to the extremist situation in India. The focus needs to be turned to India if the rising graph of the extreme political school of thought in South Asia is to recede.In India, The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) came into being on Aug 29, 1964, where S S Apte, one of its founding fathers and the then secretary general of the RSS (Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh), declared that the world has been divided into being either Islamic, Christian or Communist and that all three of them viewed the Hindu society adversely. He also added that it had become necessary to organise the Hindu world (India) in order to save it from the evils of the Islamic, Christian and Communist world. The VHP believes that all Muslims and Christians in India were Hindus and so they must be encouraged to revert to Hinduism.
One of the stated goals of the VHP is to now make the global Hindu fraternity invincible through adherence to the Sanatan Dharma–i.e., Hinduism. Hindu nationalism is now a hard-line national ideology that looks at the modern-day so-called secular Republic of India as a Hindu polity–i.e., Hindu Rashtra.
The Sangh Parivar, posing as a charity organisation, provides organisational cover to all the violent and extremist Hindu organisations. BJP (Bharatya Janata Party), RSS, VHP and numerous other organisations are now a part of the Sangh Parivar. It is this organisation that collects funds within India and from abroad, including the USA and the UK, in the name of charity that is then diverted to violence against other religions.
The spate of communal violence in India against the minorities has been an outcome of this extremist Hindu nationalism ideology. In 1984, the Sikhs faced the onslaught after Operation Blue Star was launched and the most sacred Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was militarily attacked and destroyed. Sikhs were killed all over India at that time. The Babri Mosque episode, the more recent Gujarat massacre and many more atrocities against Indian Muslims are too well known. Over the years, the Christians have faced violence of sorts in India. Recently we witnessed incidents where churches were destroyed and Christians were burnt alive. The list of incidents can go into volumes.
In simple and plain words all I am saying is that if that peace in South Asia has to be achieved then the Hindu extremist political school of thought in India has to be reigned in fast. As long as Hindu extremism grows, the Kashmir issue is left unresolved and Afghanistan remains on the boil no one will be able to stem the growth of extremism in South Asia and it shall soon raise its head in all the South Asian countries where it currently exists in a latent state. The world, therefore, needs to awaken to what is happening on the religious extremist front in the world’s second most populous country–India. It is past the danger mark for everyone to begin working towards sanity and peace.
(Courtesy "The Sharif Post) published in 2009.
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