Festering wounds of the partition: The reality of Lebensraum in Assam

Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma recently claimed that the Muslim population in the state has risen to 40%, while contending that demographic change is a “big issue” in the North-Eastern state. Certainly so. Demographic change is a serious political and economic issue and not simply a religious/communal one. It is not merely about saving a community’s religious identity from an alien culture, but more about safeguarding its civilizational existence. The perils of demographic change in today’s world are an apt reminder of a stark political and socio-economic reality that is now destroying those very same societies that had once stood up as the upholders of the ideals of multiculturalism! 

Towards the end of March and the beginning of April, 2020 when almost the entire world and India too, was passing through the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Nizamuddin Markaz fiasco in Delhi had happened in absolute defiance of the rules and regulations of the lockdown. Assam, till then, did not have a single positive case of the virus. Suddenly, young Muslim boys of tender age, along with their male relatives and family members were caught by the police hiding in different masjids and mazars across the state. In fact, a few masjids in Dhubri district of Lower Assam and Golaghat in Upper Assam had emerged as super-spreaders of the virus. 

The same phenomenon was seen to have been repeated in almost every place across different states of India from where Muslims went to attend the Markaz in Delhi. Quarantined inmates reported to be spitting and urinating in the quarantine centers, misbehaving and making lewd gestures at the nursing staff, etc. aroused a deep sense of disgust among common Indians who were taking recourse to every precautionary measure in order to keep themselves safe from the virus. Tablighi Jamaat soon became the buzzword and people came to talk about it with utter hatred and anger. There is a definite pattern of such behavioural tendencies among a certain section of the Muslim society.

On January 26, 2018 on the occasion of India’s 69th Republic Day celebrations, a Tiranga Yatra was organised by local ABVP youth in the Balaram Gate area of Kasganj district in Uttar Pradesh. Suddenly, the rally was attacked by the Muslim residents of the area, resulting in the death of one Chandan Gupta and the loss of public property. The reason for this attack was the alleged chanting of Vande Mataram by the youth and objections against it raised by the local Muslims. A similar incident had taken place earlier in November, 2017 when objections were raised on an order that was passed by the then BJP-led Jharkhand Government for making the singing of the National Anthem of India mandatory in the madrassas. 

The usual ground for the objection was that it was a violation of the “basic principles” on which the madrassas function. Staunch opposition to the singing of the National Anthem was also raised by maulvis and maulanas in Uttar Pradesh in August, 2017 against an order of the State Government for the same reason as mentioned above. They stated that the singing of the National Anthem implies a defiance of the Islamic tenets. Another disturbing incident in the same state that took place May, 2015 had led to massive stone pelting, burning of vehicles and injuries suffered by at least 16 policemen in Shamli district. It was preceded by an alleged assault and robbery of five Tablighi Jamaat members in a moving train. 

However, upon close observation of all these dastardly acts committed by members of only one religious community, whether it be in Assam or Delhi or UP, any sensible tax-paying citizen would clearly understand the common thread that runs through all of them. Any act of violence or defiance of law is committed by Muslims in the name of outraged feelings or non-compliance of a particular order of the state with their Islamic precepts and principles. The shameful behaviour of the Tablighis following the Nizamuddin Markaz incident in Delhi was the best manifestation of a sick, illogical mindset based upon the idea of Do Qaumi Nazariya of the pre-partition days Muslim politics in India. 

The idea that Hindus and Muslims are two different and separate nations in India who can never stay together was the foundation of the Islamist political imagination since the very beginning. It eventually culminated in the Partition of India in 1947. This separatist imagination has not died down, despite the fact that almost one-third of India’s geographical area was cut off from its cultural and civilizational roots and converted into a theocratic Islamic state at the time of the Partition. Assam and West Bengal in the East and Punjab in the North were witness to some of the most horrific episodes of this dark chapter in the history of the Indian subcontinent. 

But, the biggest irony is the proclamation often made by the fountainhead of the movement that demanded a separate Islamic state of Pakistan, i.e. Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), that it is a firm believer of secularism and that Muslims who stayed back in India after the Partition in 1947 did it out of their own choice. Contrarily, however, it happened largely because of two key factors – firstly, the impracticability of a wholesale migration of all Muslims to Pakistan; secondly, for pursuing their long-term strategic goal of playing the victim card and as well as that of a nationalist at the same time by choosing to remain in India. 
This was a well-crafted strategy by the Muslim elites who lived in India at that time – a covert operation of weakening the Indian state from within and finally converting it into a Dar-ul-Islam. In this regard, demographic change is a wake-up call for the Indian state from the perspective of the future course of challenges that it is going to face, sooner than later. The unfinished agenda of the Partition is not limited to Kashmir alone. The Do Qaumi Nazariya is still very much alive and thriving even today. Only the tactics have changed and new strategies are continuously being adopted to enforce it upon the people of India. One such strategy is that of religious conversion. 

Are religious conversions forced and pre-planned, intended with a particular purpose? Or, are they really genuine? What are the different methods of religious conversion? We need to understand this because that will enlighten us whether religious conversions are carried out for achieving a particular objective or are they genuine enough. E.g. instances of convent schools continuously deriding and ridiculing Hindu students for sporting a shikha on their head or applying mehndi on their hands, etc. are blatant examples of institutionalised conversion largely done by the missionaries. But, there is another conversion mafia that plays with the emotions of young, gullible Hindu girls (generally between 14-17 years of age).

These girls are first lured into “love” relationships and later either brainwashed or forced to convert after having them photographed or videographed in certain intimate positions. This conversion mafia has been working at multiple levels since a long time now. While it has always been a part of the modus operandi of educational institutions belonging to a particular religious denomination and this is exactly how the hill states of North-East India were converted; but, in the case of Bollywood movies and songs, Hindu symbols are continuously derided upon; through art, cinema and culture, Hindu Dharma is demonised and attacked so that the Hindu society can be first brainwashed and then encouraged to accept other faiths.

These are systematic efforts aimed at changing the demography of this country. There are dangerous and cataclysmic consequences of such conversions. We also have the case of Punjab where Sikhs are being largely targeted; large belts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the South have already been converted. Interestingly, most of these religious conversions are taking place in the geo-politically and strategically important border areas of Bharat. The ultimate objective is to not only to change the overall sociological and cultural composition of the Indian society but also get hold of the strategic locations of the country by our enemies across the border. 

Hence, the North-East has always been on the target of an extremely well-organized demographic warfare. It shares international boundaries with Myanmar, Bangladesh, and China from where specific problems have also originated – illegal drugs and arms smuggling from Myanmar; infiltration from Bangladesh, China-funded Maoism – all playing out together to create a constant situation of instability and disturbance. Demographic change is a dreadful reality, more so a threat for the country’s national security. But, for a long time, so-called “intellectuals” have misled people by using disparaging terms like ‘xenophobia’ or ‘Islamophobia’ and presenting to us a fabricated version of this reality. 

This same “intellectual” lobby has made academically deceptive and hypocritical claims about all societies and civilisations being tolerant and peace-loving and that terrorism has no religion. But, what about the genuine sense of fear and insecurity that grips Assam today? It is a palpable reality of cultural decimation fuelled by a well-planned and well-executed demographic invasion of Lebensraum (living space). Immigration is no longer an issue that is propelled by the logic of economic survival. Trying to understand it from the economic perspective alone means overlooking the real concerns of national security that is today confronting countries and nations across the globe. 

The continuous insistence of one side upon the expansion of their cult by whatever means possible, including forced religious conversions and killings, is a pure war cry against societies and cultures which do not believe in such medieval barbarism. Only when we honestly accept these truths, a non-judgemental and non-prejudiced discussion, bereft of any ideological biases, can be initiated on this problem. It is also important that non-Muslims throughout the world study the Quran and concepts such as Al-Taqayya that are extremely important to the Islamic thought process, so that honest debates on the narratives of “Islam means Peace” or “True Islam” can be initiated and the Islamic victimhood mentality demystified.

(The writer can be reached at ankitaindusuniversity@gmail.com)