Dear Editor,
Kudos to Arunachal Times for its editorial titled “Stop communal polarization”(October 17).
Renaming spree under saffron regime is nothing but a bizarre scandalous attack upon multi-cultural history of India with a clever design of eradicating the Muslim period so as to impose a monochrome Hindu identity upon this diverse nation since centuries.
What better can be expected from an ideological camp which is based on the narrow, divisive, parochial, philistine concept of “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan”! Now if this camp, possessing no respect towards the heterogeneity and multi-cultural ethos of this diverse democratic nation, gains political power in Centre or different states of the Union; it is obvious that necessary steps would be taken to eradicate the diversities of the nation by imposing all things Hindu and Hindi. And to achieve their selfish goal; if the dietary habits of certain communities get infringed upon, various languages of the nation get accorded step-motherly treatment and historical facts get re-written, then so be it!
Not to forget the history of BJP. It gained political prominence through the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, Rath Yatra and polarisation of the secular Indian society in Hindu and Muslim lines. The movement led to the barbaric demolition of Babri Masjid and subsequent riots almost throughout the nation. The gory Gujarat pogrom under the nose of the BJP regime remains another scandal in the history of the party. Though a section of the media often highlights that the 2014 General election was fought by the BJP on the plank of “development”; the fact remains that rabid communalism, speeches of communal hatred and rabid Hindutva ruled the roost. While Amit Shah had spoken of “revenge” against particular community in Muzaffarnagar, none other than Narendra Modi had addressed the people of Faizabad with a picture of proposed Ram Temple in background! Moreover one person was being constantly projected as “Hindu Hriday Samrat”! As soon as the harbingers of “Good Days” won the polls; came a shameless declaration that after the reign of Prithviraj Chauhan, India would once again be ruled by the Hindus! No messiah of “development” had then issued a single sentence of protest despite such outrageous statement in a multi-religious secular country! And thereafter induction of a riot-tainted leader in the Union Ministry, dividing the Indians into Ramzaade and *****zaade, asking the secular brigade to go to Pakistan, equating all Indians as “Hindus” or diktat of sacrificing beef if one desires to live in India! All these “divine” comments got uttered by holders of Constitutional posts! After all India has come “under the reign of Hindus”! So right from the Hindutva fringe groups murdering the Kalburgis, Pansares, Gouris, Akhlaques and Junaids with “heads held high” to the governments at the provincial level sharing the same rabid ideology; all have got a huge moral and psychological boost and boldly carrying out programmes of “Hindu glorification”!
In this extremely pathetic perspective, if the heterogeneous history of India gets Hinduised by uprooting the reality of Islamic period and its rich influence; it would hardly evoke a surprise!
It is indeed disgusting to note how a divisive ideology has been working all-out to Hinduise this historically diverse and secular democratic country and to achieve their end, they are even distorting historical facts by imposing ridiculous theories of Rana Pratap defeating Akbar at Haldighati or Taj Mahal being originally a “Hindu temple”! Actually when the modern temples of dams and factories yield place to mythical Saraswati, Ganga- aarti, Gomata ,Gita, Ramayan Museum and “plastic surgery of Ganesh” in the consciousness of the State; these vulgar attacks on history, Rana Pratap and secular values are bound to happen.
It is high time all sane people protest against these antics of Hindutva fanatics, else these contamination of history and psychological fragmentation of India would see no end!
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata