DARK INDIA

Who was Muhammad Akhlaq? He was a young hard working Muslim living in a village in India. One day the village priest told the Hindus of the village that Muhammad Akhlaq had slaughtered a cow and that its meat was in a freezer in his home. Hardly anything to bother about yet the enraged crazy mob of Hindu zealots attacked Akhlaq’s home dragged him out and bludgeoned him to death. Akhlaq’s wife was bruised and his young son suffered head injuries in the senseless attack and is fighting for his life in the ICU of the hospital. The mad Hindus have been arrested but their supporters have threatened that there will be consequences if they are not released.

Who was Graham Staines? He was an Australian missionary working to better the lot of the people in the province of Orissa, India. He was attacked by a mob of crazed Hindu fundamentalists for his work. He sought refuge in his car with his two terrified young sons. The mad Hindus set fire to the car refusing to let them come out. Graham Staines and his two young sons were roasted alive in the car. It is not known if anyone was punished or even arrested.

Who was Esan Jaffery? He was an Indian Muslim living in Gujarat state of India when the present Prime Minister of India was the Chief Minister there. In 2002 rioting Hindus with the support or complete indifference of the state killed him and more than 2000 other Muslims. Mr Jaffery’s widow is seeking justice through India’s judicial system. She is unlikely to get it.

Beef has been banned in some states in India. A Hindu radical movement called Sam’adhan Sena is spreading across India. They patrol the streets looking for anyone eating beef so that he can be killed. The cow is worshipped by Hindus in India and some even drink cow urine. Yet India is the second largest exporter of beef in the world. Surely the Hindus know what happens to the cows they export. They are certainly not worshipped. Indians also have no qualms over using cow hide to make footwear which is exported around the world. They must know from where the cow hide comes. So is the rage of the crazy radical fundamental Hindus only for venting against Indian Muslims?

The fundamentalist, extremist nationalist Hindu fervor is at its peak under Mr Modis government. His party the BJP is backed by the violent extremist Hindu organization called the RSS (Rajyasevam Sangh). Recently Mr Modi went to an RSS convention and with folded hands asked them for approval of his policies as Prime Minister. Mr Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat presided over the Muslim pogrom in his state and was widely condemned. He was also denied a travel visa to the US—a ban that was revoked when he became Prime Minister and showed his willingness to brown nose the Americans.

The cheering crowd of Indians who welcomed Mr Modi in Silicon Valley must have fed on juicy beef steaks washed down with a good Californian Red. Chew on all this as you think of Shining India and Make in India—and do not forget Mr Modi’s assertion that the Hindu God with an elephants head was the first ever plastic surgery case in the world thousands of years ago!

The 1857 mutiny against British colonial rule was brutally suppressed by the British. Not only did they commit unspeakable atrocities against the Hindus and Muslims who had joined hands to throw them out of India but in the aftermath they poisoned the Hindu –Muslim relationship through a deliberate policy. Churchill is said to have gloated over the success of this divide and rule policy. The policy endures—at least among the Hindus of India.