kashmir occurred in a former Soviet Republic, they would
have been hailed by the world as a new Orange Revolution and had they
occurred in Tibet they would have resulted in calls for international
pressure on Beijing |
One point that the British
commentators have not made but which an “insider” can see is that Muslim
fundamentalism has also been helped by India’s “secular” political establishment
which, barring the Left, has not only made no effort to develop a progressive
Muslim leadership but actively prevented it from taking root. Instead, it has
relied on a class of Muslim “leaders” whose own political interest lies in
keeping the community backward-looking.
By mobilising Muslims around
issues that have nothing to do with their daily lives they have landed the
community in a situation where it finds itself a target of Hindu
fundamentalists, on the one hand, and susceptible to faith-based militant
Islamist elements on the other.
 While the Congress is the
chief culprit in this respect, it is not alone in propping up self-serving
Muslim leaders. The fact is that it is hard to name any progressive Muslim
leader in any of the secular parties. Over the years, the only change that has
been noticed is that instead of “mullahs” with long beards we now have suave
English-speaking Muslim leaders to match the “modern” face of Hindutva. Their
language and worldview, however, remain unashamedly sectarian.
But what about the ordinary
Muslims themselves? The idea of an amorphous — uneducated, poor Muslim mass as
hapless victims of either their own leaders, or Hindu communal groups or jihadis
has become part of the secular/liberal mythology. It is a view that is not only
patronising but also misleading. There is now a growing educated and politically
aware Muslim middle class which does not fit this description.
Only if they could divest
themselves of their “victimhood” mindset they could be a huge force for good for
the community.
3 December
2008
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