The minorities in India together constitute about 19.3 percent of the total population. Yet they are under-represented in Indian parliament. The minority Muslim candidates nominated by major political parties are usually defeated. Muslims alone constitute 138 million (13.4 percent) as per the 2001 census.
Majoritarian India caricatures the golden words in the Indian Constitution to protect minorities. Article 15(1) and 15(2) provide for “Prohibition of discrimination against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth”. Article 16(1) and 16(2) speak about “Citizens’ right to equality of opportunity in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State”. Article 25(1) talks about “people’s freedom of conscience and right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and other Fundamental Rights.” Article 28 advocates “people’s freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in educational institutions wholly maintained”. Article 30(1) provides for the “right of all religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice”. Article30 (2) provides for “freedom of minority-managed educational institutions from discrimination in the matter of receiving aid from the State”.
Anjana P.Chatterji, Thomas Blam Hansen and Christopher Jafferlot (eds) (Majoritarian State) have explored how India tramples rights of the minorities.
Protesters’ properties and mosques are bulldozed as “encroachments’ Bulldozer has become a symbol of state terror against Muslims in India, says Kashmiri leader Mehbooba Mufti.
Several international human rights’ organizations have criticized India for persecution of the minorities. A so-called religious parliament even called upon Hindus to buy the latest arms and ammunition to carry out genocide of the Muslims. The US State Department’s annual report to the Congress on international religious freedom listed several incidents of ‘violence’ against minorities in India. It included incidents of ‘cow vigilantism, attacks on religious places and properties owned by Muslims and anti-conversion laws in several states of India’.
The report also accused the Indian authorities of allegedly ignoring the attacks on ‘religious minorities’ and supporting the ‘rising incidents of attacks on their places of worship’. It further criticized the country for imposing new laws and penalties to curb the forced religious conversions. “Four state governments have laws imposing penalties against so-called forced religious conversions for the purpose of marriage.
The minorities can’t protect their rights unless they coalesce and start a joint struggle “oppressed people of India movement” against the majoritarian Indian government. The international community and the USA should take India to task for human rights violations. The USA could invoke provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act, passed in 1998, during the Clinton administration, against the rogue Modi government.
India has a slew of draconian laws to stifle dissent and suppress protests. Even the colonial-era Indian Penal Code provision about “sedition” has not been repealed despite strictures by the courts.
“Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls. India’s Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.”
The farmers’ movement succeeded as it transformed into an “oppressed people of India movement”. The farmer’s protest began, initially, with the sole aim to get the new farm laws repealed. The farmers perceived “crony capitalism” as a surreptitious and predatory unilateral attempt to take away their lands, their single source of livelihood. But, the government, infatuated by the hubris of its parliamentary majority, shrugged off the farmers’ demand. They thought that the farmers lacked capacity to mobilize their miniscule protest into a mass movement.
To ‘strongman’ modi’s chagrin, the protest has assumed an all-Indian dimension as Bhim-army chief Chandra Sheikhar Azad, founder of azad samaj party (open-society party) joined the protesters with declaration ‘ek juth ho kar larna hai’ (we have to fight united).
To express solidarity with the farmers, 18 opposition parties decided to boycott Indian president’s address to joint sitting of the parliament at the start of the budget session . They criticized the government for obduracy when 155 farmers, braving water cannons, tear gas and lathi charges, have already lost their lives. Surprisingly, the farmers across several states, irrespective of their religious beliefs, joined the protest, braving police baton charge and water torrents on elderly farmers, besides inclement weather, sometimes becoming freezing. Farmers’ local and Diaspora sympathizers flooded them with food, fruit and even quintals of American almonds (from US-based supporters). The government tried to sow seeds of discord among the peasant unions.
The protest went on showing singular interfaith harmony where the non-Muslims human-shielded the Muslims offering prayers.
The famers’ stamina baffled the arrogant Modi government’s imagination. The farmers turned their trolleys into makeshift dormitories. The sick and tired farmers were relieved to be replaced with fresh batches from homes far afield. Women back home plunged into the fields to take care of cultivated land and livestock.
The minorities can’t protect their rights unless they coalesce and start a joint struggle “oppressed people of India movement” against the majoritarian Indian government. The international community and the USA should take India to task for human rights violations. The USA could invoke provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act, passed in 1998, during the Clinton administration, against the rogue Modi government.
