By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Since the ancient times India has been known as the land of culture, civilization, and co-existence that absorbed various races entering the Subcontinent in different periods of history, such as a branch of the Aryan invaders from Central Asia (cousins of the ancient Iranians), whose brainchild Vedic philosophy with its emphasis on “Ahimsa” or the principle of nonviolence which applies to all living beings, is a key virtue in the Dharmic religions: Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
With the advent of Islam, it was but natural for Muslims to come into contact with India, and long before the warlike Ghaznavid and Ghorid Turks established their political principalities in the Subcontinent after having shed streams of blood of their own co-religionists in their Central Asian homelands, Sufi saints, mostly from Iran, had been accorded warm welcome by both the Rajahs and the Hindu populace eager to revive the message of monotheism.
With the victory of the Persianized Timurid prince of Kabul, Babar Mirza, and his army of Turks and Tajiks (known as Mughals), over the Lodhi Muslim dynasty of Delhi in 1525, the most brilliant era of a cosmopolitan culture of tolerance based on harmony amongst the various creeds, castes, ethnicities, and lingual groups, started in the history of India, giving the country and people the sense of “Indianness” for the first time ever.
Then came the British disguised as traders but with the ulterior motive of seizing control of the whole subcontinent through their policy of divide and rule by fanning flames of communal and sectarian hatred.
Hindu-Muslim unity, however, proved too hard for the colonizers to crack as they found out during the war of independence of 1857 and after that during the 20th century non-violence movement which brought independence to India in 1947 under the leadership of ‘Mahatama’ Gandhi, who though a Hindu, proudly said he was indebted to the teachings of the Imam Husain (AS) for his internationally-acclaimed success.
In the subsequent decades India emerged on the world scene as a scientifically and technologically advanced cultural nation inspiring the so-called Third World countries to get together and form the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), with its emphasis on democracy, human rights, civil liberties, freedom of expression, and the privilege to practice and propagate in a peaceful manner the religion that one follows.
Alas, this dynamism which is the key to India’s unity and integrity seems to be under threat today and may rip apart the nation, if the anarchic elements that have raised their ugly head of late, especially after the criminal destruction of the historical Babri Mosque in 1992, are not criminalized and convicted for their politics of hate and open calls of genocide of Muslims.
It is a matter of regret that Prime Minister Narender Modi and his cabinet of ministers have maintained an ominous silence over last December’s gathering in Haridwar of a group of self-styled Hindu priests vying with each other to spit venom upon Muslims and baying for their blood, despite the demands of the media and the nation to denounce and defrock these supposedly religious persons.
Then on Christmas these vandals attacked churches in various parts of India, disrupting religious gatherings and smashing the statues of Jesus and Mary.
These are dangerous trends and have made every conscientious person in India, ranging from senior military officers to politicians, priests, the press and the public, denounce such crimes against humanity.
Hopefully, the government would break its silence and in order to save India and the fabric of unity of the Indian society, from possible disaster, clamp down on anarchist elements before it is too late.