JOIN USA report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has said that religious intolerance has increased in India and minority rights and institutions are under attack. It noted that lynch mobs and cow vigilante groups are active in the country, harassing and posing threats to members of minority religious communities. The external affairs ministry has rejected the report and questioned the US government’s locus standi in commenting on the situation of Indian citizens. It is true that the criticism by a foreign government or agency of India’s internal situation is not welcome. But what is more important than the right or locus standi of others to comment on India is the correctness of the comment. It cannot be denied that religious intolerance has increased in India because of the activities of Hindutva organisations. The actions of lynch mobs are a reflection of this. It is also true that the BJP government at the Centre and in the states have not done enough to protect religious minorities and have even adopted policies which have hurt them and their rights.
Just in the past few days there have been at least three reported incidents of attacks on or persecution of minorities. A Muslim man was lynched by a mob in Jharkhand. A Muslim cleric and a madrassa teacher were attacked in Delhi and Kolkata for not chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’. Last year, even the Supreme Court had made observations on the deteriorating conditions for religious freedom in some states and noted that “certain state governments were not doing enough to stop violence against religious minorities.’’ It also clearly said that “rising intolerance and growing polarisation expressed through incidents of mob violence cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order.’’ This is essentially what the US report also said. We may not be happy when someone holds up the mirror to us, but we must not shy away from looking into it ourselves.
It will be useful to look at the situation in a historical perspective. Whenever there were divisions in India — between Hindu kings or between Hindu and Muslim rulers — foreigners have exploited it. Even Partition was the result of a religious and communal divide, fuelled in no small part by the Hindutva pioneers. And that is the history that Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose sought to overcome by keeping all Indians united so that no foreign entity could see an opportunity here. The Hindutva brigade seems unable to comprehend this reality and continues to dwell on the wounds of past centuries, never to come to the 21st century and live with the reality of our diversity.