By Sara Nazir

There is an organized pattern of active Genocide in India as pointed out by many international critics. Holocaust did not start in gas chambers and concentration camps but it started with hate speech. The carnage of the Holocaust did not occur in a vacuum, but rather after a sustained campaign of hate that included fear-mongering and dehumanization of Jews. Muslims in India are suffering the same type of ‘otherness’ and demonization the Jewish population faced under the Nazi regime. There are similarities found in what the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte) of Hitler had done with Jews and non-Aryan race in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and what India’s far-right RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) has been doing against its minority population.

Hindutva Concept in India is working against Indian Muslims on the same pattern as Nazi Party in Germany had used against Jews/ non-Aryan races. Nazis started off with a hate campaign involving dehumanization, marginalization and socio-economic boycott of Jews in Germany. RSS and Sangh Parivar being aided and abetted by state is doing the same against Indian Muslims leading to their ostracism. Hindutva concept originates from V D Savarkar’s two ideological treatises - ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ and ‘Hindutva: Who is a Hindu’? Sequel to Savarkar’s demise (1966) his lieutenant Golwalkar took over the Hindutva project. Duo’s work got traction with the emergence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar on 7 September 1925.

The Hindutva ideology of India’s ruling party draws its inspiration from Nazi supremacist ideology. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the political wing of RSS operating as a paramilitary organization. RSS organizes 60,929 daily military drills in their units called Shakhas which are attended by 500,000 people daily. India’s equivalent of the Nazi party RSS which was formed in 1925 applies Nazi-derived ideology in its teachings and actions, in other words, the Indian equivalent of the Nazi party. RSS is not in itself a political party rather it is a paramilitary organization that operates via many different branches. Many members of the Indian parliament are followers of the RSS and Hindutva ideology.

RSS mobilizes mobs for violence, while a dedicated IT Cell pushes its propaganda, rallying people behind its ideology, isolating moderates, neutralizing opposing media, and targeting human rights activists and minorities for the benefit of BJP politicians and policies. It also runs 10,000 weekly social media cell meetings across India. With Modi as prime minister, the RSS has reclaimed political centre stage after being outlawed three times and designated a terrorist group. BJP-RSS regime also controls media owned by high-caste Hindu allies & editors. They oversee platforms are being manipulated by BJP’s IT cell and RSS social media cells. Before any Hindutva policy announcement propaganda machinery is ready with emotionally charged prime-time shows, hashtags, memes and fake social media accounts.

Hindi film industry (Bollywood) is increasingly being utilized as a tool to further the Hindutva narrative & depict historical events as anti-Hindu. Movies portray Muslims in a negative light to marginalize them as lesser members of Indian society. A series of films have been used to depict Muslim rulers as savage, lustful and treacherous invaders who fought Hindu rulers. Muslims are portrayed as underworld gangsters, smugglers and terrorists in Bollywood movies which are used by Hindutva mongers to mobilize Hindus against Muslims. A 2021 film Sooryavanshi, starring Canadian Bollywood star Akshay Kumar depicts Muslims as anti-national preying on good Indians. Film stokes polarizing ‘love jihad’ conspiracy painting Muslims as colluding to seduce and kidnap Hindu girls & convert them to Islam.

In a similar fashion, the BJP-RSS regime is attacking India’s meat and leather industry, as a proxy for undermining Muslim dietary needs. Muslims are perceived as prominent stakeholders in the Indian meat and leather industry, attacking the industry is thought of as a way to attack Muslims. Ban on transporting cattle except for agricultural purposes is killing industry’s progression and making Muslims jobless. In Uttar Pardesh, 50,000 meat shops were closed. Muslims, in respect of Hindu feelings regarding sanctity of cows, do not consume beef and have replaced buffalo meat as a staple of the Muslim diet. Meat is now difficult to obtain as the laws make the life of ‘Halal’consumers difficult. BJP-RSS militias routinely attack Muslims transporting cattle for dairy farming. They also label halal slaughter as being a cruel form of slaughter, similar to the way Hitler prohibited kosher slaughter apparently as a form of animal cruelty. This propaganda adversely affected thousands of Muslim-owned businesses as they started receiving calls to ensure spit-free food or even faced total boycotts.

Adolf Hitler realized the importance of creating a strong public image, hence; he rehearsed gestures and posed to present himself as a powerful leader and tailored his dress and speech to appeal to particular audiences. LikeHilter, the Massive propaganda machinery of the BJP-RSS regime working under Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah, has successfully crafted a narrative around Modi’s personality that resonated with the majority of Indians. They present Modi as a determined, powerful leader who can protect India from its enemies and as the sole source of progress and grandeur that India can ever experience. Similarly, Hitler had portrayed himself the man who would alone be able to revive German glory akin to the ancient German empire.

The following examples compare current events in India with what the Nazis did before and during the Holocaust. India is headed towards becoming a fascist, majority-rule state with Nazi influences, posing a serious threat of extermination to its minorities, especially its more than 200 million Muslims. Global leaders must denounce the flagrant abuses of human rights occurring in India and put pressure on the BJP administration to uphold the country's secular constitution. The slogan ‘Never Again’, raised after Holocaust still echoes throughout the world but that promise rings hollow as the international community remains largely silent on Modi government’s Hindu supremacist growing marginalization and persecution of Muslims and other minorities. When incitement of hate, marginalization, dehumanization, and persecution become commonplace in a society, it is crucial that the international community ensures that history does not repeat itself.

Author’s Bio

The author is a gold medalist in Strategic Studies from Air University Islamabad and

currently teaching as visiting faculty in a university based in Islamabad. She regularly

writes on South Asian security and strategic issues.

 *Opinions expressed in this article are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The South Asia Times