Islamophobia

The nature of violence against Muslims in our country varies from that in the West. It is borne out of a narrative of 'historical injuries' and prejudices rather than a phobia of the unknown. Islamophobia, lately, has become a hold-all concept which has been indiscriminately used to refer to the violence against Muslims. This usage obscures the sources of violence and mitigation. In a literal sense, phobia means a fear of the unknown, or as I say it, an "irrational fear." It also implies that violence is random and does not have a discernible pattern other than fear and demonization of the Muslims.

Islamophobia is something more relevant to Europe and even North America wherein violence against Muslims is born out of this real phobia of Muslims. They are viewed as an unknown variable, except for the expression that they are prone to violence and are aggressive. There have been random and episodic attacks on Muslims in the US and not organized. In some cases, Sikhs were mistaken as Arabs and were attacked in public areas. This majorly happens in advanced capitalist countries having extreme modes of individuation or lack of any robust imagination of the other.

India has a different case. Many intellectuals and popular media have narrated a false scenario about the nature of violence in the country being Islamophobia. Violence in our country against Muslims is not born out of fear, but the recent spate of events has more to do with prejudices and old injuries.

The histories of Hindu and Muslim communities are inextricably entangled and knit in a yarn that has created a lot of problems from the very beginning. We all had studied that Muslims have been the ruling elites, constituting a sizable middle class before the partitioning of India, when most of the well-to-do had migrated to Pakistan, and Urdu was the only official language in many parts of the country.

What has taken over the public discourse in our country is sustained campaign which is a deep sense of historical injuries being born out of the belief that Muslims used violence against the majority Hindu community and dominated on them. There are prejudice and hatred against Muslims and not to forget the organized political mind games. Well, the nature of violence in India is neither random nor episodic, unlike the West. It majorly takes a form of organized pogrom linked to various reasons, including economic interests.