Understanding the Modern Aggressive Hindu
What is the reason a modern Hindu accepts unfair treatment of Muslims in India? The answer lies in history.
On the seventh day of the year 2015, two Muslim brothers stormed into the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper, and opened fire on its staff. Twelve people were killed and atleast eleven were injured, in an incident which triggered a series of intensive reactions from people across the globe. The motive behind the heinous terrorist attack was to avenge the insult to Prophet Muhammad by a series of cartoons that were published by Charlie Hebdo in 2012. Muhammad, the Principle Preacher of Islam who is believed to be the embodiment of all virtues, carries a special entitlement under which his visual depiction in any form is prohibited. The attackers seemed to have taken extreme exception to the violation of this tenet and vowed to punish the staff of the newspaper by death.
Islamic terror in today’s world
As ghastly and unimaginably horrible as the attack, this is just one among a long series of brutal and bloody instances of violence by terrorists professing Islam who have recently wrecked havoc on the world. From highly organized strikes by handsomely funded groups like the Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the ISIS to smaller yet equally vicious attacks by radicalised Muslim men, the bloodshed unleashed by Islamic terrorists have often provoked rightful condemnation by both Left and Right leaning organizations worldwide.
But historically, no act of violence has ever gone without instigating a counter act of violence of the same or greater magnitude. The repeated acts of barbarity by Islamic terrorists have led to calls for creating a counter front by members of other religions in order to protect their community. Naturally, right-wing politicians have fed on such feelings of fear, have encouraged extreme measures to combat the menace of Islamic terror, and have portrayed themselves as the saviour of the masses who will avenge the acts of violence perpetrated on their people. From Trump in the US to Netanyahu in Israel, a new breed of leaders have emerged who openly advocate strict immigration laws, extreme vetting, giving police a free hand to deal with increasing radicalisation among Muslim youth, and even using military force to contain incidents of rioting and organised violence by extremists.
The case of India
India is a similarity and an exception to this rising trend. We have had a fledgling right-wing movement — the Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan — sweeping the nation in the 1990s which culminated into a right-of-centre government in early 2000s under the statesman Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Then in 2014, the country appointed a more aggressive, unapologetically right-leaning, Hindutva-embracing government under Narendra Modi which claimed to not only make India a developed nation but also restore the ancient glory of its Hindu culture. There was just one difference — the very people which the administration promised to protect against were not outsiders or immigrants, they were citizens of India who enjoy equal rights under its Constitution. Unlike the US or Israel, Muslims have been living in the Indian subcontinent since atleast 1400 years, and form an inseparable part of its history, culture, economy and polity. And yet, there is a growing sense among the majority of Hindus that they have been at the receiving end of violence perpetrated by their Muslim brethren since the time they have been living here. And such feelings of victimhood have led the country to twice elect into power a government which is willing to wage the anti-Islamic terror war against its own citizens.
Why does the modern Hindu feel victimised?
The answer to this question has its roots both in reality and in fiction. Just like the rest of the world, the country has witnessed a series of agonizing terror strikes carried out with alarming inhumanity. From Mumbai to Gujarat, Delhi to Hyderabad, people across the country have suffered at the hands of Islamic terror. But much of the recent resentment is due to the ancient atrocities committed by the ancestors of the present-day Muslim on the various sects and communities of Hindus. It is true that the Indian subcontinent was attacked by Turkish invaders who established their political and religious empire on this land at the price of existing kingdoms and cultures. The great Indian educational institutions like Nalanda were ravaged, and numerous Hindu temples were uprooted to install Islamic places of worship.
Closer to Independence, an aggressive posturing by Muhammad Ali Jinnah sowed seeds of fear and polarisation among Muslims who then escalated their demand for a separate Islamic nation. And we all know how devastating, bloody, and unforgettably traumatising the Partition turned out to be. After the Partition, Hindus were attacked in Hyderabad by Nizam-backed militants— the Razakars — and were forced to flee the princely state. In Kashmir, a tribal invasion led by armed militants from across the border not only led to Hindus being killed and forced to migrate, it also led to partition of the state and made its status ambiguous — a festering wound in India’s geopolitics which continues to hurt till this day.
Polarisation induces polarisation
This basic law of Physics applies to human behaviour as well. The accumulation of hurt, the repeated destruction of self-esteem, the constant reminders that Hindus have been betrayed and must organise to take revenge — all of this is what has shaped the psyche and morality of the modern Hindu. It has been made imperative by Hindutva organizations and far-right political parties that the religion of tolerance needs to shed that tag and become aggressive, stand up for its rights and more importantly, shed the notions of fairness and justice in a war that needs to be fought and won within our lifetimes. Of course, thanks to conformation bias, the modern Hindu is made to believe that it has been victimised way more than it actually has been. The right-wing ecosystem needs to keep the communal tensions at a boil, in order to keep its troops enthused and its audience engaged. And so Hindus are told that a Muslim girl wearing Hijab is more important than rising fuel prices, the Taj Mahal was originally a temple, we had flying cars way before they were cool, and Muslim population will soon takeover Hindus even though Maths suggest that would take atleast 480 years even if we assume a constant rate of growth.
Is there hope?
Unfortunately, the solution to an ever-increasing threat of Islamic terror is not in raising a counter army of armed Hindu militants or establishing a Hindu rashtra where Muslims are relegated to second-class citizenship. Atleast these are not permanent solutions. Any kind of violence or injustice done to one community will only lead to more acts of violence and revenge from that community. The unending cycle of scars and revenge is self-consuming. Hence, the only way out from this vortex that I see is to break the chain of violence and counter-violence. This could be done in the following ways:
- Moderate and modernise the faith of Islam: The surest way to tackle Islamic extremism is to nip the radicalising tendencies of the religion itself. It seems that at around 8th century CE, Islam took a conservative turn when narrow-minded schools of thought overtook the more rational and tolerant forms of religion that existed before. It was then that concepts like Kaffirs (infidels who don’t believe in Allah) gained prominence, which till today are interpreted by terrorist organizations to kill non-Muslims. Many modern Muslim scholars have written about the urgent need for Islam to go back to its more inclusive, inquisitive and humane roots; most notable among such calls for reform is Mustafa Akyol’s book Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance.
- Heal the wounds of violence: As Islam gets rationalised, a parallel effort needs to be undertaken to soothe the sore wounds of violence and oppression which various religious communities, including Muslims, have suffered over the years. If a modern Hindu is willing to take up arms or support unfair treatment of Muslims, it is because of the mental scars from years of fear and destructed self-esteem which he has been carrying inside. Similarly, when a Muslim is reminded of the carnage that was unleashed upon his community during Gujarat riots, he is more likely to get brainwashed and join a terrorist group. The only solution is for each of us to first own up to the misdeeds of our ancestors whether we like it or not. And then issue unconditional apologies that our own inflicted horrors on your own — apologies that need to be complemented with forgiveness from the other side. When done with complete honesty, empathy and conviction, such an exercise could breed trust among us and mark an end to the self-devouring, almost apocalyptic cycle of communal violence.
It is then up to us, the modern Hindu and the modern Muslim, to shun the politics and vocabulary of vengeance, pursue our religious beliefs independently without fear and with respect to other religions, and come together to face more prominent and pressing issues like Global Warming, unemployment, hunger and mental health that concern every human born on this land. The path toward that horizon goes through understanding, acknowledgement and acceptance.
