India, Writing, the ‘Nazism 2.0’
Muslim Lives Matter Too?
India, this is for you.
I was never scared as an Indian Muslim. But, what happened four months ago, scares me as a Muslim Indian. Thanks to this lockdown, otherwise, Muslims in India won’t remain Indians.
‘We are a democratic country that believes in secularism.’ my class teacher said, while boys made fun of a boy who belonged from a lower class. It was what the teacher said while fair looking boys made fun of a dark-skinned boy. My economics professor said, ‘You Muslims are the reason for the population explosion in India.’ Just because Muslims all around the world are stereotyped to explode, you shouldn’t blame me for population explosion too.
In January 2020, the Indian government wanted all Indians to prove their citizenship. The tragedy was, the Hindu Majority will get citizenship even if they fail to prove, but not other minorities. The other minorities will go to detention camps until they have proof. In India, your nationality is not only by a paper, but you also have to become an aggressive nationalist and shout at Muslim minorities to go to Pakistan.
There are rare, aggressive Muslim nationalists in India, as it’s weird if Muslims tell other Muslims to go to Pakistan. And that’s is the reason this kind of aggressive nationalism is in the religious majority. India is not a democratic secularist nation. India is a theocratic religious country.
Nazism 2.0
In Nazi Germany, Jews had to prove their citizenship. If they failed, their destination was the detention camps. Before proving citizenship, social and economic factors led to the hate in Germany towards Jews.
In nazism 2.0 of India, following the footsteps of the Führer, we’re writing another chapter in History, ‘Nazi India 2.0’. A section where Muslims, the major minority of India, have to prove their citizenship. They’ll be exiled if they fail.
Imagine you were born and brought up in a country. You got educated, got a job, got married, and paid the damn taxes. But, one day, the government officials ask for proof of your citizenship as per the latest government specifications. If you raise your voice against the government or question them, the answer you get is violence, or they’ll label you as an anti-national. The roots of ‘Hindu for Hindustan’ is established by an organization, like Nazis and KKK.
I cannot name that organization because I’m a Muslim. Before hate mongers understand my perspective, they won’t hesitate to pull the trigger or to beat me. Before they realize the psychological disturbance a person faces when he’s questioned his nationality, they’ll call me a ‘terrorist’ and tell me to ‘go to Pakistan.’ Also, I won’t name any politician. Yes, I’m scared, but I had to write this, the violence and protests disturbed me.
That organization started to educate youth in self-defense and teach Indian culture. But it was banned for spreading communal hate, like KKK. They made their way and established an order to influence some political parties and paved their way into the political matters of the country, in Nazi India 2.0.
The situation of Muslims in India is like Jews in Nazi Germany. There’s no term to name the ideology India follows. As I wrote, ‘Nazi Germany,’ I cannot write ‘Hindu India.’ This article will look biased. But, the person who feels racism and racial stereotype, violence, hate, and discrimination can write about these matters. I’ve experienced the stereotype, hatred, and discrimination of being a Muslim except violence.
If you’re an upper caste, upper class, a rich, fair-skinned person with a religion that is the majority in your country, you’re “Privileged’. The privileged will never understand how it feels when someone blames you whenever there is a terrorist attack. The privileged will never realize racism on different levels because the ‘privileged’ aren’t subject to racism, racial stereotypes, or violence. Privileged will shrug shoulders and say, ‘what’s wrong in proving your nationality?’ ‘this is what Muslims do, get angry whenever the government comes up in favor of the nation.’
The privileged won’t know their government has interested invested in majoritarian religious matters and ethnic cleansing. Roots of that government are in the ideology of an organization that I compared to “KKK” and “Nazi.” When government serves your interest, everything they do appears right because you come from, (damn, you’re lucky) Privilege. I don’t want any privilege people to ramble, ‘I can understand your pain.’ You have no idea how painful it feels to live in a country dear to you when the government and media try to classify you as an outsider or even worst, a terrorist.
This is Nazism 2.0 of India. Where Muslims replaced Jews, and political parties and religious organizations replaced Nazi Party.
Propaganda 2.0
You cannot tell facts to minds infiltrated with propaganda. You cannot believe whatever the media says. And thanks to the propaganda of media, it is easy to infiltrate a lie disguised as truth.
If your Prime Minister says, “Water is solid,” and you do not agree, the media will justify the prime minister’s statement. If you’re a cynic, they will repeat that lie a thousand times, until you start to believe the lie. When you don’t believe, they label you as an anti-national, or terrorist of the state, or ‘go to Pakistan.’
It is propaganda 2.0 in India, subtly promoting Islamophobia in movies and broadly demonizing Muslims by prime time news, which screams lies. It is easier to fool people with proper use of music, words, colors, and emotional and national sentiments.
The media demonizes Muslims publicly. The publishing promotes movies and sentiments, which are subtly islamophobic. Marketing influences people to go against Muslims. If you are a regular prime time consumer of news in which the anchor shouts to prove himself right, you’ll start to believe, ‘maybe Muslims are the problem in my country.’
This was the first time the idea of a secular country broke in my mind. I saw India, not as a secular and democratic country, but a theocratic religious nation. Because when you influence the mass to riot, spread violence and hate against a minority, it is propaganda in Nazi India.
Welcome to Nazi India, where names of cities are changed from a Muslim name, “Allahbad,” to a Hindu name. Because India is a secular nation, and ‘secular’ in the constitution is a word devoid of meaning.
Welcome to Nazi India, where one race and religion can exist. Others have no value and are not supposed to live in India. Nazi India, where there is a possibility of ethnic cleansing, by keeping minorities in detention camps to either cleanse or convert or deny any rights.
Vigilantes For The Establishment
Vigilantes are easy to influence by media and political right wings. The vigilantes also cross limits and carry out hate crimes to protect their religious interests.
There’s a vigilante group to save cows, protect Hindus, protect Indian tradition. But when someone forms a group to save Muslims or talk against the Islamophobia, they’re termed as ‘Librandu’ ‘Sickular’ and ‘Presstitute.’ So, free speech can be used by media and vigilantes to demonize a minority. But when a minority uses free speech to discuss their rights or question the establishment, the answer is always in silence or vigilantism.
Vigilantes take law in hands and physically hurt minorities, also lynch and have no legal proceedings on their name. I never hear a vigilante arrested or investigated; he gets praise or left free. He’s also invited to political meetings and earns respect and admiration from the crowd. Why? Because he killed a minority to protect his country or religion or God.
It looks like being a vigilante gives you a license to kill, like James Bond. An Indian James Bond, who wears a saffron cloth and can cross limits to protect, ‘religion’ ‘God’ ‘country’ from the infiltrators. His codeword is not 007, but ‘rakshak’ — means protector or ‘bhakt’ — the worshipper.
In 2020, India leans towards Nazism 2.0. What happened in history books should be a lesson. To sum up this argument, I want to end by saying, ‘I can’t breathe, Muslim Lives Matter Too.’