In the good old days, if you were traveling in a train on a journey to a long-distance location, passengers smiled at each other, exchanged a hearty conversation and ended up sharing their meals with one another. It never occurred to ask one another their caste, creed or religion, and it was considered extremely impolite to do so. India was intrinsically tolerant with a mosque, church, temple and gurdwara placed within close proximity. In those days, you could even talk about politics or disclose your religion without getting lynched in a train.
We greeted each other on Holi, harvest festivals, Diwali, pujas, Eid, Christmas and even attended one another’s festivals with gusto. Wide, expansive, generous and caring, we grew as a country and nation. The Indian Army has a mosque, temple, church, gurdwara and other places of worship together in their campus. All religions were respected. This goes back to centuries, as Islam came to India as early as the seventh century, Christianity has been in India for 2000 years; however, suddenly, a certain hissing venomous species has arisen with threats of violence inscribed on their social media profiles such as “We Conquer, We Kill.” “India belongs to Hindus” and other intimidating declarations and many of them have weapons on their profiles. Notwithstanding, they are not only sending out a message of hatred, but also of murder all out on the open.
This can be called nothing less than terrorism. The dictionary definition of a terrorist is “A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” This new move is politically motivated because these people have immunity and are even protected by the police. In fact, victims get arrested or their statements are not taken in by the police.
In a recent incident, a 45-year-old Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death in the Champawat district of Uttarakhand by ‘upper caste’ people after he was found having food at a wedding along with ‘everyone’, but not separately. The victim’s family alleged that the man was physically tortured for several hours before he was shifted to Lohaghat Hospital and from there to another hospital in Haldwani where he succumbed.
The Champawat Police has registered a case of murder and added various relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. An FIR (first information report) has also been registered against unknown persons, but no arrests have been made yet!
A Muslim man’s hand amputated after torture in police custody and he said “Three cops assaulted me for three days. They targeted one body part at a time.” Salman, 22-year-old Muslim was tied upside down and beaten brutally, targeting each body part leading to infection, and eventually lost his arm.
Sunday after Sunday, especially in Karnataka, and other parts of India, ruffians storm into churches and start screaming at Christian worshippers that they are not allowed to convert. Only the truth was, no one was converting anyone, people were worshipping, praying and listening to the Sunday sermon, nothing more, but the frenzied mob set in flames of fury feel every Christian converting everyone. Well, it is not that easy for anyone to convert to Christianity, and also of they do, they lose property, family, and benefits from their family members. Conversion has a high price.
In Delhi’s Dwarka area, a new church was allegedly vandalised by members of the Bajrang Dal. … Over 300 instances of violence against Christians by Hindutva groups have been reported from across 21 states, particularly North India, in nine months of this year 2021 alone, according to a fact-finding report by human rights groups! Isn’t this alarming?
In Assam, innocent Muslims were attacked, mosques were attacked and allegedly burned, Muslim shops set on fire and attacked in response to the attacks of Hindus in Bangladesh.
In Gurugram, the Muslims have been praying in an open parking lot for over thirty years, on free Earth under free skies with the permission of the government. The Muslims did not have any other area to offer Namaz and no one even thought twice of it over the years. However, a right-wing Hindu group, called the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti (Joint Hindu Struggle Committee suddenly rose up to attack them and stop them from praying.) The attacks became very virulent. During the recent attack on Friday, they snapped at the police telling them to go back when the police were trying to stop them attacking the Muslims, and it was wonderful to see the police at least try to protect the Muslims at that juncture. It is obvious that the far right-wing groups are protected by the governmental connections and have absolutely no fear of the police.
@DC_Gurugram @PMOIndia @narendramodi @AmitShah @BJP4India @aajtak @ABPNews @ZeeNews @Zee_Hindustan @Republic_Bharat @BBCHindi @news24tvchannel @anjanaomkashyap @RubikaLiyaquat @chitraaum @sardesairajdeep @RajatSharmaLive @romanaisarkhan @ArnabGofficial7 @manakgupta @sardanarohit pic.twitter.com/zi9jr1suon — Abdul Aziz Abd Wahid Abd Qadir Abd Majid Khan ♥ ♥ (@AbdulAzizAbdWa1) December 4, 2021
Amid cries of Jai Shri Ram, the Muslims gathered to pray this Friday, holding hands.
Muslims in Gurugram performed namaz despite attacks & provocation by a few goons. Indian unity is too strong to be damaged by these Anti Social characters pic.twitter.com/JXc5cI2Ia0 — shahid siddiqui (@shahid_siddiqui) December 3, 2021
Muslims in Gurugram performed namaz despite attacks and provocation by a few goons. Indian unity is too strong to be damaged by these anti-social characters.
When a nation is hit by communal destructive forces, a new power arises to protect the attacked: It was heartening when Sikhs offered their Gurdwaras to the Muslims for their Namaz, it is touching when Hindus also stand up for Christians, Muslims and Dalits being attacked, and enouraging when some Indians speak up for the unlawful arrests of journalists and others. All in all, while this stirs up sparks of hope in hearts, we still need more voices to speak out against communal violence and block the spirit of hate that is insidiously creeping into India like a hungry python. We need a roaring ocean of voices and action to push back the ravenous python threatening to choke India.
Rita
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