The Hindu Right
At a conference in India last month, a Hindu extremist dressed
head-to-toe in the religion's holy color, saffron, called on her supporters to
kill Muslims and "protect" the country."If 100 of us become
soldiers and are prepared to kill 2 million (Muslims), then we will win ...
protect India, and make it a Hindu nation," said Pooja Shakun Pandey, a
senior member of the right-wing Hindu Mahasabha political party, according to a
video of the event. Her words
and calls for violence from other religious leaders were met with a roar of
applause from the large audience, a video from the three-day conference in the
northern Indian city of Haridwar shows.
Pandey and several others are being investigated by local police for
insulting religious beliefs, a charge that carries a possible sentence of up to
four years in prison, Haridwar police officials told CNN. Late Thursday, police
in Uttarakhand state, where Haridwar is located, arrested a man who spoke at
the event, senior Haridwar Police official Shekhar Suyal told CNN. It is
unclear what the man said at the event. Police have not formally charged anyone
with any crime. Analysts say the Hindu Mahasabha is at the tip of a broader
trend in India which has seen an alarming rise in support for extremist Hindu
nationalist groups since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power nearly
eight years ago. Although these groups aren't directly associated with Modi's
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), his own Hindu nationalist agenda, and the lack of
repercussions for these groups' previous vitriolic comments, has given them
tacit support, making them even more brazen, analysts say. Analysts fear this rise
poses a serious danger to minorities, especially Muslims -- and worry it may
only get worse as several Indian states head to the polls in the coming months. "What makes the
Hindu Mahasabha dangerous," said Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor
of political science at Ashoka University near India's capital, New Delhi,
"is that they have been waiting for a moment like this in decades." Founded in 1907 during
British rule at a time of growing conflict between Muslims and Hindus in the
country, the Hindu Mahasabha is one of India's oldest political organizations.
The group didn't support British rule, but it didn't back India's freedom
movement either, led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was particularly
tolerant of Muslims. Even now, some members of the group worship his assassin,
Nathuram Godse. The Hindu Mahasabha's vision, according to the group's official website, is to declare India the "National Home of the
Hindus." The website says if it takes power, it will not hesitate to
"force" the migration of India's Muslims to neighboring Pakistan and
vows to reform the country's education system to align it with their version of
Hinduism. was in 1991. According to
Verniers, their "strength is not to be measured in electoral terms."
And in the past eight years since Modi came to power, they appear to have
expanded in numbers and influence based on the size and frequency of their
meetings, he said. While the group does not publicly disclose how many members it
has, Verniers said they are "comfortably in the tens of thousands." Hindu Mahasabha targets
rural communities in northern states, where there is a large BJP presence,
encouraging them to vote for parties that align with their Hindu-nationalist
ideology, including Modi's BJP, Verniers said. Modi, in turn, has publicly honored the Hindu Mahasabha's late leader, Veer Savarkar, for "his
bravery" and "emphasis on social reform." And as Hindu Mahasabha has grown in recent years, it has become
more outspoken. In 2015, Sadhvi Deva Thakur, then a senior member of the group,
caused widespread controversy when she told reporters Muslims and Christians should undergo forced sterilization to
control their population growth. CNN has reached out to her for comment. Pandey, who spoke at the
December conference in Haridwar, was arrested in February 2019 after a
video showed her shooting an effigy of Gandhi Photos uploaded to her official Facebook page last May show her worshiping a
statue of Gandhi's assassin. CNN has not been able to confirm whether she was
formally charged over the February 2019 incident. Hindu Mahasabha isn't the
only right-wing Hindu nationalist group to espouse violent sentiment toward liberals
and minorities -- including India's 200 million Muslims, who make up 15%
of the country's 1.3 billion population. At last month's
conference, several speakers called on India's Hindus to "defend" the
religion with weapons. Another called for the "cleansing" of India's
minorities, according to video from the event. But according to Verniers, Hindu Mahasbha one of the largest
right-wing political groups aiming to make India the land of the Hindus. And while the group's
campaigns and ideas are decades old, they're more bold about them now. "The escalation of
their hate speech is reflective of the state of affairs in India," said
Verniers. "But they are able to get away with it more." The reason extremist groups appear to be on
the rise is clear, according to experts: they have impunity and support. India
prohibits hate speech under several sections of its penal code, including a
section which criminalizes "deliberate and malicious acts" intended
to insult religious beliefs. According to lawyer Vrinda Grover, any group inciting
violence is barred under Indian law. "Police, states and the government
are responsible to ensure (inciting violence) doesn't happen," she said.
"But the state, through its inaction, is actually permitting these groups
to function, while endangering Muslims who are the targets." Pandey's rant
and some of the other calls for violence were the "worst form of
hate speech," according to Verniers. "This is the first time I find
myself using the term 'genocide' in Indian politics," he said, referring
to the comments made at last month's conference. "They have tacit support
in the form of government silence." That's because Modi also has a Hindu
nationalist agenda, experts say. Starting from his first term as Prime
Minister, minority groups and analysts say they began to see a significant
shift in India's ideology from a secular to a Hindu nationalist state. The BJP
has its roots in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right wing-Hindu group
that counts Modi among its members. Many RSS members are adherents of the
Hindutva ideology that the Hindu Mahasabha preach -- to make India the land of
the Hindus. In 2018, India's current Home Minister Amit Shah said Muslim immigrants and
asylum seekers from Bangladesh were "termites" and promised to rid
the nation of them. The BJP's Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the north
Indian state Uttar Pradesh, known for his anti-Muslim views, once compared Muslim
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to Hafiz Saeed, the alleged planner of the
2008 Mumbai terror attacks . Between 2015 and 2018, vigilante groups killed
dozens of people -- many of whom were Muslims -- for allegedly consuming or
killing cows, an animal considered sacred by Hindus, according to a report from Human Rights Watch. Modi publicly condemned some of the
killings, but the violence continued, and in 2017, his government attempted to
ban the sale and slaughter of cows --currently illegal in several Indian states
-- nationwide. Human Rights Watch said many of the alleged murders went
unpunished in part due to delayed police investigations and
"rhetoric" from ruling party politicians, which may have incited mob
violence. In 2019, India's Parliament passed a bill that would give
immigrants from three neighboring countries a pathway to citizenship -- except
for Muslims. It led to extended protests and international condemnation. In December 2020, Uttar
Pradesh enacted a controversial anti-conversion law, making it more difficult for interfaith couples to marry or
for people to convert to Islam or Christianity. Other states, including
Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Assam, introduced similar laws, leading to
widespread harassment and, in some cases, arrests for interfaith couples,
Christian priests and pastors. All of this has only served to encourage extremist groups like
the Hindu Mahasabha, say experts. Zakia Soman, a women's
rights activist and co-founder of the Muslim group Bharatiya Muslim Mahila
Andolan, said "a failure of governance" had given rise to more
right-wing extremists. "Our community is realizing that we have become
second-class citizens in our own country," Soman said. "Minority
bashing and hate is becoming regular and normalized. As the intensity
increases, the venom and violence in their language also increases." A 21-year-old Muslim
student in Delhi, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of backlash from
right-wing groups, said Muslims are filled with "a sense of fear"
every time right-wing Hindu groups make hateful comments."It gives us a
sense that we don't belong here," he said.
Despite police investigations and public outrage, legal action against
those who spoke and were present at December's event have been slow. In a
letter submitted to Modi on Friday and seen by CNN, students and faculty of the
prestigious Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and Ahmedabad said his
silence "emboldens" hate, adding there is "sense of fear"
among minority groups in India. Some experts agree the government's silence has
only emboldened these groups further. "Hate speech precedes hate
crimes," Grover, the lawyer, said. "And we are witnessing a crescendo
of hate crimes. These groups are rapidly spreading poison through
society." A 2019 US intelligence report warned that parliamentary
elections in India increase the possibility of communal violence if Modi's BJP
"stresses Hindu nationalist themes." It added that state leaders
"might view a Hindu-nationalist campaign as a signal to incite low-level
violence to animate their supporters." Analysts fear the BJP's divisive
politics will could lead to increased violence against minority groups in the
lead up to pivotal state elections this year. And reported episodes of violence
against Muslims have already increased ahead of this year's state elections. In
December, crowds of India's Hindu-right confronted Muslims praying on the
streets in the city of Gurugram, just outside of Delhi. They prevented Muslims
from praying, while shouting slogans and carrying banners in protest. "It
is an electoral strategy," said Verniers, the political scientist.
"Create religious tension, activate religious polarization and consolidate
on the Hindu vote." Grover, the lawyer, said criminal laws are
"weaponized" in India, adding anyone who challenges those in power
"face the wrath of the law." "Muslim lives in India are
demonized," she said. "The Indian state is in serious crisis."
On January 1, Pandey held a live broadcast for her more than 1,500 Facebook
followers. The subject was "Religious Parliament," her post said. For
the 21-year-old student, it is difficult to "expect any sense of
justice" for Indian Muslims. He says even having a Muslim name is enough
to make him feel unsafe. "It is really scary to carry the Muslim identity
in India today." https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/14/asia/india-hindu-extremist-groups-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
