Bigotry Indian style

More than six and a half decades after Partition, India seems to have failed to overcome its religious differences

The issue of forced sterilisation, or the deliberate effort to cut the size of specific populations, is one associated most often with the Nazi regime in Germany or other brutal autocratic set-ups in various parts of the world. The strategy has been used by colonial occupiers of land, and in times of war. The shocking statement by the vice-president of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha, Sadhvi Deva Thakur, that the population of Muslims and Christians needs to be brought down in India through forcible sterilisation has already caused shockwaves in a nation, which lays great emphasis on its secular status, and where there is a constant need to be wary of stirring up communal tensions. Ms Thakur is obviously unconcerned about this or about the highly sensitive nature of her absurd proposal.

The proposal comes some months after a survey in January indicating a 24 per cent increase in the Muslim population over a decade. This is slower than the growth rate recorded a decade before this, but takes Muslims as a total percentage of the population from around 13 to 14 per cent. The survey coincides with international findings which state that Islam is the most rapidly expanding religion in the world. The population growth rate is obviously a concern to Ms Thakur, who also exhibited her bias by suggesting idols of Hindu gods and goddesses be placed inside churches and mosques and that Hindus should have more children. What is most disturbing about these remarks is what is exposed within them about the bigotry within India and the continued communal divide. More than six and a half decades after Partition, the Indian nation seems to have failed to overcome its religious differences and unite as one. The hardline BJP government’s huge electoral sweep last year has only deepened the communal divide. The problem is one that India’s leaders must address urgently. If they fail, the future of India and its people does not look especially bright, with tensions based on the lines of belief set to increase, along with an accompanying sense of anger.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th,  2015.

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