ACCORDING to the latest India’s Union Home Ministry Annual Report to Parliament, of the 35 states of India, 29 are afflicted by terrorist acts carried out by all kinds of forces. Terrorism, I define here as the illegal use of force to overawe the civilian population to make it do or not do an act against their will and well being.
There are about 40 reported and unreported terrorist attacks per month in the country. That is why the recent US National Counter-Terrorism Centre publication, A Chronology of International Terrorism, states: “India suffered more terrorist acts than any other country”.
While the Prime Minister thinks that Maoists’ threat is most serious, I think Islamic terrorism is even more serious. If we did not have today a nincompoop dandy as a Home Minister, a putty clay PM, and a sinister foreign lady orchestrating them both, then Maoists can be eliminated in one month, much as I did with the LTTE in Tamil Nadu, as a senior Minister in 1991, or MGR did with the Naxalites in the early 1980s.
Why is Islamic terrorism our number one problem of national security? About this there will be no doubt after 2012. By that year, I expect Taliban to take over in Pakistan and the Americans to flee Afghanistan. Then, Islam will confront Hinduism to “complete unfinished business”.
Let us remember that every Hindu-Muslim riot in India since 1947, has been ignited by Muslim fanatics- if one goes by all the Commissions of Inquiry set up after every riot. By today’s definition, these riots are all terrorist acts. Muslims though being a relatively small minority in India still have fanatics who dare to lead violent attacks against Hindus. Other Muslims of India just lump it, sulk or rejoice. That is the history from Babar’s time to Aurangzeb. There have been exceptions to this apathy of Muslims like Dara Shikoh, in the old days, or like MJ Akbar and Salman Haidar today who are not afraid to speak out against Islamic terror, but still they remain exceptions.
In one sense, I do not blame the Muslim fanatics for targeting Hindus. I blame us Hindus who have taken their individuality permitted in Sanatana Dharma to the extreme. Millions of Hindus can assemble without state patronage for Kumbh Mela completely self-organised, but they all leave for home oblivious of targeting of Hindus in Kashmir, Mau, Melvisharam and Malappuram and do not lift their little finger to help organise Hindus. For example, if half the Hindus vote together rising above their caste and language, a genuine Hindu party will have a 2/3rd majority in Parliament and Assemblies.
The secularists now tout instances of Hindu fanatics committing terrorist attacks against Muslims or other minorities. But these attacks are mostly state sponsored, often by the Congress itself, and not by Hindu “non-State actors”. Muslims-led attacks are however all by “non-State actors” unless one includes the ISI and rogue elements in Pakistan’s professional army which are aiding them as state sponsoring.
Fanatic Muslim attacks have been carried out to target and demoralise the Hindus, to make Hindus yield that which they should not, with the aim of undermining and ultimately to dismantle the Hindu foundation of India. This is the unfinished war of 1000 years which Osama bin Laden talks about. In fact, the earliest terror tactics in India were deployed in Bengal in 1946 by Suhrawady and Jinnah to terrorise Hindus to give in on the demand for Pakistan. The Congress Party claiming to represent the Hindus capitulated, and handed 25 per cent of India on a platter to Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Now they want the remaining 75 per cent.
This is not to say that other stooges have not targeted Hindus. During the last six decades since Independence, British imperialist-inspired Dravidian Movement led by EV Ramaswamy Naicker, in the name of rationalism tried to debunk as irrational the Hindu religion and terrorised the Hindu priestly class, i.e., the Brahmins, for propagating the Hindu religion.
The movement’s organisational arm, the Dravida Kazhagam (DK), had venerated Ravana for fifty years to spite the Hindu adoration of Rama and vulgarise the abduction of Sita, till these DK semi-literates belatedly learnt that Ravana was a Brahmin and a pious bhakta of Lord Shiva too. Abandoning defaming Ramayana, the DK has now become stooges of the anti-Indian LTTE which terrorist organisation has specialised in killing Hindu Tamil leadership of Sri Lanka. Of course now DK has been orphaned by the decimation of the LTTE.
In the 1960s, the Christian missionaries had inspired the Nagas. The Nagas also wanted to further amputate Bharat Mata by seeking secession of Nagaland from the nation. In the 1980s, the Hindus of Manipur were targeted by foreign-trained elements. Manipuris were told: Give up Hinduism or be killed. In Kashmir, since the beginning of the 1990s, militants in league with the Pakistani-trained terrorists also targeted the Hindus by driving the Pandit community out of the Valley, or killing them or dishonouring their women folk.
Recognising that targeting of Hindus is being widely perceived, and that Muslims of India are largely just passive spectators, the foreign patrons of Islamic terrorists are beginning to engage in terrorist acts that could pit Muslims against Hindus in nationwide conflagration and possible civil war as in Serbia and Bosnia. Muslims cannot be divided into “moderates” and “extremists” because the former just capitulate when confronted. Recently, Pakistan civilian government capitulated on “kite flying” and banned it because Taliban considers it as “Hindu”. Moderate governments of Malaysia and Kazhakstan are now demolishing Hindu temples.
Hence, the first lesson to be learnt from recent history, for tackling terrorism in India is that the Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus. It is to undermine the Hindu psyche and create fear of civil war that terror attacks are organised.
And hence since the Hindu is the target, Hindus must collectively respond as Hindus against the terrorist and not feel individually isolated or worse, be complacent because he or she is not personally affected. If one Hindu dies merely because he or she was a Hindu, then a bit of every Hindu also dies. This is an essential mental attitude, a necessary part of a virat Hindu (for fuller discussion of the concept of virat Hindu, see my Hindus Under Siege: The Way Out, Haranand, 2006).
Therefore, we need today a collective mindset as Hindus to stand against the Islamic terrorist. In this response, Muslims of India can join us if they genuinely feel for the Hindu. That they do, I will not believe, unless they acknowledge with pride that though they may be Muslims, their ancestors are Hindus.
It is not easy for them to acknowledge this ancestry because the Muslim Mullah and Christian Missionary would consider it as unacceptable since that realisation would dilute the religious fervour in their faith and also create an option for their possible re-conversion to the Hinduism. Hence, these religious leaders preach hatred and violence against the kafir i.e., the Hindu (for example read Chapter 8 verse 12 of the Koran) to keep the faith of their followers. The Islamic terrorist outfits, e.g., the SIMI being the latest has already resolved that India is Darul Harab, and they are committed to make it Darul Islam. That makes them free of any moral compunction whatsoever in dealing with Hindus.
But still, if any Muslim does so acknowledge his or her Hindu legacy, then we Hindus can accept him or her as a part of the Brihad Hindu Samaj, which is Hindustan. India that is Bharat that is Hindustan is a nation of Hindus and those others whose ancestors are Hindus. Others, those who refuse to so acknowledge or those foreigners who become Indian citizens by registration can remain in India, but should not have voting rights (which means they cannot be elected representatives).
Hence, to begin with, any policy to combat terrorism must first begin with requiring each and every Hindu becoming a committed or virat Hindu’. By this is not meant that it is enough commitment if one claims to be Hindu, or goes to temples, does pujas, and celebrates festivals. That is not sufficient to be a committed or virat Hindu. To be a virat Hindu one must have a Hindu mindset, a mindset that recognises that there is vyaktigat charitra (personal character) and a rashtriya charitra (national character). It is not enough if one is pious, honest and educated. That is personal character only. National character is a mindset actively and vigorously committed to the sanctity and integrity of the nation.
The second lesson for combating terrorism we face today that we need to learn is: Since demoralising the Hindu and undermining the Hindu foundation of India in order to destroy the Hindu civilisation, is the goal of all terrorists in India we must never capitulate and never concede any demand of the terrorists. Terrorists are encouraged by appeasement but never satisfied by it. Therefore, no matter how many Hindus have to die for it, the basic policy has to be: Never yield to any demand of the terrorists. That necessary resolve has not been shown in our recent history. Instead ever since we conceded Pakistan in 1947 under duress, we have been mostly yielding time and time again.
In 1989, to obtain the release of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter, Rubaiya who had been kidnapped by terrorists, five terrorists in Indian jails were set free by the VP Singh’s government. This made these criminals in the eyes of Kashmiri separatists and fence sitters as heroes, as those who had brought India’s Hindu establishment on it’s knees. To save Rubaiya it was not necessary to surrender to terrorist demands.
The worst capitulation to terrorists in our modern history was in the Indian Airlines hijack incident in December end 1999 staged in Kandahar. The government released three terrorists even without getting court permission (required since they were in judicial custody). Moreover they were escorted by a senior Minister on the PM’s special Boeing all the way to Kandahar as royal guests instead of being shoved across the Indo-Pakistan border.
Worse still, all the three after being freed, went back to Pakistan and created three separate terrorist organisations to kill Hindus. Maulana Masood Azhar, whom the National Security Adviser Brijesh Mishra had then described (on NDTV) as “a mere harmless cleric”, upon his release led the LeT to savage and repeated terrorists attacks on Hindus all over India from Bangalore to Srinagar. Since mid-2000, Azhar is responsible for killing of over 2000 Hindus and the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. Omar Sheikh who helped Al Qaeda is in jail in US custody for killing US journalist Daniel Pearl, while the third, Zargar is engaged today in random killings of Hindus in Doda and Jammu after founding Al Mujahideen Jingaan.
But at the end of all that capitulation, Bharat Mata is bleeding even more. The whole Kandahar episode proves that we should never negotiate with terrorists, never yield. If you do, then sooner or later you will end up losing more lives than you will ever save by a deal with terrorists.
The third lesson to be learnt is that whatever and however small the terrorist incident, the nation must retaliate-not by measured and “sober” responses but by massive retaliation.
Otherwise what is the alternative? Walk meekly to death expecting that our “sober” responses will be rewarded by our neighbours and their patrons ? We will be back to 1100 AD fooled into suicidal credulity. We should not be ghouls for punishment from terrorists and their patrons. We should retaliate.
For example, when Ayodhya Temple was sought to be attacked, this was not a big terrorist incident but we should have massively retaliated by re-building the Ram temple at the site.
This is Kaliyuga, and hence there is no room for sattvic responses to evil people. Hindu religion has a concept of apat dharma and we should invoke it. This is the moment of truth for us. Either we organise to survive as a civilisation or go under completely as did Iran, Babylon, and Egypt did centuries ago before the brutal Islamic onslaught. For that our motto should be”-Saam, Dhaam, Danda, Bheda.
What motivates the Islamic terrorists in India? Many are advising us Hindus to deal with the root “cause” of terrorism rather than concentrating on eradicating terrorists by retaliation. And pray what is the root “cause”?
According to bleeding heart liberals, terrorists are born or bred because of illiteracy, poverty, oppression, and discrimination. They argue that instead of eliminating them, the root cause of these four disabilities in society should be removed. Only then terrorism will disappear. Before replying to this, let us understand that I have serious doubts about the integrity of these liberals, or more appropriately, these promiscuous intellectuals. They seek to deaden the emotive power of the individual and render him passive (inculcate majboori in our psyche). A nation state cannot survive for long with such a capitulationist mentality.
It is rubbish to say that terrorists who mastermind the attacks are poor. Osama bin Laden for example is a billionaire. Islamic terrorists are patronised by those states that have grown rich from oil revenues. In Britain, the terrorists arrested so far for the bombings are all well to do persons. Nor are terrorists uneducated. Most of terrorist leaders are doctors, chartered accountants, MBAs and teachers. For example, in the failed Times Square New York episode, the Islamic terrorist Shazad studied and got an MBA from a reputed US university. He was from a highly placed family in Pakistan. He certainly faced no discrimination and oppression in his own country. The gang of 9 persons which hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001 and flew them into the World Trade Towers in New York and other targets were certainly not discriminated or oppressed in the United States. Hence it utter rubbish to say that terror is the outcome of the poverty of terrorists.
If we accept the Left-wing liberals argument, does it mean that in Islamic countries, the non-Islamic religious minorities who are discriminated and oppressed can take to terrorism? In Kashmir valley, where Muslims are in majority, not only Article 370 of the Constitution provides privileges to the majority but it is the minority Hindus who have been slaughtered, or raped, and dispossessed. They have become refugees in squalid conditions in their own country.
It is also a ridiculous idea that terrorists cannot be deterred because they are irrational, willing to die, and have no ‘return address’. Terrorist masterminds have political goals and a method in their madness. An effective strategy to deter terrorism is therefore to defeat those political goals and to rubbish them by counter-terrorist action. How is that strategy to be structured? In a brilliant research paper published by Robert Trager and Dessislava Zagorcheva this year (“Deterring Terrorism” International Security, vol. 30, No.3, Winter 2005/06, pp. 87-123) has provided the general principles to structure such a strategy.
Applying these principles, I advocate the following strategy to negate the political goals of Islamic terrorism in India, provided the Muslim community fail to condemn these goals and call them un-Islamic:
Political Goal 1: Overawe India on Kashmir.
Strategy: Remove Article 370, and re-settle ex-servicemen in the Valley. Create Panun Kashmir for Hindu Pandit community. Look or create opportunity to take over PoK. If Pakistan continues to back terrorists, assist the Baluchis and Sindhis to struggle for independence.
Political Goal 2: Blast our temples and kill Hindu devotees.
Strategy: Remove the masjid in Kashi Vishwanath temple complex, and sequentially 300 others in other sites as a tit-for-tat retaliation.
Political Goal 3: Make India into Darul Islam.
Strategy: Implement Uniform Civil Code, make Sanskrit learning compulsory and singing of Vande Mataram mandatory, and declare India as Hindu Rashtra in which only those non-Hindus can vote if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors are Hindus. Re-name India as Hindustan as a nation of Hindus and those whose ancestors are Hindus.
Political Goal 4: Change India’s demography by illegal immigration, conversion, and refusal to adopt family planning.
Strategy: Enact a national law prohibiting conversion from Hindu religion to any other religion. Re-conversion will not be banned. Declare caste is not birth-based but code of discipline based. Welcome non-Hindus to re-convert to the caste of their choice provided they adhere to the code of discipline. Annex Bangladesh territory in proportion to the illegal migrants from that country. At present, northern one-third from Sylhet to Khulna can be annexed to re-settle the illegal migrants.
Political Goal 5: Denigrate Hinduism through vulgar writings and preaching in mosques, madrasas, and churches to create loss of self-respect amongst Hindus and fit for capitulation.
Strategy: Propagate the development of a Hindu mindset (see my new book Hindutva and National Renaissance, Haranand, 2010).
India can solve it’s terrorist problem within five years by such a deterrent strategy, but for that we have to learn the four lessons outlined above, and have a Hindu mindset to take bold, risky, and hard decisions to defend the nation. If the Jews can be transformed from lambs walking meekly to the gas chambers to fiery lions in just ten years, it is not difficult for Hindus in much better circumstances (after all we are 83 per cent of India), to do so in five years.
Guru Gobind Singh has shown us the way already, how just five fearless persons under spiritual guidance can transform the society. Even if half the Hindu voters are persuaded to collectively vote as Hindus, and for a party sincerely committed to a Hindu agenda, then we can forge an instrument for change. And that ultimately is the bottom line in the strategy to deter terrorism in a democratic Hindustan at this moment of truth.
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