Communalism

Hindutva Campaign Against Akbar, Whose Rich, Libertarian Legacy Is ‘Detested’ in Pakistan https://janataweekly.org/hindutva-campaign-against-akbar-whose-rich-libertarian-legacy-is-detested-in-pakistan/ Binoj Nair November 20, 2022  https://www.counterview.net/2022/11/hindutva-campaign-against-akbar-whose.html 2/11/2022

Back in 2017, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while trying to portray the Battle of Haldighati as a Hindu-Muslim war, was ignorant of the fact that Akbar wasn’t even involved in the battle, and that it was the Hindu, Raja Man Singh, his trusted general who thwarted Pratap on the battle field to keep the pride of the Mughal Empire. On the other side, one of the commanders of Pratap’s army was the Pathan general Hakim Khan Suri, who laid down his life fighting for the Hindu king.

Akbar quite persuasively broke away from the conservative clutches of the Islamic clergy to widen his mental horizons beyond the limits of his religion. One of his ambitious and encompassing moves was the promulgation of a new faith framework, the ‘Din-i-Ilahi’ (The Divine Faith), where he pulled in ideas from all the major religions including the polytheistic Hinduism, in a bid to foster a ‘catch-all’ secular empire and reduce communal tensions.

The progressive and all-encompassing policies of Akbar are detested heavily in the neighbouring Pakistan for understandable reasons. While they have invoked the more orthodox legacies of Babar, the Ghazni and the Ghori in their missile programmes, they have purposefully downplayed Akbar’s significance over the years and have hit the delete key on his rich and libertarian legacy.

The Hindu-Muslim discord has hit such an alarming peak that, all evidences factored in, it can be safely concluded that Akbar’s Mughal India was way more secular and tolerant than Narendra Modi’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Emperor Akbar : The Forgotten Mughal  https://countercurrents.org/2022/10/emperor-akbar-the-forgotten-mughal/  by Binoj Nair — 28/10/2022

Lawyer-activist Shakil Ahmed has spent three decades helping Bombay riot victims go to court – and believes the courts are sending victims back 'empty-handed'.

https://thewire.in/communalism/bombay-riots-supreme-court-shakil-ahmed 

Over the past three decades, Ahmed, first as a young rights activist and later as a lawyer, has helped several riot victims approach the court and receive compensation from the state. He recalls how several female victims were denied compensation because they chose to remarry after losing their respective husbands. Some victims, who were not able to produce adequate documents like ration cards or residential proof, were also turned down. Over the years, people just gave up.

Both lives and properties were lost in the violence. After the riots, many Muslim families were forced to abandon their property and belongings in Mumbai and look for safer refuge in the city’s outskirts. This was the beginning of a systematic ghettoisation in Mumbai, permanently pushing them to the fringes.

Sukanya Shantha

08/11/2022

The Citizens' Report on 2020 Delhi Riots is an Indictment of the Country: Harsh Mander Oct 14, 2022    https://youtu.be/SxatuIdJ7Ng?t=114  Harsh Mander added: “The report underlines how dark a moment this is in India’s journey as a republic, how every institution is crumbling and with what consequences.”
The interview first discusses in some detail the Citizens Committee report’s findings about the response, behaviour and alleged complicity of the Delhi Police. How they failed to act for three days even though they had received at least six internal alerts from the Special Branch. How the Committee has found a mass of information indicating police failures and police complicity. How the behavior of the police at Jamia Millia Islamia was nothing short of brutality.
Most importantly, the interview discusses the report’s findings that show that the charge of conspiracy to create terror is fabricated and prosecution under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act is “a perversion of the law”. The interview also discusses the report’s findings that the charge of conspiracy “is based on unexplained belated statements which are inherently unreliable in law.”

police were reluctant to act? https://youtu.be/SxatuIdJ7Ng?t=226 

FIR: on conspiracy?  Charge to use anti-teorror laws UAPA perversion of the law  https://youtu.be/SxatuIdJ7Ng?t=754

A report on the north-east Delhi riots https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-report-on-the-north-east-delhi-riots/article66007158.ece 
Soibam Rocky SinghOCTOBER 13, 2022  an independent fact-finding Committee has blamed the breakout of violence to a deliberate build-up of polarised hate between communities, particularly anti-Muslim hate. 

the report states that there was a targeted application of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) by the state. A few weeks into investigating, the police applied the (UAPA), an anti-terror legislation, into one of the FIRs connected with the riots, severely restricting the avenues of the accused to get bail during the course of the trial.

https://theleaflet.in/citizens-committee-report-lifts-the-veil-on-institutional-failure-in-2020-north-east-delhi-violence/ 

The report states that the committee’s examination of the violence led it to “discern broader implications impacting constitutional values and the health of democracy in India. The microcosm of an engineered anti-Muslim narrative leading to the violence signals the growing fusion of hate messaging in public discourse with the actual incidence of violence. There seems to be a deafening lack of institutional will to act against hateful content.”

It refers to the effective and balanced regulation of broadcasting and social media as an urgent challenge. It further reflects that “[c]apacity for empathetic thought and action to enable harmonious interactions, and most importantly, imagination to resolve conflict are essential attributes for a plural society to last in the long run. … The only way forward is for the state to act towards justice harbored in the conjoined practice of fraternity, equality and freedom.”

https://theleaflet.in/citizens-committee-report-lifts-the-veil-on-institutional-failure-in-2020-north-east-delhi-violence/

SY Quraishi writes: Why we met the RSS chief https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-we-met-the-rss-chief-muslim-community-members-dialogue-8172702/ September 26, 2022 

Extract: What prompted us to seek this meeting? Well, our pressing concern is about the way things are going, especially the insecurity being increasingly felt by the Muslim community in the wake of recurring incidents of lynching of innocents, calls by Hindutva hotheads for genocide and the marginalisation of the community in almost every sphere.

What was the meeting like? Of course, we could sense that Bhagwat was speaking from a position of authority. But it was subtle and his demeanour was never overbearing — there was nothing that would make us uncomfortable. In his opening remarks, he emphasised three things: Hindutva is an inclusive concept in which all communities have equal room. The country can progress only when all communities are united, he added. In a very significant statement, he emphasised that the Indian Constitution is sacrosanct, and the entire country has to abide by it. He sought to dispel the fear that RSS is seeking to abandon the Constitution at the first opportunity. And, that Muslims will be disenfranchised.

Bhagwat then said that Hindus are extremely sensitive about two things, the first of which is the cow. His inference seemed to be that in states where there is no legal ban, Muslims should voluntarily shun beef. This should be easy enough if it ensures security for the community. The other sensitivity he mentioned was Hindus being called “kafir”. Our response was that though the original meaning of this Arabic word was non-believer, if it is considered derogatory, Muslims must avoid it completely.

Bhagwat, RSS on same page as us on need for Hindu-Muslim reconciliation: Jung https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/bhagwat-rss-on-same-page-as-us-on-need-for-hindu-muslim-reconciliation-jung-8167529/  Extracts: “The liberals of today will say, why are you talking to RSS? Why do you trust me? I will say that of course I am going to talk to the RSS, my door is open. And I will talk to the Right, to the Left, to priests and clerics and academics and try to convince them that is the only way forward.” Do we represent the community? Maybe not. Nobody has elected or selected us. But we are also the community. We have our perceptions and observations. It was our individual initiative. Are we elitist? Possibly. But nowhere near our accuser, who lives in a palace 10-15 times bigger than our relatively modest houses. We are not illiterate. We are equally aware of the ground realities: Incidents of lynching; calls for genocide; rapes; economic boycott; questioning of voting rights, and discrimination in getting houses or jobs.

Comment on WhatsApp: I don't like the sub-text, that it is the liberal left that opposes such a move. In fact both quereshi and Jung need to be supported. And to take these forward, we should keep replying to messages from the mahasabha and others. But also keep asserting our stand on beef.. that eating it is not disrespect for the cow. In fact, this makes cow economy more viable... All the great indigenious cow species, which have multiple uses support organic agriculture and natural farming. It is breeding purely for slaughter that should be banned.