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News18
3 days ago
- Politics
- News18
Erased In Silence: How Intelligentsia Ignores Hindu Persecution
Last Updated: The world must wake up to the reality that Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh are not just second-class citizens, they are targeted and oppressed minorities For generations, the liberal intelligentsia in India and the West have platformed themselves as the flagbearers of a conscience-driven society and champions of the oppressed and voiceless. Yet, their silence on the relentless persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh exposes the absolute hollowness of this claim. These are states whose very foundations were laid on the idea of Islamic othering. The non-Muslim, particularly the Hindu, exists as an unwanted relic of a rejected hangover of 1947. As a consequence, the persecution they suffer isn't just societal but institutional, legal and sustained via the State's policy mechanisms. It is often forgotten that over 90% of Indian Muslims of undivided British India, who voted in the 1946 elections, supported the Muslim League's call for Pakistan. Yet after Partition, more than 70% of them who voted, chose to stay back in India and not embrace the Pakistan they helped create. Some, like Khaliquzzaman, who were patrons of the Muslim League and Gazwa-E-Hind project (literal translation Holy War against Hind), even stayed on to help shape India's Constitution sitting in the constituent assembly before eventually departing for Pakistan they had politically birthed. This unacknowledged historical truth is uncomfortable for the intelligentsia, which continues to present Muslims of the Indian subcontinent as mere victims of Hindu majoritarianism, while refusing to scrutinise the ideological forces and often deflecting it on the Hindu Mahasabha or Savarkar that led to Partition and its consequences. Despite the global blindspot and gaslighting of facts, it is undeniable that in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindus are being quietly erased. Their temples are frequently desecrated, their daughters abducted, raped and converted under State patronage, their lands snatched, and their identities crushed. This is not anecdotal but rather state-enabled. In Bangladesh, a pivotal study conducted by Professor Abdul Barakat of Dhaka University revealed that between 1964 and 2013, an estimated 11.3 million Hindus were forced to flee the country due to religious persecution and systematic dispossession. Laws like the Enemies Property Act (Pakistan) and the Vested Property Act (Bangladesh) were designed to dispossess Hindus under the guise of nationalism or land reform. These draconian policies have been used for decades to legally plunder Hindu-owned properties, with millions of families rendered homeless and stateless without recourse or redress. And yet, the global liberal elite, so quick to decry 'Islamophobia" in India, continues to demonstrate a deafening silence when it comes to this religious apartheid. False Equivalences and Intellectual Gaslighting What we instead hear are shrill claims of Muslim oppression in India, based not on institutional disenfranchisement, but often on isolated incidents inflated into sweeping narratives. Meanwhile, the systemic dispossession of Hindus in Islamic states is explained away, or worse, ignored. Consider this – in India, Muslims benefit from exclusive educational scholarships, religious reservations, personal law privileges, and vast land holdings under Waqf Boards, unchecked by Parliament or courts. Bodies like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board act as parallel legal systems, undermining efforts like the Uniform Civil Code in the garb of minority rights. And yet, any mention of these imbalances is branded 'Islamophobic." Meanwhile, no such label exists for ignoring the actual, ongoing erasure of Hindus in neighbouring Islamic republics. The Islamo-Leftist Nexus What explains this hypocrisy? It is the alliance between Islamist politics and leftist intellectual elites, a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Left provides cover for Islamists under the garb of anti-majoritarianism; the Islamists, in turn, help perpetuate the victimhood narrative that fuels leftist politics in democratic setups like India. This axis has succeeded in portraying India's Muslims as oppressed, while remaining eerily silent about the crimes against Hindus committed in the name of Islam just across the border. The result? A distorted moral compass that condemns imagined majoritarianism while enabling real, ongoing theocratic oppression. The Nehruvian Lie India, too, carries historical baggage. For decades, Nehruvian historians like Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, D N Jha etc (today known as distorians) gave us a whitewashed version of the past, airbrushing centuries of trauma under the guise of 'composite culture" and 'secular harmony." The brutalities of Islamic invasions, the forced conversions, the destruction, desecration and loot of temples, none of it found meaningful space in our textbooks or discourse. This wilful historical amnesia was meant to foster social cohesion, but instead bred historical dishonesty, crippling India's ability to have an honest conversation about religious and historical fault lines. The Case for Intellectual Honesty If human rights are to mean anything, they cannot be filtered through ideological convenience. The world must wake up to the reality that Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh are not just second-class citizens, they are targeted and oppressed minorities whose lives, property, and dignity are under a constant assault. And in India, we must stop pretending that the Muslim minority is uniformly oppressed while Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to live in squalor and fear, denied the sympathy freely offered to others. It is time to dismantle the false equivalences and hold all states, not just politically convenient ones, accountable for their treatment of minorities. Justice cannot be selective. Nor can memory. Adit Kothari is a Calcuttan residing in London as a Pravasi Bharatiya, working to dismantle the plethora of false narratives and misinformation against India and Hindutva. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 22, 2025, 19:11 IST News opinion Opinion | Erased In Silence: How Intelligentsia Ignores Hindu Persecution Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Natesan renews attack on IUML
Kochi: A day after making remarks against the Muslim community that drew sharp criticism from various quarters, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam General Secretary Vellappally Natesan continued to stir political controversy—showing no signs of backtracking. Speaking at a felicitation event organised by the SNDP Yogam Kochi Union in Palluruthy to mark his 30 years as general secretary, Natesan targeted the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), accusing religious groups and scholars of interfering in the state's governance. Mocking IUML, Natesan said it was ironic that a religious organisation is referred to as a secular party. "Muslim League means a Muslim union; all its members, including MLAs and MPs, are Muslims. Yet they claim to be secular. Jawaharlal Nehru once called the Muslim League a 'dead horse.' Later, Muhammad Koya called it a 'sleeping lion.' He was right. After lying dormant, they united, gained strength and are now an unbeatable force in Kerala," he said. "Today, their announcements can determine who will rule Kerala. Political parties are afraid and trembling. If I say we are living under religious rule rather than in a democracy, what is wrong with that?" Natesan asked. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like ACE Nest Yamuna Expressway – Affordable Luxury Awaits Ace Noida Book Now Undo He also claimed he was being unfairly targeted and would continue to speak the truth, even if criticised by religious leaders such as Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar. "Those who speak of caste constantly and work to protect it are calling me casteist. That is the irony," he said. He added that his comments were not against the Muslim community but against religious interference in politics. He also alleged that despite forming a significant part of the population, the Ezhava and Hindu communities are often overlooked by govts and not treated as equal citizens. Opposition leader V D Satheesan strongly condemned Natesan's remarks, urging community leaders to avoid divisive statements. Speaking to the media in Kochi, Satheesan said the SNDP leader's words contradict the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru. "He is promoting ideas the Guru explicitly warned against," Satheesan said, further alleging that Natesan was echoing chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's narrative. "This is a script written by the chief minister himself," he claimed. Speaking at Natesan's a felicitation event. minister V N Vasavan lauded his role in transforming SNDP into a strong organization. BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar also praised Natesan, commending his contributions to both the community and the state.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Kanthapuram's advice now enough to rule Kerala: Natesan
Kottayam: SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan said that Kerala has reached a point where it is enough to simply follow the advice of Sunni leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar to rule Kerala. He said that Muslims will soon become the majority community in Kerala and that whatever law the govt brings, it will not be implemented unless it is cleared from Malappuram. Natesan was delivering the presidential speech at the leadership meet of the Kottayam unit of SNDP on Saturday. "There are interventions in the Zumba classes plan and the change in school timings. Where is Kerala going? This is not secularism but it is dominance of religion. When the constituencies in Hindu majority areas were reduced, four seats were added in Malappuram. The Muslim League is contesting more seats in Kerala. They will ask for more again in the next elections. They will ask for seats outside Malabar. The League is aiming for the chief minister's post," said Natesan. He also alleged that the industrial sector is being dominated by Muslims while the education sector monopolized by the Christian community. The Ezhavas are represented only in the MGNREGA scheme, Natesan said. "If the Ezhavas stand together, they have the power to rule. They can decide who will rule Kerala. The Ezhavas should become a political force. No matter which party they join, they should gain representation. They should try to come to power in the areas where the Ezhavas have influence," he said.
Business Recorder
7 days ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Rethinking Partition in colonial and post-colonial Pakistan: a Gramscian perspective — II
This unravelling was accelerated by domestic and colonial unrest. The Royal Indian Navy mutiny of 1946—spanning 78 ships and involving 20,000 sailors—was not just a military insurrection but a class-conscious uprising that resonated with workers and students alike. It exposed the decaying authority of the Raj and signaled a potential revolutionary convergence between the military and the masses. For Prime Minister Clement Attlee's government, this was the final blow—a clear sign that Britain no longer had the capacity to dominate India by force. Faced with the specter of a full-scale, radicalized freedom movement, the British hastily sought to divide and exit. They forged an alliance with the native bourgeois nationalist parties, who were more interested in inheriting state power than dismantling the imperial economic structure. Partition, then, was not an act of liberation — it was a strategic surgical division, engineered from above, using religion as a scalpel. As Eric Hobsbawm noted, it was a form of 'prophylactic decolonization,' designed to pre-empt revolutionary transformation by substituting symbolic independence for substantive emancipation. Rethinking Partition in colonial and post-colonial Pakistan: a Gramscian perspective—I When Nehru and Jinnah pledged allegiance to King George VI as Prime Minister of India and Governor-General of Pakistan, respectively, they did so as heads of dominions—not republics. Their governments, born of imperial fiat, marked the transfer of political power but not economic sovereignty. The subcontinent was not baptized in the blood of revolution, but in the tears and trauma of two million displaced and slaughtered subalterns. The 'tryst with destiny' that Nehru invoked became, for ordinary citizens on both sides of the divide, a descent into nightmare. What emerged on August 15, 1947, were not liberated states but dominions—nominally sovereign but still enmeshed in the structures of imperial dependency. The term 'political independence' was, at that point, a debatable one; the states may have shed the Union Jack, but they retained colonial institutions, economic policies, and class hierarchies. Dominion status codified British domination in a new form: indirect, economic, and neo-colonial. III. Postcolonial Caes-arism and bureaucratic supremacy (1947–1958) The Muslim League, a hollow political entity, quickly collapsed into dependence on its charismatic leader, Jinnah. His decision to bypass the elected Prime Minister in favour of Cabinet Secretary Chaudhry Mohammad Ali marked the ascendancy of the bureaucracy. Thus emerged a new ruling bloc: postcolonial intermediaries—feudals, bureaucrats, and comprador capitalists—who constructed a system of domination from which they themselves could not escape. This era exemplifies what we may call Postcolonial Caesarism: a fragile equilibrium among competing civilian elites, with bureaucracy as the central force until the military emerged as the decisive 'third force.' Gramsci wrote, 'The bureaucracy is the most dangerously hidebound and conservative force… if it becomes a compact body independent of the masses, the party becomes anachronistic and, in times of crisis, is voided of its social content.' IV. Oscillations between Bonapartism and Cae-sarism Pakistan's state apparatus, in its relentless pursuit of capital accumulation, has utilized legal, military, and ideological tools to dispossess its marginalized populations, particularly in Bengal and Balochistan. The state has often presented itself as a unifier only to suppress political contestation and centralize power in a paternalistic elite. As Gramsci noted, 'The government operated as a 'party'. It set itself above the parties not to harmonize their interests, but to disintegrate them, to detach them from the masses and obtain a force of non-party men linked by paternalistic ties of a Bonapartist-Caesarist type.' Importantly, 'A Caesarist solution can exist even without a Caesar, without any great 'heroic' or representative personality... Every coalition government is a first stage of Caesarism.' Pakistan continues to oscillate between direct military Bonapartism and Caesarist coalitions. Today's hybrid regimes reflect Gramsci's insight that such systems are led by dangerously unaccountable bureaucracies, dominating without legitimacy. Recent regional conflicts have momentarily revived a sense of hegemonic unity in the dominant province, where capital accumulation has occurred. Yet across the country, the dominant strategy remains accumulation through dispossession. V. Neoliberal Caesarism in the 21st century The post-9/11 period ushered in a new era: Neoliberal Caesarism. The Pakistani state, a security-centric, externally-aligned apparatus that prioritizes, surveillance, capital accumulation for the centre, and elite consolidation over mass welfare, gave up even the false pretence of securing the public interest by becoming totalitarian. Temporary hegemonies, bolstered by foreign aid, military partnerships and hitting back the enemy in recent skirmishes, are now being eroded by inflation, discontent, and ideological decay. Gramsci reminds us that historical blocs are needed to offer paths toward liberation. But in contemporary Pakistan, the formation of such a bloc — a coalition capable of challenging peripheral capitalism and Caesarist rule — remains unlikely, though not impossible. Conclusion Rather than liberating the subcontinent, Partition entrenched colonial structures under new guises. Through Gramsci's lens, we understand Pakistan's journey not as a rupture from colonialism, but as its transformation. From Caesarism to Bonapartism, from passive revolutions to neoliberal authoritarianism, the structures of domination have remained intact—only the actors have changed. The crisis consists precisely in the fact that 'the old is dying and the new cannot be born.' The need, as ever, is not just to interpret the world, but to transform it.-- Concluded Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
News18
18-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
GK: What Was The 1947 British Law That Declared India's Independence?
On 18 July 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act, setting the stage for India's freedom. On this day, 18 July 1947, history turned a decisive page. With the passage of the Indian Independence Act in the British Parliament, the legal foundation was laid for the end of colonial rule in India. The legislation, approved by then-British monarch King George VI, marked a watershed moment in the subcontinent's political history. With this Act, the stage was set for the creation of two sovereign nations — India and Pakistan — which officially came into being less than a month later, on 15 August 1947. A Landmark Decision In Parliament The Indian Independence Act was a direct outcome of the Mountbatten Plan, proposed on 3 June 1947. It was introduced in the British Parliament on 4 July and received royal assent just 14 days later, highlighting the urgency and significance the British government accorded to Indian self-rule. The Act proposed the partition of British India into two dominions — India and Pakistan — and granted them the power to frame their own constitutions. It also nullified the authority of the British Parliament over Indian laws, ending imperial legislative control. Importantly, the Act gave Indian princely states the freedom to choose whether they wished to accede to India, Pakistan, or remain independent. The legislation fixed 15 August 1947 as the date for full independence, ushering in a new era. Lord Mountbatten was appointed the first Governor-General of independent India, and Jawaharlal Nehru took charge as the country's first Prime Minister. The end of the Second World War had significantly weakened Britain, both economically and militarily. At the same time, India's independence movement, led by towering figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and Sardar Patel, had reached its peak. The growing unrest and united demand for freedom became impossible for the British to ignore. A lack of consensus between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League over the future governance structure led to the proposal for partition. On 14 June 1947, the Congress Working Committee approved the Mountbatten Plan, effectively clearing the path for the historic law. Other Major Events On 18 July In History While 18 July 1947 remains central to India's journey to freedom, the date has witnessed several other notable global milestones: 1857: Establishment of the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai), one of India's oldest higher education institutions. 1918: Birth of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's anti-apartheid hero and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. 1955: For the first time in history, electricity generated from nuclear energy was sold commercially — a major leap in scientific and technological progress. As the nation reflects on 18 July, it remembers not just the passing of a law but the culmination of decades of struggle, sacrifice, and unyielding hope. The Indian Independence Act remains a powerful reminder of a hard-won freedom achieved through unity, resilience, and the dreams of millions. First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
