[News] BJP and Israel: Hindu Nationalism is Ravaging India’s Democracy

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bjp-and-israel-hindu-nationalism-is-ravaging-indias-democracy/
BJP
and Israel: Hindu Nationalism is Ravaging India’s Democracy
March 24, 2020
------------------------------
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. (Photo: File)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*

It was only a matter of time before the anti-Muslim sentiment in India
turned violent.

A country that has historically prided itself on its diversity and
tolerance, and for being
<https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/news-on-india-news-headlines-democracy-world-news-headlines-today-32390/>
‘the
largest democracy in the world’ has, in recent years, exhibited the exact
opposite qualities – chauvinism, racism, religious intolerance, and, at
times, extreme violence.

The latest round of violence ensued
<https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/what-is-happening-in-india.html> on
February 23, one day before US President Donald Trump arrived in Delhi on
his first official visit
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/president-trumps-visit-india-trade-security-discussed-200309064017874.html>
to
India.

Trump is a beloved figure among Hindu nationalists, especially supporters
of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13597566.2019.1614921> India
since 2014.

BJP, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, has wreaked havoc
<https://www.theglobalist.com/india-narendra-modi-democracy-hindu-nationalism-citizenship-bill/>
on
Indian politics and foreign policy. However, the damage that this
ultra-nationalist movement has caused to Indian society is unmatched since
the country’s independence
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/15/indian-independence-day-everything-need-know-partition-india/>
in
1947.

Under BJP rule, the hatred for Muslims, a sizable minority of over 200
million
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/world/asia/india-muslims-citizenship.html>,
among other minority groups, has grown over the years to represent the core
discourse of a movement that is ideologically and morally bankrupt.

Jumping on the Islamophobia bandwagon, which has grown exponentially since
the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Hindu nationalists
disguised their racist and chauvinistic ideology as part of a global ‘war
on terror’.

It was no surprise, then, to see Modi reaching out
<https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/To-Indias-Modi-Netanyahu-remains-a-dear-friend-609095>
to
like-minded islamophobes, the likes of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu. The seemingly unbreakable Modi-Netanyahu ‘friendship’
underlies a growing pro-Israel movement among Hindu nationalists.

Hindu nationalist ideologues and pro-Israel Zionists have long discovered a
common cause, one that is predicated on a collective sense of racial
supremacy and intolerance for Islam and Muslims.

In fact, Israel has, in recent years, emerged as the common denominator
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190401-the-great-replacement-why-far-right-nationalists-love-israel/>
between
various such ultra-nationalist and far-right groups in India and across the
globe. Strangely but tellingly, some of these groups are known for
hostility towards Jews and outright antisemitism. However, for these
groups, the anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim sentiments were
far more pressing priorities than all else.

While Europe and North America have received a greater share of political
analysis regarding the rise of islamophobia around the world, countries
like India, Burma, and China have largely been excluded from the discussion.

It is true that the discrimination and violence against China’s Muslim
minority, the Uyghurs, Burma’s Rohingya population and India’s Muslims,
have all received a relatively fair share of media attention
<https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2019/12/14/muslims-in-kashmir-assam-1-step-away-from-extermination-genocide-researcher.html>
and
analysis. However, the targeting of Muslims in these polities is largely
perceived as provisional ‘conflicts’ that are unique to these areas, with
little or no connection to global anti-Muslim phenomena.

But nothing could be further from the truth. For example, the fact that BJP
politicians often refer to Muslim migrants in India as ‘infiltrators and
termites’ mirrors the same dehumanizing lexicon used by Buddhist
nationalists in Burma and Israeli Zionists in Palestine.

The likes of the Hindu Samhati movement, known for its anti-Muslim bigotry
<https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/bigotry-normalised-modi-180411100651759.html>,
has, therefore, become essential to this new global anti-Muslim brand. And,
according to the same disturbing logic, hating Muslims then becomes
synonymous with loving apartheid Israel.

Hence, it was not a complete surprise to see tens of thousands of Hindu
nationalists rallying
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-calcutta-tens-of-thousands-at-pro-israel-rally-by-far-right-hindu-movement/>
in
Calcutta in February 2018 in what was described by organizers as “the
largest pro-Israel rally” in history.

But what took place
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/humanity-india-opposition-slams-gov-delhi-violence-200313101738869.html>
in
New Delhi in February was more ominous than any other previous display of
violence. Dozens of Indian Muslims were beaten to death and hundreds more
were severely injured by angry Hindu nationalists.

While India is no stranger to mob violence, the recent bouts of bloodshed
in that country are most alarming considering it is a rational outcome of a
racist trajectory that has been championed by the BJP and their supporters.

Particularly alarming were the scenes
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/world/asia/india-police-muslims.html> of
Indian security forces either watching the brutality against Indian Muslims
unfold without intervening or objecting in any way or worse, participating
in the violence themselves.

While it is rightly argued that the anti-Muslim campaign in India was
triggered by Modi’s Citizenship Amendment Act
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/citizenship-amendment-bill-what-does-it-do-and-why-is-it-seen-as-a-problem/articleshow/72436995.cms?from=mdr>
which
ultimately aims at rendering millions of Muslims in India stateless, the
ailment lies in the BJP itself – a purely xenophobic movement that exploits
the grievances of the poor and marginalized in India to maintain political
power.

It goes without saying that India’s Modi is a far cry from the India that
was envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi or the country’s first Prime Minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru.

Unfortunately, with Modi and the BJP in power, India will experience yet
more tragic days ahead. Flanked by equally racist and violent allies in Tel
Aviv and Washington, Modi feels empowered to carry out more such sinister
and discriminatory measures against the country’s vulnerable minorities,
especially Muslims.

It is essential that we educate ourselves further about the situation in
India, and that we understand the anti-Muslim politics and violence in that
country within the larger global context. India’s Muslims need our
solidarity more than ever before, especially as the emboldened BJP and
their chauvinistic leader seem to have no moral boundaries whatsoever.

*– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be
Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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