Indian designs

History is replete with examples where oppression, persecution and injustice have led to the downfall and destruction of nations and civilizations, bringing ignominy and ruin to those who as oppressors inflicted wounds on the oppressed.

It is said that oppression has its own self-destructive dimension. Oppressors meet that fate because they strive to suppress the truth through power rather than employing human virtues and values to ensure longevity to their power-stints.

Malcolm X once said: “Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else.” The quote contains an eternal truth: that the oppressor is destined to perish ultimately due to the fact of being against the truth, and when such is the situation the oppressed do not need anything to get rid of the oppressor.

Robert F Kennedy expressing thoughts on oppression, its fate and the reaction it generates among the oppressed said: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

But the dilemma and human tragedy is that people, nations and states fail to heed historic and eternal truths and do not learn their lessons. Oppression and persecution adopted as a state policy is not only destructive internally for the state pursuing it but also has a serious fallout for the countries that are in its geographical proximity and beyond.

Unfortunately, India is currently in the grip of representative fascism. Its suppression of minorities -- spurred by the supremacist RSS ideology of ‘Hindutva’ -- has turned India into a majoritarian state. Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in an article published in ‘The Hindu’ on March 6, 2020 while commenting on the state of affairs in India, particularly in the backdrop of riots over the Citizenship Amendment, observed: “Delhi has been subjected to extreme violence over the past few weeks. We have lost nearly 50 of our fellow Indians for no reason. Several hundred people have suffered injuries.

“Communal tensions have been stoked and flames of religious intolerance fanned by unruly sections of our society, including the political class. University campuses, public places and private homes are bearing the brunt of communal outbursts of violence, reminiscent of the dark periods in India’s history. Institutions of law and order have abandoned their dharma to protect citizens. Institutions of justice and the fourth pillar of democracy, the media, have also failed us. India has slid rapidly from being a global showcase of a model of economic development through liberal democratic methods to a strife-ridden majoritarian state in economic despair”.

Professor of history at Princeton University Gayan Parkash gave his thoughts on the situation in India in the New York Times in these words: “The BJP onslaught is very different [from Indira Gandhi’s emergency in the 1970s] and even more damaging to whatever remains of democracy in India. A creeping dismantling of the pillars of democracy under Mr Modi, from the coercion and control of the mainstream media to influencing the courts is regarded as an undeclared emergency by the critics. It is much worse and more damaging in the long term, because the arrests and the denial of bail to detainees is an assault on whatever remains of the institutions of the rule of law.”

India is drifting into a state of chaos and anarchy due to its persecution of the minorities as is also evident from the two-month long protest by farmers against the policies of the Modi regime. There is a growing ambience of restiveness in the entire country. India is also persisting with its persecution of the Kashmiris and the Modi government has upped the ante by ending the special status of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and by using ruthless military might to suppress the freedom movement there. However, it is facing stiff resistance there and the movement seems to be gaining strength with the increasing oppression.

There is a likely danger that, having been frustrated by its internal situation and the resistance in Occupied Kashmir, India might commit aggression against Pakistan -- a possibility which Prime Minister Imran Khan has been cautioning the world about. India is keeping the LOC hot to divert the attention of the world from what its security forces are doing there and it also attacked an imaginary terrorist camp in Balakot in February last year.

A military confrontation between the two nuclear powers can have disastrous consequences for both the countries as well as the entire region. Anything can be expected from the disciples of the racist and hate-ridden philosophy of ’Hindutva’, which resembles Nazism.

The foregoing realities could well be the beginning of the process of the oppression and the oppressor meeting its ultimate destiny as it is fighting against truth and employing oppression and persecution as a state policy against its own minorities while also posing a threat to the security of the region. Time is also against the Indian oppression.

But the dilemma is that followers of supremacist philosophies have a destructive bent of mind and do not hesitate to resort to mutually destructive adventures if they see their end nearing. Kashmir as feared could prove to be a nuclear flashpoint. So, Pakistan needs to be ready for any eventuality, while engaging the international community and seeking its help to dissuade India from any adventurous course and resolving the Kashmir issue as per UN resolutions.

However, to thwart the Indian designs, besides our military might, we need impregnable national unity which unfortunately is not there. Political parties and their leaders must ponder over this seriously. It is their collective responsibility to ward off the dangers lurking on the horizon of the country. Politics can wait for better times. We need to send a loud and clear message to India that we as a nation stand rock-solid behind the cause of self-determination for the people of Kashmir and are also ready to give a matching response to any adventurism by India.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Email: ashpak10@ gmail.com