Abdullah Mustafvi
While the blots of inhuman violence against religious minorities always shine significantly on the forehead of India , the frequent occurrence of ‘Caste Based Violence’ against the oppressed lower class Hindus have been persistently adding more bloody shade to the abhorrent face of so called ‘Secular Mahan Desh’. Who doesn’t know the plight of poor Dalits, labelled as ‘Untouchables’ since centuries, in prejudiced society of India. Recent inhuman incident of Tamil Nadu state have shocked the world! An innocent 13 years old girl was brutally beheaded by a fanatic Upper class Hindu man ! Only crime of poor girl known so far is that she took birth in a lower caste Hindu family . The shocking tale of inhuman violence in India against lower class citizens is too long to sum up in one article. Leaving aside the issue of violence against religious minorities at this point , it is an undeniable reality that Dalit community faces most of the portion of Caste Based Violence , hatred and collective social discrimination. Being the most marginalized community , Dalits have been denied the equal rights of education , employment , worship and decent living ; as a pathetic norm of Hindu religious mythological order. Though , legislation was made to deal with the menace but primarily such acts only serve the purpose of face saving at international forums as the implementation on part of the state remains a complete failure . Indian National Crime Record Bureau reported alarmingly high number of 46000 caste based crimes against Dalits and other oppressed classes only in year 2016. It is worth mentioning that ratio of reporting caste based crime is as low as 5% to 8% meaning thereby more than 92% crimes are neither reported nor investigated by the state institutions. This low ratio of reporting is primarily an outcome of extra ordinary deep grip of upper class Hindus in social order which practically suffocates every fundamental right of oppressed classes. With such venomous social traditions , Modi led BJP regime has now introduced a new interpretation of ‘Hindutva’ ideology in India. It is rapidly defeating the much talked about principles of secularism by rapidly making them practically ineffective . A long list of highly objectionable incidents of violence in the name of religious vigilantism have snatched the mask of secularism and democracy from the face of Indian society. Religious hatred and social discrimination has always been a corner stone of Indian social dynamics. This abhorrent trend ultimately pushed the Muslim community to a stage where a political movement for religious based identity finally ended up at the partition of subcontinent and emergence of Pakistan. Though, it was the end of a political movement but in a way, the beginning of a new era of rivalry between India and Pakistan. Besides the creation of Pakistan, Hindu society always draws offensive motivation from the thousand years’ long Muslim rule on India. Undoubtedly, the spread of Islam through highly peaceful methods of Muslim saints emerged as the biggest social challenge to the orthodox Hindu social order. Recent anti Muslim drive in India is the accumulative effect of all above mentioned factors. Though, violent ways of BJP and its allied militant sub organizations were often challenged by the sane quarters of society but to no effect. Rapid rise of intolerance and prejudice in Indian society proved unstoppable so far. A major cause of this uncontrollable spread is the availability of infinite support from state machinery. Frequent incidents of lynching, burning and killing pose a great challenge to so called Indian secular values and non-violent teachings of Gandhi Jee. Unfortunately, most of these abhorrent incidents took place at public places where hateful offenders mercilessly executed the poor victims on fabricated false charges . Occurrence of such horrible hate based incidents are neither surprising or unexpected in extremely polarized and prejudiced society of India. This happens once hate mongers like Modi and Aditya Nath Yogi rise to the power chairs and lead the state machinery with all resources available in hands. On one hand, this powerful wave of religious hatred is sweeping away the peace and tolerance at Indian internal front. On the other hand, vigorous pursuance of hateful state agenda under BJP has pitched India against China and Pakistan, thus endangering the regional peace. Last year, sixty five top ex officials from different services invited the attention of Indian state towards looming trend of intolerance, prejudice , violence against minorities , caste based crimes and extremly unjustifiable vigilantism by self styled Hindutva ideology followers. One can safely comment that India is witnessing the death of free speech, human rights, logic, tolerance and popular human values. Minorities and oppressed classes have seen the worst and obviously the coming days do not portray any better picture too. India today stands in the comity of nations with a pathetic track of Muslim genocide in Kashmir, anti Muslim riots, persecution of lower castes , violence against religious minorities and countless incidents of hate based violence. Obviously , a deep introspection of flawed customs is the only way forward . Otherwise , the irresponsible ways of Indian State would keep posing constant threats to lower castes , religious minorities and all neighboring countries.
