Hinduism has all along been looked down upon in the West as an inferior religion, if a religion at all, because of the West’s One Book Syndrome. The fact that followers of Hinduism were not people of book, but people of library was beyond the comprehension of the West.
In other way, the tinge of Christian prejudice and colonial mentality had combined effect on Western scholars to downplay Hinduism vis-à-vis Christianity. Hindu-majority India was thus looked at by the West with contempt.
The subtle but consorted anti-India background game played in the USA during PM Modi’s state visit in June 2023 was an extension of that Western mentality towards India. India’s association with USSR/Russia also irritated the USA against India. Though the CIA could destroy Communist USSR in December 1991, but the Communist ideology penetrated academia, think tanks, Congress and policy making groups of the USA with great success in the past three decades.
In the recent past, Communists, Islamists and African Americans of the USA have developed a new anarchic ideology called “Wokeism”. The present ruling party of the USA, that is the Democrat, is a Wokeism-centric party. Whereas the other one, that is the Republican, is an Evangelical party. India was never in the good book of either. But with the growth of Wokeism in the USA, the situation has worsened for India. The policy influencers of the USA accept Indian-Americans as their asset, but consider the people living in India as inferior, crude, uneducated and uncouth.
In the tense days of the Cold War, the Republican Nixon-Kissinger duo initiated the alliance of the USA with the Communist China. President Nixon even visited China in 1972 which was secretly facilitated by Pakistan. Nixon wanted to put pressure on the Communist USSR by posturing closer to the Communist China. With the fall of the USSR, China’s importance became less before the USA.
After that, the USA developed a weird policy in favour of China. The Chinese cheap labour-cost prompted the USA to transfer its manufacturing units and technologies to China. That helped China to develop fast in economic, military and scientific sectors. The citizens of the USA were fed by their government with the lie that with economic development, China would switch over to Democracy. This pro-China policy of the USA was in top gear upto the time of President Obama, who literally made a Frankenstein out of China for the USA.
With the developing compulsion of geopolitics, the USA now needs India in Asia as a partner to counter China and as a big market too. India also needs the USA for defence manufacturing support and transfer of technology. But the USA is finding it difficult to deal with Modi, who is incorruptible and nationalist to the core.
The USA now wants India minus Modi. They have successfully created a cabal of Islamists, Communists, Secularists and Congress sympathizers in India. But so far Modi has been found to be too strong for the cabal. The Soros-Gate of $ 600 million to oust Modi, the recent anti-India venom-filled USA visit of Rahul Gandhi, Obama’s agenda-driven statement on Indian minority (Muslims) and the question of White House journalist Sabrina Siddiqui to Modi centring Indian Muslims are only the arm-twisting tactics of the USA for Modi.
It is high time that India should hit back strongly at the biased news of persecution of Indian Muslims under BJP rule. This Islamist-Leftist-Congress propaganda at national and international levels has been tolerated for too long with silence by the Modi government. The plight of Hindus in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh since 1947 needs to be highlighted. The gross discrimination of non-Muslims in Muslim countries requires to be pointed out. The deliberate amnesia of Muslim and Western countries towards persecution of Uyghur Muslims of China reflects the hypocrisy of Islamist-Western gang.
Professor of Jawaharlal University, Delhi, Dr Anand Ranganathan has rightly observed, “Since 2017, there have been more than 200 documented instances of hate crime attacks, lynchings and attempted lynchings by Muslim mobs on Hindus, Dalits and non-Dalits. But, none of these instances elicit a response or outrage from the cottage industry of activists and journalists (in India and abroad) who only highlight incidents where the Muslims are the victims (in India)”.
Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh cannot imagine of committing such crime against Muslims there under any situation. Indian Muslims cry for the plight of Muslims of Palestine. They are also violently eager to settle Rohingya Muslims in India. But Indian Hindus have never raised the burning issue of continuous persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. So, there is an urgent need to tell people about the other side of the story.
Modi is standing like the Rock of Gibraltar between the anti-Hindu propaganda, dominance of the USA over India and India’s national interest and self-respect. The USA will try to make anybody (Rahul Gandhi or Mamata Banerjee or M K Stalin or Kejriwal or even Nitish Kumar) the PM of India in place of Modi. The general election of 2024 in India will be a defining moment for India, as well as, Modi. All the nationalist Indians must pull up their socks now or never.
About the author: Dr Jadabeswar Bhattacharjee served Government of India and retired as Higher Administrative Grade Officer after 35 years of service. After retirement from the service, he developed interest in writing on contentious issues and topics. His published books are (1) Politically incorrect Point of View, (2) Politics, Bong and Faith, (3) The Alternative Narrative, (4) The West Bengal Saga and (5) Political Islam and India.