Islamophobia

It has been really long since India is witnessing mutual hatred between Hindus and Muslims. While many may disagree with this line, even history narrates the cold wars between two. Though for the most part, the two communities have lived peacefully, but religious resentment has always simmered below the surface since 1947 when India and Pakistan were carved out of a single nation. The parting was bloody - between half a million and a million people were killed in religious violence. The impact is so immense that some hardcore believers of the both religion still holds preconceived notions. The anti-love feeling between is evidently increasing and this widening of the gap is surely worrying.

Islamophobia has become a concept that has been indiscriminately used to refer to violence against Muslims. Such usage obscures, rather than captures, the sources of violence and what can be done to mitigate it. Phobia refers to ‘irrational fear’.

Nearly 80% of India's population of 1.3 billion is Hindu, while Muslims make up 14.2%.

Quoting the latest scenarios, the pattern of hate crimes committed against Muslims with seeming impunity – many of them in states where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power – is deeply worrying. Unfortunately both the Prime Minister and various Chief Ministers have done little to show that they disapprove of this violence. Public intellectuals and popular media have created a false narrative about the nature of violence in India being Islamophobic. Violence in India against Muslims is not born out of the fear of Muslims being an unknown entity. The recent spate of events has more to do with prejudice and the narrative of ‘historical injury’.

Thanks to a sustained campaign, a deep sense of historical injury born out of the belief that Muslims dominated and used violence against the majority Hindu community. There is hatred and prejudice against Muslims. The fact that in the minds of both these communities there is a really dominant thought which goes sync every decision they make.

All violence and terror acts are assigned to Islam. Instances of Islamist terrorism are exploited toaddfuel to politics of identity and national-security. Most recently, Sri Lanka struggled to come to terms with the carnage caused by the Easter Sunday attacks, Hindu nationalists used it as fodder for their anti-Muslim discourse.

The BJP has nominated a radical Hindu nationalist, Pragya Thakur,for parliament.Thakur, who is out on bail supposedly due to “health issues,” is the main suspect in the 2008 bomb blast in Malegaon, Maharashtra that killed six and injured over hundred people. She ischargedwith terrorism, murder, criminal conspiracy, and promoting enmity between communities. And in spite of all these charges, she just won with great margin in Bhopal.

If unchecked, this scenario willfuel religious discrimination and alienation of Muslim communities. It will call India’s pluralistic traditions into question and breed mistrust and mutual suspicion. It will generate insecurities among minorities. As a nation, living together and peacefully is of utmost value for which individuals spreading of hatred in whatsapp groups or forwarding fake news has to be in check. The politicians too play a very important role, but they being greedy ruins all the scope of betterment.