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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bjp-and-israel-hindu-nationalism-is-ravaging-indias-democracy/">https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bjp-and-israel-hindu-nationalism-is-ravaging-indias-democracy/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">BJP and Israel: Hindu Nationalism is Ravaging India’s Democracy</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">March 24, 2020<br></div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Modi-Netanyahu-678x455.jpg" alt="" title="Modi-Netanyahu">
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Photo: File)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud" title="Display all articles for Ramzy Baroud">Ramzy Baroud</a></strong></p><p>It was only a matter of time before the anti-Muslim sentiment in India turned violent.</p>
<p>A country that has historically prided itself on its diversity and tolerance, and for <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/news-on-india-news-headlines-democracy-world-news-headlines-today-32390/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">being</a> ‘the
largest democracy in the world’ has, in recent years, exhibited the
exact opposite qualities – chauvinism, racism, religious intolerance,
and, at times, extreme violence.</p>
<p>The latest round of violence <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/what-is-happening-in-india.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ensued</a> on February 23, one day before US President Donald Trump arrived in Delhi on his first official <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/president-trumps-visit-india-trade-security-discussed-200309064017874.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">visit</a> to India.</p>
<p>Trump is a beloved figure among Hindu nationalists, especially supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13597566.2019.1614921" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has ruled</a> India since 2014.</p>
<p>BJP, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, has <a href="https://www.theglobalist.com/india-narendra-modi-democracy-hindu-nationalism-citizenship-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wreaked havoc</a> 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 <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/15/indian-independence-day-everything-need-know-partition-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">independence</a> in 1947.</p>
<p>Under BJP rule, the hatred for Muslims, a sizable minority of over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/world/asia/india-muslims-citizenship.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">200 million</a>,
among other minority groups, has grown over the years to represent the
core discourse of a movement that is ideologically and morally bankrupt.</p>
<p>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’.</p>
<p>It was no surprise, then, to see Modi <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/To-Indias-Modi-Netanyahu-remains-a-dear-friend-609095" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reaching out</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In fact, Israel has, in recent years, emerged as the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190401-the-great-replacement-why-far-right-nationalists-love-israel/">common denominator</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2019/12/14/muslims-in-kashmir-assam-1-step-away-from-extermination-genocide-researcher.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">media attention</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The likes of the Hindu Samhati movement, known for its<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/bigotry-normalised-modi-180411100651759.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> anti-Muslim bigotry</a>,
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.</p>
<p>Hence, it was not a complete surprise to see tens of thousands of Hindu nationalists<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-calcutta-tens-of-thousands-at-pro-israel-rally-by-far-right-hindu-movement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> rallying</a> in Calcutta in February 2018 in what was described by organizers as “the largest pro-Israel rally” in history.</p>
<p>But what <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/humanity-india-opposition-slams-gov-delhi-violence-200313101738869.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">took place</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Particularly alarming were the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/world/asia/india-police-muslims.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">scenes</a> 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.</p>
<p>While it is rightly argued that the anti-Muslim campaign in India was triggered by Modi’s <a href="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" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Citizenship Amendment Act</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><i><span>– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</span></i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><i><span>These Chains Will Be Broken</span></i></a><i><span>:
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 </span></i><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><i><span>www.ramzybaroud.net</span></i></a></p>
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