As reflected in the world media outlets in the last few days, a major development has occurred regarding India’s religious discrimination and intolerance, that the United States’ Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its Annual Report 2019 has called for the State Department to Blacklist India by adding in its list of countries with uniquely poor records in protecting the freedom to worship. This recommendation has been made based on following key findings of the USCIRF.
The religious freedom in India has come under attack in recent years with the growth of exclusionary extremist narratives, including, at times, government’s allowance and encouragement of mob violence against religious minorities, that have facilitated an egregious and ongoing campaign of violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities. Both public and private actors have engaged in this campaign.
In 2018, approximately one-third of state governments increasingly enforced anti-con- version and/or anti-cow slaughter laws discriminatory to the non-Hindus and Dalits alike. Further, cow protection mobs engaged in violence predominantly targeting Muslims and Dalits, legally involved in the dairy, leather, or beef trades for generations. Mob violence was also carried out against Christians under accusations of forced or induced religious conversion.
In cases involving mobs killing of the Muslims or Christians based on false accusations of cow slaughter or forced conversion, police investigations and prosecutions often were not adequately pursued. Some states had “systematic, ongoing, egregious” violations of religious freedom. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India highlighted that certain state governments were not doing enough to stop violence against religious minorities and, in some extreme instances, impunity was being granted to criminals engaged in communal violence.
Religious intolerance in India will continue to increase because being a member of the RSS, Modi has chosen to lengthen his rule by exploiting the Hindutva ideology/Hindu majority vote bank. That is why during his rule, Hindutva ideology is getting primacy, with a singular focus on the rights of Hindus
Based on these concerns, the USCIRF has again placed India on its Tier 2 for engaging in or tolerating religious freedom violations that meet at least one of the elements of the “systematic, ongoing, egregious” standard for designation as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
Based on its findings, the USCIRF has made following recommendations to the State Department: Press the Indian government to allow a USCIRF delegation to visit India to evaluate conditions for freedom of religion in India; Work with the Indian government to create a multi-year strategy to ebb the flow of hate crimes targeting religious minorities, including the prosecution of those, who incite violence against religious minorities.
The Indian government should ensure that the police should work professionally to prevent and punish cases of religious violence, while also protecting victims, witnesses, and houses of worship and other holy sites. The US Embassy’s focus on religious freedom and related human rights in India should be increased through continued visits to regions impacted by religiously motivated violence and dialogue with the stakeholders.
The above discussion indicates that the religious discrimination and hate crime in India against the religious and other minorities has increased since 2014, during the BJP’s rule. And, with the continuation of Modi’s rule in India, the religious intolerance is fast multiplying with impunity to the related criminals. In this case Hindu mob’s attack on Delhi Muslims, who were protesting against the CAA, with the Modi Government and the police looking the other side is a major example.
Hence, this period of Modi’s rule in the centre reminds of his rule in the Gujarat state in 2002, when he was the chief minister and more than 2,000 Muslims were massacred by the Hindu mobs and Modi remained silent as if the Muslims were slaughtered with his tacit approval. That was why at that time the US Government had refused Modi’s entry to the US by refusing to grant him a visa.
In future also, the religious intolerance in India will continue to increase, because being a member of the RSS, Modi has chosen to lengthen his rule by exploiting the Hindutva ideology/Hindu majority vote bank. That is why during his rule, Hindutva ideology is getting primacy, with a singular focus on the rights of Hindus. And, Hindutva groups want to see all non-Hindus in India expelled, killed, or converted to Hinduism.
In view of the above, whereas it is necessary that the US Government should implement the recommendations of the USCIRF about India, all the major world powers should also take notice of India’s religious intolerance resulting into serious violence and killings every year and all should warn India that it will face economic sanctions if the Indian Government does not control religious intolerance and related violence.
The writer is a former Consultant and Research Fellow of IPRI, and Senior Research Fellow of SVI, Islamabad