Is India Going the Way of 1930s Germany?

Foreign Policy in Focus ^ | March 27, 2002 | Arun R. Swamy

[TBP]

Is India beginning to resemble Nazi Germany? This writer thinks it is, and I agree with him. As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said on August 2, 1999, for the minorities,"India might as well be Nazi Germany."

[Pearls Before Swine]

I don't recall the Jews rioting and burning trains with German women and children in them before WW II.

[tallhappy]

I don't recall the Jews rioting and burning trains with German women and children in them before WW II.

Excellent point, I'm sure lost on the auhor.

The analysis at the host site, Foreign Policy in Focus, seems consistently leftist.

[colorado tanker]

I agree with the author that the core Hindu nationalists bear watching and would cause considerable trouble if they succeed in their campaign to tear down mosques and replace them with Hindu temples. Some even want to tear down the Taj Mahal.

But these views are held by a small minority. Once it attained power the PJP has by and large acted responsibly and today is blocking the "rebuilding" of a Hindu temple at Ayodyha. Indeed, BJP's days in power seem numbered - they've recently lost a series of state and municipal elections.

The link between extreme Hindu nationalists and fascism goes back to before WWII, when many believed Japan or Germany might deliver independence to India. The violence between Hindus and Muslims was far worse during independence and partition.

My gut feeling is that the author is taking a kernel of truth and mixing it with some old news to tar BJP with the "nazi" label. Probably a Congress supporter.

[Hugin]

Hindu nationalists claim that a temple on the same site honoring the birthplace of the Hindu deity, Rama, was torn down to make way for the mosque.

This was standard operating procedure for Muslims for centuries. Destroying other religions holy sites and building mosques on them, at which point they become "Islamic Holy Sites". Just like the Temple Mount in Jeuruselem.

[Almondjoy]

OHHHHHH but that's right you only think of muslims being the minority there.. you might want to remember the ten's of thousands of christians and sieks that have died their too.. sheesh.. could you at least try to be a little less biased and a tad more factual?

[TBP]

The train that was attacked was filled with militant Hindu nationalists who were chanting slogans about building a Hindu temple on the site of the most revered mosque in India. They also bought food from a vendor and then refused to pay for it. When he made an issue of it, they took his daughter and held her captive on the train. The rioters were provoked.

But it's not just that incident. Some of you Indian apologists can't see beyond the small incidents that the Indian government wants you to see.

The Indian government has practiced oppression against Chrsitians, Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits, Bodos, and other minorities. According to the January 2 Washington Times, they are sponsoring terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh. According to India Today, tehy created teh Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Indian government admitted to holding 52,268 Sikh political prisoners, according to a report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR.) Some of these have been in illegal detention since 1984! India has murdered over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 75,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and tens of thousands of other minorities. According to teh Hitavada newspaper, it paid the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, to foment terrorist activity in Punjab and Kashmir. About 50,000 Sikhs have been made to "disappear." Minorities of all kinds are killed in police custody.

Chrsitians are being singled out. Priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, churches have been burned, missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were murdered by these Hindu militants and all India does is throw his widow out of the country. A Chrsitian religious festival was broken up by police gunfire.

Does this sound like a secular democracy to you, or does it sound like Nazi Germany? Rep. Dana Rohrabacher knows. On August 2, 1999, on the floor of the House, he said that for the minorities, "India might as well be Nazi Germany."

[milestogo]

This writer thinks it is, and I agree with him. As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

Thats 3 against...?

[milestogo]

According to India Today, tehy created teh Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Would that be the LTTE that killed the Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi?

[TBP]

But these views are held by a small minority. Once it attained power the PJP has by and large acted responsibly

Unfortunately, not so. BJP has led the carnage against minorities, which has continuesd since it came to power.

BJP is under the umbrella of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), a pro-Fascist organization. It is RSS's political arm. RSS recently published a booklet on how to implicate Chrsitians (and other religious minorities) in false criminal cases. It endorsed the killing of priests, the rape of nuns, and the murder of missionary Graham Staines and his 8- and 10-year-old sons.

In New York in 2000, Prime Minister Vajpayee told an audience "I will always be a Swayamsewak."

[TBP]

Yes, it is.

[Map Kernow]

,"India might as well be Nazi Germany."

The comparison of Pakistan to Nazi Germany is more apt. Pakistan, like Nazi Germany, is fomenting terrorist unrest in the Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir, just like the Nazis did in the Sudetenland and the Danzig corridor. By contrast, although India could easily have swallowed up the former East Pakistan after the 1971 war of liberation, she didn't, and that state became the independent Bangla Desh.

[Map Kernow]

This was standard operating procedure for Muslims for centuries. Destroying other religions holy sites and building mosques on them, at which point they become "Islamic Holy Sites". Just like the Temple Mount in Jeuruselem.

Here's another: the "Hagia Sophia Church" in Constantinople, the finest architectural masterpiece of its historical era. At least the Turks didn't tear it down...

[sheik yerbouty]

The Turks are not Arabs.

[colorado tanker]

I agree that BJP has some unsavory supporters and associates. I also agree that the government has not done enough to halt religious persecution and violence. Particulaly disturbing is the murder of Christians and suppression of the Christian church in many states.

I stand by my view, however, that BJP has moderated its more extreme views since going into government, to my surprise.

I do believe that BJP's time in power is coming to a close. It would be interesting to see what Congress would do in a new government - would they continue the trend to economic liberalization or would they revert to Nehru-style socialism?

[Lejes Rimul]

Nazi Germany's a bit strong, but the point is right: Let's not forget all the Xians being persecuted there, too. Hindooism is a religion of Peace.

[AmishDude]

on the site of the most revered mosque in India

Most revered mosque in India . . . third most holy site in Islam . . . yawn. Are these rankings listed somewhere because everytime something happens it happens someplace more holy or more revered than the last?

I'm waiting for Dearborn, MI to be given an Islamic name and declared holy ground.

[TBP]

TheWashington Times on January 2 wrote that Indi is sponsoring terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Tavleen Singh of India Today reported that the Indian government created the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and put up its leaders in the best hotel in Delhi. And it's alsobeen reported that the current Defense Minister, George Fernandes, raised money and arms for the LTTE.

The Kashmiri freedom movement claims to be self-generated, and the evidence I have seen says it is. So are the 16 other freedom movements within India's artificial borders.

[Malcolm]

While I'm a Christian, and know that the atrocities against Christians in India are in line with reports I've heard before, the muslims are a far more immediate enemy than the Indians are. We ally ourselves with others from time to time in order to accomplish a more important purpose. We need to ally with India to combat the Muslim onslaught. If along the way, the Indians prove to be Nazi-like, then we can disengage from them. A poster noted above that the current party in power, the BJP, is losing popularity, and might be out of power not too far down the road. India is a relatively new democracy, with an educated middle class just now forming. Let's give India a chance to mature and realize that the West is their best partner for the future. It certainly ISN'T the lunatic Muslim world, killing every thing in sight that does bow the knee to their false god. And with hegemonistic China next door, India should seek out allies where they can. The only enemies the US has on the entire planet are Communist ones, (China, Cuba, N Korea), and the Muslim world. Let's help India see the light of moving into the Western family. If the situation winds up being the Muslim world and China vs the rest of the planet, that will be the best outcome. I would not prefer Pakistan over India; once Pakistan returns to what they loosely term "democracy" there, (more like "mob rule"), we will find out that Turkey is the only Muslim nation that we could ever hope to trust.....