The religious zealots represented by BJP/RSS in India and Taliban in Afghanistan are usurping power by exploiting and abusing the noble principles of Hinduism and Islam
By Kaleem Kawaja siyasat.net
Summer 2021 marks the 75th year of the independence of the Indian subcontinent from the yoke of the British colonists. The independent nations of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh were formed and the masses were yearning to move into an era of modernization, spread of education and industrial/economic growth. As Nehru said on that occasion a tryst with destiny was beginning. Afghanistan transformed from a kingdom to a republic in 1973. After dust settled on the formation of the new nations the leaders in the new nations gradually started the building of democratic government institutions, higher education, scientific institutions and modern industrial infrastructure. They also developed several programs to evolve the status of women from their long traditional roles of being in the background and supporting men to being at somewhat equal level with men.
For thirty odd years the progress on this front and on building these new democracies continued, albeit struggling with the obscurantism of very significant regressive elements who wanted to bring religious orthodoxy into the political process. These folks did not possess the vision and intellect to compete with the leaders of the early freedom movement and post-independence era who were keen to transform their nations into equitable progressive states. But they yearned to have power by exploiting religion. They knew that with the masses in south Asia attaching substantial value to religious elements, that was one very potent way to arouse and exploit the masses and gain power. They did not care if their nations progressed or not.
PAKISTAN
In 1978, in Pakistan, General Ziaul Haq, the chief of the army staged a coup, overthrowing the elected government and becoming the President. Since he lacked popular support and could not win an election, to remain the ruler, he gave big boost to the extremist Muslim religious leaders. In his ten-year long presidency, he throttled democracy and manipulated Islamic theocratic elements, far in excess of what Quran stipulates, in running the government. That boosted the status of religious leaders in Pakistan. But caused backwardness and poverty of the masses to grow big. After the passing away of President Zia in 1988, the political parties that came in power tried to reduce the role of religion in politics and government. Yet, the religious leaders who have significant influence and vote-banks in the poor masses continue to have substantial influence in blocking the growth of progressive national policies and programs.
INDIA
India was fortunate to have an enlightened and progressive democratic government for about 67 years. But in 2014, the religiously extremist Bharti Janata Party (BJP), whose parent body is RSS, exploited the religious sentiments of the majority Hindu community and fanned hatred of the significant Muslim minority community to win the election and assume power. Since then, at a fairly steady pace BJP has continually isolated and demonized the minority Muslim community, that forms about 15% of the population, for every single national problem. Whether it is the Covid pandemic or population increase, or the economic backwardness of the nation, or the lack of justice and equal status for women. BJP also introduced several Hindu extremist policies (e.g., cow worship, building of magnificent temples on the sites of mosques that they demolished) as Indian national policies. In the last seven years BJP leaders have invented hundreds of false stories of, Muslim men enticing Hindu girls into marriage and committing ‘love-jihad’, of slaughtering cows, of being supporters of Islamic terrorists, and of being spies for Pakistan. In India where Hindus and Muslims have lived in great harmony for centuries a massive campaign to divide them along the lines of their religions has been BJPs major initiative for the last 30 or more years.
By preaching mind- boggling things like advertising that drinking cow urine can cure serious diseases like cancer and Covid 19 virus, and introducing such subjects in the curriculum in schools, BJP/RSS are causing huge harm to the next generation of Indians.
At the same time, they put a large number of backward extremist Hindu religious leaders in positions of power and authority in the government, and introduced obscure Hindu religious elements in the policies of India. A large number of BJP leaders are running campaigns on the theme that India is a Hindu nation not a multi-religious nation. They have reduced the role of religious minorities in the affairs of the nation to minimum.
Thousands of BJP volunteers working in tens of militant Hindu outfits e.g., Bajrang Dul, Hindu Vahini etc. that were dormant earlier have spread widely, are flushed with money, power and political and police patronage from the BJP govt and their mentor, the nefarious RSS. They have organized sectarian anti-Muslim riots in many cities, including Delhi, the nation’s capital (February 2020). Lynchings of Muslims on fabricated charges and forcing them to pray to Hindu gods has become a very frequent occurrence throughout India. The protesters, Muslims and Hindus, are jailed on fabricated charges. Many Civic leaders, journalists, intellectuals etc., many of whom are Hindu, and who oppose such human rights violations and highhandedness are being thrown in jail on false charges of committing sedition to the nation.
At the same time the religiously extremist outfits have also been terrorizing the Christian community (about 2.5% population), and the large lower caste Dalit Hindu sub-community whose population is about 25% of the Hindu community. Also, under the BJP government there has been a substantial upsurge in the molestation and rape of women that has forced women to significantly curtail opportunities to go outside their home or to travel. Police brutalities on common citizens and throwing them in jail on flimsy charges have mushroomed across the board.
In the Indian parliament the BJP government that enjoys majority is continually trampling on rule of law, making the parliament a rubber – stamp, as most legislations, even those with major impact on the nation (CAA, NRC, Farm law) are passed in less than an hour without giving any opportunity for meaningful discussion. Public protests on the streets against such high-handedness are subject to violent attacks by the police and the leaders being arrested under charges of the ‘sedition law’
AFGHANISTAN
The third country in the region, Afghanistan – where population is mostly Muslim – Islamic religious extremism that was kept at bay for last 20 years with help from US forces is also experiencing violent religious obscurantism. Afghanistan that has been a relatively isolated country where huge tribal population and the centuries old backward ways of life have been in sway for generations, had come under the rule of Taliban for 3 years in late 1990s. Previously, Afghanistan suffered through civil war and Soviet army occupation for a decade. During the Taliban rule Muslim terrorists were flocking to Afghanistan until the US army drove them out in 2001.
Now as US has withdrawn from Afghanistan after a stay of 20 years so as not to expend any more resources there, the religiously extremist Taliban have taken charge of the country. All leaders in the new government that they have just formed are hardliners from the Taliban era of 1990s, even though they had promised to be moderate just a few weeks ago. One of their most fervent initiatives is to push women back into a lower status compared to men in the name of ancient Islamic laws. And introduce draconian laws, far in excess of the way Islam defines them. Even though this is in direct contradiction of Quran that elevates women to a level in society nearly equal to that of men without making it a free-for-all like the western societies. Taliban are likely to treat women now the way they treated them in their 3-year rule in Afghanistan in 1990s. Thus, women who had been given some respectable and professional positions in the government, business sectors, and social uplift organizations in the last 20 years are being removed from those professional careers and are likely to be shoved into positions of nominal low-level responsibilities, if at all, where they do not interface with men and do not make any decisions. Indeed, a large number of women and girls may be forced to stay at home.
Girl students are being made to study in girls-only schools. In classrooms in colleges, girls have to stay separated by curtains from male students. Whenever a woman steps out of her house, she has to cover herself head to toe with Burqa – an all-enveloping garment that allows only holes at the eye level to let them see. Women can travel outside their cities only if they are chaperoned by an elder male relative. The Taliban govt is forcing all men to have a beard and to attend all five prayers daily in mosques, regardless of their business or career schedules. Music is being banned throughout the country and nothing to do with music or entertainment will be allowed anywhere in the country.
The fear is also that Taliban who are mostly Sunnis from the majority Pashtun tribe may isolate and harass the minority community of Shias who are ethnically from the Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek tribes. A lot of them live in the northern and western parts of Afghanistan. This is what Taliban did when they were in power for 3 years in Afghanistan in 1990s. Dividing Afghan Sunnis and Shias along the lines of their faiths and their tribal origins, is a major initiative of the Taliban.
In general, the violence of Taliban men totting guns and grenade launchers, whenever they come across a citizens’ or women’s’ peaceful protest are becoming commonplace. Well-armed Taliban men are freely roaming the streets in cities, beating up people who may not follow their whims, and occasionally shooting those who may argue with them. Surely, Islamic laws are practiced in many Muslim countries now (Turkey, Egypt, UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia etc.,) or that were commonplace in past Muslim empires like Ottomans, Safavids, Fatimids, Mughals etal, have never been draconian. The practice of Islamic laws was never restrictive of freedom to citizens and especially women. In most Islamic countries they never allowed any of the atrocious practices as were seen in the 3-year rule of Taliban in Afghanistan in 1990s. Those restrictive laws will probably return under the new Taliban rule of Afghanistan.
A TRAGEDY FOR SOUTH ASIA
Decades after democratic rule with emphasis on rational and secular, multi-religious governance was beginning to grow and succeed in South Asian countries, now these countries are in the grip of Hindu and Muslim zealots, who are grossly abusing the guidance of their respective religions. Indeed, in India a majority of Hindus abhor the practices of BJP, just as in Afghanistan a majority of Sunni Muslims abhor the practices of Taliban. BJP and Taliban are exploiting and abusing the basics of Hinduism and Islam to perpetrate draconian and cruel gross brutalities, human rights violations, and high-handedness. Neither Ram Rajya nor Nizam-e-Mustafa ever allowed such atrocities. We all remember Mahatma Gandhi leading India’s freedom movement with the promise of Ram Rajya in India and his leadership of the movement where there was justice and fair play for all. Or the many Hindu Rajas in various kingdoms in India (e.g., Mysore, Baroda etc.) made sure that justice was done to minority Muslims and women in their states. Similarly, Muslim rulers and nawabs in their states (e.g., Hyderabad, Rampur) never allowed any abuse of the rights of Hindus and promoted education and fair play for women.
It is a pity that just as the South Asian countries had started to begin moving into the modern age with increases in modern education, industrial growth and a live-let-live, tolerant society, while giving enough respectable place to the principles of respective religions, a huge tragedy is taking place. The religious zealots represented by BJP/RSS in India and Taliban in Afghanistan are usurping power by exploiting and abusing the noble principles of Hinduism and Islam. They have fabricated false stories and propaganda to mislead and exploit the sentiments of the majority communities in their countries. Surely this will stop progress in these countries in its tracks and take these countries backwards by several decades. Indeed BJP and Taliban are two sides of the same coin of religious extremism, mirror images of each other. (Views are personal)
(The author is associated with Association of Indian Muslims of America, Washington DC)
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