In a multi-religious country like India wherein multiple religions exist side by side, it is vital that partisan religious sentiments are tempered to conform to the common good; this becomes especially important when religious ties transcend national boundaries and involve contentious foreign policy issues that impact delicate geopolitical equations. The West Asia conflict between USA-Israel and Iran has not only affected India economically but has brought to the fore domestic contradictions that call for critical assessment—namely the overt Pan Islamism of India’s main minority community.
Post Ayatollah Khamenei’s killing, India witnessed massive protests across the length and breadth of the country, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, which has a sizable Shia Muslim population. Surprisingly, the scale of the protests was much larger than what we saw after the horrific Pahalgam massacre in which Hindus were specifically identified and killed. During the current protests, commercial establishments were shut down, schools were closed and examinations deferred. The government had to deploy a large number of security personnel and impose security restrictions to maintain law and order as such demonstrations have a tendency to spiral out of control.
In the past we have seen several incidents where the minority community in order to show sympathy with their religious brethren from other countries have indulged in violent protests. When the Iraqi President Sadam Hussein was executed in 2007, violence by the community gripped parts of Bengaluru: a mob indulged in stone throwing, damaging cars and Hindu-owned businesses; a 12-year-old boy was killed in the violence and several people were injured.
Another notable event in which extraterritorial loyalties sparked domestic unrest in India was the Khilafat movement (1919-1922) in which Indian Muslims staged nationwide demonstrations to protest the British dismantling of the Ottoman Caliphate after WWI. The events in Kerala (called the Moplah Rebellion) were extremely brutal and directed at Hindus: hundreds were killed, thousands forcibly converted to Islam and countless Hindu women were raped.
Although Mahatma Gandhi tried to rationalize the Moplah atrocities to preserve Hindu-Muslim unity, they were so overwhelming that even he was forced to admit: “The Mussalmans must naturally feel the shame and humiliation of the Moplah conduct about forcible conversions and looting, and they must work away so silently and effectively that such a thing might become impossible even on the part of the most fanatical among them. My belief is that the Hindus as a body have received the Mopla madness with equanimity and that the cultured Mussalmans are sincerely sorry of the Mopla’s perversion of the teaching of the Prophet.”
Moreover, in order to play down the bigotry of such atrocities, the Moplah rebellion, which was to all intents and purposes anti-Hindu in nature, was given an agrarian angle. Hindus were projected as upper caste landlords who made common cause with the British—a contorted narrative that was fervently propagated by the leftists.
While freedom of expression and right to protest are the hallmarks of a democracy, these options must be exercised with prudence and good judgement. More importantly I fail to understand the logic that fuels anti-Hindu sentiments during these demonstrations. How are Hindus responsible for distant events carried out by the Western world? Yet Hindus and government properties bear the brunt of such religious frenzy. These incidents need to be condemned in no uncertain terms and cannot be encouraged.
Partisan religious sympathies cannot be allowed to dictate national foreign policy. If that were the case the numerous tugs and pulls of different religions in India would result in a chaotic foreign policy with no sense of direction or purpose.
All these events noted above are expressions of a dangerous Pan Islamism—a separatist ideology that advocates unity of Muslims worldwide transcending national and ethnic boundaries—all non-Muslims are classified as infidels. Pan Islamism is so prevalent that even Najeeb Jung, supposedly a moderate and a former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, bemoaned the death of Pan Islamism during the current West Asia conflict due to the schism between Arab countries and Iran. (Recent talk at Constitution Club, New Delhi)
Pan Islamism directly conflicts with the sovereignty of our nation and its principles of secularism, It is this same concept of separateness that led to the creation of Pakistan. India must view these expressions of Pan-Islamism with caution and actively confront them in the larger interest of a secular democratic India.
