United by Cows & End times Policies; Israel, India and discourse of 35-A
Immigrant Zionists in Israel and people aligned with the ideology of Hindutva in India appears to stand on a common and unique ground. This unique thread ties them to the vision of building an exclusive theocratic state based on the interpretation of religion in a way similar to the likes of Daesh and Al-Qaeda. On the one hand, Israel calls its vision “khok ha’leom” and on the other hand, Hindutva ideologues envision this state as a “Hindu Rashtra”. In the understanding of Zionists, ‘Khok ha’leom’ cannot come to be until the arrival of their “mashiach” or “Messiah” and the Hindutvadis await their “Kalki Avatar”.
Background:
Authoritarian Brahmanism has a long history in the realm of Indian politics. Two persons namely Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Deendayal Upadhyaya played an instrumental role in laying the foundations of Hindutva thought and bringing core agenda of Hindutva politics to the mainstream of Indian polity. Another proponent of Hindutva, Lal Krishna Advani, states in his autobiography that Hindutva is the answer to the question: who are we? (Advani 2008, p. 862). Advani further goes on to say, “If India is de-Hinduized, there will be no India left anymore” (Advani 2008, p. 864).
Despite there being 200 million Muslims in India, it continues to remain a state where Hindus enjoy a first-class treatment. To push this narrative further, there have been numerous laws, and agendas pushed by the state, to uphold the image of an exclusive Hindu state. The uniform civil code of India is another step towards this very same goal. It aims to replace any laws that are based on theology, more specifically Shariah Laws that are used by Islamic courts at local level to deal with issues pertaining to society as per religious derivatives. It is set to replace, what are known as Muslim personal laws, thus directly interfering into the identities of those 20 crore Muslims and majority of population who belong to Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism or Christianity, residing in this upcoming Hindu rashtra. Despite the fact, that Budhs and Jains are recognised as Hindus under Hindu Personal Law Board.
Uniform civil code by this Brahmin elite in India is much like the nation state act of Israel, which marginalised the Israeli druze community, druze an important community used to have top positions in state , now as Israel is revamping it’s policy, recently when they declared themselves Jewish state, it angered the druze community. The nation state act also downgraded Arabic language and Hebrew as state language, this clearly indicates that both the states of Israel and India are now moving closer to their vision of Jewish and a Hindu state respectively, where other sects and religions will be classed as second class citizens.
Both Jews and Hindus are focused on building the “temple”, “the temple of Ram in Ayodhya and “the temple of David in Jerusalem”. It can be said that, what Ayodhya is to Hindus, the Temple Mount is to Jews.
Building the temples will not only signify the pride and sense of victory but will also subdue the wounds of tyranny received over ages of subjugation.
The state of Israel came one step closer to its vision, when Jerusalem was declared the capital of Israel and so did the state of India when the ruling Hindu nationalist party came in to power. Both are party to the occupation, subjugation and human rights violations in occupied territories of Palestine and Kashmir.
While red heifer is reared for the purification of the third temple as the belief states that, “world is impure, individuals wishing to ascend to the must be cleansed with water mixed with the ashes of a pure red heifer that has to be ritually sacrificed”.
So is the case in India where cow rearing and vigilantism has been empowered by the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP government which has led to various cases of mob lynching of Muslims owing to a mere suspicion of carrying beef or trading bovines.
Even some reports say, Red heifer embryos have even been supplied to the temple institute from India.
India and Israel have always fortified their military, economic and trade ties. Top Israeli commanders have visited military headquarters in J&K. Indian policy of iron fist in Kashmir, right from draconian laws to killings everything resembles policy of Israel in occupied territories.
When we try to analyse the pattern of how these non existent states built on the lines of ancient philosophies work, we see a distinct and a similar pattern between the two. Both find it an obligation to form a state, exclusive to their religious identities, and are preparing for their promised messiah to restore their lost honour and power in this world.
Both are one of the oldest surviving civilizations on the face of this planet.
The strong connection between the red heifer and cows being regarded as their mother in Hindu mythology is a striking resemblance of their close ties, and alliance.
The Jews of Israel are rearing red heifers for the final and the third temple, while the to be Hinduvta state is gifting cows in Africa as well as Jews in Israel, and pushing all their might to rebuild their glory through the Ram Ayodhya Temple.
NGOs in India, like Hindu Samhati, a “right-wing” NGO founded in 2008 without ties to any political party seeks close India-Israel relations, and even took out a huge rally, in Kolkatta in February 2018, it is believed as many as 70,000 Hindus marched in support of Israel. It is to this date considered India’s largest pro-Israel rally in history.
Following this, Tapan Ghosh, Hindu Samhati’s founder, “guru” and face of the organization, said, his aim was to establish people to people ties between Hindus and Jews, two indigenous peoples, outside the political arena. His primary aim was to meet with those who share a vision and a cause, “a common narrative that counters the narrative of our common enemy, radical Islam, of Islamists as victims and Israelis as oppressors.”
By connecting these dots, one can safely assume that Hinduvta politics is inspired by the Jewish narrative and how “Jews regained their land” while “Hindus lost theirs.” and they definitely see a motivation in the state of Israel, their policies and procedures to control, and reclaim their land, as per the doctrines of Zion.
Another strong concern of the Hinduvta is the population boom, as they call it, of the ever growing Muslim populous in the land of Ram. They see it as a threat, and so does Israel.
As per credible data sources, in 2017 alone as many as 20 children were killed, by air strikes or deliberate ground attacks using indiscriminate firing, and we can easily draw a close comparison of the similar war tactics being employed in the Indian occupied Kashmir. As per a recent report published by JKCCS titled ‘Impact of Violence On The Children Of Jammu and Kashmir’ , at an average 26 children have been shot dead in Kashmir by the Indian armed forces ever year, till 2017. Both the states have been actively involved in planned and strategic genocide of the people they boastfuly occupy at the behest of their military might.
India and Israel are actively involved in war crimes, which includes arbitrary arrests, implementation of draconian laws that are beyond any human justification.
The policy of detention without trial, adopted by Israel and India known as administrative detention and Public Safety Act respectively, allows them to hold prisoners for an indefinite period of time without charges and without trial, merely on the basis of suspicion.
There are numerous instances where both Israel and India have been found detaining juveniles, and using lethal weapons against peaceful protests. India opts to use Pellet guns, which overwhelmingly blind, injure, and maim, but do not instantly kill. They are, therefore, posited as more ‘humane’ and acceptable instruments of crowd control. A similar logic is behind Israel’s use of rubber bullets in Gaza.
It is common for both, Israel Defence Force and Indian army, to ransack homes of civilians, or families of those who are detained as a form of oppressing and subjugating the masses.
Both have employed the torture tactics on the detainees, Camp 1391 or Unit 1391 in Israel where Palestinians were incarcerated for interrogation, and Papa 2 operated by Indian forces, resulting in murders and disappearances in Kashmir again draws a clear and close comparison between the similar policies of the two states.
This is followed by the ever growing radical threats both the states face at the hands of militant organisations, deeply inspired by Islamist writings and ideologues.
The amount of time for which Israel has been dealing with militant radicalism definitely gives it an upper hand, when it comes to India and Israel closely forming policies on their ends to eradicate these threats; Which not only poses a threat to its state existence, but the larger perspectives of their respective ideas of their final messiah and restoring the world to the old biblical and aryan era. Which might sound an utopia to many of us, but both these ancient people have been preparing for it day in and day out.
In Kashmir, for long enough the state had been declining the presence of the radical militant organisation Daesh, or Islamic State, which has a similar narrative of an utopian caliphate.
Earlier, MHA, India released a statement, stating there was no clear indication to believe that Islamic State exists in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, despite this month’s later the Jammu and Kashmir police released a list of wanted militants, which named Dawood Salafi, as chief of ISJK or Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir, who along with three other associates was later killed in the Khiram area of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.
Most of these radical organizations trace their roots in restoring the lost honour of the Muslim ummah, through the righteous caliphate on the lines of Prophethood, which includes defeating powers like Israel and the highly revered prophecy of Gazwa e Hind, or the battle of Hind.
We see a very distinctive emphasis laid by Islamist militias on conquering Israel as well as India, who identify themselves with the idea of a caliphate, that is not just limited to a single province, area, or an emirate. But they see it as an exclusive political system for the whole world.
In the words of Osama Bin Laden, the founding Emir of Al Qaeda, who in one of speeches to Al-Jazeera said, they(radical organizations) will not settle till they liberate the land of Palestine, and till the day Jews don’t hide behind the stones, and every stone calls out to the Muslims so and so Jew is behind me, kill him(referring to a hadith of Muhammad, Islam’s final messenger).
And the emphasis these organisations lay on the battle and conquering of India can be traced back to many speeches of figures in Al Qaeda as well, one of the recent being by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of Al Qaeda, who ended his speeches by quoting the Hadith, regarding few promised men, who as per Prophet Muhammad are safe from the hell fire, those who will fight on the front lines of Sham along with Jesus after he is resurrected, and those who conquer Hind.
In Kashmir, the establishment of Hindu shrine boards and religious pilgrimage has been a step to moralize sanctity of ‘Hindu holy land’ in Kashmir. Over the years India has woven a strong national religious sentiment around Amarnath Yatra and Vishnov Devi in J&K which has seen drastic increase in the number of participants after the demolition of Babri masjid in 90s. More specifically, increase of Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath is mostly seen as a response to threats issued by Muslim militants in the 90s.
Abrogation of Article 35A and settlement of Hindu settlers in valley will be the manifestation of Hindu pride , a victory build over the victory of mythological Kashyap Rishi. Towards the final realization of an utopian Hinduvta state, Kashmir as many amongst the propagators of Hinduvta believe, has been an epicentre of Hindu civilization along the lines of Indus in South Asia, and hence in order to manifest the victory of Indian state as Hindu rashtra they need to reclaim it. This is much on the similar lines of how orthodox Jews believe that they need to reclaim the promised land of Israel, to create a platform for the final messiah as they call him, or as Dajjal or the one eyed beast, which Muslims claim him to be or the Kalki avatar, as he is mentioned in the Hindu scriptures. It is interesting to note that how Haru Wali Khanna, a lawyer and former member of the National Commission for Women, filed the petition against Article 35A in the Supreme Court of India, has claimed to be recognised as a subject of Jammu and Kashmir. Mentioning that her ancestry roots date back to traditions of 11,000 in the state and this further gives her exclusive rights of reclaiming the land in Kashmir.
The petitioner has also claimed that her ancestors left Kashmir during the Afghan rule (1753–1819). Another theory behind their reclaiming procedure is, Aryan Saraswat Brahmans, who used to live on the banks of the Saraswati river, who migrated to the Kashmir Valley and later came to be known as ‘Bhattas’, Kashmiri Pandits or the Aryan Saraswat Brahmans. This only points out the theological roots of reclaiming the land of Kashyap Reshi, and restoring their Hindu pride and beginning of a contemporary Aryan era.
Israel on the pattern of permanent settlements has already reclaimed much of Palestine, and there is no stopping. India on the other hand, with all its might and force, has been preparing ground for something similar.
Recently the NDA( National Defense Academy) of India, has included Kashmiri, Dari and Pashto language to its curriculum for the trainees, co-incidentally, ‘Wilayah Khorasan’ declared by ISIS engulfs majority of Pashto, Dari & Kashmiri speaking populace across length and breadth of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
Many of contemporary religious scholars and theologians have pointed out that road to Ghazwa e hind ( final battle of end times ) goes through Kashmir.
All of this points out to an upcoming strong alliance between the two oldest surviving civilizations of the world and their common roots that lie in reclaiming the lands for the final messiah, with a common enemy, in between; The monotheists of Abraham.
And only time will tell, how many more cows are ritually sacrificed by one, and saved by the other till they meet at one common path way, towards their final realization of the new world order.
Mufti Arfan Farooqi is currently studying History, Political Science and public administration in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
He comes from the state of Jammu & Kashmir, with keen interest in international politics, conflict studies and eschatology.