True India

[Bitter TruthParticipant]

With rich culture and history, the entire Subcontinent today is a result of many empires and rulers from Greeks, Central Asians to British. India today forms the major part of South Asia and is as diverse and rich in culture and peoples as its history. The history of India begins with the ancient civilizations of Harappa in the Indus Valley around 2500 years ago [1]. However, with time and advancement, especially in the Iron Age, the region that forms India today became stronger and powerful due to the abundance of Iron Ore in Bihar. As people moved from Indus Valley towards India, the societies that lived in tribes with nearly all men equal became divided into classes. As these tribes from Indus moved towards India, they enslaved the people of the forests they had to cross. When the need for labor arose, slavery as an institution and a whole class was established. With some advancement in these societies, the social structure became even more complex and a “caste system” peculiar to the subcontinent was born [2].

In the caste system of India, the people who were once merely in charge of the rituals like sacrifice or Yajna became the dominant or superior class: Brahmin. This class became the religiously and socially superior fountainhead of superstition and dogma. The yajna itself was the sacrifice of lower-class humans, bulls and stallion to advertise this elite class in the name of appeasing gods. From Brahmin at the top and Shudra at the very bottom of this class system, two other classes in the middle emerged. The Kshatriyas; who would administer the state and fight battles and the Vaish; who were traders but paid due taxes to the state. Thus, society was divided into two upper and two lower classes. As the taxes of the Vaish kept them better off, the Shudras soon descended lower than the cows. For Brahmin and Kshatriyas had realized the economic importance of cows in an agrarian society. Thus, cow ascended to a position where it was added to the Hindu pantheon of gods but Shudra descended even lower to the depths of exploitation [3].

In light of the above facts, it becomes clear that Hinduism is the only religion that preaches inequality and blatant injustice against the lower classes. On the other hand, despite the majority of the Hindu population in India, Hindus have not ruled India for longer periods. Perhaps the Mauryan Empire was the only one to rule the entire subcontinent that was established by a Hindu, Chandragupta [4]. However, even the grandson of Chandragupta, the great Ashok, spent his time as a ruler propagating Buddhism across the subcontinent. Hindus of the subcontinent have been ruled by Central Asians, Muslims and even Christians but never entirely by Brahmin. Nevertheless, these societal structures of inequality and rampant injustice prevailed. The introduction of Buddhism and Islam, therefore, found roots to hold because these two religions preached equality. The idea of universal equality, Islamic unity and kindness attracted much lower class Hindus to free themselves from the chains of slavery [5]. There is no doubt that their treatment was and remains worse than animals.

India today poses a grim picture because the Hindu Brahmin class has found power and rule after a long period. They see it as an excellent opportunity to spread Hindu nationalism in a diverse country with a secular constitution. These people under the banner and platform of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won the masses’ support to come to power, however, their actions have left India in chaos. This ideology is clear to the world now as only recently Dr. Subramanian Swami, a senior leader of the BJP and a member of India’s parliament, said that Muslims “are not in an equal category” [6]. Such contempt for an entire race or religion is bound to end in violence and injustice. It is evident that India is now a Hindu land and there is no place for equality of any other race or religion. One may consider that Hindus and Muslims have a long history of conflict; therefore, Hindu prejudice towards Muslims may be justified in realist terms. However, the truth is that India is home to multiple other religions as well: Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism etc. None of these religions is considered equal or worthy of respect and the curtains are lifting one by one.

Muslims may be in misery because of Pakistan rivalry or Indian politics in Afghanistan, but now the oppression has spread further into the Punjab and Sikhs are the new target. Sikhs, in 1947, had chosen to remain a part of India. This very prejudice forced the Muslims of the subcontinent to demand a separate state because their leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, feared that the persecution of Muslims would never end. He knew that a Hindu rule would mean a life of eternal persecution for the non-Hindus. On the other hand, Sikhs, at that time, carried out mass bloodshed against Muslims in Punjab [7]. Sikhs made their allegiance clear to Hindu rulers. However, the apprehensions of Jinnah proved true, and Sikhs in Indian Punjab found themselves neglected and deprived of autonomy in the regions where there was a Sikh majority.

Events like Operation Blue Star, desecration of Sikh Temple Complex and the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots that killed nearly 10,000 to 17,000 Sikhs [8] are embedded in the minds of Sikhs who now are more adamant than ever to attain a separate homeland, Khalistan. The case of Sikhs is different from Muslims; Sikhs are surprisingly more militarized and believe in defending their faith with an army a lot more than the concept of organized Jihad in Islam. Muslims may not fight back against the oppression but Sikhs definitely will and they have in the past. BJP rule has aggravated the situation by proposing reforms that have led to the biggest farmer protests in India. The small farmers consider the bill as a death warrant and they strongly oppose the bill. This bill has made it clearer to Sikhs that Hindu nationalists will never protect them under the state-run. BJP as the true representative of the upper-class Hindus has openly started maltreating all non-Hindus. The bill, in fact, is less opposed due to its proposed reforms but more because the farmers of Punjab and Haryana do not trust the BJP government to implement it properly without taking away the current securities small farmers enjoy [9].

Sikh farmer protests have brought India under global attention and the world acknowledges the power of Sikh farmers and the possibility of them to defeat Modi regime [10]. Khalistan movement is popular among the diaspora Sikhs and they are actively trying to voice their concerns and demands around the world. The right of self-determination is recognized universally, however, it is hard for India to concede to these demands for they fear aggravation of other freedom movements in India. India is a diverse state that should have promised peace and prosperity to all and remained true to its secular constitution. The Indian constitution not only protects all ethnicities and peoples but also the Lower class Hindus. The reality, however, has proven repeatedly to be in conflict with the constitution and the misery of people continued beyond comprehension. Moving a mob against any minority and lynching innocents has become an everyday business in India.
India faces threats from multiple freedom seekers and Indian oppression and neglect are at the root of these separatist demands. Freedom movements in Kashmir, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam and Khalistan are a few to be named. Indian stringent policies and increasing intolerance among masses fueled by BJP Hindu Nationalists are making the scene worse. India has a history of oppressing the seekers of freedom instead of negotiation and peacefully conducting reforms of people’s choice. In the case of Kashmir, India has taken it too far and committed every possible crime against the people of Kashmir. Certainly, the condition of Kashmiri freedom seekers is a message to all freedom seekers in India that the state has no wish to negotiate and listen to the people; rather persecution awaits all those who dare to even speak against the injustices of the BJP regime. However, if freedom seekers could settle for anything less and the governments were any wiser, India itself would not exist. India is a result of a long and hard freedom movement against the British Raj.

It is also a truth worth acknowledging that even the British Raj treated Hindus better than the Hindu Raj’s treatment of minorities and freedom seekers. This very attitude is a constant threat to India and the government is not making any effort to address the demands of the people. The inhumane lockdown of Kashmir is a glaring example. Injustice always loses the battle and it seems that India’s inevitable future is of successful separatist movements. India faces over 135 separatist movements but its response to these movements is not democratic [11]. India’s blatant ignorance of its very own constitution predicts either a revolution for the revival of pure secularism or an India much smaller and limited to the Hindus; Inevitable India appears to be a divided India.

1. Library of Congress, “The History of Ancient India,” Ancient History Encyclopedia (Ancient History Encyclopedia, December 15, 2011), https://www.ancient.eu/article/294/the-history-of-ancient-india/.
2. Aitzaz Ahsan, The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan, Google Books (Oxford University Press, 1996), https://books.google.com.pk/books/about/The_Indus_Saga_and_the_Making_of_Pakista.html?id=E3bjAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y.
3. Ibid. 1
4. Ibid. 1
5. Kiran, Naumana. “Class-Structure and Social Stratification in Early Muslim India (1206-1526 AD).” JRSP 45, no. 1 (2008): 1-16.
6. News Desk, “Muslims Must Not Be given Equal Status: BJP’s Top Leader Subramanian Swamy,” Global Village Space, April 3, 2020, https://www.globalvillagespace.com/muslims-must-not-be-given-equal-status-bjps-top-leader-subramanian-swamy/.
7. William Dalrymple, “The Mutual Genocide of Indian Partition,” The New Yorker, June 22, 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple.
8. “BBC – Religions – Sikhism: Origins of Sikhism,” http://www.bbc.co.uk, September 2009, https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/history_1.shtml#:~:text=Sikhism%20was%20born%20in%20the.
9. Nikhil Inamdar, “Farm Bills: Are India’s New Reforms a ‘death Warrant’ for Farmers?,” BBC News, September 23, 2020, sec. India, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54233080.
10. Rupi Kaur, “Opinion | History Shows Punjab Has Always Taken on Tyrants. Modi Is No Different.,” Washington Post, December 16, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/16/rupi-kaur-modi-punjab-india-farmer-protests/.
11. Sehgal, Ikram, and Bettina Robotka. “Separatist Movements Threatening India’s Existence.” Defence Journal 23, no. 2 (2019): 92.

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