The Mathura parliamentary constituency has repeatedly twice elected Hindi film actress Hema Malini to the Lok Sabha with significant margins in 2014 and 2019.  It is once again witnessing her candidacy for the third time this year. Malini is contesting against Congress candidate Mukesh Dhangar and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Suresh Singh. 

According to the 2011 census, Muslims constitute 8.5% of the population in Mathura district. 

As reported by Scroll, Muslims hold considerable numerical strength in the area near the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura. Their electoral support is predominantly divided between the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is now in alliance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, and the Indian National Congress. Scroll reports that voters in this area are largely leaning towards supporting the Congress party.

Zulfiqar Qureshi, 54, an RLD functionary, spoke to Scroll, calling out the opposition for failing to campaign in the vicinity. He also stated that he himself had faced challenges in voting in his own family, saying the Booth Level Officers are to blame for this issue, “But earlier, one or two per cent of voters were affected by it. This time, 15-20% of voters in Nai Basti could not vote because of it.” One 74-year-old lady, Jamrul Nisa, stated that none of the members of her 9-member family were able to vote this year. 

Furthermore, according to Hindustan Times, the voter turnout in Mathura witnessed a significant decline, dropping by 12% from 61.03% during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to 49.29% in the second phase of the 2024 parliamentary polls. Similarly, in Amroha where the constituency saw the highest voter turnout out in Uttar Pradesh where polling was recorded at 64.02%. Danish Ali, who is Congress’s Amroha candidate, reportedly had an argument with the police where he was seen talking about how police were harassing voters from voting at booths, “Ban on mobile (phone) was for voters and not candidates.” UP has previously also seen similar instances of voters’ names left out, with Muslims often being the group left out. For instance, Moradabad,  which houses a large number of Muslims residents, recorded that a harrowing figure of 80 percent names of Muslim voters were absent from the electoral rolls in the last elections, according to Deccan Herald. 

In 2019, Missing Voters, a smartphone app designed to gather data on disenfranchised voters in India claimed that nearly 120 million citizens were absent from voter lists during last 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Furthermore, the harrowing figures suggested that more than half of these missing voters were Muslims and Dalits and women. Similar cases were found in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka. 

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The post Mathura records Muslim votes missing, is this the first time? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Stones were thrown at a procession in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, on the occasion of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Jayanti. The area had become tension-filled as a result of stone pelting, and a large number of police officers had been deployed. People can be seen throwing stones at the Shobha Yatra from one roof in a video that been doing rounds on social media, and the stone-pelters are seen hiding their mouths.

According to the Jagran report, a procession was held on April 14 to commemorate Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary in village Bhartia in Mathura’s Jait police station area. Some people threw stones at the procession during this time. Several people were injured as a result of stone pelting during the procession. After the incident, a large number of police forces had been deployed on the spot.

According to Jagran, preparations were made in the morning for a Shobha Yatra on Ambedkar Jayanti in Bharatiya village of Jaint under the leadership of village head Mahendra. Then, in the morning, some villagers approached Mahendra and refused to accompany the procession. He stated that if the yatra is carried out, there may be a dispute. The yatra was the then taken out in the afternoon. One side of the procession threw stones as it rotated through the village. Then stone-pelting began on both sides. A half-dozen people were reportedly injured in the incident, but they fled the scene. The procession was temporarily halted, as per the Republic World.

Superintendent of Police (City) MP Singh and Circle Officer Sadar Praveen Malik reached the spot on receiving information about the stone-pelting incident. When the police arrived, stones were being thrown in the village, the video of which is also going viral on social media. Tension prevailed in the village after stone-pelting. It has been reported by the Amarujala that eleven villagers, including three constables, were injured and the police have detained five people. 

The video can be viewed here:

Stone pelting in #UttarPradesh‘s #Mathura on Bhimrao Ambedkar Shobha Yatra to stop it.#AmbedkarJayanti #AmbedkarJayanti2023 pic.twitter.com/05yIckun6g

— Hate Detector ? (@HateDetectors) April 15, 2023

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The post Mathura: Stones thrown at the Ambedkar Jayanti procession leaves several people injured appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On Wednesday morning and armed mob allegedly attacked a Muslim family in the Mewati locality of Aurangabad in Mathura suspecting them of selling beef. The attackers hailed from a local cow vigilante group called Gau Raksha Dal.

Villager Aas Mohammed told the Times of India, “I was sleeping on my terrace when I heard screams at around 7:30 A.M. Nearly 20-25 people carrying country made pistols were knocking on the door of my neighbour Pappu Qureshi and then thrashed him and his family members.” He says the mob also fired into the air, allegedly to create panic.

Police say that the vigilantes claimed they had inputs of “beef sale” and came to inspect the same without informing the police. However, police deny any violence. MP Singh who is the Superintendent of Police (SP) for the city told TOI, that the mob tried to enter Qureshi’s house but when the locals surrounded them, the mob fled after firing into the air.

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against 14 people (including 2 unknown persons) under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (part of unlawful assembly with common object), 307 (attempt to murder), 336 (endangering life or personal safety), 34 (common intention) and section 7 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act at the Sadar Police Station.

It is noteworthy that in September 2021, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh under its Notification dated September 10, 2021 had notified 22 wards of Mathura Vrindavan Nagar Nigam as ‘Holy Place of Pilgrimage’. The notification had banned the sale of liquor and meat within a 10 square kilometers radius around Krishna Janmabhoomi in Vrindavan, Mathura.

On September 11, 2021 another consequential Order was passed by the Food Processing Officer, Food Safety and Drugs Administration, Mathura according to which the registration of shops selling meat and non-vegetarian restaurants were suspended with immediate effect.

Then, Shahida, a social worker, had filed a Writ Petition, later on styled as Public Interest Litigation (PIL), in High Court of Allahabad against the State Government’s decision to ban the sale of meat and liquor. In her representation she had sought relief against complete ban on running meat, fish, egg shops etc., and also sought relief against suspension of the license of shops, non-veg hotels etc., with immediate effect.

She had also sought directions for permitting easy transportation of such restricted materials from outside for weddings and other ceremonial functions. The representation also prayed that the local police should not harass the people involved in transporting the restricted materials from outside into the said 22 notified wards.

Since Shahida’s representation was not considered by the District Magistrate, Mathura, she had moved to the High Court of Allahabad for redressal of her grievance. But on March 28, 2022, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the Writ Petition. However, in a display of appreciation for India’s pluralism the court observed, “India is a country of great diversity. It is absolutely essential if we wish to keep our country united to have tolerance and respect for all communities and sects.”

The High Court bench of Justices Pritinker Diwaker and Ashutosh Srivastava restricted itself from dwelling into the validity of the Notification and Order of the UP Government as the Petition filed does not challenge the same.

Related:

Allahabad HC bats for tolerance, but refuses to strike down meat and liquor sale ban

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Decades after the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, the day has always been one of high security protocol in Uttar Pradesh. However this year, one of the thickest security blankets envelops Mathura, as right-wing groups announced plans to perform Hindu rituals at Shahi Idgah mosque and install Hindu deity Krishna’s idol on December 6.

Mathura in western UP is revered as the birthplace of Hindu deity Krishna. It is also home to the Shahi Idgah, which is next to the Krishna janmabhoomi (the place where the deity is believed to have been born). 

According to reports the city is “resembling a fortress”, especially in the areas around the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Temple. Right-wing groups have been threatening to install an idol of Lord Krishna in the adjacent Shahi Idgah mosque on December 6.

According to ADG L&O UP Prashant Kumar the Police arrangements are statewide, “Parampara se hatkar koi bhi karyakram nahi karne diya jayega (no programmes apart from those done ‘as per tradition’ will be allowed)”. Security forces have been put on high alert to maintain peace, he informed the media.

ADG L&O UP Sri Prashant Kumar speaks about the statewide Police arrangements for the 6th December.
All field formations have been put on high alert to maintain absolute peace in the state & no diversion from established tradition shall be permitted. pic.twitter.com/S0vbfxX11n

— UP POLICE (@Uppolice) December 5, 2021

On December 6, reported India Today, after the right-wing groups announced their intentions, some Muslim groups have responded that they will “observe the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary to raise their concern.” A three-tiered security ring has been reportedly thrown around the Katra Keshav Dev area, where the temple and Shahi Idgah mosque are situated.

The security arrangements this year are being reported as  “unprecedented”. Usually the focus on this day had always been on Ayodhya, but Mathura has now found itself as the focus area of right-wing groups which are on overdrive, even as the state prepares for the Assembly elections next year.

According to news reports, every road connecting the town to the national and state highways has police barricades and India Today reported that “even the narrow gauge railway track that runs behind the temple-mosque complexes has been shut down.” 

Protest march or gathering in the city will also not be allowed as Section 144 has been imposed. No traffic will be allowed on roads leading to Sri Krishna Janambhoomi and adjoining Shahi Eidgah till Tuesday. Mathura Police has posted December 6 specific traffic guidelines for the city:

दिनांक 06 दिसम्बर, 2021 को मथुरा शहर की यातायात व्यवस्था निम्न प्रकार से रहेगी। pic.twitter.com/TEXiXXRrYT

— MATHURA POLICE (@mathurapolice) December 5, 2021

According to news reports the arrangements will remain in place even though some organisations and individuals have reportedly “called off their plans for the day”.

The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) had called for a ‘jalabhishek’ anointing of a deity or holy spot, at the area they claim is the birthplace of Krishna, in Shahi Eidgah. However, they reportedly withdrew the call, and the police remained on alert with 2,000 police personnel, besides Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), stationed at the site for Monday. Police forces have been called from nearby districts as well, stated news reports adding that Mathura police had also conducted an anti-riot drill at Police Lines to assess its preparedness under SSP Mathura Dr Gaurav Grover and district magistrate Navneet Chahal.

“Section 144 of criminal procedure code is in force, and anybody violating prohibitory orders will be dealt with strictly. Police is fully geared to maintain peace and tranquillity and to instil fear amongst those having nefarious designs,” SSP Mathura told the media adding, “Denizens of Mathura are being asked to co-operate in security arrangements by not becoming part of any unlawful gathering or protest march and staying away from nuisance makers interested in spreading rumours. Vigil is being kept on social media, and the police cyber cell is all prepared to punish those interested in damaging peace and tranquillity in the city.” Police are also on alert in adjoining district Agra. 

Recently Uttar Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had publicly announced that “preparations were underway for the construction of a grand temple in Mathura” along the lines of what was being done in Ayodhya and Varanasi. He said, “A grand temple is being constructed in Ayodhya and Kashi, preparations are on for Mathura next.” It is now his pinned tweet.

अयोध्या काशी भव्य मंदिर निर्माण जारी है
मथुरा की तैयारी है #जय_श्रीराम #जय_शिव_शम्भू #जय_श्री_राधे_कृष्ण

— Keshav Prasad Maurya (@kpmaurya1) December 1, 2021

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Are Kashi-Mathura mosques in the crosshairs of hardliners again? 

The post December 6: Mathura under thick security blanket as right wing groups had announced ‘plans’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Just hours after a special CBI court in Lucknow acquitted all accused in the Babri Masjid criminal conspiracy case, a court in Mathura threw out a petition to remove the Shahi Idgah adjacent to a Krishna temple in the city.

The civil suit had been filed last week with Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman as the plaintiff via next friend. The prayer stated, “The present suit is being filed by and on behalf of deity Plaintiff Nos.1 (One) and 2 (Two) alongwith devotees to ensure that Dharshan, Pooja, rituals according to Vedic Sanatan Dharma, faith, belief, usages, traditions and customs guaranteed under Article 25 (Twenty Five) of the Constitution of India are performed at the actual birth place and at any part of 13.37 (Thirteen Point Thirty Seven) Acers land of Katra Keshav Dev the Sunni Waqf Board, Trust Masjid Idgah and their men, workers, attorneys and every person working under them are restrained from entering into the premises of the property in question and they be directed to remove the construction illegally raised by them without authority of law at the property in question.”

However, on Wednesday, the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) refused to entertain the plea citing section 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. Section 4 (1) of this Act says, “It is hereby declared that the religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day.”

The language of the petition itself was deeply communal, as at one point it said, “Under Hindu Law prevalent in India from thousands of years it is well recognized that the property once vested in the deity shall continue to be the deities property and property vested in the deity is never destroyed or lost and it can be regained and re-established whenever it is freed, found or recovered from the clutches of invaders, ultras or hoodlums. The Privy Council, High Courts and the Hon’ble Supreme Court in catena of decisions have endorsed the above proposition of law.”

In the months preceding this complaint a Krishna Janmabhoomi Nyas Trust was registered on July 23 that counts among its members 80 ‘saints’ from 114 states. On the night of September 20, 2020, members of the Hindu Army were arrested for giving a call for the Krishna Janmabhoomi movement. It is also noteworthy that chants of “Ayodhya toh jhaanki hai, Kashi-Mathura baaki hai,” go back to the late 80s and early 90s when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was at its peak.

The Krishna Janmabhoomi movement appears to have been revived in wake of the Supreme Court judgment in the Ayodhya civil suit, and the recent laying of the foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by the Prime Minister, an act that may have inadvertently emboldened extremist groups to openly take a more hardline stand on communally inflammatory issues.

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And so it begins: Civil suit filed to remove Idgah next to Krishna temple in Mathura
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Are Kashi-Mathura mosques in the crosshairs of hardliners again?

The post Krishna Janmabhoomi: Mathura court dismisses plea against Shahi Idgah appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On Sunday night, 22 members of the Hindu Army, a right-wing group were arrested for giving a call for ‘Krishna Janmabhoomi’ movement in Mathura. The men had put posters across town that declared that the movement would start at 11 A.M on Monday, reported The Telegraph.

Mathura Superintendent of Police, Uday Shankar told the publication, “A large number of Hindu Army members began assembling near the temple on Sunday evening without permission from the local administration. They were trying to conduct objectionable activities. We arrested 22 of them under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to prevent the commission of cognisable offences.”

SabrangIndia was the first to report on the resurrection of movements identical to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in wake of the Ayodhya judgment. In Mathura, a Shahi Idgah that stands adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple is now in the eye of the storm. It was allegedly built by Aurangzeb after razing a Krishna temple that stood at the site. The Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust has staked claim to a four-and-a-half acre pot of land next to the mosque to use as a Ranga Manch (variety hall) for religious and cultural functions organised by the trust and temple authorities. An organisation called Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Nirman Nyas was registered on July 23, 2020. It reportedly has 80 ‘saints’ from 14 states as its members.

In the late 80s and the early 90s, both in the run up to and in the immediate aftermath of the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, entire neighbourhoods would reverberate with chants of “Ayodhya Babri toh jhaanki hai, Kashi-Mathura baaki hai!”

The communal flames were reignited after Sudhir Singh, a local politician from Varanasi, gave the call to ‘liberate’ Kashi Vishwanath temple and launched the Kashi Vishwanath Mukti Andolan shortly after the SC judgment in the Ayodhya dispute case. Singh made the announcement at Assi Ghat on Mahashivratri earlier this year and was also arrested and sent to jail briefly for the same.

Combating Communalism

SabrangIndia’s predecessor Communalism Combat, a publication spearheaded by journalists and human right defenders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, had in its May 2003 issue documented what was dubbed Hindutva’s Hitlist. The publication had documented no less than seven widely publicised statements made by the VHP and BJP, in tandem since December 2002, that are indirect threats to demolish mosques and churches in different parts of the country, in the guise of ‘liberating 30,000 Hindu temples’.

Related:

Are Kashi-Mathura mosques in the crosshairs of hardliners again?
Kashi, Mathura Mosques on Hindutva’s hit list but that’s not all as India inches towards the Rashtra

The post Hindu Army members arrested for launching ‘Krishna Janmabhoomi’ movement appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Supreme Court verdict is due anytime before November 17 when the present chief justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi retires from his job. The 40 day long hearings have been peppered with provocative, even irresponsible statements by the ‘Hindutva’ side that even claimed that ‘the Supreme Court is ours!’  

Clearly buoyed by the presence of acquiescent regimes in both Delhi and Lucknow, “seers” have yesterday declared that their next target would be the Mosques at Kashi and Mathura.  Making brazenly provocative statements to the effect that their next agenda would be to ”free” Kashi and Mathura, what they threaten is clear: the demolition of the Gyan Vapi and the Shahi Idgah at Mathura.

An extremist body affiliated to the far right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the All India Akhara Parishad (AIAP), an “apex body” of the politicized priests in the country, said on Thursday that it would launch a movement to get (read “demolish”) the mosques adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi and Shrikrishna Janambhoomi in Mathura once the Ram Temple was built! Not only do they seem sure of the outcome of the recent Supreme Court legal dispute, but these statements reported by the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald today, suggest that more communal strife and targeting of minority religious institutions and persons is in store.  ”Like the Babri Masjid, temples were also demolished at Kashi and Mathura to build mosques….the mosques must be demolished,” AIAP president Mahant Narendra Giri reportedly said on Thursday.

There is more: Giri, who is clearly backed by the most powerful within sections of the Indian establishment, also reportedly said that there was a ”pro-Hindu” government in Uttar Pradesh as well as at the centre and hence there should not be any problem in achieving the twin objectives. ”Like Ram Temple, the Kashi and Mathura too are revered by the Hindus worldwide…..they belong to us and we will take them,” the Mahant (religious head) said. Narendra Giri said that the Muslims should withdraw their claims on Kashi and Mathura also to promote communal harmony. 
 

As mosques and our syncretic culture become the most obvious target of this political project (Hindu Rashtra), underlying this re-fashioning of the physical and cultural is a brutal, modern ethnic cleansing : the physical presence and equal rights of vast sections of Indians, especially Muslim, who live, even today in everyday apprehension. The climate of fear and intimidation, first unleashed through communal violence turned genocidal pogroms now takes on a state-sanctioned character as projects like the selective review of citizenship rights becomes a stated political programme.

Interestingly the Sunni Central Waqf Board, one of the main Muslim plaintiffs in the Ayodhya title suits, had, in its ”settlement proposal” to the SC appointed mediation panel, sought the Hindus to withdraw their claims on Kashi and Mathura mosques as one of the pre-conditions for resolving the dispute through negotiations. For the likes of Giri and his accomplicies within the UP assembly and Indian Partliament, however, there is no such thing as compromise. He has therefore made it, once again clear that, “Hindus” would, under no circumstances, withdraw their claim on Kashi and Mathura.  Extremist leader of the VHP and BJP, Vinay Katiyar had also said that Kashi and Mathura too belonged to the Hindus. The mosques in Varanasi and Mathura adjoined the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Shrikrishna Janambhoomi respectively. 

In the tumultuous 1980s-1990s, the bloodthirsty slogan, “Ayodhya Babri sirf Jhaanki Hai, Kashi-Mathura ab baaki hai”, had rent the air, as saffron-clad mobs had claimed India’s public spaces and streets. Politically, however, while the infiltration into both government and its institutions was marked then, it was far from complete. Today, with both the union government in Delhi and the state government in Lucknow led not just by the RSS-BJP but streams within that are more extreme even than the leadership from 27-30 years ago, these “threats” bear an even more evil portent. It is safe then to predict that India will see more and more attacks on its minority religious institutions, accompanied by a crass intimidation on minorities lives and their very existence.
India Today reported in 1993 that:
The dust from the demolition of the Babri Masjid has barely settled down. But, six months after the Ayodhya disaster, it is apparent that the Shahi Idgah adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple at Mathura will be the next target.

The BJP claims that Kashi and Mathura are not on its “agenda immediately”. But with VHP General Secretary Ashok Singhal and RSS Joint General Secretary Rajendra Singh making no bones about the fact that Mathura is still very much on their agenda; it is just a question of time before the Hindutva forces strike again. As Singh declared: “What Advani has said is that they are not on their agenda immediately. But he has not said it will never be.”

And if the Ayodhya example is anything to go by, it may well be. After all, it took eight years after the VHP’s categoric call “for the removal of the three mosques built by the marauders at Ayodhya, Mathura and Kasi” before the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground.

And the BJP adopted a formal resolution only in June 1989 at its national executive meeting, five years after the first VHP call was given in April 1984.

Now, with the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust already laying claim to the four-and-a-half acre land next to the mosque to use as a Ranga Manch (variety hall) for religious and cultural functions organised by the trust and temple authorities, it may not be long before the idgah at Mathura goes the Babri Masjid way.

Communalism Combat began publishing, monthly since 1993 as a response to the collapse of the constitutional rule of law order in December 1992-January 1993. Archival issues of the magazine are available at sabrang.com. As we tracked the violent turn in India’s politics, in May 2003, six months after the brute Gujarat 2002 genocidal pogrom, we had exclusively reported on Hindutva’s HIT LIST, that had listed the ‘target’ of no less than —- shrines and places of worship that were either linked to South Asia’s vibrant Sufi tradition and or Islamic way of worship. Clearly the bloodthirsty soldiers of the Hindu Rashtra believe that violent ‘destruction’ and ‘assertion’ is the only way.
 

The threatened demolition of mosques and dargahs is only but always accompanied by violent attacks on people who’s faith is the target; accompanied by the sword and threat of the National Register of Citizens (never forget terms like “termite” and “traitorous infiltrator” bandies around”), the brazen attempt is out and out servile subjugation: from a population already but in theory relegated to second class status

This list had been sourced and circulated from an email. A close scrutiny of this list today, 16 years after its circulation and when India’s political horizon has shrunk to narrow visions of nationhood, clearly suggests that calculated and provoked violent religious conflict is still on the cards.

The list is elaborate and leaves on state or union territory of India untouched by its pre-selection. Delhi, our capital has 72 “ targets” of the Hindutva brigade that include 11 in ‘Indrapat and Dhilila’. (Mehrauli), 9 in Begumpura including the historic mosque there, six in Nizaumuddin including the revered Durgah that has been also beautifully restored by the Aga Khan Trust, five in Shahjanabad, eight in Hauz Khas, six in Ramakrishnapuram, four in Malaviyanagar, four at Lodhi Gardens (!!!), three in Purana Quila, one in Wazairabad, four in south extension and six others.

Telangana in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh has not been spared, neither has Diu, the union territory. Gujarat, needless to say has a long list. Bengal (beware a BJP government there) has over 120 ‘targeted shrines’, Assam has not been spared other. The list published in the May 2003 issue of Communalism Combat only contained a “summary”, clearly there is more!

For the vanguard of the Hindu Rahstra,  represented by the governments in power in New Delhi and dominating the politics of several Indian states in 2019, a brute and violent assertion on Mosques and monuments from India’s famed Mughal period is crucial to manipulate history and a past that suits its construct of an upper caste, Brahmanical, Hindutva  nation. Integral to this political scheme is also relegating vast sections of Indians –who belong to faiths and cultures that are not straitjacketed into this hegemonic definition – into second class citizens. While Buddhists, Christians, rationalists, secularists, communists are the ‘enemies of this imagined Hindu nation’, Muslims hold special place as its most venomous target.

When MS Golwalkar penned We and Our Nationhood Defined  in 1939 —and this was also five years after the first brute attack on Gandhi’s life—he took inspiration from both Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Germany’s Hitler. Less than two decades later, when the flagbearers of the ‘Muslim Islamic nation” successfully tore into India’s construct of a more composite nationhood, -and India was violently partitioned— a festering wound remained. Since 1925, when the RSS began its project to re-fashion Indian society and its notion of the state, it has come a long way and now, six years away from its centenary celebrations, we are being warned! Will this project to utterly undermine India’s republican and constitutional base and convert it into a majoritarian, theocratic state, succeed?
Let’s have a look at the RSS’ seminal texts on the imagined Hindutva state that they wish India to be. All these other affiliates, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and body of priests are in some manner or otherwise connected to this parent idea and by association, its political goal.

The official website of the RSS (www.rss.org ) used to have a version of the e-book, Bunch of Thoughts. Now the website exists but the archival section is clearly under some sort of bot surveillance. However, both books are widely available online for those willing to be ‘watched’ by the RSS’ eagle eye (!!) and its widespread physical network of bookshops and socio-political community outlets.
The second text, We or Our Nationhood Defined M. S. Golwalkar (first edition in 1939) has been orally disowned by some in the RSS-BJP, even if copies are freely available on the internet.  It is not anymore available on the official RSS website.  We at Communalism Combat have an, exclusive zerox copy of an earlier, 1947 edition. This is now available at  https://sabrangindia.in/reports/we-or-our-nationhood-defined-1947-edition [2]

In an exhaustive piece authored in the December of 2015, I closely examined the tenets of the dream Hindu Rashtra as envisaged in these official texts of the RSS. This is available here.
What is crucial to remember is this re-cap from 2015:

RSS and the Guru, Both are Anti-Indian Constitution
The RSS and by ideological and organisational association, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that
rules India today are fundamentally against the concept of Indian nation-hood, Indian citizenship as defined by the Constitution of India. At Page 119 of the Bunch of Thoughts, the RSS’ foundational doctrine, the author has completely debunked the ‘absurdity of the concept of territorial nationalism’.  Golwalkar says, “They (we presume by this the RSS means the Leaders in the Constituent Assembly) forgot that here was already a full-fledged ancient nation of the Hindus and the various communities which were living in the country were here either as guests, the Jews and Paris, or as invaders, the Muslim and Christians. They never faced the question how all such heterogeneous groups could be called as children of the soil merely because, by an accident, they happened to reside in a common territory under the rule of a common enemy. ”

 
RSS Unashamed about its Aim: Overturn the Constitutional Mandate
“….We have been sufficiently fooled uptil now by their exhortation that we Hindus, who are having a great philosophy of human brotherhood, catholicity of spirit and so on, should not narrow ourselves by the talk of Hindu Nationalism and all such ‘communal’, ‘medieval’ and ‘reactionary’ ideas! We must be able to see through the game and revert to the truth of our nationalism as an ancient fact and the Hindus being the national society of Bharat, so clearly restated by our revered founder when he decided the word ‘Rashtriya’ for our organisation. We must once again stand up in our true and full stature and boldly assert that we shall elevate the Hindu National Life in Bharat to the peak of glory and honour which has been its birthright since hoary time. (Page 127, Bunch of Thoughts, MS Golwalkar)

As mosques and our syncretic culture become the most obvious target of this political project, underlying this re-fashioning of the physical and cultural is a brutal, modern ethnic cleansing : the physical presence and equal rights of vast sections of Indians, especially Muslim, who live, even today in everyday apprehension. The climate of fear and intimidation, first unleashed through communal violence turned genocidal pogroms now takes on a state-sanctioned character as projects like the selective review of citizenship rights becomes a stated political programme.

The threatened demolition of mosques and dargahs is only but always accompanied by violent attacks on people who’s faith is the target; accompanied by the sword and threat of the National Register of Citizens (never forget terms like “termite” and “traitorous infiltrator” bandies around”), the brazen attempt is out and out servile subjugation: from a population already but in theory relegated to second class status.
 

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Representative Image

जय गुरुदेव समिति ने 15 अक्टूबर से कटेसर गांव में दो दिन का सत्संग किया था, जिसमें तीन से चार लाख की संख्या में श्रद्धालु शामिल हुए थे। इसी कार्यक्रम में राजघाट पर मची भगदड़ में 25 लोगों की मौत हुई थी। भगदड़ के कारण श्रद्धालु जल्दी चले गए और भंडारे के लिए बना भोजन भारी मात्रा में बचा रह गया, जिसे फेंक दिया गया।

इसी बचे भोजन को खाने से जानवर बीमार होने लगे और देखते ही देखते 25 जानवरों की मौत हो गई। सूचना मिलने पर प्रशासनिक अधिकारियों ने मरे जानवरों को गड्ढे खुदवाकर दफनाने का काम शुरू करा दिया।

वाराणसी के मुख्य पशु चिकित्साधिकारी डॉ वीबी सिंह बताते हैं कि एक साथ बड़ी संख्या में पशुओं की मौत का कराण फूड प्वायजनिंग ही होता है। खराब हो चुका खाना खाने से पशुओँ के पेट में एसिडोसिस हो जाता है, और उनका पेट फूलने लगता है और उनकी मौत तक हो जाती है। ऐसे में जानवरों को नींबू पानी पिलाकर बचाया जा सकता है, लेकिन कटेसर और डोमरी गाँवों में लोगों को इतनी जानकारी थी नहीं, जिससे उनके जानवर बड़ी संख्या में मारे गए।

जय गुरुदेव समिति की ओर से इतनी बड़ी लापरवाही की गई जिसका खामियाजा कटेसर और डोमरी गांवों के पशुपालकों को उठाना पड़ा।

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