Attiya Munawer
Indian Muslims have been victims of Hindu prejudice since the founding of Pakistan and now their genocide continues. International experts and genocide research organizations have also expressed concern over the genocide of 200 million Muslims under the patronage of the Indian government. Human rights expert Tina Ramirez says persecution of Muslims is worsening their economic situation, with Indian Muslims suffering from constant fear and insecurity.
The Indian state’s anti-Muslim sentiments and the worst treatment of Muslims have also been voiced by insiders, Leading Indian writer and political activist Arundhati Roy had also said in her interview that the situation in India is now heading towards genocide, because this has been the agenda of the BJP government. There is a storm of hatred against Muslims in India. The massacre in Delhi in Feb 2020 was carried out because people were protesting against the anti-Muslim law on citizenship.
Crimes against humanity continue unabated in India, the socio-economic life of the Muslims there has been ruined; the situation of the Indian Muslims is a tragedy which is very real, but not new. It is clear that after independence, the Indian leadership, in order to win the trust of minorities, said in the interests of the moment that India would be a secular state in which people of all faiths would have equal rights, but minorities have always been oppressed by extremists. They faced oppression and discrimination and were forced to accept Hindu supremacy, just as the Muslims of Andalusia were persecuted and forced to accept one of the three options, convert to Christianity, emigrate or prepare for massacre. Even in present-day India, minorities especially Muslims, are forced to live a life of deprivation and persecution.
RSS, the original party of Indian Prime Minister Modi, has been saying for years that India should be a Hindu state. The Modi government is pursuing the same old plan of integrating Dalits into Hinduism and making Muslims untouchables in their place. Muslims ruled India for a thousand years, but they never interfered in the religious affairs of Hindus, nor did they forcibly convert them to Islam. But the situation is different in today’s India, a so-called secular country, where Muslims are being burned and exiled. In Gujarat, Maharashtra and many other states, Muslim populations are declining and being walled off in new areas, settlements and bazaars under various pretexts. Muslims in India are being punished for their sacrifices in the struggle for the establishment of Pakistan.
The rising wave of anti-Muslim hatred in India proves that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s creation of Pakistan was correct. The Muslims of the subcontinent had united under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam and achieved an independent state through hard struggle. At the time of establishment of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam had said that if anything happened to the Muslims of India, we would take up their cause.
The atrocities being perpetrated against Muslims and other minorities in India, including Kashmir, are not hidden from the world. It is encouraging that voices are being raised against it in various forums, but the consistency with which this should be done is not visible. There has been a global outcry, but delay in action has boosted the morale of Indian extremists. Before minorities in India are treated like Rohingya Muslims, the international community should take steps to stop this tyranny. If this extremism is not stopped, it will manifest itself in other countries in the future as well. India calls itself the largest democracy in the world, but in practice it is the opposite. The genocide of Muslims in India will provoke Muslims all over the world. If Indian genocidal acts are not stopped immediately, the region could be plunged into a new armed conflict.