Holy Lies - understanding communal riots in India
Here is an excellent article by author Pankaj Mishra that should be an essential reading for anyone trying to understand the communal riots in India. This article, written for the Guardian in 2002 in the aftermath of the destruction of historical Babri Mosque provides answers to many questions on this problematic issue.
You will notice the common element within Hindutva and 969 Movement: an admiration for fascism, Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany by their pujaris or devotees.
Last year, Mishra revisited the subject of communal riots in India with updated information. You can read his piece by clicking here.
As you may know that in the anti-Muslim pogrom of Gujarat, February 2002, where more than a thousand Muslims were butchered to death, BJP leader Narendra Modi, who remains the Chief Minister of the state, explicitly instructed civil servants and police not to stand in the killers' way. The pogrom was extensively televised by India's innumerable – and then much less complacent – TV channels. Many middle-class Indians were shocked to hear how even the very young had not been spared – the slayers of Muslims were seen smashing the heads of children against rocks. There was some unease even within Modi's parent outfit, the RSS – whose most revered chief, Guru Golwalkar, wrote in a 1939 book that Nazi Germany had manifested "race pride at its highest" by purging itself of the "Semitic races".
In spite of his criminal involvement with the pogroms of Gujarat, Modi remains the unrivalled leader of the state who has been running the government for more than a decade. He is touted as a business friendly, democratic leader who wants to expand business with the capitalist West.
You will notice the common element within Hindutva and 969 Movement: an admiration for fascism, Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany by their pujaris or devotees.
Last year, Mishra revisited the subject of communal riots in India with updated information. You can read his piece by clicking here.
As you may know that in the anti-Muslim pogrom of Gujarat, February 2002, where more than a thousand Muslims were butchered to death, BJP leader Narendra Modi, who remains the Chief Minister of the state, explicitly instructed civil servants and police not to stand in the killers' way. The pogrom was extensively televised by India's innumerable – and then much less complacent – TV channels. Many middle-class Indians were shocked to hear how even the very young had not been spared – the slayers of Muslims were seen smashing the heads of children against rocks. There was some unease even within Modi's parent outfit, the RSS – whose most revered chief, Guru Golwalkar, wrote in a 1939 book that Nazi Germany had manifested "race pride at its highest" by purging itself of the "Semitic races".
In spite of his criminal involvement with the pogroms of Gujarat, Modi remains the unrivalled leader of the state who has been running the government for more than a decade. He is touted as a business friendly, democratic leader who wants to expand business with the capitalist West.
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