TCN News
New Delhi: From California to Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to New York, groups impacted by a rising tide of mob lynchings of minorities in India are taking to the streets to protest.
The month of July witnessed a wave of demonstrations by people concerned that India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has inspired a huge increase in mob violence since taking power in 2014. “All of India’s religious minorities and oppressed classes are suffering attacks by the same Hindu supremacist elements,” said Arvin Valmuci, a communications director for Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI) in a press statement.
Politicization of cow worship is central to the violence. Laws in 21 of India’s 29 states criminalize the slaughter of cattle to one degree or another. “Although most of the laws were passed decades ago, the BJP has made “cow protection” a core plank of its political platform,” alleged the statement.
Summarizing the situation in 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently reported – “There have been reports in the media of cow protectors allegedly assaulting Muslim men and women in trains and railway stations in Madhya Pradesh, stripping and beating Dalit men in Gujarat, force feeding cow dung and urine to two men in Haryana, raiding a Muslim hotel in Jaipur, aiding police in checking roadside food stalls and restaurants for beef in Haryana ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid, and an alleged gang rape and murder in Haryana of people the attackers claimed were eating beef at home.”
“The RSS is the parent of the BJP,” explained Pieter Friedrich, an analyst of South Asian Affairs. “In other words, the BJP is the political wing of the RSS.”
He pointed to the BJP’s website, which states – “The Bharatiya Janata Party is… nurtured by the Rashtria Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS).” An infographic on the BJP’s “About the Party” page traces its origins to the founding of the RSS in 1925. “The BJP’s website prominently praises RSS leader Golwalkar for carrying on the ‘heroic tradition’ of nationalism,” said Friedrich. “What they don’t mention is Golwalkar’s blunt admiration for the genocidal policies of the Nazis.”
He pointed to Golwalkar’s 1939 manifesto in which the RSS leader wrote – “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”
Friedrich continued, “While the RSS and its affiliates are lynching minorities in the streets, Modi’s party is legislating people’s diets all across India. We must remember that when Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, as revealed by members of his own administration, he architected the 2002 genocide which left thousands of innocent Muslims dead. It is tragically surreal but, in modern India, you can go to prison for eating a hamburger and become Prime Minister for committing genocide. That is why it’s so encouraging to see an international wave of protests against the pattern of violence perpetrated by Hindu nationalists.”
Statement established that further data analysis reveals several shocking trends. Of 28 people killed, 24 were Muslim. Out of 63 attacks, 32 victims were Muslim, five were Dalit, and one was Christian. In 13 of 63 attacks, police pressed charges against the victims. In 23 of 63 attacks, the attackers were identified as members of Hindu nationalist groups. Of 63 attacks, 32 occurred in states governed by the BJP. Finally, 2017 has seen a 75% increase in attacks versus the same period in 2016.
Before his election as Prime Minister in May 2014, Modi vigorously focused the attentions of his voter base on the issue of cow protection.
In April 2014, during a campaign speech, he denounced “people who proudly massacre animals.” As he claimed: “Across the countryside, our animals are getting slaughtered. Our livestock is getting stolen from our villages and taken to Bangladesh. Across India too, there are massive slaughterhouses in operation.” Furthermore, he warned against “people who slaughter cows, who slaughter animals, who are destroying our rivers of milk.”
“Adityanath exemplifies the totalitarian intentions of India’s ruling elite,” said Bhajan Singh, Founding Director of Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI). “The elite have politicized the ancient superstition of India, Brahmanism, in order to subjugate and dominate the groaning masses of the country. Lynchings over beef are only a symptom of a much deeper disease. Today, Muslims and Dalits are being targeted for supposedly disrespecting the cow. But for centuries, the Mulnivasi – the common people of India – have been repressed, enslaved, and constantly lynched with total impunity. The BJP is the ugliest face of this system which treats the Mulnivasi as subhuman, but the principle of dehumanization is propagated by all of India’s major political parties.”
“On the eve of August 15, the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, we must remember that the country gained independence but not freedom,” said Valmuci. “The time for protesting has only just begun.”