“The dominating consideration with the Muslims is not democracy. The dominating consideration is how democracy with majority rule will affect the Muslims in their struggle against the Hindus. Will it strengthen them or will it weaken them? If democracy weakens them, they will not have democracy. They will prefer the rotten state to continue in the Muslim States rather than weaken the Muslim ruler in his hold upon his Hindu subjects”. — Dr Babasaheb B R Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India, Thacker & Co Ltd, Bombay, 1945, p. 227
The Nuh district of Haryana, previously known as Mewat, is witnessing another spat of violence. The Jalabhishek Yatra by Vishva Hindu Parishad has been an annual feature in this region to reconnect with the Mahabharat era stories and traditions of Mewat. When Yatra entered the Nuh area, stone-pelting started on the pilgrims as if everything was in place for the attack. Although, as per the police version, six people reportedly died, as per the eyewitness’s version, the number can be much more. The unruly Islamist mob burnt hundreds of cars and shops. Even though the sequence of events suggests a larger conspiracy, cyber-activists, earlier instigating against the Yatra, started diverting blame on Bajrang Dal and Cow vigilantism. Well-oiled machinery of Islamists from Delhi to Washington began to peddle the favourite narrative of minorities not safe in ‘Hindu India’, avoiding the fact that they were discussing the incident that occurred in the Muslim- majority area. Other secularists just condemn communal violence without mentioning the perpetrators. Was it a riot? What was the intent behind it? Can we afford to neglect this experiment of resorting to violence based on religious fanaticism?
For the Mewat region, communal violence is not new. It is in fashion among the secularists to blame everything on the Bharatiya Janata Party Government, and the ‘after 2014’ scenario, yes, and Google research would prove them right. Some even try to reduce and link it to the Haryana Government passing a cow protection and promotion law. But, if we dive deep into history and objectively assess it, we will get a clear picture. This region has been the hotbed of Islamists since the late 19th century. These Muslims, known as Meos, were forcefully converted after the fall of Rajputana against the Mughals and had earlier retained their Hindu traditions. The community was found spread in the present-day Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, especially Braj and Alwar-Bharatpur regions. When Arya Samaj started the Shuddhi movement (return to roots through rituals), it naturally found traction among many Meos. In response to this, here in ‘Mewat’, Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi established the Puritan movement called Tablighi Jamaat, which means preaching party. This movement propagating blind imitation of Arabic Islamic practices started the real problem. No wonder the fanaticism went to such an extent that the Meos of ‘Mewat’ started demanding separate Meostan under the influence of the Muslim League at the time of Partition, which finds mention in the Constituent Assembly debates and correspondence of Sardar Patel with Dr Rajendra Prasad. They were even ready to migrate to Pakistan before they were convinced to stay back by Gandhiji. Since then, Mewat, now Nuh, remained a hotbed of communal tensions with around 70 per cent Muslim population, along with criminal activities that included cow smuggling and, recently, cybercrimes. How can one forget that here in the same ‘Mewat’ the self-proclaimed defender of the Constitution and the then Aam Aadmi Party candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Yogendra Yadav, has declared, “If Modi becomes PM…Aag Lag Jayegi (there will be fire)”. So, the Nuh violence of 2023 is not limited to cow vigilantism or some video posted on July 30. The Tablighi culture that started uprooting Meos from their Hindu heritage has been at its root.
The fake secularism practised and preached after Independence has systematically nurtured the Islamist ideology. Attacks on Hindu processions have been practised even before Independence which Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar has documented in his book on Partition of India. The same pattern continued in the post-Independent Bharat, thanks to the politics of appeasement in the name of secularism. Ram-Navami, Navaratri, Ganesh Chaturthi and Kawad Yatras have been the favourite targets in the ‘forbidden’ areas. Just a few days before the Nuh violence, the Muslim community across Bharat took out Muharram processions, including in Kashmir. There were violent instances of Shia-Sunni scuffles at places like Varanasi and incidents of stone-pelting on police and public property from the Muslim mobs when police asked them to stick to the permitted routes, as happened in the Nagloi area of Delhi. Still, no other religious community objected or created a ruckus about the unruly Taziya processions with loud music and road blockages. Why are certain areas communally sensitive and demarcated as no-go zones, even for the police or administrative machinery? The same thing happened at Nuh’s entry point. An Islamist mob hatched a pre-planned conspiracy to disturb law and order by attacking a Hindu procession passing through the demarcated ‘Muslim area’. And when police tried to control it, they became the primary targets. A police station was attacked, and criminal records were destroyed. Hence, it was not a riot but a tested experiment of the Islamist mob culture from the pre-Independence period that forced the then Congress leadership to accept the Partition.
The more extensive experiment is going on at the national and global level – Manipur violence on ethnic lines, Islamist violence on religious lines, fuelling regional sentiments on linguistic lines in Southern parts of Bharat and castes identities being used against each other. Is this an unrelated pattern? Are there linkages to destabilise Bharat? The way opposition leaders are making irresponsible statements, instigating identities, and even calling on external forces to intervene, the road to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections looks much more bumpy. The experiment, successfully orchestrated during the anti-CAA riots, and the so-called farmers’ agitation, continues in different forms. The key ingredients of this pattern are picking up some issues against the Government, spreading misinformation about them, instigating caste or community-based identities, blocking roads through agitations, resorting to violence and internationalising the anti-Bharat narratives. Otherwise, how could a reporter from the Reuters agency, who also writes for The Wire, raise Nuh violence matter during a US State Department press briefing within hours? Despite available video-graphic evidence, why did no international media identify the Islamists targeting a Hindu religious procession? How come the heinous crimes against women, brutal murders, burning of the ambulance and use of gas cylinders as weapons remained out of mainstream media radar? Why are the BJP-ruled States facing more street violence incidents that are amplified globally? Is it just a coincidence or part of the larger conspiracy?
The rise and awakening of civilisational Bharat has been frustrating for many, domestically and internationally. New alliances are coming up beyond politics to target Bharat and its vibrant democracy. We as a society need to be vigilant about this experimental pattern. We should not allow our diversity to be used as divisive faultlines. Of course, intelligence agencies and administration, especially at the State level, must be alert and proactive to avert violence. As happened in Uttar Pradesh, fanatics and the mafia should get a clear message with punitive actions. The police machinery should effectively use technological tools to monitor social media, the new weapon of information warfare. A force of social media activists should be trained for positive usage and countering negativity. Community leaders have a significant role to play in this process. There may be political competition in democracy, a difference of opinion is also understandable and accepted, but none of that is above Bharat. This Mantra is the guarantee of safety, security and prosperity for all.
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