Tag: Indian Muslims

  • ‘Muslims Coined Term Bharat Mata Ki Jai’: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan Challenges RSS Amid CAA Row |

    MALAPPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stirred a debate by claiming that the iconic nationalistic slogans ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Hind’ were initially coined by Muslims. Speaking at a rally in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district on Monday, Vijayan emphasized the significant role of Muslims in India’s history and independence movement.

    Azimullah Khan: The Originator Of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’

    Vijayan highlighted historical figures to support his claim, citing Azimullah Khan as the individual behind ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. Kerala CM’s assertion challenges the mainstream narrative surrounding the origins of the slogan, prompting reflection on the diversity of contributions to India’s nationalist ethos.

    Abid Hasan And The ‘Jai Hind’ Slogan

    In a similar vein, Vijayan credited Abid Hasan, an old diplomat, with the creation of the ‘Jai Hind’ slogan. By acknowledging Hasan’s role, the CM underscored the multicultural fabric of India’s nationalist fervour, transcending religious boundaries.

    Role Of Muslims In India’s Freedom Movement

    The CM further emphasized the integral role played by Muslims in India’s struggle for independence. Drawing attention to their contributions, CM Vijayan aimed to foster inclusivity and recognition of diverse narratives within the national discourse.

    Kerala CM Slams CAA

    Transitioning to contemporary politics, Vijayan criticized the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), alleging discriminatory intent against Muslims. He accused the RSS-led BJP government of marginalizing Muslims through the CAA, sparking resistance from Kerala’s politically aware populace.

    Amidst his criticism, CM Vijayan lambasted the opposition Congress party for purportedly lacking sincerity in opposing the CAA. He cited instances where Congress leaders were absent during protests, contrasting it with the active involvement of Left leaders.

    CM Vijayan didn’t shy away from criticizing the central government and its alleged tacit approval of violence against anti-CAA protestors. He drew parallels between RSS ideology and fascist doctrines, challenging the foundations of the Sangh Parivar’s political ethos.

  • ‘No time to die’: India’s crackdown on Kashmir rebel’s funerals

    By AFP

    WADDUR: Three weeks after he laid down his tools and took up arms, Kashmiri carpenter Mukhtar Ahmed was killed in a firefight with Indian government forces, who buried his remains in an unmarked grave hour from his family home.

    Mukhtar is among hundreds of militants killed in combat and hastily interred by police in remote parts of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region home to a long insurgency.

    Officials have justified the policy by saying it aims to stop “glamourising terrorists” during often violent anti-India demonstrations that accompany the public funerals of dead rebels.

    But these “martyrs’ graveyards”, as they are known locally, have traumatised the families of slain young men and outraged Kashmiris chafing under a broader clampdown on dissent.

    Police brought Mukhtar’s body to a compound in the city of Srinagar after shooting the 25-year-old dead in October. It was shown to his family there for identification.

    “We pleaded for the body to be given over to us,” brother-in-law Bilal Ahmed told AFP.

    “But they refused, loaded it onto an armoured vehicle and drove away without even telling us where they were going to bury it.”

    Bilal and other relatives followed the vehicle until it stopped at the small village of Waddur, witnessing a hurried burial just before sunset with nothing to mark the spot.

    A modest slate headstone now sits above Mukhtar’s remains, erected by relatives and decorated with artificial flowers.

    The remote forested area, one of at least five sites used to bury militants far from population centres, has become a place of pilgrimage for the loved ones of slain militants.

    Some visitors make video calls from their phones to relatives unable to afford trips there or too anxious about the army checkpoints along the journey.

    Mukhtar’s family is weighing whether to uproot themselves and resettle in the mountains near his resting place.

    “I can hardly spend two weeks at home without needing to visit,” his father Nazir Koka told AFP. “Beg or borrow, I have to travel here often.”

    Armed revolt 

    Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since both countries achieved independence 75 years ago. Both sides claim the territory in full.

    India has accused Pakistan of training and supporting militants there, which Islamabad denies.

    The portion controlled by India has for decades been the site of an armed revolt by rebels seeking independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.

    Tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and Kashmiri rebels have been killed in the conflict.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has clamped down on dissent since a snap 2019 decision to rescind the territory’s limited autonomy under India’s constitution.

    Authorities have imposed severe curbs on media freedoms and public protests in an effort to stifle dissent.

    The death toll has fallen since but young men continue to join the insurgency.

    Mukhtar is one of at least 580 suspected rebels killed in confrontations with Indian forces and whose bodies were then denied to their families for proper funerals since April 2020, official records show.

    The practice began at a time of government protocols banning mass gatherings at burials to avoid the spread of coronavirus infections but has continued even after other pandemic-spurred restrictions ended.

    Huge crowds used to throng militant funerals before the ban and shout slogans demanding Kashmir’s independence, sometimes clashing with security forces and causing deaths and injuries on both sides.

    Officials say separatist fighters exploited those gatherings to recruit more men into their ranks and inflame anti-Indian sentiment.

    “We have not only stopped the spread of Covid infection but also stopped glamourising terrorists and avoided potential law and order problems,” Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar said of the policy in a 2020 interview with The Hindu newspaper.

    Kanchan Gupta of India’s information ministry told AFP the implementation of policies to maintain law and order was a matter for local authorities and security forces in Kashmir.

    ‘Pray quickly and leave’

    Legal experts say the effective ban on funeral gatherings is unlawful.

    “It’s a disproportionate response to the state’s concerns and carries a flavour of collective punishment,” a lawyer in Srinagar told AFP on condition of anonymity, fearing government reprisal.

    Security forces have exhumed at least five bodies from the remote gravesites and returned them to families after investigations found they were not insurgents.

    The remains of three labourers were removed and reburied after family protests prompted the army to concede that the men, killed during a July 2020 firefight, were not “terrorists” that had returned fire during a shootout.

    Authorities have sought to stop commemorations of the dead at some gravesites.

    Some families have marked the resting places of their relatives only to return and find that headstones had been removed. Others are told not to linger at the graves.

    Ghulam Nabi Lone regularly travels 150 kilometres (90 miles) to visit the forest where his son was buried by security forces after being killed in a shootout last year.

    “Police don’t allow us to spend enough time at my child’s grave when we manage to go there,” Lone told AFP at his home.

    “They order us to ‘just pray quickly and leave’.”

    WADDUR: Three weeks after he laid down his tools and took up arms, Kashmiri carpenter Mukhtar Ahmed was killed in a firefight with Indian government forces, who buried his remains in an unmarked grave hour from his family home.

    Mukhtar is among hundreds of militants killed in combat and hastily interred by police in remote parts of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region home to a long insurgency.

    Officials have justified the policy by saying it aims to stop “glamourising terrorists” during often violent anti-India demonstrations that accompany the public funerals of dead rebels.

    But these “martyrs’ graveyards”, as they are known locally, have traumatised the families of slain young men and outraged Kashmiris chafing under a broader clampdown on dissent.

    Police brought Mukhtar’s body to a compound in the city of Srinagar after shooting the 25-year-old dead in October. It was shown to his family there for identification.

    “We pleaded for the body to be given over to us,” brother-in-law Bilal Ahmed told AFP.

    “But they refused, loaded it onto an armoured vehicle and drove away without even telling us where they were going to bury it.”

    Bilal and other relatives followed the vehicle until it stopped at the small village of Waddur, witnessing a hurried burial just before sunset with nothing to mark the spot.

    A modest slate headstone now sits above Mukhtar’s remains, erected by relatives and decorated with artificial flowers.

    The remote forested area, one of at least five sites used to bury militants far from population centres, has become a place of pilgrimage for the loved ones of slain militants.

    Some visitors make video calls from their phones to relatives unable to afford trips there or too anxious about the army checkpoints along the journey.

    Mukhtar’s family is weighing whether to uproot themselves and resettle in the mountains near his resting place.

    “I can hardly spend two weeks at home without needing to visit,” his father Nazir Koka told AFP. “Beg or borrow, I have to travel here often.”

    Armed revolt 

    Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since both countries achieved independence 75 years ago. Both sides claim the territory in full.

    India has accused Pakistan of training and supporting militants there, which Islamabad denies.

    The portion controlled by India has for decades been the site of an armed revolt by rebels seeking independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.

    Tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and Kashmiri rebels have been killed in the conflict.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has clamped down on dissent since a snap 2019 decision to rescind the territory’s limited autonomy under India’s constitution.

    Authorities have imposed severe curbs on media freedoms and public protests in an effort to stifle dissent.

    The death toll has fallen since but young men continue to join the insurgency.

    Mukhtar is one of at least 580 suspected rebels killed in confrontations with Indian forces and whose bodies were then denied to their families for proper funerals since April 2020, official records show.

    The practice began at a time of government protocols banning mass gatherings at burials to avoid the spread of coronavirus infections but has continued even after other pandemic-spurred restrictions ended.

    Huge crowds used to throng militant funerals before the ban and shout slogans demanding Kashmir’s independence, sometimes clashing with security forces and causing deaths and injuries on both sides.

    Officials say separatist fighters exploited those gatherings to recruit more men into their ranks and inflame anti-Indian sentiment.

    “We have not only stopped the spread of Covid infection but also stopped glamourising terrorists and avoided potential law and order problems,” Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar said of the policy in a 2020 interview with The Hindu newspaper.

    Kanchan Gupta of India’s information ministry told AFP the implementation of policies to maintain law and order was a matter for local authorities and security forces in Kashmir.

    ‘Pray quickly and leave’

    Legal experts say the effective ban on funeral gatherings is unlawful.

    “It’s a disproportionate response to the state’s concerns and carries a flavour of collective punishment,” a lawyer in Srinagar told AFP on condition of anonymity, fearing government reprisal.

    Security forces have exhumed at least five bodies from the remote gravesites and returned them to families after investigations found they were not insurgents.

    The remains of three labourers were removed and reburied after family protests prompted the army to concede that the men, killed during a July 2020 firefight, were not “terrorists” that had returned fire during a shootout.

    Authorities have sought to stop commemorations of the dead at some gravesites.

    Some families have marked the resting places of their relatives only to return and find that headstones had been removed. Others are told not to linger at the graves.

    Ghulam Nabi Lone regularly travels 150 kilometres (90 miles) to visit the forest where his son was buried by security forces after being killed in a shootout last year.

    “Police don’t allow us to spend enough time at my child’s grave when we manage to go there,” Lone told AFP at his home.

    “They order us to ‘just pray quickly and leave’.”

  • Muslims who migrated to Pakistan don’t enjoy much respect there, they belong to India: Mohan Bhagwat

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Hindus and Muslims share the same ancestors and if this thought process had persisted at the time of the freedom movement, India’s partition could have been stopped, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said Tuesday.

    He said the Muslims who migrated to Pakistan don’t enjoy much respect and prestige there while those who stayed here belong to India irrespective of their methodology of worship.

    Bhagwat also called for a harmonious society.

    India’s age-old culture of Hindutva and Sanatan Dharma is liberal, Bhagwat said, adding, “We inherited this culture and nobody can be differentiated due to their way of worshipping. Our (Hindus’ and Muslims’) ancestors are one. If this thought process had persisted at the time of the freedom movement, there would have been a way to stop Partition.”

    Bhagwat made these remarks at the launch of a book on Hindutva icon VD Savarkar.

    He said Savarkar was a nationalist and visionary.

    Bhagwat said Savarkar’s Hindutva was all about a united India where no one is differentiated on the basis of their religion, caste and status and it was based on the idea of country first.

    “Several people talked about Hindutva and unity in the Indian society, it was just that Savarkar spoke about it loudly and now, after so many years, it is being felt that had everyone spoken loudly, no division (of the country) would have happened,” he added.

    “Muslims who migrated to Pakistan after the partition have no prestige in that country, because they belong to India and it cannot be changed. We have the same ancestors, only our methodology of worship is different and we are all proud of our liberal culture of Sanatan Dharma.

    That heritage takes us forward, that is why all of us are living here together,” Bhagwat said.

    He also said whether it is Savarkar’s Hindutva or Vivekananda’s Hindutva, all are the same as they all talk about the same cultural nationalism where people are not differentiated on the basis of their ideology.

    “Why should we differentiate? We are born in the same country, we fought for it. It is just our methodology to worship god that is different. And different ways to worship god has been our tradition,” Bhagwat said.

    The RSS chief said it would not be inappropriate to call the current era as “Savarkar’s era as its an era of nationalists”.

  • OIC meets India envoy, seeks to send team to see Jammu & Kashmir situation

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 57-member grouping, sought to send a delegation to Jammu and Kashmir and raised issues concerning the situation of Muslims in India, in a meeting with India’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The rare meeting between an Indian diplomat and an OIC secretary general was held on July 5 in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah.

    “The Secretary General welcomed Ambassador Ausaf Sayeed and reviewed with him a number of issues concerning the situation of Muslims in India, along with the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and relevant UN and OIC resolutions opposing any unilateral actions on the issue,” a statement from the OIC noted.

    Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindham Bagchi said the meeting was held on the request of the Islamic bloc. 

    “A wide range of issues was discussed. Our ambassador conveyed the need to correct some of the misperceptions about India that are being perpetrated by the vested interests in the OIC,” Bagchi said.Ambassador Sayeed told the OIC to ensure that its platform is not used by those with vested interest to make comments on India’s internal affairs or to spread anti-India propaganda through biased and one-sided resolutions, Bagchi said.

    India has maintained that the OIC has no locus standi on Kashmir, and had, in the past, called out the grouping for making unwarranted references to India in its resolutions. New Delhi had also raised concerns that Pakistan is trying to use the OIC as an anti-India platform.