Another One Bites the Dust

It seems that discriminatory nationalism is becoming a global epidemic. The white nationalism and anti-immigrant vectors – in a nation built on immigration – that we see in the United States are hardly uniquely American. The circling the wagons, often laced with racial and ethnic animus, is everywhere. From the Rohingya fleeing genocide in Myanmar and slipping unwelcomed into Bangladesh, Sunnis fleeing barrel bombs and desertification in the Middle East finding their way into an unwelcoming Europe, Uyghurs facing massive “reeducation camps” in Western China, in a nation with large Muslim population where Israel declares the entire country to be a “Jewish state” to the UK reaction to the “free movement of workers” within the European Union, which was a prime motivation for Brexit, and the rapidly-acceleration of anti-Muslim legislation in mostly Hindu India, which is my focus today.

What is going on? Exploding populations fighting for exhausted and dwindling resources due to climate change? Migration from local conflicts? A major realignment of major global powers as China rises and the United States chooses withdrawal from most of its international commitments? Nations have to pick sides all over again. The rise of religion and religious justification as explanations and coping mechanisms for excessive change and hard-to-comprehend economic realities? Massive social realignment from social media and the proliferation of “fake news” and conspiracy theories? A search for scapegoats to explain why what was isn’t anymore and never will be? Watching parallel movements in other countries? All of the above?

India and Pakistan were formed in 1947 when a proposed “Indian state,” given independence from the UK, exploded into sectarian violence. Instead of a single unified country, as Pakistan established a Muslim nation to the north, exceptionally bloody anti-Muslim violence in the main body of India drove a vast horde of Muslims into that newly formed Pakistan (East and West, but one nation). Hindus living in the north found parallel violence there against Hindus. A mass exodus followed. India became a mostly Hindu nation (80% today), and complex negotiation made most of Kashmir (primarily Muslim) part of India. After further violence in 1971, Pakistan itself fractured East and West Pakistan, respectively, into Bangladesh and, simply, Pakistan. Kashmiri separatists, often with Pakistani backing, have waged insurrection in that northern state for years. Pakistan and India have also fought several wars.

For most of its history, India was ruled by the Congress Party (Nehru’s creation), until 1998, when decades of declining quality of life and legendary corruption, loosened Congress’ control over the Indian Parliament and political leadership. Waiting in the wings was powerful Hindu-dominated Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party or BJP), but its hold on India did not take solid root until the 2014 elections, when Narendra Modi (pictured above) became that nation’s 14^th prime minister. Modi had been an outspoken pro-Hindu politician (reflecting his party’s Hindu nationalist platform), sending fear into the hearts of the nearly 15% of India’s population that was Muslim. Today well over 200 million people practice Islam in India, making it the third largest Muslim nation on earth.

As India’s total population is on the verge of overtaking that of China, the friction between Indian Muslims and Hindus has intensified. Terrorist attacks, heightened tensions with Pakistan, conspiracy theories against “cow eating” Muslims (Hindus hold cows to be scared animals) and associated violence have concretized the Hindu-versus-Muslim schism in India. Lynchings. Murders. Arrests and trials based on false charges.

India edges closer to being Hindu nation with statistics that mirror the majority/minority composition of Israel (74% Jewish, 21% Arab). If Israel could declare itself a “Jewish state,” the BJP was equally and decreasingly deferential to India’s substantial Muslim minority. Their underlying platform was that India was a Hindu state, not the pluralistic nation it claimed to be. Anti-Muslim sentiments came out of the closet. Explosively. The BJP was prepared to make a rather dramatic anti-Muslim statement, beginning with the recently passed “Citizenship Amendment Act.” Peaceful protests against the law turned violent. Tear gas and shootings followed.

“The Citizenship Amendment Act sounds anodyne at first. It offers a path to Indian citizenship for refugees from three conflict-ridden neighbors — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — who currently live as migrants in the country illegally… All three countries have overwhelming Muslim majorities. But the law offers only followers of six faiths — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains — access to this fast-track process. Muslims are excluded.

“Modi’s government argues that because the law applies to refugees from Islamic countries, India need not offer special protection to Muslims. ‘This act illustrates India’s centuries-old culture of acceptance, harmony, compassion and brotherhood,’ Modi tweeted. Yet that compassion doesn’t extend to minority Muslim sects that face persecution, such as the Hazara and Ahmadi communities of Pakistan, and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh — leading critics to label the law anti-Muslim…

“‘There is absolute political consensus within the BJP that India is culturally a Hindu country,’ said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace… Within the party, Vaishnav said, ‘the debate is really over how far the country should shift from the secular tradition, not whether it should in the first instance.’

“Since Modi took power in 2014, BJP-led governments have rewritten textbooks to remove references to the Mughals, Muslims who ruled in pre-colonial times, and renamed cities that held Mughal or Muslim names… They have passed laws banning the slaughter of cows — an animal revered by conservative Hindus — that have emboldened Hindu vigilantes and BJP supporters to attack suspected cattle smugglers. Dozens of people have been killed in lynchings, many of them Muslims. After winning reelection resoundingly in May, Modi fulfilled a long-standing BJP goal by canceling the statehood of the volatile, disputed majority-Muslim border territory of Kashmir, bringing it under the direct control of the federal government.

“Last month [November] the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hindu groups that have fought to build a temple on a disputed site where a mosque once stood in the northern city of Ayodhya. The mosque was torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking one of the worst periods of Hindu-Muslim violence since independence…

“The law follows a controversial citizens registry implemented this year in Assam, a state bordering Bangladesh that has a sizable migrant population. Nearly 2 million people, mostly Muslims, were judged to lack sufficient evidence of citizenship, forcing them to file legal appeals or risk becoming stateless.

“As authorities in Assam erect detention centers for those who are declared foreigners, Modi’s top lieutenant, Amit Shah, who has described India as awash in migrants there illegally, has promised to roll out the registration process nationwide… In a country where 1 in 5 births still goes undocumented, many worry they could be omitted because of a lack of paperwork. Some could rely on the new citizenship law to gain status — but not Muslims.

“Those fears fueled protests that began last week in Assam, where five people were fatally shot by police, and spread on Sunday [12/15] to Jamia Millia Islamia, a historically Muslim university in New Delhi. The harsh police crackdown there sparked demonstrations at nearly 50 campuses nationwide…

“More protests are planned across the country… but the government shows no sign of backing down. India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday [12/18] postponed hearing arguments challenging the constitutionality of the citizenship law until late January.

“There is yet more that BJP supporters hope to change. The party has long demanded a uniform civil code that would erase separate Islamic laws governing marriage and divorce. Senior leaders back national legislation that would make it tougher to convert from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam, despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.

“‘In theory the backlash to the citizenship bill could give the government pause,’ [Sadanand Dhume , a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington] said… ‘But it’s just as possible that they decide to double down and achieve as much of their cultural agenda as possible while Modi remains largely popular among most Indians.’” Los Angeles Times, December 19^th. Does this rhetoric sound terrifyingly familiar?

              I’m Peter Dekom, and as populist nationalism expands, humanity, empathy and kindness seem to be leaving buildings everywhere… in droves.