This investigative report by SabrangIndia aims to shed light on the alleged links between certain individuals employed and associated with ISKCON and who appear to be producing anti-Muslim propaganda videos. One such video, titled “The Kerala Story,” garnered attention for its portrayal of Muslim women and the implications it made about their beliefs and intentions. The controversial video, along with others, has been widely circulated on social media platforms, raising questions about the individuals who are associated with ISKCON and their role in disseminating prejudiced narratives.

ISKCON itself has had a significant impact on the lives of its followers and has fostered spiritual growth for many. However, the fact that some notable persons associated with this organisations’ are dishing out steady doses of anti-Muslim propaganda raises questions about the actual association, origin and spread of such content that is in direct conflict with the organization’s stated values and its stance on promoting unity and shared civilizational values in India.

When the movie The Kerala Story had hit the theatres and was roundly criticised widely for being Islamophobic, this video had gone viral too and was disseminated widely. It was a sleekly produced, organised effort at demonising a Muslim woman, with the implication that all Muslim women are the same – she was shown to both be a fundamentalist and a narrow-minded person. The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen and Vipul Shah made news and drew wide comment on its released in May 2023.

When SabrangIndia investigated this association –between associates and employees of ISKON and such content, the YouTube channel Bhakti Life stands up as an example. Some of the creators of video content on Bhakti Life are associated with ISKCON. One such video, The Kerala Story—the Bhakti Today version, was particularly insidious due to the wide viewership it had garnered thus far.

The Kerala Story – a stereotype gone wrong

The video, called Kerala Story– the Bhakti Today version, short story version of the controversial film depicts an interaction between three female friends, of the same age, having a discussion that veers into religion. The show depicts a black headscarf-wearing Muslim girl who immediately pushes the narrative of propagating Islam, deriding other religions, especially Hinduism. The other girl, counters her back, with a (seemingly more) reasonable and knowing tone insinuating that it is (only) the Muslim girl who has a hidden agenda. The episode fundamentally and insidiously tries to show Muslims as violent and even anti-India.

One of the characters even insinuates that religion should be preached by knowledge and not by ‘violence or money’. The implication is clear – Muslim women are fundamentalists, out to denigrate Hinduism and worse still, in cahoots with whoever is out there to convert Hindu women to the ‘cause of Islam’ aka the Kerala Story. In fact the video thumbnail bears uncanny resemblance to the film’s poster.

Coming close on the heels of the full length feature film, The Kerala story, criticised widely for taking insidious liberties with facts as well as for questioning the motive of Muslim women in mixed faith groups of friends, the video can only be called undisguised Islamophobia. According to the UN, Islamophobia is “Islamophobia is a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world.”

This video called Kerala Story– the Bhakti Today version has over 3.2 Million views, and the channel, Bhakti Today, has over 2.55 lakh subscribers. It is run by Ashwin Chaudhary and Prema Rupa. When we dug deeper, we found that these two were employed by Food for Life in Vrindavan. Prema Rupa is recorded as working at FLF as a ‘Client Relationship Officer’ from 2017 onwards, according to her LinkedIn account. The FLF website notes her to President, and describes her role as “Assistant to the President, FFLV USA. Premarupa assists FFLV USA President and takes care of the communication with all the donors and sponsors in the USA. She also assists the Indian Media department with her creative energy when required.” Ashwani Choudhary similarly seems to be employed by FLF as Head of Media since 2017. This organisation according to its website declares its mission of ‘serving humanity through love and compassion’.

Intriguingly, Food for Life, is located on the campus of the Sandipan Muni School in Vrindavan which in turn is listed on this ISKCON website as a part of ‘World Wide directory of official ISKCON Centres & Branches’

The decidedly Islamophobic nature of several of the videos on Bhakti Life, including the clearly biased ‘The Kerala Story’ video-the Bhakti Today  Version‘, and the apparent links of the creators of the content, including occasional scriptwriter for the channel, Amogh Lila Das, with ISKCON raise some grave concerns about the values propagated by sections of this organisation.

And sure enough, on the YouTube channel Bhakti Today, well known preachers or Gurus can be seen making significant contributions. For instance, the writing credits of The Kerala Story-the Bhakti Today Version, video, which demonises Muslim women has been given to H.G Sundar Gopal Prabhu from Pure Devotion. Pure Devotion is an NGO with its offices in Rajasthan, operating in Vrindavan, purportedly to help old widows there. Though his links to ISKCON are not immediately clear, HG is an honorific His Grace that is added to senior members of ISKCON.

Sure enough in other videos on Bhakti Today, one can see the now disgraced (and suspended for a month) ISKCON preacher HG Amogh Lila Prabhu.

Amogh Lila Das also frequently appears on yet another channel called My Ashray. In the about section the channel is ascribed to HG VIGYAN VIHARI PRABHU, who writes the channel is ‘inspired from International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) founded by HDG A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.’ On the website of ISKCON Delhi, Mr Vigyan Vihari is listed as its media head.

On My Ashray, Amogh Lila Prabhu picks up common communal tropes and weighs in. For example in this video, it will be difficult to ascertain if the speakers is a spiritual guru and not a crude propagandist. “Even in Europe there are people are victim to Love Jihad, they are there in Syria. Citing a case study on “one of their Brahmachaaris’, Amogh Lila Das narrates, “experienced the death of his father. Other Brahmacharies also wished to pay their respects and asked him if they could visit him at his home in Kerala. He replied to them that if they wish to come then they should come in ‘pants-shirt'”, essentially Western clothes and not the saffron robes typical to ISKCON preachers. If they were to go to the place in their saffron clothes, the shopkeepers there would refuse to sell them anything. Amogh Lila Das further argues into proclaiming how the movie Kerala Story is a ‘true story’.

Here is Lila Das weighing in into the Gyanvapi controversy at a news channel saying ‘While there should be an investigation, there is barely any need for one because it is so clear, structure wise, that is Shiv Ling, this structure is that of a Shiv Ling.” Here’s another problematic video where he says “Hindus are dhakkans and deserve to be converted because they are not ‘strong’ enough’. A variation of this is now increasingly seen in Maharashtra where speakers like Raja Singh often make the same claims.

Yet another YouTube Channel called Braj Girls has also uploaded a video about a skit against ‘Love Jihad’. Braj Girl is also noted to be the name of a band of school girls that is mentioned on the Food for Life website. This skit displays the story of Shradha who marries a man named Afthab against her parents’ wishes and ends up being abused and murdered by the man. The video discourages going against parents’ wishes, and seeks to seemingly generalise the case of Afthab. The skit also ends by a young girl saying, “‘The daughter from a new generation who spoiled the culture (sanskaar)-filled atmosphere, this new generation daughter then found herself cut in pieces.”

Love Jihad is widely seen as a Hindutva project to criminalise consensual inter-faith marriages in India. Other countries, none of them democratic, in the past have seen such experiments happen, for e.g., Nuremberg race laws in Germany under the Nazis and apartheid laws in South Africa and even strictures against interracial marriage in USA, and similarly the more recent, ban on Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living in Israel.

There seem to be many such channels. Here’s another channel run by Venugopal Charan Das and called Associations which, among other videos about ISKCON and strictures about life, love and bhakti, inserts an insidious video about how Muslims slay ‘cows’ during Baqarah Eid. This is another channel that was started in 2014 and went dormant till three years ago, only to return a year ago with content that was dramatically different. The mixture is the usual – spreading the ISKCON message through videos with click bait titles like ‘kya ISKCON desh ko divide kar raha hai?’ But a video like this which weighs into the Kerala Story yet again, belies the fact that the channel is only about ‘to step into the light of knowledge and not to stay in the darkness of ignorance.’

What is ISKCON? 

In the late 1970s, at the peak of its popularity, the Hare Krishna movement attracted approximately 10,000 followers living in communes across the United States. Originating from the teachings of Sri Chaitanya of Bengal in the 16th century, this Hindu sect, formally known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, was introduced to America by the Indian guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in the 1960s. The movement’s distinctiveness lay in its repetitive chanting of the phrase “Hare Krishna,” a practice believed by its adherents to hold great spiritual power and benefit all.

During the 1960s and ’70s, the Hare Krishna movement gained prominence in the counterculture, according to The Grunge, capturing the attention of influential figures within the hippie movement. Their appearance and chants became easily recognisable and were featured in popular movies, plays, and songs of the time. Public dancing and chanting became trademarks of the movement.

However, in the years that followed, alleged former members began to speak out about the reality of life inside Hare Krishna communes. As a result, the movement faced a significant decline in numbers, largely due to high-profile scandals involving allegations of corruption, widespread abuse, and even murder. Today, there are no longer Krishna boarding schools in the United States, reflecting the changes and challenges the Hare Krishna movement has undergone since its introduction to the country by Swami Prabhupada in 1966.

The movement has now become a global phenomenon and many of its devotees are not Indian nationals. However, in India too they have a burgeoning presence, with the ISKCON temple in Delhi being an iconic testimony to the significant and influential nature of the organisation.

The question is, why are some of the prominent associates of this a 57 year old credible organisation that has presence in countries like Malaysia and routinely gets government contracts, including serving meals for the governments’ mid-day meal scheme contract in Karnataka, openly using some of their own media personnel to produce sleek anti-Muslim propaganda.

Is it a case of going with the flow, or is there a disdain for shared civilisational values of India that has always made space for diversity. The answer to the question, either way, is worrying.

Related:

India tops online anti-Muslim hate posts, 3rd largest spike in Islamophobic tweets: 2022 Report

“246 churches burnt in 2 day, somebody strong is playing games in Manipur”: Father Jacob G Palackappilly

Patriotism, Religion and RSS Ideology

The Aesthetics of Violence and Ideology

The post Why are ISKCON employees producing anti-Muslim propaganda videos in India? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

कनाडा के 70000 लोगों ने ऑनलाइन याचिका पर हस्ताक्षर कर इस्लाम के प्रति पैदा किए जाने वाले डर के खिलाफ विरोध जताया था। इसके बाद ही कनाडा की संसद में इस संबंध में प्रस्ताव पारित हुआ। ऑनलाइन याचिका में पूरी दुनिया में इस्लाम के प्रति भय पैदा करने की कोशिशों की निंदा की गई थी।

‘डेली सबा’ के मुताबिक इस ऑनलाइन याचिका पर हस्ताक्षर की शुरुआत 8 जून, 2016 को शुरू हुई थी और 6 अक्टूबर, 2016 तो यह अभियान पूरा हो गया था।

याचिका में लिखा गया था-
इस पर हस्ताक्षर करने वाले हम नागरिक और कनाडा  के निवासी हाउस ऑफ कॉमन्स से अपील करते हैं कि हमारे साथ ये वे भी इस तथ्य को मानें कि व्यक्तिगत इस्लामी अतिवाद को इस्लाम की पहचान से नहीं जोड़ा जाना चाहिए। किसी एक शख्स के अतिवादी हो जाने का मतलब यह नहीं है कि पूरा इस्लाम ही अतिवाद का समर्थक है। हम इस्लाम से डर पैदा करने वाले किसी भी माहौल का विरोध करते हैं। 

अफसोस इस बात का है कि मीडिया में प्रस्ताव को कवरेज नहीं मिला। इससे साबित होता है कि मीडिया में कनाडा के मुस्लिम समुदाय के प्रति सहानुभूति और एकता की भावना नहीं है। ऐसे कदमों से प्रस्ताव का मकसद नाकाम हो जाता है।

दरअसल कनाडा की मुख्यधारा के मीडिया ने इस्लाम फोबिया के खिलाफ संसद में पारित इस प्रस्ताव का बिल्कुल कवरेज नहीं दिया। इसकी एक वजह तो यह है कि कनाडा अपनी संसद में इस्लाम के डर के खिलाफ पारित प्रस्ताव का प्रचार नहीं कर रहा है। इस्लाम फोबिया की वजह से कनाडा में मुस्लिम समुदाय के अधिकारों को मान्यता नहीं दी जा रही है और उन्हें लगातार हाशिये पर धकेला जा रहा है। मुख्यधारा के मीडिया में संसद में पारित प्रस्ताव का कवरेज न होना दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है और इससे इस्लाम के डर के खिलाफ चलाए जा रहे अभियान के नाकाम होने का खतरा पैदा हो गया है।  

अगर मीडिया लोगों के पास इस्लाम फोबिया के खिलाफ उठाए गए कदम के बारे में सूचना ही न पहुंचाए या उसे इस बारे में जागरुक न करे तो फिर संसद में इसके खिलाफ लाए गए प्रस्ताव को स्वीकार करने का मकसद ही क्या रह जाता है।

 
दीना इगुस्ती इंडोनेशियाई मूल की अमेरिकी मुस्लिम हैं। वह क्वींस, न्यूयॉर्क में रहती हैं। पहली पीढ़ी की अमेरिकी संतान होने के नाते अक्सर उन्हें अपनी मुस्लिम पहचान को लेकर जूझना पड़ता है। वह कविताएं लिखती हैं। उनकी कविताओं में पहचान का स्वर मुखर है। 

The post कनाडा की संसद में इस्लाम फोबिया खिलाफ प्रस्ताव पर मीडिया में चुप्पी क्यों? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

KOVAI

Suspicions bordering on hate, impelling persons to the edges of irrationality, have marked all the violence carried out in the name of faith, defined as communalism in the South Asian context. Irrational and partisan behaviour has been observed in not just the man and woman on the street but have, since the early eighties (especially) permeated and affected, the conduct of men in uniform — the Indian policeman. 

It is this absence of neutrality, witnessed as irrational bias, that violates basic tenets of rigorous training and also the oath of allegiance to the secular Indian Constitution that every public servant is bound to swear. Such behaviour, unfortunately, guided the actions of some sections of the Coimbatore (now renamed Kovai) police in November 1997. These actions resulted in unpardonable misdemeanours against sections of the Muslim minority. (See CC, February 1998).

The actions of the Kovai police had been severely condemned in February 1994, too. In a detailed investigation report, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had named two senior officers, Thiru Ganesan, the then commissioner of police, Kovai and the then ACP, Thiru Masanamuthu, for “brutal and unlawful attacks on Muslims”. 

In November 1997, aggressive behaviour of the city’s police against some young Muslims was enough to heighten tensions to a fever pitch. The news of one police constable being attacked and killed, allegedly by members of a fanatical outfit, Al Ummah, was enough for the police to go on a revenge rampage. They not only arrested the leader of the group, SA Basha, but also vent their fury against innocent and ordinary members of the Muslim community living in Coimbatore. Three days of hell followed, with the police actively conniving with members of the Hindu fanatical outfit, Hindu Munnani and the RSS.

After police highhandedness came the large scale, and indiscriminate arrests of many innocent ordinary members of the Muslim community. An independent fact–finding team subsequently found that the police was also guilty of ill–treatment, torture and abuse of the victims, leading to further alienation among the minority section of the population.

This is when Abu Backer, a citizen of this town, known hitherto for it’s flourishing textile industry and significant working class population, got involved with the issue of police brutality and partisan behaviour that is so critically linked to myths and stereotypes labelled on to the minority community. He did this through the local unit of the PUCL, of which he was an executive committee member since 1993. 
He, along with a few others, strove hard at a time when suspicions between people had severed deep connections to keep the communication links between ordinary members of the two major communities open, to press for dialogue. Backer, working in a highly polarised environment had a one point agenda – to isolate the politicised elements of both these communities and reach out through constant efforts to touch, to shake and even to shame ordinary Hindus and Muslims from falling for the political trap of hatred and division.

Here follows the account of Abu Backer in his own words:
It was not easy at the time to remind people of our abiding, everyday links because two partisan groups on both sides were bent on articulating difference. But today despite those schisms, Coimbatore is close to normal once again.’

It is surprising and shocking even, but the sad fact is that many of our fellow citizens actually believe that Muslims are outsiders, they are foreigners. It is a measure of the success of motivated propaganda, of course. But it therefore becomes necessary to systematically and painstakingly disabuse ordinary people of these notions. This is actually what we did! We showed how all of us were converts of a few generations, born of this soil, the only difference between us being that we had chosen an alternate faith. I was surprised how shocked people were when they were told the truth.

Another misconception that is widespread is the Indian Muslim’s cursed and alleged link to Pakistan. We constantly hear refrains of, “Go back to Pakistan”, especially during communal aggression or violence. These are, I think the two main crosses that we have to bear. 

In November 1997, the murder of a police constable by some Muslim youth escalated into a full-scale riot in Coimbatore. The violence, interestingly, was not between Hindus and Muslims. It was between two distinct groups trying to project themselves as the sole spokespersons of their respective communities – Hindus and Muslims. They are the Hindu Munnani that has it’s ideological moorings in the RSS and has been ominously visible in Tamil Nadu since 1981 (especially after the nation–wide hue and cry following the Meenakshipuram conversions) and the Al Ummah. 

Unfortunately, large sections of the media, too, projected it as a communal riot. We formed an investigation team and published a report. Mr Masanamuthu, the then DCP of Coimbatore, was found to be guilty of articulating rabidly anti–Muslim sentiments and actually acting on these. This man has had a history of partisan behaviour (documented in 1994, too). Yet, he continues to wear and flout his uniform.
Inevitably almost, what followed the callous police–Muslim violence of November 1997 were the bomb blasts that ripped the city on February 14, 1998. The blasts heightened the division between ordinary Hindus and Muslims.

Suddenly all Muslims were being held responsible for the actions of two small, fanatical groups, the Al Ummah and Al Jehad. Between the two, they had only 185 members, but the whole community was dubbed terrorists!  More than 40 innocent people from Karunanidhinagar were illegally detained. Another 100 persons were detained ostensibly under another preventive detention provision. 

Each one of these persons was subsequently acquitted. Who pays the price for this gross violation of rights and slur on their character? There was not a single case of conviction from among those indiscriminately arrested. Imagine the deep hurt that was meted out to sections of the Muslim population.

Especially after the bomb blasts, we organised ourselves under the banner of the Federation of All Muslim Jamaat. We represented the victims in the Gokulakrishnan Commission investigating the communal violence and the blasts. Even today, the harassment of the minority community by the police and administration has not entirely stopped. Many persons remain charge-sheeted though they are innocent.

The irony is that a significant section of the Muslim community is being victimised for the actions of a few. The unfair victimisation is due to the prevalence of a widespread anti–Muslim bias. The ultimate irony is that we still need to constantly speak up and disassociate ourselves from acts of vandalism and terrorism carried out by a few in the name of our faith!

When the blasts took place, it was through the Federation of All Muslim Jamaat that we organised an ‘Anti–terrorism Week’. We put out slogans and posters on the streets, including some created by Communalism Combat, to show that we are part of the national, social fabric, that we are Indians. It was ordinary Muslim shop keepers, small traders on the streets of Kovai who sponsored large hoardings carrying these messages that claimed rationality and reminded people of the communal harmony that was being sorely tested and tried. 

We printed posters and organised relief for the victims of the bomb blasts, many of whom were Hindus. We even collected Rs 50,000 from the Muslim community for the family of constable Selvaraj who had been so unfortunately killed, but the money was unfortunately refused.

Today, Coimbatore is quite calm. There are no provocative speeches from either side. The Hindu Munnani, which had become active here after the Meenakshipuram conversions in 1982, has also been restrained due to strict vigilance by the police.

It was the conversions in 1982 that brought these forces to Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu. After the Meenakshipuram conversions, the Munnani leader, Thiru Ramagopalan organised a convention in Coimbatore. Ironically, the only language that was commandeered to oppose conversions was the hurling of abuse against Muslims and the Prophet of Islam! 

This was successfully used by Basha to counterpose Muslim fanaticism and narrow–mindedness and the Al Ummah was born. There could not be a clearer link between the two brands of fanaticism. We have lived and seen through the clear nexus, we have witnessed how ordinary Hindus and Muslims of Kovai have been victimised by both the different brands of fanaticism.

Our work was concerned with re-establishing confidence and trust between the two communities. The rift is never between ordinary people. Yet we fall victim to the engineered suspicion and hatred. The bomb blasts in Coimbatore succeeded in causing a huge rift between ordinary people of different faiths. This is a painful reality to live with, a bitter pill to swallow.

It is this reality that jostles us into continued work in the social sphere even now. It is important for more and more Muslims to be visibly involved in the public and social sphere. In Tamil Nadu at least, I feel there are not enough of us. If we were present in sufficient number, committed and involved in human rights, development, labour or gender issues that concern all communities, our interventions when suspicions run high and hatred reigns can be more effective and more meaningful.

Today, apart from a consistent crusade for rational dialogue and harmony between communities, one of my other priorities is working with an educational society for Muslims — the Tamil Kalvi Sehvai Maiyyam. There is a lot of illiteracy among young Muslims, youngsters have no formal degrees, and the number of school dropouts is very high. Such a situation is ripe for fanatical outfits to benefit from. 

Through whatever else that one does in the social sphere, to work for communal harmony, rationality and dialogue in today’s India is a must. This is necessary because when something flares up between two fundamentalist/fanatical groups, we must be visible and present, prepared to show that the flare–up is only between two small and marginalised sections, not between all Hindus and Muslims.

It is important for ordinary people with conviction to stand up and speak out. How else will the rifts that are being so cynically created, be healed? 

The post Exorcising the imaginary demon appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The newly–elected BJP  president,Bangaru  Laxman’s Nagpur state- ment that Muslims are  “flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood” and his invitation to them to make his party their new home has sent political analysts and commentators guessing the possible reasons behind the BJP’s “change of heart”. In order of decreasing scepticism, the explanations being offered are as follows: 

One: The BJP president’s pro-Muslim posture was nothing more than a PR stunt on behalf of his mentor, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the eve of the latter’s foreign jaunt — UN summit and the US. The Prime Minister, understandably, did not want to face “awkward questions” from the international press. 

Two: Laxman’s call, though addressed to Muslims is, in fact, aimed at the liberal Hindus to ensure they do not get alienated from the sangh parivar, because of the unsavoury words and deeds of the ‘hard–line’ VHP and Bajrang Dal. It also will help keep the BJP’s allies in the NDA in good humour.

Three: Through Laxman, ‘moderates’ in the BJP, led by Vajpayee, are building the party’s distance from the embarrassing members of the same parivar — the parent RSS and siblings, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.
Four: Laxman is merely articulating the BJP’s political compulsion. The BJP cannot hope to rise above the plateau it has reached if Muslims, who constitute around 12 per cent of the national electorate (in major states like UP and West Bengal, it is closer to 20 per cent), remain alienated from the party. For once, Laxman and other BJP leaders are quite candid about the fact that its vote–bank politics they are talking about: “This is not an appeasement, this is an appeal; There are 12 crore Muslims who vote en bloc, so we cannot afford to ignore them”. 
Five: The BJP president’s statement reflects the broad vision of the BJP. The 1999 Lok Sabha election results have led to “an unhealthy situation of Muslims not having a stake in the power structure. Laxman’s initiative is an attempt to broaden the social base of the ruling coalition. A legitimate political exercise”. 

Political analysts and commentators may continue their debate on the real intentions behind the BJP’s latest exercise in wooing Muslims. But it is more than evident that few among India’s Muslims have taken Laxman’s invitation seriously. 

(Curiously, little attention has been paid to other statement made by Laxman, a Dalit, in Nagpur, about the city being the ideological epicentre of both Hegdewar, a high priest of Hindutva and the founder of the RSS, and Dr. BR Ambedkar, who led half a million Dalits to convert to Buddhism on October 10, 1956 at Nagpur, because in his analysis “there can be no social and political emancipation for the Dalit within the Hindu fold”. 
Laxman believes that the participation of Dalits in the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and in the riots in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and elsewhere has helped forge an “all Hindu identity” and resolved the tension between Hindutva and Amedkarism forever. But the poor electoral support to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 suggests that the vast majority of India’s dalits do not share Laxman’s love for the sangh parivar. (See box, ‘The BJP’s new social bloc’ and the comment piece by Kancha Ilaiah in this issue).

The many reasons for the lack of Muslim enthusiasm to the BJP president’s call are reflected in the responses of several prominent Muslims who spoke to Communalism Combat. (See box). The gist of these responses could be reduced to the following proposition: 

Depending on their political convenience, BJP leaders say one thing and mean another, say different things on different occasions, or speak with forked–tongues. Others from the saffron brotherhood — VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, Hindu Munnani, and a host of outfits floated by the RSS — are more honest and consistent. They say what they do and their hostility towards Muslims and other religious minorities is equally evident from their word and deed. 
Not for nothing is the BJP an integral part of the sangh parivar, ideologically and organisationally speaking. Every time there is ‘action on the field’ — demolition of Babri Masjid, targeting of the life and property of minorities in engineered communal conflicts — the cadre of the BJP and those of the others are invariably on the same side. 

From bitter lived experience, Muslims have learnt the truth contained in the saying: A man is known by the company he keeps. When matching word with deed, their experience indicates that the saffron soldiers draw their inspiration not so much from the conciliatory, poll–eve statements of leaders like Laxman but from stalwarts of Hindutva such as the second sarsanghchalak of the RSS, Guru Golwalkar.

“The non–Hindu in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu religion or may stay in the country wholly subordinate to the Hindu nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizens rights,” Golwalkar wrote in his We or our Nationhood Defined in 1936. 
“Muslims are flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood”. In speaking thus at the BJP national council meeting in Nagpur in late August, Laxman was merely repeating what the then Jana Sangh leader, Deendayal Upadhyaya, had said in his presidential address to the Jana Sangh in Calicut, way back in 1967. 
But actual developments on the communal front in the next few years are best summed up in the findings of judicial commissions, appointed by different government’s to inquire into the causes of the communal riots that have plagued the country since the ‘60s:

• Report of the Justice Jagmohan Reddy Commission on the Ahmedabad riots, 1969: “Here was not only a failure of intelligence and culpable failure to suppress the outbreak of violence, but (also) deliberate attempts to suppress the truth from the Commission, especially the active participation in the riots of some RSS and Jana Sangh leaders.”
• Report of the Justice DP Madon Commission on the Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad riots of 1970: “The organisation responsible for bringing communal tension in Bhiwandi to a pitch is the Rashtriya Utsav Mandal. The majority of the leaders and workers of the Rashtriya Utsav Mandal belonged to the Jan Sangh (the BJP’s predecessor) or were pro–Jan Sangh and the rest, apart from a few exceptions, belonged to the Shiv Sena”. 
• Report of the Justice Joseph Vithyathil Commission on the Tellicherry riots, 1971: “In Tellicherry the Hindus and Muslims were living as brothers for centuries. The ‘Mopla riots’ did not affect the cordial relationship that existed between the two communities in Tellicherry. It was only after the RSS and the Jana Sangh set up their units and began activities in Tellicherry that there came a change in the situation. Their anti–Muslim propaganda, its reaction on the Muslims who rallied round their communal organisation, the Muslim League which championed their cause, and the communal tension that followed prepared the background for the disturbances.
• Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Communal Disturbances at Jamshedpur, April 1979: “The dispute on the route of the procession became sharp and agitated reactions from a group of persons calling themselves the Sanyukt Bajrang Bali Akhara Samiti who systematically distributed pamphlets to heighten communal feelings had organisational links with the RSS.” 

Closer to the present time, who can forget the bloody yatra (from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990) that none less than the then BJP president and now the Union home minister, LK Advani, chose for his party’s rise to power? 
In seeking Muslim votes to lift the BJP above the plateau where it finds itself, Laxman may now be using different words, but he is saying nothing new. Since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the countrywide riots that followed, in every election season, the BJP has come up with attempts to wash off its communal taint and woo Muslims. (See box). 

But the actual experience of the last few years is proof to the Muslims that the BJP’s promises and ‘guarantees’ of security amount to very little. 

Firstly, the fact that across the country, it is Christians who have been the more obvious targets of Hindutva in the last few years is of little consolation to Muslims. They see in these sustained assaults on yet another religious minority in India a deliberate Hindutva ploy to keep the saffron brigade fighting fit. Who is to know when these ‘kar sevaks’ will be asked to revert to the old battlefront and go for the ‘Babar ki aulad’? Or will it be ‘Jinnah ki aulad’ and ‘ISI agents’ next time? 

There have been enough indications in the last few years to make Muslims believe that their fear is not mere paranoia. Gujarat, a state where the BJP rules unchallenged and where no effective opposition is presently in sight, is proving to be an ideal ‘laboratory for Hindutva.’ For others, the state offers an insight of what India’s minorities can expect in Ram Rajya of the Hindutva variety. For Christians and for Muslims, too, Gujarat has increasingly turned into a nightmare state in the last few years. (See box).

Gujarat’s Muslims, however, are not the only ones who need to worry. For the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya, the war over Kargil last year was not a conflict between two countries, but a link in the 1,000–year–old clash between ‘barbaric’ Islam and ‘Hindu tolerance’. The Bajrang Dal chief went on to say that no peace is possible between Hindus and Muslims until the Quran is banned.

Since April this year, arms’ training is being given to activists of the Bajrang Dal and the VHP. The reason, according to the chief of UP’s VHP Purushottam: “anti–Hindu forces are very active in UP…The ISI has spread its tentacles in the state. To counter these forces, Bajrang Dal activists are being trained”. Outlook magazine reported that the Dal activists being trained at ‘Karsevakpuram’ near Ayodhya began their morning with the chant: “We will demolish all mosques.” 

No sooner had he returned from the BJP’s national council meet in Nagpur, where Laxman made all the right noises, that the BJP stalwart from UP, Kalraj Mishra, went rushing to Ayodhya. What else does this mean except that the BJP identifies with the VHP’s agenda of commencing building of the Ram mandir in Ayodhya soon and court orders be damned?

Muslims and Christians, who feel insecure in today’s India, would certainly welcome a friendly gesture from the BJP. But not if it looks like a tactic with an eye on votes. Or a strategy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound.

But if the hollowness of the BJP’s intention to woo Indian Muslims needs no further emphasis, Laxman’s comments on Hindu–Dalit mobilisation and unity with the caste Hindu need careful scrutiny because they do, in fact, reflect the competing pulls on the nationwide Dalit movement today. This could prove pivotal in future Dalit mobilisation.

Besides linking Hegdewar and Ambedkar, Bangarau Laxman went further on Dalit and caste Hindu alliance building. When asked by journalists to comment on the Ayodhya movement, Laxman praised the movement saying it was one in which “people from all walks of life participated and moreover a movement where all caste feelings receded.”

The fact that the sub–text of the campaign to build a temple in the name of Lord Ram at Ayodhya was the demolition of a 400–year–old mosque that was systematically portrayed as a symbol of Babar ki aulad (who are deserving of summary treatment) was left unexamined. 

The Ayodhya movement has made a hitherto unique achievement in terms of all–Hindu mobilisation. From many parts of the country, the movement managed Dalit participation in pogrom–like attacks on Indian Muslims. The very same, all–Hindu kamandal project is today being aggressively promoted not only in Gujarat — where Dalit women interviewed by Communalism Combat have testified to Dalit youth being attracted to Bajrang Dal shakhas for arms training on ‘salaries’ of Rs. 5–10,000 per month — but all over India. 

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8  No. 62, Cover Story 1

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