By B. R. GOWANI
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to look like a statesman – by avoiding uttering anything derogatory about minorities – which was common at the time of the killing of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 when he was Chief Minister and his latter years under the same position, his supporters in one or other outfits of the Hindu Vishwa Parishad (World Hindu Conference) keep on inciting Hindus against Muslims and Christians by saying one or other lie or nonsense.
This was bound to happen because during last year’s general election, Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party, a Hindu communal party, spread as much hatred as possible against the Christians and Muslims to come to power. Modi is a communalist Hindu, but being a shrewd politician he knows when to reign in his poisonous tongue. But other fanatic Hindus are not Modis and so the problem. There have been attacks on Christian churches, and religious conversions and reconversions of Christians and Muslims under the garb of “ghar wapsi” or “homecoming,” that is, reconversion of people who had converted to Islam or Christianity. The Hindu zealots’ main goal is, T. K. Krishna points out,
The dominant philosophy driving this programme is to establish the Hindu’s first right over this land. Ghar here means that the Hindu faith is the ‘original home’ for all those born in this land.
During his India visit in January, President Barack Obama told India to practice religious tolerance. It was a mild slap on the wrist without naming Modi. In February, the New York Times editorial berated Modi,
Mr. Modi needs to break his deafening silence on religious intolerance.
This prompted Modi, eleven days later, to break his dangerous silence:
“My government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly.”
“We cannot accept violence against any religion on any pretext and I strongly condemn such violence. My government will act strongly in this regard.”
Modi carried out his duty but things have remained the same.
Sadhvi Prachi Arya
In December 2014, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had divided Indians into
“those born of [Lord] Ram or of those born illegitimately.”
Now there is another sadhvi on the scene. (Sadhvi means an ascetic or holy woman.) A month ago and now again, Sadhvi Prachi Arya has repeated the same nonsense urging Hindus to produce 4 children. But this time she has added another hate ingredient by exhorting her coreligionists to boycott films of Khans – Shah Rukh, Aamir, and Salman – because
“Our children do not get right samskars from the movies of the Khans. They promote love jihad.”
The Khans are as ruthless in making money and marketing their films, trash or otherwise, as their Hindu counterparts. Khan films not imparting right samskars (that is, good teaching, proper upbringing, right values, correct ethics, etc.)? Prachi is dead wrong. Most of the Indians, including Prachi and Modi, wants to see India as the Super Power. Now that status can only be achieved through first gaining economic might. So who can be better role models than the Khan trinity? They have contributed a lot in making Indian films popular the world over. Not to forget the revenue amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars their movies have generated in the last fifteen years.
Another plus factor in their films is that almost none of their movies have kissing scenes or vulgarity. Most of their movies are apolitical, which is a great thing for the ruling class.
Love Jihad or Romeo Jihad is a term used by the Hindu communalists to attack Muslim males. The term denotes that Muslim males pretend that they love Hindu females and then convert them to Islam. The charges against Muslims indulging in Love Jihad have been proved false. As far as the Khan trinity is concerned, Shah Rukh and Aamir have Hindu wives; neither of them have changed their religion. About Salman, he is not married but is a non-discriminating Romeo who has had love affairs with Hindus, Christians, and Muslims of Indian, British, German, and Pakistani origins.
Arya wants to maintain a solid Hindu majority in India.
“The population of Hindus is on the decline. They must have more children to maintain a balance (between communities) in the country.”
Between 2001 and 2011, India’s Muslim population rose by a mere 0.8%, that is not even a 1%. Two major factors contributing to that slight rise are economical and educational backwardness. (See the Indian government’s 2006 report Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, also known as Sachar Committee Report.)
The fertility rate for Indian woman is 2.5 children. With this fertility rate, there are 626 million Indians, that is half of the Indian population, who have no access to toilet and are forced to defecate outside in the open. 300 million Indians, 25% of the population live in poverty, that is barely surviving on $1.25 a day. Life is miserable for hundreds of millions of Indians.
Does Arya wants to see more Indians, that is, hundreds of millions of more Indians, to live in poverty, to defecate outside, and spend their lives in a wretched state? Or does she have toilets, decent jobs, and good life ready for the Indians she wants Hindu women to produce to maintain Hindu numerical majority?
It will be better for Sadhvi Prachi Arya to exile herself to Himalayas and devote herself to gain moksha or liberation from communalism rather than staying in politics and inciting her followers.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com