In a nation that claims to be indiscriminate at its core, how ironic it is that the true victims of hate crime, Kishan Bharwad, and Lavanya, who don’t even exist to defend themselves, are forgotten, while voices favoring Muslim women wearing burqa are amplified in the highest levels of the judiciary. The wider populace, which claims to be alarmed by every act of hatred, has remained silent in the case of two Hindus who died defending their faith, which was precious to them as it was to every other person in the country, particularly Muslims.
Most of the self-proclaimed liberal has backed the hijab, or as I prefer to call it, burqa debate, claiming that one is allowed to practice one’s faith anywhere and whenever one deems appropriate. On the other hand, not a single slogan was raised to express the anguish of the two families who lost loved ones because they refused to adhere to the norms established by other communities, specifically Muslim and Christian here, in order to live in this society.
This is the India we live in, which is essentially a hybrid of two Indias: one that screams at every issue, alleging racism against “minorities” and an effort to silence “free” voices in society, and another that suffers from a slew of targeted campaigns against them and their practices, despite being the “majority.”
The story of the Hindu girl Lavanya being humiliated, harassed, and forced into adopting Christianity by a missionary school was not worthy of recognition for so-called liberals who are subscribing to the “Freedom” tenet of the constitution. Similarly, no petitions were filed and no senior counsel was appointed to represent Kishan Bharwad, who was slain in a conspiracy by a group of roughly a dozen Muslims. The hijab controversy, on the other hand, has been backed en-masse by liberals at the national level, despite the fact that it poses no threat to human life!
Well, I’m emphasising the word “minority” because it ought to be highlighted. The assistance that these groups have received under this umbrella puts them over an edge of other native groups and defies the idea of protected discrimination.
As J Sai Deepak has rightly pointed out in his book India That is Bharat, “This poses a serious and existential challenge to the Iong-term survival of the Indic consciousness since those worldviews which have historically displayed a marked inability to peacefully coexist with the Indic consciousness have been afforded greater freedom to reserve their societal groupings and institutions with almost no interference by the Indian State ostensibly in the name of advancement of the fights of ‘minorities’. As a consequence, the Indic civilisational worldview finds itself disempowered in its own homeland despite decolonisation. Perhaps, no other country is in such a dire need of decolonisation as Bharat given the stepmotherly treatment the Indian State metes out to the adherents of its native consciousness.”
Though, Sai Deepak has focused on the concept of decolonisation, his statement is firmly valid in the present context too. The denial of incidents of hate crime such as Kishan Bharwad and Lavanya by the left-liberal subscribers is nothing but displays the advantage that minority groups (Muslims and Christians in this case) have gained over the native majority (Hindus) on the mercy of the Indian State. Through the help of the Indian State, which was until recently controlled by dispensations with covert backing of such groups, supporters of them have risen to the upper echelons of practically every section of intellectual representation. And these are the people who regulate that what holds the calibre to be staged into a national or international debate and what not.
The way this burqa has been tossed in the public and even the highest stage of judiciary, the Supreme Court, is being persuaded to weigh in, shows the commitment these people have to get their agendas endorsed by the Indian State. Kishan and Lavanya will be simply two more names to be documented and filed away in some police station’s records. As long as these left-wing liberals keep ratcheting up the heat on the burqa discussion, the voice for incidences of hate crime against Hindus will be suppressed. Hindus must decipher issues that lie ahead of them and comprehend that they are the only ones who can defend themselves, and that not even the Indian state is concerned about them.
