Daily Times

Islam entered Sind (sub-continent) during the time of the Omayyads when an army under Muhammad Bin Qasim was sent against Raja Dahir. He conquered entire Sind and areas upto Multan. The subsequent Muslim governors sent expeditions into Rajputana, Malwa and Gujrat.

The real impact of Islam on a large scale came with the invasion of Mahmud Ghaznavi who came upto Delhi but retained Punjab and Lahore became the provincial capital of Ghaznavid governors. The foundation of Muslim rule in India was laid by Shahab-Ud-Din Ghori towards the close of 12th Century. From Ghori to Bahadur Shah Zafar, Muslims ruled India for about one thousand years.

All the work of teaching of creating good will gestures/brotherhood, peace and love was done by Muslim sufi saints like Data Ganj Bakhsh, Khwaja Moinuddin, Bakhtiar Kaki, Nizamuddin Aulia etc.

The people both Muslim and Hindus listened to them and a great majority conversion to Islam were due to their teachings and made Islam popular in the region. Because of their simple teachings began to affect Hinduism, arose a group of bhagats in India. The Hindu began to study their past and decided to improve their present condition and centuries later created political awareness and national spirit in Hindus. According to Khushwant Singh it was during British rule that Hindu nationalism took birth and the most powerful movement started.

Bal Thackeray said in 1967 “It is a Hitler that is needed in India today”. He was famous for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and inciting death squads to kill Muslims. His organization ‘Shiv Sena’ (army of Shivaji) seeked inspiration from Nazi German. In an interview in 1993 to Time magazine he said “if Muslims are treated as Jews were in Nazi Germany”

The Arya Samaj began under the leadership of Swami Dayanand Sarsvati (1824-1883). Subsequently, this led to the creation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940) in Nagpur. The basic aim was to propagate the cause of Hindu rashtra, a Hindu state.

He was not happy about one thousand years long rule of Muslims followed by British (Christians). RSS leader VD Savarkar was perhaps there was no greater admirer of Hitler and Mussolani. He said that only Hindus should rule India and other should either be expelled or merged into Hindu majority.

He popularized the term Hindutva previously coined by Chndranath Basu to create a collective Hindu Identity. Another leader of RSS Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar also praised nazism and believed ideology should be applied to India. Golwalkar the second supreme leader of RSS idolized holocaust and thought that it to be an effective way to deal with the minorities of India. He was arrested after the murder of Gandhi and RSS was banned for promoting violence and subversion. Also known for an extremely anti muslim rhetoric.

He categorized Muslims and Christians as India’s internal enemies. According to Italian scholar Marzia Casolari, who studied Indian politics once wrote of RSS connection with European fascism. In his book “World Fascism: 2006, Cyprian Blamires writes that the ideology of the RSS is the Indian variant of fascism having sanskrit characters and they had contacts with the Italian fascist. Subhas Chandra Bose in his book, Indian Struggle published in 1935 recommended a political system that was mix of fascism and communism. He presented his book to Mussolani in 1935 in Rome where he stayed for six weeks.

He also advocated an idea that India needing a ruthless dictator for twenty years after liberation. He also stayed in Germany from 1941 and 1943 and met Hitler on 29th May 1942 at Reich Chancellery. He was known as “Netaji” which means leader of leaders and Fuhrer is the equivalent German expression. Swastika is a common symbol of Nazis and Hindutva flag bearer’s as it is a Hindu symbol of strength and good fortunate. The slogan of one flag, one leader and one ideology was directly borrowed from the Nazis and fascist parties of Europe. Bal Thackeray said in 1967 “It is a Hitler that is needed in India today”. He was famous for his anti-muslim rhetoric and inciting death squads to kill Muslims. His organization “Shiv Sena” (army of shivaji) seeked inspiration from Nazi German. In an interview in 1993 to Time magazine he said “if muslims are treated as Jews were in Nazi Germany”.

He further said “If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word “Jew” and put in the word “Muslim” that is what I believe”. Hilter book “Mein Kampf” is famous and a must read book across India. 25000 copies of Mein Kampf were sold in three years. It has been translated into multiple native Indian languages. Stanley Payne famous historian of United State writes in his book, A history of fascism, in 2005 that the RSS makes strong resemblance to the fascism by the way of its para military nature and the irredentist claims regarding Akhand Bharat or greater India.

The writer is a retired brigadier and currently commissioner of the Afghan Refugees Organisation, Balochistan