Fascism in India

Once bigotry and fascism are encouraged in a country, they only tend to grow. This is what is happening in India, a country whose secular credentials are going down the drain with each passing day. The downfall started after a saffron-coloured wave swept the country in 2014, enabling Indian leaders to embrace their authoritarian tilt. Since 1947, the disputed region of Kashmir has been under the control of a brutal regime that uses violence to suppress any voice that challenges the status quo. This August, the region marked its fourth anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which once accorded special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The situation has only become worse, and India’s belligerence and lack of willingness to engage in dialogue with Pakistan (which rightly sees India’s hold on Kashmir as an illegal occupation) has left Kashmiris on their own, continuing their struggle for freedom in whatever way they can. Given the economic power of India, the international community has also largely ignored the abuses carried out in the largest open prison we call Kashmir.

The carefully curated projection of India as a hub for global investment has completely dwarfed the movements raised against the fascism of the current regime. And since the country is aware of the significance it holds in the global economy, it has comfortably abandoned all pretense of being concerned about the rights of its minority communities. But over the years, attempts have been made by international media outlets to document the abuses carried out by India, which has reacted by threatening international news outlets for highlighting human rights violations in Kashmir. The latest example is a BBC story titled ‘‘Any story could be your last’ – India’s crackdown on Kashmir press’ published on September 1, which tries to uncover the layers of brutality Kashmiri journalists have to face while performing their journalistic duties. India is now after the BBC and has threatened to initiate legal action. This is not the first time that India has become this aggressive over BBC’s reporting. Earlier this year, it placed a ban on the screening of the BBC documentary titled 'India: The Modi Question'. In 2011, it banned the entry of American writer and broadcaster David Barsamian who has reported on the conflict in Kashmir; in 2018, photojournalist Cathal McNaughton was not allowed to return to India as he was reportedly being ‘punished’ for travelling to Kashmir without permission.

While abuses in Kashmir have largely been ignored by the world, India’s latest act of terror in Manipur, in its own territory, where deadly ethnic clashes have led to the deaths of around 160 people point to the country’s fault-lines. The Modi government seems determined to crush minorities. The world’s largest democracy that used to be hailed as an example of communal harmony (though problems did exist then) has now been turned into a state whose leaders have proudly embraced the politics of hate. As world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, reach India to attend the G20 summit, we wait to see whether they will raise the question of human rights.