Hindu Right erroneously equated to Islamic Terror
Martha Nussbaum’s fantastic tales are only getting more tiring - now she compares the RSS-BJP Hindu “Right” of India to Al Qaeda! This is the height of wrong analogies and misinformation - it has indeed turned into a slandering of the Sangh Parivar.
I’m not involved with the Sangh, but I have no qualms in saying that I’m a sympathiser partly because of all the bad publicity they get for no apparent mistake of theirs.
Such artificial ideas of purity and authenticity are not only misleading, they are also the very ideas that have been exploited politically by the Hindu right in trying to cast non-Hindus as alien polluters of the national fabric.
Here Martha is clearly getting confused and pulling words out of the RSS’ mouth. Hindu and India are two different things even though there is a significant overlap. The RSS has never accused non-Hindus of “polluting the national fabric” of India. All they have asked of the non-Hindus is to Indianize themselves; in other words, to integrate with the Indian society which is predominantly Hindu.
Now what is wrong in this? Has not and does not America encourage integration of its ethnic minorities by even requiring of them to learn English? UK thinks that its Muslim community is not integrated well enough after its July bombings. Integration is healthy and it is only this that RSS has asked of Muslims.
When a respected editor states that the main job of liberals in this era is to counteract the influence of Islamic totalitarianism (See Peter Beinert, “An Argument for a New Liberalism: A Fighting Faith,” The New Republic, December 13, 2004), I feel alarmed.
I’m alarmed at Martha’s reaction to this editor’s statement. Islamic terror is indeed a global problem today leading to the loss of numerous innocent lives with startling regularity. Therefore, intellectual attack of Islamic totalitarianism by liberals is to be encouraged and not shunned.
She justifies her reaction by equating Islamic terror to the Gujarat riots. The two things are clearly different - while the former is planned attacks on civilians to cause maximum damage by a network of groups occurring regularly in the 21st Century, the latter was sporadic fighting by the civilians themselves, called riots, and occurred over a specific period in 2002 after a triggering incident (which was the Godhra incident where a Muslim mob burnt alive about 60 Hindus).
Equating Islamic terrorism and the Gujarat riots as Martha does is absolutely untenable and unacceptable.
Martha then goes on to describe the anti-Muslim feeling and alleges that it is increasing. Hindu-Muslim relationship has always been tense ever since the Mughal occupation of India. Even though there is peace and Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and innumerable examples of friendship, the overall atmosphere has never been perfect - so there is nothing new here. Consider the Partition of India, for instance.
Finally, Martha locates the Hindu Right in the people’s hearts - thereby, she calls the general population the Hindu Right itself. Not only is this allegation preposterous, but her deduction leaves much to be desired. After riots, it always takes some time to reach the pre-riots atmosphere.
If I were to use the same deduction, then I could blame the Americans for harbouring ill-will against Russians, against any Communist even to this day! Why are the villains in Hollywood movies Communists? Why does the invasion of North Korea in a Bond movie seem politically right in America?
Truly, studying Gujarat Riots is commendable for it will tell us how to avoid, prevent or curtail such explosive situations. But if the study is biased right from the outset, if it is based on misleading deductions and a false foundation, then the results are likely to be questionable, at the very least.
Read my earlier rebuttals to Martha Nussbaum’s earlier articles:
- US Academic thinks Indian Democracy is in Danger!
- Indian Democracy Collapsed into Religious Terror?
- US Professor’s faulty logic blames Indian Govt. for Religious Riots
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Comments
Integration does not mean one religion/language but 1 law and Equality. there r certain issues to be addressed:
1. Uniform Civil Code for all, like in America or UK. Why polygamy for Muslims and not for Hindus, Buddhist, Jews, Christians in India?
2. Why non-muslims in India have to bear legal expenses for divorce in court, while a muslim gets rid of wife in 3 seconds- Talaq, Talaq, Talaq. I, as an Indian also wud like to have that right, if my brother Muslims have it.
3. Why special discount for Hajj, and not for Amarnath or Vaishno Devi?
There should be equality in employment, inheritance and laws.
If someone says that their Holy Book gives them right to these privileges, there r enough examples in hindu texts which can allow us also to have these privileges:
1. Nowhere is there a limit on wives.
2. Hindus never had a divorce court
3. Pilgrimage of Char Dhaam (4 holy centres) is prescribed atleast once in life. So, a Hindu too shud get discount for Char Dhaam Yatra just like a muslim gets for Hajj.
Why is it a sin in India to be a majority and ask for equal rights? Does anybody think that in Muslim dominated countries Kafirs (non-Muslims) get equal rights?
Some people r citing Godhra. What about lakhs of Kashmiri Hindus who have been slaughtered? Godhra was a retaliation of violence. Somehow, we have a ’secular’ media in country. Whenever minority commit a crime it is not noticed but a crime by majority is always headlines. If VHP says something it is criticised by all, but when Imam of Jama Masjid (Delhi) talks about partitioning from India, it is a ’secular’ statement and unnoticed by media.
When a Christian Missionary is burned in a jungle, it is a global news and hindus r worst race. But when 60 people r burned in Godhra it is a statistics. Gujarat riots r world famous. But what about ethnic cleansing of hindus from Kashmirs. In any other part of world, it wud be called genocide, but in ’secular’ india, it is nothing. If Islam is against violence, why is that we never heard of any Islamic cleric or organisation criticising genocide in Kashmir? Many hindu organisation have criticsed VHP or Shiv Sena openly.
So issue is not majority or minority, but equality.
Common civil code will be acceptable so that Hindus does not take unfair advantage of multiple marraige and “triple talaq” for undue reason. It will be benificial on other matters too.
I agree with you that a secular country can’t afford to have different rules for religious communities. Thjan is going to lead to undue bias against certain minorities or vise-a-versa. Communal imbalance is not encouragable in any way. Proper growth scope for every national will bring in peace and prosperity to the nation.
Common civil code does not deprive the individual of his cultural and relegious rights. but it brings in equal juducial rights and duties to each and everyone. That is most important part of it. No individual is different in the eyes of the law.
I don’t know if this was the dream of the freedom fighter like gandhi & nehru & sardar et al. But there should be equality in employment, inheritance and laws and all sphere of life for each & every individual of the nation. The real nation in the sense is this only.
riverbelle riverbelle
If an American woman becomes pregnant (may or maybe not) the man from India she claims to be the father and marries the man in India what can she expect? What if it turns out the baby is not the India mans biological child. How can she expect the family to respond?
Is speaking a national language is Integration? I think that in india there is large popualtion of hindus who cannot speak hindi or sanskrit how do you think you will integrate them.
or if other communities convert to hinduism they will be considered to be a part of india?
Its always Islamic terrorism and Hindu nationalism amazing, I dont see any muslims supporting al qaeda? But alqaeda says its in the name of islam… so are muslims supposed to take guns and fight al qaeda?
sangh numerous propganda aims at only one thing converting india to a complete hindu nation and creating as many hurdles to minorities as possible. If anyone instead of a superficial observence looks deeper or rather looks without bias there is evident truth.
godra was planned! but it seems that the execution of 2000 members of one community by riots is sporadic??
People arrived in cars carrying lists such as voter lists and ration card lists. selective houses were burnt… enough documentaries were made enough was written… forensic analysis shows that coach was burnt from inside yet… there was a mob out side to burn the coach… roumours become truth…….
always see who has the last laugh to see how it all began and it always points to one entity…
Its such a hypocritical country…… with people of the same traits