As a curious and concerned citizen and particularly a student of social sciences, I have come across various scholarships, dominant narratives, ideological struggles, historiographies and intellectual discourse on significant issues that are concerned with our past, our identity, territorial integrity and national security. And today, I would like to share a serious concern that has been bothering me for months now. It is not that this has never been discussed before, but since the concern has not yet been addressed, I consider it my high-priority duty to keep shedding light on it.
The conspiracy had started immediately after India gained independence. Accordingly, the effects of what has been conspired for decades is clearly visible with passing time. In simple words, the intelligentsia and environment concerned with the pursuit of research and education in India is hijacked by a particular group of people, popularly known as ‘left-liberal-secular intellectuals’. And, generations who have matriculated to this environment for learning, career aspirations-growth opportunities and most importantly in a search of a platform to voice their opinion in public discourse are held hostage. Just as in the hostage situation where the fulfillment of hijacker’s demands is a precondition for the release of hostages, likewise an absolute conformity with the reasons and theories of these intellectuals here, as a universal yardsticks for the ideal governance of modern societies is a prerequisite for the recognition of our understanding, reasoning and opinions
‘Two-faced idealists’ would be a more appropriate name for these hijackers as it correctly describes their attributes. ‘Idealists’ as they assertively advocate a romantic utopian version of reality, completely devoid of any practical considerations and ‘two-faced’ as their idealism is a sub-product of consciously designed propaganda which is a direct product of their convenience and willful ignorance.
Let’s understand the story with some instances of contemporary relevance. The recent eye-opening examples are the brutal killings of non-Muslims in the Valley and exodus of more than one-thousand fear-stricken Hindus to Jammu in the last few days. In a ghastly targeted attack, Islamic terrorists separated Hindu-Sikh teachers from Muslims, dragged the former out of the school and shot them dead. The sole intention of these Islamists is to instil a sense of fear among the non-Muslim population residing in the Valley. This is not the first instance.
The horrific memories of brutal occupations by despotic Islamic rulers and repression of Hinduism and Hindus at the hands of an alien religion for over the past 1,000 years, 1905-Bengal killings, 1921-Moplah genocide, 1946-Call for Direct Action, 1947-horrors of Partition, 1990 gut-wrenching murders, rapes and exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, 1993-Mumbai blast, 2002-Godhra train burning and every day pick-out killings in Valley continues to haunt and threaten our safe and peaceful existence in our motherland. However, in this hostage situation, the hostages are not allowed to condemn the real culprits simply because pointing out the actual root cause behind this systematic chaos threatens the discriminatory bonds of secularism. Therefore a so-called minority is above any sort of questioning and criticism.
Hijackers are politically staked by an identified class who is known for its secular and democratic politics which apologetically includes the 1975 National Emergency, frequent imposition of State Emergencies, media censorship, ruthless subversion of Judiciary, impairing the rule of law, 1990 Kashmiri Hindus killings and exodus, glaring appeasement policies and much more. Besides, these hijackers and their political masters are worthy of admiration for their praiseworthy efforts in advocating woman-child-LGBTQ community-animal rights, progressive laws, modern-secular education, religious forbearance, scientific temper and spirit of reform which categorically excludes India second-largest religious community from its ambit.
Here, the hijackers solely decide what is right and what is wrong, what should be discussed and what should be ignored, what to say and what to hide and who is to be blamed and who is to be exempted.
Whether it is the fact that Islam can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his motherland and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin or the permanent silence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi over consistent manslaughter of Hindus by Muslims to preserve the so-called unity as unambiguously observed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar or bursting of the myth that ‘Indian Muslims choose India over Pakistan during partition’ by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, hijackers invariably concealed the true account of the history from generations to legitimise their political existence and to justify their ideology, that is ‘two-faced idealism’.
In their hijacked rights-oriented set-up, the conditional exercise of the Right to freedom of speech and expression is only permissible because anything in contrast to their version of the truth would be regarded as majoritarian, hate speech, Islamophobic and whatnot. Consequently, hostages are expected to view the world from the lens of hijackers to win the badges of fair-mindedness and impartiality.
Thus, it is high time to realise the need to come round and strengthen our conscience. To unlearn the lies and learn the truth. The truth that is indispensable for a safe and dignified existence. The need for an hour is not just to restrict ourselves to personal learning but to educate others about the glories and wounds of our past, realities and necessities of our present and the vulnerabilities of our future. As historian Vikram Sampath brilliantly noted that “the darkest aspect of our past, particularly the medieval India with Islamic invasions, which is called as the bloodiest chapter of human history by American historian and philosopher Will Durant, never finds a mention in our books in the way it should. We labour under this false assumption that talking about the truth will upset contemporary social issues but there I say the edifice of national unity or social cohesion cannot stand on the shaky and false foundation of whitewashed history.”
Hence, the time has come to wake up, debunk and repudiate the deceitful portrayal of truth and liberate the Indian academia and intelligentsia from the stranglehold of these ‘two-faced idealists’ hegemony, otherwise, as someone rightly observed, our ignorance and silence will ensure the recurrence of history.
