The Dominant Are Grumbling

“You dance to my tune. I dictate, you obey. I raise a slogan, you repeat. As loudly as you can.” This is the drive to compel that we increasingly witness in much of our world. Leaders coming across as narcissistic, anti-democratic or authoritarian are not confined to one or two nations. 

Frequently, voices from a country’s more vocal group, which is often also the section with greater numbers, greater money-power, and greater muscle-power, claim they’re being victimized even as they extort obedience from smaller or weaker groups. 

This year in India, where the dates of most Hindu festivals, linked as they are to the lunar timetable, vary from year to year, the popular Hindu festival of Holi, usually celebrated by sprinkling water or pasting colors on the faces or clothes of friends, relatives, and even strangers, will arrive this coming Friday, the 14th of March. 

In Indian society’s hierarchical life, Holi is a welcome interruption that brings people together at a common level at least on one day in the year. For Muslims the world over, including in India, Friday is the day of the week when they walk from work or home to a nearby mosque to pray. 

Aligned to his party’s agenda of “removing Hindu grievances,” Haribhushan Thakur Bachol, a BJP legislator in eastern India’s Bihar state (which today has a population of around 135 million) has made the following public statement:

“Muslims must stay at home on Holi to avoid a confrontation. Holi comes once a year. It is a festival of colours. Muslim friends get upset if someone puts colours on them. That's why I have said, if you (Muslims) have a large heart, then step out. Otherwise, stay at home so there is no confrontation. Friday comes 52 times a year. Leave one Friday for Hindus.”

MORE THAN 80 PERCENT

“Stay at home!” Instead of thus directing Bihar’s minority Muslims, and casting the onus on them, Mr. Bachol could have just as easily addressed his state’s Hindus, who form 82 percent of the population, and said something like the following: “This Friday, in the spirit of friendship, which is the essence of Holi, be sure to obtain the consent of Muslims, who are your compatriots, before spraying them with colour on the streets.” 

The statement the lawmaker actually made demanded compliance. It did not invite friendship, goodwill, or fraternization. In fact, the statement suggested a grudge that every Friday Bihar’s Muslims should be found walking to their mosques. 

Responding sharply to the BJP legislator’s remarks, Tejashwi Yadav, who leads the opposition RJD Party in the Bihar assembly, said, “The BJP MLA has asked Muslim brothers not to step out. Is this [his] father's state? Who is he? How can he make such a statement?”

"And what does this MLA know? This is Bihar. Five Hindus will protect each Muslim here. You want to engineer riots. But whether or not we are in power, as long as our party is here, we won't let their agenda succeed.”

In Bihar, the BJP partners the JDU Party in running the state government. The JDU’s Nitish Kumar is Bihar’s chief minister. The large state of Maharashtra in western India, with Mumbai as its capital, is also run by a coalition, with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister. Maharashtra holds a population roughly the same size as that of Bihar. Close to 80 percent in the state are Hindus and about 12 percent Muslims. 

One of Maharashtra’s ministers, Nitesh Rane of the BJP, has just announced a new certification for mutton shops in the state that would be run only by Hindus. Announcing the “Malhar certification initiative,” Rane urged people not to purchase mutton from “places where Malhar certification is not available”. The new initiative, he said, would make the youth of the Hindu community “financially empowered,” adding, “no adulteration will be found in the mutton”.

PUSHING SEPARATION 

According to details posted on the government’s website, Malhar is “a certified platform” for mutton and chicken vendors. It will ensure that goat and sheep meat, “sacrificed according to Hindu religious traditions, is fresh, clean, [and] free from saliva contamination.” Only Hindu vendors, the site reiterates, would be supplying this “Malhar” certified mutton. 

The thrust of the call seems plain. Hindus shouldn’t buy the “halal” meat sold by Muslims. There should be a clear distance between the daily lives of meat-eating Hindus (who easily outnumber vegetarian Hindus) and meat-eating Muslims. Whether economically, geographically, or socially, Hindus and Muslims should live in separate worlds, and Hindus shouldn’t add to Muslim incomes. 

Anyone concluding from Minister Nitesh Rane’s statement that Maharashtra’s Muslims are better off than the state’s Hindus would be mistaken. The minister merely warns Hindus against aiding Muslims. What is being urged is not fraternity but separation, not equality but superiority. The assumption seems to be that India’s constitution is only a paper tiger. 

We can look at a third state in India. Occupying a large portion of central India, Madhya Pradesh, with Bhopal as its capital, has been ruled by the BJP more or less continuously from 2003. Nearly 92 percent of the state’s population are Hindus. Muslims in MP are under 7 percent. 

On the back of unproven allegations of “love jihad,” or a supposed drive to lure Hindu girls into marriage with Muslim boys in order to increase Muslim numbers, Madhya Pradesh passed a law in 2021 that made conversion from Hinduism to Islam (or Christianity) virtually impossible. If any adult in MP wishes to convert, he or she must first obtain a magistrate’s certificate that the conversion is strictly voluntary and not the result of any inducement.

DEATH PENALTY 

Intensifying the BJP's attack on alleged instances of “love jihad,” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has said that his government will bring a law to ensure death penalty for those found guilty of forcing religious conversions. Mr. Yadav made the announcement at an event marking International Women’s Day, asserting that forced conversions will not be allowed in the state.

“Our government is very strict against those who commit atrocities against our innocent daughters. We won't spare those who force them. Such people should not be allowed to live. Through the Religious Freedom Act, we are working to extend the provision of the death penalty to those doing forced conversions,” he said.

A Congress Party MLA in Madhya Pradesh, Arif Masood, has accused the BJP government of targeting Muslims and asked if it was attempting to alter the Constitution. “A girl has been missing in Bhopal for three days. We should find her. But targeting a particular community has always been their habit,” Mr. Masood said.

By now, laws against forced conversions have existed for years in several Indian states, but it seems hard if not impossible to obtain any figures, whether in Madhya Pradesh or another Indian state, for those charged or prosecuted or convicted under such laws, or of those converting after obtaining a government official’s clearance. It is not easy therefore to have an idea of the substance behind the “love jihad” specter or behind allegations of forced conversion.

A bigger question must however be asked, whether we’re thinking of Bihar, Maharashtra, or Madhya Pradesh, and whether we are thinking of India, the US, or another country. Are we fostering friendship, trust, and mutual respect between communities? Or are we promoting fear, suspicion, and dislike?