In this context,the recent action of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena, has given a fresh impetus to my conviction that Arundhati Roy, the world renowned inspirational writer and social activist from India should join the growing list of these inspiring women.

After all, the series has celebrated women like Rosa Parks, the towering American civil rights activist of the 20th century. The inclusion of Roy in the list would make perfect sense considering her outstanding record as a writer and an activist and this inclusion would also send a very strong message to those sitting in the powerful Indian Establishment, who are using every tool to suppress any voice of reason, and that too in the garb of democracy.

Indeed, over the last few decades, Roy has faced innumerable instances wherein she has been targeted by governments and other forces flaunting diverse ideological hues and colours, but the Right wing Hindutva brigade has been the main ideological apparatus that has consistently sought to persecute her. Saxena’s recent action on behalf of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which has come back to power with depleted numbers in parliament, marks the latest in the series of such attempts.

He has not only sanctioned the prosecution of Roy, but also that of the former Central University of Kashmir law professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain on the charge that their speech in 2010, in support of the right to self-determination by the people of Kashmir, is an act of sedition. The order by Saxena is on the basis of a complaint filed by Sushil Pandit in the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in New Delhi. Interestingly, Pandit had submitted his petition in November 2010. Interestingly, Saxena has woken up to the complaint 14 years later.

This new act of persecution certainly merits a fitting reply from the promoters of the “Inspiring Women” series. Since its beginning, Mattel Inc. has recognized not only non-white female figures, but also those with motivating stories. And why not, as we need our daughters to grow up not only as career women, but also as social justice activists?

When Barbie was initially introduced years ago, it was more like a fashion doll catering to Eurocentric tastes and environment, something people of colour like me, coming from a country with a history of colonial repression could not relate with. It represented predominantly white blonde beauty that ruled the Hollywood and modelling industry.

In the last few years, the company has really evolved by creating dolls with features of other races, such as Black, Asian, Latino and the indigenous groups of Australia and North America. This had become even more necessary in an era of decolonization.

Then there is a growing list of inspiring women, who cannot be all white. The Barbie club has rightfully included Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter apart from Parks, the Black American activist who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger for the sake of segregation laws on a bus in the US.

Other prominent figures in the list are Eleanor Roosevelt, the US first lady with a legacy of activism, Jane Goodall, a famous anthropologist and an expert on Chimpanzees, Maya Angelou, a prominent poet and civil rights activist, Madam CJ Walker, a self made entrepreneur, who broke many barriers Bessie Coleman, the first African American pilot, Ida Wells, an African American journalist, Anna Maya Wong, an Asian American actress, besides Sally Ride, a famous astronaut and several more.

Parks who was introduced in 2019 by Barbie, was our Christmas gift for our daughter, who was an 11-year-old back then. Not only did it bring a smile on her face, she was carried away by the brief story written about Parks on the box. She later wrote an essay about her, which also explained why Parks remains the favourite among her private doll collection.

Thanks to the legacy of Parks, her interest in the civil rights movement has increased as she turned 16 this year. She now reads books about Black history with a lot of curiosity. The positive impact of such initiatives on young minds was noticed by our family first hand.

Mattel would only be strengthening this inspiring track record by including Roy in their list. She has published two novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, besides several political essays and has always stood for the underdog and challenged the Establishment.

The God of Small Things fetched her the 1997 Booker Prize that gave her international recognition.

Roy has been under constant attack for questioning the status quo. Her difficulties have grown little more under the current right wing government, which is highly intolerant to the religious minorities and any voice of dissent.

Some of the scholars close to Roy had to endure imprisonments on trumped up charges, and yet she remained steadfast in her resolve. One of them, a physically challenged Delhi University Professor, G. N. Saibaba was thrown behind bars in 2014 by the previous government, but the present BJP government not only refused to let him go, but did not allow him to see his mother on death bed for the last time.

Saibaba was wrongfully convicted for merely advocating for the rights of the Adivasis or the indigenous peoples of India who were facing eviction from their traditional lands by the extraction industry looking for rich minerals underneath. After having suffered in jail for a decade, he was acquitted by the court early this year and is now a free bird.

Roy had written a very powerful article about his incarceration in the face of possible criminal action by the vindictive Indian establishment. She was slapped with a criminal complaint in the past for speaking her mind, but perhaps her international fame saved her from any action on part of the government.

She has been in the forefront of a campaign against Narmada dam in Gujarat that threatened the livelihood of many and had returned her national award in 2015 following the murders of scholars and the lynching of a Muslim man on suspicion of consuming beef by the supporters of Hindu Right. She was given this award in 1989 for writing a film screenplay.

She has been vocal against an ongoing repression of Kashmiri Muslims asking for freedom. Not only that, she had travelled widely in the heartland of Maoist insurgents in central India to understand their side of the story and wrote a very long essay for the Outlook magazine. During COVID-19, she reported about the plight of the poor from the ground.

She has been consistent in her criticism of power and privilege without taking sides, whether it was the previous, more liberal, Congress government or the present one with an ultra nationalist agenda. So much so, she has been critical of Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated by Hindu fanatics. She pulled no punches while criticising Gandhi, who is considered as father of the nation for his belief in caste system even though he challenged untouchability.

Her first novel was also critical of the Communist government in Kerala for its double speak on caste-based oppression and discrimination against Dalits. Her second novel is a moving story of the marginalised sections of India.

She definitely deserves to join Maya Angelou and Ida Bells considering her work in the area of social justice. Barbie has already created a space for female writers and journalists; they only need to make little room for Roy, so that the girls of my daughter’s generation can get inspired by Indian icons like her and make the tyrants across the globe accountable for their misdeeds.

It is high time that the world shed light on people like her who continue to sit in harms’ way and raise voice against State violence in a country like India whose image as the world’ s largest democracy is often taken for granted. In spite of so much intimidation, Roy has not remained silent and continues to tell the world what India really is.

Undoubtedly her image should get crystallised in the “Inspiring Women” series as a symbol of courageous social and political resistance against oppression.

Courtesy: The AIDEM

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Close to the 38th anniversary of  the 1984 Sikh Genocide, two Indian movies have tried to expose the reality of the word’s so called largest secular democracy. 

Both Laal Singh Chaddha and Jogi that depict the state sponsored massacre of the Sikhs in the first week of November 1984 following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards have been produced by Muslim filmmakers Aamir Khan and Ali Abbas Zafar respectively.  

Thousands of Sikhs were murdered across India by the mobs instigated by the leaders of Gandhi’s ruling Congress party with the help of police. In the national capital of New Delhi alone about 3,000 Sikhs were slaughtered.  

Khan who is a prominent Bollywood actor had earlier produced a documentary Rubaru Roshni that deals with the same subject.  

Whereas Laal Singh Chaddha is a Hindi adaptation of Forrest Gump, Rubaru Roshni is an inspiring story of reconciliation between former Sikh militant Ranjit Singh Kukki and the daughter of a senior politician Lalit Makan who was murdered for being allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh pogroms. 

Zafar’s Jogi looks deeply into the complicity of the police machinery that openly sided with the goons that targeted Sikhs. 

Though a number of movies have been made on the horrific events of 1984 over the past three decades, these two films have come at a time when attacks on religious minorities, especially Muslims have grown in India under a supremacist, right wing, Hindu BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002 when Muslims came under attack after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire leaving more than 50 passengers dead. Stone pelting by a large angry crowd of Muslims gathered near the rail platform added fuel to the fire.  The technique that was once used to eliminate Sikhs was applied against Muslims this time. Even as Modi was never charged, he was denied US visa until he became the Prime Minister in 2014 for letting this happen under his watch.  That the two Muslims chose to make films on the pain and sufferings of the Sikhs instead of Gujarat episode and the current situation is heart-warming and shows just how much the two minority groups need each other.  

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As the fourth anniversary of Gauri Lankesh’s assassination approaches, the City of Burnaby has declared September 5 as a day in honour of the slain Indian journalist. Gauri Lankesh was a daring editor who was allegedly shot dead by right wing extremists outside her Bengaluru home on the ill-fated date in 2017. On Friday, August 27, Mayor Mike Hurley made the proclamation that describes Lankesh as a “courageous Indian journalist who stood up for truth and justice” and, “laid down her life… in her fight against repression and for human rights.”  

The dedication may be viewed here:

A fearless journalist, Gauri Lankesh consistently wrote against superstition and growing fanaticism under the current Hindutva nationalist BJP government in New Delhi. Her independent publication also highlighted how attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have spiked ever since the BJP came to power with a brute majority in 2014. Lankesh had also challenged and questioned those in power and raised her voice against state violence through her writings. Her death was rejoiced by right-wing trolls on social media, many of whom openly claim to be supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

This is not the first international honour bestowed on Gauri Lankesh posthumously. On October 8, 2018, Lankesh was honoured at a memorial commemorating reporters killed on duty at the Bayeux-Calvados Awards held in France. The Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents (Prix Bayeux-Calvados des correspondants de guerre) is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bayeux and the General Council of Calvados. Its goal is to pay tribute to journalists who work in dangerous conditions to allow the public access to information about war.

Gauri Lankesh’s name was carved on a pillar along with those of other journalists killed in the line of duty.

This is also not the first time that the City of Burnaby has honoured an Indian human rights defender. Last year, the city had proclaimed a day after the towering human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was killed by the Indian police for documenting the cases of those kidnapped and eliminated in an extra judicial manner in the name of ending Sikh militancy in Punjab. Incidentally, Khalra was abducted on September 6, 1995 from his home in Amritsar and later murdered.   

Burnaby City Councillor Sav Dhaliwal and former Burnaby School Trustee Baljinder Kaur Narang have been instrumental behind these proclamations that were requested by Radical Desi and other members of the South Asian community.  

Related:

From Lodi to Modi, Kabir will continue to be more powerful
From Bujha Singh to Stan Swamy: A story of institutional apathy

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July 5, 2021 will go down as another dark day in the history of the world’s so-called largest democracy. It was then that an 84-year-old Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in the custody of the Indian state, while waiting for his bail. He was moved to a hospital after contracting Covid-19 and died of cardiac arrest.  

Swamy had worked among the Adivasis or indigeous people in Jharkhand and was vocal against their repression, as they faced eviction from their traditional lands by the extraction industry, allegedly with the backing of the government. He was arrested under trumped up charges after being accused of terrorism for merely standing up for the marginalised. 

His health had deteriorated in the jail during the pandemic, and yet the authorities remained adamant not to release him even on humanitarian grounds. He was one of those scholars who were arrested on malicious charges to suppress any voice of dissent at the behest of the current right-wing Hindutva nationalist regime led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

Swamy’s demise coincides with the 51st anniversary of the extra-judicial killing of an 82-year-old former Indian freedom fighter Bujha Singh, who had died in police custody on July 28, 1970. Singh who had participated in the struggle to rid India of the British occupation, was instead murdered by the police for his association with revolutionary communist movement sparked by an uprising of landless tillers, who’ve been fighting against the rich and the elites since the 1960s.

Following an uprising in the Naxalbari village of West Bengal by poor farmers, who claimed a right to the land, there was a campaign of police repression. People like Singh joined the radical movement. All reports indicate that he died in a staged shootout by Punjab police under a different regime.  

Half century later, the history of Singh was repeated in the form of what many have called as an “institutional murder” of Swamy. It is pertinent to mention here that an 81-year-old Telugu poet and political activist, Varavara Rao continues to be incarcerated under brutal conditions even as he was recently tested positive for Covid-19. Like Swamy and Singh, Rao had also dared to question the power and stand up for the Underdog.  

All this only reflects poorly on India’s democracy, and flies in the face of Modi who had called for fighting Corona with Karuna (compassion). After all, his government remained indifferent to a petition seeking unconditional release of political prisoners due to the spread of the pandemic in Indian jails.  

Rather than trying to get to the bottom of the problem of social unrest caused by systemic injustice and inequality, the state is going after veterans such as Singh, Swamy or Rao, to instil fear in the minds of political dissidents. And to achieve that end, Indian officials can go to any length.

It’s a shame that Indian society claims to be respectful of its seniors, but remains insensitive to these horrific stories. The tales of these two men shows that the Indian system’s brutal side remains unchanged even as the disparity between the rich and the poor has grown over the past 50 years. There is no respite to the most underprivileged and underserved, despite tall claims of development and progress. 

Related:

Father Stan Swamy passes away waiting for bail
Covid-19 a virtual death sentence, new persecution tool against Bhima-Koregaon accused

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Kabir was born to a Muslim family of weavers in Varanasi, India in 1398. He had denounced orthodoxy of both the Islam and Hinduism and was highly critical of blind faith and the brutal caste system within the Hindu society. He grew up as a poet whose body of work had also inspired Sikh gurus who included his verses in their holy scriptures of Guru Granth Sahib.  

Some of his poems were no less than a war cry that inspired many radicals to take to the arms to fight against injustice and repression. He mainly stood for the poor and marginalised that incited the Hindu and Muslim clergy to team up against him and provoke the then-Delhi emperor Sikandar Lodi to punish him. However, Kabir survived several attempts by Lodi to get him executed. This was primarily because he had a huge following even among those who worked for the king.  

Ironically, his birthplace is now the constituency of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose actions are allegedly the mirror image of Lodi. Not only the attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown under his ruling Hindutva nationalist BJP government, the Hindutva orthodoxy that Kabir had challenged has captured the centre stage of Indian politics.  

Rather Modi has been trying to appropriate Kabir. On Thursday, while paying tribute to the saint on his birth anniversary, Modi said that the path shown by him will continue to inspire generations to move ahead with brotherhood and goodwill. What could be more contradictory than someone like Modi saying it when his government has locked up scholars who have been standing up for the underdog following in the footsteps of Kabir. The list is long, but just a few instances are enough to suggest that he has no moral right to even talk about Kabir.  

Anand Teltumbde, the grandson-in-law of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a towering social justice activist and the architect of the Indian constitution whose family is believed to have been influenced by Kabir, is being incarcerated for the past one year on trumped up charges for merely questioning the power. Teltumbde is a renowned writer and columnist who exactly practiced what Kabir had preached.    

Likewise, Prof. G.N. Saibaba, a former Delhi University who is disabled below the waist continues to be jailed under inhuman conditions for raising his voice against repression of minorities and the poor. An elderly revolutionary poet Vara Vara Rao too is detained to silence any voice of reason and dissent.

Maybe, we need to remind Modi that it was Kabir who had said; “The brave is the one who fights for the oppressed.” By persecuting Teltumbde, Saibaba, Rao and many more like them, Modi is simply repeating what Lodi did centuries ago.  

Related:

Kashi ka Kabir
Remembering Kazi Nazrul Islam: Syncretic secularism in face of a communal divide

The post From Lodi to Modi, Kabir will continue to be more powerful appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Narendra Modi first got elected as Prime Minister of India in May 2014. His right wing Hindu nationalist BJP has turned what has otherwise been known as the world’s largest democracy into an intolerant Hindu theocracy. Attacks on religious minorities, particularly Muslims and political dissidents have grown under him since then.

Let’s first examine, why is this happening? And, what is so unique about this government?

We must keep in mind that India has seen an Emergency and press censorship in 1975 under a different regime. Likewise, India also witnessed the Sikh Genocide in 1984. That was then under the Congress government. For the record, the Congress party which is now in the opposition claims to be a secular alternative to the BJP. Nevertheless, the Congress party had engaged itself in divisive and sectarian politics for short term gains by polarising the Hindu majority. Even so, the difference between the two parties needs to be understood.

BJP is a political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) RSS – a Hindu supremacist group established in 1925 when India was under British occupation. Notably, the RSS never played an active role in the freedom movement. It mainly campaigned to establish a Hindu nation in which Muslims and Christians were to be treated as second-class citizens.

RSS has always considered Islam and Christianity as foreign religions, while the domestic faith groups such as Buddhism and Sikhism as part of the Hindu fold. Their exclusionist and assimilationist agenda was no secret. They believed in violence and fascism. It is not surprising that they idolized Hitler and justified Jewish holocaust. They rather drew inspiration from Nazis.

RSS itself is like a semi paramilitary force that routinely organizes camps across India. They mostly wear khaki shorts and sport black caps during their ceremonies. Modi is an RSS man. There is a famous quote from him saying that he owes to the Sangh (RSS).It is important to mention here that the RSS was briefly banned following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the towering leader of the passive resistance movement against British rule.

Although a practicing Hindu himself, unlike RSS founders, Gandhi believed in the coexistence of Hindus and Muslims. In spite of many of his own contradictions, Gandhi did not suit RSS. One of their followers Nathuram Godse killed him in 1948.

While the BJP will never officially question Gandhi, who has been accepted as the father of the Indian nation, some of its MPs have been caught into controversies for glorifying his assassin. However, Modi revers V.D. Savarkar, another problematic figure and a Hindu bigot, who was involved in Gandhi murder, although he was acquitted by the courts for lack of evidence.    

Let’s face it. Modi’s ascendance to power is the culmination of both the consistent efforts of the RSS to transform political environment through social engineering and the pragmatic majoritarian politics of the previous Congress government. Right from Gandhi to the present Congress leadership has compromised to please Hindu majority by soft peddling religion-based politics. 

For instance Gandhi believed in cow protection. Cow is considered a sacred animal by many devout Hindus. Today, the BJP has made many tough cow protection laws, while its supporters continue to hound Muslims suspected of carrying beef in their tiffin boxes.

In 1984, the Congress government ordered the military attack on the Golden Temple complex, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs in Amritsar to deal with handful of militants fighting an armed insurgency leaving many innocent pilgrims dead. As a result of this ill-conceived army operation, Sikhs were outraged all across the world. This was done to humiliate Sikh minority to win an upcoming election.

On October 31, 1984, the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. The Congress then organised anti-Sikh massacre all over India. Several BJP/RSS men also participated in the violence. In the ensuing election, Indira’s son got huge majority in the parliament, while BJP only had two MPs. In other words, the BJP-RSS vote had shifted to the Congress.

Modi used similar tactics in 2002 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Following burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, anti-Muslim pogroms were organized all over Gujarat under his watch. He had blamed the incident on Muslims. While Modi was never charged, the survivors and the witnesses continue to allege his complicity. He was denied visa by US and other western countries until he became the Prime Minister in 2014. In 2015, he visited Canada.

Let’s fast forward to his re-election in 2019.

Shortly after his second term began, his government started pushing the core RSS agenda more aggressively. As part of its long term commitment to extreme, Hindu Right, his government scrapped the Constitutional protection of special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India. Thousands of Kashmiris fighting for self-determination were detained.

Thereafter came the famous temple verdict. The Indian Supreme Court handed over a disputed site of Ayodhya to the Hindus. Ayodhya is the birthplace of Lord Ram- a prominent Hindu god.

BJP has always claimed that the Muslim rulers had demolished the Ram temple that once stood there to build a mosque. In 1992, the BJP goons had razed the mosque. Since then the BJP has been campaigning to rebuild a Hindu temple at the exact spot.

It is widely believed that the Supreme Court favoured the ruling BJP and now Modi is determined to deliver on his promise to implement the RSS agenda of rebuilding Ram temple. The 2019 second, electoral win had obviously emboldened Modi.

This government then went ahead to pass another controversial law called Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. This was a highly discriminatory legislation that welcomes only non-Muslim refugees coming to India from the three neighbouring Muslim-dominated countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

This law was heavily resisted.

If all this wasn’t enough, the BJP government passed farm laws that the farming community believes is going to harm their livelihood. All these laws were implemented without much debate in the parliament, merely because the BJP has an absolute majority in the house. Anyone resisting these policies can be potentially charged and detained under draconian laws or branded as “anti-national” by the lapdog media of Modi government.

The situation continues to deteriorate. So much so, those raising questions over the mismanagement of this government to deal with COVID 19 situation face the music.

Despite tall claims of development and progress, India has failed under Modi. The shortage of oxygen and beds in the hospitals suggests the complete lack of preparedness. To question that makes you an “anti-national” or “unpatriotic”. We can see clearly how the space for democracy and dialogue is rapidly shrinking under Modi. Previous governments definitely laid fertile ground for the current state of affairs, by pandering to the Hindu majority and not doing enough to ensure equitable growth and opportunity. But this government must take blame for outright failure as they have majority in the house. If this government can implement core programs of the RSS, why can’t it deliver on issues that matter to the wider population?

That the majority is with Modi is mainly because the RSS has been actively mobilising people in the name of Hindu nationalism for all these years. Not only have previous governments failed to stop the RSS from marching ahead, they have been pandering Hindu majority by playing destructive and competitive politics only to the benefit of Modi. Today, the RSS has deeply penetrated into all Indian institutions, the academic bodies, the administrative structure and even the police and the intelligence.

Let’s examine what is means for Canada and the rest of the world?

Whatever is happening in India will definitely have its ripple effects here. We all are familiar with the 1985 Air India bombings; the worst terror incident in the Canadian history. Never forget that it was the culmination of the ugly events of 1984. The Canada-based Sikh separatists are widely blamed for the incident that claimed 331 lives.

Are we waiting for another tragedy?

It is important to pay attention.

The way Modi is treating minorities; it might have an impact on the Indian Diaspora. His supporters are increasingly becoming vocal and aggressive in Canada and inciting his opponents here, while most Canadians still take India’s secular democracy for granted.

From a Canadian perspective, Modi’s policy of assimilating Sikhs should be 

recognised as a huge problem. Many as our First Nations are resisting assimilation, the Sikhs, who have a sizable population in Canada and have been defending their separate identity, are anxious about the continued growth of the RSS.

Notably, the RSS is repeating the history of Indian Residential Schools. They have been plucking young Indigenous or Adivasi girls from the north-eastern states and are sending them to the seminaries far away from their families to be indoctrinated into right wing Hindu nationalist ideology.

The CAA is too the repetition of Continuous Journey Regulation (CJR) under which the Komagata Maru ship was forcibly returned in 1914. Whereas, CJR was aimed to keep Indian immigrants away, CAA discriminates against Muslim refugees.

RSS believes in the brutal caste system within Hindu society. Much like blacks, who suffer systemic racism here in North America, the Dalits or so called untouchables face worst discrimination under that system. For the RSS the idea of racial superiority was never alien. Not only they idolized Hitler, the BJP supporters openly admired Donald Trump. Modi campaigned shamelessly for his re-election. Let’s keep in mind though that Modi and RSS are far more dangerous than Trump.

As we see anti-Asian racism growing here in North America due to COVID 19, in India people from north eastern states with oriental facial features are also facing discrimination in other parts of India under Modi’s watch. Due to his anti-China rhetoric, this hate has grown even more. It is time for Canada to pay attention and take this challenge seriously.

Where has Canada failed?

Canada which is too enamoured by Sikh politics failed to overlook the gradual growth of the RSS in this country. What is the reason that it has failed to ban any Hindu extremist group? It is well known how the Hindu Right mobilised people in Canada in support of the Ram temple movement. Some temples even here in BC had supported the idea of rebuilding Ram temple in Ayodhya. Those associated with the movement and were responsible for the demolition of Ayodhya mosque in 1992 were invited here and allowed to address the temple congregations.

Some of these temples have been holding RSS drills while some of the RSS men held position of power in local temples and yet the Canadian authorities looked away.

India and Canada have had number of strategies to deal to deal with the Sikh separatists, but there is a complete silence about growing Hindu extremism.

Just recently, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised his concern over mistreatment of agitating farmers in India, there was a fierce backlash from India. Shortly after that Trudeau asked for COVID 19 vaccines from Modi, RSS sympathizers in Canada and others demonstrated against Modi critics in Canada. While Canada had opened doors for Hindus and Sikhs facing religious persecution in Afghanistan and a Christian woman who faced death in Pakistan, there has been a deafening silence over what is happening with minorities in India.

Whereas, Canada had recently recognized genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China, it failed to recognize genocides of Sikhs and Muslims in India, which only reflects its selectivity. Even though Sikh separatist movement has lost its charm, Canada is still keeping an eye on Sikh activists more than it should be keeping a watch on extreme right-wing Hindu groups.

What needs to be done?

There is a need to keep a check on the RSS and its folks in Canada, besides banning their activities. This should be followed by a freeze on their assets to stop hate funding. Equally important is to identify the organisations that have sympathy for RSS and Modi, but operate under the disguise of pro India lobby groups.

There is also a need to keep a watch on others all across Canada who have been trying to influence our politicians and the ethnic media to create a favourable image of Modi and the RSS. Elected officials who openly sympathize with Modi and RSS and continue to overlook their crimes against humanity must be made accountable.

If Canada really is a human rights leader in the world, it needs to stand up for the human rights of minorities in India under Modi.

(With a few amendments to the author’s presentation to the Squamish Rotary Club on May 13, 2021)

Related:

This government has all but actually declared a war on its own people: Teesta Setalvad
EXCLUSIVE: Justice PB Sawant lays Threadbare the RSS’s Agenda
The Ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is both Hate-Ridden and Supremacist – Part 1 

The post Seven Years of Narendra Modi in power appeared first on SabrangIndia.

May 19 marks the birth anniversary of the founder of Buddhism. Born as Siddhartha Gautama in 563 B.C. to the Sakya king Suddhodana and his wife Mahamaya, Buddha eventually grew up as a great thinker who started an egalitarian religion after abandoning privileges of the aristocratic life and wandering among the less privileged, and attaining the enlightenment for a just society. 

His teachings were unique in many ways and remain even more relevant today in the light of growing superstitions and bigotry across the world.

Buddha was an extraordinary child who showed early signs of his quest for truth. He began questioning why there was so much misery and human exploitation and what was behind the class conflict and uneven distribution of wealth.

He decided to leave the luxurious life to find answers to these questions and opposed an unjust war between the Sakya state he belonged to and the neighbouring Koliya rule. The war was precipitated due to conflict over the control of waters of a river that divided the two states. For this. he chose to go into exile rather than compromise on his principles for the sake of patriotism. Thus began his journey in search of the eternal truth.

He gradually found out reasons behind human sufferings and laid the foundation of a new order that challenged inhuman and orthodox value systems practiced by the dominant Hindutva driven society. Among them is the caste system that discriminates against the so-called untouchables.

Unlike other old and established religions, Buddha emphasised on the ability to question everything and not to accept anything professed in the name of faith blindly. 

He also ensured that everyone in Buddhism is treated equally and embraced the ill and the destitute.

Although Buddha has been interpreted in many different ways, the analysis of his life and teachings are more logically presented by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, a towering Indian scholar and an undisputed leader of the Dalits or the untouchables in his famous book, The Buddha and his Dhamma. 

Ambedkar had later co-authored the Indian Constitution and kept fighting against repression of Dalits in the Hindutva-dominated India. Above all, he believed in science and reason and found Buddha as an answer to superstitions promoted by the Hindu priest class. 

Throughout his life, Ambedkar faced caste-based discrimination first hand and was frustrated to see Hindu leadership remaining indifferent to the pain of his community.  That was the precise reason why Ambedkar quit Hinduism and adopted Buddhism before he died in 1956.

The book on his understanding of Buddhism was first published after his death and became a bible of neo-Buddhists that gives hope to the Dalits who are increasingly getting alienated from the Hindu society. After all, the caste-based discrimination has only grown under a right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP government. Not surprisingly, the BJP founders believed in the caste system that enjoys religious sanction from Hinduism.

It is a separate matter that many conventional Buddhists had rejected Ambedkar’s approach.

But the book comes handy to comprehend the message of Buddha especially in these dark times of growing bigotry and pandemic. Not only do we see a spike in hate crimes in India and other parts of the world, but the science is also being challenged by the anti-maskers and Covid-19 deniers who have become emboldened because of the populist leaders. In India, the BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have repeatedly gone to the extent of portraying Hindu mythology as science. As if this wasn’t enough, a BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur recently stated that drinking cow urine can prevent Coronavirus. The government which lacks scientific vision has clearly put the country in danger as a result of which more than 2,50,000 human lives have been lost. 

Buddha, particularly of Ambedkar’s book, gives us hope as he stood up against his own government when it was determined to wage war against Koliyas without giving peace a chance. Today, when most nation states want its citizens to blindly follow them in the name of patriotic duties, we need to think of Buddha who stood up for humanity instead of jingoism. 

*Views expressed are the author’s own. 

More by Gurpreet Singh:

Sikh priest’s suicide exposes double speak of the ruling BJP and its apologists  

Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest: Justin Trudeau 

If Modi really cares about Nanak’s teachings, he must treat farmers with respect 

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A Punjab-based journalist and former Information Commissioner appealed to the Indian government to release physically challenged scholar Professor GN Saibaba from jail on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.  

In no uncertain terms, Chander Parkash from Bathinda said in a live interview with Burnaby-based Spice Radio on the international day of persons with disabilities on December 3 that the mistreatment of Professor G.N. Saibaba is both unfortunate and a blot on the Indian democracy.  

His son Yashveer Goyal has established himself as a role model for the Indian youth in sports and Information Technology, in spite of being born with a hearing disability. He had come to the support of the former Delhi University lecturer, who continues to face inhuman conditions in the Indian jail after being convicted in 2017.  

Saibaba was first arrested on trumped up charges in 2014 for merely speaking out against the repression of religious minorities and the Adivasis or indigenous communities being evicted from their traditional lands by the extraction industry with the backing of the Indian government. He was given a life sentence after being branded as Maoist sympathiser. Notably, the Maoist insurgents are active in the areas inhabited by the Adivasis.    

Even though the United Nations has asked for his release due to his deteriorating health, the government remains adamant. So much so, he was neither even given parole to see his mother on the death bed nor attend her last rituals.  

Yashveer was born with hearing disability in 1999. His father noticed it when his child remained unresponsive to the loud sounds of firecrackers in the neighbourhood on the night of Deewali – the Indian festival of lights.

However, his undeterred parents brought him up with a lot of care despite many challenges. Young Yashveer had to face discrimination in school in a conservative society, where ostracising of children with disabilities is very common. But his parents made sure that he concentrated on education and extracurricular activities that helped him to master badminton and chess, besides Information Technology.  

After winning many championships and competitions in these fields, both at the provincial and higher level, Yashveer was given a national award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in 2019, under the Role Model Hearing Impairments (Male) category.

Yashveer had asked the Prime Minister of India to make arrangements for the release of wheelchair bound Saibaba.  

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the vulnerability of inmates like Saibaba, locked up in overcrowded Indian jails, has grown.      

Yashveer had written on his Facebook page, “As I am a special child with absolute hearing impairment so I know the life of specially disabled persons. I have come to know about the plight of Saibaba, facing hellish conditions in jail and also under danger due to Covid-19”.

Reiterating similar views on his son’s behalf who cannot speak, Chander Parkash told Spice Radio that the natural justice demands that Saibaba must be released. He added that whatever may be the political ideology of Saibaba but his condition does not allow him to stay in jail anymore. He added that he and his family are ready to face any consequences for defending the human rights of someone who deserves sympathy. 

More by Gurpreet Singh:

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If Modi really cares about Nanak’s teachings, he must treat farmers with respect 

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