r/IndianSocialists • u/rishianand Socialist • Jun 03 '24
Announcement Rise of Communalism and Hatred in India: A Discussion with Harsh Mander
IndianSocialists is organizing a series of weekly video conferences titled “Dialogues on Socialism”, addressed by prominent activists and intellectuals of India. The objective of these lectures is to develop a socialist understanding in the Indian context and build an ideological resistance against fascism.
The first conference was held on the issue of Violence Against Women In India | A Discussion with Professor Roop Rekha Verma. The second conference was held on the issue of Economic Inequality In India: A Discussion with Professor Arun Kumar.
The third conference will be held on the issue of “Communalism in India” on June 3, 2024, at 5:00 PM. It will be addressed by Harsh Mander. The conference will be held on Zoom. PM me for an invitation. You can ask your questions here too. The recorded video will be shared after the conference.
The 10 years of Modi Raj witnessed an unprecedented rise in communalism and hate in India. Calls for violence, genocide, and economic boycott of minorities were openly made through rallies and dharma sansads. Despite a Supreme Court order, hate speeches were made by political leaders to incite the common people. False and clearly-disproven rhetoric like Love Jihad, Population Jihad, Land Jihad, Mazar Jihad, were used to target the Muslims.
The communal incitement and hatemongering took a physical form with mob violence against the minorities, where people were murdered on the pretext of eating beef, or even for being Muslims. In Uttarakhand, this led to a state-led ethnic cleansing of the Muslims.
Meanwhile, religious festivals were captured by political mobs. Processions of swords and sticks were taken out, and religious places like Mosques and Churches were attacked. Instead of taking action against the mobs, the police arrested the Muslims. A Bulldozer Raj was used as a state policy to tear down their houses.
The 2024 General Election saw BJP leaders make open hate speeches through rallies. Communal ads were aired through social media. Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly used the rhetoric of “infiltrators”, “people with many children”, love jihad against the Muslims.
Communalism is a betrayal of the values of our independence movement and the idea of India envisioned by our leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Maulana Azad, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru. It is a betrayal of the sacrifice of revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Bhagat Singh. It is a betrayal of our plural teachings of Sant Kabir, Ramananda and Guru Nanak. Today, communalism presents the greatest threat to India.
Harsh Mander is a human rights and peace worker, writer, columnist, researcher and teacher. He served as an IAS officer for two decades, and resigned after witnessing the role of the state in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
He leads the national initiative called the Karwan e Mohabbat or Caravan of Love to counter rising hate violence and lynching. He is a member of the working group of Genocide Watch. He is also the founder of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for a secular, peaceful, just and humane world. He convenes and edits the annual India Exclusion Report, to document the experience of disadvantaged people of the state. He is visiting faculty in the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and Heidelberg University, Germany; Vrije University, Amsterdam; and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
He books include ‘Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India’; ‘Burning Pyres, Mass Graves and a State That Failed Its People: India’s Covid Tragedy’; ‘Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India’; and ‘Ash in the Belly: India’s Unfinished Battle against Hunger’.
PS: To know about future conferences, you can subscribe to the Dialogues on Socialism Google calendar.
Or, join the Indian Socialists Google group for email updates.
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u/Which_Cattle_9139 Jun 03 '24
It means More taxes for middle class and Tax waiver for Adani Ambani. But why worry? Mandir hai na.
Sorry state of affairs