Hate speech exhorting Hindus to exterminate Muslims

A vitriolic anti-Muslim speech by Yogi Narsinghananda Saraswati, mahant (chief priest) of Dasna Devi temple Ghaziabad, has become viral. The priest furiously spoke against jihad and vowed to eliminate Muslims from India. He intends to hold a world congress of religions inviting scholars from all religions except Islam. He alleges a Muslim hand in all the world’s evils in the world, including the farmers’ protest aimed at the repeal of new marketing laws. He exhorted Hindus to have at least five children a family lest Muslims outnumber them.

In an earlier speech from May 2016, also, Narsinghananda is heard saying that India will collapse in 20 years if the Muslim population continues to grow at the same pace. He once said in an intervie he went on a hunger strike for the cause in 2017 and only ended it when one lakh youths pledged to have five children each.

Hindus draw inspiration from the Jewish state of Israel. They want Hindus to be given preferential treatment and minorities, particularly Muslims, relegated to a lower class of citizenship.

Muslims in India are already in a miserable condition. Muslims are one of the six minorities (14.2 percent in India’s Census 2011). But they are under-represented in every realm of life.

Their condition worsened under BJP rule since 2014. A magazine reported, “However, the ascendance of majoritarian Hindutva since Narendra Modi first came to power in 2014 is arguably a new turning point in the downward fortunes of India’s Muslims, compounding the socio-economic misfortune, arguably born of chronic neglect by the state, with a new sense of deliberate political marginalisation and active persecution”.

The 2006 Sachar Commission report highlighted that Muslims lagged in terms of such parameters as income, employment and literacy behind other minorities. The report pointed out that some 31 percent of Muslims fell below the poverty line. Twenty-five percent of Muslim children did not go to school. Their representation in the IAS and IPS was a mere 1.8 percent, and 4 percent in the police.

According to Steven Wilkinson, Muslims are less than one percent of colonels and above. This figure was confirmed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former defence minister. Yadav’s successor bluntly explained, `The Muslim is not wanted in the armed forces because he is always suspect. Whether we want to admit it or not, most Indians consider Muslims a fifth column for Pakistan.”

A 2018 UNDP report stated ‘every third Muslim is multidimensionally poor’. A 2018 NITI Aayog report found that more than half the 20 most backward districts in the country were ‘Muslim-dominated’. India’s National Crime Records Bureau in 2019 reported “the number of Muslim inmates in Indian prisons remains disproportionately high (around 18 percent) while the figure for detenues has risen significantly, with Muslims accounting for some 35.8 per cent of all detenues”.

The wave of ‘gau raksha‘ lynching, massacre of the CAA-NRC protesters, including the Delhi riots, witch-hunts of ‘Corona jihad’, ‘love jihad’, and ‘UPSC jihad’ have isolated Muslims. The terrified Muslims are joining the RSS’s Muslim munch in hordes.

Yale researcher Felix Pal, in a 2020 paper, ‘Why Muslims join the Muslim wing of the RSS’, “challenges the claim that the RSS is winning over Muslim minds”, saying “Muslims join for largely instrumental reasons; for material reward and security”.

Similarly, the keynote of Krishna’s military philosophy was that end justifies the means. He laid great stress on deception. Truth may often have to be sacrificed in pursuit of victory. He advocated the use of force to defeat an enemy superior in strength or capability, that opportunity once wasted never returns.

The media has, by and large, ignored the koota yuddh undercurrent in India’s history. But it has given much negative publicity to Islamic jihad. For one thing, jhad (al-Quran 25: 52) does not mean ‘Holy War’. Jihad fi sabil l’illah, as described in the Quran, can mean argumentation, writings, or financial help and may include actual fighting. But, the proper term for `fighting’ is qital.

The Hindu priest as also non-Muslim writers not only mistranslate the word jihad and qital, but also distort the true meaning of Quranic texts by quoting them out of context. They present a jaundiced microscopic view of Islam, equating jihad with terrorism.

They meticulously avoid discussion of conduct of an Islamic state under the Shariah. Unfortunately, the books distorting Islamic teachings are bestsellers. The preacher on internationally-syndicated radio broadcast `Grace to You’,  Dr John MacArthur (like the Hindu priest) in his book Terrorism, Jihad, and the Bible says, `Muslim regard war as a legitimate means of turning people to their religion. A war whose purpose is to bring infidels into submission under Islam is considered jihad, a holy war. Mohammed himself justified and participated in killing and robbery against infidels in the name of Allah. “Convert or die” has always been the most persuasive tool in the Islamic missionary’s arsenal. Islam has always conquered by the sword. And in medieval times, converted virtually all of the Middle East by force’… `Islamic fundamentalists regard all non-Muslims, including Christians, to be infidels. A verse in the Koran (9:5) authorizes the faithful to “slay the idolaters wherever you find them’… ‘The Koran itself is filled with teachings that promote violence and advocate the spread of Islam by force. ..Islam is the main persecutor of Christians all over the world. Thousands of Christians are dying under Islamic persecution, especially in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia’.

Contrary to what the non-Muslim writers in their prurient writings suggest, Islam does not support unbridled jihad or qital.  Quran, Ahadith and conduct of the Pious Caliphs explains types of wars, reasons for waging them, treatment of POW, civilians, women and children, treaties, etc. Examples follow.

The Qur’an gives a clear instruction that there is no compulsion in religion (2: 256). It states that people will remain different (11: 118), they will always have different religions and ways and this is an unalterable fact (5:48). God tells the Prophet that most people will not believe ‘even if you are eager that they should’ (12: 103). Marriages with Ahl al Kitab are valid.

Muslims do not think of war as to be desired. The Qur’an (8: 61) says: “And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in God.” And again: “So do not falter, and invite to peace when ye are the uppermost” (Qur’an 47:35). A Hadith says: “Do not be eager to meet the enemy, but ask God for safety. Yet if you meet them, persevere and have patience; and know that Paradise is under the shadows of swords (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood). On another occasion, the Prophet said: “Do not be eager to meet the enemy, perhaps you may be put to test by them, but rather say: O God! Suffice for us, and keep their might away from us!”

Jihad is not considered a personal duty (farz ayn ) to be observed by each and every individual, but only a general duty (farz kifaya) which, if accomplished by a sufficient number, the rest will no more be charged with the neglect of that duty: this renders the administration of jihad entirely in the hands of the government. The practice of the Prophet also confirms this.

Generally, all religions make distinctions betwee just and unjust wars. But, practitioners of the wars coin their own reasons to justify a war (for political reasons), no matter how inhumane and unjust.

Look at concept of the holy wars (dharma and koota yuddha) under Hinduism. The Ramayanas and the Mahabharata elucidate various types of yuddha (wars). In ancient India there were three schools of war. Bhishma’s belonged to dharma yuddha (ethical or just war). Two other schools, Brihaspati’s and Krishna’s, belonged to koota yuddha (all-out war).

Bhishma stressed chivalry and ruled out surprise and deception. But, Brihaspati recommended that the king should attack an enemy only if the enemy’s strength is one-third his own. He suggested e should never trust the enemy or spare him, no matter how old or virtuous.

Similarly, the keynote of Krishna’s military philosophy was that end justifies the means. He laid great stress on deception. Truth may often have to be sacrificed in pursuit of victory. He advocated the use of force to defeat an enemy superior in strength or capability, that opportunity once wasted never returns.

It is unfortunate that the international organisations took no notice of hate speech from Hindu priests, and followers of the RSS and its affiliates. The Bajrang Dal is even giving military training with live fire arms to its recruits.